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Man, it has been a very bizarre ice fishing season! It was our first good ice fishing season in a few years! Lots of good ice out there, if fact the first year in a while that we've seen truck out there but the latest snow that we had received has made it a mess out there> Not sure I'll get out there again this year. One interesting thing that I noticed this year, was the number of BIG JUMBO's that stayed relatively shallow <15 FOW. We did catch some great fish, lost some possible giants and hope that conditions improve to the point where we can get out again!

Its been a while since Ive had something to report.. but we finally.. finally made it up To Camp Jiggy Jiggy. It was winter of challenges, and a spring of projects we couldn't get away from but finally after 7 months we are back.. It always amazes me how well the place holds up in our absence. Last year I installed a camera with cell service outside, and added a solar panel the battery made it to the end of Feb before it died.. but had manages to take a charge again and reset it self late march. Its really quite nice to see the pace all winter long and know all is well. The camera overlooks the river as well. The one couple we know locally used to comedown here to fish occasionally, but they retired in the fall and moved away. Its the beginning of july and the camera hasn't picked up a boat or a canoe on the river yet. So for now at least we have our little stretch all to ourselves again, something Im very grateful for. We've had the place for about 18 years now i think and i know its selfish, but its hard to share lol. here are some pics for everyone. My mug.. yes i need to shave... My view from my office this morning.. Had to clear the trail in as always every year. The kids got me this Milwaukee chainsaw this year.. honestly for light to medium work its a game changer. Ill never ever tire of the view up the river Fishing is still as good as ever, maybe even better this year.. theres a nice size year class of pike that's prevalent in our space that are all about 30 inches, and some like Moniques best yesterday are a bit bigger: this one went right back in the water: LOL.. this one diddnt... Creek is still coughing up dace which we used last night to get four eating sized pickeral. After all this time bigger pickeral still elude me, but we have at least found some spots for some for eating. Still cant find the bigguns though. So that's it for now.. gonna be a hot one up here.. oh and last but not least... they look silly but on a breezeless day saved our afternoon from baking in the boat.. although we had trouble not laughing at each other.....

Look out fish, my son just arrived and we are booked for Simco with Tim Hales tomorrow and I got my shipment today. Thanks Brian they are beautiful 🤣

What started as a low level tieing for minimum profit, has got me in a bit deeper then expected, but the rewards of seeing what I can do, is a bonus. Retirement is coming and well, I want to keep my hands and brain busy . Some of my latest works. o

Had an unexpected opportunity to hit Simco yesterday, turned out CPH was planning on getting out for the day and we were able to hook up. What a great day, we did really well, no idea how many fish we caught but it was plenty. I only kept 10 nice sized perch and 2 herring. I'm not sure how many Steve took home but his pail was a lot heavier than mine. I started off with some of my favorite go to presentations while Steve used some of his own creations, both were catching fish but I can tell you that artificial out caught live bait. So now I plan on spending today making some more grubs for future trips. it's always so satisfying when you catch fish on the artificial baits. We talked to other fishermen in the area, and from all accounts, we did significantly better than most that relied mostly on minnows! So in summary: a great day fishing with great company, some new lessons learned and a nice feed of fish, how can you ask for better than that😊

😆 Yesterday was my first outing on the ice here . Lots of bait, no whities . Was getting lots of tag hits on my larger blood worm for whities, so this morning, I tied up some smaller ones for the high hook . They worked great. Just enough bait to chow down on for a lunch snack. So so scrumptious 😋 20250125_082331.mp4

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.

Had a guy see my invention of cluster soft beads . Tells me they would work great out there. Orders a half doz to start .Seems he was right .

Way back when I owned a bass boat that did 60+ mph and jet skis seadoos topped out at about 40 mph, I was out fishing having a good day when 2 guys on jet skis started buzzing my boat and turning at the last second to send a big splash my way i I decided to teach them how to make a big splash so I took off and followed them, quickly overtook them trimmed my motor to send out a rooster tail 20 ft high and 60 ft back from the boat and just flooded the to guys They had to stop their machines so I stopped mine , they took off again and so did I drowning the poor buggers again. One of them turned and went the other way so I just kept on the one guy every time he tried to move I soaked him good. They quit trying to soak me so I guess I won the water fight but I could see the other guy close to the shoreline so I paid him a visit and played one more time The other guy showed up too so I talked to them and asked why they didn’t want to play anymore. They said they didn’t mean anything by splashing me, they were just having fun. I said me too and I’m not tired of the fun yet They said yeah we get the point. So I asked where to you live , they said just right there he was his way home when I soaked him the last time so I said good stay there till you see me leave the lake. If I see you come back I will will continue to play the game and if I hear anyone else say a jet ski splashed them I will spend the whole summer playing the game they went home and I went back to catching bass

As many probably know, the fishing has been ridiculously good on Lake Ontario this year. Things seemed to have slowed down a bit lately - back to a normal level. I don't do many fishing reports anymore but here you go. We launched at Fisherman's Pier this morning and fished our way over to Bronte. In around 5 hours fishing we went 5 for 9, including this beast that weighed in just over 22 pounds and hit in 120 feet of water. Water temps on the surface were a balmy 74 degrees.

It's been 10 years since SPIEL has tied up this fabulous Rain Shadow for me. Still going as strong as the day I picked it up. I'm thinking I've caught at least a dozen fish on it. 😉 Thanks SPIEL for your quality work and craftsmanship. Cheers!

Had a great year last season with tonnes of great numbers. Hammered walleye from a kayak in a super back lake with my dad. Later flipped the same kayak in the middle of a trout lake and almost died of hypothermia lol, was a fun year!

I can't wait to see how this "stunning" piece of highly figured Quilted Poplar turns out once finished. It's in full round now and will become a reel seat, butt cap and two wood handle inserts over the next several days.

Well,I was able to hook up with our member this morning ,as he was fishing with an outfitter on the 2nd line. Met up with him and handed over a whole new batch of baits . Canada post, nor wind nor blowing wind and low vis,will stop the loony bin bugs and grubs guy ,from getting to those that want. Well, to a limit 😆. It was a nasty morning, but it was a day that was special, so I made the extra effort to make sure the day started off well . Must be the newfie in me byes.

I have not been on Loughborough Lake the last 2 winters, even though it is only half an hour from my home in Kingston. The ice has been sketchy, and I am not religious enough to walk on water............ This winter we have good ice, probably on all of Loughborough, but certainly on one of the spots we fish on the south shore. A buddy of mine has been out a few times, and caught some nice lakers, and he invited me to join him a couple days ago. We had 8 or 9 inches of good ice, with maybe five inches of snow on top, but no slush. We were in 65 FOW according to his graph. I used to own a Vex, did not care for it too much and gave it away, then bought a Marcum LX7, which was a very nice unit but fairly heavy, and I rarely used it, so I gave that graph to a younger fellow who I figured would get more use out of it. So even though it would have been useful to watch a graph whilst jigging for greys, I did not have one. I watched my rod tip instead of a screen........ Going back quite a number of years, I would fish a large dead bait (especially smelts!) on bottom with one rig, and jig a white tube jig on my second rig. Both produced lakers, and it varied by outing whether the fish preferred the meat on bottom or the imitation up higher. Often enough we would see a streak coming up off bottom, reel the bait away, and WHAM! a laker would take the fleeing bait. My buddy reported that white tubes were not getting any interest at all this winter. SO>>>>>> I set up a line with a small Williams Whitefish in silver with a red slash on it and a live minnow, about a foot off bottom, and started jigging with a heavy Hopkins Shorty, silver with a dressed treble. Up and down the water column, banging bottom etc etc, nothing. I switched to a small gold Mister Champ, same thing, no hits. OK maybe they want something different - and I tried a larger Rapala Jigging Rap in electric blue with chrome belly, nada. Then a medium sized Williams Whitefish, with the crinkly half gold/half silver finish. No dice. OK, I switched that up for a medium Buckshot in fire tiger colours with the fluorescent chartreuse back. Nope. In the meantime, my buddy was washing a bunch of his tackle, and the only interest he got was on a small black tube about a foot off bottom. The fish would come up and look, maybe hang around for a minute or so, but no hits. It was a cold day with a brisk wind, and not terribly comfortable, holes kept freezing over, etc etc, and I was thinking it might be time to throw in the towel. So I looked again in my boxes of tackle - I am betting most ice anglers, like me, take a hundred or more lures out with them even though we will NEVER use some of them (like that 2 ounce Swedish Pimple we used in the late 80s for Quinte walleye 🙂) Anyways, I spotted a Sutton West River spoon with the silver back and copper inside, and put it on my snap swivel. I was letting it flutter slowly down to the bottom, when I had quite a vicious strike down maybe fifteen feet. And the fight was on, yeehaw! Because the fish had hit so close to the surface, I had it up to the hole fairly quickly. All I could see was a very thick back and broad tail, and away it went, sounding for the bottom... .....and at that moment, for reasons I cannot fathom, my fairly new, decent quality reel decided to loosen off the drag. By several full revolutions of the dial, what the hell??? The laker was now really screaming to the bottom, while I feverishly tightened the drag back up. Fortunately, it was going down not up, and did not get any slack! Anyways, after several attempts to bring it up to the hole, I finally got it out onto the ice. My lure was JUST hanging from its lower jaw. Weighed on a digital scale, it was 12.64 pounds, and my best trout from Loughborough. And yes, I KEPT it, to EAT!!! The flesh was a beautiful orange, and it had a bunch of smelts in the mouth and belly. That was our only fish. We stayed until 1:00, with no more action. But that one fish sure made my day! 🙂 Doug

Started on this piece this morning for a long time customer/friend. It's a rare piece of stabilized Douglas Fir that had been hit by lightening. I'v made much progress on it thus far but it is proving to be a piece that will require much TLC if I'm to get it to completion.

Starting to get requests for other ties . Some are from BC. I am always willing to try and please customer requests. It,s a new challenge for me,but once I got rolling, it,s alot of fun. Was on the river this morning and trying to fly fish the last tie, but the wind was brutal . There was a guy very curious on what I was using. He was so impressed with it, he ordered 6 of them along with 6 of the pink. I was wowed. Did not even know this guy. 20241101_083929.mp4

Today marks 35 years since I married my fishing and hunting guide.. lol.. and on this auspicious occasion I took what is considered to be the rarest of rare photos. A jiggy sunrise. Yes I had to pee.. and yes I went back to bed.

Up until 4 weeks ago I had a Silverado to pull my boat, bought it brand new. First ever new vehicle in my life, my intention was to drive to the wreckers. That did not happen as I had it towed to the transmission shop instead. A result of GM's fuel management system where it shuts down 4 of the eight cylinders when not required. This does bad things to the torque converter and that results in glittery transmission fluid and burnt clutches. I ended up selling the truck to the transmission shop and started shopping for a replacement. I was advised to get a F150 with the 5.0 engine. I did not want a crew cab, so I had to search far and wide to get one with a super cab (cab and a half). This is what I ended up getting as my new to me truck: And here is what I hope to have it looking like as often as possible

My wife

Pictures of some of my favorite mountain lakes. Most are so gorgeous they look fake, but are not. I hope you's enjoy. Maligne Lake, Peyto Lake, Waterton Lake, Lake Louise, Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes where in 1983 while fishing from shore I caught the Alberta record Bull Trout, Alberta's provincial fish, one oz. shy of 18lbs. And it still stands today. Lower Kananaskis Lake, Abraham Lake. I have a couple more that are well worth a gander but as usual my computer decided to take some time off, I will try and post them later.

Hi all, walleye bite went nuts from 7pm for 45 minutes. must've got 20 or so between the two of us....nice evening too .

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.

I was out with my dad who is 82 to spend the day on Simcoe. Really appreciated the incredible effort you made, Misfish, to deliver the package of lures to me before going out (since CP can’t seem to deliver packages from Barrie to Waterloo in 2.5 weeks!) You drove through some nasty weather to make it out to our meeting place and I truly applaud your commitment to service, dedication and generosity. You are a class act and I’m glad to have met you in person, Brian. BTW, those bloodworms worked very well - thanks for everything. You are an asset to the fishing community! Michael

Glad you had an enjoyable day Cliff with your son . That blood worm has been a hit with many anglers this season. Sold out right now and hope to have my supplies here soon to catch up on new orders that just keep coming in. Funny how a season of ice,gets everyone in a buzz. Thank you again for reaching out and supporting my adventure.

I'm currently working on rebuilding one of the original 10, 1562 Loomis GLX prototype blanks (my 6th to date), and I've been playing with a new resin medium that has had me see numerous failures on the grip wood inserts. The frustrations have been incredibly frustrating to say the least, the learning is as of yet, not perfected, but I am making progress. This is a series of pictures showing the rear grip from failure to success. This was the first finished attempt that shows many air in inclusions in the finish. The results were clearly a failure so I started again by removing the finish. Then I started again with a new perspective and slower more methodical application method.

My son got down for a visit and naturally we had to hit Simco for some perch. I started off with my Simco bugs, (thanks to CPH) and it didn't disappoint. My son started off with a traditional drop shot rig and minnows. He set up a second rod with a Swedish pimple but he tipped it with a small piece of sponge and shad scent (ya I know a little different but it worked) Well, the artificial baits out fished the minnows by a huge margin. We only kept 20 perch, one herring, and two smelt but we caught a heck of a lot more perch. The artificial caught 90% of the fish caught today, with the Simco bug clearly the winner. Another amazing day on the ice! Besides any day fishing with my son is a fantastic day🙂

A couple of weeks back now when I shared the pictures of "Project 10," the Wine Bottle Stoppers a long time friend of mine shared the pictures with his wife who immediately loved the pink ones, not for her desire to have one but for another reason. She quickly called me and stated how much she loved the colour and asked if I could somehow modify her Umbrella to replace the handle with the pink acrylic, I said I'd be more than happy to try. So my friend brought me the Umbrella on Sunday and as I had feared it was an auto pop up with the mechanism built within the handle so a full handle replacement was out of the question....so onto plan B. The first thing to do was take apart the handle with a plan in mind ..... The plan was to add a "Butt Cap" style piece to the rear of the black rubber grip cut and finished at the required angle ..... But that idea due to perceived difficulties had me change my mind and I then decided to square up the rubber grip and go with a perpendicular mount .... And the acrylic turning begins .... Testing the dry fit .... Now that it was ready for gluing I had to make sure that the process did not allow the epoxy to run into the handle and seize the auto open/close mechanism, so a clamp was made to hold it upright (in the open position) while the glue set overnight .... And today it's all done, still working and ready to go back home with the hope that my friends wife will be pleased .... Thanks for looking.

Hi all, went camping for a couple nights at the beginning of this week at our local Provincial Park which is on a lake trout lake. I headed out two mornings in a row at the crack of dawn as it’s my experience that the fishing is better before 9am. First morning the trout were chasing and biting, the second morning out they would only chase. Both mornings produced some really nice walleye, something about walleye in trout lakes, they are tanks, difficult to find sometimes, but when you do find them it’s a blast! I finished both mornings with a few bass once the trout and walleye bite stopped around 9am, WeatherRadar was perfect, fishing was great and was back in time for breakfast.

Hi all, The crappie are starting to show up in good numbers on the steep shoreline drop offs, not much happening with them on the reefs but they will be there soon enough. The ones we've been getting are really nice slabs, 14" would be average with a lot of 15"ers. They are pretty scattered, some even hitting suspended half way in the water column, but although spread out they are aggressive when you find a couple.

Had a loyal customer send me this. All are my ties I have done for him. Messenger_creation_475e72f9-c63d-4ce9-b034-a7562c1c649b.mp4

We were casting a bay one evening when 2 clowns on a jetski decided to mess around with us. They came in close and started doing donuts around us for about 5 minutes then took off. They only got 100 yards and tried to make another sharp turn but instead rolled the machine over. We could hear one of them screaming in pain in the water so we motored over and asked if he was hurt and he said yes, it's my back. I said "ahhh, that's a shame" and continued on our way.

Hi all, with the laborious initial 2hr break in under the belt it did not take long to get the next 8hrs on the new Merc. The sliming got better the last few days as I hit up the trout lake at our local Provincial Park where we have been tent camping the last couple of nights. The lake trout have been fussy but got a few, the bass have also been fussy, but got a few, and the walleye have been fussy as well…. sigh… but have had 3x26”, 1x 28” and a chunky 29”er with a couple small ones thrown in during two crack of dawn sessions.

Just got home from a quick 3 day trout trip in Quebec.....another amazing time catching bows and speckled trout. There were 3 of us and we limited out on Speckles and caught 9 bows......I personally caught a 3 1/2lb, 3lb and 3 x 2lbs speckies....I am already looking forward to trip# 3 in 4 weeks. I LOVE retirement!!

Hey All, Thanks for much again for all the responses. The Toronto Region Conservation Authority called me in response to my email. I spoke to head of water management. I sent him the real estate listing as well. He was pretty great about it, couldn't find any issues on their end as to why I can't. If it's private property, not fishing out of season, have a license, etc. Which was my main concern of TRCA officers showing up at my door to fine me, and not being able to fish there anymore (worst case scenario). The city is the "landlord" of the pond so they set the rules for their property, but since we have riparian rights, as it says in the ad, we're permitted, as I thought. He gave me the email for the park manager, they get calls constantly about high park etc people are understandably protective. I'll in the meantime I'll just ignore them. Or if I'm feeling sassy maybe paddle across and ask to see their (whining) licences, as angler harassment is illegal 😛 Also got this little almost 4lb nugget last Saturday.

Sorry!

The season is here once again for my fav fresh water fish. White fish. Opens in the morning and I am all loaded up and stoked.

Almost 12 years since I last logged into OFC. I saw a post of Facebook with some yellow jackets and grey hats and figured I would check out what’s going on in here! See lots of familiar faces, so much has changed since I was 13 years old discovering OFC with my dad, over the last 18 years one thing that hasn’t changed is my desire to chase Muskies. In 2017 I bought what at the time was my dream boat, after a boat accident and a couple boat upgrades later I am now fishing in a boat I could have never dreamed possible. During Covid I was unable to book at Lakair lodge or Memquisit lodge on the west arm of Lake Nippissing, one place on the upper French river was allowing guests so I took advantage, after quickly falling in love with the area I decided I wanted to dedicate my time to only fishing The French / Lake Nippissing. Last season I decided to start guiding, a life long dream that always seemed like a dream was now reality, being paid to bring people out to catch fish??? SIGN ME UP. The guiding aspect was very different, I went from bringing buddies on the boat trying to get them a fish to now needing to get people on fish, the fish cooperated quite well. I just wanted to thank all the OG members of the community who made things so much fun when I was younger, we would have never went to Lakair Lodge/Lake Nippissing without OFC. Here are a couple fish from my season last year: His first musky My GF with a 51” 51 x 26 September whale 51” fall fatty 55” 43.6lb last spot of the season, MAGIC.

Hi all, Got to our spot around 5pm, usually pick up a couple of whitefish and the odd walleye and pike before the bite turns on but it wasn’t until 7:20pm when the switch got flicked. We didn’t even mark a single fish before that, was getting worried… lol. Once they turned on it was non stop bites.

I just got off the phone with Kim at Tim Hales, they have had to cancel all hut rentals since last Saturday because of all the snow and Kim wasn't sure when they would be able to resume normal operations, everything is canceled for the remainder of this week at least. Even the bomberdiers are getting stuck and once they can get out they still have to move huts...... If you are planning on going out on Simco be very careful, if they are having trouble then emergency services will probably have trouble getting to you if anything did go wrong. Please stay safe, there are no amount of fish worth your life.

If as an angler, you want to make a conscious decision to support Canadian manufacturers, there is on-line retailer that offers only MADE IN CANADA products.. https://greatcanadianfishingstore.com/ Of course, there is also a lot of gear that comes from China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Europe if want to avoid US goods. The same for big box stores....Sail and Canadian Tire vs Bass Pro and Cabela's. Personally, for a number of reasons, I've always patronized the smaller local retailers...although I do miss LeBaron's.

Yesterday while saying good bye to my Daughter out on the front lawn a Hawk came swooping low over us from over the roof and landed across the street in the neighbours driveway. It did have something in it's talons and this morning I discovered just exactly what it was. The only thing left of the Pigeon in my backyard was it's feather's and wings. A few doors down the street is a Pigeon coop which does allow for both Cooper's and Sharpies to often be seen hunting them and I've seen them in action numerous times, both are incredibly agile predators on the wing and while I can't be 100% certain I do believe given its size that this one yesterday was a Cooper's Hawk. This is as close as I let my daughter get (cell phone picture) so as not to spook the bird off her meal. This is what she left behind in my backyard ......

Hi all, After a chilly morning doing yard work I couldn’t resist, the lake was flat calm and bluebird skies so I texted my neighbour who was up for it in 2 seconds flat…. Lol. We headed out to the brushpiles and had non stop crappie for 2 hours with a couple small walleye and one decent one. Few more walleye suspended over the basin that would only investigate a jig and minnow, ended up with the bigger one on power bait minnow. Some decent weather ahead so will keep the boat ready a bit longer.

This is two of the many teaser pictures sent to me of a custom reel that I'm having built that is nearing completion. Once in hand I'll be in high gear to get a matching custom built rod for it to fish this Fall's Steelhead season.

Penicillin might fix it, ya....no! lol

That’s one infested piece of tail

I just got back from my trout trip in Quebec.....black flies were ridiculous, even out in the middle of the lake. Fishing started off slow but picked up by Wednesday.....No bows or browns in the remote lakes but I managed to get my limit in Quebec Reds (Char) on the larger lake that our cabin was on....biggest Char was 2.6lbs. First time going up to this outfitter so I think I'll give it another try next year in June as opposed to May.

I feel like a kid again on Christmas Eve.....I can't even remember the last time I headed out for a spring Trout excursion due to heavy business travel.....It's been 7 weeks since I have retired and I'm feeling great! Leaving in the morning to drive 3hrs north in Quebec and we will be targeting native Quebec Reds +Speckled Trout on the lake that our cabin is on and then some remote lakes for stocked Rainbows and Browns.....Very stoked just to get back in a boat and this will be the first out of 4 fishing trips that I booked in Quebec this year.....Hopefully the fish will cooperate and I'll be able to make another post....I know the Black Flies will be cooperating