Tomcat

Wayne: I just wanted to say thanks for sharing Jen’s powerful strength. My own daughter, at age 42, underwent a left breast mastectomy and simultaneous reconstruction in early August 2013. After her surgery, she did 6 chemo treatments and she has completed 16 of 18 Herceptin treatments. This thread has helped me immensely in dealing with the mental anguish of having a child afflicted with such an ailment. Thank you. Kudos to Jen and to you and Leah for being so strong and so inspiring. Jay

Pay yourself first. Bust your butt to get out of debt (all debt) as soon as you can. I happen to think that TFSAs are a better deal than RRSPs. Sure you don’t get a tax refund but all income earned is tax free and more importantly you get to control when you take back some dollars. If you can sock away more each year than the allowable TFSA limit, then consider RRSP contributions. Remember that Government forced withdraws from RIFFs at age 71 can lead to OAS clawbacks. Spend the time to learn how to invest in the stock market for yourself.

Thanks for sharing Drew. Just an awesome read and truly enjoyable. Congrats and continued success with your life changes.

For information about La Vérendrye Park, visit the Sepaq web site at http://www.sepaq.com/ Click on contact (top of page) for contact phone numbers or email address. As well, there is a request for information section.

For those interested in understanding the MNR rationale for increasing fees, see the discussion paper available at http://apps.mnr.gov.on.ca/public/fil...rod_110525.pdf The fees for all resident and non-resident angling and hunting licences and permits go into a Special Purpose Account (SPA) Fees for Ontario resident angling and hunting licences and permits constitute 61% of the SPA Fees for non-resident angling and hunting licences and permits constitute 33% of the SPA The Ministry of Natural Resources fish and wildlife program costs 100 million annually. Unfortunately, the SPA only cover 67% of that annual cost. So the MNR is looking for ways to increase revenues.

Outstanding story telling and great pics brought my envy to the boil. You made adding a trip like that to my bucket list easy. Thanks Drew!

Thanks for sharing. Just wondering though what your reason was for changing up your rod and reel?

Thoroughly enjoyed your post Drew. Thanks for taking the time to put your report together and thanks for sharing your adventure to Nipigon.

Nice report Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Although just a recreational fisherman like you, I'd suggest that the walleyes could be deeper during the daytime hours on clear days. If the sensitivity is properly set on your sonar unit, you should be able to see both bait balls and walleye. Slow troll (3 way swivel + weight + lure (e.g. Original Floating Rapala or Junior Thunderstick) near the bait balls/walleye or anchor and jig there. One caveat, catching walleye in over 40 feet of water will likely lead to extended swim bladders necessitating the harvest of any walleye caught.

Sorry for your loss Matt.

Things can happen sometimes and when they do, there's no time to reach for a PFD. Case in point, two springs ago in late April, two fishing colleagues were slow trolling for rainbows in calm water conditions. The guy in the front (facing the driver) reached to his left and promptly slid across the frosted seat. The weight of both guys on the same side of the 12 foot tinny was enough that they both got dumped into the lake (water temp was 5 C). They were both wearing PFDs but they were very fortunate that another boat was within 50 meters and those two guys helped get my colleagues out of the water. I wear my inflatable PFD 100% of the time - because things can happen sometimes!

I purchased my Mustang MD3153 back in 2006. Fortunately, like Lew, I've never had to use it. It's so comfortable, sometimes you don't realize you still have it on.

Hi Lew: Thanks for the recommendation. I did a Google search on Lums Restaurants and it appears they went out of business. My son-in-law has completed two Ironman competitions in Lake Placid and we've there both times to support him. As well, my wife and I have traveled to Lake Placid to celebrate previous anniversaries. Two restaurants we can recommend are The Hungry Trout near Wilmington (30 minute drive from Lake Placid) and The Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood restaurant on Main Street in Lake Placid.

Great pics Drew! Thanks for sharing. My wife and I will be visiting the Lake Placid area again in early Oct to celebrate our 44 th.

Rouyn-Noranda area

Our group of 4 seniors departed Ottawa in two vehicles at 0930 hours on Friday 15 Aug. We stopped for lunch at the Rock River Cafe in Deep River. It is located at the back of the Petro Canada gas station on Hwy 17. We all had a great lunch there and we will be dining there again for sure. Another 300 kms down the road we stopped for supper. And finally 3 hours later, we arrived at our destination shortly after 2000 hours. After a great breakfast Saturday morning, we settled our bills and loaded our boats for our week of walleye fishing.We were the only fishermen on the lake for the week. The lake was new water for all of us. My fishing partner and I burnt almost 20 gallons of gas (15 HP Honda 4 stroke) exploring the lake and searching for walleye. Running the lake required constant attention to our sonar unit because you could go from 30 FOW to less than 6 FOW in a hurry. Surface water temperature averaged 19 degrees for the week. The lake was scenically pretty with numerous deep basins holding lake trout. Unfortunately, the two fellows fishing lake trout only managed to boat one nice Lake Trout during the week. We enjoyed better success fishing walleye. Quality outweighed quantity in our first experience on this lake. My fishing partner caught the largest walleye at 27 inches. Another walleye caught by my fishing partner had been caught before as evidenced by the stringer hook While bottom bouncing for walleye with a leech in 20 FOW, I caught and released a 43 inch northern. The 10 or so minutes required to revive her were about equal to the length of our battle. Here's the results of a few hours fishing after supper one evening. We had no difficulty catching 14 to 17 inch walleye for the two walleye meals we enjoyed during the week. Another fishing trip in the books and everyone is fine. I'm already looking forward to next years trips. Jay

Great teaser Mike. Thanks for sharing. I'll keep any eye out for the full story in OOD. Jay

Just simply outstanding!! Thanks

Another outstanding report Drew! Thanks for sharing. Great that you got to enjoy such a great trip with Bren.

Thanks Rick.

Thanks for putting together and sharing your report Matt. Those square tails looked gorgeous!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions/recommendations. I should have included in my original post that each boat will have something similar to a Frabill Crawler Can to keep each day's crawler supply. I had thought about burying the crawler flats in a shallow pit (shaded area) covered with some moss. While I was not on last year's trip to Hebert, I heard from a few of the guys that they lost their crawlers (stored in a cooler) by day 5. I'll be taking along a large old terry cloth towel to capitalize on the evaporation technique (thanks). The other fellows in our group for this trip are from the USA and they will bringing the crawlers into Canada in bedding. Mike and Dave - I'll find out what kind of bedding we'll be getting with a view to changing it out.

We're scheduled for a 9 day (20-29 Jun) fly in fishing trip (walleye and northerns) to Lac Hebert with Tamarac Air. There's insufficient frig space to ensure our crawlers (2 flats) remain healthy for 9 days. We'll have some ice with us on arrival and access to more ice mid way through the trip. I'd appreciate suggestions on how best to care for our crawlers. Thanks in advance.

Thanks to everyone for your comments/suggestions. Since tread wear was my main issue, I opted to try 5 new Michelin Latitude Tour tires (P235/65 R18) (part number 21436) that have a UTQG tread wear rating of 620 compared to 440 for my current Michelin tires. I run DM-V1 Blizzaks on dedicated rims during the winter months.