crappieperchhunter

SMACK...Sir may I have another... SMACK...Sir may I have another... Bring it on Ryan, I can take it!

Congrats to your daughter. Sounds like she is doing something she enjoys to be that dedicated at it. Good for her. I'm proud of both my kids....most of the time

I fish crappie for the fun of it. The few I keep I generally give to friends or family or use in my fish chowder, mainly because taste wise they are my least favourite panfish. Nobody gets my bluegill fillets though, unless you come to my house and eat them with me. Much better table fare in my opinion. And I also agree ounce for ounce nothing beats the scrap you get from a big gill on your line. If I could get 14-15 inch Bluegills I'd be in heaven.

Hey I've watched you put a big hurt on the Slabs using your Tony's specials...as Beansie calls them. HEHE...you will get buried in PM's now. But this winter I did clean the tackle shoppe in Innisfil out of my secret colour that they don't make anymore so I should be able to at least catch as many as you this spring. Should have seen the look on the kids face when I took all 11 bags they had left

Get some Fin S Shads.... 1.5 inch size.... made by lunker city. Ice shad or arkansas shiner color, or find your own color that works well in your area. Your tubes will pretty much collect dust after you try these baits. I have never used live bait for crappie. And I have not used a tube for 6-7 years at least. Bring on the spring crappie !!!

Agreed...BPS...is a mere shadow of what Cabelas is...on every level.

I like wandering through and would probably do it regularly if it was closer. However it is too far away for that. And I can buy locally cheaper then I can at BPS and save the drive so I just don't go. I have been in the store maybe 5 times since it opened. Except for a good pair of hunting boots I probably have not spent $50 there in those 5 visits.

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us. Very envious here.

I see the deer...but I'm still looking for the rabbit.

Annual spring trip with my brother for some good times and a fish fry or 2 . We have done Orillia for years but now want to try another area. We will be fishing the Beaverton area and so far my search that started 20 minutes ago has netted me one place that wants $160 a night. I'll be sleeping in my VW LONG before I shell that much out. 2 Guys that just need a bed for the night. A kitchen would be great so we could clean our fish and have a fish fry, but it's not a deal breaker. If anyone knows the Beaverton area and has a place in mind please let me know. This would be for the weekend of April 16-17-18.

Your killing me Bruce. We have been so freakin busy at work I have only been out ONCE since I was down smelting with you and Big Cliff. Glad you didn't misplace the IMPORTANT STUFF and got out on the hardwater. Enjoy your brekkie. BTW I just got a bag of them smelt out for tomorrow night. Son's 21's B-day and the family is coming over for cake. Those smelts are a favourite snack before supper while we are playing cards.

Fishing for me is about getting out and enjoying a day on the water with friends or even solo. Hell I even just enjoy the ride up to the lake in the wee hours of the morning, coffee in hand, watching the world wake up. I have a great time every summer chasing carp..strictly 100% C & R, but it's still FISHING and I enjoy it. We eat fish once a week and NONE of it comes from the grocery store....But fishing for me has NEVER been about putting meat in my freezer. The next couple of weeks down my way I will be fishing the Lake O tribs for steel and all of them...except maybe 1 nice 7-9LB hen... will be going back to fight another day.

Welcome back Bruce. Get a goods nights rest and tackle your mountain in the morning. Send us a perch or smelt post just so we know you didn't lose you fishing equipment in the move.

I would recommend Bobcaygeon. Before we had our place up there we stayed at Buckeye Center...705-738-2481...last time there 6 years ago so the phone number might not be current. A family run hotel since the 50's I believe. It is a small hotel right on the water with fully equipped kitchens. Nice grounds with propane BBQ's to use as well. I took my son there for a father/son trip in May once and he still counts it as one of our BEST fishing trips....me too. Panfish off the dock 100 feet from your door. 2 public beaches...one within walking distance. Kawartha Dairy...the best ice cream...huge brownie points for dad within walking distance as well. You are right in town so you can walk to everything as a matter of fact. Just a beautiful quiet little place. Several spots in town you can get gills perch SM bass and walleye from shore if you don't have a boat. If you have a boat you can fish Sturgeon Lake or Pigeon Lake you pick. Free launches right in town or tie up free at Buckeye. I could go on and on. We plan on retiring up there...that's how much we love the place. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I would be happy to help you and your son have a special trip together. Might even be able to get you a sweet deal on a place to stay .

You must have misunderstood me. I absolutely do NOT think the extended season will be harmful at all. I want to be absolutely clear on that. No one said owning your own business was going to be a bed of roses. But the rewards are many. Good luck with trying to convert things over to accommodate winter guests. I understand what you have ahead of you in that department. However,it will pay off in the long run.

Not quite sure how you can make this statement. Did you try to have an open business for this winter? Even if you did... how could you possibly blame a regulation change that has only been in effect for 64 days And with the GLOBAL economy being in the dumper for the last 2 years, I'm sure your business was hurting during that time period which had nothing to do with this new regulation. A core group of us used to do a trip every spring and fall to various places for mostly walleye,fly in lakes and drive too lakes. Out of all those trips we only ever brought home fish once. And there is lots out there like us. I truly hope you can find yourself some repeat clientele who are not meat hunters. You maybe able to use today's crappy economy to get the MNR to grant you special regulations for Rice, but believe me those meat hunter days are numbered. I hope they are gone for good myself. Believe me when I say I envy anyone who makes a living doing what you do. Find a niche market that doesn't cater to meat hunters and treat them right and you will be fine. Rice is a great lake very close to the GTA and surrounding areas. Your location is PRIME. Good luck at coming through this.

Honestly 300 or 500. Makes no difference to me. I fish gills quite a bit throughout the summer, cause I just plain enjoy it. I probably only keep 25-40 gills in a whole season, so my impact is virtually nothing.I do however support the new regulations. My concern is the fishery,period. It all comes down to personal ethics. I have been to way too many resorts where there are slot sizes for walleye and pike. And guess what? When you go to the fish cleaning hut most of the carcasses left in the cleaning pail are NOT in the slot size. Do theses resorts try to figure out who was the culprit and not have them come back? I would hope some do...but I would put my $$$ on betting most don't. Personally I can't comprehend the greed/feeling of entitlement necessary to keep 300, so 500 is beyond ridiculous to me.

Short, sweet and straight to the point. The best line in this whole thread. Some people adapt, some people do not. 5 years from now we will all see who does and who does not.

I hope everything goes smoothly for you Bruce. I'll be looking for you when you check back in.

I am not a MNR scientist either. But I fish the Kawarth'a for pannies April through September. Bluegills are actually the only fish I harvest from there during the summer months because to me they taste the best. I'm assuming you either don't fish gills in the Kawartha's at all or at least very limited, because if you did you would surely notice the changes Sinker has eluded to...cause I most certainly have. It really ruffles my feather's when someone who really doesn't have a clue sides with someone ELSE who really doesn't have a clue either. I can't say whether these new fishing opportunities will be good/bad or have no affect at all. But I would think that a lot of sweat and hard work has taken place to bring these opportunities to all of us. Seems to me any conservation minded fisherman would understand and support that.

I agree 100%. Inflexibility never works for anyone. I no nothing of the circumstances for this particular derby so I can't begin to comment on that for this case. Everyone should just be happy it's still a go.

When I started working for the company I am at I was a keener and wanted to be involved in everything...the rec club...health & safety committees.. I could go on and on. I quickly realized I wasn't cut out for it. Too many people who didn't do a darn thing to help out whizzed and moaned about the decisions our groups where trying to make to benefit all. It takes a special breed of individual to run these kinds of things. They might not always do what some think is the right thing, but at least they are DOING. Because of my personal experiences I have nothing but respect for those DOING..not so much for those WHIZZING & MOANING.

Just saw the pictures of the on ice celebrations. Looked like good clean fun to me. I'm sure the biggest problem is the underage thing. Somebody has pointed that out, so now the powers that be have to act on it cause it is there responsibility. To me this is one of those instances where you just smile and let the girls have some fun. A little lecture and finger wagging behind closed doors, should be all that comes out of this. Someone has to do there job, they'll do it, and all will be forgotten.

Workin the night shift. Woke up at 7 and missed the first period Watched them win the gold... went out and shoveled the driveway. Now I think I'll have some good old Canadian Maple syrup on my pancakes and wash it down with a Timmies coffee. Then go into work and say to everyone...our LADIES PLAYED A GOOD GAME EH. All is right in my CANADA.

Any Herring while you where deeper? We had a 30-40 minute stretch 2 weekends ago in deeper perch water where we couldn't keep the Herring off our lines. Glad to hear that you are getting them in shallower. I hate chasing them in deep water because of the fact they blow out there bladder so often.