The Urban Fisherman

Hey Gerritt, I've had three, Averie has had two, my son Luke has had 1 and our dog managed a bad infestation a couple of years ago. This has been over the course of the last 6 years that we've lived out by Longpoint and it's known for the odd case of lyme disease. So far so good - on a couple of occasions when the tick was inflated practically to the point of explosion the doc put us on antibiotics and eventually each test came back negative for Lyme. I'm sure it'll be all good but keep an eye on it and next time don't by shy to pop by the ER. You're not wasting anybody's time when it comes to your health or that of your loved ones! Doctors in our area are used to getting people in with Ticks and are fast and efficient with regards to removing them. Our taxes pay their wages for the most part so why not use them. Cheers, Ryan

Hey dude, you wouldn't happen to be on a Mac would you? I'm just wondering because that's the only way I can help you out with the photo sizes...

Awesome stuff! That almost looks like a bigmouth buffalo - much more of rare catch when compared to carp! Either way good stuff!

awesome stuff!! Those fish are way chunkier then my inland resident brownies! Thanks for the report.

awesome looking crappie! good job!

BEST report I've seen in a while! I have some of those exact same pictures - it won't be long before he's driving the boat... Averie's only 6 but it feels like yesterday that I was carying her around like that strapped to my chest.... keep up with taking pics because time flies! Thanks for the post!

good stuff!

I look forward to two outings every season, Trout opener and Bass opener. Last year I was lucky enough to smash some browns and bows with my buddy Will from OFC - we stumbled upon a new technique and I was eager to give it a shot again this year..... For nearly 360 days I planned it in my head, had all my gear ready to rock and was looking forward to putting a few good buddies onto some quality inland browns. Tom, Frank and Dan are my homeboys first but also help a great deal with the Fish-A-Thon ( The FAT ). They to were pumped to get out on the water... but then it happened.... 4 days before we were to hit the lake my wife pointed out to me that trout opener this year was in fact my sons 4th birthday! eeeesshh... For two long days I bit my nails, the boys were going to have to go at it without me. Then Thursday morning, Ginny wakes up in a good mood and says. "you know what, Luke won't even know the difference if you go fishing until mid-afternoon...go have fun with your buddies" BOOYAH! GAME ON! Friday night Claira and I did a little worm picking as back-up bait, which paid off as the bluegill and one feisty rainbow were all over them! We were all at the launch for 5:45 ( Thanks for the Tim Hortons Frank... I needed it ) It was still a little crispy outside and we were eager to get our rods in the water so off we went without a single photo. We had to contend with a few drunken losers on shore who were complaining that we were fishing "to close" to them, but regardless of that, it didn't take long to get our first bite. Right off the bait I was on the board with a nice brown and thought to myself.. this is going to me a slam fest... Turns out I was wrong... lol Being the courteous dudes we are, we stayed well back and away from where I really wanted to be fishing because of the drunken loser shore anglers who were wading out as deep as they could and casting as far as they could towards the boat. This meant we weren't exactly in the optimal position but none the less we did get a few more hits. Tom missed what could have likely been the biggest fish of the day, and 40 minutes after my first brown I hooked into another nice specimen... smaller then my first one but a great little fighter none the less.. Eventually we had enough of listening to the remarks from the guys on shore and went on our way down the lake to try a few more spots.... We hit up a panfish spot and had one of the craziest multi species panfish flurry's I've ever seen. We caught Crappie, Bluegill, Rock Bass, Perch and Pumpkinseed... I managed one bluegill picture but we were so pre-occupied with catching fish that we didn't any other photos... Here's Dano with a good gill... I think it measured out at about 17 inches and 9lbs.. you can tell by the photo.. Next up we were on the trout program again... Now I'm either lucky or just a bad guide... or both likely because I hooked into a good little bow that went balistic with jumps all over.... Thanks to Claira for helping me pick those worms because a full worm was the ticket.. Next up we decided to head back down the lake and Frank figured he'd troll for a while. After about 10 or 15 minutes of trolling Frank says the heck with this I'm going to cast for a while...Dan throws out a small jerkbait and about 30 seconds into the troll he smokes a pretty little brown! lol Back at our original spot we figured we'd give the bigger browns one last shot before hitting up some panfish and calling it a day.... Here comes that horseshoe again... We fished deeper, shallower right in the middle, and only managed to hook and lose one more fish so off to our second last spot for the day... it was a panfish spot that usually holds pre-spawn bluegill but Frank ended up with the only incidental catch of the day... a very respectible OOS largie... Quick picture... And back in the drink safe and sound... Last spot of the day, I told TOM - Listen buddy I should have taken photos when we were smashing crappie and bluegill but it was just to fun catching fish... so do me a favor and catch me a nice bluegill or something so we all have fish pics for my report.... Tom didn't dissapoint... he throws his float right into a fallen tree and pulls out a nice bluegill just like you would pull a big bass out of the wood with a flippin' stick.. After that it was time to get my butt home, cook dinner and spend some time with the boy for his birthday... Here's Luke enjoying his birthday with his big cousin Riley... not a worry in the world that Dad spent the morning on the water... Averie was happy to pose with some of our panfish for you guys... they were good eatin' boys - thank you! The excitement has come and gone but I had an AWESOME time out on the water with great friends and am looking forward to doing it again! Before you know it, it'll be bass opener, the lake will have the beginnings of thick green weeds and there's going to be a brood of tiny Canadian Geeze swimmin' around with momma... Thanks for the good times boys - and have a great week folks! Cheers, Ryan

Yeah, I'd post the pic of my rock bass and leave out the nice Rainbows and inceidental GIANT largemouth to! lol Good job buddy - I wish we were able to talk a little more - Glad you guys smashed some fish yesterday!

Hey guys, This is all great info - thanks so much for taking the time to help me out! I have to wait to pull the trigger on something until I talk with my bank... Even though I spent $1000 on gas for the Durango this month the bank doesn't see a "car payment". If I end up with a $160 a month payment for a used car that will save me money in the long run, it still might hurt me with regards to getting my mortage approved for the next house. I'll be saving money over all, but the bank doesn't see it that way. Until then I'll do some test driving! haha Thanks again! Ryan

awesome - maybe the hybrid isn't really necessary. I was looking up the specs and it really shines in the "city" but the HWY KMS are virtually the same on the hybrid and regular Escape. I live out in the country so %90 of my driving is 80 KM/h +.

really? You get an average of 25MPG out of that baby? That's amazing compared to my average of 12 to 13 mpg lol Do you mind me asking what year it is? I'm looking at 2008/2009's Thanks!

haha thanks - Dave is good to me though and it's my choice to live 3 hours away. It'd be more convinient for him if I lived closer, but we like it out here, my wife would prefer to be close to her family and for the prices of houses out that way I can get WWWAAAAYYYYYYY more for my money here... ie: I'm building a 4 bedroom house for $210,000 I thought about the two vehicle deal, but I don't want to chance buying a budget car and not make it to shoots because of break downs and such or if I have to make it to the airport in the middle of winter type thing I want the confidence of driving a 4WD vehicle in the snow out in the country. I load a fair bit of equipment into it as well so it has to be spacious enough for all my camera equipment. Also - my wife got into a fairly bad accident that's still on her insurance record so our insurance for 2 drivers on 2 vehicles (her being a primary on one) would be expensive for us. yep thirsty is an understatement to say the least lol I don't care for hte look of the explorer and the cherokee isn't much better on fuel.... I don't want to drive a minivan because I just don't want to drive a minivan haha and because I want 4WD - we live 30 minutes to the nearest large town and over an hour to the nearest cities. Sometimes we drive to Sudbury to visit family in the winter and I want 4WD or AWD for those occasions as well.

thanks dude - yeah I know the 4 bangers don't have a lot of "pulling power" but the boat launch is about 5 minutes from my door step and my boat is just a 15 foot jon boat which weighs next to nothing... Yep - ginny's working on that Wayne... she's the money cruncher of the family. Problem is that my employer's house is 3 hours from my door step and we usually leave for shoots from his place so that gets costly. Also, Ginny drives 30 minutes to the nearst larger towns for groceries, canadian tire stuff like that. Lastly, I think we're going to get enough money out of selling the Durango and the house sale to cover the $13,000 budget for the vehicle.... I spent $325 in gas in 4 days last week... it was brutal.

AMAZING! Good work!

awesome stuff Mike! Love the shots and videos of Brendan - maybe he'll have his own all steelhead fishing show some day! haha Cheers, Ryan

No worries Burtess - My daughter got 2 bucks even from the tooth fairy... and I thought that was high! lol

Same out this way - smaller lakes are high, ponds and creeks have all blown their banks and longpoint bay is lower then I've ever seen it!

Hey Guys, Starting to get sick of spending hundreds of dollars a month on fuel for the 5.7L Dodge Durango. I love driving it but the fuel economy is beyond terrible at around 12MPG lol. We purchased it mainly because at the time we needed 3 big bulky car seats to fit side by side and I'm not into driving a mini van. Now my oldest is in a booster seat which takes up no room, and the boy is in a smaller 5 point booster so I can easily down-size to any SUV out there. Living out in the country means I want 4WD or at the very least AWD and I want to get the most cost effective SUV out there with regards to fuel consumption. I put in a fair amount of mileage every summer. I like the look and size of the Ford Escape Hybrids and can afford 2008's with under 100,000K. My budget maxes out at about $13,000.00 or so. I'm just wondering if anone here has experience with the Hybrid version of this vehicle. My boat is small and light so launching and towing with a smaller 4cyl SUV isn't really a problem for me. Thanks folks - Much appreciated! Cheers, Ryan

Hey guys, Life is crazy - I don't get on here near as often as I'd like and because I rarely get to fish during fall and winter, I don't really post during my "off season". I will be getting out in the boat in the coming weeks though so I'm sure it won't be long before I'm posting some ice-out panfish reports! That being said, I came across this news story today and thought it was worth passing along. I know we have plenty of dog lovers on OFC and this hits home with regards to ice safety as well. There's so much bad news going around these days that I couldn't help but pass off a news story that has a happy ending for once. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/dog-helps-rescue-two-girls-from-icy-river-in-edmonton-1.1218989 Cheers, Ryan

Thanks Cliff!

Nice Brown!!! I have to wait until in-land trout opens up to target my fav. little browns... it can't come soon enough!

Not a chance for me! I did a complete, and I mean complete house reno.... right down to the studs - replaced insulation, drywall, kitchen, floors, interior doors, exterior doors, trim, garage, furnace, ac, you name it 3000 sq. feet of it.... and I'm NEVER ever doing it again. I've spent the last 5 years doing it on weekends and when I manage to save a bit of money for the next "phase". Now I'm selling the joint and paying a contractor to build us a new house from scratch. After that I'm spending my weekends and evenings with my kids on the lake!!!!! The launch is 850 meters from my future door step and I can't wait! Congrats on the awesome job though Gerritt - it looks great and is certainly something to be proud of!

Nice work buddy!

great post! Congrats!