muskieb

Hoping to hit the water near Point Au Baril on Saturday and struggling a little in locating boat launches. Any suggestions in the area for an affordable boat launch?

Thanks! Hopefully the weather cooperates for Wednesday.

Anyone know if the boat ramp is accessible in Dalhousie yet, or is the Niagara the only option for now? Time to clear the cob webs from the outboard!

Was there too on Friday in a box, what a show! A life experience for sure.

Thanks for all the advice. Sinker your reply hopefully has enough tips to get me off on my right foot down there. Going to do some more reading and try to find out some more information on the area and just might have a few more questions for you in a while. We have booked at Melia Santa Maria, was a great deal. hopefully the place is as great as the reviews indicate. Cuda would be a blast to get into, let alone all the other unique things that swim down there. Is there much chance of hooking up with a tarpon in that area?

Just booked a trip for march break to Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba. Anyone on here ever fished down there and have any suggestions? Am hoping to try a little fishing on my own from shore, and really have no clue what I should be taking with me to hopefully be successful. Any ideas, rods, reels, lures, leaders??? Do I need a permit of any sort in order to fish there?

Just came back from our cottage halfway between Bracebridge and Lake of Bays and man are the lakes a mess. Went out to open up a hole Saturday morning for water and put my toe through my hole from two weeks earlier, only half an inch of ice had formed in all that time. A ton of snow on the lakes, and our lake anyways has no clear ice, nothing but ugly white ice. There were a few sled tracks across the lake so like the idiot I am I looked for a nice access point that would allow for a fast entry and I took a run across the lake back to the cottage. It was a good indication of just how bad the lake is, as my 700cc triple would not break 70mph in the deep snow and slush. I would not recommend anyone venture out on any of the lakes in that area without exercising extreme caution as the ice conditions are not very favourable. My thoughts go out to the families of the deceased.

I have excellent luck with the perch model with the lower treble for pike in the fall. Often don't work, but sometimes they are deadly.

I have to agree on their upper end products. I have an HMG TechnaAV medium/light action 4 piece that I wouldn't trade for anything. Got this rod after I broke my previous HMG by wacking it off the gunnel of the boat on a hookset during a tournament, not sure any rod would have survived that slam. Replaced it with a St.Croix Avid because the shop I was buying from did not have the fenwick in action I was looking for. First time I took it out, fish hit and snap, must have been a dud. That brought me to the 4 piece. Amazing rod, unbelievably sensitive, and it has already been through some pretty rough days. I have wondered a few times already why it didn't break after a few of the incidents it has been through. Spend the money on a quality fenwick, and you will not be dissapointed.

We went out yesterday out of Port Dalhousie, fished from the canal down to the bar, 20ft-100ft. Picked up four lakers near the canal on spoons but couldn't find anything else out there willing to hit. Lakers have been hot though the past few weeks out in front of the canal, biggest one yesterday was 18lbs. Some excellent fun to be had out there if you are just looking for some fun, some of the lakers put on a pretty good fight. Can't wait till the salmon show up. How deep do you normally have to go in April to hook up with the salmon?

I may be a little late here too but here is my opinion. I picked up a Etrex Legend C a couple years ago along with the blue charts. If you decide to load up the navigational charts depending on where you are they can give you a pretty congested picture at times with all kinds of different lines(contours, navigational routes, saved routes..). Having colour makes it very easy to quickly identify what the different lines are, something that can be really handy when you are navigating in unknown waters that are tricky like Georgian Bay. They are more expensive, but they are amazing little units. After using my unit, I would not consider anything less unless I absolutely had to. Maybe try out the CT return policy as suggested and compare a color unit to the black and white. Enjoy your new toy, you will love it. They sure come in handy trying to get off a lake in the middle of a blizzard too!

Ahhhhh..... not much, want to sell them for $20? Some very nice lures there, great start to a collection! Some of those old lures can be worth a fortune to the right person.

Yes, that was us. Was kinda hoping we would tie into a nice silver like you had one when we arrived, but turned out to be a great day anyways and got to try out the new equipment. Figured out a few of the bugs that need fixing before the next outing. If you end up back out there, all of our action ended up being in 65 feet of water, bouncing spoons off bottom. Great chatting.

File was too big, maybe next time. :-(

Made it down to Port Dalhousie today and got the boat in for the first time since January, man did that feel good! Boat launch was a little nasty launching due to ice, but was cleared up nicely by the time we loaded at 7:30pm. Had to play in the river until about 1:00pm due to the lake being a little too rough for my boat, but once we made it out we managed three nice lake trout. I have attached a pic of the first one caught, the baby of the three, but the first fish landed in my new boat. Second and third fish were a solid 10lbs each. Great start to the year. Can't wait for the salmon to show up!

Thankyou, hopefully the wind and fish cooperate!

Was just wondering if anyone has been by the boat launch in Port Weller the last couple of days that can advise as to whether it is possible to drop a boat in. Would like to try and get in tomorrow if possible and had heard a rumor it may be doable. Thanks, Brad

I finally got a boat big enough to start playing in the big waters for the salmon last fall. Hoping to be on Lake Ontario within the next few weeks learning how to catch them. Should be fun, hopefully won't take too long to catch onto what they like. Can't wait!

A response to my email from the Mayor..... Thank you for your email and comments concerning 113 River Beach Dr in Niagara-on-the Lake. While on the Niagara River, this property is not a park and may become the dock for our new water taxi service to Youngstown New York, which we are trying to establish in 2007. All public property in our Town, whether it be on the Niagara River or Lake Ontario, is open to any person with a valid fishing licence and will continue to be so. Whoever has passed on their concerns clearly doesn't understand our situation. I would appreciate talking to you about this property if you would care to email back your phone number.

Can't help you with the number, but do you know how the walleye fishing is there in the spring? If so, how far off shore do you start in the spring?

The video Kennyman posted from youtube is how I clean the pike too. I have not seen anyone clean a pike another way that produces a nicer fillet, or wastes less meat. If you try this method, and get good at it the strip of meat with the bones in it will end up being not much thicker than the bones themselves. The trick is a sharp knife, and to feel your way through the fillet, take your time and you will be very pleased with the result.

Here is a response I received from one of the councillors in regards to the letter I sent yesterday to the mayor and all councillors. Maybe this will help explain things a little. Dear Sir Please be aware that this is a small piece of land about 100' X 50 where we have had challenges with security and so have the neighbours. This land is not designated as a park and it is hoped that it will soon be used by Canada Customs as a secure area for cross river ferry traffic. I believe that once cross river traffic begins the land will restricted to all except those going into the United States via the ferry. Please note that we do not restrict fishing on any other property in the town. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us. Unless I have missed something, it sounds like this has maybe been blown out of proportion a little. My response to this was that if a system is implemented, it should be done so that anyone can buy a permit, and not just the residents of NOTL. I will post any other responses I get.

Quite honestly even if I am fishing a lake with walleye I prefer to keep the pike. As long as you know how to clean them you will get way more meat to eat out a small fish and it tastes great. You can keep one 24" pike and get as much meat as out of probably three 16" walleye. I cook it the same way I would cook walleye or perch, don't have to do anything special with it.

Thankyou everyone for your input. As suggested I will head out and see what feels right to me. John you put a smile on my face mentioning Fenwick, I have had a couple of their spinning rods over the years and really like them, might check them out too. As far as length I will pick up a 7/6 or 8 as I already have a short rod. Going to be a great summer!

Ok, so now I want the ultimate in sensitivety. So how do you suggest I transport a one piece 19' float rod?