Image via WikipediaI love fishing from my float tube. I have two float tubes so I can take a friend fishing with me. If you have been reading my blog for long you probably know I have way more fun with friends.

About 6 years ago, the last time I was fishing before my heart attack, one of my buddies broke one of the flippers in my second set. Well I never replaced that set, plus my health was so poor at that time I really didn’t think I should bother picking up another pair.

I didn’t have the energy to use my float tube last year but I will be using them this years so I have to get another pair of flippers. Oh, wait a minute I just got an email from Jamie. He is looking at flippers on eBay, one of my favorite places to buy things.

I like the flippers Jamie is looking at because they fit over your wading boots allowing you to tie them on pretty snug. That is the style I have now but the other set I had were more the scuba type flippers and after being in the water for a while my feet would hurt from the pressure of the flippers. I never get that with the ones that go over my wader.

The flippers that fit over your boots don’t pinch my feet and toes so I can fish all day without being in pain.

BTW: Jamie is in for a treat in the 2009 fishing season because we will be hunting pickerel on the fly and from the float tube. We will be right at the water level and that is when pickerel fishing gets really exciting.

Are you really ready for this Jamie???

Image by Chris Blanar via FlickrI love fly fishing for trout in New Brunswick. If you are looking for a quick meal you don’t even have to leave the road, but I don’t eat much fish. I would rather just enjoy the experience and let the brookies go for another day and another fisher.

Any time of year is a great time to fish, heck I would fish in the bathtub if you put a fish in there. Seriously though it’s great fun any time but I have to say that once the leaves turn in the autumn months it gets even more visually exciting. At time it just takes my breath away and I have to sit down to take it all in.

Just 5 more months to go. I enjoy spring as well. It’s great to see everything coming back to life and for me the fresh greens of spring are almost as exciting as the colours of fall.  Sure wish I could just hibernate.

Image via WikipediaWhile I and my buddies were in northern Quebec on our fly-in fishing trip there were Lake trout in the shallow bays but my buddies, well except Kerry, were blind to their presence.

The proper sunglasses was made the difference. Kerry and I could look out over the water and see the Lake trout swimming around, just below the surface.

I was out on my own using my Hummingbird fish finder to finds some big Lake trout when I thought I saw a splash in a little bay. Thinking it was a brook trout I headed in to make a few casts with my flyrod.

BAM!! The first cast. It wasn’t a brook trout at all, as it turned out it was a Lake trout at about 6 or 8 pounds. As I was fighting this little surprise I was looking around and saw that he wasn’t alone, there were dozens of them in this little bay.

I had to make a decision, keep fishing and tell my buddies later or stop fishing and take the 20 minute boat ride back to the camp to tell them. Well I love fishing with friends so I stopped, after two more fish, and headed back. Would have been a great time to have a two-way radio.

When we returned I was the only one with a flyrod but both Kerry and I had on polarized sunglasses. Unfortunately the other 3 guys didn’t. But like I said I like to fish with friends and I like us all to be catching fish.

I told Kerry it was time for him to migrate to one of the other boats and we would fish three to a boat for a while. That way I could direct those casting from my boat and Kerry could do the same in his boat.

I little trick we both tried was to switch glasses with a buddy that didn’t have a fish on. That way they could see where they were while we were fighting our fish.

It is so important to have the right gear when you go out on the water.

Knowing the structure that lies beneath the waters that you fish in can be the difference between catching and just fishing.

I remember back when I was a kid I took an old bucket, cut the bottom out of it and glued a piece of glass into the bottom. It took me a while to get it water proof and it looked pretty ugly but guess what. It allowed me to see below the top of the water without sticking my head in the water. I was pretty proud of it and I could see my dad was impressed too.

Way back then I called structure ‘hiding places’. I even took my bucket with me when we went to the ranch where we kept our cattle all summer. They had a lake right in the middle of their property and only one other farm on the whole lake.

I was too young to take the boat out on my own but I would put on my life jacket and sit in the boat with my bucket over the side just watching all the life and activity beneath the boat.

Today I have become a little more suffisticated and use a Hummingbird fish finder. It saves me so much time on new waters. I was sold on fish finders when five of us went on a fly-in fishing trip to northern Quebec. I was the only one with a fish finder and we had three boats.

We had 7 days with an entire lake to ourselves. There was an island in center with a beautiful cottage but no one was there all week. It was a really remote location, accessable only by plane so I imagine it took some bucks to build that cottage.

We got settled in to our cabin had a bite to eat and then it was off to the boats. None of them knew I had a fish finder and of course they all wanted a crack at it but I said no way. I did say that each day I would switch fishing partners so they could all try it out.

Well every single day my boat caught more fish and bigger fish. We eliminated so much water and found other water that we might never have bothered with because the clues were all below the surface.

My partner and I out fished the others so much that they just started following us.

The fly-in fishing trip was my first so it is special but the quality of the fishing and accomodations were less than promised. I was the only one that practice total catch and release while the others wanted trophies. The fridge freezer quite working near the end of the week and they all lost their trophies while mine were still swimming around.

But honestly I would have slept in a tent and used canoes so we had it pretty easy for being so remote.

The happy memories would not have been so happy had I not brought my Hummingbird fish finder.The fact that I out fished the others with my fish finder proved to me that we would have been crying by the end of the week.

I don’t swear by Hummingbird, not at all. I am glad to have it and it works for me but I have never tried any other kind. I think just having one for those times you are fishing new waters is worth the investment.

The five of us were beside ourselves with excitement. None of us had been on a real fishing trip let alone a fly-in fishing trip to northern Quebec. Heck only two of us were experience fishers while the other three we kind of behind the house stream fishermen and maybe a little Mackerel fishing.

We had about 4 months to prepare which probably cost me hundreds more than was necessary but it was a once in a lifetime trip so it was going to be worth it. I wanted all new fishing equipment and so did my buddy Kerry.

My job didn’t give me spending money after all the bills were paid so I had to come up with something else that would help me buy new fishing equipment. But what could I do, I was far too busy at the one job I had to think about a second job, even if it were only temporary. Then it came to me…

I was spending about $10.00 a day on unnecessary things like coffee, muffins and pop. I decided I would give up those things until after our fishing trip. Kerry worked with me and was in the same boat so he decided he would give up the coffee, muffins and pop as well.

Our three other partners in this fishing trip didn’t need the extra money as they didn’t care what they took with them as long as it was beer. I think we had more weight in beer than all our other gear.

Note: I don’t drink and fish and I don’t let any one else either so even though we had a ton of beer it was for after a long hard day of fishing.

I was really blown away by how much I had been spending on food at work when I could have been bringing from home as part of our grocery bill. Live and learn and save.

$10.00 a day, five days a week equals $50.00, man what a waste. It didn’t take very long to start buying new fishing gear. Both Kerry and I bought exactly the same things.

New fishing vests, boots, waders, rods, reels, lures and flies… We looked like twins, well I was about 60 pounds over weight and Kerry wasn’t but other than that we looked a lot a like all decked out in our new gear. The only thing I bought that Kerry didn’t was a fish finder which came in handy for those huge Lake Trout.

The place we were flying out of gave us a pretty detailed list of what we should take. After all we were going into a place so far north it took a couple of hours to fly there so any problems would result in a two hour flight both ways. We didn’t want to spoil our trip so we followed the list as close as we could.

More about our fly in fishing trip in another post.