After some awesome fishing with Ken last week for Steelhead I knew I had to get down there one more time before they went back to the lake. After trying to score a day off all week I didn't think it was going to happen. I begged, blackmailed and finally bribed my way to a day off on Thursday at the last minute. There had been some rain on Wednesday night with lots more forecast for Friday, so this was gonna be the last chance to get into them, before the rain drove them back.

With an early start I was in the car and on my way towards Toronto by 4:15am. Arrived at the stream about 5:45 and it was clear straight away things were different. A week before there had been fish everywhere, now I was struggling to spot any. I made a few drifts past some logs with no action. I started the walk downstream towards the pool we had most success with the previous week. Only saw 2 fish on the way, neither of which had any interest in taking a bait. I was hoping to hell there were still fish in the deeper pool downstream.

Arrived at the pool and thank god there were fish! Took about half an hour to get one to hit though, much more cautious than they had been previously. Quick couple of pics and it was back in the drink.

It was about 7am by now so I sent a msg to Ken letting him know I scored a day off and there were still some fish here. With that news he and Michael were on their way. I had another hit but missed it before Michael arrived and then not long after my second hookup for the morning. Some nice net work by Michael and fish number 2 was on the shore. Much better than the previous week where I had about 20 hits and only landed 2 fish.

Things got really quiet for a while and we were thinking of moving spots just as Ken arrived. He quickly showed us how it is done and had a good fish hooked up in a tight little pool full of snags. The pressure got to me and I rushed the net job a bit, resulting in a lost fish. Sh111t, sorry Ken!

Things were quiet again so I climbed around getting some photos from the other side of the pool just as Ken hooked up again. After a good fight this fish found its way around a god and bust itself off.

Not long after it was time to get going so I didn't catch traffic on the way home. We think we have traffic problems in Perth but its nothing compared to Toronto grid lock. Ken stayed fishing for a while longer and hopefully got into some more fish, as I was still feeling bad about screwing up the net job.

Ken has been an absolute legend, he knows his stuff as well as anyone I have come across and has put time and effort into getting me onto fish here. Much appreciated mate and hopefully I can return the favour in Perth one day! We had a bunch of rain again yesterday so I reckon the fish will have all returned to the lake by now. What an amazing experience though getting into the famous Ontario Steelhead!

Cheers

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