Tim Kelly

Wow. #runforcover

Can we go fishing now?

8lb fluoro can be tricky, even on a 3000 sized reel, it will be hopeless on a small ultralight reel. Unless there's a really good reason you want to use 8lb fluoro as a mainline on a spinning reel, using mono or braid will be much less aggravating.

I'm not sure price is the thing that's killing the big stores. Tackle Warehouse looks like it's a successful business, and it's not cheap, everything's full retail price, but they have a huge stock, so you can get most things at one stop. That used to be the case at BPS and cabela's, plus they had their own brand clothing which was good quality, plus they were destinations signposted from 100 miles away on the freeways. There's either something that's changed with the consumer, but apparently shopping is the number one recreational pastime, so you'd think the destination model would still work? I think they've gone down the wrong road with the limited stock, too much house branded stuff and not enough branded goods. What do I know, Mr BPS seems to have an ever expanding empire, but as a consumer you get the feeling that there's significantly less choice than there used to be!

From my summer trip, one of my more satisfying additions to the front line was a buzzbait, but a buzzbait with a horny toad on the back. It made casting a buzzbait easier and skipping it possible too. I love a buzzbait strike and the toad instead of the skirt was a great upgrade for me.

They've all become a bit disappointing. I used to try to fit in a BPS or Cabela's trip into my infrequent fishing holidays Stateside, and this summer, I was flying into Ottawa, the flight was arriving in the evening and I decided to get a hotel for the night so I could go to Cabelas before heading off to the lake a couple of hours away. Let's just say I won't be doing that again! Cabela's in Canada was an even bigger disappointment than the ailing Gander mountain in Syracuse I went to last time! A very small range of branded products and very poorly stocked shelves. I suppose they're running the inventory down ahead of the sell off, but really? Hardly worth keeping the doors open. 10 or more years ago it was an extraordinary experience going into a BPS, Cabelas or Gander for someone from Europe. Now either I'm jaded, which is entirely possible, or they are a shadow of their former selves. It used to be a day out, but now it's a slightly frustrating let down.

Yeah, sometimes you just have to pick up another rod!

There's a knack to unpicking braid birdsnests. I've been using braid for the better part of 20 years and I haven't had to cut out a birdsnest since very early on, when I didn't understand how to unpick them. Sometimes they look impossible and the braid has cut into the layers below, but it always comes out, either by pulling the main line or the loops.

Here's one from back a while back John!

I've been very lucky over the past 10 years to have a trip to the US and Canada every other year by the kind invitation of friends. The last two trips I managed to fit in a stop in Syracuse to fish with Jim Husnay Jr and Snr and John Franchot for a couple of days before meeting Tim Johnson for a trip up to the Rideau lakes in Ontario. This year I couldn't work in the Syracuse stop, so I didn't get to see the guys there, or fish my favorite Oneida lake, but flew straight to Ottawa where it was easy for Tim to meet me for the start of the much anticipated "Bassfest '17" Tim has had a cottage on Newboro lake for the last 4 or 5 years, and before that we stayed at Sterling Lodge on Newboro. It really is a slice of heaven and an absolutely other worldly experience when you're used to fishing the River Thames in London, UK! Like a lot of southern canadian lakes it's a weedy aquarium with beautifully clear water and willing, tourist friendly, bass. Days start well on Newboro. We certainly had a week of mixed weather this year and had a few days where I didn't seem to have packed enough clothes (space is always at a premium in the suitcase as there's much more important tackle to bring over!) and was double fleeced and under my rainsuit all day, but we had enough good days to give a nice contrast in conditions. It upset the bass a bit some days, but overall we did very well. The last couple of times we've been counting all the bass we caught and the weight of the best five, which involved them spending a lot of the day in the boat's jacuzzi, but this year we went MLF style and weighed them as we caught them and Tim kept track of our best five. This system seemed much better and allowed the fish to be returned quickly and saved me from a severe case of bass thumb chasing them round in the livewell every day. Last year our best bag was 15.04 and our days varied between low twenties to seventy odd bass total. This year we beat our previous best bag on a number of occasions and as we only counted legal bass this time, the numbers were pretty good too. Between mid twenties and mid fifties. We had two bags over 16lb, which we were pleased with, mostly from punching baits through the weed mats that had blown up in a few areas. A few of them going over 4lb and a good number of 3lb+ fish. I love that mat fishing. Punching 1oz weights with creature baits through the floating canopy on heavy rods and strong braid is just flat out fun. Makes a mess of the boat, but the scene of devastation on the decks just shows you've had a good day! Probably our best day was a 51 fish day weighing 16.08. Around half of those fish came out of one huge grass mat. Bruised ribs and big grins everywhere! The first afternoon was interesting as it was a bright day and we started fishing shallow in the shady pockets. Tim was throwing a senko and I was skipping a jig behind him. The jig seemed to be preferred by the fish and I caught the bigger fish With a 4.02 and 3.10 being the big fish of the afternoon (15 fish for 15lb exactly). That pattern didn't last though of course and the following day was cooler and windy and we only managed 31 fish for 11.03. The third day was even more awkward. The wind howled and so we slept in until 6am to give the first storm of the morning a chance to blow through. We found fish on jerkbaits, ned and brush hogs mainly and unusually very few fish seemed to be using the deep weed, where we would expect to find them, but more open areas, which gave ned a chance to shine, and pads, which gave the platform to the brush hogs. 25 fish for 13.12. Dr Johnson with a nice punched fish. Senko under a very smart dock Nice one up shallow, hiding from the wind. On the 18th we had a day on the St Lawrence with guide Dean Meckes. What a nice guy he is. It was the first day of practise for the elites and we saw Adrian Avena's boat and Justin Lucas' fishing the area we were in near Clayton. Really fascinating way to fish and we learnt a lot from dean. I couldn't buy a bite with the drop shot until the very end, I think my 3/8 weight wasn't working as well as when I swapped to a 1/2 later for some reason, but it's a learning curve in that current and depths. Would love to go back there now having had the day with Dean and watched the bassmaster live coverage. I definitely feel like I could fish it far better a second time. Tim had some nice ones to about 3.08 My most fun fish was one that followed a jerkbait over shallow water . I saw the fish as the jerkbait was a good way out from the boat and I dropped the jerkbait rod and picked up a senko and fired it out there while the fish was still looking at the jerkbait. Very satisfying when it sucked it in and gave a great ariel battle as it was so annoyed with itself for being so dumb! Dean caught a fish that looked like it had been messing with Mike Tyson. After that we had a day and a half to fish back at the cottage. We had a few punching sessions that were only moderately successful, after our huge success earlier in the week, as far as numbers go, but it still produced a couple of better quality fish and we found fish in various places on various methods. For the last half day we went through to the original big mat place to see how that was doing and the wind had shifted it around. It wasn't very productive, but produced a four pounder. Tim put on a clinic with a brush hog in deeper water for a while too. We bumped into some young guys while we were waiting for the lock who told us they had been catching smallmouth in a place we've never really had any luck, so the last hour of the trip was spent there. Tim had 3 small smallies and I had a proper one follow to the boat, which was a very tantalizing way to finish the trip. Unfinished business there! "Weather" provides stunning sunsets in Canada Coming to the end of another 5am to 9pm shift in paradise. Give me a week to recover and I'm up for it again!

I can see where your next million is coming from John.

I'd be happy if they just got teleport working. It would save me a fortune in air fares and make fishing trips more frequent!

Loads each advert individually before opening the page. Used to operate normally until it was sold.

Thanks man. All good as far as I can tell. Shame NY never sorted out it's slow loading problem.

Looks like the sort of thing designed by someone who's never been in a fishing kayak, but invents things to make it better. LOL

Yes

Looks a lot like a menace and not much like a z claw.

That Orvis knot looks interesting. I will give that a try. My grass jigs all have vertical line ties, but I'm intrigued why you ask?

To attach the jig to the mono/fluoro?

Which knot do you use when fishing a jig through weeds? You get a nicely designed jig that goes through the weeds without catching up but the knot to the mono/fluoro has it's tag end facing back up towards the rod and catches the weeds. Other than a half blood (clinch) knot, which I'm not keen on, all my other knots leave the tag facing forward. Uni, San Diego, Palomar etc. Any suggestions, other than braid direct?

Thanks John

For the last week or so the forums have been very slow loading and often I get a page suggesting that the forum might be down or have moved, then it opens. I'm using chrome if that makes any difference. Any ideas why it's gone slow?

Can't help you, but I would absolutely recommend you get a Chromebook of some sort. They're cheap and do 99% of what I do on my proper computer, plus they have a screen big enough to watch stuff on. Watching on a phone would be irritating, as is doing most things on the internet on a phone.

I watch on the computer straight from the website.

I subscribe and quite like it, anyone know when the current MLF stuff is going to be on there?