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Hi guys, Ok so my girlfriend and I are offically signed up, as well as my cousin but I had no idea he was signing up and vice versa (which is kinda cool) If someone could point me in the direction of a pledge sheet or e-mail me one ([email protected]) that would be awesome so I can get to work. I have one question though, my girlfriend really wants to participate in this tournament but at the current moment is not able to move her right hand at all. The poor thing has been going through radiation for cancer in her hand and they warned her it may get to this, we just didn't realize it will be that bad. They say it should return to normal as her therapy finished today but if she's signed up and has collected donations and isn't able to hold a rod on the day of the tournament is it ok if she comes along in my boat and spectates? I'm pretty sure she would probabally still enjoy that, just not sure how things go. Anyways both of us are really excited for this fish-a-thon. Can't wait to see everyone.

My buddy and I went there a while ago and were having a lot of success right before sundown using topwaters. The Rock and Largemouth bass were chasing after everything we threw out. Not a bad little spot for shore fishing.

My thoughts exactly. Looked like a great lake when I was there puttering around. Its a shame I didn't know about the tourney. I probabally would have entered for fun. The fact that 5+ pound bass come out of there is awesome.

Just curious, did anyone enter it? If so, how was it? I was fishing island lake in my Kayak friday and I kept seening these bass boats in the water. I joked with my friend that they were entering the big tournament the next day, then when we were leaving I saw a sign for the big tournament the next day. It seems like a small lake to be holding a bass tournament but I guess the strict catch and release policy puts less pressure on the fish the other 364 days of the year.

My buddy and I were supposed to head to New Jearsy this weekend to see some buddies that we met through the nerf modding that I explained about in a previous post. Sadly, my buddy had some last minute stuff come up at work and wasn't able to go, and as much as I like these guys, 20 hours on a bus by myself is a little much. So, my buddy is one of those guys who hates it when people bail on plans, regardless of the reason so he really hated that he had to bail. Thursday night I get a call from him "Hide the wife, leave the dog in the kitchen. WE'RE GOIN FISHIN!" He told me that since he felt bad for bailing he was going to take me to his dads cottage in Quinte for the weekend all expenses paid....... suddenly I was super happy that we wern't going to Jearsy. We wern't able to make it up friday night due to my buddies work so we ended up leaving saturday morning at 3am (I think my buddy may challenge me for the title of most crazy ontario fisherman) to get there at 6. We picked up 5 dozen worms (If anyone knows any lures the fish hit in Quinte please let us know, we tried EEEVERYTHING!) 5 minutes in I get my first good hit. It looked like it was going to be a good weekend. Remember this photo was taken at about 7am with no sleep had so the quality isn't the greatest. Over the next 48 hours we must have fished for at least 10-15 of them, no crazy stories or anything like that, just lots of fish. Oddly the fishing wasn't as great as the last time but we still managed to land a lot of good fish. As well as a couple of really nice surprises. I've never seen a white perch this big before. And my first Quite walleye. Remember, water on the water, beer on the pier (We were on the dock so I'm pretty sure this was ok) I sent this photo to my uncle and he made me feel better by saying "You must have one big beer bottle there." All in all a great weekend, I made perch for my buddy, his sister and their grandma, his sister actually found a perfect condiment complement to go with my chip fish recipe which was cool and all in all it was just a great overall weekend.

Congrats on the fish. Nice pike and an enjoyable read. Good luck in the tourny next week $2500 could buy a sweet Jon boat plus a 4 horse.

Wow. Those are some biiiig bass.

Bluffers park marina has a rediculous number of 3-4 pound largies. Frenchmans bay is good as is Tommy Tompson park, and I won't tell you were exactly (don't want you catching all my fish) but the Toronto Islands are rediculous when it comes to bass. I saw a 6 pound largie come out of there once.

Haha had to bring some snacks. I wasn't getting off the water for anything. I honestly can't say enough nice things about the locals in Hearst and Longlac. People on the streets talk to you as if you are family, they don't mind telling you where the fish are or what to use to get them. The woman running the bait shop and I had a nice long chat about life in Northern Ontario. It was quite the experiance.

(Just a heads up, on this trip I was by myself so a lot of the pictures of fish are less then high quality) This trip had been in the works for me for about 3 years now. Ever since I saw Longlac I always wanted to fish it as, every time I drove over I could just see hundreds of primo fishing spots around the lake and conjoining river, but in the past, having no time and having a clunker of a car that I wasn't sure was able to make it I always had to say 'maybe next year.' The past weekend I was able to take Thursday and Friday off and finally set off to fish my holy grail of lakes. After arriving in Hearst Wednesday night after a long drive and getting a hotel room I arrived early morning Thursday at Fushimi, based on the distance and the information of other board members this seemed like the logical choice of parks to camp in. I set up my tent as quickly as possible to get on the water as fast as I could. Much to my disapointment, when I got down to the water I saw thousands upon thousands of dead mayflies scattered along the beach, between that and the cold damp weather I knew this was going to be a bit of work to bring in fish. Looking out on to the lake I quickly decided my first fishing spot. See that island off in the distance? It was a bit of a paddle but I decided it probabally had a good drop off. As I came up on one of the windswept bays I saw a dropoff that went from 5 feet to about 16 that had a decent patch of vegitation in the 5 foot areas. I figured if anything was going to hit it was going to be here. After a couple of hours I had 6 or 7 of these guys. nothing big mind you but a fish is a fish is a fish. Eventually the weather got so bad I decided to head into town and get a bite. The weather continued to be miserable throughout the day and I decided to pack it in early to get a jumpstart on the next day and the true reason I had come up here. I woke up early on friday morning and decided to have another look at Fushimi lake, the wind was coming in pretty strong from the south and a quickly decided to take a pass against fighting the waves (I'm in a 12 foot kayak with no motor so any place on the water I go to fish I have to earn by doing a workout first). As I drove to longlac a thought occured to me. Similar to watching your favourite Boxer/UFC fighter or seeing your favourite band for the first time in concert, what if this was going to be a letdown? What if for one reason or another this lake wasn't going to yeild the bounty of fish I had hyped myself up for? I quickly decided I wasn't going to doom myself to getting skunked before I had even wet a single line and was soon in the town of Longlac. What I hadn't thought about was that strong southern wind that was whipping up waves on Fushimi was doing the same on Longlac. Now Longlac (or long lake) is appropriatly named because it is a very long lake..... of north to south orient. Which caused this southern wind to be blowing up great whitecaps across the water. I grumbled to myself as no fish is really worth risking my life as I decided what to do. My backup plan, Longlac river, however, looked even more bountiful a spot then the lake. I mean, check it out, doesn't that just scream tons of hiding spots for fish? Plus the strong south wind was pushing tons of water under those open areas in the bridge which I could only imagine had tons of waiting walleye, plus I saw two boats covering a 500m area over and over, obviously trolling for walleye. As I got to my spot in the water I asked one of the gentlemen driving one of the boats how the fishing was. He responded 'fantastic. And you are in a prime spot.' I started getting excited. 2 hours later, after trying various areas and everything in my tacklebox, I hadn't had a single bite. Not a nibble, nothing. I'd watch the one boat go by (The man I talked to, his son and his father) and it seemed like they were pulling out a fish every 5 minutes. I tried to mimic what I could see of their lures, I saw a flash of orange, so I used an orange grub, nothing. I thought maybe it was trolling, so I tried trolling with my kayak which is very hard to do (by the way, did you know when you lose a paddle its possible to paddle with a bass net? Its not fun but its possible.) After the 3rd hour I was feeling pretty dejected and decided to head in for a bite and to regain my thoughts. As I got on shore there was a local man giving his dogs some exercise by throwing decoys into the water. He complimented me on my kayak setup and asked if I was just going out or coming in. I explained my story and he asked what I was using. I said my bait of choice was a chartruse grub and he said that should work and then quickly added 'And tipped with a minnow right?' As my heart sunk and I glumly replied 'uhh... no.' To which he told me that live bait was the only way to go and that I was in walleye heaven if I did that. He pointed me in the direction of the nearest baitshop and I headed off with a newfound sense of enthousiasam. This walleye thing wasn't over. It turns out that was the big difference maker. In the next 5 hours I landed probabally 15 or so walleye and probabally lost another 20 more. A lot of these guys Lots of these and a few really really nice ones. Now I was having tons of fun, I was using the drift of the river to drop my bait right on top of the walleye, I was trying all sorts of various spots and techniques with tons of success, there was once when I even thought I had caught bottom, paddled over to get my jig unstuck and then felt the bottom of the lake start taking out line. It was a nice, I'm guessing, 4 pound walleye that shook my hook right at the side of the boat. All in all it was a fantastic trip. Really, just getting out of the city was what I really needed. Getting to go fishing for 3 days was a bonus, and getting to catch a bunch of walleye and pike make the experiance that much more enjoyable.

Wow, if you would ever consider guiding out your services let me know. It would cross 2 things off my bucket list 1) I want to catch a gar. 2) I want my girlfriend to catch a fish she would call a dinosaur (gar, sturgeon etc) but pretty much be big enough that she has problems lifting it out of the water.

This event looks fantastic, and I love lakes where my kayak doesn't get swamped by gas motors. If I'm not going to my buddies cottage on Quinte that weekend I'll be coming with a guest (TBD if its the girlfriend or a buddy.) Just a question, I'll be trying to raise as much money as possible but I didn't see anywhere on the website, is there a minimum amount to be raised for the event to enter?

4 days at Fushimi and Longlac up in Northeastern Ontario for Pike and Walleye. The bass can wait one more week. I've been planning this trip for 3 years now. That being said, soon as I get back I've got a date with Mountsberg resevior.... or Heart Lake...... or Toronto islands.

The site looks absolutly fantastic. I love hearing about weekend trips off the beaten path. Looks like you were rewarded for your trip too. Those are some sweet lakers.

Was at "Lake Ontario Evenings" tonight. the signs will be coming down until further notice and a further meeting by city hall.

'Haha it was hard not to call in sick for work the next day. Sadly, my job is 'if I don't do it, it doesn't get done.' Thanks for the praise guys. I was telling my buddy today, he knows that I have a rolledex of good fish stories but it takes a really good story to be added to my repitoire. This story will definatally be added to the list.

And if you don't feel like cooking em it seems like every dinner in town has fresh perch and walleye for sale. And by every dinner I mean the Car Barn

This weekend my buddy and I were headed out to see some friends in Kingston on Saturday. One of my other hobbies other then fishing is modifying nerf guns to shoot obscene distances and shooting my buddies (kinda like paintball but cheaper). So one of my buddies was holding one of these get togethers in Kingston and decided to invite a few of us from Mississauga. The guy I'm going with says "Want to grab the fishing rods and fish off my dads dock on quinte on the way home?" He didn't have to ask me twice. So we go to the get together, not that many people came out, which gave us an excuse to leave early, around 6ish. We hadn't planned on doing anything fancy so we just decided to throw a few worms off the dock in about 10 feet of water and see what hit. Right from the get-go the bite was on. Lots of good eating size perch, and bluegill, a few white perch and a few of these guys. This was probabally the smallest one and a really bad photo but the fish were hitting so hard we didn't want to stop to take pictures of anything but trophies, and we didn't keep any for dinner because we were headed back to Mississauga. Another night. A few good size bass which were quickly released and told to grow bigger before opener. So its getting right before sunset and my buddy moves to another section of the dock (his dock is freaking huge) and says to me that he has something huge. I figure 'sure sure its probabally a 5 pound pike or something to that extent" as I look over and see this fish make a huge pull and almost pull my buddy into the water. He runs to the end of the dock and the fight is on. Now, I've been fishing ever since I've been about 5, caught my share of big fish, nothing huge mind you, but I've never seen anything make a run quite like this fish did. It just kept going and going and going to the point where I asked my buddy "You have lots of line on your reel right?" after what seemed like a good 5 minutes but was probabally more like 2 my buddy and I decide that he has to risk it and tighten the drag, if he doesn't this fish is going to spool him, so a few clicks later and this fish finally had to start working to make those runs. My buddy starts bringing in this fish pumping the rod and reeling in while I'm coaching him and cheering him on from the sides. About 15 minutes later we get this monster up onto the dock. Now, to give perspective, my buddy who caught and is posing with the fish is a 6'4 personal trainer. This drum makes him look tiny. The scale says it was 15 pounds but I feel like the scale wasn't giving the correct reading, it looks more like 20 to me. All in all I am in love with the bay of Quinte. Its like a fish factory in there. 9 different species of fish were caught on hook and line and that was without us catching a single pike or walleye. As an aside, watching that drum fight I now have a new favourite fish.

I had a prof once that told me that if bass were big enough they would eat us. Haha i guess this one just has dilusions of gradure.

If its full time and it would pay the bills I'd be interested. I worked for 2 years with the MNR (I'm probabally going to be hated by everyone on the board now that they know that) out of Red Lake and I fell in love with the place.

You won't need specifics, I had a girlfriend, a few years ago, who worked for Black Sturgeon Park just outside Point Au Barel, when she worked I would grab a canoe and fish the area, the weeds were always chalk full of Bass and Pike. Happy hunting.

I just bought a 12 foot fishing kayak from paddle shack and I have to say, I already think its a better investment then a 12 aluminum boat plus motor. I'm able to strap it to my car, carry it solo on my back, there is easily enough room to fit 2 more people, its stable enough to stand in, and it even fits my electric trolling motor. I was all about doing the same as you, small aluminum, small motor and a trailer but after this purchase I think I'll be saving my pennies for something else. Check em out.

St. Croix premiers are 20% off? Sold!!

Its too late now but I would have said to go for Balsam provincal park. That way you can tell me how the camp sites are for when I go later this year.

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. I'm definatally going to look Fushimi up now.