Bitsmith2k

thanks for the great report! after a few trips of hating that lake, the last couple summers it's become a favourite of mine..

ya man.. after this weekend, i'm free most sundays.. lemme know

nice sean.. nice plastic lizard.. those things are great

wow.. i thought it was a joke.. really, who in their right mind would think blowing up the fish would be a solution? must be watching too much south park.. i'd love to get a video of their discussions about this..

congrats and good luck dude..

thanks for sharing.. that was awesome..

congrats on 18yrs... i'd kill for a place like that..

ya.. so if anyone's up there, go out to the end of the dock on cabin 9, look around 9 o'clock, jump in and swim that direction for a bit, and you should be able to get the top 1/2 of an ugly stick..

ya gerritt, no luck with the lure .. the black fury was definately the best thing in my box.. oh.. i didnt spend a lot of time at your spots but the one on the google map always had a couple boats there.. thanks for all the well wishes guys

my trick was to say that she can pick somewhere nice to go in the winter.. plus she loves being up north and outdoors..

lol.. ya.. that was idea.. i'm pretty tricky..

ooops.. thanks for that.. she wouldnt be impressed if she ever stumbled across the board..

Well sat. aug. 18th was the big day.. it took all of 30 minutes for fun mike to become: married mike.. after a year and a bit of planning, i couldn’t believe how fast that day went.. everything went off without a hitch, and a great party was had by all that night.. Here’s a shot of the blushing bride on her way to the church.. up early Sunday morning to take all the gifts and people from st. catharines, back up to Mississauga.. enough down time there to load the car with all the weeks supplies (minus the fish finder, which I realized was missing about 2 ½ hrs into the drive), then the drive to the west arm, and our place for the week at Welcome Lodge.. we arrived a little late, around 9:45, so there would be no fishing on Sunday evening.. well there should have been no fishing that evening.. we spent some time around the campfire.. after a whole whack of beers, I decided that I was going to toss my trusty salamander off the dock.. first cast and I get a hit, but no hookset…. I tried to cast back to the same spot, but due to my intoxication, the salamander found its way into a tree.. a couple really hard yanks, it comes loose, and the next thing I see is a nice splash about 15 feet off the dock.. I start reeling in and there’s no resistance.. take another look and the top ½ of my rod is missing (hence the splash off the dock)… I put the remainder of my rod on the dock and patiently walked back to the fire.. somehow the booze and the fact that I was up north neutralized the rage that would normally have ensued.. my wife couldn’t believe it.. after such a busy week, neither of us were inclined to get up very early the next day.. i did get out for an hour or two and managed a real small pike, not picture worthy.. and that was it.. the evening came and we decided to get out and try our luck.. at this time, I’d like to point out that my wife doesn’t fish with lures, just live bait, and she had never put a worm on the hook by herself… I’ll be damned, she sucked it up last week and baited all her own hooks.. I was impressed.. it didn’t take long before we were getting nibbles.. lots of these, all week on the worms and leeches.. And her first catch of the week Just as we’re getting ready to pack it in for the day, I get a couple really light taps on my line.. set the hook.. my rod bends over and the drag starts screaming.. I yell at her to “get the net, I probably have a big sheephead on!”.. she’d never seen a fish this big caught on a rod, in person before (that said, she really hasn’t been fishing a heck of a lot).. this guy left me with some nice pee and a generous offering of his dna on my leg.. i didn’t care, it was a PB for me (the scale was left at camp in another bag) she said it “has to be 10 lbs”… the only think I know, is that I haven’t caught one as big as this before.. Tuesday I got out for a few hours in the morning with no luck… had a nice smally on a senko until it jumped and spat my hook, and that was all the action I had on the water that day.. no worries.. it sure as heck beats being at the office.. in the afternoon I was messing around on the dock with a 5 of diamonds spoon, just casting the weeds.. and hooked into this: And this little guy jigging the pockets I could reach Weds evening we hit a spot that I figured would have some pickerels hanging around.. instead we get a lot of dinky perch, and my wife gets her first ever cat fish.. after telling her about the spines, she wanted nothing to do with holding it.. so I tried to get a decent shot: Thurs, was more of the usual, lots of dinks.. no one at the camp had got any pickerel, just a few pike.. talking to a couple of the guys, I had decided I was going to dedicate Friday to search of some pike in the shallower bays.. So Friday morning I rig my remaining, intact, rods: one with an xrap, one with #5 black fury, and one with that trusty 5 of diamonds spoon.. (ya it became trusty after I caught a single fish on it..) I didn’t need anything other than that black fury.. in about 2 hrs and my first three stops I must have nailed about a dozen fish.. and these guys (even the little ones, which they mostly were) were not messing around.. two fish I would normally toss back because they were so small, had pretty much completely swallowed my mepps, and were bleeding quite badly when I got it out.. So I head back to the dock for lunch, and the wife is a little upset I didn’t wake her up.. then she’s more upset when I show her the catch, not impressive by any means, but she’s mad she wasn’t there to catch any.. I promised to take her out that afternoon, but we need to leave the worms in the fridge.. We start out that afternoon trolling up the shore (past Lucky Strike Camp) with some spinner baits.. I was having a hard time with getting wrapped up in the weeds.. as I’m reeling in a bunch of salad, she says “ummm.. I think I have one!”.. my response: “ya.. it’s probably just weeds”.. I kill the motor, and turn around.. and I’ll be damned she’s got something decent on.. she fought him for about a minute, before she lost it.. I could only imagine what her heart felt like after losing it, because I was pretty disappointed.. we circled back around and trolled the same spot for a few passes, but couldn’t entice him to bite again.. We then hit the spot I had the most success at in the morning.. she’s still using the spinner bait, and I’m tossing the mepps.. .out of the corner of my eye, I see her duff a cast about 10 feet off the boat.. I giggle under my breath.. I turned a little for my next cast and she gets a decent hit (about 4 feet off the boat). .”Oh! I got one!”.. this little guy tried his hardest to get away, running under the boat.. now all hell is breaking loose, because I don’t want her to lose this guy.. “pull him out from under the boat!”; “I don’t want to break my line!”; “your not going to break it, just pull it out!” (thank god for 50lb power pro).. as soon as she got enough of him out from under the boat, I had him in the net… Her first pike.. she didn’t like the slime so it was gloves and a funny pic.. That was pretty much it, we headed back to camp in a bit of rain, with the feeling of vindication.. We saw this sign a little too soon in my books, and we’re looking forward to getting back up there yearly.. All and all, we had a great time.. although the fishing wasn’t the best, it was fantastic to get out of the city for an entire week.. Gerritt, you are right, this place is awesome.. gary and angela were great, and the cabin and boat was perfect.. I’d recommend it to anyone.. Here’s a parting shot of how most of the evenings were spent on the dock… Most evenings we just sat there taking it all in, listening to the loons, and keeping an eye out for a beaver that was looking for stringers tied to docks..

i was out at a buddys in niagara on the lake this past january.. had a lot of beers.. next morning when i sorted out where i was, and started gathering up my stuff, my phone was missing.. figured it was in my car.. not.. wasnt left in the cab, or the bar we were at.. so i figured some cabbie or barmaid stole it.. at the time i didnt have a land line, and all my contacts were on the phone, so i panick and go buy another cheap phone.. then i early april i get a call from my buddy in niagara, and he says a lady walkin up the road found my phone where a snow drift had previously had been.. he dried it out, and believe it or not the bloody thing worked.. still using it without problems..

sean, sorry to hear about the crappy boat.. we must have lucked out when we rented from there... nice work on the sunday though..

congrats! it would be cool if you got a nice OFC sticker and the first thing you do is walk up to the boat and slap it on.. especially if WFN is rolling the film

thanks! we'll have to do something to settle this 'big goof' dispute.. will do

we've rented from Goerski's before.. not bad for price and a nice clean boat..

gonna enjoy the last 'free' weekend of my life.. tying the knot next weekend.. but next sunday i'll be up at welcome lodge for a week.. i'll keep an eye out for you, so if you see a big goof, that you dont know, yelling at ya.. it'll probably be me..

i was up there last year.. spoke with a local on the liquor store and he told me that the fishing there wasnt as good as it had been.. he recommended Bright Lake.. didnt get a chance to fish either lake, our boat was in Basswood Lake.. sorry i couldnt be more help.. my soon to be father in law allways tells me about his brother catching a big laker off the dock at chiblow lake lodge... but that had to be around 30 yrs ago..

ya, i second the thanks.. definately gonna spend some time exploring next time i'm up there.. convincing the other guys to give up some golf for fishing might be the tough part..

i too would be interested.. i head up to point clark a few times a summer and wouldnt mind hunting out some pike or bass. its just that i'm up there with my buddies and our wives so i dont have a heck of a lot of time to explore..

nice job sean, sounds like an awesome time

welcome aboard.. i've had success on pigeon and stoney lakes using unweighted plastic salamanders, i'd imagine they'd produce in buckhorn as well..

great beer..