lew

Hiya Pete, good hearing from you again !!

The Spring Fishing Show just ended on Sunday. Pretty decent show and about the same as last year.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the soft water season to open.

This is the one I use with the springloaded handle, it makes things a bit easier when they pop open themselves.

If you haven't found a supplier yet, I ordered mine from a company in Saskatchewan called Ringlord and had them in a couple days.

http://theringlord.com

Too much power is far better than not enough power !!

You can always hold back with the bigger motor, but it'll be nice to have the extra power if you ever get in a jam and need that little extra kick to get out of a bad situation.

Rick posted about Niagara On The Lake charging out of towners for the right to fish from one of their public parks, and that's something I've thought for awhile was gonna happen in alot of public places because of the garbage & filth left behind by alot of so-called sportsmen.

I'm not saying that's the reason for the action by NOTL, but I can certainly see it happening in other locations.

I use the free ramp on the causeway on Chemong Lake quite often and the garbage that's left there is absolutely disgusting, and I won't be the least bit surprised to pull in one day soon and see a sign saying we have to pay for the use of the ramp, and it'll be totally understandable to me.

The filth that boaters and fishermen leave everywhere they go is totally disgraceful and I for one won't be the least bit surprised when towns and private property owners start either closing the areas down to the public, or else charging a fee to help off-set the price for cleaning up the mess everyday.

How about you, have you been shut out of a favorite fishing hole or boatramp because the owner got tired of cleaning up everybodies filth ??

I'm gonna cheat and name 3 people...my son, my dad and my grandfather

I spent alot of time fishing with all 3 of them, and now there all gone, but it sure would be nice for the 4 of us to get together again and spend just one more day chasing some bigguns.

Personally, I like the 7' 6" MH St. Croix Premiers for casting....PM76MHF..... but it's pretty hard to tell someone else what'll work best for them.

The Shimano Compre is also an excellent rod and won't set you back too much money.

You'll pretty well have to go to the store and try them out yourself to get the feel of them.

If you can manage the price, a Shimano Calcutta is an excellent reel and about as good as you'll need. There's different models, so you'll have to decide how high you want to go.

If your looking for a lower priced reel that will serve you well, the Acu C-3 6500 is an excellent choice.

You may also be interested in a Pete Maina musky rod / reel combo from BBS. Its a very good set-up and the whole bill is only about $200

Hey Lew, you slept in today (3:15)!

Nope, I was up and at it by 2:30, it was Marvin who slept in till 3:15

Boy, that mutt sure is gettin lazy in his old age

And your right Jim, he never even wore his coat this morning.

I think were ALL aware that there will probably be more cold weather to come, but the warm temperatures forecast for the next few days are just a nice break from the cold weather we've all endured for the last month.

I let the pooch out at 3:15 and it almost felt like a summertime breeze with a temperature of + 4

First time it's been above freezing for quite awhile, but I'll take it

If the Toronto city councillors hear about this scam and figure they can get in on the act, they'll have their own toll booth set-up on the Toronto waterfront by sunrise tomorrow for anyone who even looks like a fisherman.

Yikes.... .sounds like MY day wasn't so bad after hearing about yours

Oh well, at least you got home safe and you've got the makings for a nice fish dinner, and things can only get better after a day like that.

Better luck on your next fish'n trip

I'm also going to Lost Lake Lodge near Gowganda in late June thanks to Lew's recommendation. Maybe see you up there Setomonkey. Lew, you should get paid a referral fee from this place!

That's actually quite funny bronzeback, because there's another OFNer going in June also because of a conversation him and I have been having the last couple months, but I'll let him divulge his own name if he wants.

jeeeez, I hope you guys don't all get skunked or I'm gonna have alot of folks angry with me

Sneaky Pete's are actually a very good musky bait, especially when used in shallow water, among the weeds.

They have a reversed skirt on them and if you pause your retrieves every 5' or so, drop your tip back, then begin cranking again, you can get the skirt pulsating, which is very effective for attracting the fish.

A very small bait by musky standards, but also an excellent bait, and particularily good when you can get the action working properly.

I've had good success with them in shallow water and this is one that came out of 5'

Heck, a while back, there was even a thread on OFC where several of the respondants defended their excessive speeds, with many of them disrespecting drivers who "held them up".

And that's the biggest part of the problem Chris, far too many folks think their driving skills are so superior to everyone elses, they don't need to slow down for poor road conditions or heavy traffic. They figure they can just go roaring along on their merry way and the whole world will just move over and let them through, and to hell with anybody that dares to get in their way.

Morons !!!!

Fishing can be extrordinary during, or just after the mayfly hatch.

We fished the Gowganda region in late June about 8 years ago and the mayflies had just hatched and there were millions of them clinging to everything they could get hold of, but the best places were low, overhanging branches that were actually touching the water.

The bass were coming up and feeding on them like crazy and we were throwing topwater Skitterpops right at the shoreline, beside the overhanging branches, and then working the baits back to the boat, and it was nearly impossible to make a cast without getting a fish.

I've never before or since seen bass fishing as good.

This is the stage the flies were at when they were clinging to the branches.

And this is typical of the fish we would get with nearly every cast.

Were heading up to Ottawa to do the tourist thing next weekend, so sunny & mild would suit us just fine, although I don't know if Ottawa has ever been mild in February, has it

Hi everyone, this is Lew's daughter, Sheri.

Thank you all so much for all your get well wishes......it's nice to see my dad has so many caring friends out there.....too bad though that the nit wit that cut me off wasn't so caring. If only he took that split second to look in his rear view mirror as it did for me to slam head on into a cement wall he may think twice about such carelessness. "FishinFool" questioned why the passenger side airbag went off.......when I slammed into the wall, my seatbelt somehow came off and I ended up over in the passenger seat....so I guess it sensed another body over there.

Thank you all again for your well wishes.......a few broken bones in my hand and some very very sore and bruised ribs but hey........I'm still alive to tell the tail and that's all that matters.

If the guy that cut me off noon on Friday going North on the DVP at Wynford Drive is reading this.......THANKS!!

Sheri

Good purchase Mike, always nice to have plenty of power.

Matt, I'd go with the Calcutta hands down, I use one myself for bucktails & large spinnerbaits and their an excellent reel.

You just have to keep in mind that with the lower gear ratio you have to work a bit harder to burn baits, but the payoff is well worth the effort.

Just my 5 ¢ though

In the pictures of the car, it looks like the passenger air bag went off,

was that just the impact or did Sheri have a passenger?

Sheri was alone in the car, and yes, both air bags inflated but I don't know why, as I was always under the impression that it took the weight of a person in the seat to arm the triggering mechanism.

But at least they inflated and did the job their designed for.

Ric, your absolutely right about the Toronto area drivers, their getting worse everyday and traffic laws don't seem to matter anymore. Speed limits, red lights, stop signs, they all just seem to be an inconvenience to some of these people and are totally ignored by many drivers.

Thanks again for everyones good wishes

Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

If this post makes even one person slow down, it'll be a help.

My daughter was heading up the DVP the other day, doing everything just the way your sposed to. Driving at the proper speed and leaving lotsa room between her and the guy in front of her.

Then along comes one of the morons that we all see far too often, specially when the roads aren't in the best of conditions.

He was in the next lane over, but wasn't satisfied with going along with the flow of traffic, as I guess his appointment was just waaaaaaay more important than everybody elses. He wanted to get ahead of everybody and cut right in front of my daughter, then realised he was gonna hit the next car, so he slammed on his brakes.

Sheri hit her brakes to avoid this jerk but the roads were wet from the recent snowfall and she skidded into the guardrail and totalled her 2 year old car.

Worst part of all was this guy didn't even slow down to see if Sheri was hurt, he just kept right on going to his very important meeting and to hell with everybody else and all the damage and injuries he'd just caused.

I just posted on this board about a month ago that if everybody would just slow down a little bit, specially during lousy weather, and have some respect for the other people on the roads, we may just have a few less accidents, injuries and death, and this is exactly what I was talking about.

Sheri was doing everything exactly as it's sposed to be done, yet she's the innocent victim and the jerk that caused it all couldn't care less about what he did and just continued on his merry way.

She has a broken left hand, cuts to both knees and her hip, and took a real hard whack all up her left side. She's in alot of pain and probably will be for quite awhile.

Whoever you are, I hope you made it to your appointment on time, because obviously it was far more imprtant than my daughters life.

She'll buy another car when she's able to walk without too much pain, her broken hand will heal as will the cuts and bruises, but the terror you caused her will probably be around for quite awhile.

I sure hope you can sleep peacefully, because she can't.

Slow down people, there's other cars on the road, not just you

Good stuff Rick, you made an awesome picture even better.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think that's the best picture that's ever been posted on this board. Never seen any other photograph that exemplifies what fish'n is all about, more than that one.

Rogers smile tells the whole tale !!

My season always starts off with our annual 4 day trip to Quinte for the May 24 weekend. Been doing it for many years but the last couple years I've had a few OFC friends join our group which just makes it all that much better.

June is the annual G2G at Lakair on the West Arm of Nippissing and I'll be heading there for 5-6 days as usual.

In July, my regular OFC group is heading out to the Ottawa River for a few more days of musky fish'n.....hafta find a nice campground on the river, east of Ottawa somewhere.

Myself & eddyk always do a week together after Labour Day and this year we'll be heading back to Lakair again.

Only a guess on my part Steve, but if it's a Lake Ontario bay in division 8, I'd assume it would remain as such even when the water level drops and the sandbar seperates it from the lake.

Theoretically, the sandbar could come and go several times a year and I can't imagine they'd need to keep changing the divisions to accomodate it.