Guidofisherman

Dan:

I won't be going out next weekend as I am opening up the camp and have a project on. Good luck to you and Colin. I checked a recent satellite photo of the area and it looks iced in still. Too bad the old landing wasn't still open. Have a evening 'wobbly pop' for me. I will have to show both of you my book I wrote on ...guess what... "Nipigon Brook Trout".

Alan

Hi Dan:

Possibly they just caught up to your fishing reputation. Ha...Ha.

Actually, I did mine online a couple of months ago and it worked fine. Did you enter their site under the link as a "new" or "re-newing" card owner. That's where my daughter had trouble with hers.

I have your RAP book on the Nipigon. Great read. Give me a PM so I can get it back to you.

Alan

I was there a few weeks ago. The Bavaro beach is very long and beautiful and the water warm, but has very little structure. The reef is well off shore so you are better going on a charter. For tours, I did the "Reef Explorer" to snorkle with the rays and sharks, not the party boat version. Cost ~ $80. Good food, service, drinks and great weather. Here are a few underwater shots and the parrot's claws did pinch the skin but that is what the rum was for. Enjoy!

Early season brookies are a lot of fun, just make sure they are open in your neck of the woods. Here are a few links to articles.

http://www.fishontario.com/fishing/trout/index.jsp

http://members.shaw.ca/amuir/links_to_broo...ut_articles.htm

If you are fly fishing, I prefer muddler minnows, wooly buggers, marabou muddlers and strip leeches. Throwing a mouse can be explosive if they are hungry. For spin fishing, try little cleos, small spinners, and trolling small countdown rapelas in silver/black or perch. Remember, the water is cold so they will be in the shallow water (1-10ft)

Here is why I carry pliers and ask my fishing buddies to debarb before they impale me again. Yes, it hurt.

I finally decided to get my first DSLR. My small P&S camera has been acting up lately so I convinced myself and my wife that WE needed a new camera. I had been searching and reading for many months and set my critera as:

1. small, lightweight DSLR

2.limited printing, mostly web use

3.quality glass

4.don't want to change a lot of lenses

5.plus a few other criteria.

I used the Internet to search prices then bought locally from the Nikon dealer who matched and went even better. I got a Nikon D40 with an 18-200 VR zoom. Once I figure out which way the camera faces, I'll post a few shots. It should be a fun learning curve compared to my old film DSLR.

Alan

Great shots1 I especially like the church shot as the HDR brings out the blue trim even better.

Alan

Here are a few of my favourites.

I sure like that HDR effect. I haven't had time to play with it myself yet, but will try it soon. Since I don't have any experience with it, I have doing some reading. For the above shots Dan, did you use a tripod for the sequence of three shots OR one hand held RAW shot?

My favourite is the B&W first shot. Great work!!!

Alan

Great shot Dan. I didn't think my former neighbour had such big eyes, but I've seen him that colour a few times.

Alan

Here is a shot I took a few years ago north of Nipigon. Note the colouration difference, even though they were all caught in the same area. Why?

Alan

Good job! It must be hard to do on a laptop without a mouse for control.

Alan

I didn't have any 20 lb mono or flouro so I used 20 lb amnesia. Fang has a good description to tie in the weed guard.

Sometimes I kink the mono about a 1/4" from the end and put it through the eye of the hook temporarily then bend the mono around the curve of the hook and up to the tie in spot on the hook shaft. I let go of the eye end and tie in the shaft end This gives the length of the weed guard with the eye tie-in done last at the kink. I use this method when there is a lot of material or detail at the head of the fly that may be getting in the way.

Alan

The leather cord is probably better, but I used a strip of deer hide left after cutting the hair off. I tied one mouse with a weed guard in case I wanted to run it through some cover.

Alan

Thanks Rick and Terry ...I'll give it a try.

Alan

I tied up a mouse pattern last night for a guy who wants to fish inland brookies so I made it a little smaller than the ones I tie for the Nipigon. Mind you, I never caught a brookie on one yet. I still think they would work great. Dan is right...the details are not as important as the flat belly. I actually tie in light coloured deer hair for the belly and trim it flat so the mouse rides on the surface. For the ears, I use tan 1/8th foam sheets from the craft store. I have never tied a jig head mouse but I think that has real potential.

Thanks for the comments. They are the first and only one I have done. To Dan: "My fish... your what?" Ha, Ha, Ha. Actually, you have caught more Nipigon Brookies than I've seen. To Rick: I tried to figure out how to create a false shadow of the subject and drop it across the border to help pop out the illusion a bit more as you mentioned. Can you give me some instructions or a link on how to do that?

Alan

Here are a few previous brook trout photos that I enhanced with a Photoshop pop-out technique. I used an on-line tutorial to make the original photo appear to jump out of it's frame. Here is a the link to how I did it.

http://video-tutorials-chile.blogspot.com/...om-picture.html

Alan

Dan's report is right on. The lake demands respect and the reefs can be treacherous. It is single barbless. That means you can use one treble but need to take the other off countdowns and those large laker spoons with trebles on the front and back. I rarely use trebles anymore and find I get better hook ups with a single siawash hook. As for tandem flies for brookies...I have heard of a few guys try it in the river but virtually all use one fly. But I don't know for sure. Remember, this river has a huge current and it is difficult enough getting one fly down without the tangles and hassels of another fly.

Alan

This is the home waters for Dan and me. It is an awesome place to fish, but very big water, especially if you want to go after monster lakers. Here are a few of the charter guys.

If you are looking to fish for big lakers, try one of these charter guys out of Beardmore.

The Hook Shop - Nolan @ Ted Cox (807)875-2527

Darren Goodman (807)875-2873

Herbie Goodman (807)875-2233

Dave Davison (807)875-2348

For lakers, I like the big canoe spoons or baits that imitate whitefish. Pike hit anything and seem to becoming more plentiful. For Brookies, I prefer jig flies or little cleos for the spinning gear. To me the best way is to fly fish with a sink tip line and strip leech patterns. I have a few examples on my site. Here is an example to tease you. Alan

"For everything else, there is Visa".

I had my eyes done 1 year ago this week, and I love it. After lots of research and consultation with an independent eye doctor, I chose Lasik Zyoptic surgery in Ottawa. There has been huge advances in the past few years as I did not qualify for any type of procedure only 7 years ago. There are reasons for differences in prices such as: sofistication of the lazer used, technique, quality of exam, experience and skill of the Doctor. You only have one set of eyes....do your research!

I had several very thorough eye exams by different doctors and optomologists on different equipment (for redundancy). I chose the Lasik Zyoptic as it used the most advanced lazer and was more precise, shaping the cornea in 3 dimensions. The actual procedure took ony a few minutes per eye, was virtually painless and faster recovery than my buddy who also had Lasik that same day but a different procedure. I did have some halos (as informed) for a week or two then disappeared. Results are individual, but for me I could see 20/20 after 24 hours.

F.Y.I. 20/20 refers to average, uncorrected vision, not "perfect" vision. If you have 20/40 vision it means, for equal acuity, you need to stand 20 feet from an object while "perfect vision" people could stand 40 feet away. So, 20/80 means you stand 20 away, they stand 80 feet away and see the same quality. Before surgery, I was 'off-the-charts', estimated at 20/400, yes 20/400. This was only the optomologist's estimate as I couldn't even see the large letter"E" on the eye chart clearely. Yes, I do have to wear 'cheeter' glases for reading, but that is also a function of age.

For me it has been life altering, I love it, but it is not for everyone. Do your homework and feel comfortable. If price is an issue, remember some health plans now cover the procedure and it is a claimable medical expense on your income tax.

Alan

Thanks guys. I think I'm going into withdrawl. Just a few more 'shots' may help!

This reposted picture from mid summer shows an old scar, probably from a prop.

Check out Picasa, a free product from Google.

http://picasa.google.com/

The brook trout season has wrapped up at the end of August for most areas here and I'll be turning my attention to salmon and steelhead in the rivers for the fall. This post is just a short photo summary of a few brookies from this spring and summer posted in 'my albums'. It was probably my most enjoyable year ever. While I haven't totalled things up, I tagged and released a bunch of brookies and tried to photograph them from a few different angles upon their release. I like Dan's idea to start a "photograph forum" to share ideas and techniques.

Alan