The Urban Fisherman

Frank has already stepped up but on behalf of all of the Fish-a-Thon for a Cure gang I want to send out a HUGE thank you to Mike and Danna for doing everything that they do for our event! You guys have become a big part of the Fish-a-Thon and we can't thank you enough! A big thanks to those who donated prizes to Mike & Danna's auction and to those who bid on them! We're looking foward to another awesome year and will be bombarding the board with information very soon! THANKS!!!!!

Thanks for the great response guys! Sometimes I wonder wether or not anyone want's to see more pics of my kids holding little bluegill but I will keep posting for sure. T-minus 5 days until you get a real bass report out of me. This year is going to be Averie's first bass opener on Longpoint!

LOL that's some funny stuff...

Cliff - your old man was STYLIN' back in the day - even while he was fishin! What the heck happened to you buddy? haha Thanks for the post

AWESOME! That's is one wicked fish for anyone nevermind for a little man with a little rod!!! Good for him! Dont under estimate little rods.. my daughter has done well with 6-10lb Carp with a 4.5 footer! Good work Dad!

wow that thing is huge! lol

Great idea for a thread Bunk - I don't have any old pics of my dad in digital form but one pic that sort of stands out for me is this big old boot he caught at the mouth of hte credit river a couple of years ago. It was his first time fishing for great lakes salmon and I had been trying to get him down south for years to try it out. Finally the stars aligned, we only had a few hours in the morning to get out before volunteering for a kids fishing event and sure as crap my dad caught the only fish of the morning. I wouldn't have had it any othe way! ( sorry Dan haha ) He caught it on a livetarget smelt and the fish went crazy!!!

I guess those big in-land browns and that real nice bow you caught last spring doesn't count either then eh buddy!?!? lol Once again great report guys!!!

awesome stuff guys! thanks for the report!

Well here's the report I promised. My youngest daughter Claira has been on my case to get out fishing since the ice came off hte lake. Our new vehicle doesn't have a hitch yet and we only had a short window to get out so we packed up the family and took Claira out for a little shore fishing. There's a great little spot to take the kids on Longpoint and it's always loaded with small bluegill, perch, rockbass etc. As soon as we dropped Claira's pink trout worm into the lake a solid 2lb+ largie smashed it and started spooling her little rod. I grabbed the spool in a panic and you guessed it... SNAP.. her first fish would have been a nice largie and but her dad blew it and it broke her off. It's all good though because within a few minutes we had her tied back up and and at two years old she caught her first ever fish all by herself with zero help from Dad!! She was very excited but still wouldn't hold it, so big sis showed her how it's done. We stuck around for about 45 minutes and the kids caught a whole bunch of little bluegill... not the Deer Creek giants we're used to, but hte kids had a ton of fun and it was good to get outside and catch some fish. Here's my boy Luke with his first of the day.. Averie with a pair... ( one on her rod and one on mine while I was helping Luke un-hook his fish ) Mom even got in on the action a little today... A few more fish..... And it was time to call it a day! Thanks for checkin out our report - have a great week!! Cheers, Ryan

Awesome fish boys!!!! Thanks for the report! Ryan

Thanks a bunch McDougy you clearny know what you're talking about and I thoroughly appreciate the advice!!! The builder is "finishing" the basement, but is leaving the painting and installation of the flooring and trim to me. So before I get to the point of putting the floors in I might hit you up with a PM for some advice. When I finished my current home's basement we put down that foam/plastic that's made to go underneath laminate in basements. The floor isn't near as cold as some of my friends who have tile throughout their basement but it's still slipper worthy... My current house was build in the 60's and though we did upgrade it a ton, it still isn't near as efficient as any new homes are these days. Thanks again!!!!

Ah - Gotcha. Sorry as you can tell I'm a little clueless on that front. I did a quick online search for a Type G Build and classical or collonial style home was what came up as my answer! ) We're taking steps with regards to the room above the garage for both insulation and gas exchange reasons, and our basement walls are well sealed and insulated - we're also putting in a good system to avoid any floods as I've had issues with that in the past. We aren't insulating under the slap though nor are we going to have a heated slab. We started with a budget of $210,000 and stretched it to $228,000 to stay under hte $230,000 we were able to spend. Thanks so much for the insight!!

Thanks Chris - awesome lookin' flies!!!!

Get out and hammer them Maureen!! Looking forward to a report!

Thanks Maureen! My designer specified that they are to glue and screw the subfloor down, so I would assume they will follow the plans, but I will keep an eye on it to make sure!!! Dunno if i'll be able to afford spray foam but will ask my builder about it for sure! Hoping to get the kids out for an hour or so sunday from shore - if I do I will report! Sure is - It's going to be a long couple of months living with ginny's grandmother but her grandma and the kids are looking forward to it and it's something hte kids will always remember... going to be an adventure. Will do dude - I'm 31 and my wife is 27 so we're not far off... we moved from Port Credit where we lived in a tiny appartment so we know how lucky we are... our current home of 5 years has nearly an acre so it's going to be quite a bit smaller but there's a bunch of trade off's that make it worth while for us. Being from Toronto you'd probably be pretty surprised to know tha the lot was only about $30,000. lol Love to do the spray foam if we can squeeze it in but we're already on the highest end of our budget... we'll see what the builder has to say. By type G do you mean classical or collonial style home? If so then yes, more or less. There's going to be a bunch of vinyl though because we can't afford to do the entire house in brick. There's just going to be a strip of brick a few feet high around the bottom of the house with a limestone edge on top.

NOOOOOOO - I had awesome responses for everyone and screwed up just before hitting POST and lost everything... so I appologize if my answered are short and sweet.. I have to get to bed soon!!! Yep, 2x10 as per our designers specifications. We're working on a pretty tight budget to... Will do brother! Thanks Sinker, they pumped out the water and cleaned it up good before pouring the footing.. Will do Joey!! Thanks Davey, I will post updates for sure! Yessir!! Thanks dude very much appreciated, I might have to take you up on that! 9 foot ceilings on the back half and 11 foot on the front half... 8 foot high doors on both ends!

Hey Guys! I always try to pop by to see what's going on with everybody but 2013 has been brutal for me with regards to getting out on the water so I've had nothing to report. Aside from an awesome trout opener with some of my best buds, I haven't been on the water at all this year. That's right I'm rounding up on 6 months with only 1 real day of fishing under my belt!!! lol It's honestly starting to look like I'm only going to be fishing bass opener next Saturday then the Fish-A-Thon weekend at the end of July! I've got a bunch of things on the go but a big part of the reason is that we're building a new house this summer. I figured since I don't have a damn thing to report about with regards to actually catching a fish, I might as well contribute somehow with a house building report! The lot is only 56 x 120 - we went with a 2 storey home so we'd have more of a back-yard and we also wanted the build to be as cost effective as possible. Less roof and less foundation tends to help lower the cost of building, so 2 storey it was. We came up with a "tradtional" style home, somewhat of a mix between comtemporary & old school colonial style house with the front porch, shutters and so on. It's just in the early stages and we're moving in with Ginny's grandmother next week so it's going to be a long couple of months until it's done! Specs are 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, finished basement, drive-thru garage, front porch, rear deck, fenced in back-yard the whole deal! I cannot wait to get this finished - it's been a long time coming and we're very excited about it. If you guys are interested I'll update this thread throughout the summer - feel free to throw any suggestions my way! I was probably most excited just to see them start digging - it was finally happening! Rain has slowed things down a little... hopefully the weather get's better in the coming weeks! First mistake - they forgot to leave a cut-out for our rear garage door when they poured the foundation.. they had to come back and cut it out! Next up was the beginnings of hte main level - it doesn't take them long to make progress when the weather is on our side. Open concept on the main level... Kitchen Dinning room Living Room - a little tight but I'm fine with that. Garage started as a single and we decided to make it a 2 car garage at the last minute.. And here we are with the start of framing the second level... Thanks for checking out our summer project - Good luck to those who are going to enjoy zone 17 bass opener tomorrow... we have one more week to wait around here... then you'll actually get a fishing report out of me. Cheers, Ryan

Speechless. Thank Mike - that was awesome!

Awesome boat! Sure beats my first rig - awesome fish to, congrats on the PB!

Don't feel bad I can't even catch the damn things when I'm in my boat!!! lol Bass and pike I'm somewhat comfortable with but when it comes to keeper sized perch I just plain out suck! haha There's a bunch of people here that fish Longpoint but I'm not sure if any of them fish from shore.. hopefully somebody can help you out! Cheers, Ryan

the fish are still going to be on beds - it'll be a slaughter for those who don't care to take fish off their beds......NNNever mind... zone17 is way south of where I was last week! haha

My opinion is that it depends on who's absorbing the information. When I first shot a dropshot show with Dave for instance, I had never seen anyone fish a "pickeral" rig or any variation of the drop shot rig. If I used live bait it was on a jig head, or below a few split shots. So this was something completely new and interesting to me. To you it's just a small variation of a pickeral rig, to me it's a drop shot. After watching Dave smash smallies all day right infront of my eyes I was pretty well convinced that having the weight below the hook was something I should try. I didn't have any pencil weights or "dropshot" hooks. I also didn't have any bell sinkers and only a few tiny split shots that wouldn't be heavy enough. So I grabbed some "drop shot" weights and used wacky rig hooks that I already owned. Do you have to use specific "drop shot" weights? NO. You could use big giant split shots if you have them, or bell sinkers etc. Do I use specific drop shot weights? Yes, but only because it's pretty well one of three types of finess fishing techniques that I do and I don't have any use for bell sinkers or big split shots etc. Why wouldn't I use them? That's what they're made for, they don't cost any more if you shop around and they work great for me. As mentioned before, I use wacky rig hooks, because I truly believe that wacky rig hooks are better for wacky rigging which is also something I do often. So I buy one kind of hooks and use them for both styles of fishing. I don't see the need to buy specific drop-shot hooks for drop shotting. For somebody who's been using a "pickeral rig" for years and has bell sinkers and hooks they're comfortable with, why would they go out and buy specific drop shot stuff? Maybe said person desides they really love fishing a "dropshot" and when they run out of bell sinkers they pick up dropshot weights instead. Maybe a teenager watches somebody fishing a drop shot on TV and has never heard of the pickerel rig? To them it'd be something completely new to try out. They try it out using whatever hooks and weights they have and BLAM start catching some fish. Now they might want to pick up some drop-shot weights and hooks because that's a style of fishing that they might primarily use? Some people just LOVE having "the best of the best" and if they can afford it why not let them. They've likely worked hard to earn their money and if that's what they want to spend it on then who's to tell them they can't. That's not my style, I'd mix and match hooks and weights depending on what I fish for, and I frequently use the same rod for drop shotting, tube jig fishing and throwing a Senko. I say to each their own - and it should come down to common sense. If you see something on TV or in a magazine, jimmy rig the gear you already have and give it a shot. If this new technique works for you, then you can choose to keep jimmy riggin' your set up, or if you think it's something you're going to do often, you can buys specific weights and hooks. As for my experience - I've seen some pretty finicky bass and walleye caught on a dropshot that wouldn't eat anything else. So I don't think the hook being tied onto the main line is an issue at all. Providing of course that the line isn't 65lb test power pro! lol Aside from throwing crankbaits from time to time, my 6 year old and my 4 year old exclusively throw a drop shot. They catch just as many fish and almost never get snagged because the hook is off the bottom. Any parent who takes their little ones out fishing should learn to rig thier kids up with a dropshot... it'll save them a ton of headaches!!!!!!! anyways that's my rambling! Cheers, Ryan

my '04 Durango Hemi get's an amazing 14mpg on the highway towing nothing! lol I'm pretty jealous - congrats on the new ride!

awesome stuff Wayne!!!