Master of Bait

Welcome! Great people on this board with some good insight. Enjoy your stay!

Hey Keram, Nice haul! Just goes to show that a little perseverence pays off! Must've been very rewarding to finally tie into some after those efforts. Appreciate the pics.

Folks, The wife and I are off on a March break vacation to Cozumel Mexico and I'm going to bring some basic gear down. I'd love to get into some predators ('cuda?) with lures in the lagoons/beach areas and then some smaller stuff with bait and small hooks on the bottom. Just wondering if anyone has any tips as to what to bring and use. I haven't got much experience with this stuff. We're staying on the southwest side of the island. Any experiences or suggestions shared are welcome. Thanks.

Hey Mike, Thanks for the suggestion. A detour through Keswick may be unavoidable - still far better than waiting for minnows in the city. DouG, Thanks for the kind words! Appreciate the friendly and welcoming attitude from folks like yourself on this board.

Hey gang, Amazing, but after not having angled the dangle in more than a month, I hit Simcoe again on Saturday - THAT'S TWICE IN TWO WEEKS!!!!! Better yet, I'm off again next weekend!!!!! This'll be three times in three weeks for me, well above average considering I've ice fished exactly twice in the last ten years... Here's the scoop on Saturday's mission... Plan was to leave my place in North York at 8am, one punctual buddy shows up on time, the other two are working off their hangovers. 9:15 we're packed and good to go. Stop at timmies then off to Lucky in Scarborough for minnows and a license - doesn't open until 10am, more waiting. Finally baited up and on the road at 10:30am, pulling into Sibbald Point at 11:30. Park the ride and we're hoofing it out on foot towards the pack of huts northwest of the launch ramp - about a klick's walk with lots of gear but not killer. Start drilling with the manual auger and 12 holes and a ton of sweat later, we're good. In case anyone was out there we were the goofs with the summer camping tent out on the ice... Action was slow at first then came in waves. A few decent fish mixed in with lots of dinks. All in all it amounted to 30 keepers between 4 guys in 4 hours. Not great but far better than lounging on the couch. The friendly neighborhood CO paid a visit. Didn't hang and chat but he did his job and he was nice about it. Overall, great time between friends. I've never been big on the hardwater but I think my mindset is changing. Could never have imagined being so excited about nailing a 9 " perch, something about the mystery of the hole, who knows, but I like it! I must echo Clampet's point in another post where he says doing it on your own is more fun. We were 4 guys who could've spent $160 between the 4 of us for a hut but did it all for a few bucks (parking, sandwiches and bait). It's nice to be a little mobile and there's something satisfying about figuring it out on your own. Not to slag the hut operators but any time the weather permits I'd rather do it on my own. All I have is a manual auger, no vex. Good enough for me. I actually have pics but they'll come later as they're from a buddy's camera. Quick question for you in the know out there. My father in law and I are going next Sunday for a few hours in the morning and I wonder if anyone can tell me where I can get perch-sized shiners on the way up? Ideally it'd be somewhere between the Davis Drive exit on the 404 and the provincial park but I'll go wherever I need to. Just want to avoid waiting until Lucky tackle opens at 10. Probably leaving the house at 7. Appreciate any help and hope to post pics soon. Cheers! Hope it works, I'm trying to link pics from myfishingpicutres.com... http://www.myfishingpictures.com/showphoto...0&password= http://www.myfishingpictures.com/showphoto...0&password= http://www.myfishingpictures.com/showphoto...0&password= http://www.myfishingpictures.com/showphoto...0&password=

Hey! 007, The ice was roughly 12 inches thick where we were - just enough for my rusty auger blades not to give me a hard time. Pretty easily managable as I drilled 8 holes with little effort - okay some effort but I'm not in my "summer body" shape... Clampet, Trip to the shanty was via Yellow Bombardier Snow War Tank and it seemed like 5 mins. Closer to shore tha I'd imagined - roughly 1 km, maybe a little more? Easily walk-able.

Hey guys/gals, Just a quick note to fill you in on my ice fishin' mission on Saturday. Woke up WAY too early Sat morn and headed to Pefferlaw from North York where we had booked a hut with Steve's Ice Huts. First time renting a hut or ice fishing on Simcoe and I was pumped based on the good things I'd heard over the years... In the hut and fishing by 7am, things started off slowly. Light taps here and there and a couple of dinks over the first hour or so had us a little disappointed and worried. However, things picked up quite a bit over the course of the day and we caught them in flurries. Decent mix of jumbos mixed in topped off by a MASSIVE fatty the likes of which I've never seen - over 1 lb I think. Fished surprisingly close to shore (first hut out) in only 10 feet but it was good enough for me. Figured that info might be of interest for anyone who's finding the fish plentiful-yet-dinkish in Cooks - at least this is an alternative. All-in-all, worked out to over 100 perch caught and we kept roughly 60 between 4 guys, ranging from 8-14 inches (only 1 at 14, most around 9-10). Had fun cleaning them when we got home then ate them Sunday night - YUM! I had brought my manual auger and had a blast running out to the holes when the fishing slowed down inside. We caught a number of good sized fish in holes not 10 feet from the hut when things were dead inside. Funny how it seemed the schools of perch were moving around and we'd get into a mess of them all at once then nothing for a while. Chatted with some hardcore ice guys who had a great set up with a vex, propane heater and wind break. Can't believe they stayed out all day with the wild cold wind we had but they looked to be well-prepared with their survival suits and such. Packed everything but the camera so you'll have to take my word for it. Gotta say that I don't do this ice fishing thing nearly enough...

whoa...

Now THAT is a fish that would qualify as a STUNNER! Beauty pic!

That is by FAR the cutest miniature hamster I have ever seen....

Hey, nice, uh, fish? Better than getting skunked, right? Just a quick question for you ecologists out there... The little I know about amphibians like mud puppies is that they can be a good indicator of the health of the ecosystem since these guys are among the first to go when water quality is very poor. Any truth to that? Would their presence suggest things are not too bad at a given location? Also, a lake I fish regularly has had some "die offs" of these guys. Usually in the summer when the water gets pretty warm, I think. Is this common? Lemme know!

Hey buddy, Great pics and nice report. Love the detail as I need to live vicariously through you guys who get out there fairly regularly. Makes being cooped in a little more bearable!!! Keep up the good work!

Hey guys, Thanks a lot for this. I saw the barrier at the beach a few years back so I hear what you're saying about shore access. I'm definitely inquiring about boat access here. Might be an option for some time in the spring!

Hey gang, Couple of quick questions for you, if anyone has any insight. I wonder if anyone's fished Darlington before. Is it like Pickering, with a warm water outflow? Is there a launch nearby? Are there any Lake O. launches in Pickering other than Frenchman's bay marina? Are there two outflows at Pickering or one? Sorry for the many questions but I am interested in trying these areas out at some point (maybe the spring). If anyone's got any info I'd much appreciate the help. Many thanks!

Great shots, nice fish.

HA! What a cute face! I see musky in that boy's future... CONGRATS, you should be very proud!

WOW! Is all I can say. You are VERY lucky to be able to do that kind of thing. And GOOD FOR YOU for doing it!

Iceguy, Very cool! Not many people get a chance to do that in their LIFETIME! Funny thing that happened last night as I was there too! Probably before you guys had your game. The ad agency that works with our company rents the ACC every year for a couple hours for a family skate. Lots of families there and the kids were all SUPER pumped. I brought my 10 year old nephew and I think it made his year! Walter Gretzky was on hand for autographs. What a class act. He spent the whole time chatting with the many kids and posing for pics.

Hey OFNCers, Just a quick question about these beauty fish I keep seeing.... Are these all coming from the year-round open season stretches at the bottom of out GTA rivers? Wouldn't dare ask for a hot spot but I'm just wondering if these areas hold fish all winter in case I get a real itch some time... Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the kind words folks. Taper, yeah, four guys in a 12-footer, I know, kinda ridiculous, but we played safe...

Hey folks, Just a quick note to say hi as I just registered and to take a shot at posting pics! I was once a little more frequent poster under the name "skunked" years ago but have stayed away for a while. I rediscovered the new site recently (nice work OFC team) and have loved reading your many great reports and comments. I'll be reading lots and hopefully posting some pics for ya here and there but I don't get out as often as I'd like and my wife won't let me take the digital camera on the boat - disposables only . Here are a few little guys from a day out on a small lake where we rented a pontoon this summer (you can probably guess where we were) - sorry, these are the only digitized pics I have that are readily available. 1 - My buddy Steve with a largie 2 - Me with a largie 3 - My buddy Rich doing a Cheech impersonation 4 - Me with a rocket Also, for a quick report, three buddies and I hand-launched my 12-footer into Lake O on Saturday near pickering (we were careful and stayed close to shore). Within a couple hours in the morning we nailed a 2 lb OOS smallie and a 8 lb (FAT) pike within feet of eachother. Can't believe we did that on January 6th!!! Anyways, that's it for now. Look forward to posting again! Quick question folks. How do you get the full size pic to appear in the body of the text?