The Urban Fisherman

I fished the Thames river in london with moving baits for 3 years strait while in school and caught hundreds of smallmouth bass, dozens of pike, and 1 tiny carp. I did however catch hundreds of carp, BIG and small much more consistently on corn. If you fish them properly the action will be much more fast and furious than casting for hours and hours with a stick bait or spinner. It's obviously possible to catch carp on moving baits, but you're seriously diminishing your odds targeting them with spinners or cranks, and are knowingly increasing your chances of catching OOS fish. I don't think a CO could realistically ticket you for targeting carp with a moving bait, but if he see's you catching pike while "targeting" carp you're probably going get yourself into trouble. Good Luck either way! Cheers, Ryan

buddy i was soaked in that ice cold water from me chest down...

Yeah my father in law put his sand point int for around $200. Here's the problem with that! lol I phoned a bunch of companies about different options. The sand point guys told me they wouldn't bother trying in my little area. Apparently the sand is silty and sticky and plugs up your point real quick... but my father in law was determinted to try it anyways. If his works out then that might be an option but I'll let him be lab rat for that experiment...

We don't drink our water, never have. And I'd hardly call it potable! lol have you seen how rusty that old culvert casting is? Not to mention the rotting drowning bugs that you can see swimming around down there. I should mention that the only water that was getting into the well came from a crack in the well wall right where I drilled my holes... that's how I knew where to drill them. It's about 22 feet deep, and my holes are at around 15 feet. Water table for the most part is about 10 feet down. We can't do deep wells here because you get into sulfur water and water that's very very high in Iron. My in-laws put a point in next door and it's only down 14 feet.

more info... our well was so bad that if the kids had 1 bath, we did 2 loads of laundry, and 1 load of dishes our well would go dry.... it refreshed about 3 inches of water in 6+ hours.... we have two young messy kids so 1 load of laundry per day doesn't cut it. Forget about trying to wash the car or water plants...

we've already had several companies come out and give us quotes... but like I said it still just isn't in the budget for a couple more months... We can't put the new well in the same spot due to property boundary issues. The original owner, owned both my lot and the lot next door and for some stupid reason put the well right on the line... My holes are about 2/3 the way down my well, about 15 feet... We don't drink this water, it's just for laundry, dishes, and showers... until we get a new system we drink bottled water and boil water for cooking. Good idea though we will have it tested again.

oh man you're killin' me with those pics! I live just over an hour away from dunville and in three years I still haven't gotten down there for those big brutes! Great report - congrats on some solid fishing! Cheers, Ryan

The plan is to get a new well done anyways, but it's not in the budget for a few more months, and @ $60,00 a week to have water brought in, this is looking like a pretty good short term fix! haha One of the main reasons that it's drying up is because the cracks in the well that are supposed to let water in are rusted closed, so I just made some new holes. On a side note, the idea wasn't all mine, my neighbour told me that the previous homeowner did the same thing about 10 years ago with great success, and had no major issues because of it....until those new holes of his rusted closed... I do appreciate your tips, and will keep a close eye on silt build up on the bottom of the well. I already have a jig that I made up to keep tabs on how deep the water is, versus how much silt buildup is inside. Cheers, Ryan

Anybody who drinks Coors Light is ok in my books! haha Good work Jaques! Where's the lip and trebble hooks though? Cheers, Ryan

don't they just have the jug? Or does brita have an actual system that you can plumb in? lol funny you mentioned that...I thought the water would just kind of trickle down so I did a test hole half way down... needless to say I didn't really get to drill any much lower...weird thing was I punched through a couple more deeper down on the other side, and in a few other spots and didn't get much.... that one area was the sweet spot...

Hey guys, I wish this was a fishing report, but the way things are going around here I'll be lucky to get out before Bass Opener. Anyways, our well has been running dry fairly often for the past year or so. Today I got mad when Ginny ran it dry doing laundry and decided it'd be a good idea to crawl down into my well and start drilling holes through the walls hoping water would start trickling in.... Well, I got more than I bargained for... as soon as my drill punched through, water started spewing out with enough pressure to soak me to the bone! It was like striking oil! haha So I punched a dozen or so holes and now we've got a ton of water, but it's a little stained.... for those well owners out there, what do you use to filter out your well water? We have 1 standard cartridge, and a UV light but I'd like to clear it up a little more if I could... Any other well tips, or experiences would be appreciated! As usual, thanks for any tips you guys might have on this situation! Cheers, Ryan

Dude that looks awesome! Bass will eat those up for sure! I don't even fly fish an I want some of those!

I had one in highschool and loved it. It sure beat being stuck on shore. I just put a thin plywood floor on the bottom after it was inflated. They say 4 person, but 2 people is more than enough. There's a decent deal on one here in london on Kijiji... they want $100 but I'm sure you could get it for less. If I had some extra cash kickin' around I'd buy it for a couple of ponds I like to fish... http://london.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-boats-watercraft-canoes-kayaks-paddle-4-Adult-or-814lbs-Inflatable-Boat-W0QQAdIdZ195431401 Cheers, Ryan

awesome ride dude! How shalow can you fish with one of those babies? Someday, when I upgrade I'd like to get something like this but I'm nervous about being able to fish some sloppy back bays that are only a foot deep...

We did find some good fish schooled up at the back end of the lake but the smaller ones were much more agressive so it wasn't easy getting the big guys hooked up. From my experience the bigger fish are more active in the morning or before dark but in the afternoon they just sit back and take in the sun. Shoot me a pm if you need any tips on spots! I know you aren't one totake advatage of a fishery... no worries Dan, my dad, brother and a buddy who helped a bit drank plenty of my beer. It's amazing how fast you can go through a 28 pack of beer when you start drinking them at noon. I still refuse to believe it slowed us down!

Hey OFC! Every year once we wrap up editing the latest season of Facts of Fishing THE SHOW, Dave give's me a mandatory week off from the computer. Well this past week worked out well because it was book-ended by a long weekend, which gave me 10 days off in a row. I had big plans... 1) Build a deck 2) Summerize the boat 3) Do a panfish trip with Averie 4) Hit the bay for pike 5) And most of all, something I've been looking forward to for years, is to accept an invitation from Solo to catch my first good steelhead.... Well, as it turns out, it's WAY MORE WORK than I had anticipated when it comes to building a 60 foot wide by 8 foot front deck! lol Couple this with the fact that I'm not a carpenter, my Dad and "foreman" injured his knee real bad just before starting, it rained 5 days while building and VOILA, my holidays are over, the boat hasn't moved out of the garage and my deck isn't finished yet! On the bright side it's coming along quite well, I'm very proud of the work I've done on it and am looking forward to the final product.... then finally getting out in the boat. My Ground work... Then it was hail and rain... Yes that's HAIL the size of marbles, not snow in my front yard... Put the deck boards down myself on saturday (ran out with 7 boards to go) Started the skirting on sunday I still have to finish the skirting, railings, and steps. Then put in the new front door, and upgrade the wood around the door an above the window's. More work than I'd hoped, as is usually the case with unfamiliar projects, but doing the work myself makes the project fit into our budget, and there's always a sense of self satisfaction after you finish something like this yourself. It wasn't all work though, I drank my fair share of beers, and Averie and I managed to sneak out for 1 quick panfish trip from shore.. We didn't get into any of the big giant bluegill we're used to, but that's how it is when you're stuck on shore sometimes. We did managed a bunch of decent gills and crappie though... My usual fishing partner..walked all the way in about a 20 minute walk by herself through the bush... Averie's first gill of 2010 Crappie - It's great now that she's old enough to take pictures of MY fish to! haha Even if they are smaller than hers... Thinking about kissing him? A couple other moments to remember from my spring Holidays of 2010 My boy Luke experienced his first Easter! My niece had her first roasted marshmallow with Uncle Ryan.. (and stayed up late haha) And I turned 28 years old... getting dangerously close to 30 lol Anyways, I thought I'd share my holiday goings on with my friends from OFC. I haven't had much time to reply to topics, but have been keeping an eye on everyone's reports. Thanks for reports and keep them coming. Cheers, Ryan

Awesome footballs dude! The problem isn't so much that we don't have them on our end of the lake...it's that we don't have a spring season for them. I'm not saying the fishing would be as good as it is on the south side of the lake, but it'd sure save us some money if we didn't have to go south of the border to get them! Judging by the numbers of fish you get into the fall, and the slaughter-fest that goes on in Long Point Bay each bass opener I'd bet there'd be an AMAZING spring catch and release fishery here as well. Don't think we'll ever see it happen though! Cheers, Ryan

cool report dude - always a good read, and photos to...... I've never seen a sea slug, that thing is damn ugly! haha

THANKS GUYS!!! We haven't gotten out yet because I started building a new deck on my house yesterday! Holy crap it's going to be a lot of work! haha I thought I'd have it all slapped up in a couple days, looks like it's going to take me all week. We're also replacing the front door and putting new vinyl around the door and above the window's but that'll have to wait a little while... Thanks again for the birthday wishes! Have a great long weekend! Cheers, Ryan

You forgot to mention the tailgate beers Mike! haha great report! Thanks! cheers, Ryan

yepp - my old man caught his Personal Best walleye fishing a BIG spinnerbait for musky on Scugog!

Wicked! Good for him...and you! Cheers, Ryan

Thanks for the report buddy! I'm going to try to get out next weekend, but if the lake blow's up we'll likely be panfishing one of the local ponds or reservoirs.. Cheer,s Ryan

Hey gang! I think this is my first thread on the new board. I haven't had a lot of time to check out all the new features, but it looks awesome so far! Good work on the change over guys! I've been meaning to get Averie out for her first time picking worms and tonight was the perfect night. Light drizzle, and warmish out.... Ginny let Averie stay up a little later to have a shot at catching some bait for next weekends panfish outing... We managed plenty of worms in about 20 minutes and boy was it funny watching her try to catch them! haha She had fun out there though and I can't wait to get out on the water next weekend. Get out there and get 'em! Pretty funny video of Averie getting frustrated with the worms! lol next weekends bait! free of charge, and memories made in only a few minutes of time! Cheers, Ryan

I would pay now if we needed to in order to make it worth while for the good folks that keep it up and running, but I were a newbie looking in I doubt I would give it the tile of day as soon as I saw the membershi fee.