lew

Glen, the exact same thing happened to a couple friends of mine quite a few years back on the French River, when they brought their own knucklehead along for a pickeral trip. They were gonna fish an eddy just off the fast water, but before they got in position, their knucklehead did the same thing and tossed out the stern anchor. Trouble was, they were still in fairly deep water when the anchor grabbed, and when the stern went down and filled the boat with water, it actually sank, tossing them all into the current, and one of the boys couldn't swim a stroke and was pulled under. Fortunately, the others were able to find him and get him to shore. He was unconscious, but finally came around and made a full recovery, but it shows how fast a tragedy could happen. Sadly, one of the fella's on that boat, a very good friend of mine for many years, and one of the best musky fishermen I ever knew, died 2 years ago, and unfortunately, his wife just died yesterday On a much lighter note, when myself & eddyk were were just little kids, we were going fishing with our grandfather one day while on a camping trip. We loaded the fish'n gear in the boat, untied the bow line and hopped in. Grampa was at the tiller and hit the gas, but nuthin was happening, other than the bow rising and the stern dropping. The more throttle he gave it, the lower the stern went until the water poured in and down we went......glug, glug, glug Yup, Gramps had neglected to untie the stern line We were Ok though, cause the water was only 4 feet deep, but it's something I'll never forget. I can still see the old wooden floor boards and half our tackle floating off into the sunset

Squid & I had planned another 2 day musky trip to St. Clair for this weekend but decided to cancel because of the high winds and heavy rainfall. It's a long drive from Toronto-Windsor & back, plus the $$$$ for gas, hotels & food, only to get there and find the waters have turned to mud and the fish have shut down. That happened to us a couple weeks back. It's too bad as the season is quickly winding down. I think this is my 1st weekend not fishing at least one day since last May

fishndevil, I use a trolling plate on my 90HP Merc in the spring when I want to go very slow and have never experienced any steering difficulties at all. It works exceptionally well for slowing the boat down, infact, I sometimes have to increase the throttle to speed up a bit. Over the years I've tried towing the driftsocks & buckets but always found them to be a pain, specially when trolling at night, but have never had any issues whatsoever with the plate. Once the musky season opens and slow trolling speeds are no longer required, it takes me 2 minutes to remove the plate and store it away till next year.

I'll add a few Lakair @ midnight Where I wish I was right now Where my boat spends the winter Across the road from my trailer Niagara River @ sunrise

I talk to Rob a fair bit, but haven't heard from him in a little while now, but I think he's just more concerned with his son right now, rather than posting here. He'll be back when he's ready.

I can't help you with the Optimax as I've never used one, but I have an '01 Merc 4 stroke 90 HP, that I bought new and have never had a single problem with, and it gets used ALOT. I think the 90's & 115's are basically the same motor ?? Very reliable engine, quiet, dependable, and extremely good on gas, especially when only running about 2/3 throttle. It's also nice to be able to troll all day and not worry about fouling the plugs. Maintanence and winter storage is very simple to do yourself. I traded in a 90 HP Johnson 2 stroke for this one, and even though the 4 stroke is 85 pounds heavier, I only lost about 1 mph top end. The 2 strokes are probably a faster hole shot, but that was never a big concern to me personally and I never really noticed that much difference.

dawg ??

You guys have all got it waaaaaaay too soft today with all your fancy suspension and hand/thumb warmers But I wish we had it back in the day I had to give up riding about 15 years ago because of a medical thingy, but before that, a bunch of us spent alot of incredible winters cruising all the trails between Peterboro-Bancroft-Haliburton and anywhere else we could find. We all started off with old junkers about 25 odd years ago, but eventually we were all riding beautiful machines, but I often think we had the most fun on the old clunkers. They weren't very fast and certainly weren't at all comfortable........practically no suspension under the hard seats and I don't think hand/thumb warmers had been invented yet, but when you don't know the difference, you don't miss it. Lotsa good memories with this thread !! This is me on my old Ski-Doo Silver Bullet about 25 years back My buddy Dave on his old Suzuki My other bud Ron on his Yamaha Group shot before a ride.......checkout the old Evinrude on the left Ahhhhhhh yes, the good ole days.......I often think things were more fun back in the day, before all the rules and regs came into effect and the trails weren't as crowded as the 401 at rush hour

I think you should share the prize with the net man / photographer

The good stuff happens to the nicest people Joey

Well done boyz, your having a good weekend down there, and Brian, congrats on both your 1st & 2nd muskies ever, specially that 1st one, she's a real beaut !! Save a few for us though will ya, we'll be down next weekend if the water stays in good shape. We'll be lookin for water updates in a couple days.

Mornin dr-feelgood It was good meeting up with you folks last night and thanks very much for the invite to your party, but it had been a very long day for our group and we still had a couple hours drive to get back home. Always nice to meet fisherfolk from other boards and several from your group came over and introduced themselves to us and also invited us to join them. You've got a great group of friends there. Thanks again !!

Sam, your an asset to OFC

The Shimano Compre rods come with an across the counter, lifetime warranty and cost 1/2 the price of the Avid I use them all for muskies, Avids, Premiers, Compres and Maina rods and can honestly say, IMHO, while the Avid is a nice rod, I can't see where it's nessesary to spend the extra $$$$ on one for throwing large baits where sensitivity is not an isssue. This year I added both a new 7' 6" Premier and 7' 6" Compre to my boat and am so pleased with both of them that I'd never spend the extra $$$$ for an Avid again, but that's just my opinion.

Back then, just like today, we only fished Quinte in the springtime, so we never got into any of the mosters that are caught in the fall, but we always got/get plenty of eater sized fish. Even today though, whenever we make our annual spring pickeral trip to the area, I nearly always take the ferry across, just for old times sake, and just like tinbanger, if I had a dollar for everytime I crossed the Reach on that old girl, I'd be a wealthy man today

Lotsa talk this week about folks fishing around the Glenora Ferry near Adolphus Reach for the recent OFC g2g on Quinte. I started fishing the same area back in the 50's with my Dad & brother, eddyk, and still fish there every May, and thought some of you may get a kick outta seeing the ferry docks from way back then. I don't know the year, or remember who took this picture, but it was probably my Dad, somewhere around 1960. Hope you enjoy the old picture

Thanks Lexx, sounds like you & Jello had a great weekend with a few beauty eyes to go with it.

Uncle B, we had an excuse for getting skunked at the g2g two years ago. It's tough to catch a fish when you can't see the water for the snow See ya'll on Saturday

It's good that we were able to contibute in our small way to help make this a reality. My Grandfather served with the British Army in WW1 and fought from the trenches in Europe for 4 years, and fortunately survived and lived till the ripe old age of 85, even though he was hit by shrapnel and carried pieces of it in his body his entire life. Another time him & his crew were trapped in a dead-end ravine while several dozen Germans moved in on them, but he was able to climb out, circle behind them and kill them all, allowing his men to get out safely. For that he was awarded the Military Medal for Bravery When I was very small he wouldn't tell me much about the war, but as we both grew older he started to open up and told me some things they went thru over there that were absolutely unbelievable. It's hard to understand what some human beings can do to others I spose it's easy for us to say we understand, but for those of us that haven't experienced it, there is NO way in the world we'll EVER understand what those guys went thru, and awarding them all with a State Funeral is the very least we can do for them.

Gorgeous pickeral Bill and congrats on your PB About 10 years ago my son and I were camped on Adolphus Reach when that ESSROC freighter went by and she thru up such a huge wave that it tore my boat from the dock and shoved it right up on the beach Luckily the only damage done was to the cleats that were ripped outta the dock.

Thanks VERY much Terry, that's absolutely perfect !! Your talents are always very much appreciated around here bud !!

Whenever you get a chance, would you be able to remove the hydro lines from the top left corner of this picture please ?? I can crop them out myself, but I want to keep the entire sky in the picture if possible, and you are definetely one of the Photoshop masters around here

Matt, this is where things start to get expensive You'll find that one rod is not always good for different applications and you need different ones for different jobs. $99 is a good price for that 6' 6" Premier and it'll work well as a jerkbait rod, so seeing as the musky season is winding down, why not buy it now, then put a few $$$$ away thru the winter, and get yerself the 7" 6" for next season ?? Course then you'll hafta buy another reel, but that's what makes fish'n so much fun.....playing catch-up

Mattyk, that 6' 6" Premier medium heavy is the exact rod I use for jerkbaits and it works well for me, but the length that'll work best for you is something you'll need to figure out for your self. If it's too long you'll be hitting the water with the rod tip when your working the bait. Depends on your height and the boat decks distance from the water. For the spinner baits and bucktails, you'll find a longer rod will give you better casting distance. Myself, I like 7'6 medium heavy, but again, your the one that needs to figure what works best for yourself. If you don't find a St. Croix in your price range, have a look at the Compres or Maina rods. Their both excellent but a few $$$$ cheaper.

Thanks Phil, that big girl is a definate trophy and I hope she's still playful this coming Saturday