Niagara River Steelheading with Nomad Adventures

I got back at it with my friend Ben this past Sunday, and unlike the previous week, things started out very slowly.  Never saw the float go down until about 4hrs into the trip.  Hooked a decent laker just around the corner from the Glen near the Whirlpool and promptly lost it at shore while trying to remove the hook.  Three drifts later, I hooked into what would have been my PB Brown Trout but got broke off.  Both fish came on pink steelhead jigs.
I moved futher down the Glen to find my partner and switched over to using roe.  Lost two steelies shortly after the hookset and then decided to take a closer look at my hook....  Now 0-5 on my past two Niagara trips and getting very frustrated!  Turns out that the last two fish were lost due a bent tip on my hook!
This isn't the first time losing fish due to weak tips on Raven hooks.  Raven Specialist # 10 was the culprit on this day.

Happy Holidays from Nomad Adventures!

Wishing everyone a Safe and Happy New Year and may all your FWishes come true in 2010!!!

We were at the Niagara Whirpool on Dec 20 for our first crack at steelhead in almost 3 weeks.  The crazy winds and waves from Lake Erie had held us at bay for some time, but now it's full speed ahead.  The day started out fast with a fish in the first half hour, followed by another 2 mins later.  Then that was it, the fish shut down and a cold front came in.

Winter steelhead is now upon us and the Southern Ontario Great Lakes rivers and tributaries are in excellent condition!

We're off for the next couple days, but have plans for the Niagara this weekend and next week.

Take care All!

Been a while, lots to catch up on!

To start things off, I must say it was a very lacklustre Fall Smallmouth season on our favourite rivers.  There was no substantial rain to allow us to run the rivers in kayaks until early December and now we've had large doses of combined snow and rain over the past two weeks.  I was a bit of a nightmare for steelheading to on the river systems that are dependant on Fall rains.  Not to say we didn't still have good Fall fishing.  Quite the opposite actually because we focused our time on the big girl, that being the mighty Niagara River, and she never let us down!  OK, maybe once, at a critical time in October.  That's one trip out of 20 where we never landed fish!
It has now been two full weeks since we were able to get back to the Niagara due to huge gale-forced winds coming across Lake Erie from the S-W and churning up mud at the river mouth.  Environment Canada forecasted 4-6M, yes I said metre waves around the Buffalo area last week, and they did arrive.
The weather is bit chilly right no but things are looking up towards Friday and into the weekend.

The 2010 Nomad Adventures event planning is in full swing and we have several events on tap for this coming year.  These events include a 3 tournament series, a season long bass tourney and several demo days throughout the summer.  These events will be posted at www.nomadac.com , Yakfisher.net and on our Facebook page.  The 3 tourney series will end with an Grand Champion who will walk away with some serious prizes.  There will be an early registration incentive for those wishing to compete in each event and save some cash on entry fee.
Lots more details to follow.

Nomad Adventures will be hosting a Kayak Fishing Clinic at Fogh Marine in February just before the spring shows.  We will also be in the Spring Fishing Show, Niagara Outdoor Show and Toronto Sportsman Show.

Hope to see you out!

River Smallies - results

Well we managed to field a small but enthusiastic group of 12 anglers for this first year event. Numbers dropped from 18 to 12 over the last week leading up to the tourney. Five of those entrants were first time kayak fisherpeople and most were first time in a kayak. There were a lot of firsts at this event; first 2 day, 2 river, downstream event; first woman entered in a "kayak fishing only" event in Canada, and she did quite well, not surprisingly.

The fishing was actually decent considering that a tornado had swept its way up the corridor of these two rivers just over 24hrs from the tourney start. River conditions were were tough on the Maitland due to low water and forced a lot of people to walk their boats thru the skinny sections. The whole premise of a downstream river tourney is a very difficult thing to organize well, but this event went quite smoothly and that is a tribute to the individuals who competed in it.

Here's a brief visual recap of how things sorted out:

"The Crew", missing Kevin McLean who was called to work Sunday.

Russ Jones - 3rd place

Stefan Jackson - 2nd place

Mike Blumhagen - 1st place, overall winner

There will be much to add yet in the coming days. Thanks very much to all who entered and our title sponsor - Scotty Paddlesport Products made this event successful!

Waiting for a drought....

Here we are in soggy old Southern Ontario and the only weather guarantee we've had for the past two weeks is RAIN! Our normal, reliable July/August temps of 25-32C and sunshine is anything but predictable these days and I doubt we had more than a half dozen days over 25C in July. Alberta and BC have been getting our summer weather over the past several weeks.

We won't let that dampen our our yakfishing enthusiasm though. The normal slew of bass reports from across Ontario has been slow coming this year and the average size appears to be down. The reports are steadily building now as are the sizes. What I have noticed since late May in the unusually high numbers of baitfish still holding in the rivers and close to shore in lakes. Once these have moved to the deep and the bass turn their appetite to the normal bugs and crayfish, there should be be some big hungry beasts lurking about out there. I'm looking forward to a long rewarding late summer/fall of larger than average smallmouth bass.

Lake Ontario is only a few weeks away from some prime salmon fishing too and with the higher, cooler tributaries, there should be any early run. This could prove difficult to pick off those staging fish from the yak, if the water level allow them to run right thru at will.
Time will tell and we'll be there to see what develops.

Good Fishing!

2009 Nomad Adventures River Smallie Weekend

For info on this event, please visit '09 River Smallies and stay up to date on the latest Tourney Talk on Yakfisher.net.



On the heels of success of our 2009 Ontario Kayak Fishing Classic, Nomad Adventures is proud to offer up another kayak fishing event to this burgeoning kayak fishing community here in our great province.

'09 River Smallies is a nice change from the Lake fishing format of OKFC '09.

Hope to see you out!

OKFC '09

The "Ontario Kayak Fishing Classic" was a definite success!!
A huge "thank-you" to our 36 entrants all those who came together to make this event possible!
After thirteen months of planning that included a lot of ups and downs for this first ever freshwater kayak fishing tournament in Canada, I am very proud to put the Nomad Adventures stamp of approval on it. The event ran very smoothly right from the day prior, to the clean-up after.
This can be attributed to an excellent cast of organizers L-A Shibish, Don Theoret and Jeff Goudreau to Ken McPhail the owner of Kashaga Lodge.
Special thanks to Confluence Watersports, Fogh Marine and Swift Canoe and Kayaks for taking time to attend, compete, provide demos and insight into all boat related queries from the field.

Our guests were amazing and not too shabby a bunch of yakfishers either. There was a decent mix of Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass and a few Muskie too.
Prize fallout is as follows;

1st place - Mike Harris, new '09 Tarpon 160 angler
2nd place - Don Theoret, Kokatat dry suit
3rd place - Jamie Pistilli, Kokatat PFD

Youth winner - Alex Goudreau, Youth PFD

Pro/Team Division - Ocean Kayak Don Theoret/Jamie Pistilli, Muskie Innovations gift pkg

Largest Fish - Neil Danby, Okuma reel/rod combo

Everyone took home their fair share of wares and our charity, Haliburton Highlands Outdoor Association can look forward to our contribution based on this year's success.

Kayak Fishing Chronicles Blog has moved per below.

Our former Blog Kayak Fishing Chronicles ran from Nov '07- July 14 '09, has officially ceased operation(thanks Yahoo!), but can still be viewed at http://nomadac.com/blog.html/.

It's been a whirlwind of activity since our last post April 30th, so let me try to get things back up to speed!! That could take a couple days

The Upper Niagara River

Hear are some pics and a slide show of the upper river near Fort Erie. There is a lot of heavy ice movement, making one wonder how long the "ice boom" will stay intact. Once the ice boom releases, it can be up to two weeks before the bergs make their way through the lower system.
It can shut down the fishing completely for up to two weeks.
Upper Niagara Mar 29-09

This could cause a cancellation of our 2009 kayak fishing kick-off trip to the lower. We were planning for Thurs April 2nd, but may have to re-evaluate that. Lets hope things stay up top until then!

It's here!!! 2009 kayak fishing season.

We have recently the Blog from http://blog.360.yahoo.com/jwnac to here, due to some technical issues with the Yahoo based app. All posts from 2007 to March 30-09 shall remain in Yahoo.

I really need to quit taking so much time off between entries!

The 2009 season is now upon us folks here in Southern Ontario. Many of us will be out over the next week or so and some have already been out. NAC kicks of its kayak fishing season this Thursday with a trip to Niagara in search of big spring Steelies and Brown Trout. We will also be presenting at the Niagara Outdoor Show on Saturday April 4. Hope to see some of you make it out!
OKFC '09, the Ontario kayak fishing tournament got its first big viewing at the Toronto Sportsman Show last weekend. There is a significant jump in kayak fishing interest and talk at the show, according to various fishing and paddle sport companies. Lots of canoe anglers asking about the tourney too. We may need to convert these folks.

Something I am seeing lately as the kayak fishing community grows in Ontario and Canada is a severe lack of attention to the Southern Ontario fishery. I find this very sad because it is this region that is the heart and soul of freshwater fishing in Canada. Southern Ontario contains more fish species, fishermen, fresh water and navigable waterways than any other region in the world, by far. This means that it is time for us folks to step up and put ourselves on the proverbial kayak fishing map! One of our brethrens from the other side of the country has recently moved back to the region and I am certain that he will do his part firmly root our sport and give this region its identity. Welcome back Jeff Goudreau of Extreme Kayak Fishing Adventures.

So good fishing to everyone in the upcoming season and we hope to meet you out there!