tbayboy

Oh sorry I got confused, that picture isn't in any book (was just taken last month).

Great stuff Steve. Excellent video - loved the educational aspect to it.

Yep same as g-forces - the walleye was caught and then the pike attacked the walleye. The pike was never hooked, it just didn't want to let go. These big fish (muskie, pike) like wounded fish (which is why lots of baits try to imitate that) and a fish being reeled in fits the bill. Its definitely one of those 'holy cow - did I just see that' kinda moments when it happens to you, at least it was for me.

Congratulations Corey. As a founder of one the bigger tech ipo's in Canada a few years back I know the excitement your feeling today. Enjoy it, its a great thing just remember one thing - diversity is your friend, when your blackouts end keep that in mind.

You lucky dog. Lac Seul is an insane walleye factory in addition to some great pike fishing. I don't know much about the muskie or smallie fishing there (other than the fact that both are there) but my brother was up there for the may 24 weekend and had non stop eyes to the point where they didn't bother with a boat rental one day and just hung out by a bridge. They also had 3 encounters where a pike attacked the walleye while it was still on the line. The lake is huge (1500 square km) so you'll have to pick your spots but unfortunately I don't have any first hand knowledge to share. Hopefully someone else here does. Even if they don't the lodge will likely be able to give you the tips you need. I'm trying to convince my regular 'annual fishing trip' gang in Thunder Bay to do the extra drive to Lac Seul next year - looking forward to your report so I can give them some more reasons.

Ahhh that must explain it. I was trying to figure out why I had that grimace and had almost forgotten about the scar on the other side. Thanks Mike

Thats awesome. Might want to invest in some fake bass lures . I've had it happen with pike and walleye, I can't imagine seeing a 40" muskie doing it:

I'll be checking my email every 10 minutes from now til November Lexx . Thanks for the comments everyone.

Nice show again guys - congrats. I'd love to try out Simcoe but you've raised the bar too damned high

Nice pike - I'll take a surprise fish like that anytime.

First off thanks to all the people who replied to my queries about a boat rental for Scugog on Saturday. I'd love to say that it went great but ... well lets just start with report shall we Saturday - Patrick and Sean and a crappy motor PatrickG and I had been talking about going muskie hunting for a few weeks now and after my success the week before with Mikeh we decided to go for it. Off I went to BPS to buy $50 worth of muskie lures (2 cranks, one bucktail/spinner) and I was set. Saturday AM we hooked up and headed out to Goreski's to pick up our 14' 9.9hp tinny. I knew it meant it would it take a while to get to the spots I wanted to try but it was the closest rental and they'd let us keep the boat til 8:30 so we figured we'd be fine. First problem: We show up at 10am and they're putting up a bunch of tents, seats and .. oh no .. a weigh in station. Yep, its a tournament day. Dang - we know that means that all the pads will be camped until the tournament was over (we planned on doing pad based bass first) but oh well, we're here so lets go. Second problem: The girl working the marina hops in our boat and tests the motor - won't start. Hmm ok, she hops into the next one and it starts up right away. I should have taken that as a sign but we were eager to go so off we went. We got out of the channel and hit the first mound of weeds. After a couple jiggles Patrick got the motor trimmed up so we putted along til we found some open water and then he dropped it down and off we went. The boat didn't seem very fast though but we were stopping at every group of pads we saw so I didn't think much of it. We worked along the shore without much luck and discusses where to go. We realized that the boat being so slow meant our plan of flying all over the place wasn't such a good idea so we picked a spot I knew and off we went - at a crawl. Third problem: The trim busted - the motor just refused to lift . It was like it was never meant to and eventually we gave up (though all day Patrick would wack at it to the point where I expected the thing to fall of the end). Fourth problem: The motor won't go 100% if there's been any weed anywhere near it. I guess it's an overheating protection feature or something but even after clearing the prop it would chug along at 50% or so. Eventually we realized that if you shut down the motor and restarted then you'd be back to full power... at least until you got another weed near it (you try avoiding all weeds on Scogug - ugh). Ok so the boat is a bit of an issue but we eventually make it to where I want to be and the wind is nice and slow and drifts us right over the edge of the weed beds. The perch were having a great time with our tubes and spinner bait which started to get a little annoying but finally something with a bit more weight took off with my tube right under the boat. After a bit of a fight my skunk was over: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1408/1109413184_ad7073dad8_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="3lb largie" /></a> We setup for another drift but the only thing that rose was a loon - right beside the boat. I've never seen one come up that close so I grabbed the camera: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1383/1109410716_6d24738200.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Where'd he go" /></a> Yep, one of those days and then the weather decides to join the 'we hate you' club. After 2 drifts the wind stopped and the sun nearly killed us - we were roasting out there to the point where we were thinking of looking for a shady spot when suddenly the wind change direction 180 degrees and really picked up. I was looking for the storm that must have been coming given the amount of wind and suddenness of the change but no storm - just a lot of wind and out little boat just couldn't handle it. We headed out as fast as the crappy little motor would let us and tried to find some sheltered fishing spots. The first few spots gave us only this guy, my second WGSF of the day: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1224/1108573267_385bd72e64.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="WGSF" /></a> Eventually we found a nice line of pads and cane and just when we though Patrick was doomed to be skunked he pulled this scrapper out: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1135/1109424346_ea0fae4288_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Patricks only of the day" /></a> Not a huge fish but you can tell from the smile how nice it was to end the skunk on this miserable day. After that we putted back to the marina and as soon as we were near the dock Patrick tells them that there's something seriously wrong with the motor - no reaction at all - they just drifted away from us. I didn't make a big deal out of it when paying since it's just some summer kid trying to close up and go home but all the way back to Toronto we kept repeating to ourselves "hate that lake", "hate that boat", "hate those weeds", "never going back". I qualified never going back with "Only going back if somebody with a nice boat offers me a spot - then MAYBE I'd go back." Sunday - what a difference a boat can make Let me start by asking Patrick to stop reading. Please stop reading now - your just going to want to punch the computer I got home at 10:30pm and my first stop is OFC and there's a message from Mikeh - "hey Sean I'm going to Scugog tomorrow morning - interested?". I just shook my head at the coincidence. I wasn't sure I'd be up for it but come Sunday a.m. I realized that I'd be an idiot to pass up a chance to go fishing with Mike so off I headed to do battle with this damned lake again (back on the horse I guess). As we're heading up we figured we'd be on the water by 10:30 so first fish had to be by 11. Yeah sure I'm thinking. Well we got on the water at 10:20 so I reminded Mike - only got til 10:50 now. 10 minutes later we're at the first spot (that took us nearly an hour to get to on Saturday - yeah I like Mike's boat better). 10:45am and I have a fish in the boat but didn't take a picture ("he's small and I'll catch lots more" - foreshadowing anyone?) and 10:47 Mike's kept the promise too: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1085/1108582213_1376ab2121_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="First fish" /></a> Gonna be a great day thinks I - sure they started small but thats OK, nowhere to go but up. We continued working the weedbeds tossing my new Muskie lures, some spinner baits, tubes and topwaters. The bite, as seemed to be my Scugog luck, died off with Mike getting one nice topwater fish: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1166/1108593307_b19f72c21f_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="The lift" /></a> But nothing else. Then the rain came in - boy did it come in. We put on the rain gear and stuck it out though and after an hour or so of rain including 30 minutes of solid soaking it cleared up and we headed for another spot where Mike wanted to try the pads. I still suck at flipping so I went back to tossing a tube near the edges and got another little largie: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1293/1109434166_689c1bd8f3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Little largie" /></a> Then Mike had to go and out do me so I took a lousy picture for revenge <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1050/1108595665_d8938949a8_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Mike's Bass" /></a> As the afternoon came to an end we headed to a spot to try our luck with the muskies. We spent a good hour or so tossing the big lures but nothing wanted to hit them. I decided to go back to my trusty tube but by now the sky and the water were conspiring to make it impossible for me to really see the weed beds so I was more or less tossing randomly when my rod bent over. Oooh nice smallie I think then I see the flash of a long side and then he cleared the water in a beautiful leap - tube musky ($20 muskie lures beaten by a $1 weighted hook and a 50 cent tube - figures). He gave a great fight, weaving all over the place, jumping in the air, diving in the weeds, you name it. Eventually he tired out and we got him along side and into the boat for some quick pics. Not a huge one by any measure but what a fun fight for a 36" fish. <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/1109443374_8c07998f17_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="I'm so cool" /></a> This pic cracks me up - looks like I sat on the lure while holding him: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1368/1109398316_f238cb30e8_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="What did I sit on" /></a> After a little reviving he was off: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1109401102/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1141/1109401102_f0a7dd6718_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Releasing the muskie" /></a> Since the tube caught the muskie I put on a spinner to catch - well anything. And a few minutes later I was back in the game - a wee bit smaller though - say 33" smaller ? <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1108557975/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/1108557975_e7d3ea14c3_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Suicide Perch" /></a> But hey two fish in a row - back out goes the spinner and a few minutes later the line is tugging and I can't figure out what it is - not acting like a bass and not a muskie, whats going on? Get him up and what do you know - my first southern ontario walleye and species #4 for the day: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1108560739/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1243/1108560739_c8d4ffda55_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Scugog walleye" /></a> Now Mike's giving me a funny look because I did this last week - skunked all day then hit them all from 6pm on. I kinda laugh and say the only thing I need now is a smallie but I'm down to my last 'magic' tube. In she goes and yup - you know it was coming, just shy of 3lbs: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/1109408580/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1061/1109408580_0420e3e5de_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Nice smallmouth" /></a> That was it for the day and we headed back. I'm starting to think that I should stay away from scugog until the sun starts setting - I just flat out suck at daytime fishing on that lake but I've got a giant horseshoe up my back side during the early evening. So I guess I'd call it a draw when it comes to me vs Scugog - really the lake won when you consider the amount of hours put in (20 hours total over 2 days) vs the number of fish I landed (10 I think including a couple rock bass and that perch). Ah well, I guess that means I need to try the bog again sometime. Big thanks to Patrick for driving and putting up with that horrible first day (we'll hit a different lake before the summers up and make up for it) and Mike for the invite Sunday. Also big thanks to Chompers for creating my magic tube - all of my gear reeks of garlic now but damn that tube works well.

So when do you buy a boat . It's hard to go back to shore fishing after a great day in the boat like yours (of course a lousy day on the water with a rental can remind you how a free day of shore fishing can be nice too but thats another story). Congrats on the nice day, I'm gonna have to try Rice some time, looks like fun.

Wow, quite the adventure Mike. Amazing how something as little as changing a lure can turn into a disaster so quickly. Glad to see the rest of the trip worked out well - now I gotta go get me some pink x-raps.

Congratulations and I gotta agree with bitsmith - someone send him an OFC flag in a hurry

Great stuff. Your daughter continues to be the most adorable fisherman(person?) out there and I can just imagine how proud you were of her second place. 5 years old and she outfishes dad - I love it

I almost did just that but it was already sold. Next year for sure - weren't you suppose to be on Scugog today?

Thanks guys. Was kinda hoping for something on the other side but putting around the island will work too.

Beauty buckets there, thanks for sharing.

Hey everyone. Thinking about setting up a day on Scugog (stupid Muskie fever). Can anyone recommend a place to rent a tinny from? Preferably one that'll let us keep it out til sundown (say 7:30 or 8pm)? Cheap would be nice too of course but easy to find and later return time is more important (boat/motor size doesn't matter too much - just 2 of us). I'm sure I can find some with google but I'm even more sure that the fine folk here can give me some better advise. Thanks in advance Sean

Man that sounds like a great day on the water. That largie is a monster, well done.

It looks like a good time because I don't have pictures of the boat making coleslaw and chocolate milk trying tying to move around scugog or the unproductive hours trolling on pigeon or of me screaming about how my knots kept coming undone But yeah, it was a fun couple days, next time we'll manage to fill in those middle hours with some fish I'm sure, I even ordered some real muskie baits this week - go go strong CDN $. Of course that's assuming Mike ever lets me back in the boat after my disastrous attempt to back the trailer into the water

Great stuff Shaun, sounds like a great day had by all. Some beauty fish there.

Thanks Mike, must have been the photographer Here's another view of the Osprey

Now that's about as close to a perfect week as I can think of (all but the 5am shift at least). Thanks for the report

After I posted a 'want to go fishing' message on the Hook up forum I got a note form Mikeh saying that he was going to head up to pigeon to try and find some lily pad bass and offered me a spot on his boat. Luckily he didn't know how bad I am at flipping pads (sat. was my first time trying really). Saturday Being the long weekend we rushed out to get on the water at the early our of 11 am . The bite started off kinda slow along some spots that Mike knew with just this little guy coming to say hello: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1160/1032153647_437a97852f_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1585" /></a> We then decided to explore a bit (isn't that always the most fun anyhow). First we cruised through a promising canal but nothing at all. That was disappointing so we figured we'd troll through this one little bit behind an island and Mike got another little guy out from some pads near the shore. After realizing my aim with a baitcaster needed some work I gave up and put a tube on my spinning rod and dragged past the line of pads to a bit of rock just as we left the little channel and what do you know, our biggest of the day: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1105/1033002480_b1787ef476_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1586" /></a> Back to exploring and voila - Mike finds a little back bay full of pads and he was like a kid in a candy store. The sizes weren't anything crazy but it was great watching Mike work the pads. <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1226/1033042244_a8e0f5f703_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1594" /></a> Not sure how great it was when I missed a few hits but finally, sticking with my tube, I got my first bass from under a pad: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1044/1033014006_a127ff0322_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1588" /></a> After the fun in there we tried trolling for Muskies for a while but didn't have any luck. Finally we ended the day drifting a set of weed beds and pulling out sunfish and small smallies before calling it a day. Sunday On the way home Mike said he was thinking of going to Scugog on Sunday and invited me along for a second day on the S.S Skeeter. Don't have to ask me twice so once again I was at Mike's place at 9am and we were flying across the bog heading for the river and a date with some more largies. On the way we tried to get in a couple spots Mike remembered having luck at but the weed growth was just too much hassle so we tucked right into the river and almost right away Mike got down to business with the flipping jig: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5lg6v8Bfrs"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5lg6v8Bfrs"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5lg6v8Bfrs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> For some reason I thought putting the camera sideways would make it easier to view the video - Scorsese I'm not so here's a better look: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1203/1033055682_6a82f1d945_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="IMG_1598" /></a> Not to long later I had a hit and yanked back with a might hook set - and found my line drifting in the wind. Argh - a quick check and sure enough the knot had come out. Talk about feeling like an idiot. The day before I'd had the same thing happen and Mike had suggested a try a palomar knot instead of the clinch I was using. This jig was still tied with the clinch. Fine, switch to the tube rigged line, I'll retie the other later. 20 minutes later - same thing. ARGHHHH. That one was a palomar knot but either cut the end too short or something else. I don't know but when Mike caught his next big bucket I was still fuming and forgot to take a picture We worked the river for a bit longer and a few hits but not much luck. There were tonnes of bass boats around (pre fishing the next tournament Mike guessed) so we decided to head to some other spots. Turns out it wasn't meant to be for that afternoon - we either found our way blocked by thick weed growth or just flat out no bites. We toughed it out though and as the sun started to dip down we were casting spinner baits (me a little one, Mike a big muskie killer one) and during my retrieve I see this guy dart out and smack the lure: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1092/1033066974_9dacc2130e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1603" /></a> hooray, I'm not skunked and I caught a muskie! Not much of a muskie but after having two knots come unraveled and 6 hours of no fish you can imagine how happy I was to get this guy in the boat. Mike had another bigger one hit pretty hard but didn't commit and he had a great blowup on a topwater but again no hook ups. A bit later I finally brought in my only largie of the day. He wasn't very big so I tried the old "hold him near the camera" trick: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1437/1032215441_91bc416edb_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1604" /></a> Had a nice big hit a few minutes later with a couple arm jaring head shakes but then he/she gave one more big shake and popped out my poor spinner bait, now a few hairs shorter on the skirt and bent about 90 degrees. Would have loved to land that one but oh well. We kept at it for a bit longer with Mike extending the cut off another 15 minutes every time we had a hit or a fish and I'm glad he did because my trusty little spinner bait, bent back to the right shape gave me one more bit of fun for the night with a smallie that just did not want to come near the boat. A nice jump and several runs later Mike got the net under her - 19" and 3lb 3oz make this guy my new personal best smallie: <a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1226/1032144933_b904854a5e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_1607" /></a> So two days down and two new lakes both thanks to Mike and his great boat and great teaching (I'm gonna figure out this pad thing if it kills me). Monday Today I decided to hit the Grand for a couple hours. Fishing wasn't working for me with just 3 hits and no hookups in the couple hours but I had the privelage to see someone who really knew how to fish: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value=" name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Kinda hard to see in the video but yep - he caught a nice two talon wide + some bass that he then took up into the trees. At least someone got a fish today Thanks again to Mike for driving me around the Kawarthas and to everyone else who pm'd me with the offers. This board continues to impress me with the generosity of its members.