tonyb

Think of all the fishing stuff you'll be able to buy with the savings from not putting your money up in smoke

Wait a minute...it should say expect a huge Walleye report later if Bly is on the water Tony

Spring Salmon fishing in 2 Words... Planer Boards! Won't be long now folks! Tony

I'd suggest fishing Lake Nippissing since I just got shut out at Temagami, Plus about 200kms less driving. As far as places to stay, there is lots in North bay, some in Callandar. Just start calling to find the best rate. Terrace suites in Callander is a great place to take the wife, but it is likely out of your budget. Tony

I'll keep my limit of pan-sized fish if I can catch em I always release the prime spawners, and any really big specimens. Tony

Hope everyone is ok, i'm sure they will fill the spot no problem. Maybe you should list the price you had arranged with them so people can see right away if they can afford it? Tony

Great thread indeed! as I am starting to do some research on different trucks as I plan on purchasing one in the near future. This thread along with the rest of my reading has seriously pointed me towards the Toyota Tundra. Honestly when compared, the Tundra has the most horsepower and torque in it's class, is cheaper than a Chevy, bigger than the Nissan Titan, and hauls/tows more than the Ford F-150...I'm sold! It kicks some serious butt in the full size pick-up market. On a side note, too bad the Honda Ridgeline isn't available in a V8! Tony

What a teaser "Modified jigging raps" Certainly aroused my curiosity, please share... Tony

Direct energy is a very shady business. I had some lady come to the door with a very low cut shirt and bubbly smile trying the smoke and mirrors thing to get me to switch. I couldn't believe how much of a smooth talker she was, I was almost convinced at one point until I read the fine print and got all the details. Their rate was a few cents/m3 higher than what I was currently paying, but she promised gas prices would continue to rise and eventually I would have a better deal! Needless to say, I got rid of her pretty quick. I can only imagine all the elderly folks or new immigrants that would be fooled by the flashy smooth talking employees at that company. Also, who the heck goes door-to-door selling Natural gas!? Too much! Tony

People are still on dial-up? Good point, I'll leave it next time. Tony

Exactly, if it was a real prize you have won, they can ship it to you. SCAM Also heads up to people filling out Draw prize cards at shows, this is a simple way for companies to mine personal information from people for free. They turn around and sell your contact information to the highest bidders, then you get phone calls like "You've won a Plasma!" lol Never give out your phone number or address information at any retail outlet either. Be smart people. That information is very valuable to companies looking to mass market their wares... Tony

I gotta fix it...hope it's ok with ya, if not let me know. There ya go Greg! Tony

Does anyone here own a Toyota Tundra 4x4? Seriously looking at these trucks, they are niiice! Tony

Good stuff Wayne, us city slickers are such a pain in the ass eh?

I think if I did the winter thing next time, just get a motel room and take some sleds with a portable shelter. That way we could move and fish where we wanted to. Now the first problem, need to get a truck to put the sled in, and then buy a sled, then a gas auger....oh man see what happens with fishing! Tony

It was frustrating and humbling, the water is BIG up there. We zoomed out a bit on the GPS and the picture of the lake on a normal map doesn't do it any justice. That lake had more structure withing eyesight than many that I have been on, superb scenery, you have a cottage on a piece of heaven up there Wayne. I'll be impatiently awaiting your results this coming weekend. That's the 3rd time someone has mentioned the rabbit shoal, why were the bungalows not located there?! Tony

By no means did we just sit in the bungalow. We popped about 30 holes spanning different depths, but it's easy to determine availability of fish with the sonars we had going. There were none! As I said above, mobility off of the ice road was very limited or we would have tried other potential locations as we did have hydrographic charts in conjunction with the GPS. Can't always catch fish, I just had higher hopes for Temagami. Tony

I'll save you the suspense of a report filled with fish and smiling anglers and instead sum it up with a single photo. Had a great weekend with the guys, but it's a lot cheaper to stay at home and play cards I'll add some details and scenery photos once they get emailed to me. The weekend started off bad with a 9+hr white-knuckle drive to Temagami. We fished hard in the hut on Friday morning, sonar going and everyone fishing. I caught an 8" Lake trout right off the bat, that would be the last fish caught in the hut over the 2.5 days. (Ok, it wasn't a complete skunk but 2 guys, Brad and Jonny, both got skunked, and you can hardly count fish under 10 inches) Since we were marking 0 fish in the hut, we asked the operator for his gas auger so we could move in tighter to shore and try some different depths. We made swiss cheese off the one side of an island near us. We worked depths from 15' all the way to 100' in a distance of about 150yrds, steep drop off. We took the sonar and again failed to mark any fish in any of the holes there. At sunset, in the 40' depth we managed an 8" ling and a 9" walleye. That would be the last fish caught along that break for the entire weekend. We probed the depths in the vicinity and covered a good area working both sonars when we were far enough apart to avoid interference, and there were just no fish around. Maybe the spot was good early in the year and the operator got complacent and didn't move the bungalows to stay on fish (understandably a large task, but you gotta keep clients on fish) If there was less snow on the ice we could have travelled more as we had hydrographic charts for the lake on the gps unit Aaron had. As it were though we were confined to staying near the ice road. The snow was waste deep with slush when you got too far off the ice road. The worst part was the guy would come visit and tell us how they had a camera down and there were schools of whitefish moving through, I call Bull! we saw nothing on our sonars, and with the colour units we have it's easy to spot fish hugging bottom. Temagami Conservation note 1: When we asked for a regulation book, to have as reference for the slot limit on walleye at the local tackle shop in Temagami, the response was "The MNR can't tell how long the fish is once it is filleted!" Temagami Conservation note 2: When your clients fail to catch fish on the spot you have put them on, bring them slot sized Walleye for dinner on the last night! 19" fish lol (Caught elsewhere of course...where everyone was limiting out!? -- locals only spot!?) There is obviously great fishing in the lake...somewhere, but since it is soo big, we just struck out on being led to a fishless location. I won't be going back there in the winter, unless someone knows someone who knows where the fish are located. It would be much better if there was less snow to explore more, or in the summer with a boat. Temagami is a beautiful place that is for shure. The operators and general mentality up there is much different than further south. I think the competitive business that Simcoe and say Nippissing operators have to deal with forces them to stay on top of fish, and that's what you pay for isn't it? Tony

Absolutely 1leg, it will be a FULL report, fish or no fish! Tony

Awesome! My goal this trip is to catch a Ling or Whitefish! I am really looking forward to the Ling fishing (call me crazy) Half of our group including me ice-fish pretty seriously and we have all the tricks up our sleeves, it will just be a matter of moving until we find fish like you said. Hopefully the snow isn't too deep to make moving too much of a problem. Did you guys drive your vehicles out to the bungalow, or does he take you out? Thanks for the information from your experience woodro Also, Thanks to Wayne for the tips from the fish to the bait and gas in that area, I think we will be just fine. Tony

John Harding, I think it is just John's Ice fishing charters... We have a day hut to use that he has out there in addition to the bungalow. We also are bringing an auger and a portable hut so we can move around. Like you said, I don't trust the operator to stay on top of fish all season, but sometimes 50yrds can make all the difference. Cheers, Tony

Well this winter has absolutely flown by it seems. I remember a couple months ago worrying about being able to get out ice-fishing at all, now I am worried about the few trips that I will have left this hardwater season! I am going to be spending the weekend in an on-ice bungalow on Lake Temagami with 5 other buds and we hope to get some fish onto the ice, provided we can arrive safely through this storm that is forecasted to hit today. I will have plenty of photos and possibly a short web video if we can get some footage (dependant on us finding the fish ) for the report when we get back. Either way we should have a good time. Here's to wishing everyone a great weekend and wish us luck! Tony

You're going to have a great time, fish or no fish! Tony