BillM

It's a 383c no? Saw it yesterday while at CostCo. We run Humminbird fishfinders, no problems yet. Why not search the net for some reviews?

Zipties

Old salmon fishing net is going to make due for us this weekend. I've seen some homemade cradles out of burlap and some 2x2's.. Looks like a cheap and viable solution.

Rangerguy, sounds like a good plan Can someone fill me in on specific water temp ranges and what the muskies will be doing? I've searched quite a bit, but haven't found any hard info, ie 50-58degrees - spawning, bring up your baits and go pickerel fishing I hope the French is close to the 60 degree mark or over, if not I think it's going to be a very tough weekend.

Lew, you're in with the cool crowd man

Gorgeous fish!

Great advice guys! I brought down the flyrod today..I haven't touched one in years and did it ever show Tried a few drifts with some dry flies without any luck, I guess I wasn't matching the hatch good enough, because there were fish taking surface bugs, just not mine. Also tried some wet flies, but with my floating line that was a bit of a pain. I gotta admit I got some nice fish to follow the wet fly (10 inches or so) but no takers. Alot of the smaller fish were hitting the tiny inline spinners. Got a few good strikes on a new BlueFox 01 spinner, then donated that to a tree. Luckily I had an old Mepps spinner in the bottom of my vest, used that for the remainder of the night. I am going to hit up a different section of the river as I have fished this one section quite a bit the past couple of days.. No raises from any big fish, and I remembered the Muskol this time! Going to get rid of the 6lb line on my spinning setup and put on some 4lb Sensation.

Fish are most likely going to be shallow. You might do well with a jointed Believer crawled slowly along the surface. Also, you might wanna use smaller baits in the spring as it will match the hatch a bit better, especially if the fish are stacked up in the shallows.

A topwater bite would be awesome. I have a new TopRaider some Magnum Spooks and soon to be Doc's (thanks for the advice Lew) that I'd love to try out this weekend.

Guys, he is using fly fishing gear

As my first official muskie season, I am taking notes The French doesn't have an abundant amount of shallow water weedy backbays, so whatever I find *should* hold something. I just wish there were better maps of the area, trying to make up a game plan has been a pain in the ass so far. But the presentation will be smaller and slow for sure.

Zamboni, I'm having a really bad case of amnesia today Al, logs everywhere!!! I've donated quite a few hooks already!

Dan, I'll pick one of those up before I head down next time Thanks!

Well, I had a few hours to kill tonight so I decided to head back down to the little stream I fished yesterday. Water had really cleared up, level dropped a bit and it seemed more like a stream now, instead of a ragging muddy mess . I had my ultralight gear along with a little hook, a sinker and half a worm. Dropped it down into a few logs jams and picked up some small brookies. Man, I still can't get over the colours of these fish. I didn't fish any of the faster water, basically looking for eddies and deeper pools to drop the worm into. I happened onto a real nice spot. Pulled one small speck out of there then about a 1/2lb sucker!!! lol Did that ever get my heart rate going.. I threw on a little mepps spinner and a peice of worm and made a few casts. Had a couple of hits but never got a hook into one. After I was done with the spinner, I put the hook/worm back on... As I was doing this a big dark rainbow came out of the log jam... What a fish!! I put my worm right in front of it's face, it was interested for a split second, then swam off and sunk down into the deeper part of the pool. I did notice fish were taking flies off the surface.. I am no stranger to flyfishing, but it's been years since I've picked one up. One thing I am going to pick up is a noddle rod.. I could really use the extra 3ft it would provide to get out in the middle of those pools. Is there something I am missing out on? More spinners? small spoons? float setups? Perhaps little red worms instead of your average dew worms? Should I bring the flyrod down and give it a shot? Biggest fish I've pulled out of there is about 5inches, there has to be a way of picking up the bigger boys Thanks guys!! I would have taken pics of the few small fish I caught, but wanted to get them off the hook and back into the water asap...

If you want muskie baits, you can't beat JB's.. Great selection, decent prices...

Awesome report!!! I got out today to a local stream thanks to some advice from a OFC'r.. One little brookie about 4inches long.. Gorgeous little fish Water was very dirty due to the rains lastnight.. Caught him on a simple hook/worm. Can't wait to get back there once the water clears up!

Muskol, the old stuff I've had in my tackle box for years. You know, the stuff they can't sell anymore

If anyone would like to PM me regarding Brookies, please feel free BTW, I'm 100% catch and release (allergic to fish, so no choice) Not asking for your honey holes, just a general area I can check out. I haven't caught a brook trout since fishing Algonquin over 15 years ago.

Why not take Rd 164 north out of London and intersect Hwy 89. Take 89 East until Airport Rd, then north on Airport, through Cashtown Corners, through Stayner then a right into Wasaga Beach at the end of Airport Rd. Depending on where abouts in Wasaga you are going you could take 26 east in Stayner, hit up Klondike Rd north(on your left) just past Sunnidale Corners and go into Wasaga that way. I avoid 26 like the plague on the weekends... Take the back way, might be a bit longer, but a lot better then 401/400/26.

Thanks for the heads up Roy! It's funny how 'loose' the knot looks with 130lb flouro. It almost looks like I could undo it with my fingers

IT outsourcing, it's nothing new. Give the India guys a break.

I picked up some 24" 130lb Flouro leaders and JB's.. They are tied, not crimped.. Something I should be worried about? I should probably just start making my own

Same thing happened to my mom up at the French River. Fall fishing for smallmouth, she gets one on and starts bringing it up, for some reason it feels like she is now snagged. It is moving, but it's dead weight. She pulls it up to the surface and all my dad and her see is the mouth of a giant muskie. My mom couldn't get over how big it was... Only the head was sticking out of the water.. It opened its mouth and out pops a 3-4lb smallmouth bass still hooked Definitely a 'super fish'.. My dad's caught quite a few big ski's but he said this fish was in another league. The smallmouth bass was released none worse for the wear.

I am jealous... The stream I went to check out yesterday just didn't hold any deep pools. So I ended up drowning worms in a muddy river trying to catch bullheads, lol

carp-starter: The battery compartment is securely sealed with screw-in fastener-sealers. I found this while searching google.. There is no indication of fasteners anywhere?