Archive for May, 2011

Right now is an excellent time to take advantage of the white bass run that is taking place in many moving-water areas and marina basins on both Lake Ontario & Lake Erie, ON.  Best bait to catch these hard-fighting and tasty fish is a “pickerel-rig” with either live minnows or worms.  Best depth to catch them at is anywhere form 10-30′ in depth.  The run should last for about 1-month.

Our good friends Pat Pagano & Attila Kun had a chance to experience non-stop action fishing for white bass in the Detroit River, ON.  This spring’s conditions have not been favorable for walleye fishing, but the white bass are in in big numbers throughout the Detroit River, ON.  If you love to catch & enjoy eating large panfish take advantage of this annual event as the white bass move into fast-moving areas in preparation for spawning.  These fish can grow to 3 lb. in size, fight hard and taste great!

We had the pleasure of attending and covering the 9th Annual ICHA Handicapable Fishing Derby in Windsor, ON again this past weekend. It was definitely the largest event staged to date with the largest participation both by anglers, sponsors & volunteers. Pat Pagano conceived this event almost a decade ago and it has been a blessing to hundreds of families with handicapable children since it’s inception. Sponsors provide everything from fishing outfits, life jackets, tackle, bait, food, treats, interactive attractions, a live band, a magic show, a watercraft show, and much, much more. The Canadian Sportfishing TV crew covered the event and clips will be seen in the new series starting this coming November. If you would like to get more info. on this event, you can go to the ICHA website.

We had cold temperatures, wind, rain, but we still managed to shoot an excellent trophy White Bass TV show on the lower Detroit River, La Salle, ON.  My wife Barbara and I fished with Pat Pagano (ICHA Handicapable Fishing Derby, Windsor, ON), fished Lucky Strike Rocket & Rainbow spoons, Vibrax spinners and 1/4 & 3/8 oz. jigs/3-4″ plastic minnows to catch White Bass in 12-30′ of water.   Heavy rains had muddied-up the Detroit River to the point that it only had 2″ of visibility.  Do to the low visibility we saw no other fishing boats on our section of the river.  Following the filming of the TV show we also covered the 9th annual ICHA Handicapable Fishing Derby which was held right next to the Ambassador Bridge at Windsors waterfront.

I was able to spare a few hours this past Sunday and managed to get my boat out on the Grand River above the Caledonia dam. Using 14 lbs. Suffix mono on my baitcaster set up, with a Rapala Jointed Shad Rap in the perch colour, I was able to land a very nice walleye at 18.5 inches. I landed this fish on my third cast, in a spot situated in front of an incoming creek, ( this is the same location in which I had very good luck last year) . The river level was much better than the week prior and cleaner, however still up approximately 2 feet or so it seemed.

Ben Patterson

Wayne Sheridan reports: A couple of weeks ago Austin was fishing by the bridge and caught this nice brown trout, congrats Austin. River levels have been fluctuating a lot. This past weekend another nice 14 inch brown trout was caught by the bridge. They were using a bobber and a worm. We have noticed mayflies are now starting to appear just before dusk and laying their eggs. This has increased trout action in the evening.

River Flow Rates: moderate/high and rising. Visibility clearing at 5 ft. tea colored

River Levels: Saugeen River (Durham) rising at 1.507M, Saugeen River (Walkerton) rising at 10,1M,  Sauble River (Sauble Falls) rising at 1.4M, Sydenham River (Owen Sound) not asvailable, Maitland River (above Wingham) up at 10.32M, French River at Woseley Bay at 187.406M, Bronte Creek near Zimmerman rising at 6.35M, Credit River at Streetsville up at 4.883M, Credit River at Orangeville down at 10.3M, Grand River (Doon), up at 4.4M (below Shand dam) rising at 1.981M, Rideau River at Ottawa rising at 3.2M, Ottawa River at Britannia at 58.82M

Prime Fishing Times: Saturday May 28th, 2011: 8:25am to 11:17am (moon overhead).8:50pm to 11:42pm (moon underneath)

Flyfishing: Gray Fox, Sulfur dun, various caddis, bloodworms, worms and minnows for larger trout

Always Fish Safely

Wayne Sheridan

Don’t forget to check our news articles and lunar times at www.canadianangling.com .

I had a couple of hours to check-out the fishing conditions in Lake Erie, Buffalo Harbor, NY with Tony Brecknock. To our surprise, the water conditions definitely seem to be 2-3 weeks behind. There was very little weed growth where by this time there are weeds growing almost up to the surface in 7′ of water. We checked the shorelines and only spotted one cruising smallmouth bass which leads me to believe that the majority of smallies have not started spawning yet. With these observations we decided to twitch Rapala Husky Jerk #12 in deeper, open water. We quickly figured out that the fish were not hitting our Husky Jerk near the surface so we had to make long casts and twitch slowly to allow the Husky Jerk to swim down to the 6-7′ depth. As soon as we used this deeper-water, twitching presentation we started catching both smallmouth bass and pike. The fishing turned out to be great and we landed about 6-pike and 6-smallies in a relatively short period of time.

Our outfits of choice where the Shift & Team Walleye rods by Rapala loaded with Rapala Shift & Seeker spinning reels filled with Sufix 832 braided line.

Noel Gyger reports.

Heavy rain Monday and Tuesday but now very nice for the long

weekend. Not too hot yet. Luckily, the rivers are rising slowly. Lots of snowpack

still in the mountains. The Skeena River is a dark brown colour and too dirty to fish.

Even though the water is dirty the Chinook (King) Salmon will be migrating up river

to spawn in their native waters. The Kalum River is in good shape both upper and

lower. The river is high but very clean. This is a good time to try your luck for both

Steelhead and Chinook on the same day. Reg: The upper section closes for Chinook

on May 25. The Zymoetz (Copper) River is dirty and not fishable. The Lakelse River

is in good shape and fishing for Steelhead and Trout is fair. The Kitimat River

Steelhead fishing is basically over. Chinook are showing up in the lower end. More

and more fish will come in with the higher tides. Chinook have been caught down the

Douglas Channel but this week I have received reports of Chinook being caught in the

Kitimat Harbour. Until the numbers are good some boaters are venturing out further

for Halibut and bottom fish. Prince Rupert is fishing well for bottom fish and Chinook.

The ice is coming off some of the lakes around the Smithers and Meziadin areas.

If you would like to book a guided fishing trip with Noel, you can contact him at, www.noelgyger.ca .

Hello Italo;

Just thought we would touch base with you to see how you made out opening day fishing for walleye?  We did get a chance to see you and Barb fishing at Hayward Reach as you can see from the attached picture.  In addition we attached a few other pictures for you to view and post on your blog if you wish.

Michelle did catch a 2 lb walleye (on her new pink Rapala rod and reel), while her father landed a 1 lb perch.  I was not as lucky, however I did have a few good hits…  Our luck catching walleye seems to pick up around the middle of June, first part of July (around bass season)…

Anyway thought you might like the pictures and please keep doing what you do!  We both faithfully watch your show and learn new techniques that help us become better anglers!!!

Hope all is well and please say “hi” to Barb!

Kind regards,

Dale & Michelle MacMillan

Hi Dan & Michelle,

Thank you for the nice images.  You saw us filming, but we were so busy catching fish we did not notice you.  We fished south of Forester Island for about an hour and a half and landed about 5-walleye on-camera fishing worm harnesses.  From there we went down to Smith’s Bay and did a couple of segments catching pike and than we did a night-time segment catching a couple of walleye on Rapala Husky Jerk #12 from shore in the Salmon River.  I know you will do well in June and beyond fishing the Bay with the Rapala Tail Dancer #9…looking forward to seeing all the big walleye pictures.

God bless you,

Italo

We just heard from Pat Pagano that the larger walleye are finally starting to get consistent on the Lower Detroit River, ON.  Anglers are using 5/8 oz. jigs/plastic grubs, downriggers and hand-lining to catch their fish in 18-40′ of water.  The fishing should really be hot as we get to the end of May.  If you love to catch walleye and you are planning on heading down to the Detroit River, make sure to also see the ICHA HandiCapable Event that will be on at the Windsor, ON waterfront during the last weekend in May.