Billy - Curtiss

Thanks guys!

It's the right hand for me all the way!

A good buddy of mine has set up rental of a cottage on Leonard Lake in July for one week and invited me along. I just got approved for a one week vacation yesterday at work so it looks like I'm good to go! The only thing I know about this lake is that it's just north of Lake Muskoka. As such, I assume that it's heavily populated and likely heavily fished as well. Can anyone tell me anything about this lake? What species of fish are there to be had and how decent (or not!) is the fishing? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Well I know there's that old logging road that goes in a little ways at the south end of the lake, but I was under the impression that they blew out the bridge. Is there also a road through the bush right to the lake? Where is it?

Layer upon layer upon layer! And, have you ever seen 3 grown men spooning?!

Hey thanks. But I thought we weren't supposed to have the pics right on the page because it took up too much space? No?

So last week I made the trek to Sudbury to finally get a chance to do some ice fishing. I've never fished for trout in my life, and this was my first chance to do any ice fishing this winter, so it should go without saying that I was totally rife with glee! On top of all of this, we were heading out into no-man's land to camp in a tent in potentially arctic conditions so I was even more excited by the allure of the hardcore Canadian experience! With snowmobiles, sleighs and all of the other required accoutrements (did I mention plenty of beer?!) in tow, we set off westbound on Highway 17 to a small town called Massey. From Massey, we made our way north on an old, fairly well traveled logging road (also known as Highway 553) all the way to the end of the line which is at a place called Richie Falls. We hitched the sleighs to the snowmobiles and got them all loaded up and hit the trail that would take us to Sauble Lake. We made our way across the rather vast expanses of Sauble Lake to another lesser used trail through the woods. This brought us to a small unnamed body of water that we had to cross before hitting one last trail that brought us to our destination : Big Trout Lake. All told, I reckon it was probably only about 50 km by snowmobile from Richie Falls to Big Trout Lake but given the conditions, it took us at least an hour and a half to get there. From the moment we got there, I was incredibly excited. There's nobody for miles around and it's a fairly sizable lake with ridiculously low fishing pressure. Any time of the year other than winter, it's virtually impossible to hit this lake unless you fly in. It's basically the antithesis of my metropolitan Toronto lifestyle! We spent some time scouring the lake for what we deemed to be a worthy spot, and my friends Dan and Jordan drilled holes and set up lines while I dug snow to set up camp. The snow was fairly deep but proved to provide a decent barrier to the winds we would be forced to contend with over the course of 2 days and 2 nights. I dug out one spot for our luxurious sleeping quarters: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270004.jpg http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270005.jpg and another spot for the kitchen / dining room / beer swilling den: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270006.jpg http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270022.jpg Jordan caught a nice little 3 pound lake trout almost instantly, but otherwise, our efforts were focused on getting prepared for the cold night that lay ahead as it was late afternoon by the time we got out there. Luckily we had the foresight to bring a chainsaw so we had no problem finding a sufficient supply of fuel to maintain the fire that raged for the duration. Sleep that first night wasn't the greatest but it would prove to be a whole lot preferable to the cold that hit us on Friday night. We woke up at the crack of dawn on Friday and set about to fixin' up a nice hot meal to kick off the day. While cooking over an open fire is always grand, I find it altogether more satisfying cooking over an open fire in the winter! You can't really ever go wrong with home fries : http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270010.jpg Once breakfast was consumed, the fishing began. It wasn't too long before I caught my first trout ever: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270014.jpg Admittedly, not a very big fish but I was super stoked nonetheless! A short while later Dan caught this bad boy: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270009.jpg and I hauled in this bad boy: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270016.jpg Throughout the course of the day, we caught many others but only kept half a dozen. We did see a party of 5 snowmobiles that afternoon fishing the other end of the lake but they were gone after about 2 hours and we didn't see another soul otherwise. That evening, it hit -30 with the wind chill and we slept with all of our layers on in order to pull it off. We also spent much time in front of the fire to stay warm: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270001.jpg We fished the next day until about 2:00 PM and caught maybe 6 or 7 more before packing it up and heading out: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u114/Bl...nt=41270024.jpg My friends being the experienced anglers that they are were bummed that they didn't haul in any 20 pounders but I was happy to have caught anything at all and we all had a blast otherwise. I wish I could do this more often!

Lots of good points. Thanks guys!

I recently read an illuminating article on the merits of running your line direct to your lures and/or rigs. Apparently this enables the lure to run more true resulting in more action. Since I fish for monster pike a fair amount, I'm a little hesitant but I think I'll give it a whirl nonetheless. Is there any consensus on this at all?

Thanks for the heads up. We'll see how it goes then.

I'm going to head up to Canal Lake tomorrow before sunrise. I'll be fishing from shore and was wondering if anybody has any tips in terms of spots. I also cannot seem to find much info on this lake in cyberspace. I read that the lake contains bass, pike and walleye. Is that about right?

Thanks for the input gang! Sharper, where are those 3 little ponds? I didn't explore the park very much. Are you talking about the Butterfly Estuary area or whatever it's called?

I went to the east portion of Humber Park just before sunrise this morning to try my luck. I was casting from the rocks on shore near the last bend before it opens right up to the lake proper. I guess at about 8:00 AM, there was a full-on feeding frenzy and fish were airborne all over the dang' place. I assumed they were bass but I'm not sure. They were rather sizable fish...I'd say up in the 4 - 5 pound range and up. I tried out everything in my rather limited arsenal. Spinners, spinner baits, spoons, top water lures, and Texas-rigged Berkley Powerbait Worms. In spite of my efforts and all of the activity (they were acrobatic for at least one hour) I didn't even get a single bite. Does anybody familiar with the area know if they were in fact bass? And if so, what are they feeding on? I'm going to head down again Saturday morning and I'm hoping that I fare better.

A friend and I are thinking about heading up to Lake Simcoe for a day of fishing tomorrow. We're heading up from Toronto. I read somewhere that Cook's Bay and Roach's Point are the hot spots. I don't know this lake at all. Are these areas close to Barrie at all? We are going to need to rent a boat and aren't sure if we should be renting / launching from Barrie or elsewhere. If anyone could help me out, that would be amazing!

Thanks for the input gang! FHR, I'm totally into fishing for pike. I'm 34 and fished a fair amount when I was a teenager. I've been in Toronto close to a decade, but grew up in the North Bay area and fished Lake Nosbonsing mostly. I just really got back into fishing after a 10 day trip this summer 100 km north of Webbwood near the headwaters of the west arm of the Spanish River. Talk about pike fishing! And not a soul in sight it's so remote.

Hey gang. I just recently got back into fishing and was wondering if anyone knows of any great places to fish in and around the downtown Toronto area. I don't have a boat, so heading out into Lake Ontario isn't really an option. I've tried Grenadier Pond for bass and pike to no avail and I also tried the Humber River a bit south of Old Mill with much the same result. I'm primarily interested in bass. Any insight that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.