Steelcat

Dear Ontario Fishing Community, Last year 2012 has been a very hard time for my family, my mom was in the hospital for more than half year battling multiple post surgery complications. During the time when my mom was in the hospital, I felt helpless seeing her suffer. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a nurse, the only thing I can help is to support her spiritually and to stay by her side. During all these time in the hospital, a "silly" idea came to my mind, what if I participate in a physically challenging (for me at least) fundraising event, so that in a very small way I can feel I've done something to make a different. Finally I've decided to participate in the 2013 Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer benefiting The Campbell Family Institute at The Princess Margaret. In this event, I'll be cycling 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls in this 2 days long event. I will need to raise at a minimum of $2500 in order to be able to ride during this event. Please help me by following the link to donate. http://www.conquercancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Toronto2013?px=3188277&pg=personal&fr_id=1431 I thank you all so much in advance for all your help. Best Regards, Felix

If we were drifting, at least I had a chance to start my engine FAST and back away. Since our boat was anchored, their motor might caught our anchor line... Then everyone on my boat would fall off the boat...

I just came back from bass season trip, and immediately wanted to share this with you all. Hopefully no one will EVER do this again to another boater. The following photo was taken very shortly after the boat zipped by our boat in full speed. We had our boat anchored and were fishing in the same location for at least 30 minutes. The boat above finished their drift and decided to put their boat into full speed, went pass us within a boat length. Right before they closed in, I yelled at them, telling them to be careful. Just like jerks around the world, they all turned their heads away from us. The white line in the following photo was the path of that "wonderful" boater. They went by so fast and close that the wake that boat made combine with the normal wave action almost flooded our boat. Please don't be a jerk our in the lake. You can kill someone...

As a non boater, I always rent a boat without trolling motor. So usually when I fish in a location close to shore, I dropped an anchor so that I won't drift onto the rocks. Here's a question for everyone who has a trolling motor in your boat... When you see a boat anchored less than 2 boats length away from shore fishing towards the shore, will you troll pass the boat from the outside or troll in between the boat and the shore line (which has less than 2 boats length)? I had this experience yesterday while fishing for some panfish. I saw a boat with 3 people fishing for bass trolling towards my rental boat. Since I was close to shore, I was thinking they would be trolling pass my boat from the outside. Instead, they continued forwards and turned into the space between me and the shore... I could just jump onto their boat with no problem... All three guys didn't look at me at all as if I wasn't there at all.

Today 25th, I had a day off, but since none of my buddies were off, so I had to go solo. I drove back to Port Hope arrived at 6am. To my surprise no one was there... Since this is the first time I've been to the river this early, maybe it's normal that people showed up after 7am... I parked my car and walked up and down the river. I managed to meet a fly fishing angler. He was concentrated on a pool where I could see several large Bow were there. One actually hit his fly, but he missed the setup. I slowly walked close to him, said "Hi" and asked if the fishing was good. This gentleman was so kind that he actually took his time to teach me where to look for Bows, and where to cast. We walked down the river and he told me to try out a promising location. Before I even had a chance to setup, a guy on the upstream had a Bow, everyone had to move out of the way for him to fight and land it (that's the code of the river... Whoever has fish has the right of way). The night before I bought some Roe bags so I could use today. I got everything ready and started to cast. Not long after, my float sank, set the hook and the fight went on... It's a Sucker!!! My first ever Sucker... Finally I'm not suck that Suckers were hitting my lure~!! Here's a shot of another Sucker fighting in the river... Well I can say this is my person best so far LOL Now thing got interesting... Drift after drift, no bite, then all of a sudden my float sank again... set the hook and this time I could see the body of the fish was wider, not like Sucker which is like a baseball bat... I thought it's a Bow, but the way it fought was so familiar... Finally I managed to reel it closer, it's not silvery color... turned out it's a OOS Smallmouth... The angler across the river and beside me saw what I caught and were totally shocked... Not long after... another OOS Smallmouth... this one even bigger... I want Rainbow Trout... NOT Smallmouth.... Well overall I caught 6 Suckers and 2 OOS Smallmouth. I think I missed one Bow because as I set the hook, I could see a silvery shine... Not bad for my first real try for river Rainbow... I still have ALOT to learn... Who said no one is willing to share when it comes to river fishing?? I've met many fine anglers who were more than willing to share their technique...

Remember one thing though... with the new HST coming which means everything will be more expensive (gas, boat rental, cottage rental, food), and for Rice Lake, since getting a conservation license will only allow people to get 15 sunfish, that means people will be forced to get the full license... Combine all these additional costs, I'm sure many friends from the south or from anywhere will want to come back... cost a lot more for a lot less fish. One of the resort owner on Rice Lake already said they'll most probably lost 3/4 of their customers from the states due to the limits and the cost.

I think the number of cormorants on Rice Lake has increased ALOT this year. Those trees on the tiny islands along the sunken railroad close to Harwood are dead because of them. Not far away, on Paudaush Island, earlier this season it was covered with green trees.... but in late summer I could see trees starting to die off with cormorants standing on them... I actually sent an email to MNR about the cormorants issue on Rice Lake and this is the reply... Hi, Your recent email to the MNR website was forwarded to me to respond to. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act allows landowners to take actions against most wildlife species (see the list of exceptions below) in protection of property. Under Section 31 of the Act, · there must be “reasonable grounds” to believe that wildlife is damaging or about to damage the person’s property. · control activities can only occur on the property owner’s own property. a person may not harass, capture or kill more wildlife than is necessary to protect the property or cause unnecessary suffering to the wildlife Property owners may harass, capture or kill for the purposes of property protection, any wildlife species except for the following: · moose, caribou, or elk · white-tailed deer (unless specifically authorized by a deer removal authorization) · endangered species protected by the Endangered Species Act (see section 2 of the Act). The MNR has worked with landowners on Rice Lake over the last few years to inform them of their rights as property owners with respect to protection of property outlined above. If you have any further questions about protection of property rights, please contact Eric Prevost, A/ Sr. Fish and Wildlife Technical Specialist at the Peterborough MNR office ([email protected]) Regards, Dan Taillon Area Biologist, Peterborough Area Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough District 300 Water Street, 1st Floor, South Tower Peterborough, ON, K9J 8M5 Phone: (705) 755-3302 Fax: (705) 755-3125 Email: [email protected]

Today I brought my parents to watch salmon run in Port Hope. It's always wonderful to see those salmon trying their best to jump over the fish ladder. Here are some photo. As we walked further downstream, I was surprise to see two people fishing.... ADDITIONAL ZONE 17 FISHING OPPORTUNITIES Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Pacific Salmon Extended Fall Season (4th Sat. in April to Dec. 31) Northumberland County - all waters downstream of Hwy. 2, except the Ganaraska River which may only be fished downstream of the south side of the C.P.R. bridge. Since the fishing season is over in the river after Sept 30th, I immediately took this photo. Just in case they didn't leave after I talked to them and when the MNR officers need prove. I approached them and told them not to fish in the river since the season is already closed, they just gave me the "Oh really" look. I think they saw me holding a camera as well as a cellphone. So they packed their gear and walked out of the river. From the lure they used, they were definitely targeting salmon. After the little incident, my family continue to walk downstream just to enjoy the view. When we walked back upstream, those two guys now with a teenager(i'd say 15-18 years old)approached me, and said (this is the exact word) The two guys: "There is no sign saying no fishing here or end of season, the local boy here told us there's no season close here. Where did you read about it?" I replied: "It's in the fishing regulation booklet, it clearly stated fishing season ended for the river after September 30th, all anglers should read it." They then said: "Give us one now, and I want to see." I then replied with a little raised voice: "Well it's free, you go get them yourself in fish tackle store or bait shops. And don't complain when you get caught(with my finger on the cellphone #pad. If you want to fish, go all the way downstream and you need to get pass a train bridge." After this conversation, the young boy immediately walked away (I'm sure he knew what's going on). and the two guys without saying a word headed towards Lake Ontario. My family and I continue our sight seeing, lucky for those guys they didn't fish in the area afterwards... or else their face wouldn't be blocked and for sure they'll have a big ticket. This is what I suggest, if any of you see someone illegally fishing, take a photo catch them in the act, then post them here if MNR is too lazy to get involved even after calling the tip line.

The best way to protect river salmon is to close the season completely starting a couple weeks before salmon river run... From what I read from some of the members here, MNR kinda give up on patrolling river systems like Bronte, why not do it ourselves.... Since most fished river is close to many of us OFNers, I'm sure grabbing a camera and "fish" for off season fishing fishermen/women then post them here and/or any other fishing board will for sure grab MNR officers who lurk in fishing forums attention. Paying more to protect our natural resources of course is good... but from what I see how the government works... the more we pay, the more they waste... I trust anyone here on the job of looking after our own fisheries more than our government.

As long as you didn't intentionally trying to catch those OOS species (for example: using a freaking 4 inches tube during panfish only period), taking a snap won't do any harm as long as you do it fast... If someone is saying a couple of second would kill a fish, then everyone should unhook any OOS species in water rather than taking them out of water to unhook... Just do it fast then release if you are "lucky" enough to catch OOS fish.

One of the 6+ lbs Rice Lake Walleye from shore. This is by far one of the personal favorite photo I've ever taken.

My friend caught a carp last year and invited me to have a carp meal. Here's the menu: Tofu Carp head soup Deep fried Carp filet Dry tofu something paste Carp Steamed Carp in black bean sauce To tell you the truth, as I recalled the soup taste fishy. I like the deep fried Carp filet mainly because I like deep fried filet. As for the Dry tofu something paste Carp and Steamed Carp in black bean sauce, the sauce actually were strong enough to "cover" the fishy smell. Not bad.

All I can say is~~ Someone's trash is someone else's treasure.

The weather was extremely calm yesterday night. With this condition, it should be bad for walleye night shore fishing. Nature is unpredictable and here's the results. The biggest of the night Biggest vs smallest (13.5 inches) Another big eye around 7 lbs Shore big eye on jig/grub A semi weird looking 19.5 inches eye Yet another 6-7 lbs All the mama/papa walleyes were released Overall we caught 7 eyes from 13.5 inches to 28+ inches Never give up, just keep casting~!

Boat fishing is ok~ because you are fishing on a boat with a couple friends, and you can always travel all over the lake to find your fish. As for shore fishing, you are pretty much stuck in the spot, and always you are not alone, you have to share the area with many anglers. Bass fishing is ok since they are attracted to sound, and they'll swim up to investigate. Not for shore walleye fishing when the water is shallow close to shore.