Fall 2016

F I S H I N G

W I T H

K I D S

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Contents Features 30 FISHING THE FALL TURNOVER Tips and techniques for dealing with cooling water, dying weeds and the changing fishing patterns facing late season anglers.

By Wes David

40 GRAYLING GRAB BAG Everything you need to know about tackling the lightweight champion of the north.

By David A. Brown

48 SOFT LURES, HARD BITES When muskies won’t respond to traditional tactics, soft baits can often turn the tables in your favour.

By Charles Weiss

54 TIGERS AND KIDS Tiger-striped yellow perch are the ideal species to introduce youngsters to ice fishing.

By Barry Corbett

Fall 2016 Volume 22, Issue 4 Editor Jerry Hughes Art Production Rossi Piedimonte Design Publisher Fred Delsey National Advertising Izumi Outdoors Tel: (905) 632-8679 President Wayne Izumi

Columns

20 6 OPENING LINES

By Jerry Hughes

Contributors David A. Brown, Barry Corbett, Patrick Daradick, Wes David, Bob Izumi, Wayne Izumi, Steve May, Andrew Rochon, 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 $9.95.

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

News, trivia, event listings and more from the world of fishing

14 WHAT’S NEW

28 THE HOT BITE

18

The latest in fishing tackle, gear and accessories

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

24 REAL FISHING FISH FACTS Brown Trout

60 TALES FROM THE ROAD

Postmaster: Please return front cover/label only of undeliverables to: Real Fishing 940 Sheldon Court, Burlington ON L7L 5K6

The trials and tribulations of life as a professional angler

By Bob Izumi

Contents copyrighted.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction of any material without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Printed in Canada

64 WHAT’S COOKING

8 WICKED WALLEYE! Photo by Izumi Outdoors

Doug Hannon’s moon phase calendar

10 SPORTSMEN’S ALMANAC

Canada Post Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40015689 Customer Account No. 2723816 GST Registration No. R102546504

On the cover:

26 BEST FISHING TIMES

66 ART OF ANGLING

opening lines

By Jerry Hughes

Transitions Well, another summer has come and gone and by now most anglers will be starting to pack their gear away for the winter.

For the “keeners” among us there are still a couple of months of steelhead and muskie fishing available and, in some areas of the country, walleye, panfish and bass will keep things interesting until freeze-up forces us to exchange our boats for ice shacks. For the most part though, the open water fishing season is drawing to a close.

I guess you could say that we anglers, much like the fish we pursue, are entering a transition period and our rituals are changing. Soon our shorts and tee-shirts will be replaced by long johns and woolly socks in our dresser drawers. Rain shells and light jackets will give way to parkas and toques in our closets, and our sneakers will lose their place of prominence in the shoe rack in favour of insulated boots.

The chore of mowing the lawn will become shovelling the driveway, patio barbeques and backyard get-togethers will become evenings cozied up under blankets in front of the television.

We aren’t the only ones whose routines are changing with the seasons. Fish patterns are changing too and late season anglers can increase their chances of success by getting in tune with what the fish are doing at this time of year. As the water cools and the days shorten, the familiar patterns that we’ve relied on all summer start to fall apart. Weeds begin to die off, baitfish move from the shallows and the whole food web shifts.

In this issue of Real Fishing, Bob Izumi explores the fall transition and offers some great insights into where the fish move to as fall moves on and winter approaches. It’s amazing how fish congregate in certain areas and how specific spots can hold huge numbers of fish while the rest of the lake seems devoid of life. If you struggle with catching fish in the late 6 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

fall, you’ll want to check out Bob’s column on page 16 for some sage advice that will have you catching instead of just fishing throughout the fall.

Award-winning writer, Wes David, is no slouch when it comes to catching fish under changing conditions and his article, Fishing the Fall Turnover, offers an in-depth look at patterning fish throughout the fall, from the first hint of autumn until freeze-up. His time-tested ideas on locations, baits and presentations will provide food for thought that can be applied to just about any waterbody, anywhere in Canada.

As ice fishing season takes hold, and the “honey-do” list takes priority over fishing, many anglers concede and settle in for a few months of homework, but all is not lost. Why not disguise a day of fishing as family time by taking the kids out on a hard-water winter adventure? Barry Corbett has refined this technique and his article, Tigers and Kids, explains how to keep the young ones happy while they accompany you on your ice fishing excursions. By incorporating kid-friendly activities with fishing there’s a good chance that it will be the children who are begging to go fishing with dad, keeping you in good graces with your other half while still getting to enjoy some time fishing.

If cold weather fishing isn’t your thing, we’ve included a couple of articles that can help you get more enjoyment out of your open water trips next year. For something a little different, David A. Brown shares his tips on how to approach fishing for a species you’ve probably heard of but haven’t had much experience with, the Arctic grayling. If the trout and pike don’t cooperate on your next northern fishing trip, the feisty grayling can definitely liven things up if you heed David’s advice.

Rounding out our feature articles is Charles Weiss’s look at how soft baits can be used to catch big muskies when traditional techniques aren’t working. Drawing on his first-hand knowledge, as well as the expertise of one of Ontario’s best muskie anglers, Charles looks at the baits and tactics that will score big when nothing else will, regardless of the season.

Whether the fall means an extended fishing season for you, or marks your transition into a homebody, this issue of Real Fishing has been put together to help you through the short and cold days that lie ahead.

Enjoy the magazine and have a great fall, whatever you choose to do. ?

2016 FISHING FOREVE Early last summer Fishing Forever held their annual Fundraising Golf Tournament at Turtle Creek Golf Club in Campbellville, Ontario, in support of the Kids, Cops and Canadian Tire Fishing Days program. With clear skies and moderate temperatures, the day was ideal for hitting the links and 104 sponsors, supporters, professional anglers and friends showed up to test their skills on the course. After the golfing there was a wonderful dinner, followed by live and silent auctions for a variety of items including fishing and outdoors gear, clothing, artworks and all-inclusive fishing trips to some of Canada’s best resorts and lodges. When it was all said and done, nearly $20,000 was raised in support of grass roots, youth oriented fishing programs. We would like to thank everyone who took part and helped make the day a huge success, and we hope to see everyone again next year.

Mariko Izumi presents the trophies to the first place team of Glenn Garratt, Robin Yates, Marty Williamson, and Anthony Ahmad.

Mariko Izumi with the second place team of Geoff Godden, Mike Osborn and Dave Osborn.

Bruce Snowden won the chipping contest and took home a WaterQuest canoe loaded with fishing gear.

Craig Bartlett won the big fish prize for catching this chunky pike on the fishing hole. i Wine from Sampling the latest Izum Between the Lines Winery.

8 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

Mariko Izumi with third place winners Rick Vandersluis, Barry Morrish, Phil Zigby and Craig Bartlett.

ER G O L F T O U R N A M E N T

Bolton Motor Products put this brand new Chevy Silverado up for grabs on the first of two Hole-in-One holes.

emely Lines Winery for their extr Thanks to Between the ing Forever. generous donation to Fish

Mmmm – fresh fish for lunch!

his 6 Ambassador Award for David Doxey won the 201 a fantastic Kids ning run in ion icat ded hard work and in Guelph this year. and Cops fishing event

Close, but no cigar.

This beautiful Lund 1975 Pro-V was up for grabs on the second Hole-in-One hole.

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 9

AWARD WINNING WRITING Wes David, a regular contributor to Real Fishing, has been awarded first place in the Brock McRitchie Writing Awards category from the Outdoor Writers of Canada. Wes won the award for the best feature article in a Canadian outdoors magazine promoting and encouraging kids to get involved in the outdoors and outdoor sports. Wes’s article, entitled Pike are for Kids, originally appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of Real Fishing Magazine and dealt with teaching youngsters how to safely and successfully enjoy fishing for northern pike. In case you missed it, the article is available for reading on the Real Fishing website under the “magazine” tab. Congratulations Wes, keep up the great work!

EVENTS Calendar KIDS AND COPS FISHING DAYS

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

October 1 - 2, 2016 Tobin Lake, Nipawin, SK www.vanitycup.ca BPS LAKE SIMCOE OPEN

October 29, 2016 Lake Simcoe Couchiching Beach Park Orillia, ON www.simcoeopen.com

10 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

ICAST ANNOUNCES BEST NEW FISHING PRODUCTS OF 2016 In July of this year the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades, better known as ICAST, held its 59th annual trade show for the recreational fishing industry. Nearly 15,000 representatives from the

global sportfishing industry attended the show and more than 1,000 new tackle products and accessories were entered by more than 240 companies into 24 “Best of Show” categories in the New Product Showcase.

Overall Best of Show

Johnson Outdoors, Inc.

This year’s best product in the Boat Accessories category, as well as the overall “Best of Show” winner, went to Johnson Outdoors, Inc. for its MINN KOTA ULTREX trolling motor.

MINN KOTA ULTREX trolling motor

Best of Show Category Winners C AT E G O R Y

C O M PA N Y

PRODUCT

Freshwater Rod

St. Croix Rods

Legend Glass Rod

Saltwater Rod

Lew’s Fishing Tackle

Lew’s Mach Speed Stick/Inshore Rod

Fly Fishing Rod

St. Croix Rods

SOLE

Freshwater Reel

Lew’s Fishing Tackle

Team Lew’s Custom Pro SLP

Saltwater Reel

Pure Fishing, Inc.

PENN SLAMMER III

Fly Reel

Pure Fishing, Inc.

Pflueger President Fly Reel

Hard Lure

Savage Gear USA

3D Suicide Duck

Soft Lure

Squidnation

Longtail Flippy Floppy

Lifestyle Apparel

Under Armour, Inc.

Men’s UA Fish Stalker SS

Technical Apparel

Plano Synergy

Frabill I-Float Suit

Boats

Johnson Outdoors Watercraft, Inc.

Old Town Predator PDL

Combo

Lew’s Fishing Tackle

Mach II Speed Spool Combo

Electronics

Johnson Outdoors - Humminbird

HELIX 10 SI

Eyewear

Costa

Rafael

Fishing Accessory

YETI Coolers

Hopper Flip 12

FishSmart

Adventure Products

EGO Kryptek S1 Genesis Medium Clear Landing Net

Fly Fishing Accessory

Boomerang

Retractable Fly Box

Footwear

Shimano American Corporation

Flats Wading Boots

Giftware

Weego

Weego Jump Starter 44

Kids’ Tackle

Steinhauser, LLC

48” Starter Rod Combos

Line

G. Pucci & Sons, Inc.

P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon

Tackle Management

Cobra Garage Door Storage

Cobra Garage Door Storage Rack

Terminal Tackle

Trapper Tackle

DropShot/Live Bait/Finesse Hook

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 11

READER’S PHOTOS Charles Weiss Toronto, ON Chinook Salmon

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 (L to R) Rowan Forabosco with Abbey and Josina Kennedy Edson, AB Rocky Mountain Whitefish

Sam Whaley Huntsville, ON Brook Trout

Madison Helm Kitchener, ON Sheepshead

Jake Teefy and his dad, Tyler Clarington, ON Largemouth Bass

Owen Shaw Fort Saskatchewan, AB Rainbow Trout

12 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

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

PROV./STATE

STATION

DATE & AIR TIMES

Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada

Global (CIHF)

Saturday 8:00 am

Calgary

AB

Global (CICT)

Saturday 10:30 am

Edmonton

AB

Global (CITV)

Saturday 10:30 pm

Ontario

ON

Global (CIII)

Saturday 8:30 am

Quebec

QC

Global (CKMI)

Saturday 8:30 am

Regina

SK

Global (CFRE)

Saturday 7:30 am

Saskatoon

SK

Global (CFSK)

Saturday 7:30 am

Vancouver

BC

Global (CHAN)

Saturday 10:30 am

Winnipeg

MB

Global (CKND)

Saturday 7:30 am

Canada/USA

Canada/USA

WFN

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

2016

A BETTER BRACKET JL Marine Systems, Inc., maker of Power-Pole shallow water anchors, introduces a totally redesigned stern bracket for the 10’ Blade anchor. The innovative new bracket flexes for improved strength and wave absorption, allowing for increased twist on the anchor without damaging the transom or the bracket itself. The bracket is constructed from stainless steel sheet metal with a polymer core for extreme durability and reduced weight and features pre-assembled rod joints to keep the anchor tight and stable, eliminating wobble or vibration and making nuts, bolts and regular tightening a thing of the past. The new 10’ Blade stern bracket is stronger yet lighter with just the right amount of flex to make sure the anchor performs perfectly in any conditions.

www.power-pole.com

THE CUTTING EDGE Cuda has introduced seven new models to its fresh and saltwater fishing knife line. The knives incorporate a number of advanced features, including Cuda’s signature visible full-tang construction and non-slip scale pattern grips. Built with German 4116 corrosion-resistant stainless steel, the knives feature titanium-bonded triple-layer technology – making the blades harder than untreated steel and ensuring they stay sharper, longer. Of particular interest to Canadian anglers are the Rescue/Safety knife which is ideal for cutting rope and line in an emergency situation; the Fillet knife with Roe Spoon featuring a precision ground edge and an integrated roe spoon, and the Wide Semi-Flex Fillet Knife with a wide blade, oversized backbone and a precision ground edge for extreme flexibility, strength and durability.

www.cudabrand.com

QUICK CHANGE ARTIST Just in time for the ice fishing season, HT Enterprises have developed an innovative, interchangeable spool system for their flagship Polar Tip-Up. The new system allows anglers to change spools quickly and easily with a simple twist of a wing nut. There’s no more fussing with nuts or screws and no need to carry tools to switch things up when the need arises. Now ice anglers can carry fewer tip-ups, replacing them with smaller and lighter spools pre-rigged with different line strengths and different terminal rigs, making for lighter loads and increased versatility and productivity on the ice.

www.icefish.com

14 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

We welcome submissions from manufacturers and distibutors for our New Products 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

SUPER FLY REEL The new Pflueger President mid-arbor series of fly reels exemplify the ultimate balance between lightweight, compact design and line capacity.

With smaller diameters than today's large arbor reels, the President is the perfect choice for anglers who prefer a super smooth performance fly reel without the bulk. Featuring precision machined aluminum construction and an incredibly smooth disc drag, Pflueger’s President reels are built for the toughest fishing conditions.

www.pfluegerfishing.com

LOOK OUT BELOW The SondeCAM HD is a powerful underwater camera ideal for fishermen looking to profile submerged structures and identify fish habitat and species. Able to operate in depths up to 75-feet, the camera features the latest low-lux image sensor for clear color, high-definition visuals in various light conditions. With a marine-grade anodized aluminum body, a heavy-duty polymer bumper and a recessed scratchresistant lens, the SondeCAM HD offers continued performance in the harshest environments. Underwater video is viewed in real time, recorded and shared directly on any supported smartphone or tablet, and an integrated Wi-Fi module allows for streaming on mobile devices using the complimentary SondeCAM App. The camera is powered directly from a boat’s 12V DC power source using the included cable and is compatible with a long list of smartphones and tablets as well as fishfinders and chartplotters that have video inputs.

www.fishsens.com

THE SECOND COMING Out of production since the 1970s, PEETZ Outdoors is reintroducing one of its most successful creations, the Hookum Diving Spoon. The unique trolling lure uses a swivel connector that is attached to one side of the spoon, rather than at the end, forcing the spoon to angle down slightly while favouring one side over the other. This gives it the action of a spoon along with some of the action of a plug. The Hookum spoon can be trolled alone, like any typical spoon, or can be run with an in-line or dummy flasher. For the best action, the Hookum should be trolled at between 3 and 3.5-miles per hour. Ideal for salmon or trout, Hookum Diving Spoons are handcrafted in Victoria, BC from nickel-coated solid brass then finished in UV and Glo-rich Mylar colour combinations with prismatic, holographic and iridescent patterns.

www.peetzoutdoors.com Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 15

fishing

Bob Izumi is the host of The Real Fishing Show.

By Bob Izumi

Sweet Spots Unless you made or inherited a lot of money, or won the lottery, chances are you don’t spend as much time on the water fishing as you want to.

Even with what I do for a living I find myself always having to quit because I have to drive somewhere else, or have another commitment, or it gets dark or something, even though I want to spend more time on the water. When you have a limited amount of time to be out there fishing, you really want to look for those high percentage sweet spots. When fall rolls around these sweet spots become more of a gathering place than at any other time of the year, except perhaps during the spawn.

There’s no question that the fall tends to congregate a lot of fish, whether it be smallmouth bass tightly schooled on a rocky deep water hump or largemouth on a deep weed point or an inside turn on a weed edge or where the rocks meet the weeds. I’ve seen it so many times how a lot of these spots can hold an incredible abundance of fish.

And once you find them, chances are that every year when the conditions line up during the fall these fish will migrate in schools to these same spots. One of the cool things about having predictable sweet spots is that you can go and catch a lot of fish, general-

16 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

ly bigger than average fish, on them during the fall period.

There are places that we fish around the Great Lakes that are gathering spots for smallmouth bass during the fall of the year.

Most of them are long, extended points that might have ridges, breaklines or humps off of them. What you can do is go around with your sonar and graph these types of spots.

When you mark one fish you’ll usually mark a bunch. Many times when you find fish on these spots you don’t even have to move the boat – just lower a jigging spoon or a dropshot rig or a blade bait and you can catch a ton of fish on the exact same spot.

In many cases largemouth will move from the boat docks, the timber, the lily pads or the weed flats and filter out onto these sweet spots as well where they’ll school up during the fall. Once again, a jig and trailer, soft plastic baits or a dropshot rig will catch these largemouth that are feeding up before the cold weather comes around.

We also get a lot of bass gathering on current spots that are adjacent to areas where the bass might have been scattered over during the summer. It could be largemouth or smallmouth. Down on Lake St. Clair we get a lot of largemouth in mild current areas that are off some of the rivermouths, in and along the dropoffs and weed strips or around reeds in the fall.

The fish will bunch up along these edges and be ready for the picking.

Underwater humps can be very good in the fall of the year for a vari-

ety of species. Smallmouth, walleye, largemouth, pike and even muskies seem to gather around a lot of deep water humps and you can use your sonar and your Navionics mapping to find these. Once you do, you can just lower down baits and start catching these fish.

Every year we go up to the Haliburton Highlands for a corporate fishing excursion and it’s very common to go to some of the humps on this lake and catch both walleyes and smallmouth in the same area. The only difference is that the walleyes tend to sit on the edges and the smallmouth seem to prefer the top of the humps. It’s incredibly predictable how the two species will be within a cast or two of each other on the same piece of structure.

On many of the Great Lakes we’ll spend a lot of our time graphing breaklines, humps, bumps and points until we find the mother lode of fish. I’ve had so many days out there where we’ve caught 50 to over 100 fish by only fishing a couple of different spots over the day rather than running all over the lake trying to find one here, one there. Once we get on a school of fish we can literally catch them as fast as we can get our baits down to them. Double and triple-headers are very common during the fall of the year.

It seems that when fish school up they get very competitive and when you’re fishing with a friend or two you can all hook up at the same time. Once you hook one fish it usually stirs up the rest of the school and it’s not uncommon to see several fish following a hooked one, even if you’re in 30-feet of water.

So I always think it’s a good idea when I’m fishing with friends for deep water, schooling fish, to keep a lure down there whenever a fish is hooked because chances are someone else will get a hit too. The fish seem to get into a feeding frenzy, like people do when a fresh batch of crab legs get put out at an all-youcan-eat buffet. Just watch next time you’re at one of those giant buffets and they put a fresh load of crab legs out. It’s a feeding frenzy, just like fall fishing can be! ?

274 OTHER

MODELS IN STORE

BELOEIL - BROSSARD - BURLINGTON - CAMBRIDGE - ETOBICOKE - LAVAL - OSHAWA OTTAWA - QUEBEC - VAUGHAN

fly fishing

By Stephen May

Presentation Details Matter This summer I have been working with my son, Ryan, to help him improve as a fly angler. On a recent trip it became apparent that all anglers can benefit from improving their line control and positioning in the river for success on stream.

We were both using pretty much the same gear and flies, on the same river, targeting feisty smallmouth bass on a late summer day. But, there were times when one of us would struggle to hook up. Through the course of the day, we both learned from each other.

Early in the day I learned that sometimes you need to let your fly sink more to get to the fish. Ryan was waiting longer between his fly hitting the water and beginning his retrieve, in part due to getting used to the fly equipment. He was also bringing his Clouser Minnow back with a smooth retrieve, followed by a stop that let the fly dive to the bottom. The bass really liked this. He ended up hooking several fish before dad finally figured out what he was doing differently. Soon we were both into a bunch of nice bass. Retrieve speed, style and depth mattered!

18 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

A little up river, we encountered an area with more current and Ryan’s hookups dropped off. Mending line is not something that he has a ton of experience with and controlling the speed and depth of the fly can make a huge difference. Teaching him how to slow his fly in fast areas by flipping the line gently upstream (upstream mend), and in slower areas repositioning his line to let the current catch it and speed up his fly, really helped him entice some more fish.

Mending is critical when nymph and dry fly fishing to control drag for a natural presentation. When we switched to nymphs in some faster flows this was again a key to success, along with where we positioned ourselves in relation to the current.

Whether you are looking to get a drag-free presentation with a nymph or dry fly, or if you are working a streamer, where you are standing can be important. Sometimes just moving a few feet one way or the other can make a big difference. When you get into the correct position the river can do most of the work for you.

With some presentations you want to use the current to swim your fly, in others you want to avoid having the current control your drift.

Positioning and mending your line on the water are often key

to a fish-fooling presentation.

One good area we fished was where the strong, main stream current met a big, deep back eddy. Ryan originally positioned himself where he had to cast across the strong current and he struggled getting his fly to the fish. Once I positioned him near the top of the run, where he could get his fly to the edge of the current and into the calm water, things changed!

Adapting your position to make it as easy as possible to swim your offering enticingly through where the fish are holding is something you should always be thinking about on-stream. Solving the mystery of how fish want to see the fly, and working with the variables you encounter on the river, is a challenge that keeps me coming back to this wonderful sport of fly fishing again and again. ?

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

water’s edge

By Dave Taylor

Porcupine (Erithizon dorsatum)

If you are walking through the woods and you hear a strange scratching sound inside a tree you may have just had a close encounter with an American porcupine. Throughout most of the forested region of North America porcupines are fairly common animals.

But that does not mean that they are easily seen. For the most part they are nocturnal and, even when active in the day, they like to spend most of their time in trees - but cottagers and dog owners will likely debate that last point.

Cottage and camp owners are well aware of this mammal’s taste for salt, especially in the winter. Car tires retain traces of salt put on the roads and porcupines have been known to do serious damage to tires as they chew on them to get to the salt. Dog owners, on the other hand, usually wind up visiting the vet if their pet encounters a porcupine on the ground. Extracting the quills, which have barbed points, is not easy and often requires the skilled hands of a veterinarian.

The North American porcupine is an immigrant. It first arrived in North America

20 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

about three-million years ago when volcanic activity created a land bridge (Central America) between North and South America. While several other species of porcupine species may be found in South America, only one species successfully invaded North America.

All of the American species share common traits. They spend most of their time feeding in trees on bark, fruit, nuts and leaves, and they are primarily nocturnal, although they are sometimes active during the day. The ancestors of these porcupines came from Africa, likely crossing the Atlantic Ocean on rafts of plant materials.

African porcupines are not closely related to their American cousins. They are strictly nocturnal and feed exclusively on the ground. They are also much bigger. The African porcupine weighs between 30 and 60-pounds while the North American porcupine (this continent’s second largest rodent, behind the beaver) weighs between eight and 40-pounds.

The adult North American porcupine is covered with 30,000 quills and, despite common belief, it cannot throw its quills.

The quills are really modified hairs with hollow spines that are stiff, sharp and barbed.

When threatened, the porcupine contracts the muscles under its skin which cause the quills to become erect. They dislodge quite easily and heaven help any person or animal that comes in contact with them.

The diet of these animals changes with the seasons. In the summer, twigs, roots, stems, berries and other nutrient rich vegetation is focussed on. In winter they feed on less nutritious items such as pine needles and

tree bark. It is at this time of year when they will also turn their attention to salt-rich tires, axe handles and bones. Like other rodents, porcupines help recycle the calcium-rich bones and antlers of animals.

Porcupines use dens throughout the year.

The scratching noise heard from inside a tree is likely an animal moving about in its den. Hollow trees, rock ledge shelters, areas under tree roots and fallen logs all may be used by this rodent.

Porcupines do not hibernate and they are a tempting meal for some predators during the lean times of winter, when other prey may be denned up or otherwise unavailable.

Several carnivores are known to feed on them including fishers, wolverines, coyotes, wolves, bears and cougars. The most adept of these is the fisher. This large member of the weasel family, according to legend, learned how to slip its head beneath the porcupine’s belly and flip its prey over. There are no quills on the porcupine’s belly. Recent studies show that this is not what happens.

Instead, the fisher will make repeated quick bites at the porcupine’s head, eventually killing it.

Another myth about fishers and porcupines is that fishers were reintroduced into areas where they had been extirpated in order to control porcupine numbers. Fishers were reintroduced into parts of their historic range, but not for that purpose, and in Ontario (where the myth is still perpetuated) fisher numbers rebounded under better management methods. Still, any increase in fisher numbers would mean a stabilization in porcupine populations.

Just how do porcupines breed? The old response is, “very carefully”. In fact, females and males flatten their quills during breeding so as not to damage their mate. They breed in the fall and about 200-days later a single baby porcupine arrives. Except for the breeding season, or when accompanied by a baby, porcupines are solitary. The baby stays with its mother until the start of the next breeding season; about four-months after its birth. ?

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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

Heddon “River Runt” Spooks James Heddon & Sons, probably one of the most notable and famous tackle companies from the early 1900s right on into the 1960s, designed and manufactured some of the greatest lures known to fisherman.

Around the early 1930s, Heddon introduced one of their best lures and one that was noted to be “the most popular bait in America” right into the 1950s. The lure, designed for all gamefish, was called the River Runt Spook. It was a plastic composite lure that rarely failed on any fisherman’s outing. The River Runt Spook was absolutely the greatest little fish-getter ever made for all fresh and saltwater gamefish. Its size and lively swimming action were simply irresistible. It was excellent for casting, it had a transparent body, an indestructible finish and real fish-flesh finishes.

The River-Runt spook was made in an enormous array of colour patterns. One of the most attractive was the “shore-minnow“ finish. Just like the transparent finishes, it had a rib pattern you could see when the

22 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

lure was held up to the light. This was a colour pattern that many other tackle companies imitated.

This famous lure was manufactured in many models including the Midget River Runt, Standard River Runt and Floating River Runt. Jointed versions of these were also available. Heddon later added Deep Dive, Go-Deeper, Midget Deep, Tiny Deep and Snag-Proof River Runts. As you can see, this lure was extremely popular and being produced in so many models is testament to its effectiveness in catching fish as well as to its popularity with anglers. Heddon also made a fly rod size version of the River Runt named the Runtie.

The lures were sold in a cardboard box that featured the famous Heddon leaping bass logo along with the text, “Genuine

Heddon River Runt Spook”. The box sides and bottom named many models and included fishing instructions. The lures were also issued with a pocket catalogue and some came with specific instructions on how to fish these baits.

The Go-Deeper Runt states, “To weed out those walleyes from those deep channels, cast this lure out and the Go-Deeper will drop one foot per second.”

As far as collecting goes, you couldn’t ask for a more abundant and affordable lure.

With so many models and colour patterns you could spend over a decade and never add every possible style and colour of River Runt Spooks.

In almost every older tackle box it’s is very common to find a River Runt – or several.

Fisherman just loved this lure and there aren’t many times when tackle calls or auctions won’t have at least one of them in a tackle box.

Many other companies copied this lure and, as noted in a pocket catalogue, Heddon cautioned anglers to, “Beware of imitations.

Insist on the name “Heddon” on your bait.”

All Heddon plastic baits, especially the River Runts, would have the name stenciled on the belly of the lure, assuring you were purchasing a genuine Heddon lure.

These days River Runts in common colours, and with the boxes, would be valued around $25. Special or rare colours can have a value well over $100, even without the boxes. ?

real fishing fish facts

Brown Trout Salmo trutta

Brown trout have a typically trout shaped body; long and laterally compressed with a large head that accounts for close to 25% of their total body length.

Their tails are square and their dorsal fins have 12 to 14 soft rays. Like most trout, browns have a fleshy adipose fin between the dorsal fin and the tail.

The mouth is large and extends to, or past, the rear edge of the eye. The lower jaw extends slightly beyond the upper one. In mature males the lower jaw develops a hook, or kype, which is most pronounced during the spawning period.

Stream dwelling brown trout are typically light brown to golden in overall colouration.

They are dark brown to black on the back and lighten to a tawny or yellow/gold hue along the flanks. Pronounced black, purple and/or reddish spots are present on the back, sides and head. These are often surrounded by a lighter ring or halo. The belly can range from silvery-white to white or cream. Lake or sea-run brown trout are primarily silver and their spots are less colourful and brilliant than those on their stream-dwelling cousins.

Brown trout are native to Europe and western Asia but have been widely transplanted to places like New Zealand, Australia and South America, among others.

They were introduced to North America, specifically New York and Michigan, around 1833. The first stockings of brown trout in Canada occurred in Newfoundland in 1894.

They were subsequently planted in Quebec in 1890; Ontario in 1913 and the Maritimes in the early 1920s. Since then they have been successfully introduced in most areas of Canada with the exception of the far north and Prince Edward Island.

Most brown trout spawn during the fall, in the shallow, gravel-bottomed headwaters of rivers and streams, although some lake dwelling fish may spawn along rocky shorelines. During the spawn, the females create a shallow nest before pairing up with a male.

Together they deposit eggs and milt respectively into the nest, which the female then covers with gravel.

Browns are adaptable to a wide range of water temperatures but 65°F to 75°F is considered optimal. They are carnivorous and will eat a wide variety of foods including other fish, frogs, salamanders, crustaceans, worms, insects and even small rodents that stumble into a stream or river.

As a sport fish, brown trout are considered to be one of the smartest and most difficult to catch of all the trout species. For this reason, they are highly prized and eagerly pursued by fly, spin and boat anglers. In streams, brown trout are known to reside in the thickest cover – under fallen timber, beneath undercut banks and in other areas that are difficult for anglers to present baits to. The largest browns are most often caught during low-light periods, especially from dusk through the night.

Average stream-caught brown trout are usually under three-pounds but much larger fish are reported every year. Stream size and available food supplies generally dictate the maximum size of a stream brown trout. Lake and sea-run browns grow much quicker and much larger than stream fish do. Five to 10pound fish are not uncommon and fish up to 20-pounds are caught every year. The IGFA lists the current World Record brown trout at 42-pounds; 1-ounce. The hige fish was caught in New Zealand in March, 2013. ?

DID YOU KNOW? Brown trout were a favourite of Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler and considered the father of modern fishing.

FAST FACTS Colour: River or stream dwelling fish are brown to golden-yellow with numerous black, reddish or purplish spots. Sea or lakerun fish are generally silver with fewer, less pronounced and less colourful spots.

Size: : Lake or sea-run browns can reach 30 to 40-inches in length and weigh as much as 40-pounds while stream fish typically run between one and three-pounds Life Span: : Typically 5 to 10-years for stream dwelling brown trout and up to 20-years for lake or sea-run fish.

Spawning: September through November in the headwaters of rivers and streams.

RECORD The current IGFA World Record brown trout weighs 40-pounds; 8-ounces and was caught from the Little Red River in Arkansas on May 9, 1992.

24 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

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26 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

OCTOBER

MONDAY

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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

11 8:18 - 10:18 8:42 - 10:42 2:45 - 4:15 3:09 - 4:39

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

5:18 - 7:18 am 5:42 - 7:42 pm am NA 12:09 - 1:39 pm

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

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

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

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6:06 6:30 12:33 12:57 -

NOVEMBER

TUESDAY

Excellent Time

9

DECEMBER

Best Fishing Times 2016

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Sometimes it’s the fish you don’t expect to catch that make your day.

During practice for a bass tournament Bob was working a breakline for smallmouth when this walleye decided it was time for lunch and clamped down on his bait. Needless to say Bob was surprised and, judging from the smile on his face, the surprise was a pleasant one!

28 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

By Wes David

FISHING THE

FALLTURNOVER

During the months of October, November and well into December, hunters across the country will be heading afield to pursue a variety of big game, waterfowl, and upland gamebird hunting opportunities. And why wouldn’t they? Hunters have waited all year for the fall hunting season and now is their chance to spend quality time in the field. However, for avid anglers, or for the hunters who were fortunate enough to fill their freezers early, there’s something very magical happening within our waterbodies that very few people across the country take full advantage of.

30 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 31

During the fall of the year, lakes, rivers, reservoirs and even stocked ponds go through a change referred to as the fall turnover. As the earth rotates further away from the sun, and the days get shorter, light penetration through the water column decreases, causing underwater vegetation to die off and water temperatures to drop.

The water body will go through three stages during the fall turnover. Firstly, the warm surface water begins to mix with the

colder, deeper water in the pre-turnover phase. As the water continues to mix, water temperatures will drastically change throughout the water column. This is the actual turnover stage. Eventually, the water temperatures within the water body will equalize and become relatively consistent from the surface to the bottom. This is the post-turnover phase. It’s important to note that timing of the fall turnover will vary with the location and type of water body you’re fishing.

PRE-TURNOVER In the weeks leading up to the turnover, Mother Nature triggers the aggressive feeding instinct within gamefish that tells them to start preparing for six-months of tougher living conditions beneath the ice.

Gamefish will begin to aggressively feed in preparation for the lower light conditions, lower oxygen levels, and the colder water temperatures that lay ahead. As the vegetation dies-off in the weeks leading up to the actual turnover, baitfish and other aquatic life that make up the bulk of a gamefish’s diet have fewer places to hide and are more exposed to feeding gamefish, which can play right into an angler’s hand.

At this time, fish will feed at all times of the day and they will most certainly take advantage of any easy meal that presents itself. It’s not uncommon for fish to literally gorge themselves and eat up to 25-percent of their body weight in a single day.

Because of this aggressive feeding pattern, anglers can experience some of the best fishing of the year and consistently catch some of the largest fish of the year while everyone else has put their fishing rods and tackle boxes away.

During the pre-turnover phase the underwater vegetation is rapidly dying off, reducing cover for baitfish, so they will be constantly moving, looking for cover from aggressively feeding game fish. At the same time, the game fish will rarely let the baitfish out of their sight.

Boat anglers will need a good understanding of their electronics and they should be scanning the lake with their fishfinders, not only looking for structure, but structure that baitfish are using for cover.

If your fishfinder picks up clouds of bait, you can almost guarantee that gamefish will be following behind or swimming just below them.

Gamefish will move in and out of the schools of bait to feed at will. By casually 32 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

moving with the baitfish, gamefish burn up little energy feeding, so they can conserve their fat reserves. However, in an effort to bulk up for the winter, gamefish will aggressively chase down fast-moving baits and often try to consume larger baits than normal. This is often triggered by competition for food. When the bite is on during the pre-fall turnover, an angler can do no wrong! Even those funny looking baits in your tackle box that catch more fisherman than fish will often work well during the pre-turnover. And it’s not uncommon for multiple fish species to be using the same structures to feed on. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to catch multiple fish species in one location on the same bait.

Jigs, crankbaits, and spoons are my three favourite baits to fish during the fall months. Jigs tipped with frozen minnows, nightcrawlers, and leeches work extremely

well but, when the fish are turned on and feeding aggressively, anglers may find they are going through bait at an alarming rate. Not a bad problem to have when you’re fishing! However, soft plastic baits will often last for several hookups and not having to re-bait a jig each time you catch a fish will save you time and money.

Crankbaits and spoons create a lot of flash and vibration and can be either cast or trolled to cover lots of water.

These are the baits that the most aggressive fish will chase down. If I find schools of feeding gamefish I will position my boat so I’m casting to the far side of the fish and retrieve my bait back through them. I believe that casting directly into the feeding fish will spook them and they will go deeper or move out of the area.

However, after catching the aggressive fish I’ll drop a jig tipped with a soft plastic right into the middle of them and usually get a few more.

My favourite structures at this time of year, for a variety of gamefish, are rocky points, rocky inside corners, and my alltime favourite, underwater rock humps 12 to 20-feet beneath the surface. However, the presence of baitfish is key and a variety of them will use these areas to feed on small aquatic life and to find cover from feeding predator fish.

When I’m fishing during late September and into October, I start fishing the deeper water structures first. As the month of October progresses, I begin focusing on shallower water and I continue to move shallower as the fall progresses. right until ice-up. It’s not uncommon to catch walleye, pike, and even trout species in two to fourfeet of water along the shoreline or on shal-

low, open-water structures. When gamefish are aggressively feeding they will patrol rock humps, points, and inside corners for baitfish and they will go as shallow as need be to feed.

TURNOVER As we all know, during the fall months the wind is usually blowing, bringing in Old-Man Winter. Normally, the cold wind puts a scowl on an anglers face as it forces the water to mix more rapidly and the actual turnover to take place. While the fall turnover is in full swing, it’s not uncommon for gamefish to go into a neutral feeding pattern or turn off of feeding completely until the water temperatures have stabilized. Depending on the weather, the size of lake and its geographic location, this can take between a few days and a few weeks.

Rather than fight the less than favourable conditions, a lot of anglers use this time to attend to a few items on the “honey-do” list or attend to other tasks. Once the lake has “turned over” the bite will return but, due to the colder water temperatures, anglers may find they have to slow their presentations down and often downsize their baits.

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 33

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POST-TURNOVER Many fish species will use the wind, waves, and rocks to their feeding advantage, especially in the fall of the year. If the wind has been blowing for a few days, pushing baitfish against a rocky shoreline or point, gamefish are sure to be in the area. The wind and waves can beat the baitfish against the rocks, dazing and often wounding them. The beat-up and disorientated baitfish become an easy meal for feeding gamefish and pike, trout, and even walleye will move in shallower than most people realize to literally gorge themselves.

Rocky shorelines and points are my starting spots when I’m fishing postturnover conditions, especially if the wind has been blowing in on them for long periods of time. When fishing these shorelines I like to position my boat in eight-feet of water and cast with the wind, towards the rocks. I’ve caught large walleye, pike, and a variety of trout species in as shallow as

36 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

two-feet of water during windy and wavy post-turnover conditions.

Windy post-turnover conditions, along with shallow feeding gamefish, are the perfect conditions for shoreline anglers to take advantage of the fall feeding frenzy.

Because the baitfish are being forced into the shallow water, gamefish will move in as shallow as they need to feed, which brings them within easy casting distance. Keep in mind that, because the fish are feeding in such shallow water, they can see you, even though you are standing on the shore. You need to be mindful of your movements and where your shadow falls. If you disturb the feeding fish they will often back off.

Another challenge for shoreline anglers who are fishing during windy conditions, is casting into the wind. Anglers may have to use heavier jigs or add weight to their lures or line, but the heavier jigs and lures are easier to get caught in the rocks. It may take some trial and error to keep your gear

from getting hung up on the bottom.

Float tubes, belly boats, and fly fishing pontoons boats are great options for fishing the post-turnover conditions. They are ideal for getting out to the underwater structure that’s too far off the shoreline to cast to. Many times I’ve jigged up walleye, pike, perch, and even rainbow trout from the comforts of my float tube during the post-turnover and have literally had fish swimming beneath me!

Fishing during the fall months does come with some challenges. Warm clothing is needed, including good gloves and

38 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

footwear. Standing at the bow of the boat or on the shoreline is no different than sitting in a tree stand or ground blind and your feet and toes will definitely get cold if they’re not protected.

Weather conditions can rapidly change for the worse so safety must be an angler’s first concern. Whether you’re fishing from a boat or from the shore, it’s highly recommended that you wear a lifejacket or PFD. During the months of October, November and December the water temperatures are plummeting to as low as 32.5° to 40°F, which can cause hypothermia to set in

within minutes. The mindset of, “I can swim to shore or get out of the water without the aid of a life jacket”, may be a dead man’s way of thinking. Always keep safety in mind.

Fishing during the pre- and postturnover can be one of the most exciting times of the year to be on the water. If you’re not ready to put your fishing gear away, take advantage of the fall turnover conditions. It’s often overlooked but it can produce some of the biggest fish of the year for boat and shoreline anglers alike. ?

www.power-pole.com

GRAYLING GRAB BAG

By David A. Brown Photos by Dennis Musgraves and David A. Brown

It’s an odd juxtaposition, the revered and irreverent references made to one of North America’s most intriguing fish - the Arctic grayling. Joining salmon, trout, char and whitefish in the diverse Salmonidae family, Thymallus arcticus boasts dazzling iridescent glimmers that some have compared to the

Photo by Dennis Musgraves

Aurora Borealis.

40 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 41

Holding grayling in high esteem, Alaskan angler Dennis Musgraves says the fish’s characteristic looks are as majestic and wild as his home state. When guests join him for larger pursuits, many end up pleasantly surprised with their first “rocket” launch.

“I’ve literally had guys up here salmon fishing who’ve spent one to two days grayling fishing and they say, “Man, I wish I could have spent whole time doing that,” Musgraves said. “Seeing them rise in clear water to eat a fly is an amazing sight.”

Jason Hamilton, who guides out of Scott Lake Lodge in the Northwest Territories, shares the grayling admiration. In his view, shore fishing - a common grayling tactic deepens the experience of visiting the areas in which these fish thrive.

“The grayling appeal is a switch up from in-the-boat angling for pike and lake trout,” he said. “It’s a more intimate experience and a chance for visiting anglers to commune with the north. Hiking along wild rivers; truly experiencing and embracing the north, being on the land and chasing a fish unique to this part of the world. Once you find them you can expect willing biters.”

FIND YOUR FISH

Photo by Dennis Musgraves

Widely distributed throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska and Siberia, grayling also occur in Montana’s upper Missouri River drainage, Arizona’s White Mountain lakes and isolated areas of the Rocky Mountains’ Teton

But just when you’ve cozied up to that Northern Lights reference, my fellow scribe, Brad Fenson, will flippantly call your grayling a “snot rocket.” No disrespect, Brad assures me; but a thoroughly apropos moniker, nonetheless.

While I’m intrigued by the former reference, I have practical experience only with the latter. And, although the “snot” part left ample slimy evidence on my hands and clothing, the “rocket” part provided multiple opportunities for airborne images of exactly why these little fish enjoy such huge reputations.

42 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

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Photo by Dennis Musgraves

long as there’s something falling on the water. Usually they’re not solo artists. They don’t stay by themselves.”

ENGAGE THE TARGET

Range. The latter two refer to stocked populations.

The grayling’s grayish to brownish bodies are smattered with random black flecks, purple back hues, silver or golden flashes on the sides, gilded eyes, streaks of reddish-orange on the pelvic fins and, of course, the dorsal - that magnificent sail of a fin bordered in red and adorned with large iridescent markings. Hardy fish known for voracious feeding, grayling are well respected for their aggressive nature and spirited fights.

Dennis Musgraves said finding grayling is often just as simple as finding a spot where a road crosses a river and investigating the area. Noting that he finds grayling in the river sections that connect a lot of pike/lake trout lakes, Hamilton said he’s never found a current too swift to hold these fish.

Indeed, during a visit to Cree River Lodge on Wapata Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, lodge owner Pat Babcock took us to one of his favorite river bends and used his jet drive to hold us in position.

The water rolled at such a pace that whenever I’d cast a spinner upstream, I’d have to reel like mad just to stay tight. Impressively, when a grayling wanted the bait, the fish had no trouble catching it.

44 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

“If you can’t read water very well, the grayling will give themselves away by rising to feed,” Musgraves said. “Once you spot fish, use that as a template for where to fish.”

“We’ll truck along and look for the water boiling with feeding fish. Summer sees the best action with all the hatches, but the grayling will continue surface feeding as

For maximum grayling experience, break out the lightweight fly gear and enjoy the show. Multi-piece travel rods are a good bet for fly-in trips, but anything in the 4- to 5-weight range with floating line will do the trick. As far as rod length, go as long as you prefer from boats, but bank fishermen find that shorter rods facilitate casting in tight quarters.

Summer’s abundance of insect hatches can deliver pure dry fly nirvana. Grayling are bold fish, especially in remote areas, so expect furious action during the warmer months.

“You can literally float a cotton ball and catch one,” Musgraves said. “If the grayling are present, it looks like the water is boiling.”

Later in the year, Musgraves switches to beads, streamers or leech patterns. One of his favorite fall offerings is an egg sucking leach pattern that mimics a salmon egg with a leech attached. For any of these, he tempts grayling by drifting the fly or using a strippause presentation.

On my Saskatchewan trip, we started with a hopper-dropped rig of a San Juan Worm on 18-inches of 5X tippet tied to the bend of the hook of a size 12 Stimulator (lots of bugs in the air.) That rig yielded a

nice grayling, but when we didn’t see any more fish rising, we switched to a beadhead caddis nymph and a small split shot about five-feet under a strike indicator. The bead-head added eye-catching flash, while the weight helped get it down quicker in the swift water.

Complementing the fly rod fun, grayling readily bite a variety of lures. Jason Hamilton suggests size 0-1 spinners, small casting spoons (Little Cleo, Kastmaster, etc.) and small panfish jigs like 1- to 2-inch, 1/32-ounce white tube jigs.

ning fighter will leave you with vivid memories - and “snotty” hands.

After releasing three fish in fighting form, we discussed the dual challenge of achieving a good photo that adequately displayed the grayling’s amazing beauty. Here’s what we came up with: Hold the landing net in one hand and use the other to lift the fish by reaching under the mesh and pushing upward. You can also have another angler hold the net from outside the photo framing. Patiently employing this method, we were able to raise several

grayling fin, or hold any fish without the net assist, hold your catch close to the gunwale and, if flops occur, simply let the fish slide overboard. Missing a photo is a far better outcome than jeopardizing your fish’s survival. ?

HANDLE WITH CARE It was a classic good news-bad news scenario. Our guide advised my group that, while he was certain we’d get plenty of shots at Arctic grayling, he was going to limit our photo time with each one. This dazzling member of the Salmon clan lives a current-oriented life, so it needs its strength. The problem is, this heavily slimed fish grows strong in the current, so suddenly shooting free from your grip presents the risk of a harmful deck impact.

I’ve held plenty of fish, even several of delicate nature, but I could tell that grayling care meant a lot to this Northern Saskatchewan lodge, so my boat mates and I heeded the advice. For one thing, a good grayling photo needs that immaculate dorsal fin standing tall and displaying those brilliant colors.

A few options for this: tickle the fish’s belly to, hopefully, entice it into raising the dorsal; or use your free hand to hold up the fin for photos. You can also use the thumb of your holding hand to push up that sail-like fin.

Day-to-day, diminutive baits afford your best shots, but don’t underestimate the feistiness of a hungry grayling. Musgraves recalls a day of targeting silver (coho) salmon with a No. 6 Blue Fox spinner when a suspicious character crashed the party.

“I saw this grayling tracking my lure and I was surprised how big it was,” he said. “It didn’t bite the first time, but I threw back in there and got it. That fish measured 22inches and that’s huge for a grayling.”

Most of your grayling will fall short of 20-inches, but this is a sporty fish at any size. A relaxing break from pike, salmon and others; or a willing warm-up, this stun-

grayling high enough above the net for clear images that clearly displayed the fish’s markings and those soft, iridescent tones. If a fish flopped, we simply let go and let the fish drop a short distance back into the net.

Simple and effective, this method should work for just about any species that might be tough to hold. This is particularly helpful with kids or anyone who might struggle to recover the grip when a fish flops.

Any time you’re planning to shoot a fish destined for release, having your camera ready for business will facilitate a timely process that gets your catch back to the water asap. If you need to work on that Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 45

The Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) has been around for 10-years in the U.S. and is now in its sixth year in Canada. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a film festival that travels across North America, bringing to the audience the top fly fishing films, filmed and produced around the globe, every year. We choose the most dynamic, exciting, sometimes heartfelt and funny, and always beautifully and professionally shot films. It features anglers and filmmakers from all parts of the world, and we cut them down to a length that allows for an evening of fun, giveaways and two and a half hours of movie watching.

Photo by Jako Lucas, from the F3T film, Chanos Chanos

46 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fall 2016

Photo by Jeremy Roberts, from the F3T, film Chrome

The films are such that you don’t have to be an avid fly angler, or even have tried fly fishing, in order to enjoy them. They are the best in fishing filmmaking that you’ll see anywhere, whether on TV or online. As long as you enjoy travel and/or the outdoors and of course, fishing, you’ll find inspiration and entertainment in your F3T experience.

This year’s curation of films takes you to Virginia, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, the Seychelles, Zambia, Patagonia, Bolivia, Argentina, Montana and Guyana.

Photo by RA Beattie of Beattie Outdoor Productions, from the F3T film, Turning Points North

For more information on the film tour in Canada, visit fishingfilmtour.ca or check on Instagram @fishingfilmtour; Facebook - facebook.com/ FlyFishingFilmTourCanada or Twitter @fishingfilmtour

Photo by TwoFisted Heart Productions, from the F3T film, Tidewater

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 47

48 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fall 2016

SOFT LURES, HARD BITES Written and Illustrated by Charles Weiss Charles Weiss (charlesweissart.blogspot.com) is a wildlife artist, writer and muskie fanatic from Scarborough, Ontario.

Sometimes I wonder what impression you would have if you were one of a trio of soft plastic lures plunging into a tangled muskie lair. Would it be like a variation of the familiar old joke about three different priests walking into a bar? Would the lures swimming into a weedbed, upon seeing a big muskie exclaim, “Why the long face?” Of course the muskie is holding off for something good to eat and answers by darting out and putting a hard bite on one of the lures.

Perhaps that’s a little too imaginative. The truth is, muskies are well known for their ability to test the persistence of fishermen and women, and trying to make one bite takes the proper gear, tactics and baits. Today’s soft lure designs are one option that give muskie hunters a better chance of catching these tooth-filled predators and enjoying a fight that can seriously raise their heart rate.

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 49

SOFT LURES Fishing folks have been using soft-bodied lures since around 1860, when the first soft lure design was patented, but most of the early designs lacked the lifelike action of modern soft plastics. By the late 1940s lure makers started adding various resins to their plastic lure molds to increase the flexibility and actions of the lures and, by the early 1990s, soft plastic lures had become an accepted selection in the muskie fisher’s bag of tricks. Now, soft lures have a proven catch record and an irresistible action when they are twitched and flexed with the fishing rod.

Soft lures offer several design advantages over hard bodied lures. Their texture is similar to the real food that the muskie typically eats so the fish will hold on to them longer, allowing for a firm hook set. Some designs have the hooks on top so they don’t catch or snag when retrieved through weeds, brush, rocks, or timber. If the hooks do catch while fishing over weed cover, you can just jerk the rod sharply to free the lure.

This action may sometimes even trigger a bite. Scents and attractants can be blended in or applied by anglers to soft lures another feature to get fish to strike.

Go beyond the typical, calm water scenario when using these lures. Try casting them when the waves are a foot or more in height and vary your retrieve speed from fast to slow. Casting along the side of submerged weed edges is a perfect spot to start.

A fast, heavy-duty action rod between eight and nine-feet long is great for working these lures with.

On pressured waters, a lot of lures are presented to the fish over and over again so try to make your soft plastic lure stand out.

For example, make it have a different sound or use a shape that runs easily through the weeds.

These lures are great for surface figureeights or circling at boat side to trigger a following muskie, just keep the bait moving while maintaining a tight grip on your rod.

Sometimes an effective action is to push the free spool button on your reel at boat side so that the lure dives and causes the muskie to chase and strike it.

Also consider that this style of fishing requires a high level of concentration, a fine tuned sense of feel and quick reflexes. If you fail to pay attention, if you are not accustomed to recognizing subtle strikes, or if you do not set the hook immediately, chances are you will miss your muskie.

Slow trolling with soft plastics is another effective way to cover water and catch muskies that venture onto feeding flats on lakes or rivers. The fish are on the lookout for perch or suckers, so use a soft plastic lure resembling these prey fish. Since flats get quite large in size, trolling is a good way to cover the water. Lots of the flats that I work in this style range in depth from seven to 12-feet.

THREE SOFT PLASTIC DESIGNS OF NOTE Single Ribbon A stop and go pull type of retrieve is effective with this design. When it is retrieved straight it causes a lively swimming action. The soft tail is less durable, but recent improvements in plastic compounds have now made this design more durable so they aren’t tearing after a few small northern pike (or one massive muskie) have attacked. Examples of these baits include the Bull Dawg and the Shadzilla.

Multi-Ribbon The billowing action and buoyancy of these lures cause them to be very attractive to fish as they slowly sink and are “hopped” during the retrieve. Dressing materials like tinsel are extremely durable and attractive.

A couple of well-known multi-ribbon baits are the Medussa and the Double Dawg.

Jigs A pause and jerk retrieve is good way to get a swimming action from these types of lures. Consider dropping them to the bottom, quickly raising them up, then letting them fall back down to the bottom. Keep in contact with the lure as it falls and watch your line for any twitches or jumps that may indicate a bite. Popular soft bodied musky jigs include the Bondy Bait, the Red October and the Swim Shad.

50 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

SIMON BARTH’S “LAKE RUN” FISHING STYLE Simon Barth has a lot of fishing experience, and not just with muskies. He has caught contest winning Chinook salmon up to 40pounds. Currently he is concentrating on guiding for muskie through the season. He has a variety of methods of fishing with soft plastic lures and he has several tackle boxes filled with a wide variety of sizes, colours, and designs of them. Consider these suggestions from this veteran muskie angler on how to get a muskie to bite hard on a soft lure.

A typical fishing day starts with Simon casting a Bull Dawg, then switching to a tube or paddle tail style of jig, and then trying a spinnerbait. This method allows him to see what is getting the muskie to follow or strike. Sometimes it’s a combination of retrieve style, speed or even changing lure sizes that finally gets the fish to react to his offerings. He constantly observes his sonar screen for bottom structure changes, water temperature, and the depths where the fish

52 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

seem most active. This information is critical to help figure out what mood the fish are in and what type of bait and presentation will get the fish to chase and bite his lure.

Simon determines which lure colours to use from the colour of the water. He likes

dark browns, blacks and walleye patterns for cloudy or stained water and white, grey or blue patterns for clear water. He specifically suggests casting the largest “Pounder” Bull Dawg for muskie that are reluctant to bite smaller baits.

Simon fishes with a rod that is at least eight-feet long and he pairs it with a baitcasting reel spooled with 150-pound test braided line. To that, he adds a quality 200pound test fluorocarbon leader.

He casts in a high, arching way to create a big splash that gets the fish’s attention while drifting along river shipping lanes, submerged rock piles, points in the channel and other underwater features,. After the big splash, he does a slow retrieve, allowing the lure to gently rock and ripple its long tail.

When using a regular sized Bull Dawg, Simon casts it out and lets it sink to the bottom. Then he reels it up with a series of jerks and pauses. Slowly and steadily, he lifts the bait a few feet and he keeps it rising until it’s almost back to the boat. When the bait is close to the surface he will pause for a second and then move the rod parallel to the edge of the boat, make a quick turn and return back to the boat in a big “L” shaped motion. Be sure to keep slack out of your line and be ready to make a hard hook-set when you feel the weight of the fish.

A MEMORABLE MUSKIE MOMENT One fall day while fishing at sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Simon was casting along a 20-foot deep, rocky, rip rap slope.

Heavy winds were creating large waves and making boat control extremely difficult. As he was retrieving his soft plastic lure near the surface it was stopped by a heavy weight, followed by the vigorous head shaking of a large muskie. Quick runs followed and when the fish got close to the boat the sight of its large head trying to shake off the bait made a lasting impression in Simon’s memory. Eventually the large muskie was netted and measured at 56-inches before being released.

The next time you’re out muskie fishing and the bite is slow, try a soft plastic lure.

They will catch fish when other more traditional lures, like crankbaits, spinner baits, surface lures, and bucktails will not. ?

QUICK LURE MODIFICATIONS Simon will modify the weight a soft plastic jig lure by slicing it along the hook harness wire on the bottom. He then uses heavy-duty wire cutters to snip off sections of the soft lead weight.

He takes off a small amount each time, casts the bait out and watches it sink.

He will continue snipping off sections of the weight until the lure sinks at the correct rate.

Simon’s remedy for the constant problem of tails ripping off of soft plastic lures is to take a barbeque lighter and melt the two separate sections of plastic. He then pushes their edges together to “glue” them solidly. This method also works to add a different tail colour to standard lure.

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 53

TIGERS A

54 Real Fishing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fall 2016

AND KIDS

By Barry Corbett

Tigers and kids are the perfect match and now is the best time of the year for them to meet. Of course I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean the striped feline type, but instead our local striped variety, Perca flavesens, more commonly called the yellow perch. If you want to introduce your child to ice fishing and gain a greater appreciation of fish, there is no better species than the yellow perch. They are abundant, tenacious and provide more than enough action to keep even the most active child enthralled.

Fall 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Real Fishing 55

When my daughters were children, I wanted them to experience the fun of ice fishing. However, I made the classic mistake of assuming they would share my obsession for staring down ice holes for hours at a time. That’s right, I took them lake trout fishing. When lake trout are biting, there’s nothing more exciting and challenging, but there’s the rub - when they are biting.

Interspersed between moments of adrenalin-packed action can be long periods of “watching paint dry”! Kids are pretty perceptive and my daughters would often ask me what I was looking at in the hole and when do the trout come? There are only so many hotdogs and smores you can feed a child until even the most loyal will wander away and inevitably the battle cry of rebellion begins - “When can we go home”?

When we had grandchildren I was determined not to repeat the same mistake and decided to introduce them to a more kidfriendly specie, the yellow perch. Perch tend to travel in schools, so once you land one, the odds are you are in for a lot more action.

Ounce for ounce perch are determined little

56 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

scrappers but, despite their tenacity, they are small enough that even a toddler can land one.

Once a school moves onto your fishing spot the kids won’t be staring at frozen rods but instead will be running back and forth, checking twitching rods or preventing rods from being pulled down holes. But don’t be fooled, perch aren’t just for kids. On light tackle these little dynamos will provide an adult with plenty of action and challenges. Perch are nibblers and notorious bait thieves so it takes a little patience and finesse to set the hook.

And did I mention they are delicious to eat?

Yellow perch are members of the Percidae family and are close relatives to the walleye. Their scientific name, Perca, is derived from early Greek for “perch”, while flavesens means “yellow coloured” or “becoming gold” in Latin. In my opinion, they are one of our most colourful freshwater fish. Their compressed body has a shimmering yellow to golden hue, with five to nine olive green vertical bars (hence the nickname, Tiger fish) and their pectoral, pelvic and anal fins can be brilliant orange, particularly during the spring.

Perch can attain ages up to 11-years and they commonly grow up to 12-inches in length and a pound and a half in weight, although larger specimens are not unheard of. The largest one caught in Ontario weighed almost two and a half pounds while the world record is an astonishing four-pounds, three and a half-ounces. Die hard perch anglers refer to the big guys as jumbos, but most often these “guys” are usually gals!

Perch spawn from mid-April to early May when water temperatures are 48°F to 54°F. The female produces a unique egg strand with accordion like folds that are covered in pores. Acting like bellows, these pores allow fresh water to be pumped in and wastes expelled with wave action or water movement. The strands can reach up to seven-feet long and contain up to 210,000 eggs, but most strands are smaller and house closer to 28,000 eggs. The females prefer to deposit their egg masses over vegetation or submerged brush, but will also lay them on gravel, sand or rubble bottoms. The ability to spawn virtually anywhere, and the unique egg mass, results in high reproductive success, egg survival and an abundant population. For every walleye roaming the bottom, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of yellow perch.

Perch feed on aquatic invertebrates like mayfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs and midge larvae, or on crustaceans and small fish, while at the same time avoiding becoming dinner for an assortment of larger predators including walleye and northern pike. Very adaptable and tolerant of a wide variety of environments, perch tend to be most abundant in the open waters of lakes with moderate vegetation, clear water and bottoms of muck to sand and gravel.

Perch follow an interesting daily ritual.

They are gregarious fish and during the day congregate into schools of 50 to 200 individuals. Schools are generally made up of individuals of a similar size and age. The little ones generally head for the shallower water, while larger perch seek out deeper areas. As night approaches, the group moves inshore and after dark, when they no longer can see each other, they wave their goodbyes and disperse, moving to the bottom and remaining motionless. At

dawn, the school mates come together and move back to their preferred habitats.

Generally, perch follow a seasonal migratory pattern bringing them inshore to spawn in the spring, out to deeper water (usually above the thermocline) as summer temperatures rise, and into even deeper water during the winter.

Now that you know a bit about their biology, here’s what you need to do to organize a fun family winter fishing excursion. Virtually all our fishable lakes have perch populations but if you are not sure where to go, call your local Ministry of Natural Resources office for suggestions. If you are fishing in Ontario, check out the MNR’s Fish ON-Line website. This handy site offers a wealth of lake-specific information, including what fish species are present, physical characteristics of the lake (size, average depth, maximum depth etc.), plus fish monitoring data.

Perch can be found in similar areas as walleyes, so look for humps and adjacent flat areas. I usually start drilling holes in 20 to 30-feet of water. If we have no bites, I’ll put a few holes in deeper and shallower water.

Another reason I like perch for kids is that they are active all day, unlike walleye which tend to feed mostly at dawn and dusk. This means you have time to give the kids lunch or their nap and still have the warmest part of the day to fish. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I’ve had my best perch fishing on bright days when the sun is at its highest! If the day is warm and the kids are keen, try staying until the sun sets and you might catch a few walleyes as they try to intercept the perch before they retreat to their night roosts.

The first and most important rule of fishing with children is to keep everyone warm.

From a comfort perspective, the Cadillac of fishing accessories is the heated ice shack, but these are usually built and used by die hard weekend warriors who spend count58 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

less hours on the ice. A nice compromise is the pop-up ice tent. It takes only a couple of minutes to put up and, if the fish aren’t there, these shelters are easy to move to another spot. It’s amazing how warm these tents are, even on cold days! Add a small heater, camp stove or even candles and you will see snowsuits being quickly shed. Better yet, if it’s your first time, pick a warm March or April day with no wind.

For fishing gear, you will need an ice auger, ice scoop, needle nose pliers to remove hooks, and some collapsible chairs or buckets to sit on. Believe it or not those colourful “Dora the Explorer” and “Buzz Lightyear” rods that grandparents insist on buying at Christmas will work just fine. Since everyone (even children) can fish with two rods in the winter, bring along some extra ice rods - the lighter the line and tackle the better. If you can, try four-pound test on a couple of rods and use small jigs (1/8-ounce or less) or spoons tipped with a small minnow. One of my favorite perch baits is a 1/32-ounce tube jig with a couple of split shot squeezed on about a foot above the jig to help sink the rig to the bottom. If the perch are aggressive you won’t even need a minnow.

If you are a first timer and not keen on investing too much into equipment, just attach light fishing line to a stick and you can have just as much fun. A word of advice: when I fish with children, I usually pinch the barbs off my hooks. It makes it a lot easier and less painful to remove hooks from mittens, snow suits and the occasional finger.

Once your holes are drilled, drop the lines to the bottom, reel up a couple of turns

and have your little partner jiggle the lure by raising the rod slowly up and down.

Perch feed mostly near the bottom, so this should put the bait in their strike zone.

However, if the perch haven’t moved in yet, or aren’t biting, most kids’ will start losing interest somewhere between 10-seconds and 10-minutes of starting to fish. If you see the rod drop out of their hands, or they give you that glazed faraway look, it’s not the beginning of hypothermia, but the onset of boredom. Now is the time to break out the “other” fishing equipment!

We usually bring along a soccer ball or hockey sticks and a tennis ball. Well placed ice rods make suitable goal posts. Or, why not have a game of snow golf! All you have to do is drill shallow holes (not to the water level) and use your hockey sticks as putters.

However, keep your eye on the rods. If the tips start twitching, the perch have arrived and you should call a time out to the game.

Perch are the gray jays of the fish world and will steal your minnows in a blink of an eye. Be prepared to hear a chorus of, “Hey,

he took my minnow”! When the novelty of losing minnows wears off and you want to ensure some fish for supper, try adding a stinger hook. It’s a small hook on a short line that will attach easily to your jig, allowing the minnow to be double hooked, thereby increasing the odds of hooking up.

Unlike pike and walleye with their extremely sharp conical and pointed teeth that can cause a nasty wound to the unwary, perch have bands of brush-like teeth on their jaws and roof of their mouth, making them easy and safe to remove from a hook.

However, like all members of the Percidae family, they have sharp spines on their first dorsal, pelvic and anal fins along with a single spine at the end of their cheek plate. For safe handling, have your child gently cradle the perch with the belly resting on his or her hands. If they hold it from the top, have them slowly pass their hand over the head and this will compress the spiny fins. Better yet, keep the mitts on and you shouldn’t have any problems. To be honest, it’s usually the excited adult who lets out the first yelp after having been pricked by the cheek spine.

If perch are minnow thieves, watch overhead for perch thieves. It seems that bald eagles have figured out our ice fishing habits. On more than one occasion I have left perch on the ice at one hole while checking my other rod, only to have a bald eagle swoop in and steal my catch. It makes for a great show but a disappointing supper.

Perch sometimes get a bad rap and anglers may discard their catch because of the occasional tiny yellow cysts in their flesh.

This is the intermediate stage of a parasite whose final host is a fish eating bird like the great blue heron. It is absolutely harmless to humans and easy to remove with the tip of your knife. Many anglers don’t realise that all fish may carry parasites that may or may not infect humans. This includes our most popular eating fish, the walleye, and I have yet to see someone leave a walleye on the ice. Properly cooking or freezing any fish will make your catch safe to eat.

Once home with your catch, perch can be cleaned and prepared in the same way as

walleye. Although you lose a little meat, I cut out those pesky Y-bones and this convinces even the pickiest fish eater to give them a try. Dust your fillets with flour, then dip them in a mix of milk and egg and cover with your favorite crumb coating. White, flaky yellow perch fillets fried or baked are an absolute delicacy. Add ketchup and kids love them!

If you are looking for something new to do on a sunny winter’s day, why not turn off the toonies and take the kids out on the lake to catch a tiger. You just might turn them into your lifelong fishing partners! ?

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Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 59

Tales from the Road

By Bob Izumi

Even though I’m addicted to competitive tournament fishing and that’s what I eat, sleep and drink, I do like to get out golfing.

Not as much as I would like to because if it’s a nice day I can either go fishing, practicing for a tournament, competing in a tournament or I could go golfing. Unfortunately, golfing is second fiddle.

I’ll start this Tales from the Road column with a couple of golf tournaments I had that were right before getting back on the road fishing. First was the Golf Fore Fish event that the Canadian Sportfishing Industry Association puts on. This year it was held at the Glen Eagle Golf Club in Bolton. It’s always a fun day and it’s great to see all of the industry folks supporting Catch Fishing and some of the other programs that the money that’s raised at this tournament is used for.

Two days later we had our Fishing Forever golf tournament at my friend’s golf course, Turtle Creek, just north of Milton.

Once again, it was a fun-filled day that raised nearly $20,000 in support of Fishing Forever and the Kids and Cops program.

Then it was back to work to do some video shooting and editing along with doing several radio shows with my long-time radio producer, Mike Nothcott. If I’m not mistaken, the Real Fishing Radio Show is

60 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

the longest running syndicated radio show of any kind in Canada. We just completed our 30th year of doing the show so that was a cool milestone to hit.

It’s amazing how much work there is to do getting equipment ready for TV shoots and tournaments. Between setting up and packing all of my rods, reels, lures, lifejackets, accessories, boats, motors and electronics it really is a time consuming job. It’s hard to get caught up on organizing my gear in between all of the fishing that I do, both competitively and for the TV show.

I really had to hustle because my time was limited to get packed for the first FLW/Costa Northern Series tournament of the year, which was held in Maryland, on the historic Potomac River. I rolled in there with four-days of pre-fishing time which is pretty darn good considering how crazy my schedule is.

I don’t have a very good track record on the Potomac so my expectations were not very high going into this tournament, but my pre-fishing actually went pretty good.

Ironically, sometimes when your expectations aren’t very high you end up having a pretty good event because you go into it with a little bit more open mindedness instead of having too many preconceived ideas or notions of how the fishing is going to be.

On day one of the tournament I drew a co-angler whose first name was Kermit and you’ll never guess what he threw for about 80% of the first day. That’s right, a hollow topwater frog! And, he caught a couple of pretty good fish on it. In fact, it was one of those mornings you just dread as a professional angler, when your amateur partner is getting them and you’re not. In the FLW tournaments you’re fishing for your own fish and your co-angler, who fishes from the back of the boat, fishes for his fish. You’re fishing for different prize pools too – larger prizes on the pro side versus the co-angler side. Well, didn’t Kermit proceed to put on a bass catching clinic. By by 11:30 in the morning he had a limit and I only had two keeper fish in the livewell.

I decided to run north and check out some new areas and while we were there we

only caught one short fish. With less than two-hours to go before weigh-in I still only had two fish in the livewell so I told Kermit that I had to at least get a limit to save face.

So we ran back to an area where I had found some fish during practice and I got four decent ones in the last hour of the tournament. The tide had started to fall on the river and I managed to catch four keepers by flipping a black/blue Berkley Chigger Quad in the weeds. Fishing tidal waters like the Potomac is funny because when the tide’s up the weeds are standing straight up, but when the tide falls say a foot or a foot and a half, the weeds get laid over and you can actually flip them. Anyway, I got four good bites in the last hour and ended up putting together a limit that weighed just over 13-pounds. It wasn’t the best bag I’ve ever caught, but at least it gave me a shot at having a decent tournament.

Day two rolled around and the tide was up so I knew the flipping bite wasn’t going to be very good. I tried flipping for a few minutes but the weeds are actually very sparse when the water’s high – it’s amazing how it works in tidal waters – so I decided to mix it up. When the tide was high I threw a swim jig and ended up catching a couple of good ones. Then, all of a sudden all of my power went out in the boat. For some reason my cranking battery that all my accessories, including my livewell pumps, my graphs and my power poles run on, went dead on me. I’m not sure if the battery itself was the problem or if it just didn’t get fully charged the night before, but it quit working and I had to get it fixed in a hurry.

Luckily, that morning when I launched the boat I noticed that my volt meter was reading just 10.6 instead of 12 or 13-volts.

Lake Ontario has an incredible smallmouth bass fishery

I’ve got it set to read on my graph and, although it was low, I assumed that it would charge up while I was running the big engine. Anyway, I called my wife, Sandy, who was on her way back to the hotel after launching me that morning, and asked her to come back to the ramp so I could get another battery out of the truck. I met up with her, changed the battery and got back to fishing.

Once we got back on the water I proceeded to catch some fish on a frog, a swim jig and by flipping that Chigger Quad. I managed to and put together a limit that weighed 15-pounds, 6-ounces and I moved up 20 spots, from 35th to 15th overall and got a nice cheque. My co-anglers from both days one and two each weighed in their limits so they were both very happy as well. I also got some valuable points for the championship and then it was time to move on.

I got home for a day and then hit the road to Kingston with my son, Darren, for the Renegade Q1 tournament at Dog/Cranberry Lake, which is just north of Kingston. This lake has a reputation for kicking out a lot of quality bags of bass.

Darren and I weighed in 16.98-pounds in the tournament and ended up in 17th place overall. We were 2.7-pounds out of first and just .95-pounds from 10th place. If we could have just got one big fish to go with the five keeper fish we had, we might have had a chance at winning. I could not believe how consistently good the weights were in this tournament. So we came out of there with some valuable points but no prizes.

Then we moved on to do a little bit of videotaping on Lake Ontario for some of the giant smallmouth that live out there. In short order we got a show shot with some four, five and six-pound smallmouth on camera. It’s amazing how good the fishing is out there during the first three or four weeks of the season.

Then it was up to Casino Rama for a fundraising tournament that Frank Guida from Tri-Con Concrete puts on. He raises money for Fishing Forever every year by running this fun, pro-am tournament where corporate teams and individuals get the chance to fish with a number of pro anglers. I’m not sure of the exact number of boats but there were somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25

or 30 in the tournament. This year it was held on a little lake just down the road from Casino Rama, on a lake called Lake St. John.

I’d never been on this lake in my life prior to launching the boat that morning.

It was a very interesting format because we were allowed to weigh in pike, walleye and bass. We ended up having a pretty good weight of fish and even held the lead for a while. It was a lot of fun to sit in the hot seat on stage, until we got knocked out of first place by another team. Both of my amateurs caught fish and they had a good time out there. What can I say, it was a win-win for everybody who turned out for the tournament, as well as for the charities that the event supported.

After the tournament it was back to the office to do some more radio taping. Then I did a number of radio interviews with all kinds of stations promoting some of the upcoming tournaments I was involved with.

The next day it was off to Lake Simcoe for the annual Casey Cup tournament. My son Darren and I have fished the Casey Cup for a number of years and it’s always a great event where a lot of big fish are caught. This year the fish had already finished spawning so we were targeting post-spawn smallmouth bass and ended up catching five fish for 21.5-pounds. We got fourth place and were only .30-pounds out of second. As usual the CSFL Casey Cup was a great event and I’m already looking forward to fishing it again next year.

After the Casey Cup I did some radio shows promoting National Fishing Week.

It’s a great promotion that Catch Fishing does in many provinces, where anglers can fish without a licence on a specific weekend.

Then we headed off to Big Rideau Lake

for the next Renegade Bass tournament of the season. Robert Greenburg, who is a friend of mine from Ottawa, was gracious enough to let Darren and I stay at his place on Big Rideau Lake.

As usual Big Rideau kicked out lots of fish during the tournament and we caught some smallmouth bass as well as some largemouth. It seemed like the fish were scattered and we had to cover a lot of water in order to catch them. We ended up with a mixed bag that weighed 14.60-pounds, which put us in 40th place. The rest of the tournament field really caught them on this day, but we still we got some valuable points towards qualifying for the Classic.

I got home on Sunday, grabbed another suitcase of clothes as well as my golf clubs, and caught a flight down to Florida for the annual ICAST show, which is the annual industry fishing trade show. While we were there we participated in the Florida Sportsman’s Bass and Birdies fundraising golf tournament. My brother Wayne and I, along with Bill Ferreira and Dean Rurak from Columbia Sportswear, hit the links and had a great round of golf. We didn’t catch any bass, but we hit the golf balls really well.

We came in with a good score but, although we didn’t end up winning, we all had a good time for a good cause supporting the American Sportfishing Association.

After our day of golfing it was off to the ICAST show. We always go straight to the New Product Showcase to put in our votes for what’s new in all the different categories of products that are on display. There’s no question I’m like a kid in a candy store when I get there because seeing all the new lures, rods reels and accessories is always a treat.

Once we finished looking around the show we had several meetings to attend with Pure Fishing, Navionics, Lowrance, Columbia and Mystik. Everything went well and we had a great time down there. The folks from Cuda even gave me a nice award called the Cuda Pro of the Year award during the lovely dinner that they hosted for a bunch of pro anglers, media and industry folks. That was certainly a nice surprise.

We got to bed around 12:30 on the Thursday night then got up at 3:30 in the morning to catch the first flight back to Toronto. When I got home I worked on Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 61

the boat, packing for a three-tournament road trip.

The next day I hit the road for Kingston.

When I got there I launched the boat and literally fished into the dark that night, practicing for the tournament by myself until 9:30 p.m. I have to admit when I get out into a tournament, whether it’s pre-fishing or the actual event, I really like getting in that zone of trying to figure out just what the fish are doing.

I spent the next number of days on the water and then went over to New York to fish the second FLW/Costa tournament of the year in the Thousand Islands area. I was pretty excited because I haven’t been there for about three-years. The last tournament I was in down there I finished in second place, and I won the tournament before that, so I was pretty jacked about this particular event.

As a result I fished really hard. Unfortunately I didn’t catch any giant stringers of fish over the three-day tournament.

On day two they closed off the lake because of high winds and we had to stay in the St. Lawrence River. Over three-days I

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62 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

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ended up with 54-pounds, 11-ounces and finished in fifth place, but I managed to move up to second place in the race for for Angler of the Year in the Northern Division of the FLW/Costa Series.

After the tournament I stayed down there and the next morning I was back on the water from sunup until sundown, looking around for some more spots to fish in the next tournament, which happened to be the CSFL Kingston Canadian Open. It’s another three-day tournament, running from Thursday through Saturday, and I was on the water for another four-days preparing for it.

I ended up in fifth place but I had lots of fun out there and I caught a ton of fish. As soon as the tournament was over I was right back out on the water again the next morning, fishing my brains out for the next fourdays getting ready for the Thousand Islands Open, which is put on by the folks at Renegade Bass out of Ed Huck Marine in Rockport, on the St. Lawrence River. This is the first time in my life I have spent 22-days straight on the same body of water. I usually fish one or two different lakes every week and I never stay in one place more than a week so this was unusual.

I certainly didn’t feel like I was thinking like a fish, but I definitely smelled like one after spending that many days on the water!

I did feel like I got in tune with them pretty good. My son Darren and I fished the threeday tournament as a team and wound up getting eighth-place. So I ended up with two fifths and an eighth place. One of the cool things at this tournament was that the anglers who qualified for the third day all got a key for a brand new Ranger boat package. Everyone had a chance to try their key in the boat and whoever had the key that started it would win the boat.

Unfortunately our key didn’t start it but one of the lucky teams – who happened to be a one-man team, won it this year. This guy ended up catching enough fish by himself his brother apparently bailed at the last minute - to make it into the top-20 and he also won the fully rigged Ranger boat.

After 22-days I actually took a day to drive back home and get organized again. Do you know how much laundry you have after 22days? Luckily I had enough pairs of underwear and other clothes to get me through, but I sure had a lot of laundry to get done.

The next day I went down to Lake Erie to spend some time pre-fishing for the CSFL Lake Erie tournament out of the town of Chippewa. I got a few days on the water that week and then I found out that the tournament, which was supposed to be on Friday and Saturday, had day-one cancelled because of high winds. Then day-two was cancelled and as a result the tournament was moved to Sunday, which was the rain day, so it became a one-day tournament.

I decided to run about 80-miles one way in big waves to gamble on a spot that one of these days I’m going to weigh 25 to 27pounds from. I’ve tried this spot in three tournaments in a row and haven’t caught them yet, but I’m stubborn. I stopped at a spot on the way down there and we caught a four-pounder and a three-pounder before continuing our run.

When I finally got to my spot we started fishing but we didn’t catch a single fish, so I went to my next spot and again we didn’t catch a fish. So I ended up spending over four-hours of the day driving the boat because it was such a long run down Lake Erie. Fortunately we hit a few other places and put together a limit that weighed 19.55pounds, which put us in third place. Because it was a smaller field, and a lot of guys bailed or couldn’t make the Sunday after the first two days were cancelled, they only paid three places so I snuck in for the last paying spot.

There was only one really big weight, 25pounds, that Gaspare Constabile weighed in, and he ended up winning the tournament. There was only one other weight over 20-pounds and that was caught by my son,

Darren. He’s only fished four tournaments as a boater, and on this day he caught them pretty good. Unfortunately his livewell drained on the way back to the weigh-in and he was penalized 2 ½-pounds for dead fish, which knocked him down to seventh place.

Had he weighed in his fish alive and healthy he would have finished in second.

As a result of the cancellations on Lake Erie, it really put me behind a couple of days in terms of getting down for the last FLW/Costa Northern Series tournament on Oneida Lake. I was sitting in second place for Angler of the Year but I’d never been to Oneida Lake and I had to try and learn it in a hurry. By time I got down there on Monday night I only had a day and a half to learn this 20-mile long lake.

On Tuesday morning I got the boat set up but the wind was blowing at 25-miles an hour out of the east, straight down the lake into where I launched. I went out anyway, but only caught one bass all day, a 2 ½pounder that hit a Sebile Flatt Shad.

When I got off the water that night I was pretty distraught, but I got back out there the next day to try again. Unfortunately things didn’t go much better and I ended up getting two bites on a dropshot rig all day, and that was the end of my practice.

So the tournament rolls around and on day-one I ended up getting five fish on a popper, one on a soft stickbait and one on a dropshot. My best five weighed 13.5pounds and I was sitting in 30th place. Daytwo rolls around and I only got one fish all day, a three-pound, one-ounce bass that hit a soft stickbait. That dropped me down to 50th place overall in the tournament and I slipped back to ninth in the Angler of the Year race. At least I qualified for the championship tournament on Table Rock Lake in November, so I really can’t complain.

I am very happy for my two friends, Chris and Cory Johnston. Cory ended up winning the tournament and his brother Chris got fourth. Cory also finished first for Angler of the Year and his brother was second. Hats

off to those guys who are both just fish catching machines.

There’s no rest for the wicked. After I weighed in my solo bass on Friday I literally had to get the boat loaded and hit the road for a four-hour drive to Cornwall for the Renegade Bass Q4 event on Lake St. Francis with my son Darren. He had been on the water for two-days and had a pretty good practice finding both largemouth and smallmouth. We hit the water bright and early in the morning and started the day off catching a small smallmouth. Then I got one about four-pounds, which turned out to be our biggest of the day. Then the smallmouth bite died so we went for largemouth and filled out our limit. Later in the day we got a couple of small smallmouth and ended up with 14.5-pounds for 35th place. The good thing is we qualified for the Renegade Classic so we’re looking forward to having a one in 40 shot of winning a Ranger bass boat. I’ll let you know how it turns out in my next Tales from the Road column. ?

Fall 2016 – Real Fishing 63

What’s COOKING

E A S Y Duck Confit Fall is a great time to enjoy duck, whether it’s wild or domestic! Using these cooking techniques, I find duck legs can be tastier than the breasts.The best part with duck confit is you can eat it as is or use it as an ingredient in other recipes, like in sandwiches or pasta.

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

4

duck legs

1 cup

kosher salt

4 cloves

garlic

Add salt, garlic, thyme, and peppercorns to a food processor and pulse until lightly ground together. Do not over grind. If you do not have a food processor, this recipe can be made by crushing peppercorns, picking thyme leaves, chopping garlic, and then mixing with salt.

¼ bunch fresh thyme 1 tsp.

whole peppercorns

Sprinkle mixture on every inch of duck legs, making sure to get in the corners and hard to reach spots.

3 cups

duck fat (if not available use canola oil)

Place salted duck legs in a dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24-hours.

– Chef Andrew Rochon

Preheat oven to 250°F. If using duck fat, place it in a pot and melt over medium heat until liquefied.

Rinse ducks legs under cold, running water for 20-minutes. Pat dry.

Place duck legs in an oven safe dish, skin side up. Cover with duck fat (or canola oil). Cover and cook for 3-hours.

Remove from hot fat and allow to cool. Duck can either be pulled apart when cool enough to handle or served whole.

Thanks to Andrew Rochon, Executive Chef of the Holiday Inn & Suites, Kanata, Ontario, for providing this recipe.

64 Real Fishing – Fall 2016

To serve whole, heat some of the duck fat (or canola oil) in a pan until very hot and sear the duck leg, skin side down, until crispy.

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