Good Friday definitely lived up to its name.....

[BillM]

Every once in a while things come together and a normal day turns into one that will never be forgotten. This happened to myself, Mike and our buddy Ferg on Friday.. After watching the weather all week we were super pumped about the prime conditions we'd find on one of our favourite rivers. However, the day didn't start off all that great, lol.. I'm about to jump into the car and I get a call from Ferg.. 'Hey bud, you almost here?'...I look at the radio in the car and it says '3:23am'... Damn!!!!!!! I set my alarm an hour late... Instead of leaving at 2:30am, I was leaving at 3:30 No big deal, Ferg said he'd take a snooze in the truck while I drove down to his place. After a record breaking time from Barrie > Mississauga (45mins, lol) I arrived to find Ferg dead asleep in his truck. A few taps on the window and we were off..

 

Met up with Mike and off we went on our adventure... I absolutely love fishing with these 2 guys, they compliment each other so well, the day is nothing but a complete blast. Ferg is a pretty interesting character.. Some of the stuff that comes out of this guys mouth just makes you howl. The sun was out, the deer and turkeys were in pretty much every field and we finally make out way down to the river.

 

 

We were a bit disappointed at the water clarity, but we made due and it was on the drop anyhow.. By the end of the day it should clear up fairly well.

 

A few small rockets and some suckers from the first place we stopped... Time to make a move.

 

 

I apologize for the lack of pics, but after you're done reading this you'll understand why

 

We hit our second spot and I hike upstream a bit with no luck.. After about 30mins I make my way downstream and Mike and Ferg are into them like hotcakes. While I was walking down and watching the action, I saw 2 double headers before I could even make my way into the spot, lol. The best part about these fish was that they weren't dirty, tired dropbacks. These were fresh chromers will lots of spunk.. 3-4 jumps per fish was the normal, blistering runs and just a non-stop battle all the way to the bank..

 

 

 

 

I finally make it down to the spot, grease Mike and Ferg out and get into a few chromers myself.. I went something like 1/4, lol. I lost a real nice fish after a massive hit and run.. ugh.. Finally got one chromer to the bank and it slowed down a bit, so we made the call and off to spot #3..

 

Now, spot #3 isn't a secret my anymeans and when we got there, we saw approximately a dozen or so guys.. We really weren't to worried about it though, we have a tendency to make out pretty good even in the middle of the crowds... Mike hiked it upstream a bit and me and Ferg hit a nice little seam about 50ft away from the car.. I popped 3 quick fish, Ferg popped 2 then Mike came down from upstream and it began...

 

Mike makes his way out to this little rock outcropping and makes a drift.....WHAM!! fish on!!!... Me and Ferg start to laugh... Drift #2.....WHAM!!!! Fish on.. Ferg says to me screw this, one more fish and I'm going to grease him out!!'...... Drift #3.....WHAM!!! fish on..

 

Ferg walks out there makes a drift and wouldn't you know it... doubleheader!!! #4 for Mike, #1 for Ferg all in a span of about 15mins.. I yell over 'If you guys catch anymore fish I'm coming out there!!'.. Needless to say 30 seconds went by and they were both into fish and off I go!!.

 

This is where the fun begins, lol.. I didn't take a very good route out to the spot and ended up in some pretty deep water.. I'm 6'3, so not a short dude and the water was well above my waste.. I almost make it out there, have a little stumble and both my arms, rod/reel go into the drink I'm ok, nothing down the waders I'm good to go.. I take a spot below Mike, and on my first drift the float shoots down!! This wasn't a little fish by anymeans, a good 10lb fresh from the lake rocket.. I look over at Ferg and he sets the hook into another fish and we tell Mike to hurry up and get in there also... 5 seconds later we are in the middle of our first tripleheader.. Mike and Ferg get their fish in and I'm still fighting this stupid thing. I finally get it in and try to get Mike to take a pic. These fish were super slimey, and I just couldn't hold on to it.. I drop the fish, try to grab it and down I go!! I drop the rod/reel into the drink, water goes down my waders and I am about to have a very bad day.. Mike grabs a hold of me and helps me up... I grab the Loomis and the AngSpec before it disappears into the water, right myself and try to gain a bit of composure.. Ferg and Mike are laughing their asses off at me and I gotta admit I was laughing also.. For the next 2hrs it was nothing but non-stop action.. Let's just say the locals on the bank were very vocal :) Everytime we'd land one they'd ask to meet us half way for us to give them the fish!! Now I'm all for giving someone a fish, but there is no way in hell I'm walking back across the river to hand one over, lol..

 

A small example of a typical fish we caught that say... Notice I'm soaking wet?

 

 

I just couldn't believe it, this might have been the funnest 2hrs I've ever had steelheading.. It was 80 degrees out, a slight wind and two of my best buds smashing fresh chromers over and over again.. Things finally slowed and I lost count of the number of fish we got.. It was stupid..

 

Ferg had been up since 11pm the previous night so he was done like dinner.. We packed up, and finished up at our last spot..

 

Fish were rising all over the place, swirling, jumping you name it they were doing it.. As Ferg slept in the car Mike and I made our way down to the river and got right back into them..

 

My biggest fish of the day a good 10lbs.. It had a huge hump on it's back and just looked mean as hell!! What an awesome fish..

 

 

We popped 3-4 fish a piece until we just ran out of gas... Nothing but stupid grins on all our faces that day.. Definitely a trip I'll never forget..

[danbouck]

I can't believe you didn't blur out the background

 

What an awesome day! Having something go wrong just makes it one of those days that you will never forget and you'll always have a great story to tell.

[solopaddler]

Buddy you're 100% right, that was the most fun I've had in ages!

 

Been a while since I've laughed so much.

 

Days like that you just dream about.

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

fabulous. tribs are painfully low this year up here. no banner days yet.

thanks for posting!

[skeeter]

nice post

did you really feel the need to look under water to see the fish?

how many did you spot while you were down for the count?

[StoneFly]

WOW....Nice work boys!! I love Steelheading,..and sometimes I really wish I had that little extra something to make me wake up at 2am on a weekend and drive 4-5 hours to catch them...lol. It does seem worth it...I think I am going to add the Huron tribs to my repetoire this year...or maybe next...its nice to have those extra options if your willing to do the legwork....Lake O too Low and Notty too stained...Huron woulda be a perfect solution,..but I guess you guys already know that..lol Too bad you didnt get more pics...but I bet Han solo has a bunch!!!

[BillM]

nice post

did you really feel the need to look under water to see the fish?

how many did you spot while you were down for the count?

 

I dunno what was up with me, but I was stumbling all over the place yesterday, lol...

 

SF: Mike sent me all the pics he took, I think they totaled 5 for the day, lol. Not enough time to grab the camera when you have double/triple headers out in the middle of a river. Was an awesome day.

[StoneFly]

I dunno what was up with me, but I was stumbling all over the place yesterday, lol...

 

SF: Mike sent me all the pics he took, I think they totaled 5 for the day, lol. Not enough time to grab the camera when you have double/triple headers out in the middle of a river. Was an awesome day.

 

Now that is a problem quite welcomed...Havent had too many of those days...there have been a few where I have forgotten all about the camera and just want to get that line back in....last week It hit 3 fish, 3 drifts in a row with the same Roe bag..lol...landed the last one...5 minutes later,..bite was off...the best is when a bunch of guys get to the river at 6am when its freezing cold...and go home by 9am cuz nothing is hitting....thats usually when I show up and have a great day with few peeps around..lol. that trib you guys hit was probably notta a week ago,..but you guys hit it at the right time. Good on ya!!!

[BillM]

Conditions definitely weren't prime. A few changes were made and things started to heat up, after that it was game on.

[StoneFly]

Conditions definitely weren't prime. A few changes were made and things started to heat up, after that it was game on.

 

From your pics,..the water looks a little off,..but not too bad,..if the fish are there,..theres a way,..bigger brighter,..you know the drill...Obviously..lol Point being last week the run probably wasnt there yet..

[Joey]

Super report Bill. Great pics too. At least the weather was warm enough that you didn't freeze to death after getting soaked

 

Joey

[BillM]

Thanks Joey! Along with the massive soaker I also got a sunburn

[StoneFly]

Gotta love Ontario in the Spring...last Saturday it was 1 Deg C on Saturday...I brought a buddy from work and he wore rubber boots that filled with water...and he was hypothermic in about 20 min...lol...7 days later this saturday its 25 deg C and falling in the water cools you off...thats pricesless..

[Paulus]

Awesome post, Bill! When I got up on Friday am, I knew you guys were going to have a good day. I'm glad you did.

 

ummm... except....did you leave any for the rest of us?

 

 

p.-

Edited April 5, 2010 by Paulus

[fish_finder]

I think I am going to add the Huron tribs to my repetoire this year...or maybe next...Lake O too Low and Notty too stained...Huron woulda be a perfect solution,..but I guess you guys already know that..lol Too bad you didnt get more pics...but I bet Han solo has a bunch!!!

 

I aint no pro, but I don't think thats a huron trib...well, not entirely anyways . I could be wrong, but a couple of those rocks look mighty familiar...

 

Nice job out there boys!

[Paulus]

Oh boy. I think there's a virus in your post, Bill. I don't think I can last till the end of the week. By wednesday, I'll probably be bed ridden. At least, I might not be able to make it into work...

 

p.-

[strakey]

Man you guys had a good time. It seems like the fish in the south are running strong and everything around here has pushed way up river to the spawing beds. Between you guys and aaron shirley's post there are no steel left in the rivers that haven't seen a hook.