akaShag

Yeah, I forgot about my spud. I had one hell of a good ice spud made for me by a buddy in Owen Sound. I met a couple old buddies on Lake Clear up by Eganville, and loaned my spud to "SKIP" who promptly spudded a big hole and about what would be the second last strike, away it went into deep water. I was unhappy............ After that I always put a lanyard on my spuds! Fisherman, that was when I found out that Marcel was back in the outfit, he was there with Skip G. Doug

back to Fisherman.............was I with you on the day the guy was going to swim between the huts? And was that me? Doug

Buddy of mine won a REALLY nice spinning reel in an ice derby. Next time we were on the ice he decided to swap the spool he had on for one with a different line on it, ie heavier or lighter, I forget which. He starts taking the front drag disc off the reel (which holds the spool in place.) I tell him, "Phil, you want to move away from your hole so you don't drop that down the hole." He looks at me, says, "No way" or something similar, then plop, roll, plunk, down goes his reel part straight down the hole......... I MAY have said, "I TOLD YOU SO." Years ago, fishing out of commercial ice huts on Simcoe, we snagged several items including a hole skimmer and a Coleman lantern. They were the old style huts with one gigantic hole in the centre of the hut, and I understand it was common practice for anglers to enjoy a few wobbly pops out in the shacks.... The operator said there was any amount of stuff down there including minnow buckets, rods and reels, etc. Cell phones did not exist at that time, so there were none of those........ Yet another time out on Simcoe, over Beaverton way about 1983 or so, there was a hut operator who was a pretty tough chap, seems to me he had been in combat and had caught a bullet in the teeth (and lived). Anyways, at the end of the day he came out to pick us up with his sled, and there was blood all over the place. what the hell? When we asked him about the blood, he told us the group that was out near us were a bunch of gay men (we already knew that since one of them propositioned my buddy on the way out that morning) and anyways when he went to check on them, they were in the shack buck naked, smoking dope. One guy jumped down the ice hole and was sinking, when the hut operator grabbed the gaff and gaffed him through his cheek to pull him back into the shack. So although I did not SEE the guy dropping down the ice hole, I am thinking that is the oddest "item" I ever heard of going down a hole. And I am here to tell you, a gaff wound to a cheek leaves a lot of blood. Doug

That puts me in mind of my two years in Victoria, BC.............even on days when it did not actually rain in the winter months, we had fog that rolled in with droplets. If you weren't being soaked vertically you were getting it horizontally. At the end of February 1974, I heard a radio announcement that the Greater Victoria Area had had something like FIFTY MINUTES of sunshine that month. Freakin' BRUTAL.

Well, I am blessed with many friends, and many of us have been through a pile of crap together: deaths, disease, divorce, illness, loss, you name it. And we have been though lots of good times also, and when a guy is strong and on top of things, he can help the guy who is struggling. That was why we started calling our fishing and hunting trips, and this probably 20 years ago, "Male Healing Retreats." And every one of us has had his healing moments and times of need, but we help each other out. I think that many of us who enjoy time in the outdoors can share that passion on a very fundamental level, which helps our buddies to deal with their challenges. Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel............yeah you are right, the burners on that BBQ are left centre right, and a full rack of ribs takes up the entire width, so the end with the lit burner (and smoke) would get burned. The GOOD news is, my BBQ is just about ready for retirement, so I can look at a few new-to-me features that I am learning about here. But I still can't see selling two scoped rifles to buy one of those Green Monsters......... Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel..............thanks for that. Where does one buy a smoke box like that? (Or probably I could use an aluminum pie plate or similar, if you are using aluminum foil for some of the chips?) Thinking I might give the (natural gas) BBQ a try to smoke some ribs. My smoker has smaller racks than this BBQ so I have to cut a rack of ribs into three or four pieces to put the smoke to them. But a full rack of ribs is nicer to deal with (and I think has better flavour). Hmmmmmm......... But I don't see myself selling two scoped rifles to buy one of those Green Egg machines.......... Doug

back to Sour_Squirrel.............. I have been smoking meat, fish, etc for over thirty years but always have used a dedicated smoker. How does that work with a BBQ? I am guessing you'd have to set the heat down quite low so as not to dry out the stuff being smoked, BUT you need enough heat to make the wood chips smoulder............. and what the heck are flavourizer bars???????????? TYIA Doug

I often tell people, and I mean it, I would rather have minus thirty than plus thirty any time! But having said that, I did NOT go ice fishing this morning at minus thirty plus a North wind............ Doug

How did we all know this thread was going to turn into a dick-waving contest? (there is supposed to be a "rolls eyes" emoticon here...............but not for this site with my NON Google Chrome browser............

back to manitoubass2: Yes absolutely the jig was hitting bottom, zero question. As for the graph, sometimes it could not make up its "mind" as to the depth, and was giving readings all over the map, but then would settle down on the six foot figure. Definitely not slush underneath, and we have not had the conditions this year which would have created it, ie deep snow then warm then cold. Back to Mike Rousseau, no I did not look down any of the holes, but that would have potentially been very useful. It was a bright day, rather brisk with a North wind 25 gusting to 40 and minus 15ish, and I did not think to lay on the ice with a cover over my head to look down a hole.

back to RDR, nope, we have had very little snow, certainly nowhere near enough to sink the ice.

back to kraTTor............. I was thinking about lave level changing (which can and does happen on lakes that are controlled by dams in this area), but to the best of my knowledge, there is no such outlet or inlet on Loughborough. And I have fished this lake on and off for over thirty years, so I "SHOULD" know if such a thing exists.

back to Chris Brock............. Not a chance of a shoal that big going north-south on Loughborough. The glaciers left this part of the country very much marked from East-Northeast to West-Southwest, and this shoal, which is a LONG one on that same orientation, is absolutely not that wide. The last hole I drilled heading North I should have been over about 120 FOW.

back to Sinker...........nope I was not drinking, but I did say to Glenn if we go across the lake to the 80 foot spot we fished last week and hit 6.1 feet, I am going to start drinking................

OK folks, put on your thinking caps............ Quite a number of years ago, when the winter lake trout season on Loughborough was still closed, I headed out to a shoal I know that in those years produced excellent catches of BIG bluegills. In fact we called them BULLgills. I figured, if American ice anglers can jig up a bunch of bluegills, I should be able to do likewise. Important note and disclaimer: I have never iced a significant number of bluegills on a single outing, and would value tips on that.......... Anyways, I located the shoal, which tops out at less than ten FOW, then drops precipitously to over a hundred. I drilled a couple holes, and set up my ultralights. I was probably using live minnows on one rig, and a small jig and 2" twister on the other. Then WHAM!!! About a six pound laker slammed into one of my rigs, and after a brief tussle I landed it. (I had figured something that big had to be a pike, but nope, it was a lake trout. Back down the hole immediately. A couple minutes later WHAM!!! Another lake trout, this one probably eight pounds, and right back down the hole. Two nice trout in five or ten minutes, but clearly anybody observing me would have figured I was targeting trout, so I left. I had kind of forgotten about that but was thinking about it again a couple days ago. So today four of us went out on ATVs to try to find the shoal, and this time we WANTED to catch lakers. One lad has fished the lake for fifty years and was certain the shoal was in such a spot. I did not think so, but humoured him and we drilled half a dozen holes. Water ranged from 32 to 42 feet, or similar numbers. Not what I was looking for...............so we left two guys there then one buddy and I went back to where I figured the shoal had to be (and yes I was using my hand-held GPS with the bathymetry detail.......) I drilled a couple holes. The Marcum said 5.1 feet in both, and a jig dropped down the holes confirmed that depth. So I kept drilling holes further out into the "deep water." Hole after hole between five and six FOW, in all over about a hundred yards of travel at ninety degrees to the lay of the shoal. There is no way whatsoever that the actual BOTTOM was that shallow, and occasionally the graph would give a much deeper reading, BUT the jig showed the skinny water. Our conclusion was that there had to be a second layer of ice down five or six feet in that area. I have never seen this before. OK sleuths, what the heck was going on? Doug

Done, I think...............last time I was on Facebook was a couple years ago.............. Third time's a charm eh Bunk? Doug

OH I REALLY HATE THIS WEBSITE AND MY INABILITY TO POST STUFF!!!!!!! (And no, I am not willing to go to GOOGLE CHROME!!!!!)

One of my favourite Rick Mercer pieces: Doug

Those of us with grey hair, or thin hair, or no hair at all, know what you mean. I am reminded of the saying: "We are too soon old, and too late wise." Doug

Pulled pork?

nope, no brown trouts were stocked into any bodies of water.................

back to Brian B.......... We got up early to fish a lake loaded with jumbo perch and walleye. The wind was 40 kph or similar. My host owned a 12 foot tinnie. And the forecast was for the winds to INCREASE (which they did). So while I would rather have been putting the steel to perch and walleye, there was no way we were going to get out on the water. Which caused the fall-back to the liquid lunch and all that. Doug

Yeah, that was a rough one. But as lunches go, it was pretty darned good. At the time. Not so much later. Doug

oh yeah, and then sometime thereafter............. That was a rough one.............