timmeh

That's pretty interesting. I know they're around but I've never seen one myself. I've been told they can get up to 25cm or so, that would be kinda fun to see.

I hear fish are occasionally caught in L Ontario

I would strongly consider looking into a guided trip. No offense to your friends you're fishing with but if they're not catching anything they probably can't really help you too much. Think about the $$ you've spent on equipment plus gas money, and it's probably worth spending paying a little extra to get the most out of it.

Along with type of line, you need to consider the fish you'll be after. If it's larger fish and that can take off on longer runs you will need to have enough line that you won't get spooled.

I took this from the other post here regarding this issue. You may want to read it before you go selling your fishing gear. http://www.examiner.com/x-37128-Charlotte-...-to-ban-fishing

Isn't it fantastic when people who've never been outside themselves think they know how it's best managed.

Note; that is a belt not something else!

fellas, 2 months from now and my fly fishing career will be underway. But there's a small problem. Being a complete newb I need a little help picking up a basic fly selection. So what are some of the standard flies that no box should be without. I have a few wolly buggers right now but that's about it. I plan on fishing both trout and bass this season so I'm sure I'll need a wide range to cover this. Also most of my trouting will occur on the Grand so if anyone would be willing to pass along some info about starter flies for that area it would be appreciated. Thanks, Tim

Exactly, and fortunately people are standing up to this resource abuse. Who in their right mind would complain about a 300 fish limit? I mean seriously, how dang greedy are some people?

WOW is right man. Spots that can deliver quality and quantity like that are what makes fishing so great. Hopefully the ice holds and you can get back out again. It continues to amaze me how the BOQ continues to produce such fish with all the pressure.

You've got that right. Nash hasn't scored yet in the olympics so why not give him a chance to get rolling. I can't even imagine why he wouldn't let him take it. Crosby is many things, but a shoot out expert is not one of them.

Ya I hear ya, but the thing is... as important as a gold medal would be for all of us Canadian hockey fans, we have to accept that it's not that important for the players. Some will argue, but to me it's pretty clear so far that they lack the intensity and emotion of the other countries. This is just not as important as the Stanley cup to most of these guys. Maybe they can change in time to win still.....?

This is exactly how I would start if it were me. Lakes that have year round open seasons almost always do so because they're stocked. Once you learn how to fish a few of these lakes then you can go looking for your own hotspots. Good luck.

You will need a boat to fish the French river. Bass doesn't open until the last Saturday in June so if you're interested in them you'll need to hold off your trip until July.

I've had good luck for pike with the white ghost xrap just before and after the sun goes down. Don't fish for eyes much so can't really say. The one colour that I can't seem to hit with is the clown. Everyone else seems to do well but can't seem to get it to work for me.

Well that's marketing for you. All those new colours are designed to catch the fisherman not the fish. I should know, I have half of them in my tackle box, many which have never caught anything. And now I rarely use any rapalas and when I do it's only 2 or 3 key colours. And oddly enough I've done okay with the gold colour.

It's kind of annoying how shimano, and many other companies, don't include spare spools unless you buy higher end reels. Spare spools may for a shimano may cost more than you think, i was told about $50 or so at a local store to order a spare spool for a symetre reel a couple years ago, though it may be different for a sahara? And that would be my advice to you; go to your local tackle store and see what they can do. They may even have something extra kicking around they'd sell for cheap you never know. If you do upgrade I know for sure that the stradics come with spare spools. Personally I just use braid with fluoro line as a leader. Learn how to tie a double uni knot (google it) or use a small swivel. I've never had problems with this. A small swivel will really help eliminate line twist as well.

Most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while.

I believe this is a real serious concern. When you post spots on here you're not just telling a friend, but anyone who lurks through the board. I've personally had one of my favourite trout spots exposed on another board a while back. And last spring there were a lot more people there than I've ever noticed. I hope the fishing will not suffer... but I'm not too optimistic about that. The problem is the attitude of the new age angler. It seems nowadays "fisherman" do their scouting, research and spot searching on the internet and not on the water. And because of this I feel that many do not have the same respect for our fisheries as someone who actually does their own legwork. There are a lot of positives about a great board like this, but a little caution is required when posting.

Most importantly, that's really terrible news, my condolences to the Burke family. I've never been a leaf fan but at least Burke is giving them a reason to be optimistic about the future. But it's funny to hear leafs fans not wanting the "monster" in net now. At the start of the year you told anyone who would listen that he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. And now you don't want him to play??

That would make sense. I was fishing at the Boca Grande pier.

Hmm, I didn't realize there were different species of hammerheads. That's what the old guy was talking about. Or maybe he was exaggerating a little... But others mentioned to me that larger ones are caught from the piers now and again.

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to back my bags and head for warmer temperatures in Florida. Unfortunately the week before I left Florida experienced the worst cold front it had seen in over 50 years. Temps dropped to 32F (0C) for about a week straight. Apparently the water temps in the Gulf of Mexico dropped from the 70's down into the 50's which devastated the inshore fisheries. Tens of thousands of dead fish, mostly snook, were everywhere. Some fisheries managers estimated they may have lost 5 years of snook production! The fish that survived the cold either headed out deep into the Gulf, or those that stayed shallower slowed down and suffered a strong case of lockjaw. Considering this I opted not to spend good $$ on a charter (but thanks to those who pointed me in the direction of guides in my previous post). Maybe another time. But I did managed to spend a fair bit of time fishing the local piers. According to the locals, at this time of year pier fishing can be hit or miss, and the cold front certainly didn't help, but it was still great to experience a totally new type of fishing. Pier fishing can be quite exciting as you never know exactly what you'll find on the end of your line. I didn't take a pic of every fish I caught but I tried to get a pic of each different species I caught. Some of them I can id, others I'm hoping someone on here can help out with??? These mangrove snappers were probably the most common fish I caught. They were piled around the pier and I was catching them like you may get rockbass here. Most of them were in the 6-10 inch range. Apparently there are normally larger ones around but the cold weather moved the out deeper. Unfortunately the glare really ruins this pic, but the colors on this fish were incredible. Bright blue and yellow stripes. It resembled a pin fish, but I don't believe it was. I think it's another species of snapper but not sure (juvenille yellowtail?). Maybe someone here can tell..... Here's a picture of a pinfish. They're commonly used a bait apparently. Sheepshead were fairly common and were what most of the locals were targeting. They hang out right below the piers and eat the barnacles off them. They're good fighters too, and supposedly good eating but I didn't keep any. These saltwater cats were also quite common. And they're much stronger than freshwater cats of similar size. I almost lost my rod of the pier to one of these guys when I set it down for 2 minutes. I caught this little puffer fish right off of the beach one day. I'm not sure what type of pufferfish it is, but it's interesting anyway. Probably my favourite catch of the week was this guy, who I'm sure you'll recognize. I caught 4 of these guys one morning between 16-24 inches. As they have no bone in them it's amazing how light they are. One old fellow who was fishing beside me told me one day a 12 footer was caught off the pier, which happens to be on a popular beach This guy was probably the most exciting fish I caught during the trip. You may not guess it, but the strength of this fish was incredible. I was convinced I had hooked into something much larger. I've caught 15-20lb channel cats on this same setup and they were nothing compared to this fish. The 4 inch stinger on the tail made for a very careful release... This guy I caught near the end of my trip and I honestly have no idea what it is. Does anyone have any idea? I also caught several whitting but didn't get a pic of them. I was also able to spend a little time testing out my new fly fishing setup on the resort ponds but I didn't have any luck. Probably cause my casting is still pretty poor.. Or maybe since I had to watch out for these guys.

I have had very little success with their tubes for whatever reason. I grabbed a few packs last year to try since their other plastics work so well, but they were far less productive than I expected.

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. If I get to do any real fishing while I'm there I'll be sure to post the results.