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UPDATE: for those that asked as mentioned here, after some long consideration I came to the conclusion that with my current work situation and the availability of my families place in PAB, I have held off on moving to my own home for the time being. a few thoughts related to the comments here: 1. No offense to anyone here, but as mentioned in this thread by Jimmer, the kawarthas and surrounding area are far too busy for the lake life that I will eventually be looking for. I spend 4 weekends a year on the tri-lakes and clear/Stoney and it can be worse than the city with the seadoo, cigarette boat, wakeboard boat crowds. 2. Barrie from what I witness when I regularly pass through has really taken a turn for the worst in recent years. The “drugs” thread touched on the what appears to be opioid and meth problem that has spiked there recently. It’s more the rule than the exception for me to now see tweakers and junkies in the essa and Bayfield areas of town. It’s really unfortunate. 3. Due to some uncertainties related to the program that I work for (automotive material stewardship) there’s a slight chance that my program could see some major changes in the next two years resulting in me needing to switch jobs potentially to one that would be more office based. As such making a huge investment in the parry sound area is going to need some more time. I have made it clear to my live in girlfriend that If she decides it’s time to start a family, we are leaving the city as we can’t raise a family in an apartment in the city. She agreed but we aren’t there yet. 4. Bugs...i survived this year and if I can make it through the bug season we had in pointe au baril this year then I’ll manage. I’ll have to post some of my videos from blackfly/mosquito season. It was quite literally overboard to the point that there were days that I couldn’t take my dog for a walk not because of me, but because my dog was suffering too much, and he’s tough. 5. Winters? I love winter and snow. (I’m originally from northern Manitoba) Up until I owned my own boat snow and winter were my favourite season. No problem. 6. Culinary, I agree that not being able to grab a burrito/chipotle on the regular might drive me a bit crazy so it’s an interesting point to make. But I think trading off burritos for fishing is worth it ? 7. Culture and raising children, well luckily I’m a Canadian mutt, so my culture is the north lol. As far as raising kids, I was raised in Flin Flon and Georgetown. Both small towns, where I stayed out with my friends all summer at 14 years old till two in the morning riding bikes and swimming in pools. I wouldn’t want it any different for my kids should I someday decide that’s the path I want to take. Being too remote can obviously present challenges in that regard. It’d be important to at least be near a town like parry sound or the like. That is IF and that’s an emphasized IF I would want kids. I don’t think either me or my gf of almost 3 years are convinced we’d ever want children and we are both already 31. 8. Current living situation is allowing me to kind of get best of both worlds. My family has a place up north that I can basically spend as much time as I want at already. what I’ve been doing almost all summer is spending 4+ days a week up here when I can. The only thing that’s been bringing me home is the fact that my girlfriend still works and lives in the city. I tested the waters with my old man to see what he’d think of me being up here so much, but I’m realizing that as he ages he doesn’t seem to mind having an extra strong young hand to help upkeep the place. It saves his tired back and allowed things to get done in much quicker fashion than normal where we only had a day and a half a week to get the marine rail systems set up, the docks In and the boathouse cribs fixed up etc etc. for now I’m keeping quite and seeing how long he is cool with me squatting here ?

Well after seeing that misfish scored a smoker and was having fun with it I decided it was something I'd like to get back at. I hadn't done much in the way of smoking meats and things for a long time and pretty much only did a bit of smoked fish once in a while so I picked up a Little Chief smoker and got back at it. So far I've only done a couple of things but I'm super happy with the results. since it seams there a few others that enjoy doing it I thought it might be fun to share some smoker recipes, tricks, and tips. My first attempt was a nice Brisket about 6 lbs. (I got the butcher to cut one in half for me) I like to keep things simple in the beginning then build on a recipe as I go so this time I did it Texas Style just kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. I mixed about 2 TBS of coarse salt and 2 TBS of fresh ground pepper in a spice shaker and sprinkled the brisket with that then rubbed it in. I used 3 pans of Alder over about 3 hours then removed the brisket from the smoker, wrapped it in un coated butcher paper (but foil might have been a better choice) and put it on the top rack of my BBQ. It took a bit of playing around and I had to prop the lid of the BBQ slightly open but I managed to get the BBQ to hold about 225°F and I left the brisket in there for about 8 hours with a meat thermometer in it until it got up to 160 °F internal. I wasn't going to serve it that night so I let it cool then put it in the fridge. The next day I put it back in the oven at about 150° still wrapped in the foil and left it there for about 3 hours removing it from the oven about 1/2 an hour before serving it. The meat was so tender you could almost cut it with your fork and it was beautifully moist and full of flavour, as good as or better than I have ever had anywhere else. I let what little there was left over chill in the fridge then sliced it paper thin and vac-packed it for sandwiches. Anyway if any of you have tried and true recipes you'd like to share, I'm looking for some more to try.

Bears are somewhat common where I live and I've seen them in my yard 4 times and have cleaned up scat 7 or 8 other times, infact early last summer I cleaned up a pile 20 feet from our bedroom door. I've got a great picture of one that was sleeping in my backyard early one morning but I'm on my laptop in Halifax and don't remember my password to get into Photobucket. I also had one tear the downspout off the side of my house and can only assume he was after a chipmunk that I've seen go in the downspout extension. I live on a country road and walk 4 miles every morning at sunrise and last year one popped out from behind a bush 40' in front of me but took off as soon as he realized I was there while making a loud "grunt" sound. A month ago I came across the biggest bear track I've ever seen in the same area and was able to put my entire hand with outstetched fingers inside it. 2 years ago we were up on the West Arm of Nipissing and I was walking down a dirt road and heard a snap just off to my right and 2 little cubs came out from behind a fallen tree stump and right then I figured I was in trouble and sure enough Mom was about 3 seconds behind them. She got between the cubs and looked straight at me, lowered her head and pointed her ears back. Not afraid to say that one made me a bit nervous but I slowly backed away and she took the kids and headed back into the bush. I always carry an airhorn now when walking up there.

You seem to do pretty good year round, what with all those 'catch and cook' fish!!?

Deep basins off the weed edges would be a good place to start. Also, invest in a sonar, you're crazy not to have one.

For Walleye, good god the fall makes you wonder what the heck you were doing for the past 10 months. It’s like a light switch around here all of a sudden your boat will catch 100 Walleye a day. But if you were to go and try to catch them right now you’d be hard pressed to get a limit. bass are finicky this time of year but come October before it gets really really cold, you switch up tactics (it’s nothing like the spring bite) you find fish and you will put up your biggest bags of the year. The trick is finding where the fish are, once you find them you can basically park the boat and more and more giant fish just continue to periodically show up and eat your bait. Spring is a numbers game with suicidal smallies eating basically anything especially the evening and morning top water bite can be absolutely stupid. (I had a 5 casts 17lb topwater bite this spring) while the fall is about those big big bags 20+lbs. I’m sure if we were able to legally fish the spawn it’d be ridiculous. I catch enough monsters incidentally trying to catch early season pike to know that if I was targeting bass I’d easily PB my biggest bags of the year.

I’m not sure if they are feeding more or are just more catchable. Higher in the water column

David, nice shot, but no waves or rollers.

Two folks got killed camping on an island in Algonquin early nineties. Grizzlies are way more dangerous than blacks since where both occur grizzlies kill more people. Black male bears just kicked out from the litter by mom who keeps the girls for more training are worst. These males from remote places mom hasn't taught them to avoid people have to establish territory/not get killed or eaten in the process and need food. Here comes a slow critter smelling like fish..... Always carry protection in our remote north woods. A man is no match for a 120 lb hungry male black bear.

One thing that was not mentioned is the availability of hospitals or doctors when you need them - I would think that this is more of a concern as you get older - I live in the country but not that far from a pretty big city - so I think I have it pretty good - it is quiet where I live but if needed I can drive to the city when needed

Food is there all Winter...