Danubian

Live trapping works excellent, but only if you toss the trap in the nearby pond. Discard drowned raccoon and repeat trapping.

Awesome catches Mike, congratulations! I haven't had too much luck on catching "brownies" - perhaps the usual streams I fish don't hold many resident trout, or it's just me. I would like to try new places, scout in the unknown... If I can ask a favor, do you mind PM-ing me an approximate location tip? I'll reciprocate... Danubian

Hello everyone! I haven't posted anything in long time, because of me not fishing as much as I should and also for not carrying a camera with me. But yesterday I made a dent in all this, by putting my day off to a better use, so fishing gear in hand and camera in my pocket, at 8:30 am I was wetting my line. It's been an epic 5 hours, bugs tearing me a new one, but also constant action. I landed over 20 brookies and lost about 10 more -of course those were the largest... Most of the fish caught -and released to fight another angler- were small but such beautiful little jewels! The only insect that didn't draw blood. My little companions...

Eight or seven years back this "runoff water mgmt system" held many species, like: brown bullhead, sunfish, crappie, carp, perch and the odd bass. One spring it even has been stocked with rainbow trout, which didn't survive mainly because of overfishing, but also because the water cannot keep cool enough during the summer months. (Excepting the carp and bass, I caught there any of the fish species mentioned, and I have spotted the other 2.) Then something changed and there has been an invasion of "goldfish" - perhaps parents dumped their kids' neglected aquariums?... Anyhow, three years ago I spotted the first ones, and they were larger than my palm. Last time I fished there 2 years ago and the water was swarming with white and bright orange "koi" that were not taking any bait, and after an hour of so I caught only one sunfish - it was so tiny that it looked like "a day old". That was the signal that I am wasting my time and moved into other waters - after all, Credit River is just another 10 minutes away, and you can bring kids, never seen a CO and any pool holds enough chubs to keep kids busy in constant action. Where to? Churchville Park, Riverrun Park, Riverview Park, at the bottom of the hill in Rivergrove Park, Streetsville Park, etc, etc.

Mepps Aglia small size (#0 or #1) Panther Martins small size (#0..#2) Rooster Tail small size - this one used particularly in strong currents and reeled back in just under the water surface generates a "vroom" which seems to work very well for some trout species and completely deter others. I always used a snap swivel, although I know that is very "noisy" and the larger, wiser trout get spooked, but it offers the convenience of almost instantly replacing the lures. I didn't get less fish with it than without it, but I feel it in the guts that I get the smaller, "innocent" ones. (I know one particular pool where I consistently caught 5-6 inch brookies, although in occasions I seen a couple of large ones - 15-20 inch - and once I witnessed a gentleman than was flyfishing and caught a male brookie of at least 6 pounds if not larger.) I got rid of all the treble hooks from my lures and tied smaller single barbless hooks, using a small loop of 10lb test line, same loop and knot that is used for tying jigs. Always used ultra light gear and a 4lb test line. That makes even a quarter pounder feel as large as a bucketmouth . Technique question: do you cast upstream and let it go with the flow, or do you cast straight downstream and then just reel it back?

Just wondering...

I guess most of you recently learned a bit more details on how a nuclear reactor works, so you realize that is quite complicated -if not impossible- to adjust the electricity output in just one hour, just because 1 million light bulbs have been turned off - that's probably less than 1% of the electricity that the reactor/powerplant produces usually. For a gas or coal powered turbine, this is pretty much similar: one hour is nothing, even if we'll turn off all our appliances. For hydro, it's useless: hydro is green; the water will flow down the river anyway... So basically, turning off lights for just one hour has only a symbolic role - we're not gonna save the Planet. Not that way! I didn't observe the Earth Hour. Didn't need to, and I'm saving enough electricity in the summer by not using my A/C too often -last year I totaled 8 days of use- and being "green" [once in a while] by riding my bicycle to work - once or twice a week. Not to mention that I'm not a big fan of Christmas lights... Somehow, I imagine that during that hour the "smart guys" from the energy sector are just re-routing the power that is not used by the lightbulbs and sell it to some industry sector, so the pollution effect will be twofold: once the emissions for producing the electricity and once more for using that power in some industrial process, which more likely has a significant carbon footprint and possibly produces some byproducts bad for the environment. It's just common sense to assume that this is more likely to happen, since electricity cannot be stored efficiently; once is produced, it needs to be spent immediately. Just my 2c.

How about you store the cans into a cooler to keep them from freezing? The cooler is supposed to have a thermal insulation. Even better insulation if you dig a hole in the ground, pad the hole with some straws, put the cooler in the hole, then cover well the whole with some wood panel and/or planks. That will sure not freeze, unless your cottage is in the Arctic. Rust on cans: if is just some rust film that you can wipe away with your hand/rag its' OK, but if the cans are corroded, I would throw them away.

I live in a townhouse complex and last summer I had some younger neighbors which one late night started a fight on their front lawn. (There were 2 or 3 couples living together in that unit -probably rented- and one couple I guess was moving out, because they were throwing stuff out when the fight began.) He was wearing only a pair of shorts and was yelling, swearing at her, then punched her in the face a couple of times, then he started dragging her by her hair, finishing the round by kicking her in the ass or stomach. She was crying and asking for help. I called 911 and tried to explain the situation, but apparently the operator was more interested to establish my identity/location, although I told them that I need no help myself. Anyhow... As we were speaking, the guy started round 2 of beating up his wife/gf and the operator clearly heard the young woman crying for help. Now the operator asked about these guys address and I couldn't tell which unit number was, being in the opposite corner, but I mentioned that there is a lot of junk on their lawn an a moving van parked on the driveway. The operator said they will dispatch a unit and when I found that I was the only person calling in about the incident, I mentioned that I don't want the cops knocking at my door. I gave them my phone number and I said "call me and we can discreetly meet in my backyard, if you need a witness for your report". Call me a woos, but I had obvious reasons to do so... 20 minutes later -when everything was calm- a cops cruiser arrived, they drove by, couldn't figure the suspect's unit -obviously the junk and the van were still there- and they came straight up knocking to my door. I had to answer and indicated them where the incident took place, but they didn't bother to go and check. They said something like "call us again when they start fighting". Now I was wondering what's in the store for me in case the wifebeater figured I called the cops on them, but luckily they packed and moved the next day. I think that this was an exception having to deal with the only pair of the laziest cops I ever seen, but I am still shocked what a bunch of chickenass neighbors I have. How is it possible to hear and see all that "horror show" and still do nothing???

Prank me and I'll make sure you chew and swallow them one by one... and that's only if you can swim your way back to shore.

Beautiful fish! Indeed, it's been a great spring for brookies...

About 4 years ago I caught perch and the odd bass in the lake, fishing from shore . Also, a few springs ago I caught a few bass and one walleye below the dam, bust since both species were OOS, I moved away from the spot and caught nothing else. Shouldn't be also brook/brown trout in the river below the dam? I haven't been there recently.

Please be aware that if you go in the "black bear county", chances for a bear encounter are quite high on a stream/river during the sucker run. In particular, avoid the shallows.

Perhaps for most of them the two World Wars were just 2 little paragraphs in some odd history textbook, that they didn't read anyway. One comes to wonder how is this much different than the fact that more and more often the Christmas is being replaced by the "Winter Holidays"? Sad or not, it's a sure sign of our times...

I found that when using the rubber stops, I couldn't cast as far as I would be able to, when attaching a knot on the line to form a bobber stop. Danubian