Maitland Olive Woolly Bugger Spey Syle

 Got a new toy for my birthday, a head cam so to test drive it I am going to tie a olive woolly bugger spey style collar. This video is unedited and I am looking for a good editing program so if u know of one please leave a comment where  to get one but hope to have one for my next production. So here we go the uncut version of the Maitland olive woolly bugger take one.

woolly bugger spey style from Red Maxfield on Vimeo.

End of another Great Year

 Well here we are at the end of another fishing season and with every year end its time to hand out the family Derby awards. It all started in 1991 when my dad decided with all his kids enjoying fishing and always ribbing one other that they had caught the bigger fish he decided to make the argument worth something and created the 1st Salmon trophy. Over the years it has evolved into 4 trophies; salmon, trout, bass and the new trophy this year the biggest fish in a miscellaneous categorey.
  The 1st original salmon trophy ended in my Dads hands with a 10 lb Chinook

 The trout trophy was the next handed out to yours truelly for a manistee 10+ pounder

Here is the fish that won me the trophy

Then the bass trophy was handed to my brother Bill from my son Kory after he stole that category from him on their last dayof fishing before they put the boat away. My son fish was 4' 3" and Billy's was 4'9". All Kory could say was ouch.

 Here are pictures of the 2 bass can u tell which is bigger, Kory's or Bill's

Now the final trophy was givien to my nephew Mike for a 10 lb muskie caught up at Silv'ry Moon Lodge

Now these trophys are so sought after that during the awards we had the grand son steal one of the trophys



So here I write this blog the next day and the 2012 derby has already started with Kory, Lindsay and myself out in a secreat pike spot which I ended up with three pike biggest being maybe 2 pounds.

Maitland Low Time To Change Tactics

With all the rain in Oct it brought a lot of fish into the Maitland river system but come November with river levels falling and clarity unlimited it is time to change tactics. I arrive on he river 40 minutes before day brake and  started fishing with the Float rod. It doesn't take long and I produce 3 fish so fast but as soon as the sun rises, nothing.

Thank God for flashes this picture was taken before sun rise

So with the fishing getting slow I decide to go below the 21 highway bridge and fish the tail out with the spey rod. Nothing better then the hit of a wild steelhead while swinging flies.

This fine specimen hit a purple bead head spey tied Woolly Bugger. What a thrill but the day wasn't over yet. I proceeded down the river to the next bend where I meet up with a retired gentleman from Kitchener who was throwing spoons. He told me he tried roe but after 1 hit before sun rise he swung over to spoons and picked up 3 fish. With this information I decided to stick with the spey rod. After about 20 minutes of no fish I decided to add a tandem yarn fly tied to the purple woolly bugger. Well next 30 minutes produced 2 nice fish on the yarn. Amazing they hit the yarn because I was still swinging my flies and not dead drifting them which is tipical how u fish yarn. This is the third time I have tried a yarn fly in tandem while swinging  flies and produced fish.

This fish has been in the river for quite awhile

Underwater Films

I purchased a new Olympus digital camera which can take underwater pictures so here are a couple of my 1st try of underwater videos.

 Here we are releasing my lake run brown.

I will need to find a way to edits these videos if you listen to us talk.

Here is a video on netting a fish

Next is the release of the fish just netted

My final video is of a coho salmon that was in a little side stream of the Manistee. I snuck into the water and caught him swimming by me. Near the end of the video you will see him catch sight of me and decide to get the hell out of there.

So as you can see my 1st attempt not so good but hope to improve my underwater filming and get better videos from here on in.

Manistee Madness

Just experieced back to back weekends with a couple friends in Michingan on the Manistee river. Here are a few picturess of us in search of some fall steelhead from our hyde drift boats.

I tied into this nice lake run brown trout the 1st day of the 1st weekend

Then the second weekend started off with yes!! snow.

But it quickly melted and the day ended with some nice steelies boated

This is the biggest steelehead for me caught and released for the year.

Yahoo Plant Shut down is Over Steelies Beware

So  this has been one of my quietest fall fishing seasons do to the Plant shut down. Only got out once in Sept. with my friend with his Hyde and me with mine. We did a float down the Manistee river in Michigan. Amongst the 4 of us we had maybe 4 Chinooks on but none made it to the boats. Here are a couple pictures of the trip but now let the games begin. The plant shutdown is over and I am about to start a 4 week vacation with a heavy dose of steelhead fishing on the books.

So busy trying to get my Fly boxes filled.  I am way behind as you can see in my yarn box below.

These are 4 of my favourite colours for steelhead. Chartreuse, Niagara gold, Oregon cheese and bubble gum pink. I love Blue and purple but only a certain time of year. If you catch me on the river stop and pick my brain and I will tell you when I love to use these colours.

So hoping my next blog will be filled with pictures of some fall steelies.

A Fish's View of your Hex Fly