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This pretty lady is becoming a regular in my yard now and I got a couple good shots today.

Got to spot and checked for no parking signs . Not a one to be seen, so unloaded and parked the truck up the road . I already had my mind set on where I wanted to park my ars on the cold surface, A large flat once again that dropped sharp and flattened out at 45 fow. It was not a far walk, so I was set up in 20 minutes . Still a 1/2 hour before sunrise, I was set up and the finder was full of bait fish and the odd large marks on the bottom . Grabbed the litttle box of flys and went, eni,myni mo, you will go on . Tied a lean shrimp fly drop on the meegs rod . Fish came in for 2 hours . They came up to look at the fly, yet not a hit . They hung around on the meegs just enough to make me think they were interested then bugger off . Nothing was interested in the vibrado. New area again, new fish,lets go back in the day. WTH can happen ? Catch a fish ? Not wanting to put the meegs away, I took the vibrado off the other rod and tied on old friend, the 1/2 and 1/2 hammered 3" williams. I fish it traditional, lay on the bottom and lift,lift,lift and pull, but I also will hang it 20 ft from the bottom and rip it . They will chase it. I start off by ripping it up and letting it flutter. There was a couple that would rise, but go back down . So, lets go traditional. Drop it on the bottom, let it sit,lift lightly a few times then yank it up a foot or so. Sure as S, first yank, this fish comes up. The lure does not drop, but the fish is still on the finder . That aint right. The darn fish had it and was swimming with it. Set the hook and well, ole school prevailed. Get the fish to the right side of the ice . Fished another hour without another fish to come in, so it was pack up time and head in. Home,clean and cook up with fish crisp to take into work for my co-workers to enjoy tomorrow. Oh I sampled few pieces.

Going through some old pictures I found a few of me, my brother and my Dad on Balsam Lake One sequence in particular stood out- me with a nice musky (a PB actually) and my Dad with one. As most fishing stories go - the catching wasnt the biggest event of the day lol Anyone else got some good "the ones that got away stories" My newest post is up https://www.northernjacks.com/post/never-ever-skimp-on-your-leader Cheers Andrew

Hi all, Got to mix my two of my favourite things last weekend, family time and fishing time. Went out at stoopid O'clock solo and got a few fish then returned home. My son asked where I had been while he was bowling in the morning and when I told him he looked disappointed, I said we could go back after lunch....BIG SMILE. We took the fire pit and fished/messed around until dusk before coming home. Fishing was exactly that in the afternoon, I fished but caught nothing. Anyhoo, fun times for all in beautiful NW Ontario.

People are people; if there's a way to screw up a good thing, we'll do it? Dan.

And some of the stories are even true hahaha Here's a good one about my wife and her 1st and only musky. 25 years ago we were at the lake and early one Sunday morning I headed out fishing before sunrise. My wife had only ever fished a few times and never caught much more than the odd sunfish or perch but this morning she figured she'd go make a few casts from the dock and hopefully surprise me with a pickerel breakfast when I got back in. On only her 2nd cast she got hit hard and pretty near freaked out...her words...when a musky went airborne but she hung on and somehow was able to get it into shore and drag it up on the beach. She had no tools and no idea how to get the hook out and still keep her fingers. She ran up and got a neighbor who was able to unhook it but sadly the fish was already dead. No leader, a small hook, 6# line and zero experience but she did it. My wife was ecstatic with her catch but felt terrible about it dying but we had a friend who was a taxidermist so we took it to him and he mounted it. She still tells the story to anybody that'll listen LOL

Tournaments were the catalyst for modern fishing boats, motors, electronics ,tackle , rods and reels and made a lot of people better fishermen and maybe even the odd fisherwoman

Great story OI - my first ever musky was also an accident - caught on a Cotton Cordell Big O - just a small guy (although i thought it was a huge bass for the first minute or so) Always remember the first one I ever caught on purpose - small Haliburton Lake on a Swimm Whizz - was awesome

Nothing makes a guy buying a trail permit to help maintain trails and keep a system in place happier then seeing a side by side or ATV rutting up a freshly groomed trail to access a lake miles away. Saw a side by side stuck in the middles of the E trail last week while "fishing". Some use it as an excuse but others just don't give a shi*. I personally don't care if they use trails to access fishing spots but its the AZZhats that ruin it for them all, not just ATV's etc but some snowmobilers are even worse going off trail and destroying things.

OK---it's a new day so here's something new for you---That wasn't a 'sheep' you saw. That was a ram!!!😁😉

You just made my day, that's exactly the report I was hoping to hear! 🤗

First off, it was good meeting you Josh. We didn't have a lot of time to talk; but it was pretty neat meeting another Londoner and board member!!! Lakeshore Suits was just as porkpie said it was. Lots of parking for the vehicles and trailer. The rooms are not fancy but very clean, big and super warm. When we got to the Lakeshore suits we drove by looking for Sunset park. It was less then a mile away; with very easy access to the lake. Went back to the suits and asked if we could unload and leave the trailer there. "NO problem just park it there and you'll be good". Every nice people running the place. Unloaded the trailer, hooked Bob and Sally together and off we went; down Lakeshore to Sunset park. Wasn't sure if we were legal driving on the street; but a cop went by giving us a thumbs up? It's North Bay and he knew what we were doing; I guess? Sally and Bob worked like they were meant to be. On the hard packed snow close to shore, I left Sally in high range and she pulled Bob easily in first gear. Once we started into some deeper snow I had to switch to low range and when the engine revs were right, shift into second gear. What a little trooper she was; start into a snow drift, you could hear the RPM starting to drop. Stick my foot into the throttle and she'd dig down through the snow. When the track's cleats hit the ice, she just started pushing forwards and through. We did get stuck once, I didn't see that the drift was that deep. When the snow came up over the top of the front bumper and the front wheels broke through the hard crust the tracks were just spinning in air. Pulled the winch out, connected it to the rear of Bob. Drilled a hole in the ice and set the anchor Pulled ourselves out and off we went again. About a 15 minute deal to get moving again. The fishing was slow; but we did get a number of keeper Walleye and a couple dozen or so of jumbo perch. There was a pressure crack that we didn't want to cross that kept us away from the water depths I wanted (25-30 feet); but we made due. We were about 1 1/2 miles out to the crack and the Manitou islands were another 2 miles. Would have liked being in that 20 to 30 FOW between the crack and the islands. Even with the 45 Klm winds we were able to stay warm inside Bob with the buddy heater going. We also put a wind break tarp up between Sally and Bob that helped a lot keeping us sheltered. Only took a couple of pics; to frigging cold and my phone didn't like it?

My 1st ever Musky was what I later learned to be a "Tiger Musky" caught in Lake Scugog. I have been told a 1000 times that lake doesn't hold Tiger Musky. But it was and that's where I caught it. The story is that we were trolling for Pics with a Black Fury on 8 pound Trilene, no leader. It took a while to get her in and she jumped at least 4 times, that's when I got nervous knowing I didn't have a leader on. Back then we mounted fish and paid good money to get it mounted. It still hangs in our kitchen and looks like the day I caught it. Mr. Martin from the Hamilton mountain mounted it for me back in 1982. He is or was a talented man. He would be in his 80's by now. I hope he is well. I felt guilty for years after mounting it then learned Tiger Musky are a hybrid and can not reproduced.

I'd like to see tournaments go live release, no moving fish 10 of miles from where they were caught.

had both in my back yard made the most of it

Actually ALL tournaments should be outlawed as they are nothing more then another form of commercial fishing.