Still waiting, and reflecting.

Despite the great weather we had last week end, I didn't get a chance to hit the water before the rain. I was working on Saturday, and that pretty much killed my Sunday. I got to go through some more photos that I want to share.

 Lets start with what I am missing most this year! About 5 years ago, I found a creek that had a very small run of rainbows. 2 years ago, I found poachers before open season, and shoulder to shoulder fisherman on opening day! Needless to say, I'm upset, more about the poachers, and the ignorance of the people who fish this river when it finally does open. The first year I caught a rainbow in this river, I was using a 4 wt fly rod, going for resident trout. The migratory steelhead really surprised me. For 3 years, I was very happy to see the steelhead returning in better numbers

each year, than 2 years ago, the run was huge, but there must have been a mass mail out about it! I was mortified to see poachers fishing before opening season, and to see people keeping the limit (its still 6 on Lake Ontario waters/trib's) once the season opened. Last year, there were fights on the river, and not between anglers and fish! I guess everyone and their cousin decided to fish the spot, it was shoulder to shoulder before the sun came up. I fishing for 1 hr, and got fed up with the people on the river arguing. Spent the rest of the day on "fly only" rivers.

Not to long ago, I was turned onto carp fishing by a friend who owned a small tackle shop. Since Bass Pro opened, he has gone out of business. I am forever grateful to him.

 I caught this bruiser one evening after work. I drove 10 min from my house, used my salmon rod, and a spinning reel, and rigged up a hair rig with some corn. When I set the hook into this fish, it took off like a freight train! Thats a 9 foot rod its beside! To date, its my biggest carp, and second longest fish. Since I've been put onto it, I make a few trips a year. I don't always catch, but at the very least, its a nice way to watch the sun set after being in the office all day.

This was funny, we were behind it on our way to a fishing lodge, for at least 3 hrs on the highway.

Fishing for crappie, you never know what you are gonna catch! I pulled in about 3 of these guys, all about the same size, on an ultralight with 2 lb. test line. Sad to say, the last 3 muskies I've landed, were on 2 lb. test line, and put together, don't way 1 lb.! These guys were smashing red and white micro tubes.

They made fun of me fro bringing up so many rods and reels! Guess who they went to when this happened to their rod! Moral of the story....be nice to the guy who is over prepared, karma does have a sense of humour!

You never know what the weather is going to bring, but be prepared when it is not good! On Rice Lake on year, 8 am brought the sun, it was nice and warm, and we were hooking some brightly coloured perch. By noon, the temperature dropped, clouds rolled in, and the rain was eminent. We decided to hit an area where the lake bottlenecks, creating a bit of a current. We started drifting and bouncing jigs and grubs on bottom as we went. We had some success with a couple nice walley, after all, that was what we were trying to catch.

Another lucky bass

 Than, this smallie hit! Considering I am not really a bass guy, I've hooked some pretty nice smallies in my lifetime, and I really do enjoy catching them. It seems like the less I try to catch smallies, the bigger they get.  This one hit a chartreuse grub on bottom.

Salmon on your rod!

 Sometimes, being my fishing partner is frustrating, the fish above has an interesting story.

My Zio Mario is the person who really got me into fishing, he put it into me as a young kid. He was the person who would always take me out, and really taught me the basics of fishing. If it wasn't for him, I definitely would not have had as much experience as a kid fishing. Over the years, I've learned from a lot of different people, TV shows, and magazines, and really started to put together my own values, and become my own angler.

A few years ago, I decided to take him to one of my favourite salmon rivers when the run was on. The fish were jumping and rolling all morning, but we couldn't buy a hit! Around noon, he decided to stop fishing to eat something, and I asked if i could try out his new rod. He was throwing an inline spinner, and I was drifting with a centre pin all day, I felt like a little change. I took a few casts, and hooked one. I was hot-shotting the spinner through the tail of the pool. I spent the rest of the day teaching him this "new" technique. It was nice to be able to finally return the favour, I gave him the fish, and cooked some for him that night. Beerbutter Salmon Fillet's on the BBQ is one of my favourites!

A couple nice close ups to close the blog.

Both fish were caught on exploratory trips. The panner was in a pond I saw as I was driving from one trout spot to another. Every so often when I'm fishing alone, I will deviate from the plan, and fish any body of water I see. Best day was when I found a beaver pond that was full of hungry brookies.

Details of a great day

The steelhead, well, I am always looking for new rivers to fish steelhead in peace. I really cant wait for trout to open. I'm almost done refilling my fly boxes, and I have a few spots that I am dying to try out. Going straight to the residents this year.