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 Big Head River Canada: Hooked On Wild Steelhead
Posted by FishStalker on January 28, 2005
It is midnight and I can't sleep. I am tossing and turning, dreaming of the next day. I am full of joy just like when I was a kid. The images of the next day keep running through my mind. I can't wait any longer; I slowly get out of bed and slip into my clothes I had laid out from the night before. I tip
toe through the quiet house and the floor creeks under my feet, I pause and look to see if I have waken anyone. Butterflies start to form in my stomach because the anticipation of the morning is overwhelming. No, it isn''t Christmas morning; it is the morning of fishing for wild steelhead in northern Ontario!
This is only my second time steelhead fishing and the first time for my brother-in-law, Jon. You could feel the excitement in the truck as we drove north. We had very low expectations for the day because it was December and I had just driven to Toronto in a blizzard from Maine. We were just glad to be out and fishing. The forecast for the day was cloudy with highs in the 30''s, but we were pleasantly surprised when the sun came out and the high was 45 degrees.
The Bighead River is
two hours north of Toronto in the town of Meadford. The Bighead starts on the Dundalk plains as do most of the Georgian Bay Rivers. It's a freestone river that runs approximately 30 km from source to the bay. The first 10 km are the most productive. That's the area we fished. The fall run begins around mid October and fresh fish will come in through December if conditions are right. The percentage of natural fish is about 75%. There are no current stocking programs on the Bighead so hatchery fish are a result of escapees from other hatcheries on the great lakes. The season begins on the last Saturday of April and ends the 31st of December. The best fishing occurs thru November when conditions are right.
Our Guide, Rob, was from Grindstone Fly shop, www.grindstoneangling.com. We started our day by Rob putting me in a spot and he hiked up river with Jon. It was very peaceful, not many people around. There was a guy fishing down below me with a fly rod and worms. I saw that his rod was bent so I headed down to see the fish. It was a beautiful 6 pound steelhead. I took a few pictures for him and he let it go
We spent the day exploring the river and fishing different pools and pockets but with no luck. Our luck changed ¾ of the way through the day. The guide and Jon were down around the corner out of site. I was fishing the tail end of a pool; the fly set up was a 9 foot eight pound test leader, swivel with a split shot and 12 to 24 inches of fluorocarbon tippet and two flies. I was using a 10 foot 7 weight, G-Loomis rod. I was continuously getting hooked on bottom but this one time the rock took off like a rocket! Everyone on the river could hear me scream,"FISH ON, FISH ON!" Jon and rob were there in seconds. The pool wasn''t too big so it was easy to keep this fish under control. Unlike the Salmon River in N.Y., when you get a steelhead on, you better be ready to run.
We had the fish pretty much under control, so Rob told me to put a bend in the rod for a photo. He snapped a couple of photos and I went back to the fish and it wouldn''t budge, Rob waded out and found the fish had wrapped me up on a rock and was gone. My heart was pounding and I was ready for more. I couldn''t stop talking about that fish. If you have ever fished with me you know at the end of the day I just don''t shut up about the day because of my excitement.
We continued down the river and every hooked rock had potential. Rob put us in one last spot. Jon fished the head of the pool because that was most likely where the fish would be and I fished the tail. After a while Jon walked down below me, so I decided to try the head. Only after a few casts, I hooked on a rock and as I am lifting the rod the line is moving faster than I am, FISH ON! FISH OFF! The fish was moving faster than I could lift the rod so I wasn''t able to set the hook.
I continued to fish the same run and again the rock, rockets down the river. I am right behind it. I kept trying to stay below this fish, after my experience at Salmon River; I didn''t want to be chasing it. At one point the line got hooked around the tip, so I said, "Hooked on the tip, hooked on the tip!"
Rob said, "It''s not hooked on a rock?" Jon untangled it and the fight was on again. Rob told me to stand still but I kept taking one step below the fish, so finally he said stop moving or I can't net the fish! I stopped moving. I got the head up and slowly brought the fish to the net. It was a beautiful five pound steelhead. We snapped a few pictures and released the fish. Man I am hooked on steelies!
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Re: Big Head River Canada: Hooked On Wild Steelhead
by jeremy on January 29, 2005 http://www.ineedasimplesolution.com | | sweet story - when you said - "Man I am hooked on steelies!" - i know what you mean. i would love to get up to canada and fish for them up there. how does the Steelhead fly fishing in Canada compare to the western NY Steelhead fishery? |
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