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Dang, you sure do live a wonderful life

What an absolute great fish'n tale, and thanks for taking us along for the ride !! That pike is a definate trophy and most of us will only ever dream of catching one as big. Incredible trip !!

I was cruising around the lakes a bit this weeking having a look at things and noticed a definate absence of weeds that are normally well started by this time of year, but alot of the shallow water pencil reeds in the sand are doing well, so that's where I'll be heading to start the day. I'll be on the water about 4:30 AM and will be throwing large spinner baits waaaaay back into the reeds and working them back to the boat. Once it gets light enuff to see what I'm doing, I'll switch over to a bucktail if the spinnerbaits haven't produced. I'll work all the very shallow spots....under 4'.....until the sun gets high & bright, then I'll start working the deeper water with jerks and see what happens, then switch up depending on the conditions. My best day ever was opening day 2001 when I boated 9 muskies in 2 1/2 hours including a fish on the very 1st cast of the season. They all came on a yellow bucktail with a chartreuse blade in shallow water over sand. Days like that don't happen often, but they're alot of fun when they do Best of luck to everyone who's lookin to get slimed this Saturday !!

WOW, there's the understatement of the year I've had the pleasure of fishing with Beans a few times myself and we always had a great time together.......course I always kept him INSIDE the boat Good to hear everything turned out good for you boyz and the story had a happy ending.

Please be vewy vewy quiet when you come in late Friday night Roy, some of need to get up at Lew o'clock for the musky opener

Thanks for that link Roy, it's gonna make for some interesting reading, and who knows, I may have some relations in those old pictures. This is one of the sentences in the history text, so I guess the old Lumb House is one of the hotels they're referring too. ++++It was a modest town, a collection of frame houses, three churches, a couple of hotels, a Mechanics Institute, and a two-room public school. ++++ I'm gonna send that old picture to them and perhaps they'll add it to their collection. And thanks for the interesting story Gerry, I always enjoyed Mel's singing. I may just make an efffort to get up there this summer.

Thanks folks, I've never been to Chapleau but have always wanted to head up there and see where it all began......maybe this will be the year. It'd be nice to know exactly where that old hotel stood but that may be impossible to ever know. I'm thinking of sending this pic to the Chapleau Chamber of Commerce, perhaps they may even have something on the history of it in the archives.

This is the oldest picture in my family and it just came back into my possesion yesterday after many years and I thought a few may find it interesting. My grandparents emmigrated to Canada seperately about 1895, met up and married, then moved to Chapleau in northern Ontario and got jobs working as cooks in the lumber camps of the day. In 1900, they built this hotel in Chapleau and as you can see on the signs, they offer board & rooms, a pool table, cigars & softdrinks, plus the barber pole beside the door so I spose they cut hair too. That's my grandfather standing, wearing the white shirt and my grandmother sitting in the chair holding a baby, who became my Aunt Mable (Moms sister) In the winter of 1902, the hotel caught fire while everyone slept up stairs. My grandparents threw the babies out the upstairs window into the snow drifts, then jumped out after them, along with the guests and everyone survived although the hotel burned to the ground and they lost absolutely everything they owned. They went back to working in the lumber camps for several more years, then packed up and moved to the little village of Killaloe in the Ottawa Valley where my mom was born on 1923. My grandfather died in 1950 and Gramma in the 70's, but they were tough old folks and I'm proud to say I come from such good stock Anyways, that's just a bit of my family history I though some may find interesting.

Cliff, I bought this one about 4 years ago and have only used it a few times so it's still like new and if you want it, it's yours, just PM me your address. I think it's 34" wide and I also made up a float on a rope to keep it on the surface if you loose it for whatever reason. It's just sitting in the boat collecting dust if you can put it to good use.. I'll be back from the lake on Sunday and can have it in the mail to you Monday morning.

As Roy says RG, no need to over tighten or you could cut into the fluoro. I like to crimp in the middle and leave the ends sorta bugled out and that will help prevent the ends from cutting the fluoro too. I also like to melt the end of the line and form a little ball to help prevent the line from slipping thru the crimp if anything happens and you don't get it tight enough. Here's a pic to give you an idea, and that's not rust on the metal, just the way the light is hitting it.

It's a bit more of a drive for you, but what about Fishmaster Charters over in Dunnville......I think that's where he is. He's got a big boat and is always putting his clients on huge fish.

Are they gonna get you fixed up in time for the 7th Dax ??

You got my reply to your excellent story over in that other happy place Phil

I'm afraid I have to admit to being a bit confused ....... You take a couple guys out for a boat ride somewhere and for no apparent reason the beat you up, so rather than going straight to the police to file a complaint, you join a fishing website and tell your tale to a bunch of total strangers

Mike, as I suggested in my 1st response it could possibly have been caused by one of the lake freighters crossing the lake. They can push up some very large waves that could easily flip a 19 footer from a long ways away and not even know it happened. I had a boat tied to the dock in Adolphus Reach at Quinte several years ago and it was swamped by the frieghter that supplies the cement factory in Picton Bay. Just a thought......

Jim Saric from Musky Hunter Just a straight up fisherman with no unwanted glitz or foolishness like so many of todays shows. Izumi is 2nd followed by Al Linder.

There's alot of very large lake freighters crossing St. Clair and they can throw off huge waves that could easily swamp a 19' boat. A 19 footer is large as far as inland fishing boats go, but it's only a speck on the water when put up beside a ship that's displacing 10 or 20,000 tons Very sad news indeed.

I can't help you with the Montreal River chet, but I CAN tell you there's a great little boat dealer in Elk Lake if you happen to have any motor problems up that way. We were fishing near Gowganda about 10 years back and I'd borrowed a friends very old electric troll motor for our trip and I busted the prop off on the 1st day. I figured I was outta luck, cause surley nobody would have parts for an ancient motor way up there in the boonies, but someone suggested the guy in Elk Lake may have something. We made the drive into town, located the dealer and told him what I need. He went into the back room and came back out with EXACTLY the prop I needed My fish'n trip was saved by a very friendly & helpful guy and I only wish I could remember the name of the dealership so I could give him a free plug, but he was the only boat place in town, infact for many miles around, so he'll be easy to find if you need anything. Best of luck on your trip.

Congrats to your boys Jen, that's a couple awesome fish for them and their smiles tell the whole story. It's great to see them be able to tangle with big fish at such a young age and they'll have the pictures and memories for a lifetime. I was looking for some info here a few months ago on a new style of fishing I was gonna try and Steve went out of his way to offer me what I needed to know.

I spend ALOT of time fish'n for muskies after dark and I like to be in shallow water, less than 4 feet deep and within casting distance of shore. The bottom will be sand with some sparce weeds scattered around, but the area will be surrounded by cabbage and a drop-off to deeper water will be clsoe-by. There'll also be some rocks jutting out into the water from some small points and the big girls will be cruising the area in seach of a late night snack. It'll be 10:30 at night with no wind, the moon & stars will be shining and I'll be the only boat on the water cause everybody called it a day when the sun went down and are now at home watching TV. The only sound will be my 10" jointed Believer slowly click, click, clicking across the surface. It'll be too dark to see it happen, but the water will explode, my fish'n pole will double over and I'll be in my glory for the next few minutes and wondering why the heck everybody else is in their cottages watching the idiot box while I'm on the lake having soooooooooo much fun all by myself The fish in my avatar is just one of countless muskies taken at night over the years while everybody else has wimped out and are sitting at home wondering what to do next. And THAT, Musky or Specks, is the structure that get's my mojo goin C'mon June 7th

Me either Raf, I subscribe to one but the last 3 issues are still sitting here un-read. I think they're going the way of the TV fishing shows in that there's only so many ways you can describe catching a fish and after awhile every article starts to sound like the last one.

Lookin good there Dawg !! Guess you'll be trying a few of those on the West Arm in a couple weeks ??

Good to hear your doing so well on the Bay as always David. I was looking for you up in the flats at the east end on the 18th, but they're were a ton of boats up there. We did real well over by Glenn after dark trolling minnow baits with the biggest pickeral coming in at 10 pounds. She's still there too

Here's a pic of the Doc's Bill, you can get them at JB's and I think maybe BPS carries them too. Alot of top waters are too light and when a musky comes up from beneath them, they just knock them outta the way before they can grab them. The Docs have a bit of weight to them and the hook-up ratio is better than many others. They've also got rattles which I like as I think it helps to attract the fish in dirty or dark waters. You'll like that Believer on top too, just clip it on the shallow setting and crank it slow.

Thanks Clive, those pics are excellent, specially the one with you holding the baby in the air.