Victor

Hey Vic you comming out with us??

Unfortunately no... as much as I want to be out there, I'm 3 weeks away from finishing my undergrad and exams are coming up. The "put bait in swim, pick up book and study while I wait for a run" didn't work all that well last term lol! I purposely left my gear at home so I won't get tempted

Good luck to all who plan to attend!

Before to the regulation change you just can't fish in the Karwarthas before 4th Sat in Apr, or last Sat, don't remember which one.

I've got a great home for your frog if you get bored of it - can't promise you'd ever see it again

Mike, I think it's only fair for the froggy to eat about 50 more gupppies first, so maybe in a month or so ...

DSN froggy VS MJL arowana

haha

Leechman: I think dsn needs worms to feed his froggy .

DSN: Nice work, i started off with a tank similar to yours too, except that my dwarf frog was small and didn't eat fish. 2 Guppies a day, that's quite alot of food, is he growing really fast? And how did the ghost shrimp eggs turn out? I remember seeing my ghost shrimp bearing eggs in her belly as well but nothing ever happened ... I read on the internet that it's quite difficult to breed those.

I doubt that there are many people who purposely travel up to the Kawarthas this time of the year to target carp. Lakes up there takes a while to warm up and Carp doesn't feed actively under these water temps. I would think that people would rather fish places like hamilton or Lake O as it warms up much quicker, unless there's a warm water discharge somewhere up there, then you've hit gold . Or unless they already live up there, like yourself. Maybe you can give it a shot and let us know how the fishing is .

Try chumming a spot regularly and fish it, i'm sure they still gotta eat something .

I don't set the hook hard, I usually just give it a little tug and it's good. I was using heavier line for my rig and it was too big. I will be making some new ones tonight with some thinner mono.

I see. Good luck next time you head out and let us know how you do!

Thanks for the fish porn, keeps me sane

somehow i missed this post ... anyhow, glad to see you back with us Carole!

love the 2nd pic as well. That's amazing for a cell phone pic!

is there a chance that you're driving the hook too hard on the hookset and rips it out of their mouth? It happens sometimes ... I usually don't really set the hook if I know that my hook is sharp.

It was on the hook set.

Do you use a hair rig Dan?

nice to see some early season carp!

how did you lose those fish? was it on the hookset or mid-fight?

First time attending one of Dave's seminar for me and I really enjoyed it.

Here's one that I took.

i JUST talked to you yesterday and I swear you weren't thinking of getting one of these.

if you're not really picky on the action/feel/weight of the rod, go with the telescopic. I bought one used from Mikeh here on OFC for a really good price. I believe it's made by the Koreans ... 12', once it's packed down it's only about 2 feet long. It's stiff enough to fight big carp.

Try sending him a message and see if he still has any left. Back when I got mine he was selling 3, 2 x 12' and 1 that's 14. I got one of the 12'. I think he got it when he went to asia intending to use it for carp.

I've used IE, Firefox and Google Chrome ... and still have all 3 on my computer. I mainly use Chrome though.

holy crap lorne, you may be the first carper to ever give courtesy to the RBG.

I had this vision of you kicking back in a lawn chair with the sausages popping on the bbq while you sipped koolaid and pulled on a big ole stogey. Or is that Victor I'm thinking of?

 

JF

good times good times, can't wait till it warms up and i can get that bbq going again

Really enjoyed the read Mike ... i try to not think fishing too much during this time of the year, especially with all the school work ... but this sure got my blood going.

It sucks that I couldn't join you guys on the laker hunt this year, be sure to count me in for the next one though!

Nice shirt little guy

Oh, and a Happy Birthday!

that's a great way to start your "ice fishing career" ! congrats!

So, has Mrs.JohnF found your new toys yet?

You might already know this but I'll throw it out anyway, autofocus won't work with those older lens.

Probably not very many people would be interested but I want to try for some mighty st.lawrence carp at long sault.

Thanks everyone!

thanks for the report!

how hard did that cat pull?

Unfortunately I was using my carp rod, it did put up a fight but I find that they only go one direction lol!

Nice year in review post Victor, I have yet to get my first mirror carp. Did you catch any mirrors in the Grand river while you were here?

Didn't catch any out of the Grand, but i'm sure they are there...

Do you ice fish?

haven't really give it a serious try but I probably will this winter

Only 9 days left for the year of 2009 and I heard the tribs close to home are frozen, so I probably won't get another fishing trip in before the year ends. Geez I don't even have fish in my fish tank to toy with

This has been a great year for me, although I didn't catch any monsters, but I did learned a ton, caught some new species, bought many new toys, fished with many good friends and met new ones. Unlike MJL, I suck at writing so I'll just cut the crap and get to the pics

2009 started off with a number of early, cold, and unsuccessful trips to the eastern tribs ... I decided to mix things up and try my hand at some channel cats. Here's my first ever channel cat that came in @ 11lbs. Love this shot with the sun setting at the background.

I did keep on pursuing the steelies and I finally landed my first ever steelhead on the opener, also my first real fish on a centrepin.

May - August was my study term in Waterloo so I spent most of my time there. Although I didn't have a car I did manage to get out quite a bit thanks to Marko & Trevor. With them showing me around I caught my first ever Brookie and brown.

They're just beautiful.

I also caught my smallest pumpkinseed ever, coming in at about 3 inches (yes my hand is small lol)

Now, onto the Cyprinus Carpio. My PB was set at 26lbs 5oz 2 years ago and I have been very eager to beat it as 30s aren't that rare especially in hamilton. I couldn't achieve that goal in 09 but I did catch 3 fish that made me VERY happy. I have never caught a mirror carp before and I got 3 this year, with each one growing in size.

First, a baby one.

Then, it got alittle bigger at 12lbs.

And finally, a fully scaled 16lber.

Here's the biggest of the year for me, @ 23lbs.

I did catch some bass too lol.

In the fall, I landed my first ever salmon. (mad fun on the centrepin)

I didn't get out quite as much as I'd like to, especially for the salmon + fall crappie/walleye but it was a very productive and memorable year. Those overnighters were certainly unforgettable (intense, and super fun, but not so much when you need to drive home).

To cap it off, I'd like to thank Mike and Randy for being a great fishing buddies as always (giving me rides, advices and catching all my fish), thanks to Marko/Trevor for driving me around and showing me your 'hood', and to everybody who offered me any advices/help. I look forward to meet many more friends, catching more species and setting new PBs in 2010! I wish everybody a Merry Xmas, happy new year, and a fish-ful 2010! Oh and also, thank you to the OFC mods to maintaining this amazing place!

Victor