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Actually guys, this really IS a good morning, infact it's a fabulous morning, cause today is the 43rd wedding anniversay for myself & my wonderful wife Diane. Life is good !!

Don't worry about the 25 years Brian, it'll just fly by..........well, maybe not

Mornin boyz Mike, we fished the St. Lawrence River east of Cornwall for a couple days last month and had we known you were working the area, you coulda joined us for few hours on your lunch break

Thanks everyone, it was indeed a great summer. I seldom take musky pictures anymore and post them here even less often so I'll not be making any fishing reports. I'll be fishing with Pete again Mike and will arrive early on the Saturday morning, so I'll see you & the rest of the gang then. Sorry Ron, but I'm done for the year up there, but will be back in May. Unfortunately, all my fishing trips this year messed up my plans for the meetings as I was away for the last 3 but will hopefully make up for it next year.

Howdy all My wife and I headed for our little hideaway in the Kawarthas early last May and we just got home last night after the best summer either of us have ever had. We spent the last 5 months just enjoying life, laying around being lazy and a fair amount of travelling. Infact, so far this season I've towed the new boat 2500 miles to different fishing locations. As usual, I spent 7 days at Lakair on the West Arm of Nippissing with the OFC gang in June, then Diane & I, along with our best friends of 35 years, went back up to Lakair again in July and rented a cabin for another week and had a fantastic time. In August, Diane & I along with 3 other couples rented 4 cabins at Memquisit Lodge, also on the West Arm and had another absolutely excellent week. Squid & I also fished Quinte in May, the Ottawa River in July and the St. Lawrence the beginning of October. I"ve had a great musky season so far, although I haven't landed any real bruiser yet this year, but we've still got a couple months to go yet. My one big project I had this summer was to put a roof over my deck at the lake and it turned out pretty good. I put louvered blinds all around so now when it rains we can stay outside and still enjoy the fresh air. I spent a huge amount of time in the new Skeeter and absolutely everything about it is excellent and I don't have a single complaint about anything. It handles big rough water with ease and the smooth ride of the fiberglass far exceeds any aluminum boat I've ever owned. The 150 HP Yamaha pushes the boat at 51 MPH (83 KPH) and the hydraulic steering is effortless, even at WOT. Sure is nice not have to content with steering tourque anymore. I'm also very impressed with the 60", 80 pound thrust Minnkota Fortrex bowmount. Even in strong winds it pulls the heavy boat with absolutely no problems. The huge amount of storage is excellent and the rod locker under the front deck easily holds all of my musky rods too which is a nice way of keeping everything outta the way but also very accesible when needed. It's also nice to finally have a boat where I can carry the big Frabil without it constantly being in the way. The disc brakes on the trailer making stopping on the road a breeze too. I'm sure glad I changed my preferrences and decided to go with the full windshield and standup, convertible top. I've spent farrrrrrr too many years freezing my butt and being soaked to the bone in my tillers & side consol boats. Now that my wife has retired, were gonna sell our home here in Toronto in the spring and buy a home in the country like we've always wanted. We've had trailers up near Lakefield since the early 70's and that's where were gonna move to. Anyways, that's enuff of my rambling, but I just wanted to stop by and say howdy and let my fishing buds know I'm back in town. I hafta admit though, it sure ISN'T good to be home in the city after laying around the lake all summer

Well, it's finally that beautiful time of year again, the van is packed and me & the Mrs are outta here tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. for our little hide-away in the Kawarthas and we won't be back home again till mid-October Nuthin for the 2 of us to do for the next 5 1/2 months but enjoy my new boat, plenty of musky fish'n, or just lay around under the shade trees and enjoy life. I'm going to Lakair for 7 days in June for the g2g and I'll see a bunch of you there, then a few of us have another 7 day Nippissing trip booked at a different location in August. There'll also be a couple more musky trips to both the Ottawa & St. Lawrence Rivers and where ever else the roads lead me. I'll probably have to come back to the Smoke a couple times taking care of business, but they'll just be quick trips and I'll head back north as fast as possible. I seldom take fish pictures anymore, but I always have my camera just incase. So have a great summer everyone and stay safe on the water and I'll see y'all in the fall

Hey Kevin, keep June 22nd open and we'll go put the 1st Nippissing musky in it

Thanks for that link doubleheader, it's some interesting stuff. I'm always extremely cautious whenever I'm breaking in a new motor of any kind and follow the instructions very carefully.

Thanks again folks !! Yup, Diane packed her job in permanentely last month Moe, so we'll be able to stay at the lake full time now. I told her the boat was her retirement present

Thanks boyz, I'm lookin forward to hitting the water with it. Ziki, the old boat has been sold brifishrgy, I only toll for muskies so I won't need the small motor and will stick with the 150

Nuthin worse than buying a new boat in February and not getting it till May, but the happy day finally arrived and I picked it up yesterday from Hastings Marine. They did an excellent job of rigging everything exactly the way I wanted it and the covers I ordered turned out fantastic. I kept my Globalmap 7200 GPS and one color Lowrance sonar from my old boat for the consol, plus bought another identical sonar for the bow. There's also a factory installed flasher in the dash board but I doubt if I'll ever use it. It was nice too cause the boat comes pre-rigged with a shoot thru hull transducer so I didn't have to worry about installing any skimmers on the back of the boat. Theres a couple temp sensors factory installed on the transom so that'll give me my temp readings I also ordered the new 62" Fortrex bowmount, a MinnKota onboard charger and went with a 13 3/4 X 19 Yamaha stainless prop. This is the mooring / travel cover And the full stand-up top The Fortrex And the SS I'm really happy with the new ride and hopefully everything works out as well as I hope. Diane and I are heading to the lake next Friday and we'll be gone till November so I'm gonna get lots of time to put it thru it's paces

VERY nice Fishnwire, unbelievably generous offer That's what it's all about !!

Can't say fer sure how deep they are right now Stoty, but in 2 weeks we'll be getting them anywhere freom 8-12', so that should be a good depth for you to try. Blue/clear/orange Long "A"s trolled about 100' back from the boat have always proved to work best for me after dark. The pickeral usually stay active till around 11 or 12 at night then shut right down.

VERY well said Dave

Stoty, long line 6" minnow baits close to shore after dark......then go collect your prizes

I actually kinda like the show for the fact that it's not all flash & spam like so many of the other fishing shows that are on to tube these days. Always seems to me to be sorta slow paced & easy going and more like a normal fishing trip than an infomercial.

Best of luck sonny and hopefully you have an excellent trip. Just be sure to leave a few in the Bay for those of us who won't be there for another 2 weeks yet.

Being as this will also be a long weekend, it could be a very tough drive with all the traffic for anybody trying to get up there on the Friday.

Make sure the wheel wrench for your car wheels will fit the lug nuts on your boat trailer wheels, because very often they don't, and you don't want to find that out when your sitting on the side of the hiway somewhere.

Gerry, it's a low angle ramp with cement patio stones leading into the water, then it's a firm dirt bottom once you get in the water, but you shouldn't have any problems. You might want to call Lakair early though.....like now..... and see if you can reserve a dock for your boat. If you read the start of this thread, you'll see where our mods have changed the normal date for this trip and now were gonna have to share the facilities with another large group of people, so docking space could be at a premium, if available at all. Our normal weekend was wide open, but now that we'll be there with the other group, things could be VERY crowded, unfortunately.

The Odyssee was excellent Brian, infact it gets better every year. A bunch of us met for breakfast at 7, then most of us stayed right thru until the show ended at 6 and then we closed the day out with supper and headed home about 8PM There were some excellent speakers, including Larry Ramsell, Bob Mehsikomer and Arron Shirley who all put on some really interesting seminars. There were many retailers there too and they had an incredible assortment of musky tackle, infact if you couldn't find a bait you were looking for, you probably didn't need it. Dale McNair was also there with the replica mount of the monster musky he got on the Larry last November and I hafta tell ya, the pictures of that brute don't even come close to showing just how big that fish really was. I spent a fair bit of time talking to Dale and we've made tentative plans to hook up this season and see if we can put a couple muskies in the boat together. If anybody has any interest in musky fishing at all, they should definetely take in the Odyssee when it comes back again in 2 years.

Get yourself some square vinyl eavestrough and cut it to the lengths you need and put them inside your bag. It makes for a decent tackle box for big lures.

That motor will work great for your boat Mike and this will show you how to hook up the 2 deep cycles for your 24 volt set-up. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...requestid=49312

Is that because you like old cheddar, or do you just wanna get fat ??

Might make it easier for folks to recommend an installer if you told us where you live Ontario's a pretty BIG place