lew

Sorry to hear your not gonna be joining us this year Gary, your always a great addition to the group, but it's better to concentrate on getting your health back. I just hope Amy's not too upset about missing out on the trip, she enjoys it as much as anyone.

Absolutely true, start off doing something that you enjoy the 1st time and your entire career will be enjoyable. I spent 32 years doing what I liked and never once ever regretted a single day on the job. Of course I'm liking retirement a whole bunch more though

Thanks John and the very same to you, see you in a couple weeks.

Yeah, I know what your sayin Charles, were all addicted to fishin stuff. I've probably got 100 minnow baits for pickeral......and I fish for pickeral exactly 3 days a year. Oh well, I spose we could all spend our money foolishly on less fun things

You know your always welcome to join me Brian and you know where the boat is......just gimme a call anytime.

Actually Paul, that's a 14" Believer and you can take it off my hands for $40 As for the Plows, I'll sacrifice them to you for $80 a piece Sometimes I'm sooooooo envious of bass fishermen and their $6 baits

We used to fish for lakers in Simcoe many many moons ago, but back then we used short, very stiff rods, huge 1-1 reels and copper lines, so even the big fish came in like old rubber boots, sorta like a broken down car on the hook of a tow truck.. I haven't done too much salmon fishing but get out on Lake O the odd time with friends, and my biggest is only about 15 pounds, and although it took some work to get it to the net, I found it kinda strange to be using such long, very soft rods, and only about 17 pound mono and trying to get control of a strong fish. It seemed to me the gear was inadequate and made the fish seem stronger that it really was. I couldn't help but think that if I was using my musky gear with some backbone in the rod and some heavier Power Pro, the fish wouldn't be hard to handle at all. I've caught about a gazillion muskies over the years and have always been very impressed with their nasty attitude and just plain meaness, and nothing compares to their aggressiveness, specially when they hit right beside the boat and go insane, but if they were caught on long soft rods and light mono as used in salmon rigs, they'd take a heck of a lot longer to control also but that's just putting a huge amount of undue stress on the fish. I'm not saying salmon aren't a tough fish, as I know they are and I hate trying to compare one species against another, but I doubt they'd seem so tough if folks used heavier gear to control them. Sorta like going after 6 pound smallies with ultra lite tackle and lite mono line.......that fish will feel like a monster as compared to using heavier gear. Course this is only my 5 ¢ worth

Jeeez, I'm just getting all my musky gear together in the basement for this weekends opening and the pile seems to grow every year, even though I tell myself every year that I don't need anything else, yet I continue to buy I gave away, plus sold a bunch of stuff this year, yet I still seem to have more. This doesn't even count the 80 odd bucktails that spend the winter in the boat, or all the stuff stored at the trailer.....good thing I own a Safari van. Good luck to all youz other musky guys hitting the water this weekend.

You stand an excellent chance to win this year Joey , you just need to stick the hooks in the fish this time, rather than yerself

You should definetely plan on joining us next year FOTB, it's guaranteed to be one of your best trips of the year !!

Tony, any idea where those Jinkai thimbles in your picture can be purchased in the Toronto area ??

Here's a nice Lakair musky from last September TJ, but if you can buy me a bigger one in 3 weeks, well then, I'll gladly accept !!

I understand Jumla's are banned from the tourney this year.....

Actually, I'm a little bit surprised by the inaccuracies as I was under the impression that the XL-9 Great Lakes / Maritimes was a fairly new & accurate chip. Can I assume the depths shown, drop offs, ridges etc are accurate or can they also be off by 100' too ??...... Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the unit if it's not giving true info doesn't it

Thanks terry, that's sorta what I figured. Top left corner of my screen tells how accurate it's sposed to be, but on that particular island it has shown I'm as close as 15 feet to where it should be, yet it's sometimes way off. It could certainly pose some serious problems though if you were trying to find your way thru darkness or heavy fog and thought you were in the middle of a deep channel.........BUMP !!

Gas in Toronto dropped yesterday from $1.07 to $1.03 so y'all better gas up before the weekend when it's sure to rise again before we all hit the hiways........oh wait, that can't be true, our government tells us there's no price fixing.........ya, right !!

I recentely installed my 1st GPS unit.....Lowerance Global Map 7200c.....and have enjoyed experimenting with it and figuring out all the functions, well most of them anyways, but I find one thing puzzling. I'm using the Navionic Gold + XL9 and have been traveling all over the lakes and comparing my actual position to what it shows on the screen and for the most part, it's very very accurate, but at certain places it seems to be off by quite a bit, and the variance changes at different times of the day. One 500' long island in particular is confusing, it has a 30' wide channel at the north end and when I go thru it, the GPS shows exactly where I am, but when I come up the south side, it sometimes shows me hitting the end of the island or even going right over the island and is sometimes off by as much as 150' in that particular location. Another time I'll go past and it's accurate. Just about everything else is extremely accurate with the exception of a few marker buoys, but I think they get moved around anyways. I'm assuming this is just a fault with lining up the Satellites in certain locations, but is this sorta thing common with GPS units ?? I know last year on Cameron Lake we were using Robins GPS and that also showed some descepancies. I didn't have room on the dashboard for the unit because my Depth Finder sits there, so I mounted a bracket on the side of the console, then a RAM mount and it's working out beautifully. I drilled thru the side, inserted a plastic sleeve, then ran the wires. Surprisingly it doesn't interfere with anyone moving around the boat at all in that location, plus it'll be easier for my partner to see what's happening from his seat. The colors on the screen are excellent and I'm very happy I decided to spent the extra $$$$ and go with the larger 7" screen...next year I'll be upgrading the fish finders.

That's a beautiful lookin place Dutch, congrats on making the dream come true. I travel that shoreline frequentely going from Chemong, thru Upper Buck and into Pigeon, and it's a gorgeous location. I'll watch for you this summer when I'm in the area.

Jerkbait rods for musky fish'n I prefer to go shorter than normal and use a 6' 6" medium heavy St. Croix Premier with an Abu 7000 Big Game reel.....excellent set-up !!

I've used cable steer for years and have never ever had a single problem with them. When I bought my current boat it came with a MinnKota PD 55 so I figured I'd give it an honest chance but never really liked it. I found it too slow to turn and to be honest, the constant whining noise when it was turning drove me nuts. I also found it awkward to raise and lower compared to the rope pull on cable. After the 1st year, the circuit board for the foot control was pooched and Aikmens told me that was a common problem with the PD's so I dumped it and went back to cable steer. To be fair though, that was back in 2000, so maybe things have improved since then with the newer models Lotsa guys like the PD's, so I spose they have their good points, but it just wasn't for me. I prefer the KISS principle.

Good to hear your trip went so well Phil, inspite of the nasty weather. You got yerself some great fish, specially that last pike, that ones a real beaut !! Bring that Suick up here with you the next time we go after some muskies this summer, it's one of the best baits there is for them.

Marc Thorpe uses the spring protectors on his fluoro too Paul, seems to work pretty good for him.

This would be the fish'n trip your talkin about Dip, cold wet and miserable weather, but still an incredible time. Don't think I've ever fished in such heavy rain in my entire life and Ed & I often laughed about how wet it was and how it never let up the whole time we were there. I'll be continuing the Quinte tradition in Ed's honor next year and your always welcome Bud.

Once again folks, thank you all so very much for your kind comments. And Kevin, Ed truly enjoyed his time on the water with you last September and was looking forward to getting up there again this coming fall.

Thanks everyone for all your very kind words, both on this board, and the many e-mails and PM's I've received since yesterday. Ed certainly enjoyed his time as a member of OFC and was looking forward to posting many fishing reports from his new home in the Rideau Lakes region. He was an excellent angler, but was also a very accomplished golfer and enjoyed the game from the time he learned to play as a small child and continued with it his entire life. This is one of my favorite pictures of Ed and was taken on a southern U.S. golf course a couple years ago.....check out the aligator laying in the water just behind him. Thanks again everyone.