Opening Week 2016

[ckewley]

Well put another one in the books! The numbers were down & what ones were landed you had to work hard for but that made them all the more satisfying. Like every year we planned on hitting a wide array of spots across southern Ontario but trying to mainly stick to Huron this year. Didn't dare hit anywhere on opening day but decided to hit both Bowmanville & the Shwa on the sunday to ring out the rust. There were a few that would play but most had lock jaw. It is also when I started developing some camera problems, damn cell phone! I also took note that more than any other year I can remember the number of dead fish, Bowmanville had a few but the Shwa....man you'd almost think it was a salmon run, could be just the life span of the run but it was weird.

Monday rolls around & off to the Saugeen we head. It started to jam up with guy's early however not many guy's catching anything, saw 2 landed. Started working our way around, pitch out a kwikfish something hits it but was gone just as fast. Seems most folks packed it in around 9-10am, we'd stay another couple of hours before calling it quits & moving on. Winding our way down the coast, whenever we'd cross a creek we would track it for a bit to see if it had any access points or fishable water, if it looked good we would go knocking on doors to see if we would be granted access. There are a ton of amazingly nice people out there if you take the time, some even told you holes to try. Most only produced small fish but well worth it. A week prior to opener we did a bit of scouting around some small creeks hoping to see something/anything & one creek had these guys

 

Hundreds of suckers, really beautiful in their spawning colours, but come the week of opener I guess they got the memo to vacate cause nada anywhere. Kincardine would be our last stop for the day. Pitched in off the pier, not much happening that day.

Tuesday pops up & because we covered more ground than expected on the Monday we started at the Maitland. I truly love this river even if she's been less than kind to me, however on this day she'd pay back in spades even if it wasn't the target species. By far the BEST BASS OPENER I've ever had. Didn't target them but they were EVERYWHERE, no matter what you pitched out they were hitting it with reckless abandon. Covered a ton of ground & all we would catch was bass, ran into one guy only that had luck with a Steelie, all others....BASS. We would move on to a really small creek...more like a brook, in search for Brookies. We had traced a bit of this creek when we came upon a brilliant pool, went door knocking & was granted access. The guy laughed as he said "get ready", we thought this a bit odd but away we went.

 

Second drift in, float goes down & the fight was on. What we were expecting to be Brock trout, when the float went down & fight on was way more intense, Steelhead had made their way up this babbling brook & camped in this pool. Don't know how many were in there but there was a hell of a lot. The guy came round shortly after & asked if we'd had any luck, started to laugh at our stunned faces. Super nice guy all he asked was for us not to take any fish unless badly hooked, no problem at all. We'd pull out 4 that day, my phone took a dive shortly after that picture was taken.

After spooking all the fish in that pool we would move on to our last stop Bayfield. Unfortunately the only things pulled out were BASS so we'd call it a day.

So after covering all the ground in 2 days that we planned on being a week at, Wednesday rolls around & we decide to give the Shwa one more shot. A couple hours in I receive a call from a member & a invite to his families property to fish for steelies. This creek is on private property from the mouth to the headwaters so I felt extremely privileged to be able to fish next to non pressured steelhead in pristine waters. Man this is one day for the memory bank. Starts off that I have a huge case of the mess ups as he is catching fish hand over fist, beautiful chrome bows. When I finally tie into one it snaps off. A couple of small fish later he has to leave for home but leaves me & my buddy there to fish as long as we want. Now I remedied my camera situation by bringing my actual camera this time & voila

 

 

We'd hook into a couple more before we left, just a stunning day. Which leads to Thursday, my buddy had to work today so I decide to take it easy & hit Bowmanville. A lot of walking produced this one battle hardened guy & a couple a small dudes but I think I'm done for this week, just sit back & relax (not likely!!)

[misfish]

That was a cool read dude. Nice fishes too.

[Tom McCutcheon]

It's refreshing to read reports like this, where young anglers (don't know how old you are, but your certainly younger than me...) actually knock on doors, introduce themselves politely and ask permission.

 

Well done. It's been a long time since I waded the Maitland, Bayfield, Kincardine and Saugeen rivers and piers in search of chrome. The reels of choice then were the original Cardinal 3 and or a Mitchell 300. (probably close to 45 years)

Edited April 28, 2016 by Tom McCutcheon

[Joeytier]

Awesome report, you worked hard and earned those fish. Now you've got some great water to hit next year.

[chris.brock]

Nice start to the open water season Chris! Sounds like you had a fun week.

[ckewley]

Thanks guy's, ya it's been a pretty fun week but all week...in fact every day for the past month or so all I can think about is the next trip at the end of May (3 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!)