LipDip

Lake of The Woods?

That's a tough blow, Lew. I had the pleasure of spending a long wknd on BOQ with the two brothers and that still is one of the best trips I've ever had. Ed and Lew are actually very, very much alike, easy to tell that they were brothers and close ones. Always quick with a laugh, always positive, totally at home in the outdoors (that was pretty apparent watching them fish that area of BOQ for three days). Ed was a master over that campstove/fire too. Spahghetti and meatballs with garlic bread was one of the best meals he did up....4 or 5 of us under a tarp they'd set up in a 3 day downpour and thoroughly enjoying the whole thing. An energetic and upbeat guy who will be missed by anyone and everyone he met, me included. What a great sample of pics Lew, you captured the man to a tee, excatly as I remember him, that's for sure. Hang in there Lew, we're all pulling for you.

Snuck up last night and jigged from 5:15pm until 9:30. Blackflies were out and biting, so were the mosquitos. Surface temp is up exactly ten degrees, to seventy from sixty a week ago. Cleaned 16 crappies, only one cigar walleye. Everything was in 18 to 28 feet, on the bottom, couple crappies in the 12" range, mostly 9's and 10's.

All I know is the the last three days up there the walleye, crappie and pike bites were a lot more frequent than the bugs. If the fish are biting , do bugs really matter? I'll be missing the easy fishin' in May come July and August, bugs = part of the deal. Surface temps inland are 60 even everywhere we went, pushing that in spots on the bay, but still plenty of high 50's. There was a good hatch of mosquitos over the wknd also. Fish are biting well, this wknd is going to be really good. Sneaking up tomorrow afternoon to jig for a few hours. Bugs are like snorers..............listening to the complainers far outweights the original issues in both cases.

A 24 inch pike won't hesitate to smack a thirteen inch minnowbait, fifteen inch bucktail or baits even larger. 38 incher two weeks ago ate a five inch bass lure, 43"er last fall took a little ten inch crankbait. They're opportunistic, best bait's the one that you like using and the one that winds up in the right place at the right time. Nine inch Suicks, 1 1/8 ounce JSM's and quarter ounce jig+twisters are really tiny lures compared to what pike are capable of eating and the size of some of their preferred feed. Watch the fish that come out of NW ONT on those three lures in the next 10 to 14 days from board members fishing up that way. Hooking %age is a major draw back I've always seen with huge baits, dead, live or artificial. And lots of suspended pike are eating stuff that weighs over a pound lots of the time, big baits, medium baits, small baits, put it down main street and they might crack it. Lots of huge, huge fish right now are on smelts five to seven inches in length. If it can be put into the zone where they're at, I think they're a lot less picky about colour, profile or size than we like to think they are. Huge fish taken every season on baits big and tiny. 3.5" twister or spinner rig will catch as many big fish right now as anything on a lot of water. Give 'em hell.

Those aren't from a 'spring's' worth Raf....those were two weekends, remember?! One in April and two weeks ago for pike opener. Four days fishin (Sunday's always a half-day, too). On the trip with HipTrip, 350 pics were shot on three cameras. There have been a few pics left out ha ha. Look out walleye this wknd! Really notice a difference in Raf's/Ben's cameras vs. mine too, no contest in terms of photo quality.

The real question is how much time are you willing to invest (read: waste) travelling. Money also. Twenty pounders come out of Lake Simcoe regularly. I've caught five over 25# and two over 30# withing 75 minutes of Toronto. Finding lakes with the capacity to grow them isn't as hard as timing them in this part of the country. Simcoe, Nipissing, S Gbay, E GBay, North Channel GBay, hundreds of lakes along Hwy 11, 69 and 124 have pike over twenty pounds to their name. An OFNer's gonna get one that size with the TO city skyline in the background this month, I can almost guarantee it. I think there's plenty of them closer to home and cheaper than most realize. You might not be fishing a fly-in and might have to work a little, but there's no shame in that. Quinte's got them. Muskokas, Chandos, the list is endless. You can drive to all of them and be home the same day if you want. Not that expensive travel or outfitted trips are a waste at all, just maybe start with what you have at your immediate disposal. If the lawnmower won't start, check that there's gas in it before ripping out the engine. Hope you nail one and get a good pic!

Not sure anything in that lake's open right now bud. Lakers might be. You can always say perch, but the tackle better match if a CO comes a long. We've been checked twice now on the Bay this spring, doubt they'd be inland, but the possibility is always there.

Most years inland pike/walleye is 3rd Saturday.

Bad deal. Agree 100% that 5am wasn't the best time for a maiden voyage, too. My money's on your plug....yes you checked that it was IN, but there are styles of plugs that will leak freely even when they're in. The flip-up style seals pretty tightly. The screw-style with the little T handle is trickier. My Lund has the latter, and is actually missing the nut off the end. It needs to be hand tightened, inserted and then tightened using the T handle as a final step. If I put the plug in loose, it will leak. If I check the tightness, insert it and then re-tighten, the boat stays drier than a popcorn fart for months in the water on end. I'd bet it was something very simple, most accidents are. That's a lot of water that came in in four hours....something leaked and leaked real fast. I'm almost certain you had to have been taking on water while you were out fishing as fast as you were while moored overnight. Javex and urinal soap pucks in the compartments will help clean-up, and leave all storage boxes open indefinitely, try to keep covering the boat to a bare minimum. Good luck and hope you get back in business soon.

If a spot is SO distinct + recognizable that it can be ID'd simply by people viewing an internet picture, it probably isn't that big of a secret to begin with lol.

Read Raf's post again. Have the sender mark the box 'Happy Birthday' or 'Warranty Repair---No Charge.' You might get charged a bit for the actual shipping weight but there will be no Duty and marked otherwise, stuff can spend WEEKS at the border. This is a cheap and fast way to do it. A big, heavy reel like a Garcia 7000 will cost about twelve bucks US to ship. By the time you pay for a Money Order (my bank gives me 12 free a year), convert your money and pay to send it down, more often than not you're no further ahead. Shoppers Drug Mart is a decent one-stop deal, get your MO and send all in one shot. Cherry deals or hard to find stuff are all I send $ by mail for. Unless its a steal or its rare, I'll usually pass. There are some incredible deals from private sellers out there. One man's trash=anoher man's treasure. Amazing what people are willing to buy and sell for.

The market for stuff like this never shrinks or disapears. People are always willing to buy it and use it. I catch just as many fish with the $185 Fishmark as with the $1000 x15 and sometimes with no graph at all. Don't confuse price, features, demand or hype with the actual need for something. It's an easy mistake to make.

Your stat sheet is that weak that you need to show pics of fish caught before their season opened?! No pics of nice ones when the season is open or that were caught on purpose?! If you're THAT hard up for a little fame, maybe watch the photo background for trees or snow etc and wait until the season's open to post. White lie. Don't be surprised when guys call you on it, you assume the risk by uploading and posting. If it's that big of a thrill to catch a fish out of season, maybe just hang the pic in your home instead on on the internet. Class move MoB, and the report was good! Personal decisions have always done a lot more than any law or law maker ever will.