The Urban Fisherman

awesome report Dutchy! Glad to see the sinkworms are still paying off for you!

Thanks dude - It does? haha Sorry Dan didn't mean that in a bad way - just crackin' a joke. I could have used a few red bulls myself! The ride back in from the outer bay? or just home from the lake? My butt cheeks are still killin' me from bouncing around on the aluminum corner bench seat (need to buys padded seats)and I had a hard time keeping the eyes open on my way home...good thing it's just down the road! Yeah I learnt that fishing with Dave Mercer - He taught me to fish a tube jig, and if he hadn't I guarantee I would have a caught a lot less fish on opener! lol - I to suffer from effects of camp fires from time to time, but I know enough to stay away from them the night before bass opener! Thanks dude!

What a beauty! I've never seen lampeys on a musky before... Never even though they'd get the nasty little things... Thanks for the report

Awesome! Thanks for the report dude! I grew up fishing nep for bass and walleye.... And saw my first ever musky caught in that lake! I'd love to get my kids out on that lake again someday! Cheers, Ryan

nice fish bud! Definitely out-fished us dude!

Had a busy spring working on the house, but things are shaping up and bass season is OPEN so you guys should be seeing a lot more of me around here. Was working on the boat and gear until 1:30 a.m. Blew a tire on my lawn tractor which was parked in front of the boat, so I had to change the tire... Letme tell you, getting a tire on and off a rim with only screwdrivers isn't easy! Started the morning off waking up at 3 a.m. - Had the alarm set for 3:15 seeing as I was up so late but was woken by a text message from Dan Bouck... He slept in his boat down at the lake the night before and was hopped up on red bulls! haha Thanks for the wake up call bud... to bad we didn't end up meeting up! My partner was 45 minutes late and I would've whopped him but there was already a line up of boats at the launch at 4 a.m. so not a huge deal. Jason get's there and we're running out on to long point bay just in time to see the sunrise behind the clouds.... Jay was up drinking with his older brother by the fire until 3 a.m. so he was half out of it when he was dropped off in the morning! lol First we hit up a spot I found last october and was dying to fish this spring... sure enough it held a crap load of fish....nothing huge, but lots of decent fish. I caught mostly largies, and a couple of smallies on this spot. Largies were on a flippin' jig and smallies hammered an x-rap! Best part, I was THE ONLY BOAT within' sight fishing here.. If you look over my right shoulder you can see the herd of boats way off in the distance! muhahahaha Jason...well - he missed two fish, then broke off, and when we was re-tying he tied his spinnerbait onto a loose piece of line, not his rod, then threw it overboard and watched it sink! hahaha After about an hour the spot died down and we moved out towards the thousands of boats near the mouth of the inner bay... I, and I say I for a reason, put on a short clinic in front of the local live bait anglers using a good old tube jig! Again, nothing huge, but some decent fish and it was nice to be hunting smallies again! We quickly got sick of being surrounded by boats so we moved to the outer bay into bigger emptier water and caught some fish of our own. Jay was hung over and slow on the trigger so after missing a dozen or so fish he finally made it onto the board and made his only contribution for the day! lol To his defence he had never fished a tube jib before, and sometimes newbies (including myself) have a hard time knowing the difference between a rock, weed or fish. I was setting hte hook on everything..... lol and landed a few weeds, but quite a few fish as well. Called it a day at around 1:00 as we were whooped but it was damn nice to get out on the water again! Next weekend it's off to visit my parents in Sudbury, but I'll be back out on the bay in 2 weeks! have a good work week! Cheers, Ryan

Cliff I have nothin' for ya! If I knew the lake I'd be all over it but I don't know it from a whole in the ground. Some good ppl on here helpin' you out. Best wishes in the future. Can't wait to read a successful report from you! cheers, Ryan

haha I might know a couple editors, best in the biz in my opinion! Yeah Mike, she sure does catch 'em ... just like her old man! lol And c'mon the show wouldn't be the show without showing EVERYTHING Dave does.. it's my job! haha Yeah Ron - we slammed 'em pretty good. Love fishing with the kid! Thanks Roy! Thats why I take so many pictures... Seems like just yesterday she couldn't hold her own rod and now all I get to do is net her fish! (which are all girl fish by the way haha ) She always corrects me and says "net HER daddy". As for Big Cliff - I'm sure even he could catch them in our lake! lol No guessing involved, you just have to cruise around looking for them. Thanks Fish Finder - Hopefully she remembers it when she's a Teenager! Hey Buddy! Hope all is well! She did have a blast, but as much as she loves fishing she wasn't picking up her rod until she got to have a quick swim! It was nice to get out in the boat, but i'm axious for bass opener and for a chance to get out after some long point bay gators or even gar. Haven't fished carp yet this year to so their on my list for the coming weeks also. Have a good one - hope to see you soon!

Great report Johnny! I always say I'm going to try a new technique and stick to it, but always find myself drifting back to my old ways. One of these days I'm going to leave some tackle behind so I have no choice! hah Have a good one! Cheers, Ryan

Nice perch right there! Those clouds look kind of scary in a few pix though! Thanks for the report! Ryan

my goodness I have got to take my kids on a trip like this in 15+ years! haha that's just awesome! congrats!

It's been a long while since I've even been able to squeeze in a few minutes to catch up here on OFC. I hope all is going well with everybody and as things start winding down I hope to be able to pop in much more often. Anyways...onto the fishing... Averie and I FINALLY managed to get the boat out on the lake..... saying we got a late start to the season is a SERIOUS understatement. We had an early saturday trip planned but with the forecast calling for thunder showers all weekend I made a last minute call to go out tonight for a few hours instead. Lucky for us we live 5 minutes away from the lake so we threw back some supper and were at the launch by 6 p.m. With 30 degree temps it wasn't to hard for Averie to convince me we had hit the beach before heading out onto the water... One of the greatest feelings for me as a kid was putting on a nice warm sweater after an evening swim, then going out on the lake with my old man to slam some fish as the sun sets. Hopefully my kids enjoy it as much as I did growing up. First Fish Boated in 2010 Started with our standard gills... Then the crappie showed up... Then Averie caught her Personal Best Crappie! Beat her last one by a mile! Our original plan was to get some late evening bow's but the panfish bite was unreal and the kid isn't much of a fan of trolling so we just stuck to what was working for us. Took home a good feed for tomorrow's supper. There's NO better way to spend a friday evening! Can't wait t'il the boy is big enough to come out with us! T'il next time! Hope you all have an awesome weekend at home or on the water! Cheers, Ryan & Averie

Hey Simon - better late than never on my reply.... haven't been able to get back on here...I'm pretty sure you won't have any trouble getting Jack into the outdoors... he doesn't have much of a choice living way up there! haha So far he seems to be picking up on it quick! This is the time of year to find them... I spotted a few nests yesterday but for the most park they're still grouped up around fallen tree's and beaver houses etc. Victor - I've been keeping an eye on the treads from your travels! Very cool dude! Make sure to write us up a full report when you get back... Have fun! Uh Oh - the place has really gone to the dumper now! The old man joined up! haha When you get back from Uncle Harvey's I'll tell you how to post some pictures and write up a report. Cheers, Ryan

NP - good luch tomorro Richard Man you just put heir tasty little filets in cold water and they firm right up... no fishy taste, just awesome... to bad about Rice though! That sucks! We try not to harvest the big girls, usually stick to the 8 or 9 inchers which are a dime a dozen in this lake.. a 10 incher doesn't even get me excited in there anymore! And when we do keep some for the table it's usually just one or two meals worth. It's an awesome bluegill fishery. Hopefully it stays that way but who know's. Apparently there used to be some huge crappie in the lake, but I have experienced a better average size for bluegill than crappie..... maybe the same could happen to the gillz if people aren't careful. I've never fished them on the fly, but imagine they'd be a blast. They're aggressive little fish - and will readily take a micro crank bait or small inline spinner. Cheers, Ryan

awesome looking fish MJL! I've never done the brown trout stream fishing deal before... only target them on my local reservoir. You're tempting me to try it out this coming weekend! Thanks for the report! Cheers, Ryan

man those gators would eat my bluegills for an appetizer! haha good job as always dude! cheers, Ryan

I told ya I have a spot dude! haha Thanks Mike - sure doesn't compare to your steelie reports, but it's somethin'! It's nice to get him out and interested... friends sometimes come and go but brothers are for life so I'm glad he's getting into it. I'd invite you and your boy out for some gillin' but we all know he'll out-fish his old man again! Bah, you never know Johnny... My bro is in his mid 30's and is just getting into it now! They aren't spawning just yet but will be looking to make their nests soon. They make nests the size of basketballs in the mud and sand, anywhere from 2 feet deep to 15+ feet deep. They make them right next to one another also.. there can be 20 or 30 nests all grouped together. And yeah, my favourite fish to eat hands down! Yeah sometimes they're to easy to catch! haha I try using bigger baits to zero in on the bigger fish, as the little ones can become a pain in the rear after a while! Thanks Dude - always enjoy your reports... Keep 'em comin! What happened to them Ron? Fished out? Yepp - I have a nice little 5'5" panfish rod I use for them! They out-fight any fish in their size class without a doubt. Way better scrappers than Crappie or Perch in my opinion. Cheers, Ryan

You guys haven't seen any reports from me, or heard much from me lately because..... I HAVEN'T BEEN FISHING! Life happens and sometimes you just can't get out, but things are going well so I certainly shouldn't complain.... My older brother and I are 6 years apart in age, and for some reason he didn't catch the fishing bug at a young age like I did... as a matter of fact it's highly likely that Averie caught more fish by her second birthday than he did by the time he hit 32! BUT, he's been bugging me to take him out lately so we managed to sneak out for an hour and hit one of mine and Averie's bluegill shore spots. They were stacked up as usual, and some of the females looked like they were ready to explode with eggs. Typical Gill Look at the belly on this thing! I should have held it so you could see the bottom of it... Big Bull - These things are the size of small dinner plates Likely Derek's Personal Best of any species! haha Anyways, short time, but lot's of fun. I think he's been bit by the bug as he's bugging me to go out in the boat now! Good Luck on the water! Cheers, Ryan

Hey guys! Dave was down in florida fishing tarpon, and being the good employee that I am I decided to put this together while he was out of the office! lol If he had taken me tarpon fishing I might not have posted it, but hey - it's all in good fun right! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThCWvqtbZ6E Have a great Wednesday! Cheers, Ryan

That's awesome Mike! Ginny and I have been on the fence about moving for a long time now, and were considering trying to sell privately for the same reasons...also, I'd rather put the % that the realtor get's into my own pocket! lol John F. has helped me out a few times looking at houses and I have to say he's a stand up guy! I owe him more than a few beers already. Congrats! Ryan

I just thought I'd take 5 minutes during my lunch break and fire off some pictures of what I've been doing the past month, and why I haven't posted any fishing reports. The boat hasn't even seen water yet this year, and it'll be a couple more weeks yet before that happens. We decided to give our house a face lift this spring, by adding a front deck, a new door and we still have to re-surface the wood around the door and over the window's. I've got ZERO formal training with woodworking or building, but grew up helping my old man with everything he did. At the time I cursed him because I wanted to go hang out with my friends, but I've saved thousands of dollars in labor costs since we started renovating our house...so I have to say thanks to my old man for that! I originally planned to build this deck during my holidays, but we were pounded with rain, hail and snow all week so it turned into an evening and weekend project. I think it turned out pretty good for a Rookie, especially considering the fact that it's 57' wide by 8 feet deep. Ground work Frame Done Started skirting - I had the boards pressed right up against one another and they shrunk and ended up with an 1/8th inch or more gap between each one Railling Done Front Steps done Side Steps done Whole deck Now we just have to re-do around the front door and above the window's and my house facelift is done.. Next up, dry wall, mudding and painting. It never ends. If you're thinking about doing a deck, and are at least a little comfortable with basic woodworking tools, you can do this yourself and save a pile of money! I think I deserve a few weekends on the water after this one! Cheers, Ryan

Right on Jaques! This is the best time of year to fish them bows... the first couple of weeks after opener you can still get them on crank baits and other shallow presentations. My local lake is full of those 15 to 17 inchers.... Mostly stocked fish though, with a mix of natural browns in there. Thanks for the report and keep at it! I haven't made it out yet this year, but maybe next weekend! Cheers, Ryan

Sorry to hear the news Cliff... I'm sure she was greatful to have friends such as yourself! My condolences go out to yourself and her entire family

yeah if you do this you can mount it on the front of your boat and putt along just like any other bow-mount. Obviously not as easy without foot control, but much better for pounding the shoreline than having it mounted on the transom. Enjoy your motor!

Dude the pictures of that young guy put the biggest smile on my face! Absolutely awesome! You guys rocked 'em! Good Job! Cheers, Ryan