Jer

...most don't live long enough...

Glad to hear you finally had at least some luck out on Chemong, Mike. Were the crappie in shallower as well? or just the perch? With the water so clear, fishing in 8' seems like you're fishing right under your feet when you look down. We watched quite a few perch swim past our baits yesterday, but they seemed in a real negative mood. The slightest shake of a jig and they would scatter, the only two fish I got were on a live minnow, but even on that they seemed more interested in pecking at it rather than eating it. I guess I gotta downsize my jigs.

Chemong probably has ther safest ice anywhere right now, at least as far as you can see either side of the causeway A solid 14" everywhere we drilled yesterday. There's no current to speak of on the lake besides under the bridge at the causeway. Today on Buckhorn we drilled anywhere from 12" to 16" of ice. The problem with Buckhorn is we're kinda restricted to the shallower water, at least on my side of the lake, maybe 9' max. I don't trust the ice over the deeper parts of the lake due to the current

My little six inch hand auger is pretty quiet. Today on buckhorn we were the only fisherpeople in sight.

...well it's a start. My first ever Buckhorn fish through the ice, I'm so proud. Caught one just like it right after as well. Unfortunately, that was it for the day.

Ya a buddy of mine had that idea when we first spoke of the new regs. He lives in Mississauga and fishes a couple times a year. He figgered these fish had never seen a bait in the winter and you would just need to cut a hole and catch fish. I told him I don't think it'll be so easy...

We gave Chemong another try for some panfish yesterday and once again were skunked. We tried a few different areas, anywhere from 9' to 16' and only managed a couple of bites in the shallower water and nothing at all anywhere else. There were two COs out patrolling, we were visited by the same guy as last week. He remembered us so we didn't even need to show our licenses this time. He mentioned that nobody else seemed to be catching as well, so I guess we shouldn't feel too bad. Today we'll give Buckhorn another try.

I'll have to check with my dealer again. When I spoke with them in the fall, they said they needed to order a kit for my model, now I don't see it on that list, which is a good thing.

We're gonna give Chemong another try today. We haven't had any luck in the weedbeds or just outside them. Today we're gonna try deeper 15' to 20'. They're gotta be down there somewhere, dammit.

So does this mean you did or you didn't catch any fish today?

The main basin of the lake on both sides of the causeway maxes out at about 18' to 20', the deeper water is generally closer to the east side of the lake. Blue gill can be good eating, a little bony though.

That's more like Haliburton rather than the Kawarthas. I believe that there are one or two operators out of Bewdley on Rice and Cliff mentioned something about Lunge Haven on Sturgeon.

Whatever happened to the "dock buddy" I think it was called? It was just a 36" pole with a simple screen on top and a transducer built in the bottom. You could just stick it in the hole to get an idea of depth, might show weeds or a fish or two, but it was simple and cheap. I'd love something to just get a quick look at bottom after drilling a hole. I don't really have the coin for a flasher right now, but something like the dock buddy would be perfect. I think it just ran on 4 or 6 D cells loaded just like a flashlight.

Yes, Bud is still there.

That be it...

I'm not sure of the exact address, Wayne, but Pido is a very short road, you can't miss the Shimano offices, repair depot is around the back. Just southwest of Ashburnham and the 115. Years back, I had several broken rods replaced on the spot. That was when the depot was still at Classic Sports on the Queensway.

I just wanted to give kudos to the Shimano service depot in Peterborough. My Stradic FH spinning reel ended up submerged in a hole and then frozen on Sunday while I was ice fishing. After thawing, the handle would barely turn and the spool would not oscillate in and out anymore. I dropped the reel off this morning at the Shimano service centre on Pido Rd. This afternoon I got a call that my reel was ready and the total bill was only $15. How can you beat that kind of service? Apparently I had stripped a gear because I tried turning the reel while it was still frozen inside. How could I ever buy another brand of reel when this kind of service is available right around the corner?

I guess it would be asking too much for ice conditions around here to stay the same all winter. Right now, the ice is perfect for travel, 2 or 3 inches of snow. Easy walking, sledding, 4-wheeling and even driving where the ice is good and safe. I havent drilled a hole less than 12" since opening day. That guy who put his ATV through with his little kid under the Bridgenorth causeway must have been a complete moron. There is open water under the bridge all the time, only the sleds at speed ever attempt the crossing (and personally, I think they are a bit daft as well), but to attempt on a 4-wheeler (with your kid a board, no less) makes absolutely sense.

I wouldn't trust those "14 day trend" graphs very much. I check them regularly and it's surprising how the long range outlook can change drastically from day to day.

I'm not sure of the ice conditions, but while speaking to a CO on Chemong on Saturday, he mentioned he had been patrolling Stony earlier in the day and only came across one fisherman.

I think you must be right about the deeper water, Mike. We were out on Buckhorn today out front of my house from about 11 am to 4 pm and once again came up empty handed. Best action we had was about 4 or 5 small perch coming by for a sniff of our baits, but they wouldn't bite. We had trouble getting away from the weeds. most of the deeper water on this part of the lake is pretty inaccessable due to poor ice and current. I was talking to another goup on the lake who said they had been drilling holes all week and hadn't caught a fish. We stayed pretty close to the south shore of Buckhorn, never more than 6 or 7 feet deep. Yesterday we were in about 12 feet on Chemong. About the hut, we learned how important it is to spike down the corners. We had forgotten a cordless drill to pre-drill some holes for the spikes when we first went out and figgered snow packed on the bottom flaps would be enough. Sure enough, while we were out of the hut about 50 yards away, off she went in the wind, tumbling down the lake. Good thing my partner for the day was my girlfriend's 16 year old son and he was fast enough to get a hold of it before it found its way all the way to Chemong. Amazingly, the hut was no worse for wear after tumbling along for quite a ways. Back to the house for the drill and we were good to go again. Unfortunately, my Stradic reel ended up submerged in a hole when everything went over and hasn't been working right since. Live & learn I guess.

A couple pics of my Crestliner...

Made it out on Chemong for solid 6 hours fishing (11 am til 5 pm) and nadda...not even a bite. First opportunity to set up my new hut though: Lotsa room inside: My partners for the day: Lotsa good solid ice, 14" or so. We aalso had a visit from a friendly CO, he was very thorough, checking everywhere for any stashed OOS fishies, good to see some enforcemant. He said noone else was catching either. We're gonna give Buckhorn a try today once it warms up a bit. Hopefully a little cloud cover will improve the bite. Anybody else get out on the Kawarthas yesterday? Any luck?

Now that was funny...

Hi Roy, great follow-up. As a Crestliner owner, I really appreciate the effort. Can we see a copy of the recall table? I just want to make sure my model is included or not.