tbayboy

Was out on Rice from 8-1 Saturday with nothing but a couple out of season bass and some pesky perch. Didnt see a lot of catching going on but I only hit a couple spots so certainly not the whole story (though those spots have never failed in May before).

Great job guys. Excuse me while I start charging batteries for the weekend!

Great job with the video. Looks like you guys had a blast, thanks for putting that together

Thought this was pretty interesting - time for a little edumacation!

Just got back from Kipawa myself. Staying at a lodge vs camping it'll be very different and I'm not sure if you're actually going to be on Lac Kipawa or another in the Zec but you're going to have a great time (bugs and the odd thunder storm aside).

I can vouch for these as well - have two above where the hood of the truck goes in the garage with plenty of clearance and they hold a lot of stuff. I'm too useless to make my own so I ponied up and dont regret it.

Tried some ice breaking: In attempts to find some of these But being Lac des Milles Lac you knew you'd be seeing some of these slimy guys... http://youtu.be/66tznHfDO9M

I'm driving a 2007 V6 Rav 4 sport and love it. 180K, no problems at all (not lots of miles for its age so take it with a grain of salt). Lots of interior space but the right size overall for living in the city (and easy to hoist the kayak onto the roof). The V6 has plenty of ooomph - I really love that part. Haven't towed with it yet but its seen some rough roads up in the temiskaming (yeah I cant spell) area without a problem. The new ones worry me though - no more V6 and they moved the spare from the back to underneath which is a pain in the *ss but thats just my opinion I guess.

So I decided to risk the rivers today because it was too windy for the kayak. Fishing was tough - pretty much chocolate milk and lots of current everywhere but it beat sitting at home so I gave it a shot. After an hour or so of watching stuff drift by I noticed one of the pieces of drift wood was looking at me! Bloody 2' wide snapping turtle drifted by just a few feet away while I was up to my waist. That gave me a start but was kind of cool non the less (once I was sure he hadn't stopped behind me). Anyhow, on my way back to the car I nearly stepped on a frog and then nearly stepped on these guys, guess that explains the floating one... Oh yeah, managed this as well

Great report! Time to convince the guys we need to try LOTW next!

I've flown all 3 carriers to Thunder Bay from Toronto over the years. All have taken the rods as checked in for me. I'm using a 4" x 6' PVC tube so never considered carry on . I've never had to open it for inspection, instead you have to take it special baggage handling and they xray it there (so add a few extra minutes for that part of check in). Air Canada said they might charge me a couple times but never did. Basically they say second bag is billable BUT there's exceptions for sports equipment including rods. Like the others have said - check the latest info for whatever carrier you're using though as they like to change the rules every week it seems. I've always carried on my reels with line and have never even been questioned. Planos go into my luggage - tape them closed just in case (had a jig box pop open one trip - PITA). Might have to watch your weight though - those jigs and weights add up (50lb limit usually), now a days I keep a set of jigs/weights at my parents place in TBay so I dont have to bring them up anymore, just cranks and the like. Only problem I've had is when Porter seemed to lose my rod tube - they were just about at the point of buying me new rods since I was leaving for the lake 2 hours after the flight so couldn't get my rods on the next flight up but then the guy working the front desk went on the plane and realized that a white PVC tube matches the white conduits in the cargo department exactly so no one saw it leaning on the wall - I wrapped it in some coloured tape for the next trip.

I'll definitely give albright / advanced albright a shot but I think I'll toss a bunch of pretied with swivels in the bag as well for the quick switches (yeah I'm lazy and tying in the river is a pain). Also going to do some tests with uni-to-uni, maybe I'm just not lubricating well or tying it badly or whatever. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for all the advice guys. For some reason I've never been a big swivel fan but I should give it a shot with a shorter leader. Also need to investigate some other knots - I do generally moisten them well but maybe superglue could be in order as well. Sean

Hey everyone. I usually start out with flouro leaders on a lot of my setups but I've had problems with the connections breaking just enough to make me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. What ends up happening is that any sort of break - be it a snag or a large fish catching me with badly set drag - it breaks off at the braid to flouro knot. I've noticed it most on the lighter lines (say 10lb power pro to 8-12 lb flouro). I use that fishing rivers a lot, dragging tubes and craws along the rocky bottoms and jigging for 'eyes - both of those result in a decent amount of snags and it's really annoying to loose 2-3' of leader and have to do a new uni to uni on the spot. I generally just swear and then fish straight braid the rest of the day. So... what does every one else use? Any tips?

Yeah I did some looking and was thinkign maybe juvi coopers as well (apparently pretty common in this neck of the woods)

Was having breakfast this morning and noticed the usually noisy sparrows in the backyard weren't making any noise so I took a look out the window: Guess that explains the lack of song birds . I'm pretty sure it's a red tail but he might be a bit small (juvi)? Love to hear the experts opinion (I'm in the High Park part of Toronto).

Decided to beat the heat by putting on plastic overalls (waders) and strolling down the Grand River for a bit yesterday - yeah that was a bit toasty. The fishing was pretty much dead - 2 rock bass and one smallie not much bigger than the rockies but when I looked over at the shore I got a little shore side entertainment watching 2 minks playing in the water that I thought I'd share. Sorry for the lousy camera shot (full zoom on a point and shoot)

Wonderful report, thats for that awesome write up and photos. Googling driving directions now...

Great report, thanks for taking the time to put that together!

I'm using a canon d10, simple, affordable, battery lasts forever and shock/water/abrasion/etc proof. Zoom sucks but other than that I've been very happy with it (and it help up well in salt water during a barbados trip so I'm sure its fine here).

Yep, they have quite a lot of blue and green colouration. I wouldn't claim they're blue walleye - the main body is still gold but the fins on the bigger fish are often blue/green. Very cool looking. Definitely a great place to start - lots of helpful folks there.

Definitely pet friendly. There's a camp dog and one of the couples in another cottage had their dog there as well. We were just under $2K all in for the week when you include fees, fishing license, tax, gas for the drive up and food. There's lots of lodges on the lake so I'm sure you can find something that works well but I can definitely recommend 3 seasons - Reggie's a great guy.

It's all part of the deal Cliff - gotta keep her happy so that there's a next year on Kipawa Thanks for the replies everyone. Only 4 weeks til Rainy Lake in NW Ontario - twitching already!

I was thinking the same thing. Oh and yeah, nice big pike too but damned if I'm not hungry after reading this

Yep, lakers are a big draw as well. I don't think you see anything like Simcoe size but it's a great way to spend the afternoon when the suns too high for the walleye bite. One Quebec gentlemen that was out this year did nothing but laker fishing (trolling spoons down main channels).