Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Jesse Houston holds up a brigth, fresh-run Kitimat River steelhead he caught on March 25, 2009 on a pink plastic worm.
Noel Gyger reports that they have been getting nice weather all week in northern BC. The spring melt-off from the mountains has not started yet so the rivers are pretty clear. Despite low water conditions some of the guides are doing well putting their clients onto some trophy steelhead. Both the upper and lower sections of the Kalum River are in good shape and water is very low, almost too low for jet boats, so it’s drift boat and inflatable time. The lower Zymoetz (Copper) River is still holding a few Steelhead and has attracted a fresh fish. A few fish are bing caught there by fly anglers. A few anglers are now starting to fish the main Skeena River looking for the spring run of steelhead. In the meantime lot’s of Cutthroat and Dolly Varden Char are keeping anglers busy while they work to get a steelhead on.
If you would like to get more info. on planning a world class river fishing trip in BC, you can contact Noel Gyger at, noel@noelgyger.ca .
Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Mike Atkins shows off a chunky "early-Spring", Detroit River walleye.
Frank DeAngelis from La Salle, ON reports that the walleye are starting to move-in along the Michigan, US side of the Detroit River and anglers are starting to catch fish in higher numbers in front of the steel plants across from the north tip of Fighting Island. Top presentation has been vertical jigging right on the bottom using a 1/2 oz. jig with a 4″ plastic worm grub. The walleye are holding on the 17-27′ structure break off the shoreline. Anglers are also having excellent success catching jumbo perch out of Colchester Harbor, Lake Erie. Best presentation is fishing a “pickerel-rig”, or a “drop-shot” rig with live minnows near the bottom.
As the water temperature warms-up, more walleye will work their way up from Lake Erie and will hold throughout the river. If you are planning to fish the Detroit River anytime soon, make sure to also check the water clarity. Strong winds on Lake Huron and on Lake St. Clair can really muddy-up the Detroit River water clarity which makes walleye fishing much more difficult.
When water clarity is normal in the Detroit River, natural colored 4″ plastic worms work excellent as a plastic trailer on the jig. If water clarity is murkier, try using a larger, bigger profile plastic grub such as a 4 1/2″ Finesse Minnow, or 3-4″ Twister Tail grub.
Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Roger Cannon smiles as he holds-up his first steelhead of the year.
Just prior to the rain we had this weekend, water conditions in all of our southern Ontario tributaries were low and clear, which made for tough steelheading conditions. Cold morning temperatures of -5 to -7 C, combined with north-westerly winds of up to 50 km/hr. made it almost unbearable to drift light floats using long rods. I fished with Roger Cannon and Bill Selby in Newcastle, ON and found that the steelhead that had moved up up to 1/2 km. from Lake Ontario, had dropped-back to the harbor and to the first current area up from the lake. Our best presentation was using long www.rapala.caMagnum steelhead rods ranging in length from 10 1/2 – 13″, with a main line of Suffix & Rapala 6 lb. test monofilament line and a 6 lb. test fluorocarbon leader. African Porcupine quill floats performed best using light shot to register the “light-bites”. Our best fishing was from about 8am – 11am, and than the fish turned off, or moved back into the lake. Bright sunny conditions did not help, and I’m sure as the sun rose, the fish became less active in the clear-water conditions.
Bill Selby was checking out the conditions daily and reported moderate success landing about 6-fish per outing. Most of the fish were fresh-run, they hit spawn sacks lightly, and fought sluggishly. The bite was short each day, lasting only about 3 hrs. Going to a lighter fluorocarbon leader did help to get more strikes once the sun rose higher. Most of the steelhead were female, with only about 2% being male. Even the male steelhead were lightly colored telling us that the fish were still moving in and out of the harbor daily.
We found that using smaller spawn-sacks from the diameter of a dime, and smaller, worked best as it got brighter out. Small hooks also made a difference. We both used #10 & #12 short-shanked hooks.
I had the chance to fish a Lake Ontario tributary stream in Newcastle, ON and can confirm that the conditions yesterday were challenging. The air temperature in the early morning was around -2C and there was a cold 20km wind blowing from the NW. The water clarity was about 3′ and the fish were lathargic. We fished fresh-tied rainbow trout spawn sacks and tested some of the new Rapala Magnum series steelhead rods ranging in length from 9 1/2 – 11′. My friend Roger Cannon and I landed 8 migratory trout in about 4-hrs. fishing. The fish ranged from 3-12lb. in size. All but one were silver, fresh-run female rainbows.
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