MJL

- Fall steelhead

- No bugs that eat you alive or drink your blood

- Freshly baked pumpkin pies

- Turkey and other various meats (fried, baked and/or smoked) in quantities large enough for a meat induced coma.

- Halloween at the college campuses where the nurses can examine me for whatever ailments I may have, and the lady cops can arrest me for whatever reasons they want to

Very nice!

I remember back in 2004 my friends wanted to do a trip to Killarney but after receiving an e-mail from the friends of Killarney park of poor fishing due to acid rain, we canceled...Wish we never did. That place is beautiful. Really love the shots of the falcon. WTG

WTG Art

I never under-estimate the generosity and kindness of OFC members.

Earlier this spring, I was reunited with a certain magazine issue that I lost a few years ago, containing perhaps my favourite article of all time. A certain, generous OFNer shipped it from Hamilton to Scarborough for free . I’ve read it at least 2-3 times a week since it arrived in my mail box . karma does exist and what went around definitely came around to the right person.

When I joined in 2005, I came for the tips but stayed because of the people (and Tuesday night chats )

I just got into ice fishing this past winter almost exclusively on lake Simcoe for lakers. I don’t have an ATV or snowmobile either. I can’t imagine walking the distances we walked on the ice with a gas powered auger (Anywhere from 4-7km in total per trip depending on how the action and snow was). I picked up an 8” Finbore III and it was way easier to cut holes than any other manual auger I’ve tried. I prefer getting both hands cranking VS 1 single one. It takes me about 20-30 seconds to cut a hole through 2ft of ice…It takes most people about 10 or less with the same auger

Welcome back Rich. Great line-up of fish. Some spectacular specimens for sure

I’ll be going to Ogdensburg, NY with my dad and fishing the St. Lawrence in the CanAm Carp Cup tournament. I’ll be on Team Canada for the third straight time, aiming to bring home our third straight victory against the American carpers.

48 straight hours of no sleep, chucking bait into the water at 100 yards and hopefully tons of fish fighting. Definitely need a long weekend after this weekend

Nicely done guys. Great report

We had the radio on and listened with jealously to the charter guys and locals as they were nailing fish at an indecent rate, all of them filling their boxes within a couple hours. Our newbie-ness was never more painful than while watching the boat next to us bang fish one after another while our four lines did not even twitch.

I know the feeling. I spent all ice season with my friend skunking on lakers, only to come home and read the reports of other just smashing them

Coming home:

- "Conditions weren't that great today"

- Log into OFC

- "No we really do suck"

IMO nothing much beats a rare (almost blue) sashimi grade tuna steak... YUM!!!!

You know it!

Most of the fish I do enjoy eating come from the sea. I don’t usually keep any of the fish I catch though. I’ve never tried crappie, walleye, bluegill or pike so I'm probably missing out. I really like eating the oily types of fish like mackerel, herring, tuna and salmon the most. I guess I have an acquired taste for it. I do like halibut in fish & chips as well as small baked trout and BBQ eel (from the sushi restaurant). This season I kept 2 small brown trout that swallowed the hook too deep and they were pretty tasty.

Not surprising. I’ve been purchasing a few e-books myself (all fishing related so far). Instead of paying $25-$40 for the soft-cover versions, I paid $6-$12 for the pdf version. I find them more convenient to use as well. If I need a hard copy, I can print out whatever I need myself. I can also read the pdf version basically anywhere with a computer. A few books I purchased didn’t have an index at the end, so the search function in the pdf was a super fast way to find stuff.

With a dictionary, I haven’t used a paper one since high school - Even then it wasn't a massive one. I much prefer online ones for convenience. In any case, 95+% of the time I actually needed one, I was on the computer anyway writing stuff for school.

Most die but not all

Some live forever and become immortal...

...in the minds of those fortunate enough to hook into them

They do

So Ryan, did you obtain all the secret brook trout spots from Musky or Specks like we talked about? Payment pending

Great report!

Loon makes something called UV Knot Strength…I’ve never used it but I used their UV wader repair stuff to make a loop in my fly line (beyond repairing my waders with)...Seemed to work pretty well and was strong.

Other products you can take a look at commonly used by fly anglers are zap-a-gap and Pliobond. I think both are waterproof/water resistant.

I've never tried super glue or crazy glue...If you have some around the house it might be worth a try experimenting with it at home before you hit the water.

You got my interest at Aurora trout and my mouth started watering watching the vid. Awesome report Mike!

Congrats to HTHM on getting his Walleye and Sauger

If I only had 1 rod to own, a 6’6”-7’ medium action rod would be a good all-rounder – I’ve used mine for panfish, bass, walleye, steelhead, salmon and pike. Something rated 6-12 or 6-15lb line and 1/4 to 5/8oz lures (or similar) is probably the bread and butter rod most people have at least 1 of.

Something like a Shimano Sedona or Symetre or Saros reel in a 2500 size and a 6’6”-7’ Shimano Clarus or Compre would probably fit into your budget depending on what combo you would choose to go with.

You can also go the Daiwa route for reels (like the Tierra in the 2500 size) and a value-end St. Croix rod for similar money.

Growing up, there was (in no particular order):

- The float rod phase: When I learned how to build rods in high school and could easily obtain components from G. Loomis Canada for relatively cheap. I think at one point I owned 8 different float rods (11’6 – 14’) mostly from Loomis, Lamiglas and Hardy. But I made money on almost all the rods when I sold them which was good

- The centrepin collecting phase. Some of which only saw the water once and others I regret selling/trading now for what I sold/traded them for.

- The entering into the wonderful world of fly fishing phase (I was quite partial to Sage fly rods)

- The entering into the wonderful world of ice fishing phase...It wasn’t too bad but I’m still down a portable hut, survival suit and a really good set of boots

Ironically I never really did spend that much in a year on carp…Except in 2008 when I blew a wad of $ on a new custom carp rod and a new baitrunner

I think I’m on the road to recovery and salvation. So long as I don’t pick up any other types of fishing (Like for muskies and saltwater toothy critters), I should be fine

This year:

$11 on corn for carp…

$70 on NY licenses

$100 on terminal tackle and lures for trout and walleye

$18 on worms

$18 on minnows

$9 on leeches

I’m doing well comparatively

I'm usually in there Tues nights...Ironically the only other person I've chatted to recently was Rapala Boy.LOL

Yah gotta love the man's spirit and enthusiasm.

HH

He's MOTIVATED! MOTIVATED! MOTIVATED! MOTIVATED!

I can't stop watching this!

Hey Daniel

AngSpec should have some. You can also try tying your own flies and jigs for cheap (provided you have a vice, bobbin and scissors).

That man is a genius!

Oooooookay... Until I saw the link I thought this was one of the weirder combinations I had ever seen - St. John Fish Sandwiches and Antiques

When I was a kid, there was a place called Aqua-java at the local plaza. It was an aquarium pet shop that also sold coffee, sandwiches and donuts. It closed down after 3 months.

I caught a smallie that was 12.7lbs from the St. Lawrence...I forgot my camera though

Sheephead

They love glow in the dark spoons too. I often get them while fishing piers for the salmon early in the run. They're quite omnivorous...I got a couple this summer while fishing for carp using corn

You get the cigar, Mike. You're the first person to use the word "centripetal" on this board! I know cause I've been watching.

Actually Roy, the forces involved are probably centrifugal not centripetal.

Either way, I'm pretty sure no one else has used the word centrifugal either.

High school calculus is all flooding back to me now.LOL

I might start using it to figure out what the heck MJL is talking about

You need Facebook for that

That’s very similar to the helicopter rig that surf and carp fishermen use for distance casting. It is a low tangle rig in flight because as the lead weight travels through the air, the leader (and bait) will rotate around the mainline (I’m guessing from centripetal force). Mind you it works a lot better if both the leader and the mainline are stiff. I’ve personally never used it with lures (or outside of carp fishing). I’ve only used it with extremely durable baits (like cow corn and boilies for carp) as the rotational forces will cause softer baits to fly off the hook.

I normally rig up my bottom bouncing/drift rigs with split shot on a dropper line. If you have a mainline, a swivel, and then your leader and hook, you can leave a longer tag end on the knot which joins your mainline to the swivel – Put your split shots on this tag end of line. If your split shots snag up, one gentle pull will usually slide them off the dropper.