Steelhead report

[1lastcast]

Still recovering from a long sat of both driving and fishing. I headed out early on sat morn with my fishing buddies and a full jimmy of gear. From Kingston we drove west to fish Lake Ontarios small river sterms.

First stop was Wilmont Creek.

The water was dirty and fast. We fished worms and store bought row with no luck. I did see a nice fish come out around 12lbs or so. After fishing for a few hours we decided to move on. There where a lot of anglers on this awsome river system on that day.

Next stop was the Ganny in Port hope.

We decided to leave the gear in the truck and ask to a few people what the fishing was like. Most people here fished the inlet off the river. We dident see any fish for the hour that we stayed and drank tims coffie.

"Its a little early." most people would say. "They just havent started making there spring run."

We decided not to fish the inlet as we wanted to wade and fish the river system. Plus it looked a little tight for fishing space on the Port hope peir.

Next Stop was a tiny creek coburg.

The creek was completly froze over last sat. but not this time.

There were a lot of people fishing this tiny river. But at this time of day the temps had come up into the 10s and there was fish starting to come into the river.

We came away with a nice 11lb female that was deeply hooked and full of much needed row. My friend from Ottawa landed her and he decided to keep the fish.

It was the only one caught by us. But we had a great time just the same.

All of us had brand new 10 + ft noddle rods. And that made it real fun trust me. LoL. After a long winter of holding a 2ft ice rod. casting a 10ft rod in a small river with trees hanging all over was a real challange.

Our last stop was Shealter valley.

We dident get much fishing time there as it was almost dark and we were told once there that the river was out of season. All other rivers we fished could only be fished south of the KP rail tracks. The only man fishing at the inlet said this river was differnt. We dident have the regs so we just decided to beleive him and leave.

Today im curing the row for another day. THis is my first time doing so. I usally just buy store pakeged spawn.

Any tips would be great.

[topraider]

I am glad you had a good day.

It rained a lot Thursday into Friday morning, you fished the results of that rain.

In Northumberland county, you are allowed to fish only three rivers from Jan 1 to the last Saturday in April (to below the train tracks)

The Ganaraska
Gages
Cobourg (factory) creek

Shelter valley is a definite no-no. It completely closed to fishing on December 31. Years ago, you could fish other creeks in Northumberland county, like Barnumhouse and Colbourne creeks, but now they are completely closed too, until the April opener. These tiny creeks are mostly private, limiting access, although Shelter (a bit larger) has some pay to fish areas that see a lot of traffic on opening day.

The old rule said all creeks were open in Northumberland county except Shelter Valley. The more recent rule says all creeks are closed in Northumberland county except the three listed above. In Durham county (west of port hope) all the creeks are open to the tracks. Wilmot is in Durham county.

I fished the Ganaraska for a bit today, the water was still too dirty. There were a few fish caught, but not enough for the number of fishermen around. I know of 6 fish that were caught from 11 am to 5 pm, 5 of them were caught in one small area that was too crowded for my liking. None were caught off the piers, which suggests the fish may have moved up the river.

[sportfish_dom]

Hi 1lastcast

It's great that you had some luck and it's always good to get out and wet a line.
As far as it being a bit early...the fish have been in and out almost all winter it's a hit and miss situation on these rivers just give it a try whenever you can with all this rain and melt-off that is happening...WOW I just heard some thunder as I'm writing this response...anyway keep us informed if you get out.
Here's a link for you on row curing...to get you started I've found that there are almost as many ways to cure row as there are stars in the sky just do a search on curing row and experiment till you find the one that works for you...good luck!
http://www.fishontario.com/fishing/trou ... 148&page=2

[FLOATFISHIN]

Is it skein or loose roe????

Either or, make it into day outing packs, so that way you don't have to de-thaw and re-freeze(Makes the roe go bad)

Leave it in the fridge for 24 hrs in a zip lock bag, then wrap er up and freeze er.

I never cure any of my roe, a little messy to tie, but way more effective than any cure I've ever used!


Nice job on the fish too!


F.F

[1lastcast]

I used borax to coat the eggs. They are in the skin still and very sticky! Me and a couple friends tied around 200 dime sized spawn sacs in two colours. yellow and orange. I went to walmart and asked the photo centre for some of the empty film containers. I have around 20 full of tied sacs. we placed around 10 sacs in each. I then just put them into the fridge for now. I also vacum sealed the left over roe in two seperate bags. Im going to frezze these for next year.

Im planing on heading up tomorrow being thursday. I hope to get the day off and maybe have a few pools to myself as its a week day.

Wish me luck guys! I have yet to land a rainbow. Maybe now with some freash spawn I just might.