walking_angler

Any thoughts on Little Lake?

Hello, I would you fish from a pontoon boat in lake simcoe, for fun, with your family? Would it make more sense to rent a small 15ft. boat? Thanks in advance.

I agree with the past poster who mentioned IP blocking. I know that Norton will auto block an IP that it thinks is attacking a PC with a worm. The block lasts 30 minutes. You can disable the blocking feature and clear the list of IP's that Norton has kept track of.

Hi, I picked up a copy of this at last years family fish day. http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/pubs/UrbanFishing.pdf Good Luck.

Hi, My battery is running low, so here's my brief Toronto Island report. I took the ferry to Hanland's (sp?) Point and I walked towards the Trout Pond. The pond was accessable, but the lily pad growth was hard to cast over / into. I was using a light bass spinner with a white skirt. No luck there, so I walked towards Center Island. Meet some nice fishermen who talked to me about the Trout Pond and then I moved off to Center Island. There I ran into another fisherman who gave me tips about where to look for pike. I saw some beautiful carp, and what I think was a small pike that looked like it had koi markings. I then switched to a panfish jig and began poking around the small lagoons (tiny bodies of water off the main channel). Then I hit the motherload. A baby (4 - 5 inches?) bass sucked down the jig on the first toss. Yeah! I smile with pride at my first bass ever. He's dropped back in, and I move along about 10 feet and run into perch! Perch! Wow! 2 nice colourfull perch about 6-7 inches each. One was feisty, one was hooked deeply, so I did my best to return them as fast as possible. I've never caught perch before, so this was great! A few more casts in that general location and I ran into what I thought was a goby based on what I could see in the water, but nope ... it was a baby (6 inch) bowfin! And you've probably guessed by now that I've never caught a bowfin either. Now if I could only manage to find one of their parents...

The 'plan' for Downsview Park is to have a pond, but it's not there yet. Try the Humber whats his name (Humber River below 'The Old Mill'). Heartlake and Humber Bay Park are other alternatives to the Island. The Island will offer you plenty of differnt species if the bass are not cooperating.

Last weekend I had a great time catching sunfish with my son. All of our fish were brought in using Berkley Powerbait Maggots and a small #8 hook. I used a small split shot to get my bait out into the schools. I tried to alternate this setup with a BPS pan fish tube jig, but I was not getting anything more than nibbles on the tentacles of the plastic body. A day or so later, I was at BPS and a friendly salesperson introduced me to 'minnow head' jigs. He told me that they would fit the BPS pan fish jigs bodies in a better way. On my way out, I went through the fly fishing section ... this is where the magic begins. The older gentleman working there asked me where I was fishing, for what, and I told him. He agreed with the first salesperson's choice on minnow head jigs, but he then showed me some options for flies. “What?” I said, “Flies for pan fish?” I told him I didn't want to start fly fishing, I told him that I only had an inexpensive spinning combo. “That's OK, take a look at this” was his reply. At this point I he showed me two or three choices for tiny flies. One of them looked like the Powerbait Maggot rig I had been using, and the others looked interesting(red and white with a white fluf, and red and gold with a green bead). At 0.99 cents each, how could I refuse? I left the maggot one, and brought home 3 flies. He also told me to buy a small spool of fluorocarbon to help with my presentation. I get home, and I use the only knot I know, a trilene knot, and attach my small (tiny )red and white fly to my 6 pound mono line. I decided against using the fluorocarbon because I don't know how to tie fluorocarbon to mono. Then I forgot about it, the work week came and went. This morning however, was glorious. Sunfish after sunfish after sunfish. My technique consisted of tapping the water where I could see the schools with my fly and eventually a strike would occur. The other people fishing came over to check tackle, and were surprised to see that a piece of fluff (pardon my ignorant observation) was landing fish after fish. My son and I were giddy! It was unreal. I literally walked up, put my fly in the water and the sunfish were hitting it and ignoring the other peoples bait. The morning came to a close when as I was using a pair of needle-nose pliers, I pulled my knot free of the fly. I have never had so much fun fishing. Here come the questions: Does/has anyone else used a fly on a spinning combo before with much luck? How hard is real fly fishing? Is a BPS fly combo worth it (please don't answer 'you get what you pay for') ? I have looked for and read Internet articles about fly fishing for pan fish, bass and pike today. How possible is this? Do people use fly combos exclusively for trout? Is shore fishing for pike, bass and pan fish with a fly setup nonsensical?

I decided to take a break from my pathetic pike fishing (Holland Canal and Humber Bay Park East) to try Grenadier Pond with my sons again for panfish (frankly, I'm compensating my nonexistent pike by buying new pike tackle). We go to High Park frequently, and last year I didn't have any success in Grenadier. This all changed two weeks ago! My older son and I have been running across large schools of sunfish for the past two weeks, and we've been getting hits and landing them one after another during the early morning when it's still cool. The sunfish tend to be hitting best with a small hook (#8 I think) and Berkley Powerbait maggots. I have also tried Bass Pro Shop panfish tube jigs, but they are too big. The sunfish nibble the tentacles and then swim off. The gentleman next to us kept 2 dozen or so, he called them "jumbo", but they looked like adults to my untrained eye. His keepers were the about 4 - 5 inches long. He was using a float and chunks of sunfish and shrimp as bait. Do sunfish reproduce with extreme ferocity? I am wondering how they sustain themselves in Grenadier. I've attached some photos. Oh, and on the pike front, another gentleman apparently caught a "22 inch" pike the day before in the pond. I know that these are just sunfish, but this is a "proud dad moment".

The Island will be a summer destination.

Yes, I have been reading this forum for a while. Looked like a great place to ask questions.

Beautiful fish. Can you please eloborate on your retrieve?

I attempted to capture my first pike this past week / weekend. I tried Humber Bay East and West last year for carp, bass and panfish during the summer and was unsuccessful. I decided to start my season there with a friend whose fishing time has shrunk away. He'd never been, so I sent him a Google map and we decided to tackle (no pun intended) the park. It was about 6:30pm, we began at the bay which begins at #5 and worked our way to the north (left) until the beaver dam. The area between the island / beaver dam and the shore is shallow and casting became a nuisance, so I continued to fish in a 45, 90 and 135 degree casting pattern and worked my way back down and around to #9. I cast into #7, but the water seemed too dark and stagnant for pike. As the sun went down something large surfaced between the first opening of #7 and I continued to bomb my Williams 5 of Diamonds spoon with no luck. When my friend saw another splash, he recommend that I switch to a Size 5 Mepps Black Fury with a dressed tail. I tried my silver Syclops as well. No Luck. We spent the rest of the evening trying with a Williams perch spoon and a Size 4 Mepps Copper Comet along the Mimico bay #8. We covered the area between the point directly above the #8 along to the point to the left of #1. No Luck. I spent another 2 hour after dinner one night at the end of last week bombing that same Size 5 Mepps Black Fury all along #5 and # 9. I lost that Size 5 Mepps Black Fury in #5. It's hung up on a rope underwater. I tried my silver Syclops as well. Pike 3 – Me 0. Last Saturday I went out early in the morning to the Holand Canal just off the highway, and I spent 3 hours looking for pike. I started at the municipal parking lot and moved towards the massive tree (west). A father and son caught 4 pike that, “Weren't worth weighing.” Another guy caught a scrappy 3 or so pound carp. I tried a small jointed Rapala (silver minnow), a #4 Black Fury with no dressing, a #0 Silver Mepps and a #0 Mepps Candy cane stripe. I also used a large Syclops. I fell into a sinkhole up to my right knee. I lost the Size 4 Mepps Copper Comet in a tree. That took about 3.5 hours. Pike 4 – Me 0. I'm heading out this week again. I don't want to use live minnows. Spoons were a pain to retrieve in the Holand because they were full of weeds. I picked up two 3 inch Rapalas (silver and a funky pearch). Will these be any better?

That's horrific. I was there 2 weekends ago for the MS walk, most participants had a hard time navigating the stairs along the bridge. Glad to here that you're alright.

Nice carp. Were you using mono line? If so what test is it?

Wow, It sounds like panfish paradise. Perhaps I should drive out to Keswick instead of trying my luck at Grenadier Pond.