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Looks like Mother Nature still wants to show us who's the boss around here. Sposed to be getting around 4 inches of snow Wednesday night and into Thursday in the Toronto area and varying amounts everywhere else. Doncha just luv springtime in Ontario ??

A couple real beauts there CC, that's what it's all about !!

An old friend of mine owns Havelock Taxidermy and has been in the business for 20 odd years and does very nice work. He did this one for me about 10 years ago and it still looks as good today. I would never normally keep a large fish like this but the bait snagged her gills and she bled out and died, so I figured she would make a nice mount and had it done. Havelock isn't too far north of you so it's something to keep in mind. http://www.havelocktaxidermy.com

Thanks for taking the time to show us those paintings FOTB, they're truely excellent !! You dad certainly knew how to capture Mother Nature in all her glory !!

We'll be meeting for breakfast at 7:00 at the Golden Griddle, just off the QEW in St. Catherines I think it's the 1st cut off from the QEW after Ontario St, right at Lake St.

Yeah I remember all that stuff Bob and also remember the day the milk man was stopped in front of our house and a car went by and backfired and scared the daylights outta the horse. He took off down the street pulling the milk wagon and when he turned a corner the wagon rolled over and spilled everything all over the road Our 1st TV around 1950 had about an 8" screen and somebody came out with a way to make it a color set......it was a piece of colored plastic that you hung over the screen, but sure didn't work too well Don't know how, but I still remember our phone # from back then.....RI....verdale 3331 I bought my 1st pack of smokes in 1960....Parlaiments for 39 ¢ Who had a transistor radio when you were a kid in the late 50's ?? Once you were able to afford the best available, a radio with 10 transistors, you were the king of the neighborhood and you'd reached the BIG TIMES. You were the one everybody hung around cause you got the best sound from CHUM Canvas running shoes, ducktailed hair cuts, tucking your smokes into the sleeve of your T-shirts, hockey cards fastened to the spoke on your bike so it sounded like a motor cycle, thinking you'd won the lottery if you got a green "American" coke bottle from the vending maching........ Playing King of the Castle & cops and robbers & cowboys and indians. The cowboys always won because political correctness hadn't been invented yet. Every kid in the neighborhood wore a gun on his hip and as far as I know, none of us grew up to be murderers I took my drivers test in a 1955 Austin A-35 and for turn signals, you turned a manual switch on the dash board and lighted plastic arms would flip out from the side of the car. I pretty nearly failed my test cause the guy giving it to me had never seen those before Great times back then !!!!!

Yeah, you & me Pete, or did you forget already ??

Hi guys, as usual, plenty of great info here. Just to clarify though, I've been fishing for springtime pickeral in Quinte for decades and we always do well, specially at night. We head out around 8:00 Pm and stay on the water until the bite stops. Our night time trolling is done down around the Glenora Ferry area. The night trips are all flat lining with body baits in shallow waters close to shore Daytime hours we normally head up into Hay Bay and cast deep divers down into and around the weed edges and again usually do quite well. We also do well trolling harnesses in Hay Bay in the daytime. Jigging is something that I have no interest in at all and much prefer either casting or trolling and am just looking for a few alternatives and figured either the dipseys or boards would be something interesting to try. I'm probably gonna go with both set-ups and see what happens. I always enjoy our spring pickeral trips to Quinte, but for me, pickeral is only a filler till musky opens in early June, then all the pickeral gear is back in the basement till next May to collect dust. This has been an excellent thread and I'm sure alot of folks have both benefitted from and learned from it.....great stuff as always guys

Your stories are always great to read Joey and you guys got some beautiful fish despite the nasty weather But could you please explain boinging, I'm not sure if I've ever experienced anything quite like that just before a fish strikes

Yup !!

Heard this on the news this morning that they were killed in Afghanastan yesterday. Sure hope they get all that trouble over there straightened out soon

WTG Rick, that's good stuff !!

I'm with fishdawg on this one, who the heck cares if they make glass boats or not. I'm sure the folks in charge of Lund have put alot of thought into the decision and if anybody wants to order one, go right ahead, and if you don't want a glass boat, then don't order one. It's just another boat.

Thanks Tom, that was an excellent read, I always enjoy your stories from up there I dunno how the heck you can concentrate on fish'n though with all those butterflies flying around

Many years ago my grandparents had a waterfront home on the west side of Simcoe, a couple miles south of the Narrows. We were up there one spring day when a strong wind from the south east started pushing the ice towards their shoreline. They were lucky and didn't sustain any damage, but many other places with boathouses and the like suffered alot of damage as we stood watching the ice moving like a glacier and not a thing in the world could stop it. Not many things in this world can change Mother Nature's mind once she decides to do something.

WOW, what a mess, is that the marina just north of your place Cliff where I launched my boat ?? Sure hope those folks get fixed up before the boating season starts.

OK thanks Fishmaster, I think I'll grab a spool of Stealth and go with that and yes, I'll be using it on a line counter reel and 8' medium TDR

Alot of folks seem to think this sort of thing only happens in big cities, but unfortunately it's a problem everwhere. In this particular spot where I took the pictures, there is an annual clean-up by volunteers every spring, but the trouble is, it looks really nice for a few weeks, and then it starts all over again, and by summer it's right back to where it was. I'm down there at least twice every day with Marvin and some days it's 3 times, and I'm constantly picking stuff up and throwing it into the garbage cans that are along the trails, but I often feel like I'm the only one that ever does it

Fishmaster, I've got an extra musky reel sitting here that I don't use anymore and it's spooled with 65 pound Power Pro, which has a diameter equal to 16 pound mono. I was thinking of taking that line and putting it on the reel I plan to use for the dipsey, or is that line too heavy ?? If so, what would you suggest ??

For anybody not familiar with Toronto, it's a massive city with 2 ½ million people. What's really nice though, is only about ½ of the city is actually built up and the rest is a beautiful valley system that criss crosses the city east to west from Pickering to Etobicoke and from Lake O right up to the northern boundary. There's streams and rivers and probably over 100 miles of bike and hiking paths. You can literally ride a bike from one end of the city to the other and not need more than 1 mile of roadway. You can wander for hours and never see a house or even hear a car and you'd think you were a million miles from nowhere. I rode a very expensive mountain bike for years and would ussually go anywhere from 20 - 40 miles everyday thru this system. If you look at Toronto from the air, there's nearly as much undeveloped, beautiful, isolated treed land as there is asphalt. Trouble is lately though, alot of people seem to think this valley is a perfect place to unload all their crap that they're too lazy to dispose of properly and thewy just throw it anywhere they want. Every day when I'm walking down here I see foxes, rabbits, raccoons and have even seen the odd deer track. I took these pictures this morning while out walking my dog and am going to send them to the Toronto Mayor on Tuesday, but thought I'd put them here too. This is Toronto, but unfortunately this is happening all over our province lately. I don't know what the answer is, but things are getting to be pretty sad. A coffee table Garbage can tossed off a bridge Shopping cart tossed from the same bridge Wicker chair at the top of picture Mattress on the river bank Tire Patio stones 2 bikes, mattress and bed frame on the bank Yesterday I saw a little fox sitting beside this tire The poor critters just don't know the difference I spose. It's just soooooo sad but I'm afraid that's the way alot of our society treats our country lately.

It's OK Nip, I just showed that one to my wife and she thought it was hilarious

You've got yerself a fine lady there Roy, she treats you well !! She also makes the best zucchini relish I've ever eaten too

Cabellas has them listed from $7.99 - $14.99, but I'll still give my $$$$ to John

Thanks fishindevil, lotsa good information there. We've been fishing for pickerel in Quinte since the 50's and the Dipsey is just something different I want to try, specially now with the clearer waters out there now and I figured it would be a good way to get the baits away from the boat. I don't especially like fishing with planer boards and figured this would be a good alternative.

fishindevil, here's a chart I found on the Cabellas site and figure I'll probably go with the 3 ¼ to run it down to around 35' if need be. Looks like I'll be goin to visit the boys at Tightlines on Monday *********************** Luhr Jensen Dipsy® Divers take your lures down to the strike zone. Vertical and lateral adjustments allow trolling both behind and beside your boat. The unique design of the Dipsy Diver gives you the ability to adjust the weight in degrees to suit your trolling needs. Sizes: 2-1/4" (Size 030 dives to 20 ft.). Not available in colors 228, 229, 264, 266. 3-1/4" (Size 000 dives to 35 ft./with O ring) 4-1/8" (Size 001 dives to 50 ft./with O ring) 4-7/8" (Size 003 dives to 100 ft./with O ring) Colors: (001)Silver, (002)Metallic Gold, (009)Kelly Green, (096)Chartreuse, (182)Watermelon, (723)Metallic Green, (116)Clear, (166)Fire, (228)Everglo Crystal Hot Texas Red, (229)Everglo Chartreuse/Firetiger, (264)Everglo Batman, (266)Everglo Wonder Bread.