Ramble

..water BUG. It's not a Coleoptera (beetle), its Hemiptera...the "true bugs". LoL Might be a "Giant Water Bug" or one of the "Toe Biters" Anyway. Nice little report. I love eating on the ice like that and the fish are always a bonus. You should set up a photobucket account for you're photos. Easy and it presents them a little nicer. Again, nice outing. -Dave

Mark bailed on Quinte last weekend, so I put the pressure on him to get out today. He didn’t have class till 7pm and every other Thursday I have off. He finally gave in last night and said “Let’s go.” But he didn’t want to leave early…at least we were going. I wanted to try ‘eyes in the morning and if nothing was happening by 10am switch to the perching grounds. But since we didn’t get to Belleville until 11am, I said ta hall with the walleye lets go perching. Mark loves to catch perch and let’s face it….those walleye can be ornery. We walked out and popped some holes shallower then usual. I was curious to see if there was any fish closer to shore. Mark had a couple on the Vex, but there were no takers. We moved deeper to 15 feet. (The magic number yet again.) We set up and Mark had 3 fish on the flasher right away. But they were just looking. He played with those fish for a while and then caught a small perch. A little while later Mark’s set line bounces and reels in the 1st descent fish of the day. We keep at it and keep picking off a big perch every now and then. We would just be talking about moving one of us would hook up. We had a few on the ice when a local showed up. He said it had been slow for walleye the day before and this morning he only had 1 pike. That made me feel a little better about not making it out in the early am. The wind was cold, as was the air temperature all day. Mark was having a rough time keeping warm, but he toughed it out. We were about to pack it in when I got a hit on the jigging rod, which was resting in the holder. I set the hook and promptly kicked the holder into the line. It wrapped up in a pretty impressive fashion, but I kept the pressure on. Mark tried to fix the tangle and not loose the fish at the same time. I had let the hole freeze over….probably because I was lazy and I still had a square inch of soft water where my jigging line was. Anyway I got the fish into the hole and could see it was another good perch. Its lips were pressed against the clear ice, like when a kid makes faces on a window. I told Mark to just pull him up. (Figuring the thin layer of ice would just break. He pulled, fish came off, and I crammed my hand into the hole just over the wrist and got the fish. Biggest one of the day at 11.25 inches. That was the end of the day. By the time I had my hand warm enough to pack and put on another set of gloves. The wet glove was frozen solid. I tired to take a picture of our total catch on the ice, but the camera wasn’t willing to work in the cold. Check out our “cleaning station”. Nothing like living in a house full of guys, with no mothers around. My mother would “fillet me” if tried that at home. (Yes, that’s surviourman on the TV.) The fatty of the bunch. Despite being the slowest day I have seen on the perch ground, it was another good day on the ice. Tight Lines. -Dave

Excellent report. Nice to see some descent lakers and a few walleye cooperating for you. -Dave

Morning will find me hunched over a 6 inch hole pestering fish with minnows. lol Can't wait. -Dave

Student-(Biology/Environmental Science Major) From Sept-April. Fishing Guide - Last week of May to last week of July May and August i do a trip into Algonquin and dream about June and July. lol -Dave

Ohhhh yeah. I was waiting for that. Nice job man. I love back lake trout reports. Thanks for putting it up right away. -Dave

Nice work Ben. When are you getting you own fishing show? I want to be a guest lol -R-

I use the same version Dan just mentioned it's pretty good. Just load them into the GPS. The best thing is that you can run the map softerware on the comp. You can even plot out routes and place waypoints then load them into your unit. -Dave

That warm day we had last week you could feel winter loosing its grip, and you can dfinatly smell spring. It's gettin the blood going. But i think im going to miss the ice.... -R-

if he was tagged with a 22-250 he'd have a little more then a limp lolol -R-

Solid report. Love winter speck reports. -R-

Just press down with the knife point on them, and they slide right out. Don't worry about a few if you cook them.....all they have been eating is perch lol. As for still flopping...they do that all the time. I have had some one ice over 8 hours that thawed out and flopped all over the basement lol. Some manage to survive.....its pretty impressive. Last year we had some walleye with the hearts still beating after being on the ice over 4 hours...and after i cut them out! http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9JNsZi_wG0E -Dave

There has been several excellent points brought up here, and i am glad to see this has remained pretty civil, although there is clearly some emotion attached to some replies. Everyone should be congradulated for furthering the discussion. Conversation is where education happens. Anyway on to the subjects here. Are tournamnets hard on fish? I'm going to have to say yes. Displaced fish, increased stress are the hardest things on the caught fish. Lips tags i think are very minor, but no doubt to increase the stress level somewhat. I did a little digging on the net to try and find something simple, and informative that wouldn't require a lot of reading to get the point across, which would back up the science behind the subject. (aniceguy might be interested with this for your work) http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/226954.pdf This MNR publication does a pretty good job. One section of interest begins at page 13...then scroll down to "Biological impcts". It comes with a nice little table of the "Probelm" "Impacts" and cited litereature backing it up. Then page 27 - Largemouth bass Relocation and page 29 Physiological perspective on live release are both beneficial to this discussion. In here somewhere is a nice little example about how Big Rideau lakes bass respond to tournament angling. There is also some stuff on what associated organisations are doing to limit mortality. I'm not a tourney angler, but to think that tourney fish see the same stress levels as weekend anglers catch and release methods seems a little misguided to me. Tourny fish do have more stress on average. Keeping fish is clearly going to be hard on teh population, but the wide spread stress in a population, especially if it has been significantly relocated should not be underestimated. I din't see these things as being as "assault" on our fishing rights be simply as part of the learning curve to better practises. Over the last 20 years there has been huge strides in how touney fish are treated, and to think we know everything is short sighted. They way these things are conducted needs to change i think. But iam hardly an expert on the matter. -Dave

Pike arnt the most difficult fish to catch that's for sure. Your spots with the drop sound good as long is there is some weeds along it. Once the weeds are out give it a shot. Early season... creek mouths are the place to be. Gives you a chance to target the post spawners. Your next choice should be marina's early season. The water warms faster in protected harbours cut off from the main lake and they are pike magnets. Good luck and don't over think the problem too much. Keep casting. -Dave

Ahhh sucess....feels good doesn't it. congrats

I guided Gord who wrote the story this summer. Mailing them in might get you in the letter section, or readers catch or something like that, but generally the fish in the articles came with the story, and are some how involve the writter. -Dave

Definatly not...usually the weather simply isnt the most pleasent. But have had some great days with a east wind. What part of the County are you from? -Dave

Thanks Guys. Guiding Gord was an experiance. -Dave

"live Chat" top of the browser on the red bar...... top of the page u'll see it -Dave

Jump in the forum we were just talking about..... Bad Boyz jig tipped with microtube -Dave

DITTO ON THAT!!!!!!!!!! !!UP THE IRONS!! -R-

Thanks Glen...it is a pretty Pike isnt it lol. And the fact you find me unsightly is a compliment of the highest sort lol. -Dave Came back for en edit.....here is the pick he's talking about. I'm sure most of you dont get the Mag. Wonder how many copyright laws i just broke lol.

i could very well have been a bird. Too bad the wings didnt register....they always make some awesome photo graphs. -Dave

the 3 in a line has me kinda stumped. Birds almost always register wing marks. The mouse pace doesnt change either, and if he was being attacted you would think it would run or at least zig zag. It looks like something is jumping though. It didnt come down out of a tree then go back up one did it? Or burrow under the snow? -Dave

Squirrel. If u look at the track bottom left, it is a text book example of a squirrel. Compare that to the rabbit tracks u have above for comparison. D- None of the above lol. Its hard to say with the snow fall on them. Size is far to small to be any of the above. If i had to make a guess i would say it's a mouse hopping through the soft snow leaving a body impression which resembles a track. A walking weasle can make similar sized tracks, but they will wonder with vraying space between the tracks and somewhere they should break into their paired hop-hop-hop pattern. Its hard to see the detail needed in those mess of prints. I'm guessing bob cat or lynx. But that is just a best guess. Weasle family, which one would take some investigation. This may help you.... Species...................STRIDE......Trail Width Least Weasle............5"-20".......7/8ths-1.15" Ermine.....................9"-35".......1"-2 1/8ths" Long-Tailed Weasle...9.5"-43".....1.5"-3" Mink........................12"-35" (these guys usually end up with a stray foot step giving an extra print to the usual pair. Obviously also more common close to water. Marten.....................15"-33"......3"-4 3/8ths Fisher......................21"-50"......3"-5.5" (Lots of variation for these guys. Rarely do i see their tracks paired in way where i would confuse them with the others) (Ermine, longtailed weasle or marten are my bests guesses for the track you showed) If you can take a picture of the series and a close up or 2 of tracks where the toes registered well, it'll make the internet identification job a lot easier lol Nice bunch of photos tho. I like the grouse photo, and it brought back memories of when i was young walking in the woods with my grand father. You'll have to try out that lake for sure. Can't go wrong with big pike. Nice work, and keep it up. -Dave OH and Dan, check out the spacing and see the list of weasle print stuff above lol. I think you have a weasle as well.