lew

I live beside Clear Lake in the Kawarthas and often see Hercules aircraft from Trenton Air Base flying overhead but today they were MUCH lower than normal and almost seemed as if they were looking for something. Three different times they flew north to the top end of the lake, then turned around and flew south directly over my place to the south end, then turned north again for another pass. I had the impression maybe they were looking for a missing boat or something but didn't hear anything on the news. Anyways, I was able to get a few decent pictures from the backyard with my point & shoot for anyone that may be interested.

Truer words were never spoke Roy Fantastic day Bernie, enjoy what you have.

Congrats on the bonus musky Simon !!

Happy Canada Day for sure Terry No other place in the world I'd rather be

Wonderful news Dann and congrats to everyone !!

Dead center on top of the bait about 1 1/2" back from the large hook eye. Turn the bait over and point the nose down a bit and the rattles will roll right out. Then cover the hole with a bit of 5 minute epoxy, a dab of paint and your good to go. Dirty water, low light or when I'm trolling deep I like the rattles but clear water & bright days or trolling shallow I'll usually go with no rattles. Course the fish don't always follow the same strategy as me though

CTV reports that the boy driving the car is now paralyzed from the neck down.

Sunny hot & humid starting tomorrow though.

Without a doubt, the most dangerous part of the whole process of catching a musky is when your reach into the net to remove the hooks from the fish. They are extremely nasty and can move faster than you'll ever believe and if your not paying attention every second, she'll drive a hook into your hand before you can blink. Just be very careful and if you can cut the hooks or remove them with LONG nosed pliers from outside the net without lifting her, that's the way to go. If you need to get a grip on her, hold the gill plate on the opposite side of her jaw from the bait. Hooks are cheap and I'll normally always cut a hook unless it can be removed easily. If it's gonna be difficult at all, cut them off and put a new one on. Pulling those big trebles back out thru the hole it made going in can make a real mess out of her jaw. Once you get the hooks removed, take the bait out of the net and hang it over the side of the boat so it's completely out of your way. Not trying to scare you at all, but many very experienced musky anglers get hooked every year and it's not gonna be a nice experience at all. Just be careful, pay attention and don't be afraid to ask questions if your unsure of something.

I think if we all worried about all the articles we read we'd all worry our selves into an early grave. Just go out everyday and enjoy life to it's fullest, and I think that's some of the best medicine around. But then again, I'm no scientist

My #1 go-to bait is a 9" Grim Reaper that I start EVERY day with. Absolutely the best casting bait I've ever come across in close to 40 years of musky fishing. The fish never get bored with it and it boats me alot of fish every year. 2nd is the 9" weighted strawberry Sledge 3rd is an 8" Double "D" that I painted myself For trolling, my 2 best are the 10" black/yellow Believer and a 10" Jake in a sunfish pattern. I've got other baits that I use for deeper water but these are the 5 I normally start with. I've probably got at least 100 baits but these 5 see more water than all the others combined. I prefer to remove the rattles from some of my Believers for trolling clear water on bright days.

I don't fish for bass at all but every year I land a couple bigguns on musky baits, and the bigger the baits, the bigger the bass. Darned pesky green fish

My grandfather smoked un-filtered Players and drank 5-Star whiskey regularily until he died from old age at nearly 90. Course he fished almost every day until he died too so maybe that off-set the bad habits

Jakes & Believers are both excellent musky baits and range is size from about 6" right up to 13". Primarily trolling baits but both work well as crank or twitch baits too. A 10" Believer is also an incredible musky lure when moved very slowly across the surface late at night. Bumble Bee is my personal favorite for Believers and the Jake colour is something that looks like a sunfish pattern. Lots of other colours work well though.

F_ast, Bridgenorth Tackle is the same place I was referring to above that said they can no longer get the Sledges. Good little tackle shop with a decent selection of stuff and nice folks to deal with.

I fished the shallow weed flats south of Gannons on opening day and got a musky in the 1st 15 minutes on a large black/orange spinnerbait, but then an electrical storm moved in so we called it a day. I'd suggest now though with the warmer waters to fish a bit deeper in the northern part in the heavier weeds and you should do OK for muskies with big spinnerbaits. No idea on the pickeral though.

I've been cutting & stacking firewood all day Moe, so even though you only caught one dink perch I'm sure you had more fun to-day than I'm having Good to hear you & Steve had an enjoyable day !!

You may be outta luck with the Sledge Mike, I just phoned the shop near P'Boro where I've bought them before but he says his supplier told him their no longer available. Maybe try LeB's in Markham, Tightlines in Pickering or the store in Hamilton....is it Fishing World ?? I know they all carry a limited supply of musky baits.

Thanks for another suggestion Firecat, I've used those Quick-cuts before and their definetely a great tool and may work well for me. I'm gonna be cutting wood today but it's something I'll think about for sure.

And besides that monster bottle of hooch Brian, there's also 2 cases of beer sitting here, and I don't drink. Maybe the makins of an OFC g2g ??

You could have a point there Brian

Your gonna save alot more $$$$ on lures than you payed for those leaders Brian I already considered the truck and come-along Bob but I'd have to drive across 200' of lawns to get to the rock pile, which I'd rather not do, and then I'd have to drive right thru the middle of the wife's veggie garden and if I did that, I'd be moving into the garage...permanentely

Good to have you aboard Betty !!

Thanks Guy, some good info there. Doesn't show up too well in the photo's but most of the rocks have very pronounced veins running thru them so I'll start the cuts there. I also saw that liquid promoted on one of the DIY shows and it looks like a pretty slick product. I'm busy for the next couple days but then I'll go rent the hammer and see what happens. Can't be too expensive for a day or 2 and if it doesn't work I'm not out too much and I'll move on to "Plan B".....a big pile of top soil to bury the rocks

You've got some answers to your PM ...and don't forget your camera