singingdog

Bullfrogs are in decline in Ontario, mostly due to harvesting. Maybe some chicken nuggets?

I made it out yesterday and put in about 4 hours. Used almost every lure in the box including a bunch of different bucktails in all colours and saw no action.

 

Switched to a glide bait (Magic Maker - Holoform Darter) and I missed a big one boatside within minutes as she hit right beside the canoe. I was in the right position for a figure eight sadly. Made a few more casts (same lure) at the boat launch before I left and hooked a small one, probably 32 inches but it came unbuttoned after a couple of headshakes.

 

Don't forget to sharpen those hooks!

Most of our fish and follows were on smaller glide baits: softtail phantom and glidin rap. They seemed most interested when we fished them very slow and steady: no jerks.

4 of us were out on opening day. Action was good early in the day: buddy had a 40" 10 minutes after hitting the water. We had a couple of mid 30's, along with several follows, then, it shut right down. If a fish followed, it came in very neutral, not interested in the 8. We hit 3 different lakes. By the end of the day, we couldn't get a whiff. How did other folks do?

Plant growth here is at least 2 weeks behind other years, with virtually no green growth on the flats. Water temps low 60s.

Uni knot and triple surgeons are all I use. Never had any trouble

Not just for bass: Zman has always had a saltwater influence, so they make some big plastics. The Heroz - a 10" plastic jerkbait - were amazing for me last year. I just can't find them in shops anywhere.

Anyone know of any shops carrying the larger Zman plastics? PM me if preferred. Thanks.

get a yak and join the very active Ottawa river fishing group. Great bunch of guys, and lots of knowledge of the river, without having to fork out for a stinkpot.

Sorry, don't fish that lake much. Good luck.

Was in the park yesterday. Everything we saw was ice free, with a tiny amount of snow in the bush. A bit perpelexing why so much is closed.

My fave for stick baits and unweighted plastics is a 7' M power Compre. It has a softer tip than the M power 6.5', which translates into much better casting distance. MH seems a bit overkill to me, but I am more of a finesse guy.

Going fast here in Haiburton. I have been out on Horseshoe, Minden and Mountain Lakes: some ice in sheltered bays, but the main lakes are open. Head, and Grass are opening up, Canning and Kash look to be a couple of days away from being open.

I have had a couple of very good musky days on the Glidin Rap. It's easier to throw than a lot of the big, heavy glide baits, and won't wear you out working it.

What jumps out for me from that study is the 17000 camera nights, with no definitive photos of a cougar. And, in a 12 year study only 2 pieces of scat were recorded. I love the idea of a thriving population of cougars in Ontario, can't get past the lack of continued evidence of their presence.

Still about 25 cms of very crusty snow in my yard. South facing slopes are mostly clear, everywhere else there is still a pretty solid base.

I fish out of a SOT alot, not a cold weather kayak guy though, but I'm not keen on the idea of waders in the boat- if you dump and they fill with water that could lead to a dangerous situation IMO

A drytop, layered over chestwaders and under a PFD will keep the water out of the chestwaders. I have tested it in ice-out conditions several times. Most of the time, I actually wear drypants, which have less overlap than good chestwaders do. Been doing that for 7 years, on whitewater as well as flatwater with no issues.

I can't state strongly enough that proper clothing is only a small part of paddling safely in cold water. Proper self-rescue technique, knowledge of the water you are paddling, and judgement are all much more important. Going out on a small trout lake, where the longest swim would be less than 100 m, is a very different venture than heading out on Lake O. Moving water is a completely different story: multiply all the dangers by 10. Unfortunately, you can buy the clothing and convince yourself that you are prepared.

Chest waders and a good drytop will keep you dry, especially if you have a PFD over the drytop. Just as important, your SOT needs to be rigged so that it does not impede re-entry. Ice-out is no time to find out how easy/hard it is to re-enter your yak. You should practice in conditions that are no threat to your safety.

Misfish, you should have read the entire post: spoons and raps are on sale at WalMart. The drysuit was ordered directly from Level 6

Snowing, -18, 30 cms of hard base on the ski trails: don't see any daffodils

It really depends on how you are going to use your GPS. I don't use it for species, but do use it a lot on both back lake adventures and navigating on GBay trips. I also use it to find ATV trails that make good back country MTB riding. I have been using them for about 4 years and find them very useful. The accuracy is good, and the fact that there are so many searchable features makes it worth it IMHO. Trails - ATV, hiking, skiing - are actually tracks, which can be very useful.

I love the MNR conspiracy theories that float around out there. I do dragonfly surveys and help with the Ontario Herp atlas, and get told several times every year that the MNR releases them to control (pick one) mosquitoes, blackflys, stable flys....

Cougars to control coyotes. Massassauga rattlesnakes to control turkeys. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. We have a local guy that swears he has killed "a bagfull of rattlesnakes" on his property, and that the MNR released them to control turkeys. Same story.....the pics always mysteriously disappear.

Sorry I can't help with Boshkung....never fish it. One of the nice things about Koshlong is that it has lots of shoreline crown land: great rocky points for swimming, shore lunches, cliff diving. Probably can't go wrong with either.

Lots of smallmouth in Koshlong. You can have a great day fishing rocky points and submerged logs for small/medium sized fish. The bigger ones - and there are bruisers in there - are tougher to find: pelagic, baitfish chasing smallies that are just as likely to be suspended above 100 FOW as they are to be hanging around rocky points.

Go out in the mornings, and you will likely have the lake to yourself. It's get busy with boats in the later afternoon/early evening.

 

One winter at our place in Grand Valley both of my parents saw a large cat in our back yard.

I asked them to describe it to me and it was definitely a cougar.

Wish they thought of taking a pic.

If I had a nickel......Really, I'm not hard to convince....just some solid proof. I hope Chris's samples prove to be that, it would make the woods that much more interesting.

As much as I like the idea of cougars in the area, I still am not convinced. I know a bunch of folks that basically work and live in the bush - biologists, foresters, trappers - and also know that game cameras are all over the place: but no photos, no solid tracks, no scat, no kill sites, no credible witness. I am still waiting to be convinced.

Get the right tracks for your ATV, or it's a nightmare. We groom trail with a tracked Grizzly and it's a beast: pulls great, steers great. It eats gas compared to a snowmobile, and is waaaay colder to ride.

I think you are looking at a couple of weeks for decent ice. Most lakes, even smaller ones, were open 3 days ago. Now we are looking at 20-30 cms of snow over the next 7 days.