Bob

Bear in mind that most fish are able to pull at least double their weight so a 20lb fish can concievably break a 40 lb line. I usually use 10 or 12 lb line fishing salmon from shore but have taken a 32 lb fish on 6lb line. Long fight and huge runs. Worst mistake you can make is fiddling with your drag tension while in the middle of a tussle. If you have your drag preset correctly before you start to fish, then leave it alone. Only time I'll tighten up on a fish is if I see my line down to a few wraps on the spool and it's still going out. Rather lose the fish than have one dragging a hundred odd yards of line around behind him.

I release them all too. Right into a big pot of boiling salt water over the campfire.

You need an alarm clock to wake up for a fishing trip????????????? Whuddup wid dat? Use the old native trick and drink lots of water before you go to bed. Your bladder will wake you up. Has to be water, booze doesn't work the same way.

First time I ever noticed them was on the Pickerel River near Port Loring about thirty some years ago. I've seen them other places since though. Seems they come to the surface just at a certain time of year.

I've been a fisherman for more than 55 years and rain or shine, summer or winter, I was out there. I've caught more than my share of fish and some very large ones too. Now that I'm considerably older and somewhat arthritic, I watch the weather more. I've come to enjoy fishing in comfort as opposed to being cold, wet or in pain. I don't much care anymore if I catch fish or not but I still enjoy getting out there. Does this make me less of a fisherman? I don't think so. I've had someone accuse me of not being a true Canadian because I don't care to watch hockey. Truth is, I don't watch any pro sports and I've never been a spectator. Does this really make me less of a Canadian? I'll leave it to you to guess how seriously I took his comment.

All the Great Lakes and their major tributaries have lake sturgeon. The world record rod and line lake sturgeon was caught near the mouth of the Nottawasaga and weighed 169 lbs I believe. There was a commercial boat out of Blind River that got one 212 lbs a few years ago and I've watched big ones jumping in the Mississauga River near Blind River many times. When one of those big guys jumps, you'd think a log just popped out of the water. The sturgeon in the Frazer are white sturgeon that get much bigger and run in from the ocean.

In my observations over 55+ years of fishing, I've found that it's impossible to catch fish if your line is dry. I've seen some of my best days fishing an east wind and some worst days fishing a west wind. The area that I fish for salmon from shore works with a wind that blows up big waves.

The canal that connects the Mississippi system to the Great Lakes is at Chicago. If these carp come through that, you'll hear about their spread through Lake Michigan and down through Lake Huron long before they get near Sarnia or Lake Erie. Some eastern cultures believe in buying live fish, two at a time, one to eat and the other to release. This is why sale of live Asian carp has been banned.

Sturgeon do hit lures and I'm sure that's what I had. I can't imagine a musky fighting that long without surfacing. I understand that the world record lake sturgeon was caught on a mepps spinner.

Headed out from Spanish today around oneish just for a little cruise. Milady and I aboard along with sister-in-law, neice and her two young ones. They came for a visit from Alberta and wanted to go for a ride and see some sights and maybe fish a bit. As soon as we cleared the last of the buoyed channel, I started setting lines, two off the back corners and two off the planer boards. The water we were fishing was 12 to 15 feet deep. Shortly after two, we got a hit and I grabbed the rod. "Holy smoke, that's a heavy fish!" I was using a 9' rigger stick with 20 lb line and the lure was a perch coloured super shad rap. I thought at first maybe big pike or musky but it wouldn't come up. Hugged the bottom the whole time. Two hours into the scrap, milady was feeding me a sandwich and a bottle of water. By this time, I'm thinking big sturgeon because it stayed down and didn't swim too fast but it had a lot of weight and power. A couple of times I thought I'd lost it when it came towards the boat and left me with slack line hanging from the rod tip. Finally, around six thirty with milady running late to take her insulin (she hadn't brought it because we were only going for a couple of hours) sister-in-law getting tired (she has cancer) and the young ones getting bored and antsy, I tightened up and let it break off. Neice did a marvelous job of handling the boat while we chased that fish around for four and a half hours. It was great fun but my arms are near dead and I know I'm going to be sore in the AM. Sorry, no pix, it wouldn't let us get a look at it but I have witnesses and I'm convinced it had to be a sturgeon. There have been 200 + lbers taken out of that part of the North Channel by the commercial boats. Maybe it was even a money fish, who knows?

Maureen, you remember when they first came out? The first time I rode one was about 45 years ago and they had been around for a few years then. Yer lookin' good for your age.

Don't know if location makes a difference, but fishing from shore for salmon around here, I've consistently had better fishing with Mepps Syclops and Little Cleo spoons than I have with Krocs. Rapala long-cast lures have worked when nothing else would. Colours are funny, one day one will work and the next day?

I live here but can't help much with lodges as I seldom fish the lakes that have lodges on them. Seems these lakes get more fishing pressure so I fish the lakes that get less. Some of the lakes here have bass and pike and the odd one has walleye but mainly it's a trout area. Nearly every body of water in the area has some kind of trout in it. You can find trophy class lakers, specks and rainbows here if you know where to look. Some of the area lakes have also been stocked with splake.

Just lately, the walleye bite has been on big time in the Spanish River. That's a little farther East from the area you're talking about but I would guess that the Mississauga River by Blind River is giving them up as well. The Mississauga flows through Iron Bridge as well. If I was looking for walleye, I'd look for deeper holes in the river and drift a jig and worm or go-getter and worm. Other than the big tribs that flow into Huron, this is more of a trout area. Some of the lakes up through the Blind River system have some walleye as well.

I've been a sick puppy for a while, doing battle with bronchitis and some kind of virus with it. Kept me flat on my back for weeks but I'm feeling much better now. This afternoon, Peg lit a fire under me and said, "You have to get out and do something." so what better than to trip down to the local dock and throw a line in. Started tossing a husky jerk and 4th cast, hit a pike. Few more casts and another one. I missed 2 more after that and we called it quits, man, it was hot out there. Work up a sweat just drawing breath. Nice to be out though. Pike were just snot rockets but big enough for a meal for two and they were nice on the barbecue. Didn't bother taking pix, no bragging stuff there.

Watch the cattle in the fields on your way out. If they're moving around and grazing, the fish will be active. If the cattle are laying down, the fish won't be active either. An old farmer told me that about 45 years ago and it seems right.

Sorry to hear that Lew. Condolences to you and yours.

I'm on Vianet here for quite a few years and I've never had a problem with this site or any other.

Northwest of here near Aubrey Falls, the ministry set two experimental burns of one hectare each to study the way the fires spread during extreme fire hazard conditions. Huh? Last news I heard on it, they'd lost eighteen square kilometres. That was Wednesday but there seems to be a bit of a news blackout on it since. Now maybe these dimbulbs that came up with this bright idea ( they planned it for two years ) should lose their jobs? Naw, they should go to jail.

My PB pike @ 43" came from the North Channel while trolling a 5" floating rapala. You never know....

The term eelpout came from a suggestion that they look like a cross between an eel and a mudpout (catfish). They are the only freshwater member of the codfish family and are quite tasty.

Our patio looks across a beaver pond into miles of bush where I take my dog for a run. Before I go, I tie a fabric softener sheet to a belt loop and that usually does the trick. If that doesn't keep them far enough away, I pull the sheet off my belt and rub it over the back of my neck and hands and no more problem. I don't much like perfume but the lesser of those two evils is bearable. There's something in the sheets that those bugs just don't like. It usually keeps the big biters away too like the horseflies and deerflies. Blackflies and skeeters only want a little blood but those horseflies want to saw off a steak.

I haven't heard of any fires in this area yet but I expect to. We had minimal snow through the winter and little rain this spring. On the plus side it'll mean fewer black flies and skeeters as the creeks and swamps dry up. There was virtually no runoff and the blackflies depend on that. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Pretty close Lew. Believe he died in 04 at Barry's Bay. I think he quit flying and bought a tourist camp after they scrapped the arrow. I think there's a memorial museum there now.

My father worked on the fuel system and modular weapons systems for that plane. When they scrapped it, most of his friends were laid off but Dad was lucky enough to keep his job. I watched one of the test flights go by, amazing. Dad also got to know Zurakowski, the test pilot.