Casting the Maitland Again

With the river low, all the fish upstream restricted season in force guess just another day casting on the Maitland. I did catch two sucker but got told they were not picture worthy so here some nature pictures.

As you can see in this picture low and clear.  So all we can do is wait for some rain to get the fish moving and hope to catch one on its way out.

Weekend Worrier

Well for 34 years worked shift work had lots of time to fish but now I am a 9 to 5er and if I want to fish guess i have to be a weekend worrier. Fishing was tough on the Maitland today because of our restricted trout season with  limited river access , plus extremely warm March. The fish should get their spawning job done before the season opens with lots of protected water .The river was in beautiful shape but only a couple fish caught considering the amount of guys fishing

So basically you can say I was out practising my casting. Here is a short video using my head cam. I need to learn to slow my head movement down but hope next time there is a fish on when filming

I would ask you to rate my casting but afraid how low of grade I would get.

With the lack of fish I ended up playing around the shore line and saw a lot of stone flies on a rock.

I switched over to a stone fly as a dropper but to no luck. It was just one of those days where you just got to enjoy the fresh air, exercise and great summer like weather for March.

Dominincan Field Trip

Was in the Dominican last week and learned fast to appreciate what we have in Canada. But also learned money is not everything. With the Dominican's family is a special wealth . Here are a few pictures of our day trip to visit a Dominican school.

This is the mountain area that we went to to see the school .

Would of love to gone fishing but the trade winds had the ocean rocking very hard. Can only hope to fish the next trip 

Old Vids

My pass steelhead Vids from Red Maxfield on Vimeo.

Just playing with my video editor so here are some old videos from past couple years fishing

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