Rizzo

Wife is away for a few days...perfect time to take a day off work for some fishing! Decided to go to Balsam in search of toothy esox. Left Barrie around 5 a.m. and was on the water shortly after 6. Water was approx 71 degrees. Day started off pretty well with a small musky (32 inches?) falling for a trolled shallow raider in firetiger over 18 feet of water. And then came the wind. Every time I go to Balsam it just howls. I don't think I've ever left there dry (should have bought a boat with a full windshield!). I couldn't have been wetter after an upwind trolling pass. Next fish (37 inches?) fell victim to a jig (I got tired of getting soaked and decided to drift). Finally, around 4 p.m. a healthy 42 inch musky smashed a suick at boatside. Couldn't even see it coming due to the waves I was battling, hit the bait with only around 10 feet of line out. Nothing fights like a musky on a short leash. So end count was 1 trolling, 1 jigging, and 1 casting. Unfortunately no camera as the wife took it with her when she went away so no inches for team 9, but I'm sure we'll do better than 42 anyways (knock on wood)!

5 for 10 in 2 hours sounds good to me! If you discover its a musky biting you off rather than hammerhandle pike I'd be happy to help you with that problem!

My 2 year old absolutely loves casting the scooby doo rod...doesn't even want anything with hooks, just loves chucking the casting plug. Amazing how far a 2 year old can cast and he'll do it all day long. My 5 year old has zero patience, always wants to just drive the boat...he gets bored bringing in a 5 pound smallie and hands the rod off part way through!

I'm not much of a bass fisherman, but I have gotten them in water 30 feet deep

There's your problem, you were actually targetting them! We caught this brute earlier this year while pike fishing. quick photo and back she went. My guess is it went around 8-9 lbs. Sadly for Team 9 I had no logo with me!

so much water up there, maybe narrow it down a little! for starters you could try Manitouwabing or GBay for pike and pretty much anywhere for smallmouth. Everywhere I've fished up there has had great smallie fishing

ya I remember that summer back in the early 90's. It almost funny had bad it was every week-end.

Can't remember where I launched when I went there. All I know is it wasn't hard to find a place, but I also didn't drive around looking for the free dirt ramp either, just went to to the first marina I found

pm sent

don't do crack

You must have misunderstood my comment about "reducing" unwanted pike encounters. The key is reduce, not eliminate. I catch a ton of pike on topwater, however, I catch far more in other ways. At our cottage, if I chucked a spinnerbait or xrap I would catch 10 or more pike in an hour. When I'm after bass, my best approach is to go topwater as that will reduce my pike catches to around 3-5 per hour...less time fiddling with pike means more time to go after bass.

I would guess South Bay to be around 4 kms?? from the park

Great report, thanks for the updates. Glad to hear no pike caught! Too bad about the muskie, there are some decent fish in Balsam

pretty safe on the west side of the lake that you are talking about. A few shoals around Grand Island but not much too surprise you in the rest of the lake as far as I'm aware

We drive past little lake regularly and I always feel sorry for the fish there. such a small lake and not uncommon to see 20-30 boats pounding it at any given time. Hard for a fish to survive!

Love the poppers for smallies. Just got back from the cottage for a week and I basically fished topwater the whole time. This helps reduce unwanted pike attacks although they still are a nuisance even on topwater. Like others have said...patience grasshopper, wait until you feel the fishes weight before setting the hook. I caught several bass this week that had boiled at the bait seconds earlier, then smashed it the next time

nice fat healthy looking pike. Now we have to teach her not to hold a pike the way dad does when posing. Great looking fish!

My biggest (and possibly only regret) about changing jobs was that my new place doesn't have dental coverage. Not too bad for me (few hundred bucks a year) but my wife's teeth are like swiss cheese! We have spent close to 5000.00 on her teeth in the last 2 years so I will agree to not be a big fan of dentists! Last bill was around 1000.00 and she was barely there an hour!!!

sorry to hear this Wayne. My condolences to you and your family

40 inch...just what you did. 45 inches or bigger just tackle him so that you can get the photo! The doctor can always get the embedded hooks out later.

between dinnertime rapids and woods bay there is also a bluff shoreline. I've seen the pickerel guys sitting there before.

the good news is we caught the big pickerel only across the bay from chad's island (now I remember the name)! There are all kinds of little bays off the main channel that can entertain with pike and bass. We've caught a few incidental pickerel and I had a guy with me who got into some crappies too not too far from the train bridge.

wow this is a blast from the past. Roadshows at highschool dances, Ontario Place held them for a summer or two as well I think. Unfortunate news. Not sure if there is anything comparable today to what CFNY did through the 80's...not to mention they would play my beloved RAMONES

Haven't been there for 25 plus years. All I remember is the big static electricity ball and some machine that drew fancy designs as it swung like a pendulum

I go, but really only for my kids. There is an old quarry down a dirt trail near our house with little pike in it. After work I'll take the kids down the "secret trail" for a bit of fishing, and when the summer progresses, swimming. The 3 year old gets a kick out of catching "big pike" (which are actually smaller than hammerhandles) while they 4 year old gets more fun out of throwing rocks and exploring