Kayak fishing for steelhead in Ontario

The snow piles are dropping, days getting longer and sunnier, and the rivers have started to open up here in Southern Ontario, as winter slowly loses its grip on this part of the province. I've been seeing early winter black hatches on my last several trips to the Niagara and my thoughts quickly turn to the impending spring run of steelhead!!

Will there be enough water to run the rivers? Will the fish have dropped back by then? Will it be a strong group of year classes running..... and all kind of such thoughts start rattling around in my brain.

What is for sure is that the fish will run and there will be fishable water to hit somewhere. It's up to us to monitor the conditions and be ready to take the time off if necessary when it does happen.
Steelheading is like sacrilege in Southern Ontario, and anyone exploiting these tightly guarded waters with anything more than the bare basics is heavily frowned upon. And no, a kayak is not considered a basic.... that is except by us here at Nomad Adventures. A kayak is an essential tool to success for spring and fall steelheading!
If you aren't implementing all tools at hand, then what exactly are you doing?
All rivers are fair game, and we all know there's a lot of rivers coursing thru the Southern Ontario peninsula, surrounded by 3 Great Lakes plus Georgian Bay.

Our steelhead kayak fishing trips run from Spring: late April - late May, Fall: late October - end December.
Opportunities for Brook, Brown and Lake Trout exist on these trips. Fishing methods are float fishing, fly fishing, bottom bouncing and spincasting.
Beginners to seasoned anglers will all enjoy these trips.

Inquire at Nomad Adventures for your 2011 Steelhead Kayak Fishing trip in Ontario; we look forward to hearing from you!!

Ontario Kayak Fishing Series gets a website for 2011!!

That's right, we're growing again.  The site should be up and running by mid February, so stay tuned.
All tourney talk and updates shall remain at http://www.yakfisher.net/ 

Hope to see you out this year!!

Grand River kayak fishing - smallies

Spring kayak fishing for Lake Huron pike

As featured on WFN;

Spring came about a month early in Southern Ontario, and so did the ice out Northern Pike fishing. Most regions of Ontario have closed seasons for pike after March 31st, but Lake Huron is one of the exceptions. I was out on Lake Ontario March 9th trying for some early spawners, but it was just a bit too early then. Mid April to early May tends to be the window in normal years.

Most of our early season Great Lakes fishing is concentrated on bays, harbours and river mouths. That is what makes the use of a kayak such an invaluable tool for chasing down these big toothy critters. The kayak allows us to access the skinniest of waters, going totally undetected by the fish. Not to mention, it is a total blast to hook up with any fish over 10lbs from a plastic boat!! When the weather/wind cooperates, we can cruise many miles shoreline while stopping to fish all the bays and river outlets along the way. Kayak fishing for pike anywhere between lower Lake Huron and north towards Tobermory can be very productive when timed right, and you may even find yourself battling 50"+ fish! However, the majority of what we catch is in the 36-42" range and still very respectable.

Northern Pike, a member of the Esox family and often referred to as the "water wolf", tends to be very hungry and ferocious when coming off the post spawn activities. There's no mistaking what's on the other end when one does hit, even though the water temps are hovering in the high 40's-mid 50F range. The pike are feeding on perch, bass, suckers and even carp. So any lure resembling a baitfish or fish is fair game. We tend to throw a lot of large spoons, big crankbaits and swimbaits. Presentations need to be a little slower due to the cold water and even a stop and go retrieve may be necessary to entice these pike. Large Husky Jerk cranks work well using that method. 
Below: Brent Mattock and Mike Blumhagen with 36" & 38" Northerns

The great part about early season yak-pike is that you get a chance to fish when most inland waters seasons are closed. Aside from the great pike action, you may also experience incidental catches of bass, brown trout, steelhead, salmon or walleye while paddling down the coastal waters. Please be kind to the out of season fish and know the regulations before arriving.

Early season cold water kayak fishing is not for everyone and can be very dangerous, so take an expert and know the conditions before you go!

Nomad Adventures offers excellent guided kayak fishing trips and is a great way to find out if kayak fishing is your thing while allowing you the opportunity to land a trophy fish with their experienced and knowledgeable guides.

This type of outdoor activity is a great way to escape the house and get some cardio too!

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

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.

The Steelhead Gods are smiling again!

It was long time coming, but we finally got out again for some winter steelhead fishing on the Niagara.  The day was beautiful, +3C with sun all day.  There was a bitter E wind just to remind us that it was still winter but the sun made it feel more like +10C.  The morning was slow and we never saw any fish where we started out at Pebbley.  Around noon we decided to make our way upriver toward the Glen, and it was at this point that I noticed the fish had begun to get slightly active around the surface.  We fished the tailout section of a long 17' deep run, and on the second drift my partner hooked up with the smallest steelie I'd ever seen pulled from the mighty Niagara River.  But hey, it's a start!!  We kept moving upstream fishing all the pockets and deeper runs as we came upon them.  I spotted a real slow run of about a 50 metres in length and decided to set up shop there.  On the third drift my float did the super slow sink as it does on all telltale snags, so I gave it a quick rip back in the direction it had drift from.  Oh what is this, the snag fought back!!
I landed this hearty buck after a very lacklustre battle.

The drift kept changing speeds from very slow, to dead stopped but we persisted.  Two drifts after my fish, Ben nails another buck just slighty larger than the one I caught.

We fished for about another hour and I lost one fish about the same as these two.  The sun had now left our side of the river and the temps started to drop quickly, so we decided to weave our way back up and out of the Gorge.
Not a stellar day by any means but hey, it was great just to be out on a gorgeous winters day and catch fish.

til next time, Good Fishing!

Southern Ontario, Niagara outdoors and the 2010 Spring Shows

It has been feeling more like winter in Southern Ontario this year, since the start of the month. The slightly lower avg temps of -4 to -8C have kept snow down though. Niagara had a week long dump of snow due to some continued N - NW winds bringing heavy flurries in off Lake Ontario. The cold coupled with poor water vis has kept me away from steelheading the Niagara River for 2-3weeks! There's a mild spell of +3/4C coming by the end of next week. Provided the water stays at its 3ft vis and green, there should be some good action! The Browns are still around in the river, possibly dropping back now.

The Toronto Boat Show started this week and continues til next weekend.  We'll be in Toronto with Fogh Marine, presenting at the Spring Fishing and Boat Show Feb 12-15.  The unveiling of our 2010 Ontario Kayak Fishing Series, the new Nomad Adventures Brochure and Hobie's '10 fishing kayak line-up plus Fogh Marine's great sailing display.
We'll also be presenting at the Niagara Outdoor Show on April 3/4. 
Hope to see some of you out!

Lake Erie has started to freeze on the N-W end, so it won't be long til the river stays clean for at least a month!  Now just have to contend with cold weather and freezing rod guides.

Good fishing and see you on the river!!

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.