Reef Runner

Nice catches dude! Great job on the filleting, that's gonna make a tasty meal. Congrats on the PB, all of them, lol.

Very nice catch FFL! I use a spinning combo with ALOT of line capacity and a decent drag system, never centrepinned but I would suggest employing the palm drag you described. Don't full stop and let the rod do the work, a head shake may throw the hook if there is a little slack in the line.

My guidelines for fighting fish after its set and on:

-keep pressure on the fish with rod tip sort of high and drag set so if it wants to run it can but with resistance

-if it jumps, bring the rod tip down low

-if it turns to the right, use your rod to steer left, vice versa

-never let the line get slack

-as I'm 99% CPR, keep the fight as short as possible with a good net, camera and release tools on hand

Nice catches, looks like another productive day on the bay! WTG on the topwater bite. Thanks for sharing!

I second, or third now, the Fenwick HMX 7foot m/h fast tip.

Pair it with a shimano Sedona or Stradic. Have different line on the two spools they give you. One lighter for walleye fishing and the other heavier for fighting buckets out of the slop.

Onions, baby, onions!

Welcome to the board!

There are lots of awsome shore fishing opportunites at Canal Lake. In fact, there is a bridge that runs right through the middle of the lake. Google map it.

For your setup, rod and reel is fine. Personally, I like suberbraided line like powerpro for the sensitivity and strength. Tie weightless an offset senko hook and weddless rig a 5 inch sinking worm. I like yum dingers, brown flake with a chartruse tip was on fire this weekend. Drop the sinking worm right into the weeds and wait for 20-30 seconds, slowly bring it in trying to maintain contact with the vegetation. The chugbug is my favourite topwater, give her a try. Hook set is key when fishing these lures. Feel the pressure of the fish and then yank and reel at the same time.

If you go eight hours without a fish using these methods, I'd be surprised. Good luck.

Headed up to the cottage this weekend with board member addy79. Our mission was to fish Balsam hard on Saturday. We were first travellers to arrive at the lock (9am) and from there made no stops to Balsam. The target was Musky, but wouldnt complain if we hooked into a smallie or walleye. In fact, anything would be better than my last skunking there.

We arrived on Balsam to 67degree water, overcast, winds 5km/h from the East. Located a nice weedbed in 7 fow just adjacent to a 20foot basin and started throwing Maraboo's and Believers. Second cast, addy79's 9inch jointed Believer goes sideways and for about two second we thought we were to be blessed with a nice ski. A boil on the surface maybe a foot behind the lure and she was gone. Despite casting big baits all day, that was the most action we would see from a musky all day.

We focused our efforts between the Southern tip of Grand Island, around Long Point and little in West Bay, keying in on vegetation. After many hours of casting, trolling, jigging I thought we were in for another skunk. That is until I tossed out a 3/4ounce red/chartruse tandem spinner in heavy weed cover to get this respectable 20inch Walleye

My biggest, although not my PB, in a very long time so we were stoked. If the lift lock didnt close at 5:30pm we would have definately stuck around. I need to be on that lake in the prime morning or evening bite, which I never get a chance, with the lock schedule. Back to the home lake for a few more hours of fishing.

Back in known waters, as dusk fell, I tied into this nice largie, this time on a white/chartruse spinnerbait.

Packed it in at 8:30pm, seeing as we've been on the water in excess of 12hours.

Early Sunday morning we venutered around my lake. Water still sat at 68degrees. The rain was relentless, at points coming down so hard you could not see 30 feet in front of you, those moments we sat under the canopy of the pontoon tossing out yum dingers. Had about five or six different coloured dingers and found that the fish were biting on a brown flake with a bright green chartruse tip 5inch worm. Every pitch little guys would give it a couple head shakes and maybe a little run, but theye were so small that getting a hook set was diffuicult. We still landed about twenty bass, both smallies and largies. Best results came about 10 feet from shore on weedlines and a midlake sand flat. Here's a pic of our best bass of the day (brown/chartruse dinger) and a decent pike (white spinnerbait).

Tight lines and best fishes!

Congrats. I was on Balsam this weekend, also 'ski hunting, but no luck. Caught a nice walleye on a big spinnerbait. Good job!

I heard about it from addy79 who was already a member of the board. I never really was a computer or discussion board type, so I lurked for about a month just beacuse my friends dont fish or converse on the topic..found some very interesting reads and quite the cast of characters. This is the only webboard I'm a part of.

I believe I joined when I came across the Fishing for Tyler event and auction. The charity and goodwill of the members here inspired me to become part of this community, and I glad I did!

Love that one. Thanks for lightening up a boring Friday spent itchin to go fishin.

Ramble, I've seen that before.

In fact.....I got a pic.

I really despise the Minister's reply "Thank you for informing me of your concerns". I really hope the Newf and Lab deliver on Danny W's goose egg and dont vote this guy in again. With Minister Hearn's behaviour towards Hebron, Navigable waterways act and now this, how the can people support him. Truly the interests of heavy industry has taken over fisheries and oceans.

Good job on the ski! What region? Gbay/Kawartha/Niagara

OMG. That is sure to be an awsome trip, trip of a lifetime for most. Wow.

Enjoy and lookin' forward on how you make out!

boooo

that blows, they should make the locks self serve!

yeah right...

what time does it open?

9am

Thanks JohnnyB, know you did well out on Balsam, I'm gonna be looking hard for these edges.

Pokerdemon4, seeing as you are a musky catching machine, I greatly appreciate your input.

Addy79, I checked and the locks shut'er down at 5:30pm, its gonna be a short day...lol.

Good idea on mailing the rod ahead. Looks like you got enough gear to make any flyfisher drool. Where you headed and targetting?

Best of luck ou there!

Awsome report LA! Those videos are marvellous, and the pictograms...wow. You live in such a pristene neck of the woods, beautiful.

Good luck in dem der criks with da crawdads, lol.

Nice fish, thanks for sharing!

Hello all,

Headed up to the Kawartha's this weekend for a little . Weather and wind permitting, was thinking about taking the trip over to Balsam for some fall Musky and Smallmouth action. Anybody fish it recently? Success? Failure? Baits I should be relying on?

I usually concentrate in on the South part of the lake which I have decent knowledge and success on. Never really ventured North coming out of the west side waterway. Would you recommend putting the gas toward puttin around new grounds or stick to the known? If yes, what should I be looking for on the sonar?

Any advice is greatly appreciated and reciprocated with (hopefully) one kick-donkey report.

Thank you in advance,

reefrunner

Cool photos Ramble On. Is that from Kesagami Lodge? Guessing from the decomposition you found it floating. A neat find, thanks or sharing.

I bought my venture HC at Radioworld for $150. Check them out 4reel, they have better prices. I'm not sure if the CTC comes with adavnced software, the venture I bought just came with the basic map. If you search on the net you can find some downloadable topomaps.

The unit itself, I love it. Very easy to use. Great on battery life. Picks up a signal even in deep bush. Accurate. I would recommend it to anyone. Tells us how you make out if you decide to purchase it, you wont be dissapointed.

WOW. Great job out there, I hope to get me some ski's this weekend. If I'm a 1/8 as productive as you were I'm a happy man! Thanks for sharing the experience with us.

All the best Cliff!

Whoa, runaway post, lol.

Thanks for the kind words. Thank you solo, especially, your response to my post on skein rigging helped me out a bunch.

UB, keep at it buddy! Hope the family (and expected) is doin' great!

As for stealheader still trying to prove something with relentless posts, guys let it go. This dude never reported on anything he ever caught, and until then, his comments are just empty words in my opinion.

I really never intended for this post to go in the direction it has. Let's keep it a family site!

Paid to stick it out in the surf, I like it! Nice smalljaws