Brook Trout confessional

[Guidofisherman]

My therapist says it is good to talk about one’s addiction and that it is healthy to share experiences with other like-minded individuals. With the Brook Trout season officially over, I have now committed to a recovery program of summing up the season’s results with a few stories and photos. Don’t laugh…some day it will be your turn to stand up and admit, “My name is _________ and I am a fishaholic.”

All joking aside, I am very fortunate to live in “Brook Trout country”. Several times a summer, I also get to fly into lakes north of Armstrong at the top end of Lake Nipigon for a variety of other species. (that will be part #2 later). I bring along a camera to record the fish’n trips and play around with creative ways to display them back at home. A few years back, I went to a fly fishing conference in Minneapolis and one of the presenters was Brian O’Keefe. He specializes in fishing and photography. He has an on-line photo journal called “Catch Magazine” that gave me the inspiration to try some different techniques. His photos certainly capture the moment and tell a story. So here is my confession.

 

 

The season started with the typical anticipation of a great year. There was sufficient rain to maintain flows, but not the torrential floods we had a year ago. Everything seemed to be about 3 weeks late. The trees were slow budding, there was still frost at night and the days were cool for this time of the year. I found that the fish do not become active until the water warms up. Unfortunately, this year, the water temps remained around 45 degrees for much of June. As shown in the filmstrip photo taken on June 13th, there was still ice hidden in the rock crevasses.

 

 

While the Nipigon system is known for big brookies, one can have a lot of fun fishing for the smaller ones. The shores are rugged and rocky with thick brush, but there are a few spots to get out and stretch your legs. In the photo with the magnifying glass, I enlarged part to show the black strip leech used to entice this one. The following photo shows one of the smaller fish of the season, but a good indicator that the stock is healthy and thriving.

 

 

 

Late spring to early summer is often the best time, but this year the weather was all screwed up and the water never warmed up in the river till mid summer. By that time, I had quit fishing for the brookies to build a sauna at my camp on Trout Lake. (I think it is ironical that I now have a camp on a lake that no longer has fish in it). Usually the fall brook trout season is the most productive when the water turns and the spawning urges start to school the larger, more transient fish. The next photo shows one of those fish (previously tagged in another part of the lake) with a blemish on its cheek. The pigment was completely gone, but the fish seemed very healthy otherwise.

 

 

September turned out to be the only nice month of the summer. Even the Mayfly hatches were off schedule as we had one in early September. However, Brian did land this nice 25” male and on the very next cast, Mark picked up this beauty.

 

 

 

This year was a very challenging fishing season, but there is always next year. That didn’t stop me from going to the “dark side” and finally buying an Islander Float reel. I borrowed a rod until I buy or build one this winter. Spring is such a long way off.

 

[MJL]

Too insane for words

 

I recently just started fishing for small stream brook trout this spring (after a lifetime of wanting to) but I'll be working my way up to the steelhead-sized coaster ones hopefully soon - Already have a trip in mind to the Nipigon

 

Great photos and editing. Love the colours especially on the last one. I remember listening to a podcast online of Brian O'Keefe giving some photography tips which I've used myself in my own nature photos. He does great work.

 

Thanks for sharing...An inspiration of what I want to achieve in my fishing and photography career

[BillM]

Awesome pics Al! My dad and I are definitely hooked on Nipigon after our trip up there in August. We'll definitely be making the yearly trek.

[johnnyb]

Fantastic stuff, Guido...thanks for sharing your passion

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

Hey al,

 

great pics. i got to fish "the river" for an evening in august but with no success. the beautiful back eddies i had fished 2 summers previous were replaced by a big lake. the only place with any real discernible flow was at the split rock. there was an ongoing lampricide treatment in the very bottom end and flows were slowed right down to almost nothing. disappointing that i didn't get to tangle with any nipigon brookies this year but i did angle my first little coaster.

 

cheers! hopefully i'll be back again next year.

[Leecher]

Incredible footage Guidofisherman

Great job and thanks for sharing

Leechman

[StoneFly]

Sickolla!!!!

[brkygetr]

amazing....simply amazing filmatography...

 

Cheers on a good season.

Edited November 11, 2009 by brkygetr

[TJQ]

Awesome pictures!!

[anders]

those are some amazing pictures and even better fish!

 

I really have to wet a line up there

[wallacio]

Very nice Al - I always love seeing your pictures of those magnificent fish!

[alphaalpha]

very nicely put together, thanks for sharing!

[Twocoda]

outstanding compositions and accomplishments!!!!

 

a great combination of talents you have going on here

[danc]

Nice eye candy Al. Looking at those photos isn't going to make the winter any shorter! One of these days you'll have to give me some photo editing lessons. Your work is first class.

[snag]

Superb!

 

Love your reports

[12footspringbok]

That was a nice report thanks for sharing.

[Spiel]

Your posts never fail to impress me Al but then again I'm a sucker for anything Brookies.

[Guidofisherman]

Thanks everone for the encouragement. The photography and post processing with Photoshop is all self taught. The second thing I do when I launch the boat is show my fishing partner for the day, how to use the camera. If it is their first time with me, I show them how to run the boat, (safety stuff like first-aid kit, life jackets and what to do If I drop with a heart attack). Then I tell them, if they catch more fish than me, it was a pleasure fishing with them only once. Ha Ha! Actually, I get a real kick out of someone catching their first big brookie.

 

 

Here is a chart of the '09 season. Compared to previous season charts, this one shows that the move to a 22" size limit continues to work. The average size of the fish continues to increase slightly in both length and weight. While the MNR also confirmed that the catch numbers were down this year, the population is recovering nicely and apprears healthy. I'll share some more after I meet with the biologist in the next few weeks.

Also, here is the link I forgot in the original post to Brian O'Keefe's Catch Magazine: http://catchmagazine.net/

 

[solopaddler]

Great stuff Al, always love your photos!

[lhousesoccer]

Awesome fishing, even better photography and manipulation. Did you say you made all those with Adobe Photoshop? I have it, but only really use it for resizing, removing red eye ... simple stuff like that. I would love to learn how to do some of the things you did with these images! Are there built-in tools? Or do you piece them together by hand? My favourite is the brookie split into 14 smaller pics that make up the one larger pic.