GoPro Hero HD Footage from Toronto Islands 2011

I finally had the chance to sit down and play with some of my GoPro Hero HD footage, it was also the first time I took Final Cut Pro X for a spin. While many people have complained about the downsides of the new Final Cut, and the bizarre iMovie like interface that throws all your years of NLE (non-linear editing) out the window for a new “magnetic timeline”. I found that FCPX did a fantastic job of editing the 1080p source footage. In fact I edited and exported this video in the time it would have taken Final Cut Pro 7 to render it for playback!

There’s no fancy editing techniques in this video, I simply chopped out the boring stuff and used a built-in transition in between each of the clips. Feel free to crank it up to 1080p and fullscreen it for full effect.

Fishing Fury In The Globe and Mail!

Look Ma, I’m in The Globe And Mail!

If you are in Ontario, be sure to pick up a copy of the Saturday paper! (that is of course, if the world hasn’t ended by then!)

Photo of the Day: First Pike

I managed to squeeze in a little fishing at Toronto Islands earlier today. Along the way, we met up with my friend Fidel and we wasted no time covering shoreline in search of pike. I was hoping to get the first fish of the day so my son Ash could have his first look at a real live pike, but Fidel stole the show and landed a scrappy little pike. Ash was super excited and to see and touch a fish of this size and he even helped with the release. Needless to say, this will probably not be the first shower Ash receives from a Toronto pike!

Toronto Islands Pike Opener 2011

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably read countless stories and reports from the Toronto Islands during pike season. Well, the season is upon us again my friends and I was lucky enough to get out early on opening day (saturday) and fish with Ed F in his brand spanking new Lund boat docked on the islands. We were on the water before 9 and hitting pike before 9:30. It was a truly amazing start to the season and I look forward to what should be an amazing fishing year!

This was a “trip of firsts”- the first pike fishing day of the year on the islands, my first fish landed this year, which was also the first fish landed in Ed’s new boat, and also the first fish I caught on a swimbait (a reaction strike slow sink Revolution Shad). That’s a lot of firsts for one fish! Even though swimbaits were working really well for me best lure of the day was still the Rapala Glidin’ Rap.

Also, we’re thinking about putting together a small gathering on the islands for all of our local readers so register for our forums and get involved! More photos from my trip after the break- all photos credited to Ed F.

Continue reading “Toronto Islands Pike Opener 2011″…

2010 Toronto Islands Pike Opener

Having read on fishing fury about the pike on Toronto Island I had to give it a try. On opening day I took the ferry over and started fishing as soon as could. I fished for most of the day switching mainly between the lures; a five of diamonds, a red and white daredevil, and a hard silvery minnow imitation. As I was starting to think I wasn’t going to catch anything I finally had a bite on my five of diamonds, which would prove to be the only lure I would catch fish on. After a few minutes of fighting I had the fish subdued and deployed my collapsible net with one hand (yes I had practiced to make sure I could), only to realize the fish was much to big to fit. After thinking of what to do for several seconds I decided to try to land the fish by hand, which I hadn’t done with a fish this size before. It turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated. After a few pictures and a quick measure the 40 inch fish was released. I fished for a while before calling it quits and vowing to be back to catch more fish tomorrow.

The next day was a success as I caught a 30” and a 22” pike. The 22” inch sized pike seemed to be fairly typical of what I caught over the next few days, one spectacularly released while I was holding it up by the line for a passing tour boat when it flailed, spit the hook, plopped to the beach and flopped back into the water. I’m sure I gave a few people on the boat some pictures to laugh at later. I believe last fish I caught was another 30” pike before Jonathon and Clive showed up doing a TV show and bringing bad luck with it. Despite the bad luck it was still good to meet them, they gave me a bit of fishing tackle and even showed me a secret spot that I plan to use next year.

- Jeremy Brodhagen

Thank you for your entry in our 2010 Contributor Contest. We’re glad to see that you found some awesome fish thanks to information you found on this blog, we were very pleased to meet you while fishing the islands, and we’re very sorry about those bad mojo tv cameras! We’ll be sending you a copy of Fins + Skins magazine for your efforts!

Toronto Islands 2009

Fishing Fury and friends takeover the Toronto Islands in 2009.

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