Archive for April, 2012

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We took advantage of brigth skies, light winds and headed out from Amherstburg, ON to the Michigan-side of the Detroit River to fish fast-water structure breaks for walleye, pike and bass.

My wife Barbara & I, our pup Mulligan and our guest Mike Atkins started off fishing boulder shorelines cranking Storm Thunder Craw crankbaits in 2-4′ of water with a 4-5 mph current and my wife Barbara tied into the first chunky walleye that inhaled her Thunder Craw and fought hard in the fast current.  Next, we fished big flat just off the edge of the main Detroit River, Michigan, USA current where the bottom went up and down from 4-12′ for about 1/2 mile.  To fish this area properly we fished the new Storm Rattlin’ Thin Fin’s and Mike immediately tied into the next walleye, another chunky 4 lb. fish.  From there we fished fast-dropping island shorelines with the Rapala Dives To Thug & Storm Rattlin’ Thin Fin and landed both trophy lagemouth bass & pike.

We fished our crankbaits with the new Rapala Concept Ti rods, Shift Rods and TS2 Rods matched with Shift reels and all loaded with Sufix 832 braided lines in green, the new ghost and yellow color.

This was the first time I had cranked fast-water conditions with lot’s of structure and it turned out to be very effective.  I have to give most of the credit to our guides Mike Atkins and Pat Pagano and our fully rigged River Hawk 16′ boat.  Talk about an excellent, affordably prices package that let’s you fish anywhere  Our Minn Kota Terrova 80 lb. thrust worked great in the fast current and the two Humminbird Sonars (300 & 500 series), kept us on the fish.  Our Yamaha 50 hp., 4-stroke outboard moved us at about 35 mph and used very littl fuel.

We had a great time and look forward to more fiming on the Detroit River when we go back to cover the ICHA Handicapable Fishing Derby the weekend of June 2/3, 2012.

We just finished shooting a trophy walleye TV show on the Detroit River, La Salle, ON with our good friend Pat Pagano who is the founder and director of the ICHA Handicapabe Fishing Derby.  Mike Atkins was on hand to operate the camera boat.  Conditions were a little better than yesterday and our main fishing area was just off Mud Island in the Detroit River, Michigan, USA.

Skies were overcast and they were calling for a major storm to hit by noon.  We were fortunate enough to catch all of our fish before the rain.  My wife Barbara landed two nice walleye jigging on the bottom and fishing the new Rapala Saphine baitcating combo loaded with the new Sufix 832 “ghost” colored braided line.  Pat landed several walleye using the Rapala Shift Rod and Rap reel. I tested the new Rapala Concept Ti rod and Rapala Shift reels and also used the Sufix 832 in the new “yellow” color.  The bright colored Sufix braid made it easy to detect when our jigs contacted the bottom and when we had fish on.  We ended-up landing 8-10 walleye ranging in size from 16″-27″ in about 6hr. of fishing.  We were forced to fish the Michigan, USA side since the water had about 2′ visibility, while the Canadian side only had 6″ of visibility.

The 16′ River Hawk boat powered by a 50 hp. Yamaha 4-stroke and rigged with a Minn Kota Terrova 80 lb. thrust and bow/console Humminbird sonars enabled us to stay on top of schools of walleye in 20-35′ of water.

We caught all our fish on jigs with stinger hooks and rigged with 4″ TriggerX plastic worms.  We used the new Sufix 832 lines in the “ghost & yellow” color in 10 lb. test.  We had to work for our fish, but ended up capturing some excellent walleye jigging action and giving viewers some great walleye river fishing tips.

My wife Barbara, our pup Mulligan and I had a chance to pre-fish the Detroit River, La Salle, ON with our good friends Pat Pagano, Nino Palazzolo and Mike Atkins and also with our guests, Darren & James.  The weather was cool, winds were blowing, but we managed to locate walleye for our TV show.  This was my first chance to fish out of our brand new 16′ River Hawk boat rigged with a 50 hp. Yamaha 4-stroke, Minn Kota Terrova electric and two Humminbird sonars.  While we fished one part of the river, Pat and Mike scouted out an area near Mud Island.  We ended up only landing on large walleye, while Pat, Mike and Nino ended up hooking 6-fish, landing 3.  This was good enough to confirm our TV shooting location.  All of the fish were caght in water ranging from 20-35′ in the main river channel.  All the fish were caught on 5/8 oz. jigheads rigged with a 4″ brown plastic worm with stinger hooks.

 

Finally, afte 27-yrs of doing the Canadian Sportfishing TV show, I decided to do a spring show angling for suckers!  That’s right suckers!  These humble fish that most people frown over are actually an excellent fish to angle for when they migrate up tributary streams in the spring to spawn.  Right now we are in-between most angling seasons, and suckers are open all year, so why not take advantage of them.

There are many species of suckers that can be caught in Ontario tributaries, but today, our focus was redhorse & white sucker.  My guests on the show were brothers Jason & Tyler Howick who among other things, are experts on angling for suckers, trophy channel catfish, Lake Erie walleye, rainbows and jumbo perch.  I have posted many blogs over years showing their trophies and after contacting them this spring, I suggested we indeed do a trophy sucker show.

Our day started early and we met at the Comfort Inn, St. Thomas, ON who was our official “accommodation” sponsor for this TV shoot.  This Comfort Inn is strategically located at Hwy.#3 & Centennial AVe.in St. Thomas, ON which gives anglers many options on fishing local Lake Erie tributaries. 

The weather was lousy!!  I mean the wind was howling, we had rain, show, it was cold, but the fishing was excellent.  Besides doing a great show and giving tips on effective angling techniques for spring sucker, we had lot’s of fun, landed many fish and I also did a special sucker cleaning segment showing viewers how to deal with their hair-thick “Y” bones and then prepared a fresh sucker shorelunch.  We all enjoyed the fish and even the weather co-operated with us.

The Howicks used short ultralight rods/reels loaded with braided line while I use the Rapala Magnum 9′, light action steelhead rod with the new Rapala Vapor ultralight reel loaded with 6lb. test Sufix 100% Castable Fluorocarbon line.  The hooks of choice where the Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hooks, the Octopus hooks, the French Snelled hooks and the Baitholder hooks all in sized from #4-#8 in size.

If you love to fish and you enjoy tasty fish, you should try fishing one of the Great Lakes tributaries while the suckers are running.  They should remain in the tributaries for at least a couple of more weeks.

The fish that are out there now in and around Charlotte Harbor:

Around the 41 bridges you can find Big Snook and Trout but at Alligator Creek its the Trout that are biting. Around Alligator Creek Reef aka Concrete Reef there are lots  of Cobia being seen and caught with a chum bag as well as Small Gag groupers.

At the Bay Shore piers there’s plenty of black tip, Cobia, Bokeelia, small Sharks, Spanish Mackerels and Pompano. At the Boca Pass, its Tarpon, Tarpon, Tarpon!

Around Bull Bay its Reds all the way and Cape Haze we hear about Trout, Sharks and Cobia.

And at the El Jobean Pie the Snook and Tarpon are being seen at night.

- Sean

 

My good friend Aldo Nava (www.niagarafishingadventures.com), Mulligan & I went down to the Queenston Boat Launch at about 10am to see if we could spot smelt running in the daytime.  No smelt fishermen were there yet to claim their night time fishing spot and we caught smelt on our first dip with our dip net.  Skies were clear, it was brigth, and the smelt were spookish, but we could see small schools going over our net about every 10min.  We caugth enough for Aldo to have a meal and as we were leaving we saw the first two smelt fishermen claim their spot aroung 11 am.  Fishing has been good at night, and because of that keen smelt fismermen that know the Queenston Boat Launch areas get there mid-day to claim thier spot.  By 7:30pm there has been an average of 50+ fishermen linning the bank.

Wayne Sheridan reports: River levels have continued to drop this past week due to a lack of any significant rainfall in southern Ontario. The rivers are at moderate to low levels and are very clear, making the fish very spooky. A cold front is going through Saturday morning with some rain. We hope this will be helpful to the fishermen and farmers in southern Ontario. Best spots are in deep pools until the water gets a little dirtier. The deep pools are also a bit warmer at this time of year, which they prefer. Also fish slow and leave your bait in the location for a while.

River Flow Rates: Low/moderate. Visibility clear 10ft.

River Levels: Saugeen River (above Durham) dropping at 1.26M, Saugeen River (Walkerton) at 9.542M, Saugeen at Port Elgin down at 7.766M, Sauble River (Sauble Falls) dropping at 0.987M, Sydenham River (Owen Sound) down at 4.98M, Maitland River (above Wingham) dropping at 10.006M, French River at Woseley Bay at 186.497M, Bronte Creek near Zimmerman down 5.872M, Credit River at Streetsville down at 4.501M, Credit River at Orangeville down at 11.201M, Grand River (Doon), dropping at 4.045M (below Shand dam) down at 1.546M, Rideau River at Ottawa down at 2.729M, Ottawa River at Britannia not available

Prime Fishing Times: Saturday April 21st, 2012: 11:52 am to 3:02 pm (moon overhead) and midnight to 2:38 am (moon underneath). Moon rise 6:30 am, moon set 8:29 pm

Prime Fishing Times: Saturday April 28th, 2012: 5:33 pm to 8:36 pm (moon overhead) and 5:05 am to 8:17 am (moon underneath). Moon rise 12:05 pm, moon set 1:19 am

Flyfishing: We saw lots of insect activity this past weekend, mosquitoes, bees, fireflies, houseflies, almost everything. Use roe for rainbow and steelhead, single eggs seem to get the best results.

Great Lakes Fishing: Trout and salmon are presently in the 20-40 depth. Best bet is Lyman lures, monkey puke and herring colours. Use smaller lures that will imitate the smaller baitfish. Use Lucky Strike lures.

Always Fish Safely

Wayne Sheridan

Don’t forget to check the lunar times and check out our new articles on Flying Squirrels, Cod Stocks, White Nose Syndrome in Bats, and the Asian Carp Debate at www.canadianangling.com .

Noel Gyger reports. Good runs of Steelhead are noted…plus good local Trout and Dolly Varden Char fishing. Early run of Chinook Salmon has started, mostly bound for the Kalum River. The earliest we ever caught one was April 5th.  

 

Skeena River: Water is dirty from the Copper River. It is clear above the Zymoetz (Copper) River. The spring run Steelhead are in the river now. Plus Trout and Dolly Varden Char. Early Chinook (King) Salmon are coming in now. Catching Steelhead and Chinook on the same day is possible. Reg: all wild Steelhead everywhere in British Columbia are catch and release

Kalum River: Water in good shape. A good run of Steelhead are in the river now. Guiding started March 15th. I have reports of some good catches. The lower and upper end are in good shape. The water is coming up slowly. This is the condition we like. Fresh spring run Steelhead are in the river now mixed in with the fall and summer-runs from last year. Chinook (King) Salmon are coming in now. We have caught them in early April. Anytime now we should be able to catch Steelhead and Chinook in the same day. Wow is this fun or what!!

Lakelse River: The water is in good shape and fishing for Steelhead, and Trout is fair.

Zymoetz (Copper) River: Water is dirty from the snow melt off. The weather is fantastic! Facts: Last year we had a record run of Steelhead, lets hope at least we have another good run this year. The fly rods work extremely well in this river.

Kitimat River: Steelhead are coming in now. More and more anglers are hitting the river.  Trout fishing is excellent!

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