Notty at Wasaga

[Knuguy]

Hi,
I'm new here and quite new to rainbow fishing. I live on the river in Wasaga, have a canoe, and possibly access to a motorboat, and have very good access to the river. I'm looking for someone to fish with who knows how to catch rainbows.
thx

 

[dwarf717]

Just keep fishing it, and you'll be an expert! Love fishing the Notty in the park. Never have caught anything in the few times I've been there, but sometimes just getting out and enjoying the sport , and nature is enough

 

[axl]

The notty can be a tough river to fish even at the best of times

 

[Knuguy]

Perhaps I should elaborate on what I meant by 'good access'. I have put in a canoe at Klondike park and taken out at our place on the oxbow. We usually fished from shore on the way down--it gave us easy access to some pools that would otherwise be a PITA to get to. One other trip I've done is to put in at our house and float down toward McD's. Access is limited along this section because it's almost all private, so we fished from the canoe. I intend to go out again on Sunday or early next week.

 

[chromefanatic]

Good luck, that is a great way to navigate the river and get away from the crowds!

 

[salmotrutta]

Never fished that river myself, so not sure how wide/deep it is relative to Maitland or Saugeen or Nine Mile.

For steelhead, my preference for drifting roe bags is rapids shooting into a deep, elongated pool. Commence your drift in the rapids, open your spool and let the roe bag drift a ways down. Do not be afraid to wait a few seconds and give hungry steelhead time to locate and grab the roe bag. They won't spit it out unless they feel significant line resistance, so keep your spool open for some time. When it comes time to reel in, do so quickly to ensure a good hook set.

If you are drifting downwards on your canoe this technique could work wonders.

Steelhead are hungry for roe right now, regardless of the time of day. Evening is always my top producer though.

Spinners out of a canoe would be tricky IMO, unless you can get that canoe to sit tight. In my experience, spinners for steelies are an advanced technique, best tackled once one has mastered catching them on worms and roe.

 

[Knuguy]

Thx Salmontrutta for that info, esp the part about letting the fish munch a bit first--I would have thought that, if given the chance, the fish would feel the hook and spit it out.

I drifted down from Klondike Park last week ( I realize you don't know where this is but others might) down thru what some folks call 'rapids' but are really just swifts. I used the canoe mostly to get to otherwise difficult places along the shore. Other fishermen had already taken the easy ones! . So that's a big advantage of the canoe.
I used roes bags in fast water and lures in slower and deeper water. I'm not too concerned about snagging lures in the slower water because I can usually retrieve them using the canoe. Very few fish were being caught that day---I didn't get any hook-ups.

I was out for a couple of hours yesterday and struck a 3-4 pounder on a little Cleo. It flew above the water horizontally like an airplane and shook the hook! A little shot of adrenaline there. I've talked to some fishermen in my area and they say the bows are quite wild right now and that they lose most of them.

I just caught 2 last year--both on lures.