fish

Hello All. I used to be sort of active on this forum many years ago but three kids ago, work - you know. Anyway, I am on a family holiday and staying at Treasure Lake in Dubois, PA for a week and I have permission from the Mrs to fish for a day. I need help. I do not have a boat and would need to fish from shore or wade a stream. I have seen some beautiful waters here and I have found out that Medix run may be worth a try for brook trout. Given that I live in Atlantic salmon and brook trout paradise (Gaspe peninsula, Quebec), I do not really want brook trout and in fact I would rather try for things like largemouth bass and chain pickerel (both of which I have never caught) and also smallmouth (caught a few before). I am kind of worried about access and private property and would like some tips on where I might go for an afternoon where I could potentially catch and release a few of these foreign beasts. Even catfish would be a thrill for me. Any quick tips? Leaving Friday.

Thanks all, I really would appreciate any tips.

member Matokuwapi is based there. I know she fishes smallmouths in the Thames river. There are also largemouth in that area and heard something about walleye in the river too. Certainly carp. I know also that you can fish right in the city. None of this is from experience just what a I have read mostly from Matokuwapi. Sounds like you should bring a rod along.

It is surprisingly difficult to debarb some hooks. Will have a look at the video you posted, thanks

I have seen them someplace but not sure where or when. There are quite a few things people have done with flies aside from fishing: I have a fly paperweight around someplace. Whoever made it took a fly and molded some kind of plastic around it. I presume it was not hot or it would have melted some of the fly materials so it must have been a two part epoxy sort of thing. Anyway, a fly in bottle could be an interesting desk piece. Also, there are earings. I made my sister a set with the French tricolour as she was living in France at the time. Cutoff the hook and put them on proper ear spike thingys.

Chris, the hook is a Mustad 37160. It is not a hook you will use for a lot of patterns so probably you wont want to buy too many. That said, I do like it and many patterns can be tied on it. My suggestions for hooks and flies to fill your box would be the Mustad 90240 for dries and some wets, Mustad 3906 for wets (though you can use the 90240 instead) and 9671 for buggers and streamers. These are the work-horses of the Mustad fleet and probably account for 80% of all fish catches on Mustad hooks. Other companies make really good (often better) hooks but I just don't know their numbers though you can find hook comparison charts by searching on google.

As for patterns I would make sure my box contained for nymphs: Prince nymphs and Hares Ear nymphs, for dries: Adams, Hendrickson and elk hair caddis, for streamers/buggers: Wooly Buggers in a few earthy colours and most with bead or cone heads but a few without. Also a couple of Zonkers a bucktail or two and a Grey Ghost and Black Ghost. You can find all these patterns and photos of them in the pattern database here.

Here is a nymph that I use often. It is just a general sort of pattern that seems to work for many species and situations. I also like the curved hooks as they are good at hooking and holding fish, pinching the barb will not reduce your landing success.

Man, I was looking through Ebay Canada and there is a seller there with many auctions selling flies. These flies are very special though, I have not seen anything like them before. They are made of the most bizarre combinations of colours, scraps and beads that I have ever seen on a rather peculiar selection of hooks. I am not sure that thread was used to tie some of them. I do wonder how many they have managed to sell.

I would suggest something with a married wing. Also, be careful wading with that ball and chain, it can be dangerous. Ok, enough crap, I have two kids but I am not married I would not say it is any more liberating than marriage.

Pairs of flies are a nice idea like the Dark Spruce & Light Spruce which are good looking flies that are not too diffcult to tie. The Royal Coachman is a sort of wedding fly - you could tie another with a different coloured centre band.

I am very sad to hear it. I had a friend commit suicide in high school. It is definitely a bigger problem today than in my time and it is a very difficult time in life. My sympathies for you and hang in there.

I have a bog standard Thompson which is fine. Also I have two Indian made pseudo rotary vices which cost only about $30 cdn. No problems tying any fly I have tried so far. Also, when I moved, did not have fly tying gear with me and was about to make a trip to Costa Rica, I bought a bobbin, thread, feathers, bucktail, crystal flash and stainless hooks, I used vice grips to hold the hook and tied up a bunch of perfectly acceptable saltwater flies.

My point: you can tie flies with pretty simple gear. Your efficiency and quality will increase with better gear but this is a diminishing returns relationship. The only reason I can think of for spending $250 on a fly tying vice is the satisfaction of working with a such a fine piece of engineering - this is not a trivial reason however, and I have my indulgent pieces of fly gear too.

Welcome. Great photos, Alberto. It is really exotic. I look forward to hearing and seeing more of our fishing adventures.

sturgeon_catcher said it very eloquently and I would have to agree: it seems to me that it would be very hard to attribute a dubbing loop to any one person. It seems kind of like asking who invented the broom or the shovel. Eminently useful tools but it is kind of intuitive what you need when you see the problem. I would say thay people with scraps of old wools and fur around would naturally seek a way to make into flies and why not wind it between two pieces of thread?

It is a false scorpion which is related to spiders and other scorpions. I find them in my house too sometimes (Quebec). I looked them up and found out they are harmless, not that common and are not a sign of a dirty house or any sort of infestation. Don't worry about it.

false scorpion

I stopped using it because I found the knots tying to be more difficult (not all mono knots will work because they slip), it is expensive stuff and it did not really make any difference to my fishing success. Mind you, I usually fish for brook trout and they usually are not that picky. I will probably give it another go and if fishing still waters for browns or rainbows I would probably give it more consideration.

how about some solid core solder cut into appropriate lengths and then melt the ends into balls. Not sure how easy it would be to melt up the ends but it sure would be cheap to make a lot.

sure do. Morels I suppose given the time of year. I hope they aren't false morels as they are poisononous. I think the tradition in the midwest is battered and fried but we do not have them in any quantity here to do that. Sauted in butter is good. Canelloni stuffing is good. Or make a past sauce by sauting in butter or olive oil and then adding cream (say 15%), pour over fettuccini with grated parmesan. Check out the mushroom expert/morel site for some recipes:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/recipes.html

Good eating. Can't wait until they appear here in eastern Quebec

They look great and certainly could catch more than sea run brown trout.

I just picked up my flies at the post office - beauties. Thanks everyone and especially Gary for hosting the swap.

As you know Gary, when I tried to send the flies to you I had the same conversation. Express post was about $8 and snailmail was $10. At least they have a consistent story between our two towns. Really, I think the post office should be privatized because it cannot get any worse or any more expensive. Canadapost is an embarrassment when compared to the US, British or Swedish post services (the others I have experience with).

Wow, thanks Fred, obviously you have a lot of knowledge about this. You response if quite detailed and that may be enough to get me started but I may take you up on your offer of more advice.

This morning I looked at some home and garden shops and most of the grass seed mix is the same: a mixture of two kinds of fescue (red and another which I forget), Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye. I gather from that, that this is the right kind of mix for the climate but these are chain stores and their products are not necesarily reflective of local conditions. Only one brand (CIL) had a guarantee of 99.9% pure grass seed and the others, though cheaper, probably have a lot of weed seeds in them.

Is Kentucky bluegrass a high maintenance grass? From what I could gather from reading the seed bags, it is able to withstand a lot of traffic which could be a plus with two kids running around on it. This climate ain't exactly Kentucky though.

The advice of not planting too early is really valuable. I do not want to seed twice but I was thinking of planting quite soon though woke up to new snow this morning so I suppose it is too early One of the fears I have is that if I leave it too long, the soil will run off. We are on a bit of a bump and a heavy rain can create a small stream away from the house so I think I should plant something though it need not be the most beautiful lawn this year just having the function of holding the soil and allowing us to walk without sinking 2 ft into the mud.

Sincere thanks Fred.

I think you have a responsibility to name the company in fact. Let them know you have posted and allow them to respond for all to see. I am not sure what the site administrators would think of that though. I am not asking you to tell me (I rarely order from the US in fact because of customs troubles and the difficulty in returns if something goes wrong) but I believe it would be good for others who do.

Maybe I could plant some ginger too then I could drink rye and ginger all summer

cheers, thanks for the advice.

Welcome Slacker. I am in Rimouski, Quebec.

Do you ever get into Algonquin Park? How is the fishing in Ottawa area? I have heard of a group trying to stock brown trout in the Ottawa river but I am not sure how successful they have been. The Gatineau River should have some good fishing too eh?

just the kind to make a lawn!

I had a new septic system installed in December and a large area of lawn say 4000 sq ft was ripped up for the septic field and by heavy machinery. Winter snows covered it up but now a big muddy field is starting to appear and I want to sow grass seed for the lawn but need some advice:

When should I sow the seed? I am worried about weeds taking over so I guess it should be early.

How should I do it?

What kind of seed should I use? I live in Rimouski Quebec and the latitude (48 N) is not indicative of the climate. We have a short growing season (3-4 months between frosts), piles of snow, very cold in winter. We do have very fertile soil though and many crops can grow here in the short season. No real drought conditions occur here though August can be dry.

Other considerations are that I do not want too much maintenance in terms of cutting and I dont want to have to water it or fertilise it (septic should do that). Fishing season is short here and I don't want to waste my time worrying about the grass.

Any insights and advice would be appreciated.

swapmeister gets em. Do what you want with them Gary but you deserve them