Category Archives: Gear

The Wait is Over

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Another winter has come and gone and the 2017 trout season is finally here. It’s been a quiet off-season for me on the blogging front, but otherwise one of the busiest of my life. I had ACL reconstruction on my knee in October of last year (just after my last post) and the recovery and physiotherapy nearly consumed my life for the last 6 or 7 months. I knew it would be difficult, but I did not appreciate the commitment and length of time it would require. It’s hard to believe I didn’t plan the timing of the surgery to coincide with trout season though… but it certainly worked out.

My leg and knee have gained back most of its strength, though I feel there’s still a ways to go before it’s completely normal. At least I’m walking without a limp, back to jogging and bike riding and most importantly: ready to get back to hiking and river wading. Physio has dwindled from several hours a day (at its highest) to an hour or so every other day, so there’s finally time to get back to the other things I enjoy.

Sadly, I don’t have a lot to report yet on the fishing front. We’ve had a lot of rain leading up to opener, which surely put a bit of damper on many peoples’ weekend as lots of rivers were still blown out. It looks like the Hendricksons have started though and with the rivers dropping a bit and calming down, this week should be pretty fantastic in comparison.

I picked up a new toy last weekend – one that I’ve been wanting to acquire for a long time. I was very close to purchasing a new Outcast pontoon before coming across a used Streamer XL-IR in decent shape for a fraction of the cost. It still needs some cleaning up, but it seems to be in great working order and I’m excited to use it this season on everything from river drifts to still water to (small) lakes.

My new (used) Outcast Streamer XL-IR.

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Twice Broken

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Earlier this season, I purchased a new 6 weight Sage VXP, with the intent of using it for Bass and large streamer fishing for Trout. After having used it only a couple of times, it was part of an unfortunate incident involving a car window. Though it seemed unscathed at the time, it snapped in half while casting large streamers on the Grand the next day.

Distraught, I phoned Sage and explained the situation. They instructed me to ship the damaged sections to their Warranty/Repair department in Washington. I would be responsible for the shipping cost, along with a $50 US handling and return shipping fee. When all was said and done, I was out about $80. Worse yet, the season was just getting started and I would have to wait almost 2 months for the repair to be completed and shipped back to me, since this is the busiest time of year for rod repairs.

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New Gear

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Over the last year or so I’ve obtained a bunch of new fly fishing gear: some of it upgrades of existing gear, others new gear that I’ve been wanting for a while and a couple that were replacements for broken or lost gear. For the most part, I’ve been very pleased with most of it, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on the more notable items.

Some of the more notable new fly gear acquired in 2013.

Some of newly acquired fly fishing gear from 2013.

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Back to Big Crow

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Last fall, a friend and I took our first Algonquin Park interior trip, which took us from Opeongo Lake to Big Crow Lake and back over the course of 3 days. During that trip, we endured mostly days of heavy rain, cold weather and a long canoe trip across Opeongo Lake (rather than using a water taxi). The result was a great experience, but not a lot of time left for exploring and relaxing. This friend has since moved to San Francisco, but is headed back for a week in June and we decided to fit a 4 day Algonquin Trip in while he’s here.

Though we considered some new routes this time around, a few factors contributed to choosing the same route as last year, with some day trips thrown in. First, the canoe trip to Big Crow seems to be a good one for spotting wildlife (even though we were not so lucky last year). The Crow River in particular is a shallow marshy area that is popular among Moose that inhabit the area. In addition to this, we decided to rent the ranger cabin on Big Crow Lake, which is situated in an ideal spot for easy access to hiking trails and other rivers, lakes and portages for day trips. It may also come in handy as a refuge from the swarms of Black Flies and other biting insects that will likely be out in full force during our stay.

Regarding the insects, I’ve never been to Algonquin at this time of year and as mentioned, it generally an extremely buggy time with peak mosquitoes, black flies, deer flies and other nasty biters all trying to make a meal of you. For this reason, the park is usually much more empty than normal, with most visitors opting to wait for July or August when the bugs die down. A few (billion) bugs aren’t going to scare me off, though I will certainly be armed with this trusty bug shirt:

The Original Bug Shirt, my safety net against the hordes of biting insects
The Original Bug Shirt, my safety net against the hordes of biting insects

In addition to Algonquin being virtually empty, the biting insects also drive Moose out of the thick forests and into the open at this time of year, meaning wildlife viewing should be at its best. The brook trout fishing should also be fairly good, with fish still in shallower areas of the lakes and rivers. The fly rod will definitely be coming along and hopefully I’ll finally get acquainted with a few of the fabled Algonquin brookies.

Look for a trip report in a couple weeks.

SealLine Pro Pack

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When I get an idea in my head, it doesn’t take long before it becomes reality.  This was the case again with the backpack I bought yesterday and planned to use for my upcoming Algonquin trip.  I purchased a MEC Brio 70L internal-frame hiking pack, along with an assortment of dry sacks for keeping all my gear inside dry.  It actually seemed like a great hiking backpack for the price, but after trying it on and doing a bit more research I realized it might not be the best (or even most cost efficient) method of packing gear for a canoeing+portaging trip.

Long story short, I returned the backpack along with most of the dry sacks and purchased a SealLine Pro Pack (pictured below).

 

You can get a sense of the size of this pack by the full-size guitar sitting next to it.  This beast has 115L capacity, which is about 64% more than the previous backpack!  On top of that, it’s 100% waterproof, which means it can sit at the bottom of the canoe getting wet, all my gear inside stays dry without the need for additional dry sacks and I don’t end up carrying a soggy backpack around.  Finally, the profile of this bag is actually better for portages since it sits lower than a typical large hiking backpack and won’t interfere with a canoe resting on your shoulders.

It worked out that the cost of the SealLine was about the same as the cost of the cheaper Brio backpack with all the required dry sacks.  Now all I have to do is find enough stuff to fill it!

Algonquin Bound

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It’s been rainy and miserable the last few days, so I haven’t gotten out for any more fishing this week. Instead, I’ve been planning an extended weekend canoe/portage trip!

This is something I’ve always wanted to do: portage into the Algonquin Provincial Park back country. However, I haven’t really been able to find anyone adventurous enough to do it with; and I’m certainly not about to solo a trip like this, at least not for my first few attempts.

Well, I’ve finally found a victim (I mean companion) to endure this experiment with me and we’re planning to do a 3 day trip, leaving Thursday, September 13th. I’ve done some limited camping in Algonquin’s developed campsites in the past, but I’m completely unfamiliar with its interior. Along with Google, the following book has been my main planning reference so far:

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