smbhunter

Nice. I'm in the market for a new vehicle, and have narrowed down the search to either a Toyota Tacoma, or a Ford Ranger. I didn't even check out the ridgeline, but I will look into it now. Thanks for the post.

Haven't used one yet, but they seem alright, especially for the price.

LOL!!! I almost forgot about that pressure crack. It was scary for a bit. The truck just added some extra excitement for the day. If you have a weekday off sometime soon, let me know, we'll try to have a normal day this time.

Great report. Glad to hear you had some success out there.

Even raw.

They are completely harmless to both humans and fish. That is called the yellow grub, which only affects the great blue heron, but even then it's relatively harmless. All they do, is climb from the stomach, up the esophagus and hang from the back of the throat. There has been a couple of extremely rare cases where the herons were so heavily infested with these grubs, they couldn't swallow and of course died. Generally this harmless parasite is found in perch, some minnow species, sometimes bass, basically any species of fish the heron may encounter and consume in the warm shallow water where it wades. This is why the grub doesn't show up very often in larger gamefish like pike and walleye. Once an infested fish is consumed by another fish, the life cycle is over. I still take out any grub that I happen to find in my fillets. I just can't bring myself to knowingly consuming them.

My sincerest condolences to you and your family Lew.

Thanks for the info.

Various spoons, ice picks, cleats, jigging spoons, some plain hooks, weights...Did I mention spoons?

Has anyone here ever targeted cisco through the ice on Georgian Bay? I'd like to give it a try but don't know where to go, or what to look for in terms of depth. I'm also looking for a place that can be easily accessed on foot somewhere in the Midland, Penetang, Severn Sound area, or another location if it offers better fishing and access. Thanks in advance.

The majority of the smelts were caught on a #2 jigging rap, tipped with a small minnow head. Colour didn't seem to matter. The other ones were caught on a pickeral rig type setup, with small hooks and again tipped with minnow heads. I'm sure you could catch them on just about any small presentation that would work for perch, but since I was thinking about catching lake trout and whitefish, I left most of my perch stuff at home, so this is all I had. Bringing in a smelt with a MH rod and 10 lbs test isn't much fun, but it took away the boredom and sure made for a great meal. It also made my buddies two lakers and my two ling much more fun and exciting, as they all came from seemingly nowhere. The sizes on the smelt varied, but lots of good eating size ones available.

I was up there last year around this time and we got 2 lakers, 2 ling and a pile of smelt, kept 1 ling for an experimental cuisine, (which was very good), and about 15 smelt. We drove onto the ice from town and headed to the south end by high rock and set up just outside a small group of huts in about 40-45 ft of water. We got most of the smelt there and both lakers, one was about 8 lbs, the other about 5. Some local anglers in the group of huts caught a couple whitefish. The smelt covered the bottom 3 ft for most of the day, when they cleared out the lakers came in. Both ling came from about 55 ft, just outside another group of huts close to where we drove out from, and were caught on a small williams ice jig and a #3 jigging rap. I've fished the north end a couple of times by the checkerboard where there is a nice access point and caught mostly perch. Lots of ling and smelts throughout the entire lake, other species may be more difficult to locate at times. Go to Lake Bernard Outfitters right in Sundridge and to get further info. They are very nice and extremely helpful. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Maina. See you at the show. Will you be at Bass Pro for the Fishing Classic again in March? All the best. Take care.

My setline always consists of a white 1/8 or 1/4 oz jighead tipped with a large shiner and a hook placed 1-2 ft above the jighead, with about a 4 inch length of line. I've tried putting a second hook up higher, but it rarely seems to get bit, so I just stick with the one hook and the jighead. My jigging rod always has a spoon. I've tried varying the size and style of spoon I'm using, but only two spoons seem to work consistently year after year. The small williams ice jig and the williams wabler. The wabler works best in sizes 20, 30 and 40, with the 30 being the most productive and for whatever reason, the blue out fishes all other colours 10-1. As for the ice jig, just about any colour works, but my most productive ones are both half and half finishes, blue, and chartruese (which was by far the best colour choice for last year and this year). I've caught a few fish on the buckshot spoon, (gold/black), but always seem to end up with an ice jig or a wabler at the end of my line.

I have the best luck on the silver/blue, or the gold/orange. I will vary the size between the small one and the large one. Walleye will take both, specks prefer the smaller one and the lakers prefer the larger one. Everyday is different though, so try to vary sizes and colours for any species, I've caught each species on both sizes and both colours, even on the same day a couple times.

The buckshots work well for any species. In fact last year on Nipissing I saw the biggest pike I've ever seen up close, get caught on a medium sized buckshot. They will work for lakers, specks and splake. If you are going up to the haliburton area, also try a blue fox rattle flash. Splake love 'em, specks love 'em, and even the smaller sized lakers that are typical of the area, love 'em. Walleye will take 'em good too when the bite is negative.

-44...WOW!!! That's nipples cutting through glass cold.

I've got both and I use the flasher much more than the camera. They both have their place, but the flasher is much more handy to have. I never go on the ice without it. I say get the flasher.

4 years ago on Lake Nipissing our group lost 2 rods and a tip up down the hole. One rod was mine. I dropped down a williams ice jig to try and get it back, which I thought I did right away, but instead it was my best walleye of the trip. I put the camera down the hole to see if the rod was in the area and the lens was bumping against the reel handle. Managed to get my rod back along with the other rod and the tip up. Last year a friend left his rod in the cup holder of his chair while he came over to talk to me, when a big gust of wind tipped over the empty chair and sent his rod down the hole. He got it back after about an hour, but shortly after that he tried to set hook on a fish, hit the brim of his ballcap and sent a pair of sunglasses about 10 feet into the air and straight down the hole. Never got those back. Today, a buddy of mine tied up a bad boy to his leader and put it in the hole, only to realize that he didn't tie his leader to his mainline.

I took a quick measure of that fish for curiosity sake and it was 25". Not a huge fish, but man was I happy when I got it to the hole and realized it was a nice walleye. Till then I thought it was a pike cuz of the long runs it was taking. It was great watching that one swim away. I didn't bother measuring the other ones in the photos since I knew they were well into the slot.

Went to Promised Land Camp for the annual Nipissing ice fishing trip and had a blast. After leaving much later than expected, (wanted to leave at 6 am but didn't until 3 pm), we arrived, relaxed for a bit, had something to eat and went to sleep anticipating the next days fishing adventure. As soon as we got out in the morning, the fish were moving through quite consistently but biting very light. It wasn't until 9 am that the first walleye made its way up through the hole. Throughout the rest of the day we lost several fish due to the light bite, but managed to land 8 walleye, with only 2 being in the slot, and 2 perch. In total, we kept 5 walleye and 1 perch from the first day. The next day was very different in terms of fish behaviour, less fish were moving through but they were hitting very hard. We landed 11 walleye and 2 perch the second day, to bring the 2 day total to 19 walleye and 4 perch for 2 guys. We should have had much more walleye the first day, but the light bite got the better of us. Still, we were very content with the results from the trip, especially me since I landed me PB walleye. It wasn't a huge fish but a decent one nonetheless. Fish were caught using a williams ice jig spoon and a set line with a white jig head, in 23-27 feet of water. The hut was sitting in 23 and holes outside were in 26-27 with an even number of fish caught at both depths. It was interesting to see the fish in deeper water hang around the hole for extended periods of time, while the fish in 23 feet were mainly just cruising through.

I could write about the whole story of Daniel's Ark, worked there for 2 years, but I don't think it's my place to say anything. It is shut down though, which is very unfortunate, but on the bright side it was the best 2 years of my life. I learned so much from being there and had a great time while doing it. Met some incredible people there as well, even a couple guys that I work with now. It's a shame the place isn't open any more.

As far as I know, there are at least 3 lakes in the southern half of the province that were stocked a few years ago with smallmouth as a test. There was only one stocking done on these lakes, except for one lake which was stocked twice. Of the 3 lakes, I believe only one has maintained a small population and another has been a complete failure, while the third is unknown. My brother moved to Edmonton a year and a half ago and has been doing some research on the subject over there, and I've been doing some from here. Seems like BC is the place to go if you want great opportunities for large and smallmouth bass, both Vancouver island and the mainland have several lakes with bass and quite a few have canadian record potential for both species.

Awesome!!! Can I go musky fishing with you next year?

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.