Rizzo

Nice looking fish! Casting? trolling? lure? Lets hear the story! I also opened this hoping to see a "no pike" siting report. Its been a while since I have fished up there but hope to go to Balsam soon. Hopefully the musky fishing has not started to suffer there yet

probably some musky in the river by now too

...if you go fishing the weather will be horrible. Its only when you stay home the weatherman is wrong...at least that it works for me

I have fished mitchells but only in the spring for pike. We caught a wack of pike trolling in the weeds not too far from the xe2 marker...basically we looked for where the boats are and went there. It paid off...we got a bunch of stinky jacks and even lucked into a 7 lb pickerel. The weeds we found were in 8 fow if I remember correctly

which Head Lake? Near Norland or Haliburton?

Well we did get out there...HOT, sunny and no breeze. Felt like the most painful summer day on the water. Did manage to land 2 and lost 3 more. Major sunburn to boot...didn't think I needed sunscreen on Sept 19

I have used it this summer the few times I have fished Lake O. My buddies were there, and it was past 6 am on Saturday...she was all locked up

Had some buddies try to launch there Saturday and they said it was closed. Is that normal that they shut down for the season? Or maybe did they simply arrive too early? They ended up leaving and heading to Bronte to launch instead.

looks beauty but I think your reel is on backwards

oh ya I do have enough gear for everyone

Considering going to L St. Clair on Monday for musky. Both my usual partners are unable to make it. If I end up going is there anyone here that would like to tag along and share costs? I actually have room for 2 people, in my boat trolling st C works best with 3 guys. Leaving from Guelph around 6 am and home around 8 pm. Could meet anywhere along the way.

was it just too wavy on main lake? How deep is the harbour....are you just flatlining or is it deep enough for dipsey's etc? You r report was just enough to keep me on the fence between St Clair and Lake O!

Looking forward to the report. I have Monday off and am debating on Lake O or heading down to St. Clair for muskies. Your report may settle my destination

hahaha...the dreaded stinky jack. Coulda been worse...I have caught "cheaphead" when I thought it was a musky. As we all know, the first is always the toughest, but all signs are pointing to landing one next time. I remember the first propwash fish I caught...stinky jack...huge excitement followed by huge disappointment. So ticked I nearly ate that pike...until I remembered I don't like fish much and it got to swim away

how did you lose 7 spoons?

I am new to this type of fishing as well, been out three or four times this summer. I do use my musky rods on the dipseys...works great. One piece of advice I would give is use braid on the dipsey rods! I tried mono one time...yipes. Because of the stretch in the mono you can't get the dipsey to release if you want to check your bait (which I do reasonably regularly). It is a massive pain to reel in if the dipsey won't release!

I would take an incidental musky any day....although considering muskies are the only thing I ever fish for (other than my recent attempts at salmon) the incidentals I catch are tons and tons of big pickerel, the occasional bass and once in a while the mighty SHEEPHEAD

sounds like this is something that happens. My usual fishing is musky with 80 lb braid with 150 lb fluoro leaders...never had a break off. This salmon thing is new to me, will increase the line strength and see if that helps. Losing a flasher/fly is like losing a good musky lure...$$$$$

too funny.

sounds like I need to take er up a notch in strength. Wasn't a bite off because happened between dipsey and flasher. Wasn't the knot because it broke off halfway down the line. Weak spot? Maybe but I made it new that day so didn't have a lot of time to fray up! Think I just need to go heavier and maybe add a snubber!

sure. Gets you right to the depth you want...without having the guesswork of in-line weights! I was debating using dipsey divers for musky fishing when we were there a few weeks back but I never made it to the north end

Went salmon fishing on Lake O yesterday, and unfortunately got snapped off...would rather not have that happen again! I was trolling a dipsey/flasher/fly rig. I had strong braid up to the dipsey, then from the dipsey to the flasher I had 25 lb mono, then from the flasher to the fly I had ???lb (that part came with the fly). Anywho, I got snapped off in the section between the dipsey and the flasher (the 25 lb mono part). That meant I lost both the flasher and the fly. Was this just a fluke? Or is this something I could expect more often? I did not have my drag cranked right down. It was strong enough to pull the dipsey but not too much more. In hindsight, I suppose there was no need to have that mono section...I could have gone braid right up to the flasher. And what about braid right up to the lure? Does anyone just use braid right up to the lure? 50 lb braid has a thinner diameter than 25lb mono, maybe I should forget these leaders and just tie right to the braid? Thoughts? Not sure a snubber would have helped either, because the drag from the flasher probably would have pulled the snubber tight anyways.

beauty fish but that is not a good thing!

beauty fish. Now that the curse is lifted you will start to slam them