lew

I just had a look and you can see the shadow starting to move over the moon. It's a beautiful clear sky this morning and if your into this sorta thing, it'll be a good show.

Really nice finally hooking up with you in person after a couple years of PM's Matt, and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year when you return to Canada. Just one tiny dink landed this trip, but hopefully we can scare up a few bigger girls next time.

Thanks Pete, I know Ed would be happy with that dedication. It's always a good day when we hook up and your welcome back in my boat anytime, but maybe next trip I'll let YOU handle the net As for Dianes excellent roast beef & yorkshire puddings, now you know why I've hung onto the ole girl for 43 years

Beautiful job on the re-finishing Mike, very impressive work indeed !!

WTG JohnnyB, you had an excellent day !! Ya see, I told you yesterday not to let a little rain interfere with your fish'n plans

This subject comes up quite frequently around here and always brings up some interesting responses, infact alot of guys will actually cancel their fishing plans if the conditions aren't exactly the way they like them. The fish are still in the water, no matter what the conditions are, rain, snow, bluebird sky's, winds from different directions, hi pressure, lo pressure, it doesn't matter, their still there. If they aren't active and you can't catch them, it's time to change your strategy from what your currently doing. Either speed up your retrieve, or slow down, go to a bigger bait, or maybe go smaller, maybe even try deeper water or come in shallower, but don't give up on it. I've caught an awful lot of very nice fish when everybody figured the conditions were poor. Couple weeks back I fished with Meeley under what I consider tough conditions, bright blue sky's, very clear water and not a breath of wind. We changed up our game plan, switched over to deep diving cranks and put them down in the weeds and we boated 3 nice muskies in a couple hours. It sometimes just takes a few minor changes in your game plan when things seem tough and you'll often come out the winner. I'm fish'n for muskies with Squid tomorrow and their calling for rain and T-storms, then I'm hooking up with Mattyk on Sunday and it's sposed to be bluebird sky's and hot. We'll use some different game plans both days and see what happens, but at least we'll be giving it everything we've got and we'll see what happens. Fishing reports to follow on Monday........Maybe

I've never fished the Saugeen, so unfortunately I can't be on any assistance to you, but I did win this snazzy T-shirt in a contest one night. You'll just hafta ignore that strange lookin person standing beside me though

A bunch of us from this board spent last week fishing the West Arm of Nippissing. We all had decent fishing thru the week and the wind was constantly from the west. Sunday the wind turned a complete 180 and began blowing from the east for the 1st time all week and everyone had their best fishing success of the trip, with more fish boated than any other day. Draw your own conclusions

Good to hear you enjoyed your vacation Paul, Chemong is a favorite lake of mine and I spend alot of time fishing there.. Congrats to your daughter on her 1st musky too

That's a purdy fish Matt, but I was hoping you were gonna say you got her on a figure 8 You've also got a PM about fish'n this Sunday too

At the time of my retirement after 32 years on the job, I was receiving 6 weeks vacation. We also got 11 lieu days off to make up for the fact that we worked many of the stat holidays, yet never got payed overtime for them. I also was never payed extra for working overtime, but we could accumulate the time at the rate of 1 1/2 hours off for every 1 hour worked, and then take it off at our convenience. I had an excellent schedule though, in that we worked long hours...10 hour days & 14 hour nights....then got a bunch of days off in a row. I actually only worked 14 days a month, yet it still averaged out to 42 hours per week, before overtime. I could book 4 nights off work, put them in the middle of my regular days off and actually be gone for 2 weeks at a time. I still find my current schedule to be the most attractive of all the others I've ever worked over the years though, and think perhaps I'll stick with it

The pictures turned out great Phil. Always good spending time with you, and it was nice to meet PJ and hear he enjoyed his 1st ever camping trip in Canada. I dunno about you, but I'm ready to head north again right about now If you get back up this way before the snow fly's, you know where I'm at.

Have a great trip Dustin !! I remember your post from last year and hopefully this trip will be even better. I'll be looking forward to your report when you return.

Thanks again everyone, I awoke this morning still amazed at the generosity and kindness of so many members of this board, both my personal friends and also the many I have never had the pleasure of meeting.........yet. I figured I'd show you the original photograph which was taken several years ago on a cheap camera, and then the painting along side of it for comparison. I've been looking at the painting closely today and find the detail absolutely amazing, and Pam captured Ed exactly as he looked, which goes to show her talent as nothing really shows up that well in the photograph. You can even see the cooling water discharging from the pee-hole......unbelievable !! I'll be taking the painting to show my mother today and I know she'll be as moved and impressed as I am myself.

As many of you know, my brother & OFC member, Eddyk, passed away a couple months ago and it has hit me very hard. We were extremely close and it'll take me a long time to get over it. He was my closest friend and regular fishing partner for nearly 60 years. Joey & Paul stopped in tonight with one of the greatest gifts I've ever received in my life. With the assistance of a lot of members from OFC, they arrainged for our very own Pamala Dalaire to paint a portrait of Ed & I fishing together in my boat at Quinte. The painting was taken from a favorite photograph of mine and Pam did an absolute fantastic job on it, then it was placed in a beautiful frame, and was delivered to us tonight by Joey & Paul. I'm really at a loss for words and don't honestly know how to thank all you absolutely wonderful folks that make up this board. The generosity and kindness of OFC is always amazing whenever any of us need a helping hand. Thanks to Joey for her extreme thoughtfulness, the members of OFC who made it all possible and especially to Pam for doing such a wonderful job in capturing a favorite moment from my life. The picture will hang in a prominent place in my living room and will bring back wonderful memories of all the fabulous times I spent with my brother over the years. Joey took some pictures and will post them when she gets home, but it's getting late and it may not be till tomorrow morning. Thank you everyone VERY VERY much, you've made me an extremely happy man tonight !!!!

Thanks everyone, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the picctures. Are you gonna be joining us next year Mike ?? There are alot of rocks right at the surface or just under and many are invisible until it's too late if your going faster than you should be. Obviously the charts are only a guideline and caution should always prevail, but it does help to know where the deeper channels are around the hazards. Oh, and it also helps to keep your fingers crossed too

Not really any of my business Johnny B, but I'm just curious as to why you'd cancel a day of fish'n just because it's gonna rain. Some of my best days of catching have been on some of the most miserable days of weather. The day will be dull with probably a nice chop on the water and most of the other boaters will be at work, so you'll have the waters to yerself. Put on your rainsuit, preferably Gore-Tex, and go out and enjoy the day.

One day at work I came across a skunk in a live release trap at an abandoned house. I just slowly walked towards the animal, carefully opened the cage and he happily wandered off into the sunset. I always find it interesting that some people feel the need to kill every critter that crosses their path.

I fried my MotorGuide cable steer motor a couple months ago by accidentaly engaging the constant-on switch while throwing the boat cover on. The cover also sits on the prop and prevented it from turning and caused the motor to burn out. I now unplug the motor whenever I'm charging the batteries or covering the boat, thanks to a very good suggestion from Misfish. I just wish the advice had come $600 sooner

Wow, picture #3 is incredible and you really captured the power of the approaching storm !!!! Thanks for posting it. Oh yeah, and a nice feed of perch too

Hey Peter, us Hull Tech's NEVER made boo-boo's

Hi guys, I've been away fishing for the last 11 days or so and just got in today. I was up at my trailer for the 1st 5 days, then spent the next 6 days at Lakair (Nippissing) with a few OFNers and as always, we all had an excellent trip. The days were spent on the water and the evenings sitting around the campfires. Except for some very serious rains on Friday, the weather was excellent, although the winds were pretty strong on Thursday and were pushing up some nasty waves. Infact I was fishing by myself and actually put on my lifejacket just incase. MistyRiver and I headed out to WestBay on Friday in some beautiful weather but it soon turned into one of the nastiest storms I've ever encountered on the water, although it didn't last long and the sun was shining again before we got back to camp. It came up extremely fast over the horizon and this is what it looked like just before it hit us. We could see the rain heading for us and had time to get into our rainsuits, and just minutes later we wore the whole brunt of this storm with rain so heavy I had to keep my head almost inside the windshield and drive by the GPS track line in order to see where we were heading. The winds were ferocious and driving the tops off the waves, then the hail began and was coming down so hard at one point, the floor of the boat was nearly solid white and covered with pea sized ice pellets. It lasted about 15-20 minutes, then cleared as fast as it started and the sun was shining bright by the time we got back to camp about 8 miles away. Here's a shot of Whopper & Misty River early one morning bbefore breakfast And another of Whopper & his son PJ Saturday I invited Misty Jr. out for a day looking for muskies. I had one blow up on my Sledge just off a rocky point but never got him, but a little later on Corey hooked into this nice pike right beside the boat. Corey's young in years, but handles a fish'n pole as well as most of the men I fish with and it was a pleasure to spend the day on the water with him. Sunday I was joined by DEG and we had another great trip with about 8 pike and a couple decent bass in the boat, although we didn't take any pictures. I've known Don & Ruth for quite awhile but this was the 1st time we ever shared a boat together, although it certainly won't be the last. Before I headed north I bought a Hotmap chart for Nippissing for my GPS and it sure made life easier for getting around the many islands and submerged rocks that the area is so famous for. It's about my 6th or 7th trip up there now and I can honestly say it's the 1st time I've truly felt comfortable running around the rocks. All week long we had winds, often very strong at times, out of the west, and the fishing was decent, but Sunday morning the winds changed direction and started blowing from the east, and every one of us had our best fishing of the entire week. Let that be a lesson to any of you that believe the old wives tale that "fish bite the least when the wind blows from the east" Anyways, I didn't take many pics this time but it was an awesome trip to Lakair as usual with a bunch of great friends !!

Nuthin better than seeing the kids enjoying and learning about the great outdoors Thanks for the beautiful pictures !!

Congrats on the upcoming nuptuals Bitssmith2k, but If your marrying the right girl, your free weekends will never end. Were married 41 years this October, yet I still spend nearly as much time away fish'n & camping as I do at home........course maybe that's the way she like it BTW, I'll be in a green Crestliner with a black Merc motor

If it's the store in Woodstock your talkin about, here's the # 519-539-5494