centerpin_drift

Up at our lodge in temagami we had people chum with everything you could imagine. We use to chum our huts with hundreds of pounds of salties but some people didn;t think that was enough, and added everything from barley, corn, noddles, bread and even chicken bones down the hole in efforts to bbring the whities in. The salties where the only thing that worked, and when we dropped the aqua view down at different times, the lake bottom was covered with poop people had dropped down the holes. All the whiteys and lakers i caught out of our huts had stomachs full of salties, and on occasion barley, but the noodles and chicken bones just cluttered up the bottom.

well i'll be damned

this little lady decided she would chew my shoe laces untill i fed her something. Timbits is all i had and timbits is all she wanted. she tried to get into my truck several times sniffing out the box of timbits after taking several from my hand. Sooner of later someone is going to trap or shoot her for her fur or because shes defintally domesticated, and i probably didnt help the fact by feeding her, but she was so damn pretty i couldnt help it. anyone ever ran into a fox this domesticated

in my experience walleye hate the smell and taste of chub. ive watched chubs and shiners fished side by side on jig heads and with tip up and shiners out fished chub 100% of the time. i have witnessed people catching walleye on chub when no shiners are being used, but when the choice is presented, shiners win.

whitefish smell good, why would you wanna get rid of that smell.. its like a cologne

looks like stanton improved their original model last year, check it out http://www.adcockstanton.com/index.htm

i use a matte black stanton, best reel ive ever used, fits my hand like a glove. The only other reel i like other then my stanton is the J.W Young purist II. built like a tank and its made to last. the stanton and purist were bought on the same day 15 years ago and they have floated every season since, not alot of people use j.w but defintally something to check out. Cant complain with the islander and streamside, both great reels, and i know guys who have had them for years without any problems. http://www.jwyoungs.co.uk/reels.htm

the walleye were hitting on numerous things; on the first night i used a small williams green eye jigging spoon and got 7, lots dozens, second night i went with the traditional green jig head tipped with a large minnow through the mouth out the top of the head. My buddy was catching whitefish, lakers and walleye out of the same hole with a brown minnow buckshot spoon, and my cousin stuck with the pink jighead tipped with a minnow hooked through the back and always a stinger hook, most of her fish were caught on the stinger. The walleye up there will bite almost anything though, i caught one with a green glow badboy with a grub tail fishing for whiteys, i watched one of my clients catch her first walleye on a hot pink blue fox vibrex spinner (its what she wanted to use ICE FISHING). anything from the pimple to williams to jig heads will catch a temagami eye when the bite is on.

those are defintally some beauty specks, wel done. the colours are incredile and the photography is great aswell. Nothing can ruin a good memory more then someone who cant snap a good fishing picture. cheers mike

I had to work night shift all week so im a little late getting my post up, but here she is.. Sunday we hit the lake late in the morning, but managed to make up for lost time after hitting the honey hole right away.. While fishing for walleye we managed a whitey, a couple lakers and our limit on eyes. The ice up the north arm is still pretty thin, only 5 inches compared to the 22 inches at the central hub.. We fished 40-45 fow off my favorite rockslide and of course we wernt dissapointed. Previously I had taken many many clients up the north arm to hit my walleye spots, sometimes having up to 25 people that were staying at our lodge cramped onto the rockslide waiting for the walleye bite, but this weekend was a rarerity in having the hole to ourselfs. Long story short we hit close to 30 walleye in the 2 afternoons we fished there,some were of good size, with a couple nice lakers thrown into the mix. this is the first walleye ive seen with a blue tint on its tail fin Im headin back up to north bay this weekend to hit some specks and splake on back lakes with my cousin, should be a good weekend to do some fishing.

ketchunany only has two huts out this year, and they are extremely close to the backside of the lodge in 20 feet of water.. if you want to find a great laker and whitey spot you can go out the north side of ketchunany and walk 200 feet off the bear island ice road and drill anywhere in that area. We use to put our bungalows there on the 90 foot bathtub, and lots of our guys and myself had great luck there. I fished that are on saterday and didn't have much luck, but the fishing was slow that day anyways. Another great spot to try for monster lakers is off the bear island road just past the light house. The ice road makes the big dog leg left and continues down to bear island, if you drive 500 feet or so past the light tower and walk 200 feet off the left side of the road you are going to find water from 100 - 230 feet. If you go the opposite way on the ice road towards the southern arms, you will hit the first group of bungalows out on the left hand side sitting near a green bouy. These bungalows are owned and rented out by john harding. He's a complete moron so feel free to snuggle up beside his bungalows to catch some nice walleye just befor the sun goes down.. dont feel to bad about it, he did it to me and my clients many many many times. anyways, those are a couple of my spots to hook into some nice fish on lake temagami all within walking distance of the ice road. The ice is about 18 - 22 inches thick so your going to want a solid power auger. Hope you hit some of these spots and let me know how you made out. mike

tis my explorer you saw cruising around, shes making the trip back to north bay this weekend to fish callander again and also to try the mclauren lakes for some specks and splake.

callander bay was super slow monday morning.

hopefully someone can help me.. Im wondering how i can post photos as part of my post instead of uploading and compressing my files to fit the byte size . any help would be appreciated mike

we wernt targeting lakers, but in temagami they run side by side with walleye. We were pulling them out of 45-50 fow, and almost every eye spit their air bladder, even when we took extreme care to reel up slowly to prevent this from happening. A few fish were fizzed and put back in the hole, hopefully to live another day, but its something that cant be avoided when fishing walleye in deep water. mike

great pics, gotta love keeping the memories going. mike

hit the ice today in temagami for the first time this year, and of course it never dissapoints despite the tough fishing. We had big plans to hit the back lakes but it was questionable whether the sleds would make the day long journey, sooo we decided to stay on the lake and hit some of my favorite hot spots of lakers and whiteys. After fishing several spots around the lake, and several fish missed and the sun going down, we settled upon my favorite fishing spot in the entire world. Befor williams hit the bottom I hooked into a nice laker. As i iced that fish, my buddys rod went off with the first walleye of the season. Long story short we did alright, between three of us we hit 15 eyes and a laker in half hour, biggest being 19.5 inches, nothing to large, just some nice fighters. The bite is always fast and furious up the north arm, and the ice is conciderably thinner, 6 inches of ice and only 3 inches of good ice compared to the 16 to 18 inches of good ice in the central hub. anyways we just fished ling in the dark and didn't catch anything and we are hitting the lake again in the morning for a full day at the honey hole.

drove from collingwood to northbay yesterday to stay with my cousin on my way to the island in temagami in order to hit nipissing for the first time. this morning a good friend and I fished right off the sewage plant warm hole where a couple shacks are located. the fishing was tough, just a few perch and a stink fish (herring), ice was around 18 inches where we sat, cant really say what the depth was around the warm hole 75 feet west of our holes, but lots of ice to drive on. Later on in the day we hit callender bay for walleye which didn't produce much, but man was it great to see that northern sun set on the ice again. The ice in callender was around 11-13 inches, lots of cars on the ice so we drove out aswell. As heard in Big Eds Bait, the water in callender was very stained tea coloured from the water fluctuating alot in the past weeks making the fishing tougher. All in all my first day on nipissing will go down as one of my favorite. Im sitting in temagami as i write, gearing up to hit some of my favorite fishing spots in the entire world first thing in the morning. hopefully i'll have something nice to post tomarrow. mike

my night shift consists of 12 hours tearing a sled up down and around blue mountain making snow, adrenaline is a key factor to staying awake. the only down time is when out gear is drying by the compressors, and in the wee hours of the morning, OFC keeps me fills the void.

god bless 12 hours night shifts.. my work hasnt banned OFC from my internet access yet so im keeping some sanity

thanks for the update irishfield. we've had buyers staying at the lodge throughout the winter but so far no takers. Im heading up to do a little fixing up around the island. As for troutguy.. i certainly do owe you a hell of a lot for getting my truck out of that pressure crack, and of course for your excellent waypoints.. This wont be the last trip up, we should defintally arrange a weekend for us all to go and hit the hardwater.. this weekend was kind of last minute but theres lots of ice time left in the winter to get up there.

ive got freezing rain at blue mountain.. makes snowmobiling on the slopes a little more fun

anyone else stuck on the night shift

Finally Im getting the time of work to head up to the old homestead on lake temagami, and I couldnt be more stoked to get back out on that hardwater. Im staying in the central hub of the lake at my uncles lodge, Becca's Haven, where i formerly guided for a period of time and cant wait work the lake. I was wondering if anyone has any reports on how the fishing has been up that way. I know the ice is thick enough to drive out to the island but still dont know how frozen it is up the north/north east arm into kokoko bay and such. Has anyone made it out into any of the smaller lakes like cross, diamond, lady evelyn or hubert lake for specks? Im also fishing nippising thursday and friday morning before i head up to the lodge, anybody know how the ice is there? Has anyone used badboys for whitefish in the temagami area?

great report.... makes me wish the rivers in my stomping ground were still open what kind of rod is that in the first picture posted??