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I love the opening day of Moose Season! Mostly because I'm the only steelheader left on the river Seriously though, I don't hunt, but I'm interested in learning. One problem though, wifey is pretty opposed to guns in the house.

Thanks guys! It looks like there is a lot more choice out there than I realized.

So I'm flipping through the Cabelas catalog dreaming of summer fishing trips. This year I want to add a 6'6" 4 piece medium/light spinning rod to my arsenal for backpacking trips. Does anybody have any input or suggestions? Cabelas has a store brand "Fish Eagle II" for $90. Does anybody have experiance with Cabelas store brand rods? There is also the St. Croix Triumph travel rods in the same price range. Are there any other good models from other manufacturers that you guys have had success with? Anything to avoid?

I'll also vote for Restoule. It is a great campground and really not that far from Toronto, good variety of sportfish, nice campground and fairly private sites.

I can't believe you got that monster carp through an 8" hole! That's amazing!

In highschool I worked for about two weeks at a gocart track. I though it would be an awesome summer job. The owners were a father daughter combo and they were horrible! They fought with each other all day and took out their collective anger at their lot in life on me. I never though I would look forward to going back to being a bricklayers helper, but when I got the call to go back, I jumped at it. To this day, it's the only job I quit without giving proper notice.

Beauty Laker! Lake Simcoe never ceases to amaze me. One of the most heavily fished waterbodies in Ontario and still lots of big fish!

I grew up on a farm, so I've been working for as long as I can remember. Our farm when I was real little, neighbours when I got a bit older. Doing hay, barn work, field work, whatever. When I was a real little kid, there was only 1 farm job we would get paid for, the rest was pro bono., picking rocks, 50 cents/hr. I remember at the end of the season, my dad handed me a check for 14 dollars. I planned on buying a "transformer" robot watch with the money, but when I went to the store to get it, I just remember thinking about how hard I had to work for that money and how the watch was not worth all that work. I left the watch in the store and put the money in the bank. It was a real pivotal learning lesson in my life. I think I was less than 10 years old at the time. Since then I've always been a real good saver. Now I have a son, and I plan on teaching him about money the same way I learned. If you don't work for it, you're never going to have it.

I know Senkos catch Smallmouth. Everyone in the world has told me they do, but when I use them NOTHING!

Phaneuf is one of my favorite players. He's had a terrible year in Calgary, hopefully a change of venue will turn him around. It will be great to see him in a Leafs uniform.

A large section of the shoreline of Winderemere is actually a part of The Shoals Provincial Park. There are canoe (or boat) in camp sites on Windermere between the portage from Lower Prarie Bee to the inlet to the Grazing River, they are part of The Shoals Provincial Park "North Canoe Loop." They are marked and maintained by park staff and you can't camp on them unless you pay the Provincial Park backcountry camping fee. There is lots of crown land camping on the lake as well, but we usualy do part or all of the canoe loop which goes in from Prarie Bee Lake, through to Lower Prarie Bee and then into Windermere and out through the Grazing River and into Little Wawa Lake, again, if you leave your vehicle at the launch on Prarie Bee, you have to pay the Provincial Park backcountry camping fee. No matter how you access it, it's a beautiful lake with lots of fish, that why I keep going back.

Last issue of OOD mentioned that Lakers have good sense of smell and recommended scented/salted tubes. I use both and can't say I've really noticed a difference. What does make a difference is a chunk of minnow.

I fish Windermere almost every summer. Lots of pike, lots of pickeral, lots of smallmouth, never even tried for lakers. We camp at the provincial park sites on the lake, so I don't know about the lodge, but it's a great lake, you'll love it.

Mepps Black Fury with a half worm, catches anything that swims.

Those are amazing! I know just where to use them. Late April to early May in the St. Mary's rapids, drifted along bottom and BOOM!

I have an 05 Tacoma 4WD. It's never given me a lick of trouble.

I do as Dara suggests and have all my packages shipped to a P.O. box in Michigan. No brokerage fees if you act as your own broker. As for UPS, how's this. Last year I bought a truck rack from an American company. It gets shipped UPS, I go pick it up in Soo Michigan, bring it back, no problem. The box was a little beat up, and taped back together, I open the box up at home and it had some parts that didn't really make much sense. My truck rack came with a dozen hummingbird feeder stands stuffed in it. There was a separate shipping invoice for the hummingbird feeder stands. Apparently they were bound for a garden center in Petoskey Michigan. I called them, they said they were not worth worrying about. I guess during shipping, some boxes must have fell and broken open. Buddy the diligent UPS employee simply grabbed the spilt merchandise and shoved it into whatever box it fit into, tapped it all back together and put it back on the truck. So I've got 12 hummingbird feeder stands that I don't know what to do with. At least all the truck rack parts were there. Too bad it wasn't a plasma screen TV or a new fishfinder or something.

Right now I have Orvis Silver Label Waders, had them for 5 years now, one hole last summer while climbing over a log easily fixed with the supplied patch kit, overall I'm happy with them. I agree with Dr. Salvelinus, Cabelas store brand waders are an excellent value, my wife has had a pair for 3 years now, no issues. Regardless of what brand you get, make sure they fit you properly in the crotch. If they don't fit you in the crotch, no matter how good or expensive they are, that's where they'll rip.

I bought a light action Fenwick HMG last year, it broke the first time out on a snag, super weak, I barely pulled on it and it broke. I think it was a manufacturer defect. I returned it to Fenwick and they did send a replacement no questions asked, which is good. I'm really cautious with it now which is not the way I like to fish. I recommend St. Croix Premier series. The best value for dollar in fishing rods in my opinion. I've broken them too, but only when I slam them in my truck tailgate Also Shimano Compre are good and in the same price range.

Well I guess my original post regarding the bushplane held together with duct tape was a repost. Should have known, there's nothing new on the internet. Not knowing how to delete a thread, I'll turn it into a Lake Superior Perch report. We went out last Saturday and set up shop in the closest group of huts to shore. Nice and warm, about two degrees. There was about 14" of ice and as soon as we put down lines we were catching them. Action slowed during the day, but we had fun none the less. They were all around 10" long. We kept about 10 for dinner. Also had some good conversations with some other fishermen. Based on what we say on Saturday, I'll probably be out there a lot this winter, close to town and good fishing. If you see my hut stop in and say hi! They were hitting on small shiners rigged on teardrop jigs in about 30ft of water. We also caught some smelt which I also kept for dinner and Lake Trout Fishing.

Nice big perch, beautiful markings on them too! I would have been tempted to get one mounted, very nice!

For driving, always Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

PM Sent! There is a good map of the area here under paddling activities. http://www.lakesuperiorpark.ca/ We camp on that lake quite often in the summer. It's really nice, I've found the lake trout fishing pretty good although as already stated, close to the highway, but maybe that's what you are looking for.

I have a set of high end Atlas mountaineering snowshoes and they are great. I also have a pair of old wood & leather ones, they're good too, especially in really deep powdery snow, but if you are going up any sort of incline, they're less than ideal, no traction. I would say in the park, you would want snowshoes made for off trail use with built in crampons. GV makes good snowshoes, you'll be happy with them.

That's a real expedition you guys went on! Those fat specks make it all worth while though.