Leaderboard

Here's our 3, from left to right, Hope (8yrs) boxer, Cooper (3mths old) Mastif, Chewie (1 1/2yrs) Aus Sheppard/Mastif cross

Hi all, I did get out today as planned, still 18” of ice, but some exposed spots are starting to crystallize, might walk out somewhere in the next couple days buts motorized transport and me are done on the ice till the end of November.

This is Chiquita which we inherited from Maribeth's dying sister who could no longer care for her... The family figured we should be the ones to take her as we were home all day and have lots of room for her to run to lose weight... She was madly in love with the Burmese Mountain dogs across the road and every time she wandered off, sure enough that was where we would find her... Not too sure how long we had her but at about 12 years old we had to have her put down😪 I wanted to call her "Footstool" but didn't... (Maribeth wouldn't let me LOL) She loved to go for a ride in my old truck "To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump "

2 special friends no longer around. No more for us. Losing them is just to much. Tink Gizmo Edit to add Both were my best friends, until mom got home . Used and abused I was. LOL

Not a very good pic but this was my best buddy Rosco. He was a Basset and a Bloodhound mix. Never had a dog that was so relaxed (Lazy) in all my life. Take him for a walk there was no pulling or tugging at the leash. He'd just walk at whatever pace you were at. He loved going for rides in my 50 Chevy, not sure why other then he could sit in the front passenger seat and could easily see out the windows. He had to go for the big sleep last year. He was full of what the vet told us was cancer. Sure do miss him he loved everyone; unless they went to touch his old Chevy. Pretty sure he thought the car was his and me his chauffeur. Dan...

After retiring back in November, this was the first week that I really got a feel for what the non-working life is like. I spent a total of 42 days this winter traveling in other countries and continents, and the ice fishing season wasn't very long or good to me. So the kick-off of Trout opener was something I finally wanted to take full advantage of.. Spent the first 5 days of the week chasing Steelhead...same river I've fished for over 40 years. Saturday was a blow out with all the rain, but after that the river settled down and the water turned that perfect colour. Although a few less fish than previous seasons, I still brought lots of fresh run Steel to the bank all week long. More importantly, it was a good few days to re-connect with buddies that I've shared that water with over the years. A shout out to Misfish...one his creations was killer slowly drifted in the deeper pools. After 5 days of getting up at 6am and bush whacking up and down the river all day long, these old legs had enough, and I headed to my cottage for some R&R. Well, I guess I haven't been retired long enough, because I still haven't learned to just sit and relax. I always feel that I'm still in weekend warrior mode and need to squeeze in everything all at once. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, so I decided to go for an ATV ride up into the high country north of my place. I strapped on my 5 wt and a couple of empty fruit baskets and headed to one of my favourite spring-fed Trout lakes back in the bush, with dinner in mind (I don't keep or eat Lake O run Steelhead). I was lucky enough to get a couple of Rainbows to bite my Wooly Bugger, and even more lucky to find the Holy Trinity of early spring foraging at a few different spots along the way...Fiddleheads, Morels, and Wild Onions. Headed back to the cottage to make a spring dinner. Here's all the ingredients prepped and ready to go. Everything except the lemons and soya sauce are from Frontenac County. Even the wine is from a local vineyard in Westport. You've heard of the 100 mile diet...well this is the 25 mile diet. Here's the final results on the plate. Rainbow Trout grilled over alder wood and finished with a maple syrup and soy glaze...a ragout of Fiddleheads, Morels and Wild Onions sautéed in a white wine and butter reduction...and steamed Red Potatoes sprinkled with freshly snipped Chives from the garden. Oh man, so good. My wife tells me I should open a restaurant, but that would mean I would have to work again. After dinner, sat on the deck with my 15 yr old friend "Glen" and watched the sun set. What a great day...nothing like spring in Frontenac. It would have been an absolutely perfect day, but unfortunately the results of the hockey game didn't go my way. Next week, it's off to the north shore of Lake Superior to re-visit some of the most beautiful Steelhead streams on the planet...I must say, I should've retired years ago.

We stay at Brennan Harbour (good people), but there's a couple of other places right at the mouth of the Spanish too. Loads of Smallmouth (and some Largemouth), consistent Walleye and plenty of Pike. There's Musky too, and in September we've even incidentally caught Chinook right in front of the cabins.

Good size fiddleheads. I just checked along the north foundation of the house and there are now two ferns up so I'm thinking I better take a little tour up the road where there's a creek with a decent population of ferns that are always early. Then I went over to the side of the property to check out the leeks and woohoo, they are starting to swell so I picked a few for my first snack of the year. They are so mild and almost sweet when this young, I just dip them in salt and munch away.

Percy is a pretty good small mouth fishery. I’m not sure how the pics hold up these days. Belwood would not be somewhere that I’d go for walleye. There may be the odd one here and there but the place is overrun with people and not at all consistent for any kind of fishing. I’ve always liked the buckhorns, and Crowe was surprisingly not bad last time I fished it. Rice lake while busy is usually a producer for pics. Hard to go wrong there so long as you don’t mind contending with weeds. Anywhere you go on opener will be a gong show for the most part so just keep that in mind!