TDunn Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 (edited) Well..It has been sometime since I last posted a report. Few changes in my life this year ended up with me working more and definitely fishing more!! Not much sleep this summer it was pure fishing, work, guiding and weddings. In that order! Haha even with no reports from me this summer, I was still checking out the board pretty much daily. Didnt want to miss a Bunk or Mike B report ( dunno where those guys find the time!! Seriously). Now to the fishing. My summer fishing began fishing the St. Marys in the boat for Atlantic Salmon and Steelhead/Residents in both the Upper main river and rapids. A cold summer combined with the gates opened up in the rapids again kept the St. Marys in the 50s for most of the summer. This kept an abnormal amount of bows around gorging on various minnows, insects and crayfish. The Atlantic bite was great this year. We had a ton of fish in the 3-6 pound range with a few pluggers in the mix. My sis with one of the best fish of the year, if not the biggest! All kinds of bows were hanging around Once the Sun went down we would drop our Atlantic and steelhead tackle and switch gears to night time walleye. Pulling stick baits at night for walleye is one of my favourite ways to catch eyes on the St Mary's. One of the best ways to catch big fish too. Fidel (HighDrifter) from the board was in town one weekend. We have communicated a few times over the past 2 years I would say and this year it worked out that I had an evening free while he was in town. We hooked up for 3-4 hours out on the river and had a ball. Maybe he will chime in with a few pics if he reads this and if you are. It was great having you out buddy! Anytime! I dont normally like to post pic or reports about my guide trips but there was one trip this summer, that made my year for guide trips so far. Mid summer lakers on the fly! Quite possibly a guides nightmare! I knew going into this trip it was going to be a great 2 days/1 night or it was gonna be a real long, exhausting, fishless trip for the 2 fly anglers. There was one spin fisherman so I knew he would smash them. I had them set up at my motel for one night and they spent a week camping in the park with a home base at Agawa. I met them part way through their trip and took them to my fav lake trout lake in LSPP. Weather was too good to be true with warm, windless days. We paddled over to the campsite for the night, set up the gear and hit the water. 10 minutes into the fishing one of the fly anglers hooks up on the tip of a reef that is in about 8-10 feet and drops into 40 then 80 off the side. Im thinking laker forsure until this beautiful brookie graces the net. A PB brookie to start the trip, which was never measured before being released but was a solid 20 inches. 2 more lakers were lost on the fly and the spin fisherman hooked half a dozen lakers before we pulled the to go in for a laker fry. Day 2 we went to other part of the lake where I knew the lakers would be and was our best shot and getting good numbers throughout the day in a few different spots that were close to eachother in case we had to deal with wind. Well the wind just never came again so we hunkered down on a spot and laid into some beauty lakers on the fly. We even managed two double headers and one triple!! The spin angler laid a beat down on the fish, I had him in my hobie kayak on day two and he landed 8-9 lakers himself. Next up was a bit of yak fishing at two new spots east of the Soo. One was a large river system and the second two inland lakes connected by a small river About two weeks after this trip was my annual trip up to Lake Nipigon! We have always fished the SE part of the lake but this year we ventured up to Onamans on the NE part of the lake. Well, Im sure glad we switched it up this year. Robert at Onamans is great, I dont have a bad thing to say about our stay there. It was absolutely fantastic there! We fished Lake Nipigon for 3 ½ days and onamans lake for one due to weather on the big lake. 3 ½ days on the big lakes is nothing..We barely touched the area. We fished a few recommended areas (which were huge) and when we found the fish we were looking for we worked them over hard. Trolling was the best tactic for covering water looking for the speckled beautys. Thing was your gonna be dealing with a million pike in the 30-35 range on your troll..which was great!!!!! Once we did put a speck in the boat we would stop and work the area. These areas were typically rocky structure between the weeds that littered the bays. We only went 3-6 on the brookies between everyone but there were some serious brook trout..I am to this day still haunted by the one that broke my 15# pp like dental floss These were the two from our boat Ted hit the speck of the trip coming in at a little better than 25 inches We would typically target brookies until 6ish and head back towards camp and do some piking at the mouth and a few other areas. We caught hords of big pike with most in the 36-38 but a few 40s were thrown in the mix. Walleye fishing in the river wasnt very good, so we didnt mess around with that much. Onaman Lake is where we got our fix. Of course on the last day the weather rolled in and the big lake was a no go. We were satisfied with our pike fishing already so took the tour to Onamans and laid an absoulute beat down on walleyes. We fished the lake about 5-6 hours and put so many walleye in the boat I couldnt guess how many. 80 fish a boat? Id say 75% of the fish were 22-24 inches with a few bigger (biggest was just under 28")and maybe 4 under 18. We didnt even catch enough small ones to keep a full limit lol. Thats ok with me! Got back from Nipigon and headed out on the St, Marys River the following weekend and fish the first Annual St. Marys Small Jaw Slam hosted by the Lake State University fishing team. Fished the tourney with Kevin King and our plan pretty much went the way we wanted it. We put together two good bags on both days that weighed just under 36 pounds for the 10 bass. Good enough for 3rd and only .5 out of 2nd. This might be a tourney some of you southern guys might be interested in fishing next year. Heres the link to the Fb page. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=723216211079668&id=474306409303984&ref=bookmark Big fish was a 7.33 largie!! Not long after, I headed back out for some bass with my cousin Ted and my buddy Nate and we put some solid bass into the net on this day again. Killed one rainy Sunday afternoon chasing bass again. The fish moved to deeper water so it took me a little while to figure them out. The average sized dropped for me but I still managed around 20 largies with a few descent bites. We had a ton of rain this fall here on the northshore, so I had Superior steel on my mind early this fall. Fished the north tribs a bit after work for a few hours each time in late sept early October and hit some silver coho and a few squirrelly steelhead. A few weekends ago, I took as ride out on Superior with my buddy and float fished from his boat up one of my favourite tribs. We didnt have an amazing day but we hit some nice fish. What the day did do, is open our eyes up to a few new places to try Was able to get out in the boat on the upper that same weekend and hit a few in the cold conditions I haven't been out the last two weeks. Too busy with a few other things as well as the early days don't help. My last outing was in the rapids chasing some steel and whatever else bites Hoping to get out this weekend for steelhead and brave the freezing cold weather they are calling for. Hope you all enjoyed!! TDunn Edited November 18, 2014 by TDunn
wormdunker Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Awesome report with great pix thanx! I'm a walleye guy - 80 fish per boat - I'm impressed. 75% were in the 22-24" range - beautiful. You did have them dialed in.
msp Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 I think this might be the first time I have seen Bass in one of your reports. Your a machine for all species. Well done dude !
NewHips Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Great report.....some awesome fish for sure!!!!
solopaddler Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Nice bunch of fish Tyler, glad to see you had a good season. The lakers on the fly in the middle of summer is very cool!
Joeytier Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Wow, just amazing. Kayaking for big summer lakers in the park must be incredible, on the fly no less. That river provides you with some seriously world class fishing right on your doorstep, man!!
chris.brock Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 looks like a great place to live, I'd say you had an awesome summer!
4x4bassin Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Looks like a great summer to me , those bows look amazing
davey buoy Posted November 18, 2014 Report Posted November 18, 2014 Great pics and fish as well,awesome report. You sure have most of the species covered .WTG !!!
Rod Caster Posted November 19, 2014 Report Posted November 19, 2014 Incredible report. That lake trout fly fishing part really peaked my interest. I love reading about alternative/unique methods! I'm in the Sault often enough. I need to start bringing my fishing gear up here like I used to do. Trying the St-Mary's is definitely on my short list.
TDunn Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Posted November 20, 2014 I think this might be the first time I have seen Bass in one of your reports. Your a machine for all species. Well done dude ! Haha your right, but I now have the bass bug. More bass in my reports to come! We have a ton of year round bass opportunities around here now too. Nice bunch of fish Tyler, glad to see you had a good season. The lakers on the fly in the middle of summer is very cool! Thanks mike. This hapoened near that trophy brookie lake you have been thinking about fishing in the park. Lakers in 40feet on the fly was amazing, looking forward to getting out and dialling in the technique I have been using. I like to call it fly jigging lol. Wow, just amazing. Kayaking for big summer lakers in the park must be incredible, on the fly no less. That river provides you with some seriously world class fishing right on your doorstep, man!! The st Mary's really is a multi species paradise. Always something going on. Incredible report. That lake trout fly fishing part really peaked my interest. I love reading about alternative/unique methods! I'm in the Sault often enough. I need to start bringing my fishing gear up here like I used to do. Trying the St-Mary's is definitely on my short list. Ya you do! Next time your around let me know. Try and hook up with ya Thanks to everyone else for the kind words!!! Appreciate it!!! TDunn
Moosebunk Posted November 20, 2014 Report Posted November 20, 2014 About bloody time Tyler. Enjoyed that bud. You really do have a smorgasbord of fish species and personal tactics under your belt dood. Can appreciate how keen and cunning you are with your fishing and hoping that any guiding you do simply leads to more and more of it. Great little bit on the Onamans Resort and O'Lake itself. I feel the same way too about Rob and the fishing there. It's just such a vast area with endless trophy fishing possibilities lurking around every corner. Be it on the main lake, or any of the dozens of back-lakes. Exploring there is sensory overload really. And it truly is fly-in quality fishing but with as much or more luxury as you want to drive in. Looking forward to some ice reports from ya this coming season.
can u fish Posted November 20, 2014 Report Posted November 20, 2014 Great report and loved the photos looks like you had a very successful season on the water thanks for sharing. Cheers.
highdrifter Posted November 20, 2014 Report Posted November 20, 2014 Wow what an epic spread brahj! Shame the walleye bite wasn't on when I was up there.. Not that I should complain.. Ya kinda spoiled me!! I'll do up a year ender as soon as I get a chance. cheers HD
TDunn Posted November 21, 2014 Author Report Posted November 21, 2014 (edited) About bloody time Tyler. Enjoyed that bud. You really do have a smorgasbord of fish species and personal tactics under your belt dood. Can appreciate how keen and cunning you are with your fishing and hoping that any guiding you do simply leads to more and more of it. Great little bit on the Onamans Resort and O'Lake itself. I feel the same way too about Rob and the fishing there. It's just such a vast area with endless trophy fishing possibilities lurking around every corner. Be it on the main lake, or any of the dozens of back-lakes. Exploring there is sensory overload really. And it truly is fly-in quality fishing but with as much or more luxury as you want to drive in. Looking forward to some ice reports from ya this coming season. For sure Bunk. The big lake is a place I can honestly say I love. I was talking to rob about a winter trip there this year, I'm thinking we should talk again soon.....giant lakers through the ice might happen this year for me. Thanks for all the kind words. My guiding is definitely picking up and I plan to put more time and effort into it this coming season. I love it, no better feeling than a successful guide trip. What I have learned is cAtchig isn't all it is about, it's all about character. Making sure clients Are having a Great time even when the fishing slows. Showing anglers new and exciting areas around the soo will never get old for me...... Wow what an epic spread brahj! Shame the walleye bite wasn't on when I was up there.. Not that I should complain.. Ya kinda spoiled me!! I'll do up a year ender as soon as I get a chance. cheers HD Walleye bite was on buddy! on the american side!!!! ? next time your up buddy we willl try for some eyes. No prob on that. Looking forward to your year end report and getting back onto the water with ya again. Keep in touch man Thx to everyone else for the nice comments!!! TDunn Edited November 21, 2014 by TDunn
corvette1 Posted November 21, 2014 Report Posted November 21, 2014 awesome year nice mixed bag congrats
S.M.05 Posted December 1, 2014 Report Posted December 1, 2014 Tons of Beau-T fish! Good to see someone is enjoying the atlantics and doing well them. Keep on em! Lakers on the fly, very cool. Planned to do the same this year but work and projects got in the way. Keep the pics coming.
captpierre Posted December 1, 2014 Report Posted December 1, 2014 Beauti report. Need to ask. Those Atlantics. Are they residents of Lake Huron or Michigan? Didn't think Ontario stocked them in Huron. They run upstream in the St Mary to spawn?
fishindevil Posted December 1, 2014 Report Posted December 1, 2014 Awesome multi species report & pics Tyler !!!! Wow ...... Some amazing big quality fish there !!!!!! Thanks for sharing
TDunn Posted December 1, 2014 Author Report Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) Beauti report. Need to ask. Those Atlantics. Are they residents of Lake Huron or Michigan? Didn't think Ontario stocked them in Huron. They run upstream in the St Mary to spawn? We sure don't stock them. Lake state university stocks yearlings at the Edison power dam on the soo michigan side. We have a year round population (caught one yesterday) of them but the main run is mid summer when they follow the smelt up from Huron. They are fall spawners but natural production def isn't behind the fishery. It's all lssu efforts!! Pretty sure the state of michigan has bought some off the university for torch lake and Lake Huron stocking this coming year. TDunn Edited December 2, 2014 by TDunn
MCTFisher9120 Posted December 1, 2014 Report Posted December 1, 2014 Nice report what a year! Thanks for sharing with us. MTBF
MJL Posted December 2, 2014 Report Posted December 2, 2014 Nicely done Tyler. My dad and I are itching to get back up there for next year
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