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

Silv'ry Moon Lodge 2011

This is best part of the trip up seeing the sign only 1 km to go. Does the heart start to pump, the beginning of another fun filled trip to Silv'ry Moon Lodge. My son, nephews Mon and dad and boy's girlfriend were were already there waiting for my brother and I to arrive. When we arrived the boys informed me the fishing was tough just a few little guys kidding I said well that's not because you haven't had a good guide to show you the hot spots . With that next thing I know Kory, Lindsy and I are on or way out to look for some big fish. Well day one did I show them the art of catching fish. I ended with all the fish but one walleye my boy caught.

Poor Lindsy hooked a few but never landed any.       

I told her at the end of the day every person had their day in the sun and today was mine. Well the next day was their day here they are Kory's 4lbs 3 oz and Lindsy's 4 lb 4 oz. Myself zero lol but we all had fun.
 That night 4 of us in 2 boats went out for some walleye. Here is a nice 7 lb walleye my brother got.

here are a few more walleye we caught through the week.

The day before the boys and Lindsy had to leave was their best day look at this catch.

Mike tied into a nice muskie.

Here are a few more pictures of the trip hope you all enjoy

Never Taunt your Fishing Partners

 My son arrives home for the weekend with a need to get away from the big city of Toronto. He describes it as a sea of cement and wants to get back to small town Ontario. He tells me he won a big bet in the hockey playoffs, bought a new depth finder with the cash and wants to test it out. After checking the weather radar and seeing no rain in site my son, his girlfriend and I  load up my Hyde boat and head to a small pike lake I know of.
 After unloading the boat into the lake and have all the fishing gear packed its time to do battle.Not ten minutes of fishing my son ties into about a 3 pound large mouth bass. It jumps once waves at Kory then throws the lure back at him to taunt him for not being alert and ready.
 Well lesson number one for me is don't taunt your fellow fisherman after loosing a fish as in the video below

In the following pictures and videos the only thing you will see me doing is netting fish for Kory.

Here are a couple more pictures of Lindsay's catch. I had one pike on the fly rod but similarly with Kory's first fish I was too mesmorized watching the fish hit my fly that I forgot to set the hook. Well it was a fun day all in all and hope next time to get my daughter out for a day of fishing on the lake.

Just had to finish with a trip to the Soo

Well like a foul I just couldn't stop, not yet, no way just had to go north for that last horray. So, I gave my good buddy Brad from the Soo North Fly shop a call and asked him if I could room in for a couple days and that I was looking for a good guide. Just kidding we both know he's going to be doing the guiding. So after a six hours of driving and two Xlarge Timmie's coffee I crossed the Sault St Marie International Bridge and peered out my window in total amazement.

   I see only one guy on the rapids. What does this mean? No fish?  It was a scary sight on a sunny Sunday but my good buddy swore to me on the phone that a new push of fish were in and to "get your ass up here now". So even with this strange site I continue my trek across the border and arrive in the Canadian Soo two blocks from my friend's shop.

Finally I saw the familiar sign of the Soo North fly shop, my home for the next few days,  and standing below it is Brad holding two spey rods.  When I pull up and he shouts, get your truck unloaded  we've got some steelies to slay. I proceed to tell him that I saw only one guy on the rapids with but he replied, who knows more about this water then me.Well all I could do now was agree and unpack as fast as I could.

 Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the rapids, fly rods in hand surveying the river. Well the guy I saw from the bridge had moved into the back end of the run where Brad was going to have us set up. Brad gave me a choice of taking the tailout or the top of the run. I took the top and let him proceed to the tail out. The first two hours of fishing turned out to be a good start with a couple nice fish landed . Brad warned that word will get out quickly that a fresh push of fish are in so suggested that get up early the next day to get the prime real estate.

 So the next morning we were up at four a.m.,,,,, yes, we're nuts  When we got to the pool both of us took a side on the tail out and with the real estate cornered, what a morning a morning we had. Here are a couple of the fish landed on shore and released back to the river.

As you can see Brad busted a few fish and I had two on but struggled to land any. So at nine a.m. we  headed back in so that Brad could open the fly shop. Then later I went back out for the afternoon fish until about 7 and had a good catch. I didn't hit that double digit but still had fun. I hit all my fish on hexes and caddis nymphst that Brad had tied for me.

 So here is a small video to help you understand the mentality of a steelheader.

Well, day two turned out to be another great day. Double digits numbers were caught between the two of us  by 9 a.m. when we to returned  to the shop. Here are a few pictures of the day's catch. All fish were released unharmed (and some were long releases lol)

 When I went back to the rapids by myself later I had another good afternoon but several more fisherman began to arrive. It's likely that word got out about the fresh push of fish but since I was on my last afternoon up there, life was grand. I got back to the shop at  about 7p.m. totally exhausted  and thought I would watch the hockey game. That's a joke, I didn't even stay awake long enough to make it through the 1st period. I woke up at 8 o'clock the next morning with numb hands from all the fishing. Brad informed me it was a good thing I didn't go fishing that morning, by the site of all cars in the parking lot  there would be a lot of fisherman at the rapids.  So, it was time to pack up and  head for home, finishing the season off on a great note. So what started as the season from hell ended with not so bad at all

On the way home I drove through some fog at the Mackanaw bridge and thought yea, how poetic, the season fading back into the fog of day to day routine. The end of another steelhead season a sad point but hope for many more to come.