Friday was spent looking for some fresh steelhead moving out of Lake Erie. It was off to a great start hooking fish on each of my first two passes on a lower pool. But late in the morning a strong front blew through which seemed to significantly turn off the fish activity. A had a number of half-hearted tugs but no more full takes. I have experienced this a number of times where a major change in weather and barometer has had a negative impact on steelhead activity. Now that the weather has settled in, I would expect some good fishing over the next few weeks. We'll see what happens today.

The New York muskie season is in its final days ending on November 30th. Muskies generally get more active in the fall to build up fat reserves for the winter and to prepare for spawning in the spring. I spent a good portion of the last two days throwing big flies for muskies on the Niagara. Yesterday I fished with Justin Damude and he landed one smaller-sized fish that crushed his fly. Today I fished solo and landed one on that was on the smaller size as well - just under 30 inches. The real story though was during yesterday's outing I had three fish follow right to the boat and two were quite large. It's great to see such a fish, but it is a whole lot better when there is a fly in its mouth. A figure 8 motion kept the big fish around for a few seconds but couldn't trigger a take. Justin had a good fish grab his fly but the hook did not take hold. Overall, it was a couple of good outings, but with the fall feed on I was disappointed to not hook a big one. There is still time.

The 2012 trip to British Columbia in search of native steelhead was marked by solid fishing and cold air temperatures. The cold was extreme for that part of the continent even if it was late October / early November at the Silver Hilton Lodge on the Babine River. For the first two days the air temperatures barely rose above 20 degreees F. But we toughed it out and had some very good fishing on the coldest days. Iced guides provided a for a challenge to say the least. Air temperatures did moderate as the week went on. The high 30s that we experienced on the last day at camp felt balmy. A number of very good steelhead were landed including a 19 pounder by my good friend Keith Myott and a 20 pound fish by Jim Wyatt of Michigan. After we left camp Keith and I fished the Bulkley and Morice Rivers, hooking and landing nice fish each day on sink tips and seductive flies. While I was happy with my percentage of fish landed vs. hooked, I lost a couple of good-sized bucks toward the end of the trip. Overall it was another very successful and enjoyable BC trip. I'll post details about BC 2013 as they become avaialble. Also see my Facebook page for addtional photos.