tbayboy

A weekday in a boat - who cares how big the fish are its a great way to spend the afternoon. Scary to think of the crowds on the weekends if its still packed on a weekday

At least it broke on a fish and wasn't run over or caught in a door or anything like that. At least she gave it up for a good cause I say and now we get to learn how well the Shimano warranty works I guess.

I'll agree here as well. I ordered a Stradic after seeing Gerritts post and it went through just fine. Got in a couple weeks (maybe less) and shipping was just fine (any site that uses us postal is great for cross border shipping). They did however mark the customs slip as being undervalued (a common ebay trick) which is great for the fees but technically illegal I suppose (not that I'm going to complain). Now I just need an excuse to use the damn thing - come on walleye opener!

Nice fish. It sure is great seeing these soft water reports again

Very cool, sure was a crazy current by the looks of it. Congrats on a good day out there.

If you mean the white river ones (the in house brand) I can vouch for at least a half season with them last year and no complaints. I have the stocking foot hip waider mpdel and a pair of cheapish red head boots to go with them and they served me well, no tears or leaks to speak of but I didn't slide down any rocks or anything really bad so I can't say I stress tested them much. I was in the same boat as you - just wanted an entry level set and for the money they sure seemed fine to me.

Nice fish, congratulations!

The Kam eh Dan? Hmm 18 hour drive vs 45 minutes? Then again the Kam also has year round smallies not to mention walleye so maybe next weekend if the gas prices come down.

Hey again everyone, just wanted to follow up with a thanks for all the advice both here and in PMs. PatrickG and I got out today after a quick pit stop at Bass Pro for some last minute floats, jigs and micro tubes and then we started our tour of the holland marshlands. Our plans for today were really just to drive around a wash some lures and get a lay of the land. Neither of us really had any experience in the area so we weren't too concerned about actually catching fish. That turned out to be a good thing since our first spots while looking promising (you could tell by the number of lines hanging up on the power lines and trees) but we didn't find any activity. I also managed to give my donation to the fishing gods - After laughing at all the other lures hanging from the wires I decided to try and make one of those 'get it in between these two branches and I'll be in a great spot' casts. If anyone wants a nice new float and a jig I can tell you where to take your boat We then hit a popular spot and saw boaters doing well but the shoreline wasn't going very well and was a bit more busy than we liked so we kept going. After a quick snack and a couple other bridge stops we went up to the end of Bathurst street and saw the weirdest thing - there's a marinia there in the middle of the flooded fields not 100 yards from the wide open river but inside the marina there's 10 guys huddled on piece of ice by the docks ice fishing - definitely a weird juxtaposition. Anyhow, after a few more nice spots that failed to produce we went back to the popular spot only now the shore fishers were catching. We quickly got our lines in and sure enough Patricks float went down and the skunk was over <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2393911939/" title="Patricks Crappie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2024/2393911939_6e507fc9e0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Patricks Crappie" /></a> A few mintues later my float give a little up down up down and I gave it a mighty heave and after what seemed like hours of fighting it finally happened - my first ever crappie! What a slab! <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2393913095/" title="First ever Crappie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2393913095_fe8eedfeae_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="First ever Crappie" /></a> Ok so its not going to set any records but it was nice to get the first softwater fish out of the way and cross a 'never caught' off my list. Unfortunately after all of our wandering around all the good spots had been taken so while we watched the guys in the boats clean up and 3 or 4 shore spots do well we had to settle with just a couple crappie and a nice perch. But hey we accomplished what we set out for - we caught some fish and scoped out a bunch of nice fishing spots. Sure beat sitting around the house. So thanks again to everyone here for the tips (I've still got more places to try that we didn't get to today). I'll be out again soon.

Nice stuff Terry, was on that shoreline myself today for a while (one of the many poor shmucks without a boat)

Great report. Lot a guys in the cold surf up there.

Nice stuff, like you said - couldn't have been a nicer day.

Great pics and story Jen. Way to be the trooper out there with the see sickness, sounds like it didn't slow you up at all.

I heard it was bad but wow, thats pretty nuts. Wonder if the x-rap I left hung on the far retaining wall of the nith is free now? Richyb - what a genius idea

Banana Bread granola squares - damn I'm addicted to those. I'll bring along a couple apples as well usually and some water. Oh and not on the boat but I have to get my Bacinator on the way home - damn you Wendys!

Happy Birthday Carole, nothing as fun as a Friday birthday!

Fish porn - best way to introduce yourself every time. Welcome aboard.

Congrats on the PB, thats one huge bass.

Sorry to hear about the wallet . Congrats on the house though and what looks like a beautiful day of fishing.

Thanks for all the tips guys and gals really appreciate it. The only problem with the Kawartha opener is that they don't help me deal with cabin fever this weekend

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Hey everyone - hope you're all enjoying this weather! One of my goals this year was to get out and try for the spring crappie I always heard about. I've been googling around and have some ideas about presentations and things to look for but I'm pretty sure the gang here can really help me out. Any and all tips would be appreciated. I'll be shore based most likely which limits things a bit . PatrickG and I were thinking about doing some exploring this weekend up Simcoe way - any comments on that area would be appreciated (or anywhere else - scugog?). PMs are fine of course for any that want to keep things from the lurkers. Thanks in advance everyone - looking forward to adding a new species to the list (and maybe to the skillet -mmmm). Sean

One BIG thing to remember with gulp (including gulp alive) is that its not well... alive. If you drop a minnow and a gulp which ones going to move without any help from you? Thats a big thing to remember - you have to impart the action that a live bait would impart on its own (of course sometimes live bait needs help too).

I had fun at last year with Lexx and his first mate: If anyones going that wants some help with the crazy gas prices or just someone to back up their 4 lb perch stories just let me know (blatent I don't own a boat plug)

The chartruese gulp maggots were a killer bait for me this winter on simcoe - never had a problem getting fish with that. The white grub also worked will on the perch on a small jig head. I'm really looking forward to trying the Alive leeches this summer as well (heard nothing but good things but can't say for sure). I had mixed success with the minnows over the summer - fine on panfish and ok on walleye but not up to live bait but that said it was only one night so not enough data.