Rich Clemens

Another prayer lifted up for you and your family. Sorry to hear of your loss.

Holy Cow I was fishing the French on Friday and saw nothing like that. My hat's off to you on that catch. Magnificant to say the least.

Great news Cliff and congrats on your catch. Stll a very nice catch and my congrats to you.

Man ... I have to learn how to fish for Walleye. What am I doing chasing Muskies ? Congrats on the 42 - Nice fish.

You're right Joey .. no way I was going to drive at night (let alone in the rain), with no trailer lights. That's an accident just waiting to happen. I was fortunate that the rain passed over-night and waited until after sunrise to leave the motel. Just ain't worth the risk to us or others on the road. Quick/Cheap fix.

Thopught I'd put up a few of the pics I snapped while on the French during the last couple weeks. Nothing spectacular, but a few of the ones I like. We had Blue Jays around and we placed some peanuts out on the picnic table and they would come in, pick one up, and take off. Too bad we only had one bag.

Lew has his own internal GPS and appears to work very well. Congrats on the two skis.

If envy is a dealy sin ... I know where I'm going. ANother remarkable report ... as usual.

A totally awesome report ... and the pics are even better. WOW !

Oh my god .... he DOES exist. Anyone got a clip of the tooth-fairy ?

Sure do wish I had more to report than this ... but that's the way she goes. Left home on the 14th and crossed the border with no problems. Approaching St. Catherines and the skies were getting cloudy, so we flip on the lights. Took a peek back and could not see any lights on the trailer, even though I checked them out before we left. Pulled off the currency exchange place (which was closed). Double-checked the connections, played with the wiring ... still no running lights. Turn signals and break lights working fine. Checked the fuses in the cab and none were blown. Getting dark, starting to rain, and alone in the parking lot with no facilities. Took a chance and went to the next exit as we could not drive like that and thankfully, there was a motel there that would accept our two dogs .... for a fee of course. That was 160 bucks I wasn't planning to spend. Waiting to morning, no rain, so we proceeded to the French Rivera area in daylight and would check in with a local marina. Glad we still had break lights and turn signals. After checking it out a little more, mechanically challenged as I am, there is another fuse box under the hood. Checking the fuses for the trailer and there she is ... a blown fuse. Replace the fuse and good to go. We got into Rainbow Camp on the North Channel early Saturday afternoon and my father and step-mother were already in camp. We talked them into driving over from the Rideau Area to spend the week together. Not sure how many more times I can fish with my father in Canada (which he also loves), so this was a real treat to spend the week together. After the unpacking, being the gentlemen we are, we did not want to get in the ladies way while they were putting things away. So, to save a lot of grief, we loaded up for a bit of fishing. After giving Dad a brief tour of the river, and the known hazards, we settled into a little bay where I had raised a musky on a previous trip. After casting for a little while, guess who still lives there ... my musky. She made a pass at the lure boat-side, so into the figure-8 I go. Guessing she was around 40" +/-. About 10-15 seconds later, she makes another pass, but is by no means a hot fish. Kept up the figure-8 for a while, and never saw her again. I returned several times at different times during the week, but she was not to be seen again. No musky that week, but my wife did manage a nice bass. Over-all, we only caught a couple fish ... nothing picture worthy. I had raised a musky at a couple other locations in past years, but this one is the only one I saw. The time with my dad was worth far more than any fish we may have caught, so it was indeed a good week. We then moved from Rainbow Camp to Wolseley Lodge, just down the road. Shortly after settling in, I met the guys in the cabin next to us and found out one of them had been a member of OFC a while back ... he went by the board name Chugger. Had some good chats with those guys off and on. They had been at Wolseley for a few days already and had not seen any fish "with teeth". It was a tough go for them as well. The week started out very slow, targeting musky around the weeds, points, and shoals. I think I did manage a small pike or two. Then, a couple more OFC'rs came into camp and got to spend some time chatting with them. They were Blues and Tom Foolery. They had raised a couple musky, but no takers. Finally, Tuesday evening, they were able to land a 38" ski. Just before they left, we were comparing their maps with the maps I had created from MAP CREATE and loaded into my new LCX 28C HD unit. During the conversation, they showed me a couple places where they had raised a couple musky ... one place I already knew about and hit frequently, and another was a new/large shoal with nice weed-beds. Following their advice, I took off later on that day (after they had left camp) and sure enough, I too raised a couple fish. Like the one from the week before, none of them were hot fish, and never returned during figure-8. One of these went after a top-raider, made a huge commotion, but completely missed the lure. My first ever musky attack on a top-water ... what a rush that was. After a few words about a blind fish .. back to fisting we go. Few throw-backs with a different lure, but never saw her again. The weather was warm, sunny, and very few clouds. This was the consistent pattern for both weeks, and had been that way for quite a while. I also noticed that many of the cabbage beds around were starting to die off, and didn't seem to hold any biters ... not even the hammer-handles. The last day we were there, I thought we had ideal conditions, The full moon was just a couple days past and a cold-front moving in. We're up an out before dawn to one of the spots where we raised a musky. Sure enough, she follows my glide bait into the boat, but just lazily swims on by ... never to be seen again. We made a couple passes over the area mixing things up with different presentations and different baits, but to no avail. Not too long after, the rains came and seems like everything just shut down. We didn't feel too bad, as everyone in the camps we had talked to were saying the same thing .... not much action. Since I am bringing my wife to Lakair for our get-together up next year, we took a run up to visit Kevin and Leslie and to show Patsy the cabin we will be staying in ... cabin 5. Kevin and Leslie said the same thing was happening up there as far as the fishing goes. Kevin had some luck the night before with a couple nice pike using Suick's along the shore line. We tried that too ... and I did manage 1 small pike. (KEVIN - If you read this .... thanks for the tip !!!!) Overall, we did have a great time being away. The French River area is beautiful and my father had a great time with taking pictures. We may have only caught 8 or 9 fish the entire two weeks, with the largest being a 25 1/2 in Northern. I knew Bigcreekdad was staying at Crane's Lockhaven Lodge for a couple days while I was at Wolseley. I took a couple trips down around hoping to say hi ... but it was not to be. Sorry I missed the opportunity to meet another OFC'r. Wish I had more pics to share with you all, but I have put up a couple. Sorry for the long written report, but I had an opportunity to share something with you all, so I wanted to take advange of it. Patsy landed a nice bass. Only picture of me and my little hammer-handle. This is why I love the French River area. The end of another day. Beautiful sunsets Looking forward to hitting the French a couple times next year.

Water levels on the French are down, maybe a coupel feet. I understand they are to be opening the dams in the next week or two, so the levels will rise. The owner of Wolseley Lodge told us that. Sounds like they do this each fall to lower Nipissing a little in preparation for the spring thaw. (MY guess anyway)

Well Bud - I just got back from the area as well. We were at Wolseley Lodge last week and I ran down around Lockhaven a couple times early in the week, but didn't see your boat around. Was hoping to meet up and say hello. I'll be putting my report up soon, but my luck was the same as yours. Between my wife and I, we may have caught a total of 8 fish during two weeks on the French. Largest was 25 1/2 pike. No musky, but raised 4.

More great shots 007. Great stuff

Great report 007 and some awesome pics. I simply loive the Canadian Shield landscape. Also looking forward to Part 2, 3, 4, etc.

Great report Glen. Always nice to have a little entertainment glad you kept your cool on such a warm day.

A few nice ones ????? That's a bit of an understatement. Congrats Big Time !!!

Too bad you weren't selected Pam. You certainly have a lot of fans on this board. You truely are a very skilled painter.

Attaboy Danbouk .. Congrats to you both.

I had a 2-stroke 40 HP merc a few years back. As long as I was just running along at, say trolling speed, the engine would run fine. As soon as I gave it the gas, it would run for maybe 15 seconds or so, then stall out - just like it was out of gas. Pump the bulb and it would start up fine. I could repeat this process consistently. When I took it to the marina, it ended up being a one-way valve next to the gas tank that got plugged up. Taking care of this one little valve solved our problem.

What a fantastic report and loaded to the gills with pics. Looks like a load of fun.

Braid for me all way. I have a couple rods with mono, but I only use them for pan fish and the like around my area. For bass, it's 12-14# Stren Superbraid and for pike/musky, it's 80# Power Pro. 2' Leader for casting and 3' for trolling. I just start using Flouro leaders at 100#. I'm like pigeontroller ... couple years removed from my last ski.

What an adrenaline rush for those two guys. Congrats on a couple very respectable skis.

Oh wow, porn and nudity in the same report ? Now that's a report. Great report Glen.

Congrats BCD .... Do I smell a 51" from Cranes Lodge coming up ???????