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Another Great Opener on the Ganaraska River
Growing up in Port Hope Ontario living only blocks from the Ganaraska River, I started my fishing career as a young child fishing steelhead. Opening day was always the biggest day for me growing up. Waiting for the river to open would be all I could think about for months leading up to it. To this day it still has a special meaning to me, a day to spend with friends talking about the old days and trips gone by.
There is never an dull moment when it comes to the opener. Once again, like in FearFishing video from last year I slept through the alarm and didn’t wake up till Marley came through the door. I think this is the only day I ever over sleep for fishing... In a hurry to get out the door I missed placed my keys and after a search of the house managed to find them, so out the door we went and off to the river.
The opener is different it’s one of those thing everyone should take part in. Marley had to head off to work for 9am but still made it down for a couple hours. That’s what it’s all about making memories to talk about for the years to come on opening day.
After Marley left I met up with my good friends Ian Montgomery and Peter Neumann. We walked the river, fishing deep holding pools looking for spring steelhead. We managed to hook some fish have some good laughs during our trek through the bush.
Opening day is something different for everyone, and if you haven’t had a chance to get out and experience this monumental event known as the opener I highly recommend it. There are a lot of people and not as many fish as there was in the 90’s, but it’s about more than catching fish. It’s the time spent on the river bank with friends. With all the charters and tournaments I fish, opening day will always mark the start of it all. A new season, and a new beginning to the year is good reminder why I do it all. Over the next couple weeks I get the chance to walk the river with no pressure to win tournaments or put fish in the boat for clients. This allows me the time to mentally prepare for the long haul this summer. The Ganaraska river is where it all began, and will continue to be a big part of my fishing for many years to come.
Ian west
It’s been awhile since my last entry but spring is in the air and I couldn’t be more excited. A few more weeks and the boats will come out, along with the rods and reels, and this means time to look for tackle and those spring deals. One of the questions I get asked all the time is, what do you buy?, well here is some of the things I have learnt over the years when it comes to tackle.
When it comes to rods and reels you’re best advised to spend the extra dollar to be sure you’re getting what you want. This is not an area in which you want to try and skimp. I spent years trying to save some money, only to buy the same thing over and over again. Do your homework and get as much bang for your buck as you can. It may seem like a lot, but in the long run its cheaper to get a good outfit that will last. In the world of reels you get what you pay for. You want something that is going to last, so do your homework and buy a reel that will last you ten years not ten reels that last one year. I have had great success with my Ardent f500, 600 and 1000's. They are smooth built for ergonomics so you can fish all day long.
When it comes to soft plastics I am a junkie for buying everything I see, kind of like a kid and hockey cards, I just can’t ever seem to get enough. I do have some guide lines for the madness of buying soft plastics. Firstly, if it worked for you in the past it can’t hurt to have more. I have my favorites that I keep in bulk, but I do try and use new colours of my favourite shaped soft plastics. Don’t be shy to try something that is just out of this world, sometimes this can have a huge payoff. Another thing to remember is if it’s on sale 5 packs for $4 its probably not going to boat a lot of fish for you. This is often the reason for bargain basement prices.
Always make sure you have a large quantity of your go to bait. For me its the strike zone slammer no matter what conditions, if things get hard out on the water that is what I go to the most. Whether its drop shot-ing, shaky head fishing, or even texas rigging a fat slammer, this is my confidence bait. For this reason I try to have as many in my boat as I can, in a variety of different colours.
I hope these pointers offer some help to you during spring spending fever. Be sure to buy the right gear for the right job, and once you find your confidence bait make sure you never run out.
Good luck on the water and even better luck keeping all your tackle sorted!
Ian west
Thanks for the advice
As a long time boater who is new to fishing Lake Ontario I want to let you know how valuable the advice you gave me was. Your explanation on how to seek out and catch salmon was spot on!
We went out early, not expecting a hit let alone to land a fish. In less the 40 minutes, including the time it took to rig my rods with the dipsy divers and make sure they were running away from each other the line tripped. I started to reel in thinking I would need to reset my rig when the fish dug in! It was like the fishing shows (and not yours Cronz ), my muscles ached as I reeled it in. It seemed like hours inching it closer to the back of the boat. My girlfriend was driving the boat and she slowed it down to get the net. Unfortunately she left the boat in gear and we started to go in a circle allowing the fish to go up to the bow. After the boat was righted and stopped, I managed to get the fish back to the stern of the boat in hopes that we would be able to net it. After 2 failed attempts she had the fish in the net and inside the boat.
The spoon was imbedded in the corner of the fish’s mouth. I removed the hook and weighed it. My first salmon weight a respectable 21 pounds.
Once again thanks for all the time you took explaining step by step how a pro catches salmon. It worked for a beginner like me.
Peter WF
This is how it goes all or nothing on day two of tri lakes
This weekend Hornyak and I hit the water on the TopBass tour a two day single event on the Tri-lakes in central Ontario. We had never fished this water for bass before so after three days of pre-fishing and we were not having a lot of luck other then a ton of Muskie and Walleye.
Saturday morning we hit the road for day one of the TopBass Tri-lakes event. We had decided to stick to our pre-fish plan and decided to make the long run to Pigeon lake where we had done 90% of our pre-fishing. Getting there the wind was blowing hard making the grass lay on top of the water making it impossible to find the clear cut holes that we had fished earlier in the week. So fishing the deep reeds was the move from there. With wind blowing hard down the lake and the boat blowing all over the place we managed to get a small limit out of the reeds after 6 hours of pounding them with a shaky head and a Pink slammer, with out the pink slammer we would have had a big zero on the day. Slammers are not just a Goby Smallmouth bait they are a any where any time bait. Everything eats slammers!
So with about and hour and change left in day one we headed out on top of some monster weed flats to flip but when we got there we ran into even worse wind and a dying trolling motor battery. So out come our last resort bait the Spinnerbait or "blades" as we like to call them. Throwing the blades in the last hour of tournament to look for one more fish or a monster has worked for us in the past so why not now? We had about 6 minutes until we had to leave for weigh-in and boom Hornyak hit a fish rod loads up a the drag starts peeling off his reel. LOL. This is no bass it's a Muskie and it almost made us late for the weigh-in but what a fish and after a long day on the water we both needed to laugh as it was to big for the net and he didn't seem to want my hands on him.
We got the Muskie in the boat, a couple pictures and off we went to weigh in a disappointing bag of 5 large mouth for 7 lbs and change!
Day two hero or zero!
Day two we had to change the game plan 7 lbs isn't ever any fun to weigh in on tournament day no matter how bad the weather or how bad the fishing. So a change was in need we had never fished Chemong lake and had heard nothing but bad things about the fishing there. However with 7lbs on Pigeon which was suppose to hold all the fish we were going make a last ditch effort and fish Chemong. So on the blast off when 97% of the field headed back north to fish the other 2 lakes we headed south on new water to find five fish, we started on the docks with no luck and then headed into a bay we had seen on our chart plotter. After fishing it for 30 minutes the realization hit that maybe it was just that bad here, when all of a sudden and boom a 3lb and change Large mouth hit my line and we are in business with one in the boat. We fish that area for a while with another 2 small keepers and off to the docks we go. Fishing the first row of docks we had no luck, they didn't even look that good so i was going to take us back to the deep water when the trolling motor blew the breaker. While i was trying to pop the switch i hear Hornyak yelling "Monster! Monster! Get the net" and i look over Hornyak has a big Large mouth on from under a dock. I jump up, grab the net and boom now we are really looking good. We now have another 4.65lbs in the well with 4 fish and one to go. After another hour of fishing with no luck the nervous button kicked in and we need to find fish 5 and fast. So not really knowing any water it was time for the blades, like i said in the start of this blog when things get hard bring out the blades and in no time we had fish 5 and had culled 2 more of the smaller fish and we were set for the weigh in with a lot more then 7 lbs, We ended up with a 6th place finish with 12.16 lbs. Sometimes you just have to try something new even if its not tested or proven. Thats just the way fishing is ......Have to go for broke!
Posted by: Ian West
It’s about time the Bass season got under way
This past Saturday marked a big day in Ontario, the opener of the bass season. Living in Ontario the bass season is short compared to most places, so it’s a long wait from December till the last Saturday in June.
I head out to the Bay of Quinte Saturday with Fear Fishing pro staffer Steve Ballzine and his little bro Rich Ballzine, The bay is loaded with large mouth bass, a fishery known for good numbers and good fish.
Every opener is something special, a time to try the new baits you have collected over the past 6 months. Maybe a new rod reel or even just get that new spool of line for the first cast. For me, every opener is about having a good time, getting out on the water after the long wait with some good friends to have some laughs and catch fish.
Even though I get to spend 200+ days a year on the water fishing, we go because it is fun. Let me tell you I had a blast this weekend, hooked a ton of fish, had some laughs and got to take some pictures to make the memories last.
So this blog is a reminder to have fun, be safe and remember when you lose the big one or have a bad day on the water that we all have those days. At the end of the day, if you’re fishing from a canoe or a 21ft bass boat it’s really just fishing, keep your chin up and keep casting!
Posted By:Ian west
Team Fear Fishing hits the B1
After 3 days of a dismal pre fish we hit the water at the Berkley B1 Canadian Open, starting in spot 72 looking for a bag of large mouth on lake St-Louis. We headed to the first spot that we pre fished, fishing a shallow water frog pattern in the thickest slop we could find. Landing a number of large mouth on the frog we headed to a small mouth spot we found earlier in the week and managed a 3lb small mouth on a drop shot rig using a strike zone slammer (simcoe craw).
At the end of day one we weighed in our bag of fish that totaled 14.9 lbs putting us in 31 spot. That would give us the chance to make the cut and fish day two.
On day two we stuck to our large mouth plan and headed back to the matt to try and find more big large mouth. After a hard first couple of hours we managed a couple small fish on the frog. Not giving up we headed a little deeper where we caught one good large mouth making three fish in the live well. So not having very much luck with the smallies we decided to stick it out on our spot and look for shallow fish. After seeing some fish in the shallows we threw on a slammer and started casting to fish with a small worm hook with no weight and let it slowly fall in front of the fish. In the shallow water we used Gamma fluorocarbon to deal with the super clear shallow water. This worked wonders and made the difference between having a 5 fish limit and not having it.
Back to the launch we headed. The wind had picked up so it made it slow going. Making it back we headed back up on stage for the day two weigh in. We didn’t have the 14.9 lbs and had to work hard for a day two bag of 10.55 lbs putting us in 38 place in the overall standings.
The Berkley B1 was a great experience and with the dismal pre fishing we had, 38 place and making the cut stands good in our books. Can’t wait for bass to open this weekend in Ontario and getting the Ontario tournament season on the go....... see you on the water
Posted By: Ian West
May 15, 2009
Well spring is here and the Fear Fishing Team was out for the annual opener of the Ontario trout season, The opening day bite was good in the upper ganaraska river but rains and warm weather soon pushed the fish back to the deep slow moving pool.
This is when the action really heats up , fishing pink worms under a float with 4lbs Gamma floro leader cant be beat when the steelhead are in post spawn drop back mode. With the short leads so the worm is over the fishes head, triggers bite like no other add some cloudy skys and some rain and that equals big number days.
The Walleye season is now here and the Kawaratha lakes are heating up fast, a slow opening weekend due to bad weather has now pasted and the water temp and fish are warming up. Hair jigs and grubs on a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head are the key to this spring bite, fish are on weed edges and the action is non stop when the water temp is in the mid 60's. Pink heads with white grubs are allways a staple of the kawartha lakes walleye bite.
Well time to hit the water keep you eyes on the web site and the facebook group page for more updates and videos. Tight lines and see you on the water
Posted By: Ian West
April 5, 2008
With all the rain we have been having lately the rivers are really stained and the Steelhead fishing has pretty much come to a halt. This gives us lots of time to get some of the prep work done for this years season.
We ordered some new maps for the Berkley B1 tournament in June and over the past week we went up to Cosmic Signs in Brampton and got the FearFishing.com decals made for our trucks. After a week of rain we finally had a break in the weather and finally got a chance to put the decals on the trucks.
It is going to be a busy year and it is going to take some serious planning. There are so many lakes and so little time.