Grand River Kayak Fishing with Nomad Adventures

In 2010 Nomad Adventures expanded its guided kayak fishing trips and tours to include more Grand River destinations.  Areas to be added will now include sections of the Grand from Cambridge to Brantford.  In addition to these trips, we will now add flyfishing to our schedule.  Please see below for more details;

Paris to Brantford - catch & release, barbless
Steelhead Fishing: April/May, Sept-Dec
Smallmouth Bass Fishing: July-September

• Trips: solo kayak or in guides boat
• Times: Morning or Evening approx 5hrs long
• Method: Float, Fly or Spincast

Cambridge to Paris - no special regulations
Smallmouth Bass Fishing: July-November

• Trips: solo kayak or in guides boat
• Times: Evening only approx 5hrs long
• Method: Float, Fly or Spincast

We will also have trips below the Brantford Dam and on the Nith River.
The Nith produces smallmouth, pike and walleye.
The Grand below Brantford produces Brown Trout, Steelhead and Smallmouth.
All trips encourage catch-photo-release fishing.
First Steelhead trips begin April 24th and Smallmouth June 26.
All trips include boats, paddling gear and fishing equipment(if needed).

Book your adventure soon!!  Kayak Fishing the Grand

Fishing Report - March 24th 2010, lower Niagara River

Weather in Southern Ontario has been stellar for the past few weeks with lots of sun and plenty of days in the mid teens.  Doesn't bode well for fishing in most river systems though.
Made it out for a few hours today on the lower river.
Vis was about 8' below the dams and 15' above. My client Peter got nice fresh chrome hen in the first 15mins, and I managed a fat Brown Trout to cap of a half day of fishing.
Baitfish are moving in now but the fish aren't too active yet.
There were a lot of folks fishing all the different areas that we checked out, "get to work dammit!" :D
Beauty weather and they'd had a big rain down that way last night.








Can't wait to get out again for a loger day of less people.

Nomad Adventures OKFC'09 donates to HHOA

Thanks again to everyone who participated, organized, sponsored or contributed in any way to last year's kayak fishing tournament in Haliburton. It was a very successful tournament and we were able to give a considerable donation to our charity, the Haliburton Highlands Outdoor Association.
HHOA is the local hatchery for the area and also supplies stocking fish(trout-walleye) to various other regional programs in Ontario. We were able to raise just over $925 for a first year event!! Anyone who has ever been involved in charity events knows that is a sizable donation for a 1st year event, and is a true indicator to the success of the tourney.




If you ever have a chance while in the Haliburton area, please stop by and take a free tour to see the hatchery. They have some pretty impressive going on there! HHOA raises several breeds of Lake Trout that are unique to the area - Silver, Haliburton Gold, another which name escapes me. A couple of these breeds are specific to the types of glacial kettle lakes in the area and are thought to be the oldest breeds of lake trout known. Many of the regions lakes have some sustaining populations of these Lake Trout, but HHOA is there to ensure the future of the species.
You can also see brook trout, rainbow trout and sometimes walleye populations being reared at this facility.

We hope to carry over this success into all of our 2010 events, OKFS and River Smallies.

Jeff Wall of Nomad Adventures hosts beginner kayak fishing seminar

We recently had small 2hr seminar and information session at Fogh Marine in Toronto.
This was directed at new or prospective kayak anglers in the Southern Ontario Great Lakes region.  Fogh Marine offered great deals on Ocean Kayak, Old Town and Hobie kayaks.  There were several attendees from the http://www.yakfisher.net/ forum and others from the local area.  Even one guest from the Nippissing area of Northern Ontario.

This was the first of several seminars and clinics to be conducted by Nomad Adventures in Ontario throughout 2010.  The next session will be an on-water clinic at Guelph Lake on May 8th for the opening of Pike season.  Fully outfitted fishing kayaks will be available for those new folks wishing to participate.
The full 2010 schedule is available at Nomad Adventures.

Lake Ontario south shore kayak fishing March 9

The weather has been amazing here in Southern Ontario over the past couple weeks!!  Several days of mid teens temps combined with the lack of ice on the Great Lakes was enough for me to take a day off for some early season salmon and trout action.  With any luck a northern pike too.
The fishing was slow and I only managed to hook what was probably a Coho, but never got it close enough to see it before losing it.
Weather was +14C with no clouds and a slight breeze.










Saw a large pike but couldn't get it to commit.  The water temps was a cool 40F and there was 50' of visibility. 
Should only get better from here.
 
Good Fishing!

Spring Kayak Fishing Seminar at Fogh Marine, March 6

We will be hosting a kayak fishing seminar geared towards boat buyers and folks looking to get into the sport.
topics to be discussed will be;

• Choosing a boat
• Freshwater Fishing Basics
• Wind and Weather
• Electronics and Rigging
• Trip Planning & 2010 Events

Please see link for more details on time and location.
Hope to see you out!

Nets quickly pulled from Colpoy's Bay

Posted By PAUL JANKOWSKI, SUN TIMES STAFF

Posted 4 hours ago

Native fishing nets were taken out of Colpoy's Bay early Wednesday morning, according to a Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement supervisor.

Rob Gibson confirmed the nets were removed but when asked if charges were possible, he said the matter remained under investigation.
David Leggatt, the president of the Bruce Peninsula's Sport-men's Association, also said the nets were removed although no one in his club saw it being done. "It was before daylight and where they went with them, we don't know," he said.
Ralph Azkiwenzie, the chief of the Chippewas Unceded First Nation, said the issue had actually been resolved Monday.

The fisherman set the nets in the bay because he "thought the area was open and it was not," Azkiwenzie said. "As soon as notification was made as to us, I had my fisheries staff follow that up with the fisherman concerned and he agreed to disengage . . . From my understanding there was complete co-operation with the MNR enforcement officials" and no charges would be laid, he added.

Gibson said he could not comment about that and other Ministry of Natural Resources spokesmen were unavailable for comment.
Azkiwenzie said the matter of nets in Colpoy's Bay was brought to his attention by Gibson. He then informed his fisheries staff and "they got ahold of the fisher-man. Then eventually Mr. Gibson did speak to the fisherman and there was full co-operation."
A now-expired agreement covering the native fishery banned commercial fishing in some areas including Colpoy's Bay. It also forbade targeting of salmon and rainbow trout, Leggatt said, and the fisherman involved "obviously knows" the area where he set his nets was "right in the middle of where the rainbow trout are getting ready to spawn."
First Nations in the area have a right to a commercial fishery but they also have to "to fish legally . . . they're not fishing legally. That's not a legal area to put nets and they're not legally allowed to target salmon or rainbow trout and obviously they were right after the rainbows because that's prime staging area where they'll be heading into the creeks in about two or three weeks," Leggatt said.

Azkiwenzie said that while the agreement over fishing had expired, "the same rules apply . . . We have status quo right now, pending getting back to the table to talk."  He said negotiations had stalled because of "a number of procedural delays" including a provincial cabinet shakeup in January when Donna Cansfield was replaced by Linda Jeffrey as the minister of natural resources.

"At the local level we have the Lake Huron manager and we have the district director out of Peterborough, so all these people have been apprised. We're just waiting to get back to the table hopefully, very, very shortly."

Until there's a new agreement, there is a process in place "on how to deal with things before they get out of hand" and it had worked in this instance, Azkiwenzie said

.

Winter Steelheading in Ontario

Most of the fishing is confined to creek and river mouths from Dec 31 until the last Sat in April when the season opens again. 
The Niagara River is open for business all year and winter catches of Brown Trout and Lake trout can be as common as Steelhead depending on what section of the river you are fishing.  The lower river below the Whirlpool is a definite must fish section with several different options to drop in on.  The key to success is to not spend much time in any section, but rather fish the hell out of it for 2hrs and move on to the next.  In two hours, you will have either detemined if there are active feeding fish, and have caught the most active ones or nothing is holding there at that moment.  Catching three fish out of any one spot is a good "drop-in" and you've probably exhausted the run so you should consider moving half an hour to one hour after hooking the last fish.
Try everything before you leave though and overlook nothing.  When fishing with buddies, be certain each is using something different.  ie. roe, streamers, bunny/marabou jigs, plastic minnows, pink worms etc.  If fishing solo, then start changing up after 10 drifts in each of that runs pockets because the key to success can be as simple as a colour change or size change away.  Pinks, oranges, whites and purples are all very good winter colours.  Winter baitfish are generally emerald shiner or smelt patterns in 3-4" sizes, so match the hatch.

I have a friend who is unemployed and fishes several days per week.  He has started to get successful in the last 2 weeks because he's discovered where fish hold and basically runs to those spots for first dibbs - yes, he's still a buddy.  If your friend does this, then you are within your right to fish in close proximity.  Unfortunately though, this same fella when not on the fish and you are, likes trying to grease you out and is always low holing people.  Stand Your Ground!  Tell 'em off if there isn't enough water for the both of you to fish.  Luckily the Niagara is a big river and you can almost always find other produtive spots to fish.

The temps are rising and this coming week is forecasted as sunny and +2/7C, so the fish are going to get very active shortly.  Get out there and get your fix before the masses see the forthcoming reports and start flocking to the productive water.

Good Fishing!