kingjames_2nd

I have only fished the river in sand banks that connects the two lakes. It has giant rock bass, Normal Bass ( large or small mouth, I can't remember) and Gar! At least that's all I caught, There may be more. Places to check out specifically are anywhere up or down stream from the canoe rental hut, get between the lilly pads or down stream of the bridge near the rental hut, beside the rock cribs! I caught everything using a smallish hook, and a white 2 inch mr. twister with a few split shot weights, reeling slowly. My grandfather used to fish west lake for everything but he targeted eel... At least my mother remembers eating eal sandwiches as a kid. If you catch an eel now though, you got to throw it back!

I concur that there are no trout here. I would go as far as to say "since when are there ANY fish in Crowe?" In recent years the populations have been low apparently due to over fishing according to one local bait guy I spoke to. I have to agree on account of never getting so much as a bite there! I live close too so I go for the adventure and the hopes that maybe one day I might get one. Good luck!

Based on the heated discussion in the other thread, I am curious to see which side of the line the OFC community would fall if we could vote to either keep or eliminate the registry? How would you vote?

I will preface this by saying I was born in Toronto, raised in Barrie, went to school in Peterborough. I now live in the north. I have recently read many of the threads on OFC about the flossing, and snagging that goes on in various Lake O. rivers. I always think to my self when I read these types of threads: "I am glad I don't live down there any more. Yup. I sure am glad I don't have to contend shoulder to shoulder to fish a river beside a bunch of Snaggers" In fact, I have fished many lakes and rivers in S. Ontario including the Nottawasaga, Cobourge Brook, and a few others. I have never seen this so called snagging so I never really knew what the fuss was about... and then I went fishing today. I rushed home from work, grabbed my bait from the fridge, gear from the closet, back in the car and down to the river. I hiked into the river for the 5 minutes it takes and was disappointed to see 6 people all standing in and around the first pool up from the mouth. Too bad, I guess I'll have to fish the mouth ( usually less success here). As I fish I hear a cheer. I look up and these guys have a fish. A minute later another cheer, another fish. Again, another cheer another fish. I look and see what are they doing? All 6 of them are shoulder to shoulder in the one pool (where the fish have obviously stacked up), and they are bent over looking real carefully. With giant spoons, a small cast , maybe 3 or 4 feet in, and then a yank and lift. They're literally hooking and pulling them out by the tails, fins, guts and gills. They don't even have a semi-legitimate excuse that the fish was going for the bate but they set to early, or that it was any accident at all. Blatant snagging. Cheering like a bunch of Neanderthals. I hates em! I went out on Saturday and not a fish to be had. Went again today and not a fish, not that I stayed long... and these fools take home an un-ethical limit (maybe more). Why don't they just rob a grocery store, at least that wont have an effect on the fishery. On top of all this, they had a little boy with them jumping up and down with excitement for every fish they "Caught". Great, lets start the kids young so they can learn the slick ways of the ol'man. I called it in to the MNR and I really hope they get what they deserve but I have my doubts that even if they get caught, the punishment will fit the bill. I would have liked to have tossed them into the river and cleaned out our gene pool a little... but I guess I'm too civilized to be thinking like that.

Hey folks. I have some admitting to do. My friend was fishing when she caught that fish. She showed me the pic and my eyes jumped out of my head. I said "Tell me where you caught it or i'll steal the fish!" She wouldn't tell me so I stole it... with photoshop. Here is the real fish and its real owner as you can tell by her facial expression. She did release it to swim another day but not before taking its weight on the scale...... 6.4lbs caught with a worm and a red/white bobber off the dock.

Like a log!

Hey there folks, A friend of a friend caught this monster recently. I don't know the dimensions but what would you estimate the weight based on the pic? The guy in the picture is probably about 220 lbs.. maybe 5ft 8?

Surely the preferred temperature is a typo? Don't they like it lower? I thought that trout liked it down around 7 - 10 Celsius? Or is a lower temperature optimum whereas the max temp is 20c before they start floating. Do different trout species like different temperatures? Nice site, makes me want to go find some Auroras. - James

I use the Atlas of Canada TopoRama webpage for a lot of my snooping needs. http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/topo/map Its data is a little old, and some new portages / roads / buildings will be missing but the bonus is that some old portages that may have grown-in are still on the map!

Hello! I fish for everything, everywhere.... I like to go for steelhead on occasion, bass, pannies, trouts, pikes, and suckers too. I lost my last rod on my last trip of the last season - fell out of the canoe and straight to the bottom of the lake - I was sad. Now I need a new one. I am worried that anything I buy wont meet my high standards because I have bored peoples in the past and hated the feel / function of the real. I liked mine because it was very smooth running, easy to use, and generally no hassle. Do you recommend a certain ROD, REEL, or COMPANY? Do you mix and match? Do you grab the cheepest from Canadian Tire? Is it worth buying an expensive rod? Whats your favourite reel? I appriciate any thoughts on the subject! Happy fishing.

I am curious about whether dropping fish innards down the hole would work as a chum or would it deter fish?

I am planning to bring a friend out to Lake Scugog on the View Lake or Caesarea side. He is disabled and uses a manual wheel chair. Is the snow on the lake very deep so that it would impede a wheelchair and require a tobogan ride?

From the changes that will affect anglers: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/279507.pdf --> See Page 2 Does this mean sport licences have a limit of 300 sun fish and conservation licences a limit of of only 15? Perhaps it is a typo?

Hibernating bears and cougars usually try to choose a den on the north side of a hill or mountain. As the north side is generally colder and in more shade, the snow accumulates and creates more insulation keeping the den warmer than it would be on the south side. If you have any hills a den might be located on the north? Or maybe they want less snow so they can hunt more easily and they would be on the south!

2008-09 graduated in the summer. Geographic Information Systems. Lurking OFC is what helped me to survive. How are the salmon fry and tiny, tiney musky doing?

I built a paint can BBQ / Heater last winter. I took a single paint can, punched holes in it around the bottom 1 inch for air vents and then put in about 4 screws evenly distributed about 2 inches up from the bottom. I punched holes in the lid for air vents and bent the can a little so I could fit the lid inside. The lid rested on the screws to provide a false bottom. I then filled it up with charcoal and presto, a hand warmer and bbq. I used it in the open and it failed miserabley. The wind blew away any heat generated and I couldnt boil water or cook hotdogs! perhaps with a wind guard or inside it may have worked better. I also agree with burning it outside first to get rid of the chemicals. I also like the idea of building my own as a fun side project. I would like to see pictures of your product upon completion aswell. Also, I would show you pics of my contraption but I threw it away after its first use. The mailbox, BBQ/stove pictured above looks pretty good to me. Maybe thats the ticket. I imagine that too much heat would probably warp and possibly melt anything made of thin guage material or aluminum so its probably a good idea to get it good and hot outside for that reason too. good luck!

I was at the local pub last night and ended up chatting to a rather surly fellow. I mentioned to him that I was planning on heading to Scugog this afternoon and he warned me that the ice is real thin and not safe. I didn’t want to believe him but I thought I had better ask the experts. I looked for any recent threads but didn't see any so I assume it’s probably ok. How’s it looking out there? Thanks! - James

I concur!

I am planning to go for some lakers or splake tomorrow and am wondering what size minnows are best, small, medium, or large? Also, what favourite artificials do you recommend? Is there ever a time when artificials are better than live minnows? Favourite jig colour and size? I have some of those tastey looking white tub jigs and some trout attractant ina bottle. do you recomend using this to jig with rather than minnows? sorry for so many questions but I'm running a pretty bad skunk streak and I need to loose the stink real fast. thanks, James

As I posted in the other thread, I am in the GIS ( Geographic Information Systems ) program at fleming. I enjoy this program and knew I would enjoy it before I came into it. It took me a long time to figure out what program I wanted to get into but when I figured it out, I made the right choice. I love maps, creating them, reading them, and all the digital background stuff I never knew about before. I would suggest looking into the fleming GIS program at least as one of your alternates. It is not something involving fish or wildlife specifically, but worth looking into. Every field in natural resources uses GIS these days. see: http://www.flemingc.on.ca/index.cfm/go/pro...lay/code/GC.cfm <-- email with questions to: [email protected] http://www.geomaticsatfleming.ca/ < --- 2 year program http://www.esri.com/ <-- leading GIS company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system < -- wiki page http://www.gis.com/ <--- I have no idea about the page but it looks cool ch-ch-check it out. James

DP3200 said the following in a different thread: I have read the same or similar advice before on other threads. I taught myself float fishing without any real help and have always cast up stream and let it drift down stream before reeling it in. I assumed this was the most efficient way to keep the bait in the water for the most amount of time. My goal was always to get the bait into the water and then let it drift at the same rate as the water so it would look natural, and I assumed that if it was crossing at a 45 degree angle it would be moving faster than the rate of water and therefore look fake. Additionally it would not be drifting in the same direction or manner as the water making it look extra fake. For finicky rainbows or salmons i thought this was a big no-no? What advantages does throwing it out and letting it drift across at a 45 degree angle have over throwing it upstream then letting it float down stream ? Or is this simply a courteousy technique for other fisherman at the same spot so you can all work the same water? thanks, James

Are there any walleye, perch or other to be had in Presquile Bay through Hard water? What about bait shops in the area? If not, I guess its off to Quinty. thanks! - James

I am currently at Fleming, Frost Campus taking the 1 year Post-Grad GIS Cartography program. I am extremely happy with the way I am treated by the instructors. The quality of the education seems to be very good too. I would rate my experience so far as 9 / 10. In contrast, I earned a BA at university before coming here and feel that I am treated like more of a human here. The administration still treats me like a pile of money though, which I hate. I never felt like anybody cared whether I succeeded or not when I was at university. At fleming they seem to care (or pretend to?). In addition, I worked out in Alberta this past summer and met a number of Fish and wildlife officers / CO's / "Guardians". 2 or 3 of them had come from fleming within the last few years; they were doing seasonal contracts. The impression I got was that it is hard to get into full time work right away.

I just returned from the Sault Ste Marie area in Northern Ontario where a group of us spent some quality time in the bush as well as 1 overnighter in the woods. We are all very terrible fishermen though and could not find any fish dispite being verbally guided to an exact location buy OFC's pike slayer The snow was very deep up here. With out sow shoes we quickly found that we would sink up to our waists. With snow shoes depending on the location we were able to float almost on the surface. Day 1 daytime temperature -22 c We found a spot on the river which was open due to rapids then moved down to the slowest part and dropped a baited minnow trap in deepish pool near the bank. The next morning no fish were found. We ended up buying some minnows and then heading out for a day drip to a special little lake to try our hand at ice fishing. Unfortunately we are all very poor fisher people and caught only memories... and also a slight sun burn. Day 2 Daytime temperature -16 c Upon first arriving at the lake we checked the ice for safety reasons. We found that the ice was about 12-14 inches thick, largely composed of multiple small layers of ice and slush pockets. This type of ice is not the best and I would prefer not to walk on it. However, we found that there was 2 inches of clear ice at the bottom followed by about 6 inches of solid white ice and then all the slush and gunk on top so we figured it was probably ok so long as we didn't all stand together at the same place. I started developing a sun burn on account of my red hair and fair complexion. Soon a headache appeared and I had no sun glasses. Not wanting to cause permanent damage or even temporary damage which may ruin the rest of the trip, I created some far-out star trek style traditional sunglasses. I ventured into the woods the next morning to have a look around. We had also set a few rabbit snares around and were hoping for rabbit stew. One of our group grew up with a native grandfather who worked a trap line for years. Unfortunately, we did not seem to possess the skills to catch a rabbit as he once had. In any case it was still good to march around in the early morning snow. Day 3 daytime temperature -11 c Here is a small video looking for the rabit snare: me thinks -> Douglas Fir We then ventured into another lake close to the last one. We found a spot located between two hills in a bay. We set up in the trees and set our fire against a large boulder which we hoped would help to reflect heat. We dug down into the snow and hollowed out an area while building up walls, then covered the floor in hemlock boughs, tarp over top, and inside was also a ground sheet tarp. It was not ideal. In theory we hoped that the falling snow would land on the tarp and helped to insulate it like quinsy.( it was coming down heavy at this point) Perhaps it did insulate, however we all felt very damp and it was hard to stay warm. Following some advice from Les Stroud in the Survivor Man Thunder bay episode, when you think you have enough fire wood for the night gather 6 times more. We still ran out. Day 4 and Night time temperatures -5c to -7 c We did not prepare any where to sit which was a major mistake as we found our selves just sort of standing around for the time before bed, shaking now off of our coats and cooking. Brad after a particularly restless night. So in summary, this trip felt like we roughed it to the extreme. There was about 14 inches of snow accumulation over night which put a bit of a damper on things. The wood, fire and gear was constantly being buried. the fish would not bite at all which I blame on the low pressure system. And the humidity in the air increased the chill factor. We did not have a snow free place to relax and dry our things which also caused a problem. In the past a clothes line has been hung beside the fire where we could dry our socks and things. With the constant snow falling, this was impossible. I hope you enjoyed the report. - James