Winter 2019 by Real Fishing

CHOOSING THE RIGHT FISHING ROD

Winter 2019

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Contents Features 32 ICE FISHING MADE EASY Looking out over a vast frozen lake can be intimidating - but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s a host of tips and tactics that can help boost your confidence and put the odds in your favour on any lake you visit this winter. By Norman Martin

42 ONTARIO FISHING ADVENTURES In our last issue we profiled some great ice fishing destinations that were featured on the Real Fishing Show. This time around we’re going to share some insights into a quartet of vacation spots that made Bob’s list of places to consider for your next open water fishing trip. By Bob Izumi and Real Fishing Staff

52 WALLEYE THROUGH THE WINTER Catching walleyes from under the ice isn’t usually a problem, it’s finding them that can cause you headaches. This article provides some solid advice on where to find them, along with a few tips on how to catch them, throughout the hard water season. By Gerald Howard

Winter 2019 Volume 25, Issue 1 Editor Jerry Hughes Art Production Rossi Piedimonte Design Publisher Fred Delsey

Columns

National Advertising Izumi Outdoors Tel: (905) 632-8679 President Wayne Izumi

6 OPENING LINES By Jerry Hughes

24 REAL FISHING FISH FACTS Freshwater Drum

Contributors Patrick Daradick, Mark Forabosco, Gerald Howard, Bob Izumi, Wayne Izumi, Ryan Lamothe, Norman Martin, Steve May, Dave Taylor, Charles Weiss Real Fishing is published by Izumi Outdoors Inc. 940 Sheldon Court Burlington, ON L7L 5K6 Tel: (905) 632-8679 Fax: (905) 632-2833 Privacy Policy: Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies whose products and services might be of interest to our subscribers. If you prefer to have your name removed from this list and not receive these mailings, please write to us at the above address.

We welcome manuscripts, but will not be held responsible for loss of manuscripts, photos or other materials. Published four times each year: January (Winter) April (Spring) July (Summer) October (Fall) One year subscription is $12.95. For USA add $10 all others add $30. Subscriptions: Real Fishing 940 Sheldon Court, Burlington ON L7L 5K6 Subscription inquiries Please call: 1-877-474-4141 or visit www.realfishing.com Canada Post Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40015689 Customer Account No. 2723816 GST Registration No. R102546504 Postmaster: Please return front cover/label only of undeliverables to: Real Fishing 940 Sheldon Court, Burlington ON L7L 5K6 Contents copyrighted. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in Canada

10 SPORTSMEN’S ALMANAC News, trivia, event listings and more from the world of fishing

14 WHAT’S NEW The latest in fishing tackle, gear and accessories

26 REFLECTIONS ON FISHING By Mark Forabosco

28 BEST FISHING TIMES Doug Hannon’s moon phase calendar

16 FISHING By Bob Izumi

18 FLY FISHING By Steve May

20 THE WATER’S EDGE By Dave Taylor

22 THE VINTAGE TACKLE BOX By Patrick Daradick

16 30 THE HOT BITE 58 TALES FROM THE ROAD The trials and tribulations of life as a professional angler By Bob Izumi

64 WHAT’S COOKING On the cover: ICY WALLEYE Photo by Izumi Outdoors

66 ART OF ANGLING

opening lines By Jerry Hughes

Frosty Fishing By the time you read this winter will be in full swing across Canada and many lakes and rivers will be dotted with shacks full of eager anglers looking to catch a few fish. Whether you count yourself as an ice fishing aficionado or not the fact is, if you want to keep on fishing through the cold weather months, you’re probably going to have to do it through the ice. With that said, the lead feature in this issue of Real Fishing is all about making your ice fishing easier and more productive. In Ice Fishing Made Easy you’ll find all sorts of simple tips, from preparing for your outing to rigging and jigging tactics, that will help set you on the path to success this winter. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to hardwater fishing we’re sure you’ll find something in this article that you’ll store away in your memory bank. Keeping with the ice fishing theme, we’ve got another article on the sport that is a must-read if walleye will be your target this winter. Walleye Through the Winter covers the walleye’s movements throughout the winter and details how these affect all aspects of your fishing approach. From locations to bait choices to presentation techniques this feature will help you stay on fish all season long. If ice fishing’s not your thing, and you’d rather spend the winter planning for next year’s fishing trips, our Ontario Fishing Adventures article should be right up your alley. In our last issue we ran a feature on a couple of great ice fishing getaway destinations so this time around we’re taking a look at a few ideas for the open water season. Bob Izumi experienced the fishing and hospitality of all these destinations last year while filming episodes of the Real Fishing Show, so that should tell you something about how good these places are. But don’t take my word for it – read Bob’s own ver6 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

sions of how these trips played out, beginning on page 42. Along with our feature articles, this issue is teeming with more great fishing information including Bob’s tips on selecting the right fishing rod, the latest in the world of fly-tying, the winter’s best fishing times and the list goes on. We hope you enjoy this issue of Real Fishing and that it gives you a few ideas on how to help your fishing, whether it’s on hard or soft water. ********************************* Regular readers of Real Fishing magazine might notice something different about this issue in the form of a new column on page 26 called, Reflections on Fishing, and you’d be right. Long-time feature article writer Mark Forabosco will be using his new regular space to share stories, history and his general thoughts and ideas about fishing. As a veteran angler Mark has seen how the sport has evolved over the past few decades and his musings on fishing, both past and present, are sure to provide some fun, insightful and thought provoking columns. ********************************* If you watch the Real Fishing Show on the World Fishing Network Canada (WFN) we’ve got some news for you. As of January 19, WFN will be discontinued and will be replaced by Sportsman Channel Canada (SCC). The Real Fishing Show will now be airing on the Sportsman Channel Canada on Monday at 6:00 pm and Friday at 1:30 pm. Don’t forget to change your “record” schedule! ?

Print and digital subscriptions are available online at www.realfishing.com/ magazine For help with your subscription, please contact our customer service department

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Ice fishing sure has changed from the days of canvas parkas and willow-switch rods. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ice anglers have gone high-tech with tools that make seeking out fish easier and more efficient than ever before. We thought this picture was a perfect depiction of an ideal modern-day ice fishing setup.

Winter 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 9

LICENCE-FREE FISHING FOR ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has announced that, as of January 1, 2019, all veterans and active Canadian Armed Forces members residing in Ontario can enjoy recreational fishing across the province without having to purchase a fishing licence. “Our government is working to show appreciation for veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members, helping make it easier and more affordable to enjoy recreational fishing,” said John Yakabuski, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.

10 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

Recreational fishing is a $2.2 billion industry in Ontario and an important tradition in the lives of many. With this regulatory change, all Canadian Armed Forces members - retired or still serving - can maximize their time on the water, and ice, by fishing all year round at no cost. “Today, and every day, we should salute the sacrifice and bravery of our service members who have defended and continue to defend the rights and freedoms we enjoy,” said Minister Yakabuski. “By allowing veterans and active Canadian Armed Forces

members to fish for free in Ontario’s beautiful waters and encourage more time outdoors, we are offering a token of recognition to these heroes who deserve our respect and gratitude. Thank you for your service.”

A F O N D FA R E W E L L On November 6 Real Fishing lost one of its alumni when Mike Northcott lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 55. Mike was the original producer of the Real Fishing Radio Show and he continued putting the show together for 30-years. “This was a hard one to take as Mike was one of those guys you expected to be around for a long time”, said Bob Izumi. “He played in a number of bands, he was a

sound technician with a studio in Toronto and he was the most talented audio technician I have personally ever met. The way he produced our show was amazing, his talent was endless.” Mike leaves his wife Shelly, daughter Bailey and son Wilson. Our condolences go out to all of Mike’s family and friends. He will be sorely missed.

EVENTS Calendar KIDS, COPS AND CANADIAN TIRE FISHING DAYS

SPRING FISHING AND BOAT SHOW

LAC DU BONNET ICE FISHING DERBY

Youth oriented fishing events Various dates and locations www.kidsandcops.ca

February 15 - 18 International Centre Mississauga, ON www.springfishingandboatshow.com

February 23 Lac du Bonnet Town Dock Lac du Bonnet, MB www.ldbice.ca

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW

ONTARIO FAMILY FISHING WEEKEND

PERCHIN FOR MS

January 18 - 27 Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place Toronto, ON www.torontoboatshow.com

February 16 - 18 License-free fishing in Ontario www.ontariofamilyfishing.com

March 2 Lake Simcoe Sibbald Point Provincial Park www.perchinforms.com

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW

SIMCOE COUNTY HOME BUILDERS’ ASSOCIATION ICE FISHING TOURNAMENT

February 6 - 10 BC Place and Granville Island Vancouver, BC www.vancouverboatshow.ca

February 16 Lake Simcoe, Kempenfelt Bay Barrie, ON www.icefishingbarrie.ca

MONTREAL BOAT & WATER SPORTS SHOW

LAKE SIMCOE CHAMPIONSHIP ICE FISHING DERBY

January 31 - February 3 Place Bonaventure Montreal, Quebec, www.salondubateau.com

February 17 Lake Simcoe, Cook’s Bay Keswick, ON www.icefishinglakesimcoe.com

CALGARY BOAT & OUTDOORS SHOW

OTTAWA BOAT SHOW

February 7 - 10 BMO Centre, Stampede Park Calgary, AB www.calgaryboatandoutdoorshow.ca

February 21 - 24 EY Centre Ottawa, ON www.ottawaboatshow.ca

HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW

MID-CANADA BOAT SHOW

February 7 - 10 Halifax Exhibition Centre Halifax, NS www.halifaxboatshow.com

February 28 – March 3 RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, MB www.midcanadaboatshow.com

MONTREAL OUTDOOR, HUNTING, FISHING AND CAMPING SHOW

BC SPORTSMEN'S SHOW

MONCTON BOAT SHOW

March 1 - 3 Tradex Abbotsford, BC http://www.bcsportsmenshow.ca

March 29 - 31 Moncton Coliseum Moncton, NB www.monctonboatshow.ca

WAWA ICE FISHING DERBY

March 1 - 3 Wawa, Hawk and Manitowik Lakes Wawa, ON www.wawaicefishingderby.com TORONTO SPORTSMEN’S SHOW

February 14 - 17 Convention Centre Montreal, QC www.huntingfishingoutdoorshow.ca

March 13 - 17 International Centre Mississauga, ON www.torontosportshow.ca EDMONTON BOAT & SPORTSMEN’S SHOW

March 14 - 17 Edmonton Expo Centre Edmonton, AB www.edmontonboatandsportshow.ca QUEBEC OUTDOORS, HUNTING, FISHING AND CAMPING SHOW AND QUEBEC BOAT SHOW

March 14 - 17 Exhibition Center ExpoCité, Quebec, QC www.salonpleinairquebec.ca

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 11

READER’S PHOTOS

Send us a photo of your best catch and you could see your picture in a future issue of Real Fishing Magazine! Send photos to: Real Fishing, 940 Sheldon Court, Burlington, ON L7L 5K6

Anthony Warburton Cambridge, ON Largemouth Bass

Marc Lalonde Sioux Narrows, ON Muskellunge

Andy Carriere Cambridge, ON Largemouth Bass

Shane Jantzi Ayr, ON Smallmouth Bass

Teddy Rozad Selkirk, ON Chinook Salmon

12 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

Catch BOB on the Tube!

Tune in every Saturday morning on Global, and weekly on WFN, as Bob Izumi and his guests show you where, when and how to tackle the biggest fish from the hottest Canadian and international destinations. STATION LISTING & AIRING TIMES* MARKET Atlantic Canada Calgary Edmonton Ontario Quebec Regina Saskatoon Vancouver Winnipeg Canada/USA

PROV./STATE Atlantic Canada AB AB ON QC SK SK BC MB Canada/USA

STATION Global (CIHF) Global (CICT) Global (CITV) Global (CIII) Global (CKMI) Global (CFRE) Global (CFSK) Global (CHAN) Global (CKND) WFN

DATE & AIR TIMES Saturday 8:00 am Saturday 10:30 am Saturday 10:30 pm Saturday 8:30 am Saturday 8:30 am Saturday 7:30 am Saturday 7:30 am Saturday 10:30 am Saturday 7:30 am Check www.wfn.tv for dates and times

* Station listings, airtimes and show descriptions are subject to change. Please refer to your local television listings for the latest show schedules.

What’s

NEW

2019

ABU GARCIA REVO AL-F Engineered to give anglers compact performance along with the versatility of a heavy-duty fishing reel, the new Revo® AL-F low profile reel features an aluminum frame for added strength, 8 stainless steel HPCR™ bearings plus one roller bearing and Abu’s Carbon Matrix™ drag system. C6 carbon side plates and an aluminum main gear allow for maximum weight optimization. Easily adjustable and ultra-compact, the Revo® AL-F is suited to throwing everything from lightweight finesse baits right up to heavy jigs.

www.abugarcia.com

CUDA 10.5" CARBON STEEL HOOK CUTTER Cuda’s 10.5" Carbon Steel Hook Cutter is built specifically to slice through heavy gauge hooks with minimal effort. Made from corrosion-resistant carbon steel for extra-tough, long-lasting performance, this tool features a spring action design, Cuda’s scale patterned non-slip grips and a full tang construction. The super-tough, application specific design and 10.5" long handles provide excellent leverage for cutting hooks and it comes with a lifetime warranty.

www.cudabrand.com

CYBERFISHING SMART ROD SENSOR The new Cyberfishing Smart Rod Sensor and smartphone app let you record all the data from your fishing trips so you’ll have a record of where and when your best catches came from. The ingenious Smart Rod Sensor simply snaps onto your rod and then records everything that happens as you fish, including the number of casts you make and the surrounding conditions. When you catch a fish all it takes is a simple touch of a button and the Smart Rod Sensor saves and stores the location instantly. The Smart Rod Sensor connects to smartphones via Bluetooth and the Cyberfishing mobile app saves the captured data for easy access and retrieval.

www.cyberfishing.com

14 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

We welcome submissions from manufacturers and distributors for our What’s New section. Products that appear in this section have not necessarily been tested or endorsed by the staff at Real Fishing. Submissions can be sent to: Editor, Real Fishing Magazine, 940 Sheldon Court, Burlington, ON L7L 5K6

LOWRANCE HDS LIVE Lowrance’s new HDS LIVE™ high-performance line of fishfinder/chartplotters mark a significant leap forward in fishfinding technology. Powerful real-time sonar along with charting and connectivity features including Active Imaging™, LiveSight™, Genesis Live and LiveCast™ smartphone integration, HDS LIVE™ takes fishfinding to a whole new level. Features include a new low-profile design with edge-to-edge glass; a SolarMAX™ HD screen; bracket, flush and rear mounting options; user-programmable keys; and an optional fully-programmable Bluetooth® remote.

www.lowrance.com

WILLIAMS BULLY Williams has announced that the Bully series will be offered in three new finishes for 2019. Three classic patterns in a ½ painted face style will be added: Silver & Blue, UV reactive Silver & Orange and UV reactive Silver & Chartreuse will join the nine colours already available. Redesigned from the ground up, the new BULLY is even heavier than the original, weighing in at 9/10-ounce. The Bully is ideal for long distance casters and deep-water fishing enthusiasts targeting trout, salmon, walleye, and pike.

www.williams.ca

LIGHTNING ROD SHOCK Engineered specifically to accommodate braided lines, the Berkley Lightning Rod Shock series employ a number of precisely developed technologies that enhance performance while providing amazing value. To offset the no-stretch quality braided lines, these rods feature an innovative, shock absorbing tip, and come in a range of slower actions with increased backbone, lessening the possibility of pulled hooks without sacrificing control. The Berkley Lightning Rod Shock series is available in nine casting and eight spinning models to suit any fishing application.

www.berkley-fishing.com

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 15

fishing

Bob Izumi is the host of The Real Fishing Show.

By Bob Izumi

Fishing Rods There’s no question that I’m a fishing rod freak and, when it comes to choosing the right rod for the application, I really am a picky person. For years I’ve used the analogy, “a golfer wouldn’t go golfing with just one club”, and that’s why you regularly see tournament anglers with a number of rods for different techniques on their boats. For the most part there are heavy, medium-heavy, medium, medium-light and light rod actions. Another way of describing rod actions would be extra-fast, fast, moderate

and slow. An extra-fast or fast action means that the top third or less of the rod blank bends when it’s under a load. A moderate or medium action rod will bend in the top half. A slow or lighter action rod is more parabolic when they’re under a load and will bend all the way down to the handle. Back in the 2008 FLW Tour Eastern Series tournament on Wheeler Lake in Alabama I learned my lesson about using the wrong rod. I lost or missed so many bass over the last three days of the four day tournament that it cost me big time. I had the fish on to have easily placed well in the 16 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

event rather than placing 10th. Nine or ten big bass didn’t make it into the boat as a result of a rod that did not load up properly. After the tournament I realized that although my rod was very sensitive, it was too stiff. I would feel the “tick”, see my line start moving off to the side, tighten up and then set the hook. But, rather than driving the hook home this rod seemed to loading up, rebounding, and then loading up again. That split second where the rod rebounded allowed the hook to loosen up and when the rod reloaded it would pop the hook out. The rods I’m using now have a much better combination of graphite resin and other materials so that when I set the hook they tend to load up and stay loaded from the hook-set right to landing the fish. Years ago graphite fishing rods were quite expensive but, like many other things, they have come down a lot in price. How much you spend is a personal choice but I would certainly buy the best one that you can afford, especially if you’re going to spend a lot of time on the water using it. There are a number of good fishing rods in the $50 to $300 range that will do the job. For the most part, higher priced rods are light, sensitive and powerful. For instance, Fenwick’s top of the line World Class fishing rods use 3M Powerlux 500 resin blanks in their construction. This technology delivers a 30% stronger rod while remaining light and well balanced. These rods will evenly disperse tension while under a load, not only for smooth casting but also for fighting fish. Another premium priced fishing rod is the Abu Garcia Villain 2.0. It utilizes 40-ton high modulus graphite blanks and a carbon V-wrap process for additional strength and durability. Some of my favourite technique-specific

rods are definitely more parabolic than they were years ago. For instance, some of the Fenwick and Abu Garcia rods that I use now still have fast or heavy actions, but they give me a better hook set and stay loaded the whole time right through to landing the fish. The same is true for some of the spinning rods that I use. Whether I’m fishing a jig or dropshotting with a thin wire hook, a medium to medium-light action rod stays loaded when you set the hook and keeps tension on the fish all through the fight. It’s important to have a well-balanced rod/reel/line/lure outfit so that you’re comfortable with it for the technique you’re using and the species that you’re after. Just like golf, not everybody has the same swing and anglers differ on how they set the hook and fight the fish. The perfect action rod for one angler may not be the best for another angler using that same technique. So the next time you see me at one of the bass tournaments and notice that there might be 10 rods scattered on the deck of the boat and another 20 in the rod locker you don’t have to ask, “Bob, why so many rods?” Yes I am a rod freak, but the real answer is that every tool has its application. ?

fly fishing By Stephen May

Articulated Flies Things are changing in the fly fishing world. As with all types of fishing, there are innovative anglers out there pushing the limits and fly fishing is no different. One of the areas that has seen some of the most rapid development over the past few years is fly design. Larger streamers that are easy to cast and that swim seductively have been an area of focus for many anglers, myself included. These new flies allow targeting larger fish, that want a bigger meal, with fly tackle. It is amazing to see what can be done with fly materials and different foundations. Traditional flies are limited by the hook. What has developed over the past decade or so is the use of “articulation”, basically joining together shorter “shanks” to give the fly a spine that flexes. Just like jointed lures revolutionized crankbait design, flies are now tied with a flexible foundation. This opens up a lot more possibilities for fly design. The flexible platform, combined with use of materials that flow and pulse in

18 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

the current, provide bulk without holding water or weight and are part of the canvas for modern streamer makers who are looking to make new and irresistible flies. This big, bold and jointed fly movement started in Michigan, with nodes of streamer junkies in both Montana and around the White River in Arkansas. But, the internet has allowed these fly designers to share patterns and designs around the world so desks from Denmark to Detroit are producing some really interesting streamer patterns. Innovators like Kelly Galloup, Ray Schmidt, and others made jointed flies and risky fly names a big part of pushing the envelope and making fly fishing cool for younger generations. The Circus Peanut, Boogie Man, Sex Dungeon, Rattlesnake, Madonna and Stacked Blonde flies are part of this evolution to “fly cool”, and the hype is justified. These flies put a breath of fresh air into the “quiet sport” over a decade ago. The next step in the development of jointed flies has come through the mind of Blane

Chocklett, He created the “Game Changer”, a fly with a “fish spine” created by linking small shanks together. The way these flies swim has to be seen to be believed! Look them up on-line; they really do breathe life into larger flies. Tied with a variety of materials and techniques starting with a bulky head and flowing materials in the body, these flies have an incredibly natural baitfish swimming action. The nice thing about these flies is that you can create a very large fly with very little weight that is not limited by a stiff hook shank. This style of tying is making muskie fly fishing easier

and is opening up horizons for fish like striped bass and other species that prefer a big meal. If they are fished aggressively, with hard strips and distinct pauses, they can be made to dance in a way that big fish find irresistible. I really enjoy building baitfish patterns using the new techniques that basically get rid of the limits of a single hook shank, which was once a staple of fly fishing for the past few centuries. The evolution in fly tying continues… ?

PERFORMANCE

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Dave Taylor is a well known photographer and naturalist from Mississauga, Ontario

water’s edge By Dave Taylor

Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos)

For those dedicated readers of Water’s Edge (and I know there must be at least one or two) you will rightly note that I am returning to a species that I wrote about in 2008 and 2001: the grizzly bear. But this time it is less about the bear and more of a cautionary tale. Much has happened since I last wrote about this species. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), which includes both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks plus surrounding national forests, grizzly numbers are up to nearly 800 from a low of less than 250 in the 1970s. In Canada their range is expanding across the northern Prairie Provinces and Nunavut. But this cautionary tale is not about the dangers of fishing in grizzly country. It is about human behaviour and technology. The other thing that has changed in the decade since 2008 is the number of smart phones people carry and the quality of videos and pictures these “cameras” can take. I recently guided a photographic safari to the Serengeti and almost everyone on the trip, from the eight-year-old to the 80-year old, used a phone to record their trip… including me! And they do a wonderful job of recording people’s adventures. That isn’t the problem. The problem is what people do with them.

20 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

You see there has been another big change since 2008. Social media. Everyone, it seems, wants to share their images on social media. They tweet them, place them on YouTube, FaceBook and other platforms I have no knowledge about. And that is fine - except when it isn’t. Thanks to all of this sharing, plus the work of excellent content produces such as the BBC, National Geographic, PBS and others, there is a heightened awareness of, and interest in, nature. Believe it or not, bird watching is a bigger revenue generating industry than golf! Post something that disgusts the public and you will hear about it. Recent examples of social media’s negative impact on hunting include the dentist who, on a legal safari, shot a famous lion named Cecil. More recently a bow hunter posted shots of himself posing with a family of baboons he killed while on safari. The dentist had is life threatened and the baboon archer resigned his job with Fish and Game. And there are many more examples on the web and on the nightly news. But this story is about grizzlies, not lions or baboons. The sow grizzly bear in the pictures is Number 339. As Wyoming considered reopening a limited grizzly hunt to maintain the population in the Greater Yellowstone area at around 775, Number 339 was very much on the state’s mind. She is world famous. At least one book has been published about her and her family. She is featured on the web in videos, and even on my own site. Number 399 is getting up there for a grizzly. She is now in her twenties and the two cubs pictured with her may be her last offspring. She was thought to be too old to conceive so these cubs were a pleasant surprise. The wildlife managers and tour operators

knew that if she was shot she’d make headlines around the world. It would make events around Cecil the lion and the three baboons look like a side show. It would be worse than British Columbia! British Columbia? BC recently banned all grizzly hunting. Why? According to a major US hunting/fishing magazine (Outdoor Life, Summer 2018) that province, after years of ignoring public demands to end the hunt, finally stopped it because of a video posted on social media showing a wounded bear sliding down a snow field while the hunter cheered. The video galvanized the public and the politicians listened. The hunt ended. The proposed hunt around the Greater Yellowstone area imposed very strong regulations. Only a limited number of bears could be shot and only two of those could be females. In one state, with an allotted quota of 10 bears, only two licences at a time would be released. As soon as a female was taken the hunt was to be stopped. No grizzly hunting at all would be allowed in Number 399’s range outside the GYE. As it turned out the hunt was cancelled due to court cases that successfully argued that the bears still required protection. This despite the fact that science supported the hunt. The take home from all of this is simple. If you are going to post videos or images of hunting or fishing, first ask yourself if they might offend anyone. If the answer is even “maybe”, you might want to reconsider sharing. Hunting and fishing are great recreational activities and valuable tools for maintaining healthy ecosystems. They are a part of our heritage but in today’s world anglers and hunters must be more sensitive than ever to the public’s perception. ?

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the vintage tackle box

Patrick Daradick has been collecting vintage fishing tackle for over 25-years and is a specialist in Ontario made tackle. He enjoys sharing his passion and knowledge and can be contacted online at www.ontariolures.com or by phone at 613-398-7245.

By Patrick Daradick

The Heddon Punkinseed Joseph McArthur, a resident of Dowagiac, Michigan, was granted U.S. Design Patent No. 113,611 for the “ornamental design”, i.e. body shape, of the Punkinseed lure for a term of 14-years. He then assigned the patent to the world’s leading tackle manufacture of the era, James Heddon’s Sons. The length of the patent may have been one of the reasons that Heddon was thrilled about the design and possibilities of the Punkinseed as part his company’s many unique lure designs. The Punkinseed was unlike most lure designs of the time. Instead of the usual slim, rounded minnow style lure that was popular during this time period, the Punkinseed featured a thin, flattened body that was profiled to resemble and imitate a sunfish or small bluegill. When James Heddon’s Sons described this marvel they simple stated, “The little bait with “oodles of oomph”. Heddon first produced wooden Punkinseeds in casting sizes 740, which was a floating version; and 730, a sinking series. He also manufactured a plastic model in fly rod size 980

22 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

that he called the Punkie-Spook. The wooden Punkinseeds were made from northern white cedar. Since small panfish provide a major forage base, especially for bass, Punkinseeds were made with lifelike colors like Baby Bluegill, Crappie, Rock Bass and Sunfish. Heddon was sure this design would be attractive to the both fisherman and fish. The model 740 Punkinseed was not manufactured after World War II but the series 730 were continued, as was the PunkieSpook fly rod size lure. The 730 sinker model was redesigned to be slightly smaller than the model 740 floater and it was weighted to make it sink slowly. The line ties on the earliest wooden Punkinseeds were located below the notched mouth, just above the diving lip. This location was, in reality, a design flaw. In the mid-

1940s, well-known angler & author Homer Circle conducted tests on the Punkinseed and concluded it had “an off-balance wobble”. Homer then approached James Heddon’s Sons to attempt to sell a lure he had invented. Instead of buying the lure, the company bought the man and Homer began working in the research and development department. While experimenting to try and improve the Punkinseed design, Homer tried moving the line tie to various positions. He discovered that locating the tie in the lure’s mouth let the bait display a more natural wiggle. He asked John Heddon to accompany him to the test tanks and, after seeing the lure in the water, Heddon made the change immediately. The first Punkinseed wooden lures, and even some of the subsequent plastic models, were destined to become favorites of many contemporary collectors. Collector appeal comes from many factors but one of the most important is the lure’s aesthetics. The Punkinseed’s wonderfully unique body shape, size and colorful paint patterns are showy and display well. “They’re cute” is one way of describing them. Many of the plastic Punkinseeds are quite affordable to collect. The wooden models, especially ones in mint condition with their original boxes, or those with special paint patterns, will be quite costly as they are among the most sought-after of the Heddon collectible lures. ?

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real fishing fish facts

Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)

The freshwater drum is a deep, narrow fish with a humped back and a somewhat triangular shaped head. They have dark green to olive brown backs, silvery sides and white bellies. The pelvic fins are white to cream colored, the pectoral fins are clear and the remaining fins are dusky. It has a small mouth which is overhung by a blunt snout. Drum have two dorsal fins connected by a narrow membrane and there is a distinctive notch between the two. The frontal dorsal is spiny, usually with eight or nine spines, while the rear dorsal is soft rayed and extends to the base of the rounded tail. The anal fins have two spines, the second of which is long and extremely stiff. Drum have large ctenoid scales covering their head and body, extending to the base of their soft dor-

24 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

sal fin. The scales have growth lines that can readily be seen under magnification. A unique feature of the drum, and perhaps the feature it is best known for, is its oversized otolith, the flat, egg shaped “ear bone” that is used for hearing and balance. The bone has a white, enameled surface with alternating light and dark bands and is often kept as a good luck charm or made into jewelry. Freshwater drum have one of the largest latitudinal distributions of any freshwater fish, occurring from as far south as Guatemala to as far north as the Nelson River in Manitoba. In Canada they can be found in the upper St. Lawrence River, the Ottawa River, north to Lake Abitibi and in all of the Great Lakes except Superior. Drum are also found across the Hudson Bay drainage of northern Manitoba and into southwestern Saskatchewan. Drum spawn in late spring or early summer, once water temperatures reach between 65ºF and 70ºF. The females produce an average of between 200,000 and 350,000 eggs, with some large individuals reportedly laying up to 500,000. The eggs are unique among North American freshwater fishes in that they float at the surface until hatching, usually within a day or two of being fertilized. This ability of the eggs to float allows them to be carried by currents and is likely one of the reasons for the drum’s large range of distribution. Neither the male nor the female guard either the eggs or the newly hatched fry. Drum prefer large, shallow bodies of water and can most often be found in depths of less than 60-feet. They prefer clear water, but can readily adapt to more turbid conditions.

Freshwater drum are primarily bottom feeders as suggested by the position of their mouth. Young of the year drum feed primarily on zooplankton and chironomids, turning to larger insects as they reach fry size. As drum mature, fish and crayfish become part of their diet as do mollusks like snails, clams and zebra mussels. Freshwater drum are considered more of a commercial than a sport fish species although they are caught frequently by anglers targeting other species. They are a strong fish that put up a good fight when hooked and they can grow to impressive sizes. The average size of an angler-caught Freshwater drum will be around two to three pounds but double-digit fish are not uncommon. The current IGFA all-tackle world record is held by an incredible 54-pound 8ounce monster caught in Nickajack Lake, Tennessee, back in 1972. ?

DID YOU KNOW? Female drum can lay up to 500,000 eggs that float until they hatch.

FAST FACTS Colour: Green to olive brown on the back; greenish, golden or silvery brown on the flanks fading to cream or white on the belly. Size: Two to ten-pounds on average but can grow to over 50-pounds. Life Span: Up to 70-years Habitat: Large, shallow water bodies with mud or sandy bottoms. Spawning: Late spring or early summer in water temperatures between 65ºF and 70ºF.

RECORD The current IFGA All-Tackle World Record freshwater drum was caught in Nickajack Lake, Tennessee, back in 1972 and weighed 54-pounds 8-ounces.

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refections on fishing By Mark Forabosco

The Suick It is interesting to note that one of the most renowned muskie lures of our time was created partly by observation and partly by accidental luck. Frank Suick owned a fish hatchery and he noticed that injured or sick trout would dive down to the bottom of the tank and then slowly rise up to the surface when he tried to dip net them. Being a muskie angler, this gave birth to an idea. While whittling out a prototype, Frank’s knife slipped and he cut off the lure’s cedar tail. After some thought, he decided to add a flexible metal tail which could be tuned so that the lure could run at different depths. Success was immediate and Frank once landed 30 muskies in 30-days. The largest muskellunge that Frank ever caught on a Suick was a giant of 46-pounds! What is most unique about this lure is that its success is not limited to a specific season. During the warm water summer period it is

26 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

common to use a downsized version and fish it in an aggressive manner, working it in a fluid motion over weed beds or shallow shoreline structure, with a quick “snap and reel” motion that covers a lot of water very quickly. Turning leaves and shortening days mark the coming of the cold water period of fall, a season for trophies. At this time many old timers go to a larger body and work the lure with a methodical “pull and pause” approach that allows the Suick to rise up

very slowly on the pause before repeating the process. This retrieve method has become an excellent and time-proven technique. The fact that this lure is so simplistic in its design is also its greatest benefit as it allows you to modify it to fit your particular needs. Drilling a small hole in the front or back, inserting a sinker and covering it with epoxy glue not only changes how the lure rises and falls, but enables it to reach greater depths. If trolling is your cup of tea, another effective tactic would be to attach this artificial to your down rod and run it six to eight-feet back, in the prop wash. You can also cast the Suick out behind the boat and troll it while pumping the rod to make the lure quickly dive and rise as it moves along. This old wooden bait from a simpler era has run the gauntlet of time and is usually one of the first lures purchased by novice muskie anglers as it is as uncomplicated to use, and is extremely effective in hooking muskellunge. My most animated memory with the Suick took place on the French River. After fishing hard for a couple of days with nothing but a few lazy follows, I went out with friend and guide Rob Cadeau, who told me about a special spot he had. Upon our arrival I informed him that I had already fished this area thoroughly with not so much as a sniff from a muskie. Amazingly, on just his second cast with a gaudy coloured Suick, Rob landed a handsome 30-pound muskellunge. I pilfered that lure from my good friend and it now has permanent residence in my tackle box! ?

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28 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

JANUARY

MONDAY

WEDNESDAY

2 8:42 9:06 2:39 3:03

am pm am pm

10:42 - 12:42 am 11:30 - 1:30 am NA 11:06 - 1:06 pm 11:54 - 1:54 pm 12:42 - 2:42 5:09 - 6:39 am 5:57 - 7:27 am 6:45 - 8:15 5:33 - 7:03 pm 6:21 - 7:51 pm 7:09 - 8:39

am pm am pm

THURSDAY

3 am pm am pm

8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

3:06 3:30 9:03 9:27

am pm am pm

1:54 - 3:54 2:18 - 4:18 8:21 - 9:51 8:45 - 10:15

8:42 9:06 2:39 3:03

am pm am pm

7:30 7:54 1:57 2:21 -

9:54 - 11:54 am 10:42 - 12:42 am 11:30 - 1:30 am NA 10:18 - 12:18 pm 11:06 - 1:06 pm 11:54 - 1:54 pm 12:42 - 2:42 4:21 - 5:51 am 5:09 - 6:39 am 5:57 - 7:27 am 6:45 - 8:15 4:45 - 6:15 pm 5:33 - 7:03 pm 6:21 - 7:51 pm 7:09 - 8:39

am pm am pm

1:06 1:30 7:33 7:57 -

am 5:54 - 7:54 am pm 6:18 - 8:18 pm am NA am pm 12:45 - 2:15 pm

6:42 7:06 1:09 1:33 -

LEGEND

Excellent times Good times

2:54 - 4:54 3:18 - 5:18 9:21 - 10:51 9:45 - 11:15

7:42 - 9:42 8:06 - 10:06 2:09 - 3:39 2:33 - 4:03

8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

3:06 3:30 9:03 9:27

am pm am pm

1:54 - 3:54 2:18 - 4:18 8:21 - 9:51 8:45 - 10:15

8:42 9:06 2:39 3:03

am pm am pm

7:30 7:54 1:57 2:21 -

3:06 3:30 9:03 9:27

am pm am pm

8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

am pm am pm

1:54 - 3:54 2:18 - 4:18 8:21 - 9:51 8:45 - 10:15

am pm am pm

2:42 - 4:42 3:06 - 5:06 9:09 - 10:39 9:33 - 11:03

8:42 9:06 2:39 3:03

am pm am pm

7:30 7:54 1:57 2:21 -

9:30 9:54 3:27 3:51

am pm am pm

8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

am 9:54 - 11:54 am 10:42 - 12:42 am 11:30 - 1:30 am NA pm 10:18 - 12:18 pm 11:06 - 1:06 pm 11:54 - 1:54 pm 12:42 - 2:42 am 4:21 - 5:51 am 5:09 - 6:39 am 5:57 - 7:27 am 6:45 - 8:15 pm 4:45 - 6:15 pm 5:33 - 7:03 pm 6:21 - 7:51 pm 7:09 - 8:39

am pm am pm

1:06 1:30 7:33 7:57 -

3:06 3:30 9:03 9:27

am pm am pm

1:54 - 3:54 2:18 - 4:18 8:21 - 9:51 8:45 - 10:15

8:42 9:06 2:39 3:03

am pm am pm

7:30 7:54 1:57 2:21 -

am pm am pm

1:06 1:30 7:33 7:57 -

am 5:54 - 7:54 am pm 6:18 - 8:18 pm am NA am pm 12:45 - 2:15 pm

6:42 7:06 1:09 1:33 -

30 7:06 7:30 1:03 1:27

1:06 1:30 7:33 7:57 -

am 5:54 - 7:54 am pm 6:18 - 8:18 pm am NA am pm 12:45 - 2:15 pm

6:42 7:06 1:09 1:33 -

am 3:30 - 5:30 am 4:18 - 6:18 am 5:06 pm 3:54 - 5:54 pm 4:42 - 6:42 pm 5:30 am 9:57 - 11:27 am 10:45 - 12:15 am 11:33 pm 10:21 - 11:51 pm 11:09 - 12:39 pm 11:57 -

4 am pm am pm

9:06 - 11:06 9:30 - 11:30 3:33 - 5:03 3:57 - 5:27

am pm am pm

7:06 7:30 1:03 1:27

18 9:18 - 11:18 9:42 - 11:42 3:45 - 5:15 4:09 - 5:39

25 am pm am pm am pm am pm

2:54 - 4:54 3:18 - 5:18 9:21 - 10:51 9:45 - 11:15

am pm am pm

8:54 9:18 2:51 3:15

am pm am pm

7:42 - 9:42 8:06 - 10:06 2:09 - 3:39 2:33 - 4:03

am 10:06 - 12:06 am 10:54 - 12:54 am NA pm 10:30 - 12:30 pm 11:18 - 1:18 pm 12:06 - 2:06 am 4:33 - 6:03 am 5:21 - 6:51 am 6:09 - 7:39 pm 4:57 - 6:27 pm 5:45 - 7:15 pm 6:33 - 8:03

am pm am pm

12:30 - 2:30 12:54 - 2:54 6:57 - 8:27 7:21 - 8:51

am pm am pm

1:18 1:42 7:45 8:09 -

am pm am pm

6:54 7:18 1:21 1:45 -

am pm am pm

3:06 3:30 9:03 9:27

6:54 7:18 1:21 1:45 -

am pm am pm

9:30 9:54 3:27 3:51

8:06 8:30 2:03 2:27

am 3:42 - 5:42 am 4:30 - 6:30 am 5:18 - 7:18 am 6:06 pm 4:06 - 6:06 pm 4:54 - 6:54 pm 5:42 - 7:42 pm 6:30 am 10:09 - 11:39 am 10:57 - 12:27 am NA am 12:33 pm 10:33 - 12:03 pm 11:21 - 12:51 pm 12:09 - 1:39 pm 12:57 -

am pm am pm

am 5:54 - 7:54 am 6:42 pm 6:18 - 8:18 pm 7:06 am NA am 1:09 pm 12:45 - 2:15 pm 1:33 -

am pm am pm

7:06 7:30 1:03 1:27

am 10:42 - 12:42 am 11:30 - 1:30 am NA pm 11:06 - 1:06 pm 11:54 - 1:54 pm 12:42 - 2:42 am 5:09 - 6:39 am 5:57 - 7:27 am 6:45 - 8:15 pm 5:33 - 7:03 pm 6:21 - 7:51 pm 7:09 - 8:39

24 2:06 - 4:06 2:30 - 4:30 8:33 - 10:03 8:57 - 10:27

am pm am pm

9:30 9:54 3:27 3:51

17 8:30 - 10:30 8:54 - 10:54 2:57 - 4:27 3:21 - 4:51

9:30 9:54 3:27 3:51

2:42 - 4:42 3:06 - 5:06 9:09 - 10:39 9:33 - 11:03

3 8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

2:42 - 4:42 3:06 - 5:06 9:09 - 10:39 9:33 - 11:03

am pm am pm

2:42 - 4:42 3:06 - 5:06 9:09 - 10:39 9:33 - 11:03

am pm am pm

9:54 - 11:54 am 10:18 - 12:18 pm 4:21 - 5:51 am 4:45 - 6:15 pm

9:06 - 11:06 9:30 - 11:30 3:33 - 5:03 3:57 - 5:27

15 7:06 7:30 1:03 1:27

3:30 - 5:30 am 4:18 - 6:18 am 5:06 3:54 - 5:54 pm 4:42 - 6:42 pm 5:30 9:57 - 11:27 am 10:45 - 12:15 am 11:33 10:21 - 11:51 pm 11:09 - 12:39 pm 11:57 -

9:06 - 11:06 9:30 - 11:30 3:33 - 5:03 3:57 - 5:27

am pm am pm

9:06 - 11:06 9:30 - 11:30 3:33 - 5:03 3:57 - 5:27

am pm am pm

3:30 - 5:30 3:54 - 5:54 9:57 - 11:27 10:21 - 11:51

3:30 - 5:30 am 4:18 - 6:18 am 5:06 3:54 - 5:54 pm 4:42 - 6:42 pm 5:30 9:57 - 11:27 am 10:45 - 12:15 am 11:33 10:21 - 11:51 pm 11:09 - 12:39 pm 11:57 9:06 - 11:06 9:30 - 11:30 3:33 - 5:03 3:57 - 5:27

SATURDAY

am pm am pm

7:30 7:54 1:57 2:21 -

FRIDAY

9:30 9:54 3:27 3:51

6:42 7:06 1:09 1:33 -

4:18 - 6:18 am 5:06 4:42 - 6:42 pm 5:30 10:45 - 12:15 am 11:33 11:09 - 12:39 pm 11:57 -

FEBRUARY

TUESDAY

MARCH

Best Fishing Times 2019

DOUG HANNON’S

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SUNDAY

3:18 3:42 9:15 9:39

am pm am pm

8:54 9:18 2:51 3:15

am pm am pm

30 8:06 8:30 2:03 2:27

GREAT LAKE, GREAT FISH When you think of fishing in the Great Lakes you probably think of big salmon or big smallmouth, but those aren’t the only beasts that swim in these waters. Lake trout, a fish more often associated with inland waters, also roam Ontario’s Great Lakes and some, like this monster, can reach true trophy sizes.

30 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

ICE FISHING By Norman Martin

Each year around November or December, Canadian anglers are faced with the task of storing their boats and tackle as winter moves in and ice locks down the lakes and rivers. For some, the next five-months are spent tinkering with gear, shopping for new fishing supplies, watching fishing shows and generally doing anything remotely fishing related as a means to stay sane until the spring. For others, the arrival of winter signals the beginning of a whole new fishing season. Snowmobiles and ATVs take the place of boats; long rods give way to short jigging sticks and chopping or drilling holes through the ice replaces casting as the method of offering baits to fish.

32 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Winter 2019

MADE EASY

Winter 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 33

Instead of studying the lake and planning an effective approach, ice fishers routinely head out to the groups of huts or packs of other anglers and assume that those are the hotspots. Occasionally these folks will enjoy some good fishing but more often they will have much less success than they do at other times of the year. The main reason is that their approach to winter fishing is inefficient compared to their open water system. With that said, all it takes is a little attention to detail and some refinements in techniques and tactics for anyone to increase their success on the ice. Despite the obvious differences, the basics of ice fishing are really no different than for open water fishing. The goal of finding and ultimately catching fish is the same, regardless of the season, and many of the same principles still apply. The fact that the water is hard instead of soft shouldn’t make a difference in how anglers approach ice fishing but in a lot of cases it does. For example, a great number of winter anglers seem happy to plunk a shack out on the ice and call it home until the spring thaw rather than moving from spot to spot as is common when fishing from a boat or walking a shoreline. They fish with one or two ice rods or tip ups - regardless of the species or technique they are using - and they often use just a couple of approaches, generally a set line and a jigging line.

34 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

Plan Your Attack Open water anglers go bass fishing, pike fishing, perch fishing or some other speciesspecific type of fishing – they almost never just go “fishing”. On the other hand, ice fishermen tend to go “ice fishing” – there’s rarely a species mentioned. Without some idea of what the target species is, how can anyone know what lake to select, where to fish once they get there or what type of tackle to bring? Before heading out for a day of ice fishing it’s always a good idea to have a species or two in mind, whether you are going to a favourite lake or heading to a new one. Get out your paper or electronic lake charts and highlight some of the areas that will attract the species you’re after. Some of

the best winter anglers will mark dropoffs, rockpiles, flats and other areas on their gps units during the open water season so they can return to the exact spots once ice covers the lake. This simple step can help eliminate huge expanses of water and let you focus your fishing on a few key locations. Ready your gear according to the lake and species you’ve chosen so you’ve got everything you need and none of what you don’t. A four-inch auger, an ultralight rod and a handful of micro jigs may be ideal for perch fishing but you’ll need a bigger hole in the ice, bigger baits and tougher tackle if trophy pike or lake trout are the quarry. Try to get some recent fishing information from websites, tackle shops or a buddy who fishes the lake you’re heading to. You’ll get a sense of the ice conditions, how well the fish are biting, what type of approach is working and maybe even a tip or two on an area of the lake to try.

Be Mobile You’ve got to get to the fish before you can catch them so being able to move yourself and your gear around is a key to ice fishing success. Whether you walk, ski, snowmobile or ride an ATV doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you are prepared to move if the fish aren’t cooperating. Mobility may mean fishing 20 holes drilled along a few hundred feet of a breakline for

Keep weight in mind whether you’re buying a commercial shelter or making your own, especially if you will be pulling it while walking. Walking around on the ice and cutting dozens of holes can tire you out in short order. To keep your energy level up, pack some warm drinks and some high energy food. It’s amazing how rejuvenated you’ll feel after a quick snack break.

Underwater Eyes

15-minutes each, it may mean fishing for two or three-minutes in each of 50 holes cut across a weed flat or it may mean heading 10-miles across the lake to a completely new area. A sled or portable ice hut are both ideal for transporting your equipment from place to place. Depending on their size, these can be hauled manually or behind a motorized vehicle. Obviously the main limiting factor here is weight and your means of transportation. While a power auger weighs more than a manual version, it’s well worth it if you are going to be cutting dozens of holes during the course of the day. Let’s face it, if you’re exhausted after cutting a few holes in one area you’re probably not going to want to move every half-hour to drill more. You’ll likely hunker down and decide to wait them out which is, of course, the opposite of being mobile.

Electronics are an angler’s best friend and that’s as true in the winter as it is in the summer. In fact, electronics may be more important in the winter since you don’t have the option of making repeated casts or use a trolling motor to work along structure. Most good sonars will read through the ice so you can position yourself precisely before you start cutting holes. Sonar units can also alert you if a fish moves into the area you’re fishing. With a little practice you can actually watch how the fish responds to your presentation on the screen. This can give you valuable information on their location in the water column, their mood, and whether the bait you’re using is attracting or repelling the fish.

Stay Comfortable Cold, wet feet and frozen fingers do not make for a pleasant ice fishing outing. Frostbite and hypothermia are always a danger and can lead to serious medical problems if not treated quickly. The best way to deal with them is to avoid them by wearing appropriate cold weather clothing and waterproof footwear. A flotation or survival suit is ideal for ice fishing. If you don’t have one, dress in several layers so you can add or remove clothing as needed. A portable shelter and heater can take the chill of even the coldest fishing day. There are many sizes and designs of portable huts on the market or you can make your own from plywood and a heavy duty tarpaulin. Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 35

TESTED TOUGH WHERE A BAD DAY OF FISHING STILL BEATS A GOOD DAY WORKING.

For the ultimate in underwater vision, you can’t beat an underwater camera. With one of these you will be able to see the bottom composition, the health of weeds and possibly even fish. Besides being useful tools, underwater cameras can be a whole lot of fun, especially when you can see a fish’s response to your bait and watch it hit.

Be Versatile

around the tip-up’s body. The main factors in deciding which style of tip-ups to use are the size of your quarry and the type of presentation you want to use.

Try Experimenting Ice anglers often get stuck in a rut by using their pet baits or favourite techniques every time they go out. While there’s nothing wrong with using what works, a little

Versatility is all about changing locations, presentations, baits or any other aspects of fishing as the situation dictates. That could mean going to a different size, weight or colour of bait; it could mean fishing deeper or shallower water; it could mean a change in presentation or even a switch in species if your target fish are not cooperating. If what you are doing isn’t working it’s a sign to change something or risk going home fishless.

Different fishing conditions call for different setups and you should be prepared by carrying a selection of gear to match the mood of the fish. The rod and line you use for tempting lake trout with big, flashy spoons will be far too heavy for finessing lightweight tube baits or presenting a minnow on a dropshot. Regardless of species, you should always be ready with a selection of rods and lines that will properly handle a variety of baits for the species you are targeting. Along with jigging sticks for aggressive fish, a couple of tip-ups can be invaluable for live bait duties and should be part of any ice fishing arsenal. There are models that will catch the wind and jig for you while others will hold your line stationary. Some come with spools to hold your line while others are designed for line to be wrapped 38 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

the ticket if the fish are in a neutral or negative mood. A change in colour or jig style can often tempt additional fish to bite after the action has slowed. If you’re using live minnows, experiment with different types and sizes until the fish tell you what they prefer. Vary your jigging approach to determine the mood of the fish. Sometimes they want a fast, aggressive action while at other times a slight jiggle or even a deadstick approach will be better. Along with changing baits and jigging styles, experimenting also means trying different locations. That could be moving from six to twelve-feet of water or it could mean fishing in the middle of a weed flat instead of on the edge.

Lighten Up

experimenting might lead to even better catches. This is especially true when the fish are biting well. Aggressive fish are more likely to hit a wider range of baits presented in a number of different ways so your chances of success with a new or untried approach are higher when the fish are hot. Success will add confidence and the more confidence you have with a variety of tactics the more versatile an angler you will be. If you never try anything new you could miss out on some great fishing. If the fish are hitting small jigs, try going to a slightly bigger one. Big baits catch big fish and a simple change from a 1/8-ounce jig to a 1/4-ounce model may up the average size of your catch. Conversely, a change from a heavier to a lighter bait may be just

No matter what species you’re fishing for, a stealthy approach is almost always the best approach. Try to use the lightest line and the most sensitive jigging rod you can get away with. If you need to use heavier line to tackle big fish, consider going to fluorocarbon. It’s virtually invisible in the water meaning you can go much heavier line without spooking the fish. For even greater sensitivity, especially in deep water, no-stretch lines excel. Tie on a three to five-foot fluorocarbon leader and you’ve got the best of both worlds – a super strong and sensitive main line along with an undetectable leader.

Fish With Friends Ice fishing is always more fun when you share it with someone. It helps lessen the workload of hauling gear and it makes drilling holes a lot easier too! You can be much more versatile as a group than you can on your own. It’s easier and more efficient to determine where the fish are and what they’re biting if several anglers work an area as a team. Having someone to talk to and to plan strategy with is always better than doing it on your own. It helps you avoid getting in a rut and it may open up a whole new approach that you hadn’t considered.

Stay Safe It goes without saying that safety on the ice should be everyone’s first concern. That starts by knowing the ice and weather con-

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Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 39

establish themselves in the lake. Besides that, it’s illegal to transfer live fish or spawn from one waterbody to another without the authorization of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Ice fishing is a great way to feed your fishing fever through the winter no matter how serious you are about it. From hardcore angling for trophy fish to relaxing while catching panfish, spending time outdoors in the winter with a hook and line can be just the cure for an angler’s winter blues. Hopefully these tips will help make your next ice fishing experience a successful one. ?

ditions and by planning your trip accordingly. Let someone know where you are going and when you expect to return. If you have a cellular or satellite phone, be sure it’s fully charged and is included in your gear kit. These can be lifesavers in emergencies and they also offer peace of mind knowing that help is just a call away. Be extremely cautious if you are traveling on unknown lakes or if you head off of the main trails. If you’re on a motorized vehicle, keep your speed at a level where you can stop in a hurry if you need to. Tempting fate is not a wise decision when you’re literally walking or driving on water. When you are finished fishing for the day, do the other anglers a favour and mark your abandoned holes with a stick or tree branch.

Help The Environment When the ice melts, everything left on top of it will eventually make its way into the lake so remember to pack your trash out with you. Try to avoid oil or gas spills on the lake by topping up snowmobiles, ATVs, augers and heaters on shore. Don’t dump leftover minnows down the hole unless they were caught in the same lake you’re fishing. In fact, you shouldn’t even be using live bait unless it was caught from the same waterbody you are fishing. Your baitfish can transfer parasites and diseases to native species and they may even 40 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

ONTARIO FISHING

Ontario has so many fantastic fishing vacation destinations that the hardest part of deciding where to go can often be just that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; deciding where to go. Of course the upside to having so many choices is that you can tailor your getaway just the way you like it. Whether you choose a remote fishing camp, a

42 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Winter 2019

luxury resort close to attractions and urban amenities or something in the middle, you can be sure that great fishing can be had there too. Last year Bob Izumi visited a number of resorts and lodges in some of the more popular regional vacation destinations

ADVENTURES

across Ontario, from the far northwest to the Ottawa River area to Central Ontario. In this article he shares his insights into what you can expect from the fishing in some of those areas along with a rundown of the specific places he stayed at. Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for a fishing resort or for an all-around

By Bob Izumi and Real Fishing Staff

family vacation with fishing in the area, the next several pages should give you a good idea of what to expect wherever you decide to go for your next Ontario getaway.

Winter 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 43

BLUE HERON RESORT SPANISH, ON

’ve been fortunate enough to have been in the fishing business for almost four decades and one of the things that keeps me really enthusiastic about what I do for a living is the fact that I get to explore new waters. When the opportunity came up to make a trip up into Ontario’s Algoma Country, to stay at Blue Heron Resort, I was pumped. It’s the only resort located on the fertile waters of the lower Spanish River, whose reputation as being a walleye hotspot is widely known, but there are so many other species of fish to fish for up there. The North Channel of Georgian Bay is about a 10-minute boat ride from the resort and the

fishing opportunities there are endless. I put in two days of fishing in late July with the target species being pike and bass. When we first arrived at Blue Heron Resort we were greeted by Cal and Deborah Matheson. They really have an awesome setup at this resort. There’s a boat ramp and dockage on site as well as clean, comfortable cabins. You can fish on your own or you can take advantage of one of their guided fishing trips. Cal and Deborah are nice, downhome friendly folks who immediately make you feel welcome at their place. I was lucky enough to fish walleyes up in this area a couple of springs back and knew

what the potential was for walleye fishing but on this trip I was really excited to explore the bass and pike fishing up there. Personally, I love putting the pieces of the puzzle together and fish waters that I’m not familiar with so we decided to run around and try a number of bays, islands , points, saddles, humps – you name it – to try to locate fish in the few days we were up there. Well, in the first few hours of our trip we got our show shot. After shooting the Real Fishing TV series for more than three decades believe me, things do not always happen that quickly. On our first day out we had about 15 smallmouth bass up to five-pounds and about 10 bonus pike just fishing by the seat of my pants. Not bad for water I’ve never fished before!

One of the aids that I use is Navionics mapping on my Lowrance units. On this trip I looked for isolated humps, flats and bays to target the smallmouth bass and pike. My lure of choice was a ½-ounce Berkley War Pig lipless rattling crankbait. I used this as a search bait to find the fish and both the smallmouth bass and the pike 44 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

ONTARIO FISHING ADVENTURES would aggressively hit this fast moving crankbait. It seemed like whenever I would catch a smallmouth bass there would always be another one or two following. After I’d fight the fish in on the crankbait and release it I’d drop down a dropshot rig baited with the new Berkley MaxScent 4” Flat Worm to catch the followers. It was some of the easiest fishing I’ve ever experienced. The fact

that it’s just over a four-hour drive north of Toronto makes this a very accessible place. It has all the attributes of a fly-in fishing camp but is much easier to get to. At one point I was fishing a sand flat in a bay and on a long cast I hooked up with a five-pound smallmouth. All the time I was fighting it there was an exact bookend smallmouth swimming around behind it. After I had caught and released this trophy

smallmouth the other one hung around below the boat, even though I had drifted about 40-yards off the area where I had originally hooked up. On my first drop into about 8 to 9-feet of water with my dropshot, the other big bass engulfed the Flat Worm and the fight was on. I was a little anxious to get it in the boat because I wanted to catch more fish but, after fighting it for about a minute, I ended up putting a little too much pressure on it and pulled the small dropshot hook out of its mouth before it got to the net. Let’s just say the adrenaline was running a little high! Many times I would spot a smallmouth swimming and I would flip the dropshot rig about three to five-feet past it and the fish would just come over and eat the bait. It was almost like these fish had never been fished for before. It seemed like any weed patches that I found that were near rock held pike – and the pike were very aggressive. I had one that was over 10-pounds literally chase my War

Pig right to the boat and, as I was lifting the lure out of the water the pike jumped out of the water and hit the bait. I’m talking about very aggressive and naïve fish. There are not many places you can go in Canada where you can fish for trout, salmon, bass, pike, muskie, walleye and panfish all out of the same area but the Spanish River and North Channel area is one of them. This place truly is an angler’s

paradise that should be on every serious angler’s bucket list. As Arnold once said in The Terminator, I’ll be back! ?

CONTACT Blue Heron Resort P.O. Box 359, 175 Kring Road Spanish, Ontario, P0P 2A0 Tel.: 705-844-2596 Toll Free: 1-888-406-1111 Email: info@blueheronresort.on.ca Website: https://blueheronresort.on.ca Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 45

MATTAWA RIVER RESORT MATTAWA, ON

can’t believe it took me this long to visit the Mattawa River. Way back in the 1600s European voyagers used the river as part of an important trade route from Montreal to Lake Superior. There’s no doubt in my mind they saw the same beauty of the Canadian Shield that I experienced some 400-years later. A friend of mine mentioned Mattawa River Resort and said that he knew the new owners, who have owned it for just over a year. They didn’t know anything about fishing but had heard it was pretty good up there. After a quick Google search I was on board to check out this area in northeastern Ontario that I’d never fished. Our hosts, husband and wife team Nicole and Adrian Grigorov, immediately made us feel right at home. It’s truly a fam-

ily business as the whole family seemed to be working around the resort. This place has a lot of character with clean, comfortable cabins and great food at the Cardinal Restaurant in the main lodge. The vista at the lodge will take your breath away with views of an incredible mountain of trees on the river’s edge. It’s funny, I’ve been doing the show and traveling for 36-years now and I’ve never been to this little corner of Ontario. I’ve been north, south, east and west of it but I’ve never been in Mattawa or to the Mattawa River. Cara Carmichael, who hails from Renfrew, joined us on this trip. She’s been a friend for many years and recently got her own Ranger bass boat that she uses to fish a lot of local tournaments up in the Ottawa Valley. On day-one we decided to go out launch

the boat and try fishing on the section of the Mattawa River near the resort. You can go as far east as the dam or you can go as far west as the rapids. I’d say there’s about 10 or 12-miles of river you can fish in this section. It’s not charted on Navionics so I didn’t want to run too fast in either direction on our first day of fishing. Well, as it turned out we caught about 30 bass and about five pike just playing around out there. We decided not to film because we wanted to test the waters first and it was incredible how many fish there were. In fact, when we quit in the evening of day-one we were catching smallmouth over 60-feet of water on crankbaits and swimbaits by fish-

ing them in the top 10-feet of the water column. The bass were busting pinhead minnows on the surface and, in one 200-yard stretch, we caught them one after another. Unfortunately, although the action was fast and furious we didn’t catch any big fish. 46 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

ONTARIO FISHING ADVENTURES So on day-two we decided we’d go a little bit further west, to Talon Lake, in the the Mattawa River Provincial Park. I had heard there were largemouth, smallmouth and other species in there so I thought we’d give it a try. We hooked up the boat and, on our two-kilometer trip from the resort back out to Highway 17, my wife Sandy said we should get a Tim Hortons coffee. So rather than going west, we headed east, to the town of Mattawa, to get coffees. While we were in town I said that we should stop at a grocery store to pick up some snacks and something for lunch, since we planned on being out until dark. So we

parked the truck and Ranger on the main street while we went into the store. Well, the boat and truck caused quite a stir because there was nobody on the street when I parked but when I came out of the store there were a bunch of people waiting at the boat to meet me and say hello. I guess somebody noticed the boat and started calling people and all of a sudden there was a crowd. Meeting those folks and chatting with them for a little while was a great way to start the day.

After saying our goodbyes to the local folks we pulled down the road to the Mattawa Museum and got some shots of the big wooden lumberjack statue that is outside of the building. While we were taking our pictures I looked down on the Ottawa River, which the Mattawa River dumps into, and I saw a marina there. So, rather than head back west to Lake Talon, we decided to launch the boat and film our show with Cara on the Ottawa River that day. We fished for four or five hours and ended up catching a bunch of smallmouth bass up to about three-pounds, along with a number of small pike up to five-pounds. We caught most of our fish on a ½-ounce lipless Berkley War Pig rattling crankbait. I can’t stress enough that these vibrating lipless crankbaits are one of the easiest lures to use. You just cast them out and crank them in. You can use a stop-and-go retrieve or a steady retrieve, a medium retrieve or a fast retrieve, it doesn’t matter - they will all catch fish. The War Pig definitely caught the majority of our fish but we also caught some on a dropshot that we had rigged with the four-inch black Berkley PowerBait MaxScent flatworm. I guess the moral of this story is that there’s a lot of water to fish around Mattawa River Resort. There are a number of small lakes, and both big and small rivers, in the area and there are all kinds of fish species available. You’ve got muskies,

pike, largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, trout, panfish – you’ve got pretty well everything that you’d ever want to catch up there. If you’re looking for an easy to get to location that offers magnificent scenery, friendly folks and unlimited fishing opportunities, do yourself a favour and get up to Mattawa River Resort. ?

CONTACT Mattawa River Resort 6251 Hwy 17 West Mattawa, Ontario, P0H 1V0 Tel.: 705-744-5020 Email: info@mattawariverresort.com Website: https://mattawariverresort.com Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 47

PARRY SOUND LAKE TROUT WITH JP BUSHEY BARRIE, ON

P Bushey is one of those guys who decided to chase his dream. He used to put on a suit every day to go to work but he was always more passionate about fishing, so one day he decided to hang up his suit and become a full-time fishing guide. When JP told me that he used to wear a suit to work every day it was hard to believe because he definitely has the look of an outdoorsman. It’s so common to see him in his fishing clothes, hat and sunglasses that I could never see him in a suit. JP is one of those guys who can fish for everything and he can use all of the latest and greatest techniques to catch fish. Even though he guides all over Ontario, Georgian Bay is one of his mainstays. I’ve fished with him a few times over the years and on our latest two adventures with him

on Georgian Bay we decided to sample some ice fishing and follow that up later in the spring with an open water trip. During our first outing, in March, we hit the hard water and ice fished for lake trout.

We moved around to a number of dropoffs, ridges and humps and we caught a number of lake trout as well as a bonus lunker burbot. JP is one of those good, intuitive anglers who makes fishing look easy. First off, he’s very versatile so he’s always trying various 48 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

areas of the water column to locate the fish. During our ice fishing outing most of the lake trout we saw on the graph were coming up for our baits. The key to catching them was to lower your bait down to them and, as soon as you’d see them coming up towards the bait, you’d engage your reel and start retrieving your bait up. These fish would chase it up through the water column and they would either commit or not. If they didn’t commit they’d dump back down into the depths, but if they did commit they’d charge up to grab your lure and it was game on. Georgian Bay is a huge body of water with a surface area of 15,000 square kilometers, or nearly 5,800 square miles, and it has a lot of islands. In fact, there’s over

30,000 of them scattered throughout the bay, along with countless points and narrows areas. When you’re ice fishing on Georgian Bay you have to take into account that current will move through some of the bottlenecks, around the islands and along some of the mainland areas, so you really have to be careful and know where to run on the ice. That’s another reason that having a good guide like JP comes into play. He grew up fishing Georgian Bay with his dad so he knows the safe areas to go, and he certainly knows where the fish are.

ONTARIO FISHING ADVENTURES Between the windswept trees that grow facing the east because of the prevailing west wind to the countless islands to the rugged Canadian Shield shorelines, it’s one of the most scenic places I’ve been to in Ontario. Georgian Bay has a number of lodges, resorts and cabins scattered along both the main shore and the islands that you can choose from as your base. From one end of the bay to the other there are many choices of accommodations - and you will definitely never run out of water to fish. I’ve been fishing the waters of the bay off and on for over three decades now and I’ve never had a bad trip. And that’s why I’m already looking forward to me next trip up there. ?

After our ice fishing outing JP said that we should get back up with him for some spring fishing so we went back about a month later, just after ice-out, and the lake trout fishing was incredible. Everywhere we targeted the fish using our depthfinder we caught them. Now, we could have easily went trolling and caught them, but I wanted to vertically fish for them and watch them come up on the screen. Video game fishing can be a lot of fun! We got a number of double digit lake trout, including some double-headers, that morning by jigging either the Sebile Vibrato, a swimbait or a jig/grub combination. The fishing was so good that we caught all the lake trout that we needed for the show we were shooting by about 9:30 in the morning so we decided

to change things up and try for some pike. Although we didn’t get any really big pike, we did catch a number of decent ones throughout the day.

Because he’s a multi-species guide, JP has a very open mind when it comes to fishing and he’s always learning how to improve his skills on the water. Even though he’s an accomplished angler he’s always looking at new things to try - lures, techniques, etc. - to help him put more fish in the boat. Whether you hire a professional guide like JP or decide to do it on your own, Georgian Bay is truly an angler’s paradise. Whether you want to catch world-class muskies, huge pike, lake trout, salmon, bass, panfish or just about any other species that swims in Ontario, Georgian Bay has got it. One of the other things I’ve always liked about it is that it’s just a beautiful to fish.

CONTACT JP Bushey 251 Mary Anne Drive Barrie, Ontario, L4N 5M5 Tel: 705-717-3159 Email: busheyangleguidedfishing@gmail.com Website: www.busheyangleguidedfishing.com

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 49

world and the fishing is off the charts for a number of species of fish. The first thing I noticed upon driving into their property was that everything was immaculate. The attention to detail, from fish cleaning stations to the main lodge and

grandfather’s fishing lodge. He’s a multispecies guide who has caught pretty well every species that swims in Eagle Lake. He asked me what I’d like to fish for and I said I’d like to sample some of the walleye fishing on our outing up there. He had been catching a lot of walleyes on live bait rigging with minnows so that’s what we went out to do. When you do a TV fishing show for as many years as I have, you know that sometimes you’re going to get some pretty challenging weather thrown at you. Well, as

the cabins, was immaculate. There’s a boat launch right on the property with docking available as well as rental boats. Guides are also available upon request. We had a tight schedule and only had a few days to visit Vermilion Bay Lodge so I asked if Gord would like to come out with us to show us around. Even though Gord has done a lot of guiding over the years he hadn’t been out recently and said he was a little rusty, so he set us up with professional guide Greg Bruetsch, from Vermilion Bay. Greg operates Eagle Eye Guiding and he has definitely paid his dues. He first started guiding at the age of 13 on Eagle Lake at his

soon as we got out to our first spot the rain and wind started to happen. We waited it out and after about 45-minutes we were able to start fishing on the first spot, which was a main lake hump. We were fishing in the 25 to 35-foot depth range and within minutes we hooked up. With the camera running we opened the TV shoot with a double-header of walleyes, both in the slot limit. Many years ago a slot limit was put into place on Eagle Lake where any walleyes between 18 and 23-inches are non-keepers – they must be released. If you want to harvest a few to eat you can keep a limit of four

VERMILION BAY LODGE VERMILION BAY, ON

ord & Susanne Bastable have been around the fishing lodge business for a long time. In fact, in the early years Gord put himself through university by working as a fishing guide at a lodge on Eagle Lake. That is where he met Susanne. The way the story goes, they met in the spring and were married by December of that same year. Well, for the last 26-years Gord and Susanne have owned and operated Vermilion Bay Lodge on Eagle Lake. I had heard that they run a great operation and I finally had a chance to get up there for a quick fishing trip. Over my fishing career I’ve done a lot of trips to Ontario’s Sunset Country in the northwestern part of the province. There are literally hundreds of lakes and fishing resorts in that part of the

50 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

ONTARIO FISHING ADVENTURES fish under 18-inches or three fish under 18inches and one over 23-inches. We trailered up our new Ranger multispecies aluminum boat with the new Mercury V6 fourstroke engine on it. Most of Eagle Lake is charted on Navionics so it was interesting to see where Greg took us as he certainly knew every shortcut to get to his fishing spots. The first thing I noticed was Greg’s amazing boat control. He used my Motorguide Xi5 bow mounted electric motor with precision. One of the keys was keeping the live bait rig with a walking sinker as vertical as possible to prevent

snagging while still remaining in contact with the bottom. Throughout the day we caught walleyes at every stop that we went to and ended up with a final total of about 30 fish for the day. Many of those were good, healthy walleyes that were in the slot size. That shows you that proper fisheries management can really help sustain a great lake like Eagle. We spent our day walleye fishing but Eagle Lake also has a reputation for worldclass muskie fishing and many of the guests

at the resort were targeting them. I spoke to a few folks and all of them were having success either catching or having lots of follows from muskies. Even though we had a short stay at Vermilion Bay Lodge, I will say that our time spent with owners Gord and Susanne Bastable and guide Greg Bruetsch was memorable. These folks are down-home, salt of the earth friendly folks who I can now call friends. Eagle Lake has over 68,000 acres of clear Canadian Shield waters with more than 400-miles of shoreline. You know what that tells me? I’ve got to make another trip up to fish this incredible lake and visit with my new friends Gord, Susanne and Greg. ?

CONTACT Vermilion Bay Lodge Box 510, Vermilion Bay, Ontario, P0V 2V0 Tel.: 807-227-2405 Toll Free: 1-888-301-8229 Email: vbay@drytel.net Website: www.vermilionbaylodge.com

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 51

WALLEYE THROU By Gerald Howard

52 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Winter 2019

GH THE WINTER Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no question that walleye are one of the most popular gamefish in Canada, regardless of the season. However, winter presents a number of unique challenges and in order to be successful you need to know where to look for fish at various times during the winter.

Winter 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 53

Walleye make predictable seasonal migrations in the winter just like they do during the open-water seasons. They move about under the ice and utilize different parts of the lake and different types of structure at various times as the hard-water season progresses. In general, the ice fishing season can be broken down into three separate time frames: first ice, mid-winter and last ice. Each one requires different strategies for the best chance of locating and catching fish. Before looking at the three distinct time frames, there are some general things to keep in mind when you’re chasing walleyes this winter.

General Winter Strategies Knowing the type of lake you’re going to be fishing is important for success. In shallow, weedy lakes walleyes are likely to be found in and around the weeds for most of the hard-water season. Conversely, if your destination is a deep, rocky lake your strategy should include fishing reefs or rock points near main lake basins. However, this is not to say you won’t catch walleye off weeds in deep rocky lakes and off rock structure in shallower lakes. Use this information as a guideline to start your search for high percentage areas for the type of lake you are fishing but don’t get stuck in a rut. If the fish aren’t cooperating, be versatile and switch baits, presentations or locations until you solve the puzzle. Scouting the lakes you plan to fish in the winter before the ice forms is probably the most important thing any ice angler can do 54 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

to ensure a successful hardwater season. One of the best ways to do this is to use a GPS to mark areas where you catch fish during the open water season. It’s a good idea to also mark waypoints on any reefs, weedlines, sandbars, humps, steep dropoffs, sand to rock transition areas or any other fish holding structure that you find in the soft-water season – regardless of whether they produced fish or not. Walleyes use different areas throughout the winter and good structure is good structure no matter what the season. Some of those spots that didn’t produce in the spring or summer just might be fish magnets in the winter. Marking them on your GPS will enable you to easily return to them if your other areas aren’t producing. Being able to move around on the ice and fish different locations, depths and types of structure is critical for success but this concept is lost on far too many people while they are ice fishing. Would you anchor your boat off a point, jig for hours without

Late fall walleye hotspots can be great places to start your ice fishing season.

catching anything and not move while fishing in the summer? Of course not! So why stare down the same unproductive hole in the ice all day long? Being mobile should be just as much a part of your fishing strategy in the winter as it is in the summer. Snowmobiles and ATVs paired up with portable, flip-up style ice shelters are great tools for covering ground and keeping warm. At the very least, consider using a sled or toboggan to haul your

gear from spot to spot. For the ultimate in ice fishing comfort and mobility, a SnoBear can’t be beat. These machines are designed for travel on snow and ice, they are heated, they drive like a car and, best of all, they are designed to stay afloat if they should ever break through the ice. Once you have decided where to start fishing, drill all of your holes at once so you won’t be continually making noise with the auger. Having several pre-drilled holes along a piece of cover or structure makes it much easier to jump around. Drill holes shallow, at mid-depths and over deeper water in order to cover the entire area you’re fishing. Once the holes are all ready, start fishing in the shallower ones first as this is where the most active fish will generally be. If you don’t mark or catch a fish at a hole within five or ten-minutes, move on to the next one, gradually moving out to deeper water. Keep moving around until you connect. If you exhaust all of your pre-cut holes without hooking up, it might be a sign to move

on to a new area and repeat the process, just like you’d do if you were fishing from a boat. If you don’t already own a suitable sonar/GPS unit or flasher you might want to consider picking one up to add to your ice fishing arsenal. This one piece of equipment is only slightly less important than an auger when it comes to ice fishing. They not

only allow you to identify depths and bottom composition, but, most importantly, the presence (or absence) of fish in the area. With the knowledge that fish are present you can make subtle changes to your presentation that can turn lookers into biters. Not marking any fish is a sure sign to move around and try other depths or a different area altogether.

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 55

First Ice

Having a variety of fishing gear is another factor worth considering when targeting walleye through the ice. Sure, some people catch fish with little more than a tree branch, some line, a split-shot and a hook and minnow, and there’s no doubt that this approach will work. However, it pays to have options for the times when the fish are looking for something different. Just like with open water fishing, having an assortment of rods rigged with different styles of baits will make you a more efficient angler. Once you find an area with fish, try jigging with one rod while setting another one in a holder as a set line. If the fish show a preference for one approach over the other, you can rig up a second rod with the presentation that’s working the best. A key point to remember is that walleyes are less active in the winter and it usually takes a more subtle presentation to turn the fish on. Don’t over-jig. You still want to add some action to your bait but focus on the pause in your jigging sequence. A motionless bait will drive walleyes crazy! Less is often more when fishing for winter walleyes. On overcast days, or during the low light times around dawn and dusk, walleyes will move shallower to feed. These prime fish catching times are not the times to be moving around a lot. If the bite slows down, you may just need to move slightly shallower or deeper on the same structure where you caught fish earlier in the day. 56 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

Where open seasons and safe conditions permit, first ice can be one of the best times to catch walleyes in the winter. Early in the season a “run and gun” approach can really pay off. The fish are still fairly active and will move around throughout the day utilizing both shallow and deep water structures. Start your search in areas where you had success in the fall. The fish shouldn’t be too far from these areas at first ice. A good starting point is to concentrate on structure that is associated with a main lake basin. Look for fast drop-offs from points, shoals and where the edges of sand flats drop off to deeper water. Drill holes starting at the top of the drop-offs all the way down to 30plus feet of water. During the early part of the ice fishing season it is important to cover all depths to find active fish. At first ice weeds will still be present in shallow water, offering excellent cover for baitfish. Drill a series of holes beginning right at the weed edge and leading out to deeper water. If you can locate a pocket in a weed bed, even better. At this time of year you can afford to be more aggressive with your presentations. Try heavier jigging spoons with rattles to bring fish in. These baits get down to the bottom quickly, allowing you to fish fast and cover more ground looking for active fish. Tipping your baits with large minnows will appeal to walleyes that are still trying to pack on the pounds in preparation for the leaner times ahead. To specifically target larger walleyes during the first few weeks of the season it can be worth your effort to search out suspended fish. In a lot of cases these bigger fish tend

to hang out on the perimeter of the structure. This is especially true on lakes where cisco and smelt are the primary forage. Stick close to productive areas like reefs, points, humps and fast breaking shorelines, but pull out further from the structure towards the deep-water basins. It’s not uncommon to catch some bruiser walleyes suspended out from deeper structure areas.

Mid-Winter The coldest time of the year is also the toughest time to catch walleyes through the ice. At this time of the season fish are in their most inactive phase, choosing to expend as little energy as possible.

In general, you should be fishing deeper during the mid-winter period. You’ll want to target the same types of structure as at first ice, those associated with main lake basins, however, you will want to consider a change to your presentations. In mid-winter, downsizing your baits and finesse fishing will be your tickets to success. More than any other time during the hardwater season, mid-winter is the time to restrict the motion of your bait. Short jigging motions with long pauses and delicate quivers usually out-produce aggressive jigging tactics. Deadsticking with your rod in a holder is a great way to coax fish into hitting. Watch your line for any sign of movement, as pickups can be very light. When the bite is slow, try rigging a dropshot on a set line. Bait it with live minnow and cut part of the tail off the minnow. This restricts the bait’s movement and also gives it an injured appearance, which walleyes have a hard time passing up. A minnow hooked onto a small, panfish-sized jighead and either deadsticked or jigged slowly is another option. These small, subtle presentations can save your day when fussy walleyes are ignoring standard sized baits. Tipping your jigs with live bait is essential

for enticing neutral or negative fish to bite due to its realistic appearance and scent. During mid-winter you may want to tip your presentation with only the head of a minnow in order to keep your offering as small as possible.

Last Ice As with first ice, last ice can offer some explosive walleye action. As winter begins to release its lock on the landscape, big changes begin to happen in the walleye’s world. Most notably, fish begin to move shallower as they stage for the spawn. Knowing where the spawning areas are located on your lake is the key to success at this time of the season. Unlike first ice and

mid-winter fishing, good locations at last ice will not usually be associated with main lake basins. Rivermouths become the most obvious areas to target as walleyes will stage here before running up the rivers to spawn after ice-out. Areas along mainland shorelines where any spring runoff will enter the lake are another good choice for the late part of the season. These runoff areas will provide warmer water and an influx of nutrients into the lake, both of which attract fish. Other areas to search out at last ice are shallow sand flats where weeds will emerge in the spring, and shoreline structure made up of gravel and smaller sized rock rubble. During the late part of the season it really pays to be versatile with your presentations. Experiment with the size and action of your baits. Medium sized minnows on set lines, jigging spoons and blade baits can all take big fish as they begin to feed more actively after the long winter. Many of these larger walleyes are female fish that are getting ready to spawn so it’s a good idea to practice catch-and-release with them to help ensure quality fishing for years to come. ?

Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 57

Tales from the Road BROUGHT TO YOU BY

By Bob Izumi

One of the rewarding aspects of my fishing career has been being able to meet so many people who love the sport of fishing.

barely made 12-inches long. That was my day - three not bad fish and a 12-incher. The crazy thing is, on day-one my coangler, Justin Lonchar, from Pittsburgh, who fished from the back of the boat, got a

about food because I love food and I love to cook. I love eating food more than I love cooking it, but I do like to cook as well. It turned out to be a pleasurable day; there was no shortage of fish and a good time was had by all. I spent the next day at home and then I was off to the 1000 Islands to get ready to fish the FLW/Costa 1000 Islands tournament. I had an absolute stellar few days prefishing leading up to this tournament and I felt very comfortable going into the tournament. I had a lot of areas and a lot of patterns going for both deep and shallow smallmouth. Well, it seems the tale of the season for me is that no matter how good my practice goes I just don’t get the bites come tournament time. On day-one I weighed in 17.3pounds and on day-two I only weighed in four fish for 12-pounds and ended up in 107th place out of the 172 anglers in the boater division. My fourth fish on day-two came in my last 30-seconds of fishing and it

five-pound-plus fish as his first fish of the day. He caught it before I even had a fish in the boat. We proceeded to start running and gunning around Lake Ontario and I’d get a fish, he’d get a fish, I’d get one, he’d get one, and then he got one over six-pounds! He ended up weighing 21-pounds, 2-ounces on day-one as my co-angler. He followed that up with a decent day-two and made the top-10 cut to fish the final day. Justin ended up eighth place overall in the co-angler division of the tournament. So at least there

This Tales column starts out with me taking some prize winners, from a contest we did with Columbia Sportswear at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show, out for a day of bass fishing with me on Lake Erie. On the day of the trip the winds were pretty hard, with gusts up to 20-plus miles per hour, so I’d be limited on where I could fish for smallmouth on Lake Erie. At the last minute I decided to make a trip down to Long Point instead. I haven’t spent a lot of time fishing there over the last number of years but I certainly fished there a lot in the early years of my career and it always offered pretty good fishing. The people on this trip were Scott Saunderson and his two sons, Cole and Aiden. The three of them were all really into fishing. Scott trained as a Michelin Star chef and he has worked in the UK and Canada. As soon I found out that he was a chef, a good portion of the day was spent talking 58 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

Columbia contest winners Aiden, Scott and Cole Saunderson enjoyed a day of smallmouth fishing with Bob Izumi.

Bob and Greg Bruetsch with a couple of Eagle Lake walleyes.

was one good thing that happened in the tournament. Unfortunately I fell short on my two-days of fishing and came out of that tournament dumbfounded by the fact that I had such a good practice yet didn’t execute on tournament day. I spent half of my time each day deep and then I went shallow in the afternoon. That usually works on big water fisheries for smallmouth because the sun seems to bring fish up shallow in the afternoon. But, for whatever reason they didn’t seem to be shallow in the afternoon and I didn’t get any big bites. If I could do it over I probably would have stayed deep and sightfished with my electronics but that’s all hindsight now.

Gord and Susanne Bastable have run Vermilion Bay Lodge on Eagle Lake for the last 26-years.

After the 1000 Islands tournament it was off to Vermilion Bay Lodge in Northwestern Ontario’s Sunset Country. Gord and Susanne Bastable have run this place for the last 26-years. We had a tight schedule, with only had a day and a half up there, so Gord set us up with professional guide Greg Bruetsch. Greg has guided the better part of his life on Eagle Lake. His boat control and knowledge of fish is bang on. Greg asked me what I’d like to fish for and I said I’d like to sample some of the walleye fishing. He told me that he had been catching a lot of walleyes by live bait rigging with minnows, so that’s what we went out to do. As soon as we got out to our first spot the rain and wind started so we waited it out and, after about 45-minutes, we were able to start fishing. We started on a main lake hump in the 25 to 35-foot depth range and within minutes we hooked up. With the camera running, we opened the TV shoot

well our practice went I would have pegged us as doing very well in this tournament. I felt that we were easily going to make the top-10.

with a double-header of walleyes. Throughout the day we caught walleyes at every stop that we went to and ended up with a final total of about 30 fish. That was more than enough for the TV show. What can I say, even though the weather wasn’t the best the fishing was fast and furious. You know what that tells me? I’ve got to make another trip up to fish this incredible lake! We got home, unpacked and unhooked the Ranger aluminum boat, then hooked up the Ranger Z521L and headed to the Berkley B1 bass tournament on Lake St. Francis in Valleyfield, Quebec. This is a two-day bass tournament with a cut of the top 50% of the boats after day one. Well, Darren and I finished day-one in 52nd place, a few ounces out of the cut to fish day-two. I would have never in my wildest dreams thought that we would miss the cut with our 16.87-pounds. Usually it takes around 15-pounds and change to make it into the top half of the field. To make things worse, every day in practice for this tournament we had five-pound-plus fish but on day-one of the tournament we didn’t have a single fish that made four-pounds. If there’s anything I can take away from this tournament it’s that no matter how things are going before a tournament, you still have to get the right bites once the event starts. In this case, if we had to fish that tournament again I would change nothing that we did. Not where we fished or how we fished. We caught fish both shallow and deep in the tournament, but we didn’t get any four-pound or better fish, which was absolutely mind-blowing. I don’t even know what excuses to come up with other than we just didn’t get the bites. After how

Darren Izumi with a big smallmouth caught during practice for the Berkley B1.

One thing I will say about tournament fishing is that even after a bad tournament if I leave there learning something I feel like it was a success, but I left this tournament learning zero. I don’t know what I would have changed. I love Lake St. Francis, it is an amazing fishery that has every option you can think of. You can fish shallow, middepth or deep; you can fish for smallmouth or largemouth and you can use any technique that you like and still have some success. But it’s all about decisions and I’m still not sure where our decisions failed in that tournament. After the tournament it was off to Harmer’s Cottages, which is right in the heart of the 1000 Islands on the St. Lawrence River. Julie and Daniel run this beautiful, clean operation that’s located just about a mile east of the town of Gananoque. The fishing in this area is superb and it’s in one of the most scenic parts of the 1000 Islands area. You’ve got access to miles and miles of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario isn’t that far away. Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 59

They have a beautiful, natural sand beach which is one of the very few natural beaches in the whole 1000 Islands area. Daniel has a tractor that he uses to launch your boat right off the beach. He’s got docking there, swimming and it’s just a perfect place if you want to go with your family or friends to stay. You’ve got boating, fishing, swimming and sightseeing right there, there’s a casino that’s about a 30-second drive from the resort and the town of Gananoque has a number of good restaurants. Darren and I fished a bit on the Sunday, when the second day of the B1 bass tournament was going on, and we got some into some shallow smallmouth. We stayed the night at Harmer’s Cottages and the next morning we got up to very windy conditions with some rain and more wind forecast for the next couple of days. Because of the weather we decided to shoot some video around the property for one of the shows we were doing for Ontario Tourism, along with an on-camera interview with Daniel. We decided that we would return later in the fall to shoot the fishing portion of this show and, as it turned out, that would happen quite a bit later in the fall. When we got home I had some office meetings to attend, and we had some TV production work to do, before heading off to the Canadian Tire Lake Erie Open. This is a local tournament that runs out of Chippawa, just above Niagara Falls on the Niagara River. It’s a well-organized and 60 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

well-run event. This is a one-day tournament that’s held on the first Saturday in October, so you hope that Lake Erie is calm enough to fish. It can get pretty rough on Lake Erie, as we all know, so we always hope that it’s not going to be so rough that it turns into a Niagara River only tournament. Luckily that day it was calm.

In the last several Lake Erie tournaments Darren and I have run so far that we didn’t see any other boats but this year I thought we’d play it fairly close to home and not run as far as we usually do. Two days before the tournament we snuck down for a couple of hours of practice and it was so good we actually had a double header of five-pounders. We had well over 20-pounds in less than an hour of fishing and we felt pretty good going into this tournament. Long story short, we decided not to run and we ended up in 16th place out of 68 boats with 20.56-pounds, but we didn’t get any five-pounders. Once again it was like we were snake-bit. I think we had three five-pounders and lots of fours in a couple hours of fishing a few days before the event but we couldn’t get a five-pounder the day of the tournament. My brother Wayne, who did not practice for the tournament, and his partner Joslyn Leung, came in cold turkey. They decided to stay and fish the Niagara River and ended up in sixth place overall with 21.55pounds. Even though they got a decent cheque, I think Wayne was more excited about the bottle of Gibson’s Finest that they

Wayne Izumi and Joslyn Leung with their 6th place prize package.

had won. I believe he cracked that bottle open when he got home later that evening to celebrate his top-10 finish. I still say he had a horseshoe strategically planted somewhere but others may say that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the better angler of the two of us. Well, I guess he was in this tournament. I got to spend time with the family at Thanksgiving and then it was down to Lake St. Clair. We got away on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Monday arrived with about three-hours to fish on Tuesday afternoon. My buddy Derek Strub was already down there fishing with some of his friends and when we met up with him he told us that the shallow smallmouth were on. I ended up shooting a show that afternoon on catching smallmouth with the Berkley five-inch MaxScent General. We were wacky rigging these baits on 10-pound test Nanofil with a 10-pound Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon leader. Making super-long casts on the shallow sand/weed transitions on Lake St. Clair we caught a number of good fish up to five-pounds. Overall it was

Winter 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 61

Bob and Jack Levert with a couple of St. Lawrence River walleyes.

a good afternoon of fishing. We stayed in Chatham that night and the next morning we headed out muskie fishing with Jim Fleming from Drifter II Charters. I hadn’t fished with Jim for a couple of years and we only had the Wednesday to do it because the forecast for Thursday was for high winds out of the northwest, which would blow out Lake St. Clair and make it unfishable. I invited long-time friend John McGuigan from nearby Cedar Springs to join us. John was my brother’s friend growing up and he’s about nineyears older than me so he was a mentor for me when I was a kid. He’d take me fishing and hunting so it was nice to spend the day trolling with him. As it turned out, we both lost decent fish and did not land a single muskie that day. It was Jim Fleming’s only skunk of the entire season of chartering between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. What can I say? It just goes to show the way my season went. There were more downs than ups in my season but overall I can’t complain. You 62 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

know the old saying, “A bad day’s fishing is better than a good day at work”? Well my saying is, “A bad day’s fishing is a crappy day at work”! After fishing with Jim I snuck in a fun day of fishing on Lake Erie before heading back to the St. Lawrence River to try and finish the show we started on the 1000 Islands area. If you can believe it, when we got to the St. Lawrence River we had some light snow, some heavy winds and a ton of rain. It was awful. We ended up fishing a day before calling it quits and spending the night driving back home. It was just brutal out there and impossible to do any videotaping. So we let about a week pass and then went back to the St. Lawrence to fish with my buddy Jack Levert in the Cornwall area. Jack took us out for about an hour of smallmouth bass fishing one afternoon and then we went for walleyes. We ended up catching about 15 walleyes in short order as the sun was going down. The next day Jack met up with us around noon and we decided to try flipping for

largemouth. Unfortunately we hit a real cold snap, it was unseasonably cold and there was ice forming in our guides. We fished for two-hours without a largemouth bite so we jumped over to the smallmouth and caught some pretty decent ones. After that we went walleye fishing again and caught about 30 walleyes before calling it a day. We ended up completing the fishing portion of our St. Lawrence show and I’m going to include it with the previous footage we got at Harmer’s Cottages. It was nice to finally get all the different segments for that show in the can. Then it was back home for the annual five-day shotgun deer hunt. As usual, we had some good success. On the Saturday after our hunt I got an email from my long-time friend and working mate Mike Northcott. Mike was our original technician for the Real Fishing Radio Show in the late ‘80s and, other than one year, he was the guy who put the show together for 30-years. Mike’s email said that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in May so I emailed him back and we set up a time for me to call him. We got in touch later that afternoon and talked for about half an hour. He was very optimistic about the alternative therapy he was getting and he sounded very upbeat so we made plans to get together down the road. Then, 21-hours later Mike, who was only 55years old, passed away. That was a hard one to take as Mike was one of those guys you expected to be around for a long time. He played in a band, he was a sound technician with a studio in Toronto and he was the most talented audio technician I have personally ever met. The way he produced our show was amazing, his talent was endless. Mike left his wife Shelly, daughter Bailey and son Wilson way too soon. I’ve got to admit that going to the funeral home was pretty tough. The next day we headed to the airport to catch a flight to the Barbados for a trip that we had planned for quite some time. My wife Sandy, daughter Kristin, and son-inlaw Travis joined us to spend a week with some friends down there. I’ve never been to the Barbados before so I was pretty excited to go. As it turned out we had the most wonderful relaxing week I’ve had all year. When you go as hard as I go during the year traveling, fishing in tournaments,

shooting the TV shows and doing all the other things, it takes a few days to wind down. After spending a few days down there with my friend Adam Moryto and his family, and getting used to the island life, I have to admit it was pretty amazing. We ended up catching some blackfin tuna and the kids went out and caught a variety of small snappers and other tasty fish. We ate a lot of fresh and other wonderful meals, along with a lot of ice cream, down there. We definitely made some memories that will last a lifetime. As I finish this Tales article I’m planning to get out on the water as much as I can – even if I have to break a little ice to get out there! ?

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Winter 2019 – Real Fishing 63

What’s COOKING

Moose Meat Pie Special thanks to Ryan Lamothe, Chef at Wild2Table Catering, for providing this recipe.

MOOSE MEAT 4 lbs. Moose shoulder roast 4 large carrots (skin on, roughly chopped) 4 large onions (roughly chopped) 1 large stalk of celery (roughly chopped) 4 garlic cloves 1 cinnamon stick 1 bay leaf 4 peppercorns 4 litres beef stock

Place all ingredients into a roasting pan making sure the roast is completely submerged. If not, add water until the roast is submerged, then cover with tinfoil. Set oven to 350°F and braise for 6-hours. Take roast out and use two forks to pull the meat apart, like you would for pulled pork. Strain the braising liquid and reduce until the liquid coats the back of a spoon. This will act as the sauce. Set pulled moose shoulder and the sauce aside.

64 Real Fishing – Winter 2019

MASHED POTATOES 10 large potatoes (peeled and roughly chopped) 1 cup cream ½ lb. butter

Place chopped potatoes into a pot with water and boil until fully cooked. Strain, then add cream and butter. Use eggbeaters or a potatoes masher to mash the potatoes. Place into bowl and set aside.

ROASTED CORNED 4 ears of corn (remove silk but leave outer leaves on)

Place corn on grill and cook for about 10-15 minutes then peel husks off. Remove the corn from the cobs and place into a medium oven-safe glass bowl. For single serving sizes, use individual sized bowls. Layer the pulled moose meat on top of the corn then layer the mashed potatoes on top. Place bowl (or bowls) into the oven at 350°f for 15-20 or until the potatoes are golden brown on top. Serve hot with the reheated sauce and enjoy!

He gave you his best. Send him out proper with an Izumi wine. COME AND GET IT.

Our wines are only available direct — either in person or by delivery from our vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. It’s taken 14 years to get it right, to perfect the craft of making wine that is drinkable, accessible, and affordable. It all happens here in our Big Red Barn. Our modern-rustic space houses our cellar and is part tasting room, part clubhouse. There’s no pretension or mystery here. All that we know, we’re ready to share with you, to delight the novice wine lover and the veteran oenophile alike. Visit us or order ahead for your next big trip and for each purchase of an Izumi wine, Between the Lines will donate $1 to the Fishing Forever Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of Canada’s fishing resources.

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MORNING MUSKIE

Artist: Charles Weiss Medium: Acrylic on board Dimensions: 19" x 27" inches Contact: Charles Weiss 34 Hughey Cr. Toronto, ON 416-752-4363 www.charlesweissart.com

66 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Winter 2019

This scene is inspired by the unfolding drama as a fishing boat approaches a muskie spot. The rising mist and the appearance of a long fish as the first cast hits the water near a submerged tree stump offer the promise that perhaps the bite will happen at the side of the boat. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Charles Weiss

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