crappieperchhunter

Caught my Shayne Perchin has been slow this fall...but we always get more then enough to make me happy. As always you know there's a seat in my boat for you if you can stop blasting birds for a day.

X2 And thx for sharing with us.

Thx for posting that video Dave. Like I mentioned I googled it this morning and they where definitely Sandhills. I have never seen them before in that area so I thought I'd give OFC a heads up if anyone was traveling up Orillia way.

Travelled up hwy12 from Whitby to Orillia yesterday. Just north of Brechin I saw these birds out in a farmers field. Long legged like a flamingo., kinda drab in color. I have never seen them before. There was about 12-15 of them and they where there on the way home too. I did some googling this morning and it looks like they where sandhill cranes. Just though I would throw this on here in case someone is traveling in that area anytime soon. Something rare to see if you have a road trip up there planned.

The kids just headed home. The mountain of dishes are cleaned and the running around the kitchen like a chicken with it's head cut off is finally over. I Love having the family over but I always fine Thanksgiving a real big chore. I'd much rather have the gang over and burn a few steaks on the grill and toss a few salads. Anybody else out there feel the same? Does anybody else have an easier tradition that they insert for Thanksgiving? On a positive note. We have got tons of leftovers in the fridge. Leftover hot turkey sandwiches with leftover stuffing and cranberry sauce is the bomb I actually enjoy it more then the big feast the first time around.

LOL I don't fish for those big boys. But that same $20 would pretty much buy all my panfish plastics for an entire season

Up, down... is completely unimportant. Get a digital meat thermometer and cook to the recommended temperature. It will always be perfect and moist. That goes for pork and beef roasts as well. Cooked for a lot of years without a meat thermometer and finally caved in an got one 4-5 years ago. Have not had a over cooked bird or roast since. Cooking wise it will be the best $20 you ever spent.

Almost 100% of my pan fishing is done using floats. I have 3 rods. An 8.5 footer, a 10 footer and a 12 footer. Quality is unimportant for pan fish. The reels I have for these rods are all Diawa's and they are all spooled with Green Trilene XT. I fine the mid size reels balance out the long rods better. Since my reels will probably hold over 250 yds of 4LB line I spool backer on with crap line and just keep putting 100yds of fresh line over it. Fill the spool as full as you can, and you will be able to cast this 4LB line a mile. I use the 12 foot rod 90% of the time. The extra length once you get used to it gives you way more flexibility when fishing in a crowded boat or on shore. You can reach and cast over and around people because of the extra length. The only time I use my shorter rod is if I'm in a situation where there are overhanging trees or under a bridge and the long rod just doesn't have enough room.

Lew I just screw hex head screws into the bottom of my boot. I know you mentioned you don't wanna do this. However I felt I should mention that I had icers and the straps wore through the heel of the rubber coated winter boot I used to use for ice fishing...making them none waterproof and therefore useless for any outdoor activity in the rain or cold. That is why I ended up going the hex head screw route. Most will never ever put the miles or the wear & tear on there boots that I have in the past put I felt I should mention this for anybody thinking of using any type of strap on cleats.

Spent last Wednesday perching on Simcoe, kept 18 for a good fish fry with the family. Everyone of them was a female and they all had there spring eggs starting. I do alot of perching and can assure you that this is the norm for this time of year in the waters I fish anyway.

Thx for sharing those shots. Great way to start my day

Well the Agawa Canyon sounds like a fun road trip. And keeping busy at work to me is never a bad thing. But partner the rest just sucks I know you will roll up your sleeves and put your head down and get through it, but if you need a "Bruce" day to just relax and unwind...I have a seat reserved for you in my boat and a spot where I think we can enjoy a peaceful day and possibly even catch a few fish. Take care my friend.

Rizzo if you ever have to fillet another pike just go on google and type in the 5 fillet method or 5 fillet pike. There are lots of vidoes to walk you through it and it is dead easy. I don't target pike much but truthfully I like eating them way better then walleye.

X2 Julian :thumbsup_anim:

I never shut it down. The end of September until about mid November is actually my fav time of year to fish. No bugs no god awful hot days and no crowds. Then its ice fishing which I love as well...then its spring fishing...then summer fishing....then fall fishing all over again :thumbsup_anim:

LOL Thx for that Craig. It put a big silly smile on my face

Would never have thought of that..but given the OP's circumstances I think that is a brilliant idea.

On a fly in once out of Chapleau. We got up one morning and the four of us where having our breakfast and planning our walleye assault for the day Jamie says "What the hell is that swimming out near the island" We look and figure it is a moose but it's at least a half mile maybe more out, so it's real hard too tell. We grab cameras and jump in the two tinnies and motor out. Sure enough it's a big cow moose and shes a good half mile or more from the closest shore. We where all awestruck by how powerful of a swimmer she was. Her wake was about the same as the 8HP motors on our boats !!! We circle around her within touching distance for about 5-10 minutes and get a ton of pictures then back off as we where concerned about tiring her out as she was a loooonnng way from shore. We didn't have to worry. She didn't even make an attempt to swim to the closest shore. She aimed for a point down our side of the lake and swam straight for it. We kept an eye on her until she got out of the water. Our collective guess was that the point was well over 2 miles away. I had no idea a moose could swim like that. This was back in the 80's. I had at least 20 pictures of the event and had them in an envelope in my locker at work to show whoever might wanna see them. I came into work after a week off for holidays to find my work area had been reorganized. Somehow in the move my envelope of pictures was lost. I'm still a little upset over it

My understanding from talking to a lock worker in Bobcaygeon was that the proposal was to cut hours of operation not close locks..although he admitted he really didn't have a clue what was really going to take place. Closing locks and cutting hours are 2 entirely different things. People using the locks will just have to be more mindfull of the hours. It's the same as any business you wanna use. If you go when the store isn't open then your going to be disappointed. Crackheads and welfare are an entirely different arguement. I would however whole heartedly agree that some serious cash could be saved if they trimmed the budget on that as well. I think I would even go as far as to say they could save way more money then they will save by playing with the TSW.

I have mixed feelings on this. We have a cottage in Bobcaygeon and plan on retiring there. We discovered Bobcaygeon on a house boat vacation when are kids where small and have been going back ever since. It is highly likely that we would have never fell in love with the town if the houseboat trip was not involved. So I'm grateful to the TSW for giving us this part of our lives. Having said that our economy looks like it will continue to struggle for awhile so everyone including our government have to look at ways to pull up there socks and be a little bit more responsible with money. Now if the TSW feels they need to cut/or are being forced to cut back to do there part then I fully support it. Tough choices might have to be made and I understand that many will be affected. But honestly from my perspective of being a weekend resident of Caygeon for the last 8 summers, outside of the House boat companies...which I'm sure will suffer... I really don't see local businesses being terribly impacted by this. The vast majority of visitors come by car and that isn't going to change. And boaters in the area will still have the ability to motor into town and shop as long as they are not locking through. The only other group to be adversely affected are the people wealthy enough to have a boat and travel on it. In these tough times I really don't see why the general public should support there recreational activities. Nobody likes getting things taken away from them or having restrictions placed on things they currently enjoy. Whether we are at that point is up for debate.

That's a really interesting story. Kinda makes you go My brother and I where perch fishing one fall morning out in Mcphee Bay on Lake Simcoe. The fishing sucked cause the water was almost totally flat. We where the only boat out there. No one else around. I can't remember which one of us spotted it first but we noticed a very large swell/wake coming across the bay towards us. It was 3-4 feet high. There are two marina's in the Bay but nothing in either of the Marina's could make a swell/wake like this, and even if they could there was no boats around..period. It passed and rocked us pretty good and that was the end of it. Remember there was nothing else around and we never heard any kind of sound/explosion. The only explanation I have is there must have been some kinda underground/water disturbance that made this mini tsunami. Every time we are in there fishing we still ponder what we saw that day.

Did you capture the event with a picture something like the one trouty shared with us

One time I was a backseat passenger on the drive home from ice fishing on Nip. I looked out the window of the car and saw a group of sparrows flying out in the middle of an empty field towards the tree line on one side. Up in the treeline behind them on an old dead treetop was a hawk. He swooped down from his perch and headed straight for the sparrows about 100 yards away. When he was within 50 feet of the sparrows they knew something was up and split off all in different directions. He homed in on one of them. It was zigging and zagging all over the place but he matched it move for move and was gaining. Finally he caught up to it and nailed it with a claw. There was a small puff of feathers on impact. The last thing we saw before we drove past was him lumbering back up to his perch with his prize.

Not as outdoorsy as some others mentioned...this happened in my back yard. I was out puttering around in my vegetable garden. Concentrating on my chores I started to hear a humming sound...but never gave it any thought. The sound got louder so I finally stood up to see what the hell was making all the noise. My whole backyard an area approx 50 feet by 70 feet was full off bees! The swarm was about 7 feet off the ground and about 10 feet deep. They where everywhere. I stood very still and just watched them. After a few minutes they swarmed into a neighbors spruce tree and made a huge lump/mass in one of the trees. I was told later the queen bee was probably in that mass and they where protecting her. Left for my sons soccer game shortly after and when we came back from soccer the bees where gone. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I'm sure I will never forget.

This is all I gotta say Brian