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Cudz is the man on Simcoe. He told me to go to Thorah island since I was around there and I was rewarded. I think Thorah is close enough to where you will be.

Just got back a little while from Simcoe. Fishing was a little slow, and although we managed few fish, at least they were decent. Caught 3 fish in total, and also had 1 break off and missed 2 more on jerkbaits. First one was 2 pounds, around Thorah island on a dropshotted stickbait. Second fish my girlfriend caught, a 4 pounder which was the big one of the day, again on a dropshotted stickbait. She was very excited about that fish as was I. She's definitely getting into the fishing thing now, which is a very good thing for me. These two were caught around 1 pm. We took a break because she was getting sea sick and started back up again around Thorah. I caught another 2 pounder on a jerkbait which I was running over a huge weedbed and missed a couple more. The jerkbait fish fought like crazy because he was hooked in the head, but I managed to get the hook out and he swam off fine. Last eventful thing was my girlfriend hooking into what was probably around a 3 pounder. This was near the canal to get to the marina and the only fish we saw that wasn't at Thorah. It ripped out some drag and then jumped a few times, more drag, jumped again and somehow snapped the line - probably my fault as I wasn't really checking her line during the day and it probably got worn down from wear and tear or the 4 pounder. Too bad because landing that guy would have been a good way to end the trip. We also tried crankbaits, tubes, spinners and jigs, but didn't get anything on those. I'd like to thank Cudz and SlowPoke for the PMs they sent with advice. Cudz explicitly told me to head for Thorah and that's where my girlfriend caught the 4 pounder and where we actually caught all our fish. If it wasn't for him, we may have caught nothing because I probably wouldn't have bothered going if not for his advice. I wasn't able to find any boulders or sizable rocks and didn't have electronics, but I did find semi-gravelly bottom with some weeds here and there and that's where we got our fish. I'm definitely going to go back again. Simcoe's a nice lake and I'm happy with my first outing there, some nice fish, and no wasted time today with garbage fish like rock bass and sunfish. But the boat traffic is crazy and some people drive these huge battleships right by your dinky boat when you're fishing like you're not even there Lastly, all fish were released and swam off strong.

thanks for the advice. i will give that a shot. sight fishing for them would solve the problem of locating them based on structure, depth, etc. actually, i've seen some of the pics that Cudz and Jdub have put up and they're ridiculous. if i do see them around i will stalk them from afar don't really expect to get bass like them, but if i could just get a few for my girlfriend, that would be great. i have her partially sold on the fishing thing because she caught a few nice ones at algonquin, so if i can follow that up with another good outing, i think she will be on her way to becoming a fishing addict. which should make it easier to buy more fishing junk if anyone's on the water tomorrow stop by and say hi. Chinese dude and his girlfriend in a rental. if there are lots of Chinese out on the water, you can differentiate us by the fact that we'll be the only ones throwing back all the fish we catch -- j/k

I'm headed up to Simcoe tomorrow with the girlfriend to do some smallmouth fishing. Hoping to follow up a decent fishing trip at Algonquin with one here. I think one more decent fishing trip and she will be hooked. Never been to Simcoe before so I'd appreciate any tips anyone may have. Not looking for anyone's spots or anything like that. Just some general guidelines on what I should be looking for. Renting a boat at the Trent Talbot Marina for a day, won't have electronics which is one reason I'm looking for any help I can get beforehand. I'm planning to primarily use tube jigs, dropshot stickbaits, and assorted jerkbaits. Thanks

Back from Tom Thomson last week and I thought I'd share my results. Caught lots of little bass on the way to Tom Thomson in the Little Oxtongue river. One huge bass came up for my girlfriends bait as she was reeling it in, but she wasn't paying attention until it was out of the water. We caught nothing at Tom Thomson for about 2 hours and then we found a piece of shoreline where I caught a 1.5 pound smallie. Since we caught something there we fished it for a while and I landed a 3 pounder and a bunch of 1 pounders. All were caught near lily pads, stumps, brush and logs. My girlfriend caught nothing the first day and was pretty discouraged. I fished around our campsite which was on an island and had tons of great structure around like rocks, boulders, stumps, logs but I didn't even get a bite. The next day we fished our campsite area again but nothing. I didn't really get it as there was great structure there, adjacent to deep water, but no bites. As soon as we moved to our piece of shoreline we fished the day before, we started catching fish in numbers. My girlfriend finally caught a couple of half pound bass, and eventually landed a 2.5-3 pouner which was under a log. She was pretty happy about that, as was I since I think I have her semi-hooked on fishing now. I caught another 3 pounder around there and she got what was probably a 2 pounder. I lost 3 or 4 decent fish over the 2 days we were there, one which wrapped my line around some lily pads, the others I lost on what I assume were weak hooksets - they were on ripping out line then they were gone. Caught no laketrout. Tried the 3-way swivel rig without success. Also tried jigging/dropshotting deeper water for bass, but didn't catch anything that way. Hard to find underwater structure without electronics. All fish were caught in fairly shallow water near some kind of visible structure. I still don't really understand the lake though. There were parts of the lake that were prime locations for bass and there wasn't even a fish there. My guess would be that it has something to do with the fact that the lake isn't listed as having smallies. It's connected to bodies of water with smallies, but there is a beaver dam which blocks off access to the lake. So maybe a small number of bass get in and hang around certain parts of the lake while other parts have no fish. Who knows? Pretty much all the fish were caught on weightless stickbaits or dropshotted stickbaits.

i am going to take a shot at lakers, but i have a lot more experience with bass, so if i'm getting skunked with lakers, i'll probably just focus on bass. awesome! hopefully i can do as well as you.

sweet! you just made my day. now i know there are smallies in there. so if i don't catch any, i'll know it'll be my lack of skill... i won't be wondering if there are any in there or not.

thanks for the replies. i guess no smallies for me. i don't think my girlfriend will want to portage to another lake. i guess i can try the 3 way swivel thing at tom thomson

Going camping this coming weekend to Tom Thomson Lake in Algonquin Park. I've done some searching and can't find much info about this lake. I'm hoping there will be some nice smallies in there. Anything else would be bonus I guess. So has anyone fished it before? Thanks.

Hi all, I've been driving all the way to St. Catharines for steelhead, mostly salmon right now. I go there because a friend lives there and we meet up at the pier to fish; it's easy to fish from and easy to release fish. The thing is that St. Catharines is kind of far. I've heard Bronte mentioned a few times which I think is in either Oakville or Mississauga. I don't know the specifics of exactly where to go. Could someone point me in the right direction for some spots closer to North York? Bronte or otherwise? I don't have waders, but I'd be willing to get some if that's what I need. Thanks in advance.

it was wrong. even the guy who's backyard the cougar was in didn't like it. find another way. like earlier stated, the cougar was here long before us. we destroy its habitat and encroach on its territory. humans owe the few remaining cougars a chance at survival

thanks for the recommendations guys. i'll keep everything said here in mind when i head over to LeBaron.

Hi all, Can anyone recommend a good net for Salmon pier fishing? In the summer I use a cradle for pike, musky and whatever else but I'm assuming I need a proper net for salmon. Something where my spoon wouldn't get tangled in the mesh and that's big enough for salmon, but fairly portable and not some huge monstrosity of a net. Thx in advance.

probably going to run 20 lb power pro on it. my friend got spooled once. he had a pretty dinky rod though. i thought maybe with a 9 footer you could get away with a 2500 Stradic. i don't think i'm going to chance it. i agree. i'm not going to take the risk. you go out there, finally hook into one and then it takes all your line. plus having a fish swim away with a $3 or $4 spoon plus $20 worth of line is pricey.

Is a 2500 series Stradic too small a reel for pier fishing? Will I get spooled if I have one on a 9ft rod?