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Got out with with DpBond on Simco yesterday, we had a really nice time, fishing was a little slow but we managed 25 decent perch, 1 herring and a smelt that hit a Swedish pimple 😂. Going to wait out this cold front before planning on more trips I usually find the best catching is as things start to warm up but it sure was nice to get out.

Hi all, had a bit more time today and my neighbour and me took the longer trek down the lake to a good crappie hole. Fishing was decent and we got a couple of nice walleye too.

Hi all, dropped the kid off at school and then loaded the snow machine for an epic journey of 1.5kms to the ice road for crappie. Had not fished that spot so far this year, and its not my favourite spot, but there are (small) fish there and its close to home. I braved the elements as I was trying out drilling a grid, which I always do for crappie, but this time I had the grid set up so I could chase the fish with the Active Target, worked a treat and with the grid spaced out in 5' increments it was really fun to pin point a hole 20' feet away, walk over , drop a line and see the fish there with my regular fishfinder. Not many big ones today, actually no big ones, but i kept 10 acceptedle sized ones and threw a few drinks back. Its meant to be warmer here the next couple days and i'll be getting out to a better crappie spot for sure...TIGHT LINES!

Hi all, Been colds heck here, so hooked up the Otter and headed out to try my Active target on the ice for the first time. I was not sure of ice thickness or if the creeks were frozen for access, but it was all good, surprisingly there was close to 14" of good black ice, with almost not enough snow for my machine. Anyway, got into some pike before I even got the camera on or the tent set up and then sat for a couple of hours being run a merry dance by some smaller whitefish. I was beginning to think the walleye were on a day of until literally the last cast and watched a 24"walleye smack my line. Got it up, quick picture and back it went, fun couple of hours.

Back from Cancun , and thanks for all the tips ! Took the advice and hooked up with Fin chasers for a day charter , great experience. It was tough fishing , crazy North winds and a giant rainstorm throughout the night . Guide worked his ass off ,we had some great chances and even landed a few . We were running all day looking for the fish Resort pick up was a breeze, lunch and all drinks supplied . Equipment was provided, when we do it again though we’ll bring our own. Fly rods and spinning gear were decent . Snaking our way through the narrow channels was crazy !! Even in the difficult conditions they found us fish !! Resort fishing …. used shimano med/heavy travel rods , 3000 spinning reels . We fished a rocky point and the beaches (morning ,evening ) when nobody was swimming. Zero issues from anyone ! Locals even fished the point . There is a national reef on tne otherside of the point that you cant fish so you gotta be mindful , we did see uniforms out there checking . Had tons of hits and follows and fish . Large jerk baits , senkos , were good . Small spoons caught a variety of fish from the beach . By far best choice is bait , second last day got a chef to hook us up with raw shrimp, we used that to catch small bait size fish (runners/snapper) then used chunks of them to hook larger fish. We had 3 huge somethings on lol , definitely should of done this on day one . Now time to pull out the Ice gear out !!!! (size reference, my 15 year old is 6’1)

Wishing everyone here a HAPPY "HAWG"liday & Hopes for lots of lunkers in the NEW YEAR!

I'll be 79 in a few weeks, my days of walking out, drilling holes, sitting on a 5 gal. Pail all day in -20 temps are long over.

Lower Niagara if it were me. Basically every species you could imagine. Lyle from HookedOnNiagara or Paul from Cast Adventures would be the ticket. Can find both of them on Facebook. Great guides.

Fishing shows today are all about anglers playing with their new underwater high tech equipment. you can learn all about a $10,000 sonar setup for your boat on almost all the fishing shows right now. Gone are the fishing shows that teach anglers how to read the weather, the water, the structure of an area and why fish will be in a specific spot. On top of a structure, tucked beside it , suspended nearby etc. etc Now you just fire up a massive array of sonar, up, down , sideways, left right, live action …….. of course you need to spend $5-10k and spend most of the day playing with it instead of fishing. Or you could just pull into an area and kinda know where to cast.🫢

Hi my name is Darrin Bond and I live in Riverwood Park on the Scugog River in Lindsay, I'm 44. I love fishing, playing hockey, cards, golf and most sports. I would like to meet up with others in the area that share similar interests.

Last year we were paying $70.00 per person. I managed to get out about 6 times so $420.00. I got free parking, transportation to and from the hut, all bait supplied a warm comfortable hut. Didn't have to worry about moving the hut, storing the hut, maintaining a sled, finding bait, cleaning the hut, ice conditions, hauling propane.....As far as I am concerned it's good value for the money spent.

I did 95% of my ice fishing then and now on my own, it's the way to go. However back in the late 70's my Dad's best friend and our neighbour, whose kids I actually used to baby sit moved up to Pefferlaw and had one of the biggest operations on Lake Simcoe at the time. It was easy to accept the offers he gave me including any hut I wanted and the transportation I needed to get me there.

Well that could tick you off

Some people on this board live in the snow belt and have to get to work. others live in places like Chatham and don’t have to go out if they get a storm. also some vehicles are worse in winter then others. Do they put winter tires on 18wheelers.

For years I never bought winter tires didn’t want them but I bought a truck that if I didn’t put at least 300 lbs of stuff in the box , it had no traction in the winter. I bought a set of winter tires because I had to try something, and it made a huge difference, I had them mounted on cheap steel rims Putting away my nice aluminum rims for the winter kept them in perfect condition and even more important the winter tires are cheaper then my summer tires So I only wear out my expensive tires for half a year meaning they last twice as long. So buying winter tires save me money in the long run and makes driving in the winter safer. Win win in my books

Hi all, Got on the lake about 1pm and left at dark. I drilled a few holes in different spots but in the end settled for the spot i got some on the other day as that was the only spot i marked anything moving. Waited an hour and a half before three came along at once and then it shut down. A 20" and a 17.5" walleye landed and another one got off at the hole, then a few whitefish showed up and I coaxed one to bite. Luckily there was no wind as it was around -20℃, but the shack was toasty.

Greeting fellow anglers, this is my 1st post on the Ontario Fishing Community forum and thanks for lettings me join and Merry Christmas to all. My favorite lake is the stunning and very remote Lake Nipigon in NWO. Just curious who else targets this wonderful lake? It sits just north of highway 11, never warming up past mid fifties and is a natural wonder with the cliffs, bluffs and raw beauty looking like it was just scrapped up by the glaciers. It can be a big fish lake with record lake (60 lb.+) and brook trout (14lb.+) In the shallows are big pike and tasty walleyes. The lake has special rules to limit damage with only a single barbless hook (can be treble) allowed and special limited creel limits. Also the land surrounding the lake is all crown land with the few cabins only on little Orient bay in the southeast corner being the only exception. Not a lake to be taken lightly with it's being a giant bowl of 60-some by 40-some miles in size. It's daunting the feeling of being alone in an amazing wilderness but also a dangerous one, be prepared. I won't fish it if the winds up to or over 12 mph, or even 10 mph for a northwest wind. Have fished parts of the northeand southeast parts of the laast ke, barely scratched the surface. Only Canada could have a lake like this. What's been your experience fishing on the big lake? Thanks for letting me post.

I remember paying $22.00 per person what still seems like only yesterday in my rapidly aging mind.

I'm thinking I need to try a version of this on the BBQ with the smoke box going....Hell Ya!

I've been craving a good Quiche for a spell now and today it happened. Ricotta, Mozz, Broccoli, Ham and Onion. My mouth waters as they rest before cutting.

I’m going to give the same recommendation of fishing with taro Murata on lake simcoe, or a lake of his choice. He will get you on fish and your kid will have a blast.

Try the Ontario Sportsfishing Guides Association. Lots of charter operators in the area you are looking at. For a more wilderness experience, 4/5 North of the GTA check out Reelpro listed on the site under inland lakes. www.ontariofishcharters.ca GL Mike

The worst is when you’re by yourself and you only run one rod. It’s hard to know if you have a good lure on.

There are a number of lakes in south-eastern Ontario where Crappie are quite prolific..

Well done Cliff. A feed of perch so I'm very jealous. Hit Chemong yesterday for my first ice trip as well. Lots of small Kawartha perch but never managed any gills or crappie which is what I was after. Still a nice day to get out. Surprised you had that much ice on Simcoe. Our area on Chemong only had between 5 -8 inches and we moved around a lot because fishing was slow.

Nothing fancy, but some serious comfort food: ham and scalloped potatoes with a goodly amount of old cheddar. Just to emphasize how much I like this stuff, I could have eaten fresh crappies tonight but went with the ham dish instead. 😁 Doug

They were 5hp motors Doug which we found to be perfect for the lake as there are a lot of sandbars which are hard to see until you are upon them .We were able to cover the entire lake with the boats no problem as we had nothing but time.

Late, but hope all is well!

Very first time I ever saw and learned how to use a real actual tip up for Whitefish like that using salted minnows and a three way spreader on the bottom was that first trip to Bark lake. Now folks call any sort of pivoting balanced system a tip up when they all tip down lol. By the end of the weekend fingertips were all split from all that salt.

Right! lol

That hat...and what's underneath it ! Nevermind the "rapidly aging mind"...it's the rapidly aging everything else on our bodies that "seems like only yesterday" 😆 Here's one from the same era...no hut, at night, homemade ice picks around the neck...

Most of my life ice fishing was spent out in the open, for some trout lakes for brookies we were close enough to shore to have a fire but that was the exception. We just dressed for the conditions with down parkas, long johns and lined pants, Sorel pac boots, down mitts and those solid fuel stick hand warmers. If you got chilled you went for a walk to warm up. It wasn't until we went to Sunny Hill Resort on Bark lake for a weekend back in the 90's that we ever got the luxury of a shack. Areas like Shirley's Bay on the Ottawa used to have up to 100 permanent shacks each year, now there might be a dozen as most people now use portable pop ups or flip overs.

So the wild caught sockeye that CrowMan introduced on this forum a while back found its way here in the form of half a dozen fillets by special courier. (THANKS CrowMan!) I pan-fried one, but let it rest in the pan after it was cooked. I KNOW better, but that fillet turned out pretty dry. 😢 So I took the rest of them, brined them and smoked them, then pressure canned them. The product is delicious! So if you can't catch your own sockeye, I surely recommend Wild Fork's offering. Doug (and I have no idea why that picture is upside down...)

No fish in that lake, stay away.. lol

Have year round solar heated hot water system in my Etobicoke home since year 2000. It has 500 ltr solar water storage tank with heat exchanger inside. Six solar panels for total 220 sq feet on a roof circulating propylene glycol year round. 40W photovoltaic panel runs small dc circulating pump. Enough hot water for 8 people 10 months a year. Dec and jan is when gas hot water boiler kicks in. Most economic way of harvesting solar power.

My folks used to have a cottage on the northern Bruce 10 KM south of Tobermory. Deer yarded up on our property in the winter. You would not believe the number of crawly critters we would find in the packed down snow where the deer slept.

Cant go wrong with combining pizza and wood smoke. We have a wood burning pizza oven at the cottage. The major benefit is that I can get the temperature up to 900 F +, that combined with the smoke from the wood... kicks out pizzas like you were in Naples. One of our favourite get togethers is a "make your own personal pizza party". I'll even do roast chicken and prime rib in that oven...the smoke makes all the difference. Between the oven and my Traeger smoker it's probably 75% of my meal preparation all summer long (and winter too !). Most of the time my BBQ gathers dust..

I'll bring the vino.....

HEY! Your on my spot! LOL I've spent many of years on that lake. It's sad to think I don't enjoy going there as much now. I've seen lots of changes, mostly how people disrespect the Lake and surrounding lands now. I've caught many respectful fish on that lake.

So sorry to hear of Norms passing. I've spoken to Norm via messaging from here. He was a long time Angler on Rice Lake. His son had a trailer down at Sandercocks Camp. We hooked up 1 day and to my surprise, we have met in the past. Ironically, fishing on Rice Lake. We shared a lot of the same fishing holes that we figured "no one else would know". It was an honour knowing that gentleman.

Heartily agree, bodywork should be included, one rusted out hulk I saw yesterday probably weighed a couple hundred pounds less than when it was new due to the lack of body panels and fenders.

You definitely want to add some kind of sugar to the brine...it helps form the "pellicle" when drying before the smoke, and caramelization (browning) during the smoke. Depending on what you're brining, maple or birch syrup or molasses can be nice additions too. One of my favourite ways to do salmon or trout is with maple syrup and rye whiskey in the brine, and then glazed with a half/half mixture of both while smoking..."Indian Candy"...which is probably not a politically correct term these days. I got a bottle of it "pre-blended" in my Christmas stocking...Maple syrup aged in whiskey casks. Looking forward to trying it out on my next batch...

Well I can say that smoking the fish for about 1-2 hours depending on outside temps before canning is awesome. Salt brine only, no 20 different spices and flavours needed.

Well here it’s a full on inspection every 2 years I’m glad for it, wish Ontario would do it there are some serious serious pieces of junk on the road that never get looked at until they need to ….not cool!

Merry Christmas. I hope I catch a fish this year.

Merry Christmas to all my friends here on the Ontario Fishing Community and their families.

Anyone knowingly driving with faulty brakes show have their license taken away. When it comes to the safety of yourself, your passengers and the lives of other drivers there is no choice.

Fish'n Canada comes on Saturday morning and I sometimes watch it. Been on the tube a long time and it's still a good show without all the crap associated with some of the others.

unfortunately a bygone era. Every "fishing influencer's" has there own channel and followers. People are not tuning in to watch someone fish on TV. No viewers, No shows, No $$