Hey there, Hobbes sounds like you had a pretty good year last year although like most of us there’s never enough time to fish as long as we’d like! A couple things I’ve learned over the years. Firstly, when trolling streamers the only way to get a positive hook set is to place your fly rod pointing straight back, out the stern of the canoe with your reel lodged over the thwart or yoke in front of you. Obviously works much better if you’re paddling from the stern seat but it works in bis with reel over front edge of your seat. The only problem then is your line goes back along inside of boat past the stern paddler…anyway, when you get a hit, grab the line and the rod together for a second or two, don’t worry about trying to grab the reel just yet….it’s a direct line to the fish so usually you are in with a solid hook set - this works tremendously well for me. On big Lakers your drag will engage as they run. There is a bit of stretch in the system because of your leader so I keep the drag fairly tight until I feel the weight of the fish. As for flies themselves, I’ve experimented over the years, using really big streamers, imitating the 6 to 8 inch Cisco Lakers feed on on the better lakes. I tied these up with extended stinger hooks but you still end up losing fish because Lakers are notorious followers in deep water. They nip the tails of prey fish and circle back and pick up the wounded so what I tend to do now is use smaller flies 3 to 4 inches, max tied on a size 2 Daiichi 2370 hook. Again that presentation is mainly for trolling across deep basins and open water (usually with a full sink line and a bit of backing as well). When trolling along shore lines where you could possibly cast and catch bookies as well, I use smaller flies about 2 - 2.5 inches or so , tied with rabbit and Marabou…of course I also have lots of bucktail deceiver types as well.  Almost anything will work, but I have had really good luck with Marabou Mickey fins and white Z

Williams makes a spoon exactly for that purpose - Lake clear Wobblers. I have two that I bring every year but have not used yet lol. The technique is also used a lot in Québec.

Moonman.

April 22.

Moonman.

The Stillwater indicators are the ones I was talking about…they work great as you can go much deeper with them, depending on your leader length (15-20’ even )…just like a slip bobber set up spin fishing…sucker spawn worth it for sure…easy pattern to tie up…there is a spot on your trip you messaged me about that they would work well…definitely perch pattern streamers! Perch rapala original floater is my number one lure…also caught my biggest brookie in the park on a polar fiber Minnow in perch…

Moonman…

Hey there Hobbes nice looking flies! I love your enthusiasm and it’s obvious it’s helping everyone get excited about their spring trips!

Like many I’ve been tying like crazy and I already literally have thousands of flies! I’ll share a few things I’ve learned and maybe add to all the great advice from the other guys above.

First thing is almost everything works lol. Brookies and lakers in spring are seldom picky, it’s more your presentation on a decent lake or river that makes the biggest difference. Saying that, there are times when colour or particular pattern can make a difference.

One thing for sure is that the best line for spring fishing (in my opinion) is a clear intermediate slow sink line. This is the line I would take if I can only take one line. Most active fish are in that 5-15’ water depth along drop off etc and this line excels there. It also casts like a rocket. If you have a canoe partner using spinning gear and trolling/casting along that break line the clear intermediate line is perfect. Saying that, I would never go without a full sink type 5-6…i use this line when trolling very large lakes out in open over deep water during day…caught some  huge lakers that way…even though yes gosh are often shallow, some are deep too…I have loops on my backing and fly line for easy loop to loop line changes…a lot of times I have two fly rods with the two lines…

For flies, you look good, again if a fish is around they are likely to hit most things, sometimes though I have noticed a difference ….for example I’ve found a marabou Mickey Finn better than standard bucktail version….also have had very good luck on a zuddler version of a Mickey Finn….trolled on the clear intermediate …deadly. The only other thing is that I have seen brookies be more selective on smaller lakes where there are no lakers. At times in early spring they can feed on callibaetis nymphs (and ignore other lures/flies …seldom but has happened several tim

I’ve been looking at the park ice out web page every couple hours for the last week lol. Lake of two rivers has lost a lot of ice in the last few days. Also the modis imagery from yesterday shows a surprisingly large area of dark weak ice both on Opeongo (east arm and south central arm) and Lavielle…even with more seasonal temps coming this week to me It looks like ice out April 28-29…

Moonman.

Hey guys thanks for all the responses. It looks like I will get a GoPro, just have to decide on which one. And Uppa, I do actually have the Olympus TG4. Great camera. I haven’t really used much video with it but maybe I should!

Still leaning towards the GoPro as dedicated video cam. It seems the white model has most of what I need at half the price of the black model, but wish I could swap batteries. What Micro SD card are most people using with these? Also how much video are you guys getting on a card? Obviously depends on resolution but just wondering if anyone can let me know averages to expect.

Thanks again for all your input.

Moonman.

I gonna chime in and say ice out on Wed. May 1...I think flooding might be an issue this year though....

Moonman.

I'm already nostalgic for this thread even though the body is still warm. So my ice out prediction for next year is Tuesday May 7. You heard it here first!

Moonman.