One of the best seminars I have ever attended, was at the Toronto Sportsmen show when I was about 14. That was a very long time ago, but the advice given has always stuck with me through the years, especially when I become frustrated with fishing. We all have those moments that really get to us on the water. From just a bad day on the water or even just in general life. The secret is KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!
Most of the time, when I talk to new anglers, or even myself fishing bass tournaments, we often try and complicate fishing. We over think what the fish are doing or what baits we should be using, and the hardest choice of all is, where to fish! Yes, I know a lot of fishing is a science, but a lot of it is believing in what you're using. KISS, in my mind, is to follow your gut feeling, to stop and look at the big picture. Taking a couple deep breaths can go a long way in saving your day. A big part of this sport is the mental game. There is a video on YouTube, where a number of anglers are interviewed, and they all mention something about Kevin Van Dam's mental game! Every competitor says the same thing... KVD has a mental game that is not matched by anyone else. He talks about his strategy in the video.. and it's a simple formula that he fishes by. And I liken it to K.I.S.S.
Now K.I.S.S to me, is comfort. When I'm in a jam to select a bait, or presentation that I feel comfortable casting with: KISS. As soon as I’m back to being confident and catching fish, this is the time once again to explore and try new things. But fishing is all about confidence! It's stoping at times to re group, simplify, and follow your gut feeling. Believe in yourself, and the fish will come.
Keeping it simple and confidence is what every angler should strive for. When you stop second guessing your self and do what you know you can do, the success of what ever adventure, tournament, or even life challenges you may face, will seem easier and a whole lot more successful!
This Saturday marks the opening season, on all Lake Ontario tributaries. The steelhead have been pushing through the rivers for the last few months, and this weekend the rivers will be flooded by men and women alike to take part in what has become a huge annual event. Growing up on The Ganaraska River in Port Hope, Ontario, (and coming from a family who didn’t have a cottage or a boat), this weekend has always played a huge part in my life and has made me who I am as a person today. This is where my love of fishing started. With very little opportunity to fish bass or walleye, steelhead were really what I lived for. April for me sparked a month of day dreaming in class rooms, imagining what the last Saturday of the month would bring. A solid month, where the Ganaraska was full of giant, action packed, hard fighting steelhead.
Over the years the river doesn’t see the number of fish it used to. This morning I read that 5,000 fish to date, have been lifted over the dam, and for such a late winter and fish still swimming hard up the river it seems we should be set for an average run in the 6,000 fish mark. The popularity of river fishing and fishing in general seems to be growing by the season. I mean opening weekend has always been busy, but on average, more people have gone from weekend warriors, to becoming full fledged, hard core anglers. This is a good thing, but it has also brought to light a whole new set of problems at the river. Snagging and over harvesting have always been issues, Garbage being left on the banks and opening weekend being compared to (by the locals) as a zoo. With social media a lot of the problems are talked about on a much larger scale and there is a lot of people very angry with what is going on. But thats not helping the problem.
This is THE weekend to fish. River fishing is accessible to anyone and everyone. That being said, there is always going to be a small number of people who will wreck it for everyone. This weekend shouldn’t be about who catches 100 fish, or who was in who’s spot, or "where did all these people come from?". This weekend should be about sharing the expertise that many of us have learnt over the years. We (seasoned anglers) are all too quick to judge someone not using a $500 float real and float rod, to jump all over them about spooking or accidentally snagging fish. This weekend is the time to stop and ask, “Hey, would you like some advice on how to catch more fish?" or sharing some of the finer techniques of fishing.
The rivers and lakes are everyones responsibility, and over the years we have forgotten or lost track of this. I have done my fare share of being mad about what I've seen or even yelling at people, when I was younger. But as I have matured I see this isn’t changing anything. The same things are going on at the river, One point I've learnt since I started FearFishing.com , is that everyone who fishes isn’t a pro! They don’t fish everyday, and they are just out enjoying some time in the outdoors. These people just need a little help, They need a quick explanation. Most people are very interested in learning about river fishing and are very grateful for any advice. No one enjoys ignorance.
Opening weekend is exciting, I can not wait to fish Saturday, no matter how many people are on the river. The more people out, just goes to show how fast fishing is growing in Canada. The growth of this sport helps everyone. More money for local businesses, more money for the MNR to regulate the rivers and punish the people who think snagging or the over harvesting of steelhead is acceptable. Just remember, not everyone has been lucky enough to learn how to fish properly. Most people who are out are going to be over the moon to catch just ONE steelhead. That said, when you hit the river Saturday morning, go with a new view, go with the out look that if we all stop and lend a hand, instead of pointing fingers, we can at the least solve some of the problems associated with river fishing, and not only leave the river with stories of how you had an amazing day catching fish, but leave with the thought of helping someone. Feel good about educating someone on the ethics of fishing, and they can share in the experience of a successful opener.
After a long and cruel winter, we are so eager and excited to get out in our boats, and for most of us, this means we are headed out in search of spring crappie. Over the last few decades crappie fishing in Canada has gone from "something American tourists did", to a national spring time tradition. Every year more people are out fishing crappie and with social media being so popular it is amazing to see all the photos of monster slabs being posted.
Here are 3 simple tips that can help you catch more and bigger crappie this spring.
First finding crappie. Crappie basically fill the shore lines and bays looking to spawn and feed as soon as ice is out. The problem with locating these fish is that they school very tight together. It is amazing how many crappie will shove into one tiny back bay or under a fallen tree. The problem with these spots, is that they are very easy to find and they are heavily fished. I like to focus my attention to weed beds. Crappie often hang on weed edges and weed patches before, during, and after the spawn. When locating weed line crappie I like to use tiny crank baits or jerk baits. This basically allows me to use the same approach I would when fishing bass or walleye. Cast until I catch one and then knowing when I landed one, there is a good chance there is more in the area. Thats when I bring out the float and micro tube.
Second is, bigger baits catch bigger crappie. If you're catching a ton of small fish and not getting those slabs. Go bigger! This will decrease your numbers of crappie, but it will definitely up your average when it comes to landing giant slabs. Bigger tube, or bigger minnow bait is key! Especially when the bite is on fire.
The third tip I can give you and probably the most important is crappie look up ! Their eyes are placed so they can see above them a whole lot better than down. This is really tough for people who don’t have confidence in fishing shallow but if your not getting hits, you probably have too much lead under your float. I have caught most of my crappie by fishing a lead under a float less then a foot in length. So if you're not catching fish , shorten that lead! You can really never go too shallow. When fishing 3 ft of water you probably need a lead that is 6 inches long.
Crappie are in full swing and wether or not you have a boat, grab some crank baits, or your favourite micro tube and float, so you can put these 3 tips to the test. Find a back bay or weed line and fire away.
My biggest supporter of my fishing as a kid was my grandmother. At the time I didn’t know how sick she was with cancer, but looking back now I understand how important chasing dreams was to her. When I was thirteen, just months before my Grade 8 graduation, she would take me to the Ganaraska River and watch as I cast for hours in December trying to catch a steelhead. Or she would make someone take me out fishing in a boat or from shore. This whole time she would tell me that the most important things in life were dreams. It didn’t matter if you had a million bucks or if you had just spent your last ten dollars — as long as you were living your dream, it didn’t matter. Two weeks before that Grade 8 graduation, my grandmother passed away. This was my first great heartbreak in life. When I returned to school, my teacher, Mr. Sebben, asked me what I was going to do when I grew up. Of course I told him I was going to live the dream: I’m going to fish.
Nineteen years later I’m still fishing. These are exciting times for me and for those who support me, day in and day out. But what my grandmother didn’t tell me is that not only does living the dream bring incredible highs — it also brings extraordinary lows.
The past two fishing seasons have by far been the hardest of my life. In May of 2012 a terrible accident at work left me with permanent partial loss of feeling in my left hand. I had to fish with a cast on for the whole 2012 season, and the worst part was trying to hide my injury from everyone. I was extremely angry. It’s hard to watch your passion in life vanish in front of your eyes. I was building my dream...
After the accident I felt like I had let everyone down, but it was out of my hands, no pun intended. I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, and I didn't deal with it very well.
The next year brought with it much of the same, a hand that wasn’t really ready for a full season of fishing, the gnawing mentality that 'the dream may be over' and 'I'm never going to fish like I used to.' The worst part of 2013 was to realize later that I WAS living the dream and I didn’t even know it. Before my accident, I had been all over Ontario, Quebec and the upper part of the US, fishing tournaments and filming videos. I had met one of my childhood idols, Bob Izumi, and got to sit behind him at the Berkley B1 tournament. I WAS LIVING THE DREAM! Sadly, I didnt realize it, until I lost it.
So along comes 2014! The year couldn’t have been going any better. I met the girl of my dreams and asked her to marry me. My son is growing up and is interested in spending time at the river looking at steelhead, and in meeting Amber I have got myself the most perfect step daughter anyone could ask for. I was feeling great and was ready to chase the dream again. The season started with our first Rods&Gods video, and then teaming up with Simax to work on new projects. The tournament season started off with two solid bags of bass on a lake that had haunted me since the first time I ever bass fished. Life was golden again. It couldn’t have been more perfect. The best part is, we were getting ready for Lake Scugog, where Marley and I had always done very well, so I was excited to fish. I mean, fish was once again flowing in my blood. I wanted to win, I felt like I could win, I felt like I was growing as an angler and that things were getting better and better by the day....then life decided to throw me another hurdle. Amber, Ashton and I were on our way out to dinner. I just had to step into the garage and plug in my boat. I walked into my garage laughing and came out speechless! All of my rods were gone. Every single piece of tournament tackle was missing. GONE. Needless to say the tournament didn’t go so well and for the first time in years we were coming home empty-handed — and not only empty-handed: we weighed in the smallest bag (by seven pounds) we had ever weighed in. Even when I had a cast on my hand, we had cashed a cheque on the bog.
I had now learned by this point, that things happen and life must go on. So I pulled up my socks and fished hard with my tournament partner Marley Hornyak. We made the classic. It was such a relief, weight off my shoulders. We were going to end the season with an awesome finish at the classic. I thought we were well on our way, We had a solid couple days pre-fishing; and it seemed unlike any tournament before on the dreaded tri-lakes. Every time I hit the water things were coming together — fish just seemed to jump in the boat, and large fish too.
So here we go, classic morning, just picked the boat up from the shop, fresh plugs, fresh fuel filter, we are ready to rip. It was about a forty-minute trip to our first spot and that was our honey hole. Our number's called, we passed slowly through the ten-kilometre zone and take off flying down the lake in the fresh fall air..... We were on cloud nine. We worked so hard this season. Overcame several obstacles, this just had to be good. I was mentally preparing myself for the epic day when... BOOM! We went from seventy miles an hour to sixty, to forty, to thirty! I had blown up the engine, four hundred yards off the blastoff. It was cooked. I could hardly believe it — worst possible thing that could have happened. But you know what? I said to hell with this: we are going to catch some fish, and go out fighting. I used the trolling motor to get to the shoreline. Marley and I hit the bank, headed towards the weigh-in and, lo and behold, came up with 15.3 pounds — a solid bag for day 1, 11th place. Day 2: we had Marley’s boat and we planned to do the same thing as the day before and that would have to do because somehow we killed Marley’s boat trim motor and were forced to fish the bank again. We didn’t get such a big bag on Day 2 but we ended up leaving the classic in 15th place. After getting home and finding out we were less than a pound out of the cash and remembering that we had seen three big fish and lost two, (which would have put us in the Top 10) it was a little disheartening, to say the least. But the big bummer was not having an engine for my bass boat, which was kinda overlooked with all the excitement of pulling off a couple of wild days and doing okay in the circumstances.
It’s now 6 months after the classic. I have had some time to look back on all this and really take some time to think it over. From my boat being broken into, a blown-up engine and a couple of fish lost (that would have made a huge difference in my tournament season), I realize, I’m once again living the dream. I’m writing about the hard times, and in doing this I feel much better about the hurdles I jumped. I’m blessed to have a family who lets me fish as much as I do. I have amazing friends in the fishing world who stopped everything to offer support and to get me gear so I could fish after everything was stolen. FearFishing is once again growing, with clothing and hats on the way. I am just a guy whose dream as a kid was to fish. I just needed to sit back, take a deep breath and think of that little kid who was casting with a $20 rod and had no idea how to even catch a steelhead, a kid whose grandmother was so proud of him, just for the simple fact that he didnt give up trying to catch one.
Well, my friends, that little boy would think his dreams had come true.
