Friday, December 27, 2013

Finally, my Vision rod review!

 

I've had the privilege of knowing Brad Hodkinson for over 20 years now. We've been fishing on the Maitland for at least 15 years together and still manage to get out at least twice a year even though he has moved up to the Soo. Two years back he ask me to join his Pro staff to help promote the Soo and his fly shop even though the quality of fishing and Brad's knowledge of the sport sells itself.
Last spring Brad teamed up with Visions Fly Company. Brad called me looking for someone to test drive their rods and give him feedback. He wondered if I was up for a challenge. I agreed to temporarily put my float rod aside in order to give the Vision rods a legitimate trial.
 
 
 
 
 
The Vision Siks is a 6 piece rod measuring 13' 4" in length that breaks down to 74 cm which is useful for travel. This rod would have been beneficial when I went steelhead fishing in Alaska. Instead, I was stuck lugging around a very large and heavy rod case, seen in the  picture below. Two rods broken down in cases like this Vision rod would have been all I needed.





 The guides are high quality Pacific Bay Portuguese cork rings made of wood and it has aluminum reel seats. This rod is classified as medium fast.


 
Initially I was a bit sceptical about a 6 piece rod.  I wasn't sure how it would affect my casting abilities and how it might handle the fight. I have never owned a rod that consisted of more than 4 pieces. The engineers for Vision have seemingly done their home work and created what I think is a master piece. I discovered that casting was effortless. I was fishing in tight quarters and used it with a single handed back cast and not a lot of effort was required.
 
 



It's amazing how the six pieces melt into one. The rod feels like my 3 piece, 13' float rod and it has the back bone to lean on the fish if needed, feeling every head shake similar to a noodle rod.
 
 
 
 
I believe this rod is comparable to any of the top of the line two handed spey rods. It's great for big river fishing as it has a long cast but with the spring of a noodle rod. This is a great rod to use when trying to finesse a silver slab to shore. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, December 26, 2013

2013 Family Derby

Well here we are again with the annual Christmas Maxfield fishing derby awards. This year was exceptional with maybe one of the best years for big fish. So I might as well start with the bass category. It was an amazing year with at least 4 bass over 4lbs and 2 of the winning fish caught a day apart weighing in at 5lbs 1 oz. so the shared award went to my son  Kory and my brother Cricket.



 
The boys were late getting off the lake and Bill was in such a hurry, had a prior appointment that they forgot to take a picture of Crickets big bad ass bass.
Here is Kory and Cricket receiving the Bass Award from brother Bill.
 
 
Kory and Wade all ready planning for next year to try to take this trophy on their own 





The next category is the trout trophy which I destroyed with a 12lb 8 ounce trout that I caught on the  Alaskan Situk river.


 









  Just to add a little insurance and get the trophy within my grasp I caught this Manistee giant that we figured was at least 14 pounds.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The salmon award went to my nephew Joe Steward with a 24 pound west coast salmon.
 
 
 
Being out west poor Joe was not able to attend the awards night.  
 
 
 
The miscellaneous Award went to me with no surprise!!  Below is the extremely ugly 18 lb. Alaskan halibut. 











Here are a few of the monsters that didn't make the podium this year but they still produced an exciting fight and challenge to land in the boat.







Lindsay's nine pound walleye caught at Silv'ry Moon Lodge

 
 
 
My 10 pond Muskie caught again Silv'ry Moon Lodge





Kory's 6 pound pike caught in a local 4 acre inland lake
 
 




My dad and two brothers Bill and Cricket fished hard this year trying to repeat last years success winning the Sarnia Salmon Derby. They came close with Cricket landing this 18 lbs salmon securing them with third place with another great team effort.



 

Kory and I went out on our local honey hole landing two huge bucket mouths, I landed a 4 pounder and Kory landed this bucket that tipped the scales at 5lbs.


 
Konnie caught this Lake Erie 1 pound plus perch.
 
 
and Dave with a ugly west coast ling cod.