Moosebunk

Lew... Simon... I do work... that can be kinda boring sometimes. Thanks Doug. I hear ya Mike... been a while since exploring that idea. Ketchenany... you made it farther than most.

This could go on... Some favorites from the years... Jimmy D's Logstick. Spaghetti Bend. The Grocery Store. Pig Pen. Gar Castle. Old Rez. Kwetabohagan. The Drive-Thru. Shappiros. My Arse Hole... as in, "why don't we check out my.... hole?" But it is a honey hole up the French.

Really enjoyed that Gordy! Great to hear of any fly-in reports like this, but especially so when it's something new for those who experienced it. Your walleye numbers were good with some solid fish too. That is a pretty small lake overall and it treated you well. In future you will find many fly-ins like this one are equally productive. It's a great and funny feeling when you can just sit back in the boat and set the hook into walleye after walleye like they're spring perch or crappies loaded up in a sweet spot. Thanks for the report. Try not to wait two years, so git'er done in 2015 dood. These are days you carry with you forever.

It that because they were in black and white back then Lew? :P Just messing with ya there young fella!

Same opinion here... Again, it's good to see you back here Chris. You bring interesting perspectives to share... and thoughtful reports. Been another good summer for ya too dood! NICE!!!

I'm in that same dolt boat bud. PBucket working fine this morning though.

Summer Holidays for the girls... ... is over. At home here now, there's just a load of family and scenery pictures from the summer holiday so, this is more of a quick pictorial to post 'em up and proudly show off the girl's summer fish and fun. Read on if you want... Back on the school bus Tuesday morning, it feels like there was no amount of summer time at all. Home here now with a couple days off before heading North, I was looking over many of the pictures taken with them while we were together over their holidays. There was fishing for everyone; and even surprisingly my oldest daughter Summer came out for a day, but mostly their time was spent outdoors doing other things, as Bren and I tried to keep them busy. Before Summer's highschool exams and just nearing the start of their vacation, we all had to go North awhile to our old home in Moose Factory. Gone six days it was a full mix of time with extended family, travel and taking in some fresh James Bay air. Once the holidays actually began we all went our separate ways. The month of July both girls took off to camp. Summer was gone 28 days where she did leadership training and basically just kicked it with new friends. Leah's time there was cut into two 1-week blocks, so she was in and out over the span of the month. Brenda and I used those available days to escape to Great Slave and, when returning I spent a week hammering through a Honey-Do list that was page long. No ER work on the calendar for ten days either, very last minute after finishing up most of those chores I set out solo for Lake Nipigon. In the meantime, the girls came home from camp and took off for Toronto a few days with their mom to see Bruno Mars and the new Aquarium thingy... So ended July. August was looking like a clean slate coming in, but the ER's started filling up some available days. That was very much needed after a lean July. The girls home though, on days off they kept busy. Birthday parties, dates with their friends, time with the Grandparents, their MMA classes... as well we took them for a quick vacation to Lake Placid, New York. There at Whiteface they hiked up their first mountain, took a gondola ride, drove up Memorial Highway and along the Ausable River, walked through Ausable Chasm and, most importantly for Summer, they shopped. Hadn't been there myself since skiing back in childhood and forgot how beautiful the Adirondacks truly are, must have snapped 200 photos over the three days. The pictures don't really do Ausable Chasm and Whiteface justice. The Chasm hike itself is a couple miles and there were two dry chasms to explore as well. Some people rock climb, rappel, or raft through there also; as can barely be seen above with the tubers going through in one picture. It is the most visited natural tourist attraction in the State and it's pretty cool and worth the hike... The Memorial Highway to "nearly" the top of Whiteface had our brakes smoking so bad when coming down that I pulled over and popped the hood as we thought the engine was on fire. Don't forget to gear down, it's a relentlessly steep five miles or so!!! After climbing the trail up, the weather station at it's peak was interesting, the views incredible and the butterflies standing at some rock edges were a little nauseating. Leah had just watched a K2 documentary a week before and at 4,867 feet felt like she conquered the world... to summit K2 though, she'd need to climb another 23,384 feet. Shifts picked up at work and by end of August it turned into one of my busiest work months of the year... only fished two half days for the month. Before the girls were to sneak back to school though, I got away for a day last week with just them to visit Wheelers Pancake House in McDonald's Corners (now home of a Guinness World Record) After brunch we took to a private section of the Mississippi to hike, swim, and fish a little in the rapid pools along the river. Leah at my side, between the two of us over a couple hours we caught smallies on nearly every cast with an ultralight set-up. Gonna guess sixty fish or so, maybe more... but nothing much better than a pound and a half. Probably my favorite place at home here in Eastern Ontario to simply take in scenery and find quiet with the kids. And the girls all did fish too. Leah is becoming a more regular partner as she's up for anything almost anytime. Most recently I "had" to test out some new bucktail jigs I'd tied up, and try the new Terrova, so Leah took her first crack at jiggin' lakers. With her gar and smallie days added, she happily reeled in a good variety of fish this season. Summer agreed to a trip out too, as long as she got to swim a little and didn't have to fish too much. And Bren joined me for a week of lakers and a day of gar. It was a good but fast holiday for all and for fishing, but it was made better with the three of them more often at my side. Bunk.

Smiling from start to finish here Simon. That was a great one... the pics telling the perfect story. Would rarely see frogs when living up north. In fact, don't think I ever saw them at all... just loads of toads. Down here it's the opposite...

Good to see a little less working and a little more playing Doug. Nice fish bud!

Same thing was happening here yesterday Lew. Still a little slower this morning. PBucket appears to have changed their templates around a little recently. Actually pay this site to host and yesterday between photos in my library had an advertisement... not today though. Working out glitches there maybe as well? By evening I had to run my securities here as I couldn't get online with Chrome. Something weird was up.

Rick & G... on 'em good. WTG guys.

To the original post... that was brutal. No doubt. Sucks some police have to be that way. In the ER we often work alongside together, especially weekends, holidays and full moons. 9 times out of 10 officers are just awesome and friendly people... but in their position of power when that one jackarse starts taking things too far...

Agreed Art, and thanks. Hardly ever use rope but do have a couple rope lures with me every time out. They work well, especially in really weedy areas.

Quote Wikipedia... "As their vascularised swim bladders can function as lungs, most gars surface periodically to take a gulp of air, doing so more frequently in stagnant or warm water when the concentration of oxygen in the water is low. They also appear to surface in fast-moving rapids. As a result, they are extremely hardy and able to tolerate conditions that would kill most other fish." Essentially Rob, they might just be breathing when you see them surfacing... Never heard of this dood Simon, but the name totally fits. Perfect find. We were just going with the more known Bob Garley. Leah and I like singing Three Little Birds... our favorite.

So saying it survived the fires only to get eaten by a bear. Harsh world up there Dave.

Would take 8 to 12 hours Mike. Earlier season (late Dec to mid Jan) before the bush snow was too deep and parts of the skeg ponds and creeks really slushed out. Boys went across land mostly, using parts of the Skat, Ekwan and other creeks to make their way. Couldn't always go every year as it often depended on the freeze and snow. Do know that 160 were kept one three day tour, and many more put back.

Surely Rick. Will see what happens in the future.

Looks like Rick, Pete, Bill, Chris & Rob will be up next spring. ROAD TRIP!!! Plenty space in the country here for pitching a tent and git'in yer gar on. Bonfire, BBQ, beers and gar!!! On flies you miss like 75% Bill... probably way more actually. And waving the arms all about to cast oftentimes spooks them away. Thing is, the clearer and deeper the water I find, the less chance you have of getting them to turn even if you present the fly well. Those days after a wind had stirred up bays on the river to get them muddy, I find is best chance when gar are up sunning and visible. You can move in closer on the fish and more accurately cast to them. Not only that, they can't inspect the fly as easily and they snap at it not knowing better. Sometimes, they just keep following and snapping. Best places to sink a hook, tip of the snout or back into the mouth cause inbetween is a crap shoot. That'll work Chris... no question. But a slow retrieve rarely gets results actually, least not here. Neither does too fast though. The lure has to be moving and action just right, and rarely does pausing it beside the fish do anything but turn 'em off from biting it. Rob... I have never fished or even seen them over that deep. Maybe run the odd one over accidentally ripping up and down the river. Again, if they were out over clear water they'd have been tougher to have bite regardless, but keeping at them is the right idea. Have those lures run just by their eye the same distance as their snout is long. Those fish must have been migrating to or from somewhere really, don't think they're really much for chasing after open water schools of fish at all... but then again...? Leah does that... and my goof buddy too.

Friends from Attawapiskat make an annual run at freeze up to Hawley Lake to fish lakers there. What you described for numbers and size is dead on with what they do too. Hordes of five pounders kept to be smoked later. Will make for an interesting read in OOD.

Beauty Brian B bass boy! Had me confused a second... where's Misfish?

It's rare Simon... but it happens. lol.

Likely giving up January, half of February and half of April to work in 2015 Paul... so the March ice fishing can just wait awhile dood!

Great to see Mr.TCat. Those walleye look awfully blue but up that way it's not too surprising. Great times out with buddies, thanks for reporting.

So ironic this came up tonight. Noticed last week a few holes, today just above my septic a 10 foot area has been ripped to shreds, and although no noted grubs in daylight, when I lifted some grass a strange beetle scurried away. Not voles doing this, although the damage the OP photographed this spring was evident on the lawn here too. What's here now has to be the work of something bigger than voles... and I did catch whiff of a skunk a week or so ago. Maybe hiding under the porch too. Critters like these... KILL 'EM ALL!!!!

Sister was lucky. Been checked four times on Kesagami ice fishing, once on the Moose River, once half way to Fort Albany, outside Kirkland Lake at Kenogami, on the Big Rideau and on the Ganaraska, Nine times in nine years. Simon... it's definitely different up your way.