Fins + Skins Magazine 2010

Several months back, we were contacted by one of the biggest names in Canadian fishing, Henry Waszczuk. He liked our site so much he asked us to do some piece work for him in his yearly publication of Fins + Skins, a top notch travel, golf and fishing magazine. Naturally, we jumped at the opportunity and I just got a copy of the latest issue in the mail. This issue celebrates both Henry’s 25th year on television and Fishing Fury’s first editorial in a magazine!

Jon and I put our minds together to write two articles, one about our adventures in La Paz, Mexico fishing the Sea Of Cortez, and the second about fishing for bonefish in the Bahamas on a budget. In addition, we made several contributions throughout the magazine. Stay tuned for your chance to get a copy!

The Silence of the Walleye Zealots

Tony Andrews of WalleyeGuy Blog recently contacted me to share his disapproval in our lack of walleye specific content. You see Tony is a self proclaimed walleye zealot, and for him no other species will do. So I asked Tony if he would be willing to write a few articles for us, starting with an introduction and some basic information on lures and tactics- and that’s exactly what he did. I certainly hope that he makes these a semi regular occurrence because I really liked this introduction. The silence of the walleye zealots has been broken!

I recently contacted Jonathon and pointed out the obvious lack of a walleye fishing zealot on Fishing Fury. For those in the know, the benefits of a walleye fishing zealot are obvious… but for the uninitiated, a walleye fishing zealot is like a cool breeze pouring across the lake on a summer evening. The words of the zealot open your eyes and make you see things from a glassy-eyed perspective. They make you feel the thrill of the “whack” on the end of a Lindy rig, and the gut-wrenching sickness when you discover that you are about to net some “lesser” species. Spend a few quality hours with a walleye zealot and you’ll likely run home, pile your “non-walleye” tackle in a heap in the front yard, soak it in kerosene and set it ablaze.* Spend a month or two and he’ll have you drinking the water out of a leech container on command.

But this is not what I want. I’m a centrist at heart and have no desire to convert the masses. My hope is to provide the reader with a glimpse into the world of someone who spends 99.9% of their angling time chasing stizostedion vitreum.

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Toronto Islands Report – May 2010

In 2004 -even before Fishing Fury started- the Toronto Islands were the first location that Clive and I really put our heads together on. The coordination of our thoughts and efforts combined and together we landed well over a dozen pike in only a few days fishing, it was here on these shores that we developed our own shore fishing tactics, and here that Fishing Fury was born.

Now six years later, Clive is flying in all the way from Halifax on Porter Airlines and will only be in town for two nights. Though we only have a short time together we intend to spend as much of it fishing as humanly possible. Clive arrived on Monday morning to the Toronto Islands Airport and we wasted no time getting to the ferry docks, where we met up with Pete from the OFN forums. Once on the islands we walked straight off the ferry to the Center Island channel where we set up our gear and started casting.

Continue reading “Toronto Islands Report – May 2010″…

GULP Alive Killed My Rug

You may recall a recent post where I talked about a rug that was ruined while I was at Mystery Lake because one of the Berkley GULP! Alive buckets had leaked, well here’s the rug! Since that original post more and more people have contacted me telling me of similar experiences they’ve had with this product. So, I have created an official petition to have Berkley fix their packaging, once we’ve gotten more than 100 signatures I will send the petition to Berkley.

It’s a shame really, this product is amazing it’s the packaging that sucks. In this economy the $25+ (CDN) price tag, coupled with the possibility of having to replace ($220 rug from Ikea) or professionally clean any surface that happens to absorb this liquid. I can’t recommend this product without sticking a huge warning on it.

Permanent stain from a leaky Berkley GULP! Alive bucket.

We put flour and baking soda over the stain before we left, hoping it would soak up some of the moisture and oil. As you can see it did absorb some however a large stain can still be clearly seen and a second ring of oil can also be seen. The stain is about 18 inches long to put it in to perspective. When we attempted to clean the stain with some soap and water the awful smell immediately returned. Mike said he’s going to keep the rug in the boat house where the smell or the stain wont matter.

The Return To Mystery Lake

It’s been over 5 years since we last visited Mystery Lake and just as long since we’ve fished with our good friend Mike Westlake. Mike would definitely be considered a founding member of Fishing Fury, in our first year he joined us on many of our trips and witnessed us catch trophy fish in every body of water we fished. After some catching up via email a few weeks ago we planned a last minute trip to Mystery Lake last weekend, we knew the trip could only end in a epic tale of man vs beast. And that’s exactly what it happened.

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Updated: I’ve uploaded photos from the trip to the Mystery Lake 2009 photo gallery. I realize the 2004 gallery isn’t even complete and I hope to fix this over the winter.

Traditional Japanese Rod Making by Adam Guy

Adam Guy recently sent me a new editorial on making traditional Japanese bamboo fishing rods. In his email he described the process and techniques used to handcraft these beautiful rods, which I found very interesting, and once completed he takes his rod fishing for the first time. Adam is never one to leave us hanging, but always the one to leave us hungry, he takes us home with him and shows us a fully prepared plate of fresh Japanese Whiting caught on his handmade rod. If this doesn’t impress you and make your mouth water I don’t know what will.

The editorial is 3 pages long, but it’s a great read and I recommend you start at the beginning. However if the internet has modified your behavior patterns, or you’re the type of person who enjoys reading the last page of a novel first, you can skip to the end for the fishing report and food.

Here I will describe the process of making my first bamboo fishing rod, with a few photographs. Some of the stages, particularly the lacquering, I was unable to photograph as I had my hands full; also some of the tools and techniques are trade secrets that must remain in the workshop. For beginners it is usual to start with a rod for either madai (red snapper) or shirogisu (Japanese whiting) with a bamboo body and fibreglass tip. Since I go fishing for whiting much more often than for snapper, I went for the latter type. The first step is the selection of bamboo; there are many varieties, of which about six or seven are used for rod making. My teacher showed me a variety from his stores, which is bamboo which has been cut and then dried for a number of years. So long as the bamboo is kept free of burrowing insects, it can keep for decades; some of his best bamboo is from his own late master, whose stock dates back to before the War. Unlike bamboo ‘cane’ that is split and fashioned into rods in the West, bamboo is almost always used whole for Japanese fishing rods.

Continue reading Making A Traditional Japanese Bamboo Fishing Rod by Adam Guy…