Moosebunk

Awesome Darlin!!! Great angler & fish shot. Good shootin' out there too.

Now that's wicked right there fellas. Would be gnarly pinnin' lakers that way. lol. Only Andolph the Grey would think of that wizardry. lol. Glass on the lake, and plenty lakers from under that glass. Nice!

Enjoyed that Dan. Thanks. What an interesting time that would have been, and what an experience to see that river back then it would be as well. Godly place... yes! Somewhere below that deep cold current at Virgin Falls, surely the echo of those rapids must still roar. Eight more years...

World Record Cod caught some place where there's no trees, still some snow and all the houses are red. Guessing Norway. Just to put this 5 foot fish into an interesting perpective... the largest lake trout ever weighed was a netted Athabasca fish at 103 pounds as well. OK... Going Fishin' now!!!

Clean house and clean fish Jacques. Quick and easy for ya. My girls used to like seeing 'em cook with the heads on though... so most times I'd keep 'em happy. Spring fishing is going well for ya it looks like.

Great stuff TJ. Avery is going to be spoiled rotten on pike and walleye this summer. And yeah... my buddy John was still landing a plane on that lake quite a bit later into April than usual. Going to still be some icy patches likely. Redneck hottub. lol Stylin!

What's the plastic you could use... PVC type? For wood, ash is probably best. Noticed this week after checking that the splash guards and keels on the WarCanoe are oak. It does bend too... not sure enough for a smaller canoe with greater bended shaped. Been sniffing epoxy for 3 days in the garage doing some canoe restoration. You get this job done for yourself you won't consider the canoe as much of a "a beater." Instead you'll be happy with a good personal job done. Voyageur canoe I think is in Peterborough... they'd likely have options for parts to buy.

Appreciate the input gang. If getting the chance to go a couple days it'd likely be into mid July weather permitting. Fleas are something I haven't encountered other than in miniscule quantities up north. I'm in no hurry to break the bank on gear for something I may or may not do but once a year... but it's understood that once you get a taste for salmon fishing it can leave a real taste for more. After 6 hours finally just put the guy on a magic carpet ride, hit the reset button and shocked his heart back to normal. He kept interested in this thread, salmon, gar, northern fishing.. and whatever other tales I was telling ti'll I hit him over the head with the drug hammer prep. lol. Thanks all.

Reliable top end for sure TJ... just be careful with the lower. Softer skegs, bendy props. Great pick-up overall... it's in mint shape.

Right On!!! OFC Salmon Derby. We'll work out the details after I cardiovert this guy.

OK Shane. It's gonna maybe be you and me in the Lund now. lol 750 yards??? You mean feet... right? Thinking typo Billy.

Hopefully Roy. Have a window to try in July but with the hectic "vacation" schedule this summer, work may shut that door while they've got me around. Have caught fresh Chinooks in the Fraser River, never one on open water. Any fish will do...

It's funny Bill. Over the years you always here about these salmon that ripped off a mile of line... and I'd bet they do from time to time. Hopefully I get nearly spooled if out to try.

May get the time this year to take a first kick at the can out of Port Hope. If I do, it'll probably just be myself and one other. Have dipsies, riggers, planers, 4-core and rods.. Thing is, the reels are three 17 and one 27 series Daiwa's / Shimanos. Little small because it's all for Quinte walleye. Each is spooled with about 750 ft. 40lb braid. One 800+ 50lb... and the TDR has 17 or 20lb Big Game on it. Wondering if I'd be needing to beef up these reels? And if using braid will be fine for a tour or two?

Styling Dave!

Toad eyes x2 and awesome numbers. Nice opener mang!

Great shots of the wee lad Simon. Nice that spring has nearly arrived in the north.

Exactly Shane. Nice Mike. lol.

Who doesn't eat a giant pike the size of yourself every morning for breakfast???

Wouldn't go too light. Need a solid hookset and some backbone to keep those hooks in. Now that's kinda funny. It makes total sense to me now why an old buddy would tell me otherwise. You lads are too kind. Enjoy the new boat and the spring fishing ahead. Thanks.

Only ever chase after personal bests... Doesn't matter the species. Who doesn't love catching BIG fish? You certainly can... and I have. Unless fly fishing... use lures with strong trebles. Kinda bad Simon. Some are quite slimey, some not. Many do crap alot in the boat. Use a variety of gear Bill. Baitcasting, spinning and fly. Your pike gear would likely be perfect. Rods 7 - 7 1/2 ft. Med-Heavy. Spinning 12-17lb, Casting same or 15-25lb. Braided lines 30-50lb. Fly 9wt and floating line. Fishing in Eastern Ontario is incredible. Since moving home south again it's been amazing sampling anything and everything available. I'm looking for a mid September to mid October fish. Muskies could fit that bill around here. OFAH - 20.1 pounds. 54 inches... Surprisingly..? Some fish are quite silver throughout... some very spotted... and then from time to time you find one black backed and brown bellied. What would be the longest you've seen in G.Bay? Not sure if the OFAH still has that program in effect. I was told no... Would like one for the wall. In part, because you are right with everything you say, and as well, because the fish I'd keep would likely be significantly better than this PB 20+ pounder... or an exceptionally spotted gar of about the same size. Thanks all for your interest.

Bruce at Tamar had posted a couple photos a week back during the heatwave. Yeah... pretty icy out there. Probably unlocked now though.

The spring of 2012 was unusually hot and early. By mid May, the boat had been in the water for eight weeks, and some of the best spring trout and crappie bites had already come and gone... The gar began to stir. It was amidst a sunny, week-long, heat wave, that on the morning of May 14th a noisy blackbird outside an open window woke me earlier than expected. A sound and solid sleep through the night, fresh air energized, I felt eager to face the day. My good friend Mike was to be waiting at a nearby Timmies, and come time to depart I slipped from the house and into the truck. Before shifting gear, a sudden urge came over, and I rushed back inside and downstairs to grab my Backroads Mapbook. It was not the book I was after, but pressed neatly inside its pages was an OFAH Record Fish Registry Form, which a month earlier I had printed offline and filled out, "most" of. To confess, it was a rarer moment of optimism. Once picking up Mike on route, it was obvious he was excited to fish gar again as well. The previous week he tried it for the first time, and by the end of his day he had caught and released his personal best, a 16lb & 7oz, 52-incher. Quite an exceptional initiation... ... The spring of 2006 was when I was first introduced to fishing gar. A few online friends had been chasing them for a couple years, and viewing their fishing reports sparked interest in this relatively elusive and mysterious fish. Living up north at the time, the possibility to regularly pursue gar would really only happen once relocating back home here to the south in 2009. It was then, that a second chance with the gar did happen one day. I hooked my first four gar, and they in turn hooked me. Come spring of 2010 I was on my own and ready to fish, but some steady work up north called me away. Unfortunately, that meant only three gar outings would come to fruition. The bite then was just heating up too, and the experiences building together nicely when the season had to end. When 2011 arrived, days for fishing opened up big-time. A secure job with a great schedule allowed for about 100 hours for gar during the season, and with vast amounts of water to search them out, it was game on. That time on the water in 2011 was exceptional. My father came along one day and caught a 16lb & 6oz, 53-inch personal best, and during a day out with my good friend Pat, I released a personal best, fat 50-inch, 16lb & 7oz gar we aptly named "Crocsocks." Two fish within a couple weeks which if kept and registered would have broken the current Ontario gar record. Time and experience continued building better results and before long a days fishing meant passing up tonnes of 3 to 4-footers, in search of 4 1/2 to 5's. Many hours on the water became experimental as well, following through with different approaches and lures, and even dabbling with the fly rod a little. ... Back to 2012, the gar season was finally in full swing. The play schedule was pretty well wide open for two months, and with several friends and family along during different days, time on the water was simply a joy for us all. Again, Mike had released the big fish of the spring so far, before we ambitiously set out once more on the chase. About 11:30am we were cruising the shallows looking to sight fish. Traveling the shoreline I spot a good solid shadow and move cautiously to better position the boat for a cast. Mike's eyes are fixated on the big fish as well. A clear shot and free of debris, we are about to cast when the fish begins swimming towards the deep. We let a couple go and just miss the mark, the fish seemingly unaware of our first attempts. The boat now slides in behind and we creep after, keeping the fish at twelve o'clock and in good range for Mike and I to both make easy casts from the bow. Time is of the essence, for the fish continues to swim for deeper waters. We both let lures fly together, again and again, and on my third crack the gar's head snaps quick and directly to the right stopping my lure in it's path. Huge set to drive the hook, and the fish tears off on it's first reel peelin' rip. Mike unbeknownst to me is preparing to shoot a video. 　 　 Camera rolling we capture the fish steal a few good solid runs. Nervously laughing while playing the fish I'm calling it out as we go... "I've never had a gar do that!" "That's over twenty pounds." "Should be filling the livewell." "That's my biggest gar Mike, that's my biggest, I think?" Until the fishes snout was firmly in grasp, my knees were shaking. I held it there in the water while looking around to make sure all things were readied in the boat, while at the same time with my other hand driving the MinnKota pedal and bow towards the shore. On deck we first laid the fish into a dry net and hung it for a weight, settling the scale firmly at 22 pounds & 11 ounces. Fish laid flat we took a length measurement and noted the gar a hair over 54 inches to the tail tip. Mike was readying the camera for photos while I snuck a quick weight on the net, two pounds exact, making the fish 20lbs & 11ozs. But, I couldn't leave it at that and felt I had to know the fishes true weight. Suspended on the scale there was no bouncing around of any numbers, the gar held like a brick on 20 pounds & 4 ounces. So with that, I quickly came to realize quite a big and special personal best had just been caught. A few incredible photos taken, my best gar at 20.25 pounds was official. For an angler who lives to chase big fish, this one was a solid achievement. To have my good friend Mike alongside too; someone who understands and shares a same passion for fishing, made it all that much more perfect. Measurements and photos finished, the gar was back over the gunnel in short order. Gripped snout and supported belly, it seemed a long time I just held the fish there in the water. The livewell had not been turned on at all, and after a silent pause Mike was ready to ask the question. "You're releasing the fish?" "I have to," I replied after little thought, "I have seen bigger... and until I catch one of those fish I'm not killing one after another." There are truer giants swimming, have seen a few pushing sixty inches and guessed to be 25 or more pounds. In some years ahead, possibly this returned fish will be an equal to those. From the moment they're hooked they are all in for as quick and easy a release as possible. Even any other potential record breakers went back with little hesitation, and I have wondered a time since, if it's even in me to bother keeping one? What I do know though, is this one gar has a lot more personal meaning than most will ever know, and Mike, my father and a few close others were rather surprised that the OFAH Registration Form did not get completed on this day... And so that was it, and the winter flew by quick with the luring of spring gar now rearing its toothy-filled head once again. If another giant lifts over the gunnel sometime, I guess it'll be then with that fish when fate gets decided. Today though, I am happy that this best is still swimming, and looking onwards and upwards in the hunt. Afterall, that's truly the best fishing experience to keep. The end of it.

This is just insane. lol. Although, in Ontario I've seen snow in every month, but July. Could this be the year? Opted to sit out on the fishing today to do some WarCanoe wood repair. From the garage "almost" watched snow go by in a squall an hour ago. Brrrrr!

Owned and never had problems with two lower-end Lowrance units over the years, an X67... and an old portable FishEasy2 (Eagle) Now have a new HDS7 to be installed in the Lund and hoping that works out great because, I also have two Humminbirds currently that are great units as well. Sorry to hear their service blows... Will pray I don't need their help.