Zubris21

I agree, I would have a hard time loaning out my auger. Heck I would even have a hard time asking to borrow one from another group. I say bite the bullet and spend the $60 for a brand new one at CT. Its an investment that will last you as long as you want provided you take care of it. Oil it down when not in use for a while and change the blades every few years (depending on usage) and your set. Student or not, don't be cheap. I was in the same boat a couple years ago, and I could always justify fishing purchases, because they were "long term" investments, and it would inevitably save me money at the grocery store, provided you like to eat fish.

Beautiful fish! I think Im heading out for some of those this weekend.... but through the ice of course.

Wow that would be terrifying. I need to make a trip up north to see some of these magnificent beasts before they are all gone.

I think I've spent about $200 since Christmas, and that was all on hard water gear. Maybe 30 bucks was for softwater. I expect to spend another couple hundred at least come spring time. Looking to get a new rod/reel for fishing the steelies / salmon run in the spring and then everything I need for when I get back to ONT.

some nice whities there! I'd really like to get out one simcoe for some of those some day.

another easy way is to upload them to photobucket.com, then past the direct link into the image adder icon. Photobucket will do all the resizing for you, and it is really easy to use.

great shots! I like them all!

I like the lighting/shadows on the bridge picture! good work!

Great shots, I particularly like the second one with the old packaging, adds even a little more nostalgia.

I foresee this post going on for a little while. hahaha

Nice fat fish! Sounds like you had a good time out there!

I usually say "There we go" and sometimes "got one" or "there's one"... If it feels small I wont say anything else unless someone asks. If it feels decent I'll say "Oh ya, it feels like a good one".

I know applying to college programs is expensive, but I say apply to all 5 of the programs that interest you. It gives you more time to make up your mind, and you won't regret pay a little more to keep all your options open a little longer. Education is the best lottery ticket you can buy!

I actually had a question about the brookies, Since this is a new species to me I don't know a whole lot about them. Looks to me as though I may have caught 1 male and 1 female based on the side by side picture... can any one confirm or deny this and point out the distinguishing characteristics?

There really is a lot of snow. We were guessing we had about a meter here in town, but up where we were skiing there was a lot more. I made a little pit about 50cm Deep, then plunged my ski pole down to see how much deeper it was. Ski pole was set at 125cm and I couldn't get to the ground. Probably a good 2 meters up there.

beauty fish!!

Well, it has been quite a while since I’ve posted any kind of detailed report. As some of you may already know, I moved to Dease Lake in the North Western corner of British Columbia, back in late August. I moved up hear to start my teaching career, so far everything has been great. I’ve had the opportunity to go camping a few times, tag along on a couple of hunts, and even made it up to Whitehorse for a few days. I’ve taken loads of pictures, but it is just too time consuming to upload them all, with the poor quality of internet we have. So far and I’m really enjoying myself, I’ve had the opportunity to try a few new things such has Grouse, and Ptarmigan as well as Dried moose meat, and we even cooked a full Turkey over an open fire for thanksgiving. The only downside: I haven’t been fishing as much as I would have liked, but I do have 3 new species under my belt since being here: a 3-4 lb Dolly Varden, some small Whitefish (caught casting a small Mepps spinner from shore believe it, or not), and this morning I got a couple Brook trout through the ice (more on that later). so here we go... Mid-way through December my house mate and I decided to take a little drive South along hwy 37 to a small mountain range called The Hotailuh Mountains to take a few pictures. We were specifically at a location called Gnat Pass. Looking out across Gnat Lake (which is supposed to have great Rainbow fishing) we saw a small heard of Caribou grazing away. It was my first Caribou sighting and I was pretty excited, I just wish they were a little closer to get some better shots, but here are the ones I managed. For Christmas break I headed back home to Kingston. Dealing with the Vancouver airport and getting home was quite an adventure, but I don’t really want to get into that. I flew out of the City of Terrace, its about a 7 hour drive in good conditions and was lucky enough to have clear skies on my drive down. I saw this momma and calf about a kilometer outside of town. Got to Gnat Pass right around sunrise and managed to take a few nice scenery shots. Now finally we get on to this weekend. My house mate is big into backcountry skiing, and I finally made it out with him. It had been about 6 years since I last skied, and have never skied any powder, but was really looking forward to the trip. Our plan was to head Northto the abandoned asbestos mining down of Cassiar, then skin up to tree line in the Cassiar Mountains. We started out and got around 500m in breaking through about a meter of snow before we decided it was too much. We had about a month long cold spell where the temperature never climbed above about -27 degree Celsius and it had ruined the snow. Typically we would have been able to stay in the top 20-30cms. Here’s a picture of me breaking trail. Our plan was to ski around the bowl high up the mountain above my right shoulder. We decided to head back South along the highway. Ended up finding a nice little tree filled hill on the side of the road. We Climbed up about 500m and had a nice little ski down. My house mate making his descent. It was great to get back out onto the Skis, I was a little non-committal about it, and was afraid to really let go, so I had some trouble, but I think next time I will feel much more competent. Finally today, my much anticipated first Ice fishing trip. I only had a couple hours this morning because I had to coach hockey, and we were delayed getting out because we had to dig out my friends snowmobile, but it turned out to be a great day. We went to Allen Lake, which is literally a 10 minute walk from my house. It’s a small lake containing only Brook Trout. I’ve heard stories of some monster fish being caught in there. When we finally made it to the lake I set myself up with a Swedish pimple tipped with some raw bacon. It only took about 10 minutes when I felt a tap on my line. I think I got a little to excited at the prospect of pulling in my first brookie and went for a really hard hook set…. Nothing there curse. I dropped the line back down towards bottom and as soon as I did... SLAM a great hit. I set the hook and had a minute or two tug of war with this healthy little 15’ Brookie. We were excited that we got our first one so quickly, and thought we were in for a great day. My friend isn’t much of a fisherman, he had a couple on, but didn’t set the hook despite me yelling at him to do so and lost them on the way up. After about 2 hours we could see some friends walking down the lake. My friend decided to head over and pick them up on the sled. I was left to man the holes. I was jigging his rod in an effort to get him one, I felt a little tap, then heard this scraping sound behind me, I turned and my rod was heading, quickly, down the hole. I dropped the rod I had in my hand and ran to the other hole. Managed to catch it just in time and pulled up another nice healthy fish. This one measured in an inch and a half longer at 16.5’. Heres a nice picture of Dinner followed by, what will be my first entry into the ’09 OFC tournament. (The measuring tape isn't quite at his nose.) I can’t wait to get out again to this local lake and hopefully catch an 8+ pounder, they are supposed to be in there .

Great report and memories. You can tell they mean a lot to you!

You must be pumped! too bad its just January. Like others have said I wouldn't worry about the paint, it has more character as it is! good luck with it, although Im sure you wont need it, based on some of your reports last year!

sounds like you have it pretty sweet there man! great report/pics!

I'm certainly interested in joining! If the rules stay the same as last year though I'm going to need some clarification. I believe one rule was "All fish entered need to be caught from your home province" Well now that I am living in BC I will obviously be doing a fair share if fishing up here through to late spring. But as soon as summer vacation rolls around and I'm done work I'll be heading back to Ontario (my true home) and plan on doing as much fishing there as I can.... will I be able to enter fish from both locations since they are both home? or am I limited to one? if so I have some thinking to do.

I have some friends who have taken that exact program. Sounds like a pretty great program, they had nothing but great things to say about it, and some of the stories they tell about projects made me quite jealous. I do however need to agree with Gerritt, the chances of turning it into a career are kinda slim. None of my friends that have graduated are currently doing anything related to that field. If I could make one recommendation, I would look into some programs that are more directed towards forestry management, and environmental sustainability. I think there are more career opportunities and you're still focusing your education on the outdoors. With all that said, the best advice is to follow your heart, and get into what ever program is right for you, just work hard at it and you'll have no regrets.

Well, I've decided I want to go on a vacation mid March. I think I'd like to do something a little bit different than I have in the past, and that is have the vacation focused more on fishing than anything else. I'm not too picky about where I go, I just would like a chance to catch some new species, and get into some size as well. I'd prefer something a little warmer, and have looked into locations in Cuba and Louisiana but haven't quite found the right spot. Also wouldn't be opposed to getting out on the west coast, but many of the charters nearest me (Prince Rupert) don't open until may. So if anyone has been anywhere, or has an suggestions it would be appreciated. of course cost is a factor, and I'm hoping to keep the trip at around $4000 absolute tops $5000 (2 people) including airfare (plus spending cash).

Looks like a small slice of heaven! It's got me pumped for this weekend. Will hopefully hook into my first brookie through the ice!

Limeyangler has contributed great reports on a regular basis. During the summer months Mikethebassfisherman posted quite a few reports and seems to be the most dedicated new member as far as I can tell, even though I haven't been around long myself.