Rybren

I remember my Dad losing his glasses in an outhouse. Had to get his rod (fishing type) out to get them back. What a funny sight - a 70 plus year old man walking through the campground, rod in hand, heading for the crapper. Lots of people asking what species he was going after and what he was using for bait. Oops, wrong hole..... Nothing to report through the ice.

If it's what you want to do, go for it. I applied to SSFC's F&W program some 32 years ago. I didn't get accepted. I did, however get accepted into the U of Guelph F&W biology program. I stuck it out for 3 semesters, but it wasn't for me. I moved to Thunder Bay and did the aviation program at Confederation College. While in Thunder Bay and other spots in NW Ontario, I met and worked with a lot of SSF grads, all of whom had nothing but accolades for the school and F&W program. They all tried to convince me to reapply to SSF, but I never did. Despite the fact that I had great fun working as a bush pilot for a few years and then spending 27+ fantastic years in the Air Force, I still sometimes regret not following my dream and going after that F&W program at SSF. All this to say... If you really want it, go for it. If it doesn't work out for whatever reason, at least you tried. Cheers

Don't know about you, but I've always got the telescoping version of the rod handy (so to speak) Congrats on the wedding - may you have many happy years together (and no unhappy ones)

Hey, I could use one of those this fall on my full combat fishing trips to the Salmon River, NY.

Haven't fished there since the early 70's! Back in the day, it was 1. jump in the boat 2. cast out 3. reel in fish I'm sure that it has slowed down since then. Unfortunately, I don't remember much else.

Kuddos to the photographers. Great pics!

Nice pics. Thx

1st car was a '69 Buick Special (basically a Skylark). Got it off my Dad for free and drove the snot out of it. I had 300,000 MILES on it and it was still going strong when some donkey rear ended me and totalled it while I was stopped at a red light. Once I recovered from the whiplash, I went out and got a '71 Impala. I remember the shock when I left T.O. in that beast to go to college in Thunder Bay and had to pay 70 CENTS A GALLON for gas somewhere around Wawa. I think that the Toronto prices were somewhere around 40 cents.

I used to fish the pond back in the late 60's/early 70's. We'd rent one of the rowboats and have a blast. I remember catching lots of small bass, catfish, and panfish, but can't remember ever seeing a pike. I do recall that there was a pond just outside of the SW corner of the park. It was full of giant goldfish and we'd catch them, bring em home in a pail, then stick them in a wading pool. If they survived, we'd dump them back into the pond at the end of the summer. We'd also fish the Humber River below the Bloor St bridge. Tons of suckers, catfish, and carp. Ahhh, the memories of my youth.....

My wife always said that she didn't like pike - she thought that walleye was the best tasting fish. A couple of weeks ago I caught a few eyes and a 14lb pike (makes boneless filleting easy). I cleaned them up an cooked them identically. During dinner I asked her which was better - the pike or the eye (she didn't know which was which on her plate). She picked the pike! IMHO, if filleted just right (ie. no bones) pike can be just as good as an eye. Of course, if you don't get all of the bones out, they can be a real pain. Luckily, the bones don't affect the taste.

And... Fly v everything else

As always, a great, motivating report. Reminds me of my times up north and makes me yearn to go back. Back in my (much) younger days as a bush pilot, I came across an abandoned, fully finished 2-story log lodge north of Armstrong, Ontario. It had a fully equipped kitchen, bar, and lounge, and had enough out cabins to sleep about 30 people. There was row upon row of 14' boats with 20 horse Mercs and docks galore. The place was absolutely spectacular and had never seen a single guest. As the story goes, much like the place that you found, the local band got funding from the Feds to build the place and then couldn't be bothered to do anything with it. What a shame! Anyway, keep up the great posts. I'm living vicariously through you. Cheers, Rybren.

You can always try flies, wet or dry, on your spinning rig. I like bouncing wet flies about 3 feet behind a split shot. If the fish are really spooked, try tying on a leader of 4lb test. Another technique that I've used around small streams and beaver ponds is to use caddis fly larva. Pick up a few rocks in the shallows and look for little bundles of sticks (about 1-11/2 inches long) The larva will be inside the bundle. Peel of the sticks and thread the larva onto a small hook (it's not easy) and drift away. Again, light line is the way to go. Good luck. Wish I had one of those streams near Ottawa.....

Great news! Enjoy yourself. There's no life like it!

I've caught many muskies before and I'm sure this isn't one. Here's another pic. It's not very good.

Nice fish! It beats the heck out of a pike any day in my book.

The fish was about 12-14" long. Don't know that I've ever seen a shiner that big. Could be, though.

I have to agree, the Ottawa is a very interesting river to fish. After doing some research on the net and looking at the photo, I think that you guys are right - they were mooneyes. Here's a shot of one.... This pike came in at a tad over 14 lbs... and this one at 10 1/2 ilbs... As I mentioned in my original post. It was a blast to get back on the water and start fishing again. My poor wife, I'm afraid that she'll soon be a fishing widow once again. Cheers

After 4 years of living in a far-away land with no fishing, I managed to tie up with a couple of my buddies for a rather wet weekend of fun on the Ottawa River near Pembroke. We fished the river pretty hard on Friday afternoon & evening and for most of Saturday (in between thunderstorms) and did okay, all things considered. We had gone hunting for eyes and managed to pick up 15 - 20, all under the 40cm size limit. Unfortunately, we never did manage to find any worth bragging about. There were a lot of hammer handle pike to be had as well. In addition, we hooked into a couple of 10+ and 14+ pounders. There were also a few smaller (2-5lb) channel cats, a few OOS smallies, some pan fish, and a bunch of some kind of silvery fish that none of us could identify. My first thought was that they might be whitefish, but I haven't seen one in 30+ years and they didn't match my mental picture of what I remember them looking like. I think that our guy with the camera took a picture of one and once he sends it to me, I'll post it to see if anyone can ID the beast. Boy, I have to tell you that it sure felt good to be back on the water with a rod in hand, drag screaming and the lads yelling "look at the size of that thing!" Cheers

Silver Williams Wobbler - great for eyes, pike, trout

Salmon River, NY. Going after killer kings, cohos, and steelies in full-combat fishing conditions. There's no life like it!

Superb story and pics. Thanks for sharing with us. I'm jealous!

Boy, it sounds like you guys are having a really late breakup this year. I lived and worked up that way in the mid-late 70's and early 80's and I can't remember a year when we didn't have our planes in the water by the first week of May. So much for global warming. I'd be really surprised if you didn't have open water by the 20th. Keep your spirits up and remember to bring lots of warm cothes - it can get very cool even into early June. Good luck.

I lived in the Longlac area back in the late 70's/early 80's. Back then, the trick to fishing was: A. Find a lake - any lake B. Drop your line in the water C. Haul in the fish I suspect that it's a little more complicated these days, but there are a ton of lakes and access roads in the area so finding someplace to fish shouldn't be a problem. Here's a link to the NOTO site for the Longlac area: h t t p://w w w.noto.net/regional.cfm/code/113/tbid/7 Remember to remove the spaces in the link. You may want to consider continuing along hwy 11 another hour or so to Lake Nipigon. They have some monster Specs in that lake. The world record comes out of the Nipigon River at the south end of the lake . Good luck, have fun, don't forget your bug spray. Rybren