John Bennett
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Tim, when my girls were that age, anytime we went fishing that wasnt at a cottage, I usually planned day trips to spots where I had alternatives. The exception being the guide experiences but even that bookended around an overnight camping trip.
So an example might be resevoirs where if the bites just not happening theres a beach for swimming, or a zoo nearby or the adventure of overnight camping, campfire, a swim etc. That way, the days going to be memorable even if the fishing isnt it, they will remember what a great time they had with dad (or both parents) fishing. The next time you plan a day trip to go fishing they will be itching to go again forgetting that maybe last time the fishing was slow.
My dad had a saying he taught me when I was young.
Going fishing is the fun….catching fish is a bonus
My Dad (who was a guide) started taking me as soon as I was old enough to sit a canoe for hours. By his definition that was 3yrs. It seems to have worked.
I started both my girls bait fishing from docks when they were around the same age and both have tried their hands at fly fishing by the age of 7 or 8. I hired a guide for that for a slew of reasons, not the least of which is that while kids are sponges, they can resist teacher/student relationships when parents are envovlved. Its easier for kids to accept correction from “teachers” than it is from parents.
It removed me (Dad) and my bad casting habits from the equation. So the guide harped on her about keeping her glasses on ( he wont take clients without them) , he corrected her grip/stroke when needed etc, etc. Thats a huge difference from me harping at her to keep the glasses on, which I also strongly beleive in, or occasionally and offering correction advice. No idea how many times she ws told to stop what she was doing and put the glasses back on but it was alot 🙂
She oth got certified instructions both on land and on water, lessons in knots and entomology and 1 on 1 instruction when it came time to catch some Browns. Long story short we had a blast and was one of the better days we’ve spent on the water.
While fly fishing hasnt grabbed them the way its grabbed me both still love to fish and now this year both my 10yr and 14yr have all taken up archery together. The 3 of us are working on mom to join us in that one. ;D
Thanks Lee.
Fun it is no matter what. There are few places in Canada I havent wet a line and fewer still in Ontario.
While its been years since Ive spent any length of time up ther I have fished the Sault, the Nipigon, and around T Bay. Those were Brookie trips with my dad when I was a youngster though. In my teeen and lately with my daughter Ive been to the East a bit fishing Eliot Lake, Gowganda, Kirkland Lake regions. Have also gone camping at Lake Superior Prov park and have visited the sleeping giant.
I keep trying to convinve my wife to head up that way for a week or two with the kids because it has been 20+yrs since I last saw T Bay area. Unless it has all the amentities and no bugs though, its a no go 🙂 Oddly enough one place in Ont I havent wet a line is Lake of Woods or Quetico Prov Park to the west of Superior.Lake Huron along the East shore gets some good runs to on the Saugeen and Maitland as well
Tim, Im North Shore Lake Ontario just east of Toronto.
We have a number of good rivers for migratories starting with the Credit to the west all the way to Wilmot and the Ganaraska in the east. All of them also hold resident Bowns and Brookies.
But “Fly-fishing” is lacking especially when compared to pinners and spinners. Lucky for me I live on one of them.You should see the odd looks I get when I mention fly fishing for bass and musky. Youd think Im from a different planet. Most people up here assosciate fly with trout in small streams and thats it.
Our one “Blue Ribbon” river is the Grand River about 45 min from Toronto. Its fantastic and also happens to be a great rehabilitation story. Theres no natural reproduction but its spec regs only and the numbers per mile are high. Last year my friend caught the biggest Brown Ive yet to see it yield at 29inches. So the sport is growing but it pales compared to elsewhere, and during Steelhead, Fall runs pinners dominate although I know a couple spey guys that dont mind clearing a little room 🙂
Ive been doing nothing nothing but photographing Steelheading for the last month of weekends.
I could add a bunch of photos, a select few Ive posted ( flash effect on Scales) but I mightget greif for all the center pin images. 😉Fly fishing, while growing up here doesnt hold a candle to its popularity in the states. Ive only seen two fly rods in that month vs hundreds of center pins.
/edit
If you dont mind center pinners and want to see some steelheading images to whet your appetite for openers heres a link to some.
http://jben.zenfolio.com/p610450597Thanks Ben.
Are snoots similiar in nature to a better beamer?
I use a BB on my 400mm when I want fill for birds and wildlife. I guess it would differ from a snoot in so much as it double the flashes output allowing for further distance. With that I manually set the “zoom” on the flash to 50mm (depsite a 400mm lens) as it widens the flashed area as opposed to making it beam like and typically set FEC at – 1 and 2/3rd to compensate.the other thing Ive put some minimal thought to is employing and off body flsh bracket. Again with wildlife getting the flash off the shoe ( you raise it above directly over the lens barrel) changes the flashes trajectory and removes or reduces the likel hood of red eye in animals and birds (steel eye).
J
Tim theres alot to consider. So much so it makes my head spin at times. If you have back copies of various mags handy go back and read letters to the editors..there are often letters griping about fish handling in the photos for but one example.
A simple and extreme example occured to me two weeks. I saw in my eye a gret image of an older gent fishing. Everything was there. Light, backdrop, a guy that oozed character..I was framing the shot when he turned more to face me.
He had a smoke in his mouth..I put the camera down.
I regret doing so now as it still would have made a fantastic image but the moment I saw that my mind registered unsellable.J
Zach,
Thanks so much. Theres more wisdom and help in that than I can express. It give me answers and tools for alot of the hurdles I’ve been encountering. Even something as simple as bring my own net…(like I dont have enough gear packed in my back pack to begin with ) 🙂Don’t ever worry about advice. I still feel like I have a long way to go and no matter at what point I’m at its still a learning process and there never any harm in it.
As for the net advice that resolves another item. I love nets with good woodwork and have one of my own I adore…How better to get my net in the pictures than to provide it. Sure beats hemostats and aluminum nets with bad mesh.
Somehow I think hes been caught more than a few times.
Thanks Zack.
Id considered playing with the position of the head much like I would when bouncing the flash but am completely unsure about results and given the number of possible postions……… 🙂Re lift and grins.
Yeah am aware of that but its difficult working with strangers despite what you ask. The moment you ask if you can take a shot or two 99% immediately go with what they know…:) By the time you try directing them you start running into quick release…So thus far in order to practise and experiment I’m just letting the anglers do “their” things and not intruding, taking what I can get. Often my shots are secondary to their own.
Best case is to find/go with an angler who knows both what I’m looking for and whats best for the fish
Edit
On cropping. I’m getting completely away from cropping. Virtually everything I do now is full frame as per the request of the AD I’m dealing with. They want the RAWs and freedom to crop themselves. Basically I was aked not to crop unless I felt it was absolutely necessary. I have started compiling 3 files for him. The RAW, a minimally adjusted jpeg in low res and another low res processed and cropped to my liking to give him a take on how it might be used, but am leery of doing that too much given I was asked not to..
Last openers I went to the head waters of the stream I live on. I caught one 6inch Brookie while further downstream not 2 minutes from my house anglers galore were tiring out their arms on large Steelhead.
I take picturesque waters all the time, many with few or below average sized fish simply because I value the tranquility, more than I value size or numbers. Often, waters with good numbers/large fish also attract good numbers of anglers to boot. Id rather be skunked or catching chubb but at peace vs deaing with crowds or hooking up with tires and shopping carts 🙂
Just a note on ACR and further to what Kevin mentioned.
If you hold the ALT (pc) key down, while you click on any of “Exposure/Recovery/Blacks” sliders you see a screen thats similiar to a layer mask. For example, an image that had no clipping (clipped blacks or blown highlights) would be entirely white (if checking blacks) and black (if checking exposure or recovery). As you move any of those sliders, the moment a single pixel is lost it appears on screen or the moment a single pixel containing data is “recovered” it dissapears off screen.
Meaning if you load an image in ACR (preferably raw) you have 3 methods of both correcting and seeing lost data.
1) The Histogram
2) The triangles located above the 0 and 255 points on the Histogram
3) Holding “ALT” while clicking on any of the exposure controls.The “recovery” slider corrects blown highlights and the fill slider corrects shadows.
You have to play around with it but if you had an image that could use a bit more exposure or some fill.
You can hold the alt key while sliding the exposure to the right a bit pushing the histgram to the right. The moment some pixels get “lost” they appear at which point you back off a bit. Or assuming you prefer the added the exposure, you can then hold alt/click recovery and move the slider a hair to the right and the blown pixels due to the added exposure “dissapear”.Conversely if your trying to recover some detail in the shadows hold the alt key while
1) increasing exposure ( lost pixels which show start dissapearing)
2) decrease the “blacks” ( blown pixels start dissapearing)
3) Add some fill
If you go too far on any adjustment and start clipping some they start appearing.And so on. Its a great way to see pixels that are lost/being recovered and when to stop thats a bit more powerful than the histogram or triangles which only alert you to the presence of blown pixels on one side or the other…Not where, how much, nor as fine in seeing the adjustments.
Thats April Vokey. She writes for Canadian Fly Fish.
http://www.canflyfish.com/2007/about.aspPretty nice Zach. You can really see the impact in the second image.
As maddening as PS is to learn, theres no disputing its value. With similiar problem shots I’ve been trying a more basic appoach of selecting the darks using the magic wand on the blacks and then an adjustment layer to lighten them with either the curves slider or with the shadows/highlights slider. When Im more comforatable with selections and layers I’m going to have to try this approach as well.
Up here in Ontario we have a park called “Alqonquin Park”. Kinda like Yellowstone but not..Growing up there was nothing I loved more than to get lost in there for a week or two. While not a “destination” trip in the classic sense (its only a 3hr drive away) in those days Id have had to be deathly ill not to go or tough it out.
One year I was 4 days into a two week loop trip and Bronchitis hit. Not something you’d normally associate with serious illness.
Canoe owner/user for 35 years.
Toon owner for 4
Occasional kayak user, future ower.Mike I agree that the stability (or lack thereof) of Kayaks is largely overestimated by people who dont use them but theres no comparing them to toons in that regard. Its not even close.
Im more than comfortable in any personal water craft and while Im seriously consiering adding a yak for those situations where its a better choice than my toon or canoe for photography, the bottom line is.
In my toon I dont sweat bringing thousands of dollars in photo gear with me. I will with a yak. No matter how small te odds and the odds will vary uer to user there remains the possiblity of tipping, spilling (falling off SoT) swamping.Speed.
I doubt a toon with a 35pd thrust trolling motor could be beat me in race in my canoe or yak. Especially if its into the wind. Toons even with trolling motors are painfully slow.
If Im on a lake a storm blows in Id rater be in my canoe. I’ll get to shore faster.Cargo
Yaks can carry a fair bit but not as much as a Canoe, nor as much as a toon.
If Im camping where no portages are envolved Id want the toon first, canoe second. You can load a ton of stuff on toon by using the rear deck and srapping across the toons…bikes etc. Not sure waht the weight ratings are on yaks but my toon is rated for 500 pounds, my canoe 300. Could you put a bike, large tent, large cooler etc on a yak? Doubtfull. a toon you could.Stealth.
Absoluely, quiter and lower profile.Weight.
Depends entirely on models.
My toon weighs 50 to 60 pds.
My canoe weighs 30.
If im going to a back lake where I hike I take the canoe. I can carry it with one hand or resting on my left shoulder, rods and stuff in the right hand.I think depending on the model weight advantages goes to none unless you buy a specially designed, lightweight canoe. All can easily weigh upwards of 60pds.
Hands free control.
Im can hadle my canoe and cover long distances with just on hand. I use it to troll that way. Rod in left hand, paddle in right and keep it straight. But itpales in comparison to the toon if hands free control has any value.When fishing one thing I hate aboutthe canoe is the slightest breeze will chage its facing, which mans putting the rod down, orienting, picking up the rod. Not so the toon, if Im not wearing fins, I just nudge the appropriate oar to spin a few degrees.
Anways.
Long winded way of saying like anything there are trade offs.
Toons largest con is point a to point b movement an its a doozey
However it really is in my expeience the only con and the Pros far, far outweigh it in alot of applicatons..Too each his own.
Ideally we all have understanding wives and at some point acquire one of each to choose from depnding on the many variables that may define which is better suited to the applicaton.What “type” am I?
Why say it when a pic can say a thousand words.
A bottle of 1958 “yak piss” on the left unopened, ignored and unloved.
A limited edition special blend of the gods nectar center
A bottle that gets lots of TLC on the right.Aside from being easier on the pallette and gut, at my age I can’t pay the morning after price of either anymore. But on the occassions when I get stupid and try to pretend I’m 20 something and can get up at 5am, goto work and shrug it off. One leaves me feeling like a truck hit me, the other leaves me feeling like I drank a barrel of yak piss spiced with little bits of meadow muffins, just before the truck hit me. I much prefer the former.
really glad this topic came up as Im just starting to learn and experiment with them.
Anyone have thoughts about the Singh Ray variable ND filter?
As mentioned thats one that I might get rather than 2 to start experimenting and learning with.Nice Kendal.
I was lucky enough to be in Nova Scotia (family road trip) this past summer during their bi-annual “Tall Ship” celebrations. Tall Ships from all over the world/NA? show up and make different ports for two weeks.. We were always 2 days behind where the ships were moving to, but the ones we saw that lagged behind were fantastic.
