tonyb

Any thoughts on what you'd be asking for your old boat come spring? All this boat talk is driving me insane, I might have to suck it up and buy a small boat until I can afford my dream lund. Tony

Wow! some awesome pictures so far, here is my contribution. Carp - 34lbs Chinook Salmon - 30lbs Steelhead - ~15lbs (You will be able to watch me catch this beauty on T.V.! Getting Hooked with Aaron and Barry January 7th, It will be on OLN) Northern Pike caught jigging through the ice! 350lb Blue Marlin, just over 11 feet in length I also had a 15" Jumbo Perch but the picture is eluding me at the moment. Cheers, Tony

I know a lot of people that can recognize a tributary by the water colour, the banks/trees, and even the bottom substrate. Keep your pics photo-shopped! That being said, it's unfortunate we can't share our experiences without fear of our locations being pillaged the next day because of Internet fishermen. Cheers, Tony BTW good job on getting some fish, I know it can make a difference going to a light leader (3lb). The thing is that you hook more but land less, it certainly exercises your fish landing skills I just threw out a spool of 4lb leader that must have got old, hooked a fish and it snapped like nothing. New leader material can make 3 or 4lb seem like 6lb, ditch last years supply lol.

Gopher the colour! Seriously, check out the colour units. They cost more but are well worth it Humminbird 585c is nice. Tony

XBOX 360! Rainbow Six Vegas is pretty nice, online too! Tony

From the 350 lb Blue Marlin I caught in Puerto Vallarta back in June this year. She was 11 feet 2 inches in length! Yup, I'll be bragging about this fish for the next little while Oh man, what I wouldn't do for one of the amazing Margarita's in the warm Mexican sun on a day like today...brr! Cheers, Tony

You won't get too many replies to that sort of question Anyway, the conditions in most Lake O tribs should be ideal right now, with clearing water conditions. With not much rain in the forecast, expect low-clear water conditions by the weekend. Get out there and give us a report. Tony

Here ya go ccm... LOL Tony

Yep, got the ice-fishing rod in mind lol

Tango! Tony

Yep! Here you go, from the summer... Ahh Restoule! and week 2 of our Honeymoon. Amanda and I have been to Restoule many times before, we just love it there. If you have been there before you know what I am talking about, the lake, and surrounding area is so pretty, as is most of (Near)Northern Ontario. Our destination for this trip to Restoule was Martin's Camp. We had visited Martins before when were were camping at Restoule Prov. Park, and pretty quickly learned how great Bing and Diane were, so the choice came easy to spend our Honeymoon there. It wasn't long after we arrived at Martins Camp, and got settled that we were heading out on the water. We started hammering fish right away.... Rock bass that is... So we decided to try out in deeper water, toward a saddle between two islands. Since we saw another 'fisherman' off the tip of one of the islands, we hoped our luck would improve nearby. Unfortunately, it didn't and we spent a few days trying to figure out where the gold was on Restoule, the Pickerel. During all this, I spent some time tossing various baits for the elusive Musky. I tried a bit of everything, covering quite a bit of water but not even a single follow. At least I practiced my figure 8 technique a lot We found a nice spot on Wednesday, a rocky point jutted out with large boulders, and a drop-off into deep water. I spotted a whole bunch of baitfish (Shiners), and was lucky enough to have one of those square dip nets on the boat. I quickly assembled to get a scoop of minnows. I probably captured about 40 minnows in one dip, and then the schools moved deeper. That was more than enough, and I started fishing with a slip-float and jig/minnow combo just anchored off of the deep edge. I couldn't believe how quickly the OOS smallmouth were grabbing the jig. They were actually swimming up from the depths and grabbing the jig and minnow on the drop. I had to move out even deeper, and eventually we lifted the anchor and decided to drift along the whole edge of the point in about 20' of water. The float came off and it was just vertical jigging. Bump! I get a hit, and it isn't fighting like a Bass, could it be a Pickerel??? Nope, but a pretty Pike isn't bad at all We packed it in, and headed over to Gerry's. Gerry's is a place we always visit, they carry everything you could need, and are also an L.C.B.O agent Unfortunately, from Thursday to Saturday the weather was pretty crumby. I went out on Thursday for a couple of hours after lunch, on a solo Pickerel hunt. I figured I could now spend some time covering water while trolling. We hadn't done too much trolling since Amanda preferred to cast. I don't blame her though, the fishing was slow and we all know how exciting trolling is when the fish aren't co-operating. I made my way around a sandy point that joined back into a rocky shoreline where an old creek used to drain into the lake. It was a classic looking spot, and I had a good feeling. Sure enough, always trust your gut, since I hooked into 2 small Pickerel on a minnow harness. I lost both of them though, one shook the hook while I was trying to get into a position to lean over and grab the little guy, left the net at the cottage! Then the second one actually had in my hand until it did a back flip out of it. Then I set up with the slip-float with the jig and a lively minnow. Cast it out and finally got a Pic' in the boat. I had to bring a Pickerel home for dinner, or the time I spent out fishing away from my wife on my honeymoon would be scrutinized. Each minute I was away would be calculated into bartering tender in the future for something like an over-the-border shoe-shopping blitz at my expense. I can picture it now Mmm can't get any fresher than that, Pickerel appetizer The next couple of days were pretty harsh, we had planned to go into a back lake nearby but the weather was pretty miserable, and we opted against it. Some fun around the cabin, as always But since Amanda got a new rain suit, she didn't want to not actually use it, so we braved the plummeting temperatures. Unfortunately, all we seemed to manage were some more OOS Smallmouth. Each time we would move locations, we would run into more of the feisty buggers. Some of the fish even came out of deeper water, was pretty surprised actually. I guess the only good thing that came of it was seeing thousands of bass smolt scattered around the docks and shoreline. They must have just 'hatched' the week before and I am assuming a lot of the Bass were starting to move off of their nests. Brr.. After cleaning out the boat, and clearing up the tab with Dianne, it was time to go home, and ease back into 'working' mode. The perfect end to a perfect honeymoon Cheers, Tony

The 'whirpools' that get generated from the hydro outflows that are opposite eachother on the U.S. and CAN. side can get pretty hairy. When we go through there we are up on plane skipping through there. It is not a place you want to stop the boat at all in my opinion. When you are under power, you have control. Joey, yes that is the Lewiston bridge in the background. We were fishing a spot called 'Devils Hole' which is actually downstream still of the famous Whirpool. I don't believe it is safe to take a conventional boat further upstream than where we were, but I do think the Jet Boats go up. Aaron, I didn't want to hype it up too much in case I look like a complete putz on camera! lol Now that the cat is out of the bag, you guys will get to see me on T.V.! I believe the show will air sometime in 2007. Once we know the date I will post a message letting everyone know to watch the show. Aaron actually let me say whatever I wanted, so you will get some interesting tips from my point of view Cheers, Tony

Hopefully the new official date thread will get pinned, we can do the roll call in that one since I will be checking it to book our space. Tony

I always have a big smile! How could you not. Tony

I spent Sunday on the lower river in search of some big water Steelies with Aaron, and the weather was almost as nice as Saturday (See Hoss's report). Aaron had given me a call late Saturday night needing to fill a spot in the boat, and since I missed my opportunity to get out with gman (Gavin), I was free! (Twist my rubber arm ) I scrambled a bit on Sunday morning realizing that I hadn't renewed my NY license so I hopped online since I remembered that you could renew online now, phew! We got to the river around 7am and were heading toward the Art Park drift on the U.S. side where the action was so good on Saturday. I think Aaron hooked one in the first drift and then I got one in the second drift. We picked away at them for the next 4 hours but the action was really slow. I actually had a period where I wasn't hooking anything, it was all Aaron for about 3 or 4 fish straight! We tried artificials and kwikfish too, but ended up moving up to the Devils hole. As we soon discovered, this is where it was happening. I think we got about 5 fish each from this drift in half the time we spent on the Art Park drift. I got my biggest Steelhead of the year twice in the same day! We had a nice double header too with my 2nd biggest. There is something cool about netting 2 fish with the same net! Anyway, here are the pics! Enjoy. This fish was my biggest fish this year until it got set aside by the boss in the next picture Here is my biggest Steelhead so far this year, this fish was bad ass! ~15lbs! You start to lost track of how many fish you get out there, but I would say we went a modest 16 for 19. Cheers, Tony

*Bump*

Low clear water = poor steelhead fishing in the shallow L. Ontario tribs. Bigger water like Niagara has been productive. Tony

I'd recommend you consider something that you can use year-round. I went through the same decision making process this year in June. I decided to go with the Humminbird 585c and got a Portable case for it. I converted the lantern battery setup to use 2 rechargeable gel-cell batteries. Now I have a great unit I can use on the ice, and for when I rent a boat in the summer. On a side note, I didn't bother getting a Sonar/GPS combo unit for the same reason. I want to be able to take my GPS hiking too, not just use it when I am using my fishfinder. Cheers, Tony

If they think people will stop fishing those lakes in the winter for trout they are only fooling themselves. Yet another reason why more enforcement is needed at times like this, when there are regulation changes. Tony

Buenas dias senora! Donde estas las photos de pesca? Tony

Congrats on the phenomenal catch!, and from shore no less! I hear you on the 'poor and boatless' thing and know first hand what it's like to have many trips with limited success but then have it pay off a few days a year. The feeling is priceless! Look forward to more of your 'team' reports. P.S. I hope you guys can make it out ice-fishing this year, the hardwater allows you access to all those offshore places that are unavailable without a boat normally. I believe there is going to be at least one OFC get together this winter, hope to see you guys there. Cheers, Tony

Unfortunately, the situation with the MNR and enforcement is kind of like voting in the federal election. Regardless of what you do, it's not going to make a smidgeon of difference. We're all paying for someone elses greed at the end of the day. I see this post, at most, reaching those anglers and humiliating them, and hopefully their family or close friends see this and realize the scum that they are Tony

Ohh man LOL

Sam, I think you have got something here. If you feel you need some organizational refreshment in your life, I'd be happy to come out for an OFC G2G and fish the Bay with you. Looking forward to it, hopefully it happens Tony

It always amazes me that there are no C.O.s ever piping in on any of the Internet boards. I guess when they get home after work, hopping online to break up schoolyard scuffles would seem like more work... Those guys in the picture do know what they are doing and obviously have lots of cash. I have seen more and more cases of highly experienced anglers poaching/breaking regs than the usual stereotypes. The bad thing about this is that the knowledge these people have allows them to be much more effective, thus impacting the fishery way worse than someone who was poaching that wasn't an experienced angler. The flip side of this is, since you won't get busted, why not try to get away with it? I know it's wrong ethically, but it's like the people I work with who come in late and leave early every day. Since they won't get busted, they push the envelope and ultimately work much less for the same or more pay than their co-workers, I say good for them! Such a messed up world we live in eh? Tony