Rizzo

haha...that was a borrowed sled from the neighbour's daughter...man I miss that thing

When a last minute decision was made to go to Muskokas to target Lake Trout the other day the first thing I did was come here for a bit of advice. Never having tried to catch a trout I needed all the help I could get. After the long drive up from Guelph it was nice to have some success! Although this is a pretty teeny trout, it was a gorgeous fish. As it neared the hole I was really disappointed...saw those spots on its side and actually thought it was a dink pike rather than the fish I was trying to catch. I tell you a tiny little trout is a very pretty fish. I did catch a bigger one a short time later, but no picture of that one...it was bigger, but not by too much! Either way...a personal best first laker and then another personal best to beat it. Speaking of personal bests, why stop at two in a day? Fishing with me isn't fishing unless an incidental walleye is caught. I am notorious for catching walleye when going after some other species. Since I rarely eat fish, walleye can be more pest than anything else to me. Well did I ever get one this time. I regularly catch big walleye (7-9lbs) while musky fishing...but this one out did them all! I got a super-tanker of a walleye (30 inches long, 19 inch girth) fishing an emerald shiner in around 35 feet of water, one foot off bottom. Not sure what this brute would have weighed but I am thinking over ten pounds at least. Being so fat it was a challenge getting it both up, and then back down, the hole. Had to top the day off with an incidental walleye, and for once I am happy I did!

I haven't been able to get pike minnows in the KW/Guelph for a couple months. My buddy was able to get some about a month ago at Bill's in Hamilton...not suckers, big shiners

haha ok Brian. I had a feeling someone would want proof so I actually took a couple pictures. Will start a new thread later

Thanks all! We had an awesome day. Buddy wanted to target walleye first and we got a few of those (including my pb!). Eventually got a couple lakers too. Even tho they weren't huge thats a couple personal bests in a day. For me the emerald shiner near bottom was the best...I didn't have much luck jigging

Right on thanks guys. I have some of that 8 lb blue mono stuff. Will spool that up and give it a whirl!

That is unbelievable! Why the heck would someone do that? Setting himself up for vandalism in my opinion. Is there more to this story? (ie is it a private road and nobody is supposed to go down there? or is this truly as crazy as it looks?)

A friend is taking me up to the Muskokas tomorrow for an attempt at Lake trout. I am an absolute rookie when it comes to this. What do I spool up with? That blue mono stuff? Braid? And what pound test will I want? He is providing the lures, but I plan to bring my own rod. Advice needed!

coupla real beauties!

luckily she fell into boat and not out of it or Cindy would have been bull shark lunch!

so what ends up happening?

I bet its stupid hot in Florida in July. As far as bass, they are in every ditch, canal, pond, lake you see. Get yourself a telescopic rod, go play a round of golf, cast rubber worm in ponds as you wait to hit your ball. I have caught ridiculous numbers of bass in golf course ponds in Florida

very cool. I miss my saltwater fishing days

just started draining what was the kids' skating rink.

Great memories with the little ones helps lessen the disappointment of the fishing at least! Need to rob a bank these days to take the family to disney

too funny. Don't worry I am always half in the bag when I am ice fishing too.

she's a beaut! How big?

Nice to see

keep at it. Some guys do phenomenal out there...just have to put time on the ice and get it figured out. Then you can come back here and display all your awesome catches

Good stuff. I also have only tried the laker/whitefish thing once on Simcoe. Struck out equally as bad. We also only heard of one or two fish being caught out of the hundred people fishing the area. Not great odds. Thanks for the report, been a few years since I have made it back to Simcoe

wow thats awesome. Gonna get my wife to read this post....maybe a big ol musky replica will show up at my house some day

Most importantly....why does she have 2 veto votes to your one? You my friend have a very very flawed process.

it was pretty much a piece of cake...until I found those parts on the ground! Only tricky part was reconnecting the lower unit afterwards...took a bit of wiggling to get it back into place.

I didn't even check how easily it spins, just took it out and felt that the rubber was really soft and flexible, no visible damage at all. As far as spinning it goes....I was surprised how tightly the impeller sits in the housing, didn't even try to spin it. Think I will order a new one to have on hand just in case. But I agree with the weedwacker line idea...probably should have started there. Will poke around in the drain hole in the spring just see if its clogged up a bit.

ok I like the sound of that. When I watched the videos not a single person said "watch out not to lose the little washer", so I was surprised to see it on the floor. Began to replay all the parts in my mind couldn't really think of where it may have come from. When I got to the impeller housing that sucker really did come apart (the metal cylinder the impeller spins in even came free from the plastic housing). Weird thing was, in addition to the o-ring there was also a tiny (kinda delicate) metal washer on the floor too. I am gonna chalk this up to hopefully just a dirty floor from previous work...not a spare part from this attempt