jwl

only one flaw in your master plan......all that pink!!!!

I just picked up my little one from SK, and we just walked in the door and our 13 year old calls and asks if we can pick her up because they just closed the school , noone could have told us that when we where just there ..wife's work also closed for the day too...it's piling up for sure

that's a wicked day of fishin..pre frontal troutin at it's finest right there. Thanks for the big tease man, I was supposed to get out in my boat today but there is all this funny white stuff everywhere You guys where all over those fish like a smart kid on a fatty

I like 30 inch and under muskies from the cold water like in March, caught on roe from belly slit browns

around here, it totally goofed up plans I had for almost a week to get out trout fishin in the boat ..good thing I went fishin on Tuesday or I would be totally bummed becasue the day we had the musky G2G..2 of my friends out in 2 boats had days of about 20/boat..and then the wind and weather turned a bit around here and the river has been spent for a couple days. for everyone who has to commute today anywhere, take your time and be safe

if you folks are down my way again like last year on Boxing Day...don't be shy, bring the Ugli's and stop on into the mad house

that's exactly why I am taking the twist on traditional turkey dinner, we do stuff at our house and other family member's houses like 5-6 times easily out of the next 2 weeks say..and you are right, turkey gets a little same old..same old...I am doing it because we have 2..my wife gets a huge one from work every year..and my 5 year old won one at the Legion last weekend while I was out for the musky G2G, they where at a parade and went to the Legion for the turkey & ham roll, so I have a sort of extra turkey to play with..lol

our house is always pretty busy around the holidays..we do generally a turkey dinner on Christmas Day, on Boxing Day we always have a big open house for friends and family with a virtual buffet going on, we have relatives from out of town so they don't usually bring anything because of travelling, but most bring a pot luck dish and the wife and I whip up a bunch of stuff both hot and cold. This year for the turkey dinner, I am preparing it a little different, and making a nice Turkey Ballentine to prepare you you have to be a bit handy with a sharp knife..... take your whole turkey,flip it upside down and make a slice down the centre, then slowly with a sharp fillet knife you start working the knife so you are getting the meat separated from the breast bone, next step is to remove the whole breast bone leaving the meat intact, you will also need to separate the bones from the "drummy" part of the wings, and also the thigh...leaving the tip of the wings and the drumstick of the leg bones intact and still attached to the bird...then you carefully pull out the breast bones, leaving you with a pretty much boneless turkey except for the wing tips and drumstick on the leg. You then remove as much of the dark meat from the carcass as you can and place aside... next you will need....1 cup of finely chopped celery, and 1 cup of finely chopped green onions or chives,approx 2 lbs of ground pork or sausage meat(can be substituted for any game you may have on hand like venison or moose for example)..you will need 2 eggs,1 cup of bread crumbs,1 cup of heavy cream,1 cup of red wine,1tbs chopped rosemary....in a food processor or blender you mix all the ingredients together with the dark meat from the turkey, when it is all mixed well together, you take the mixture and put it back inside the turkey...fold it back together and use twine or trussing pins to hold the turkey back together...you flip back over right side up, and what you have is what looks like a whole intact turkey all over again except that it is boneless now..and you pop in the oven and cook according to size as per what you woulkd normally cook a stuffed turkey for. It's a good crowd pleaser when people see you just slice right through the middle of the turkey when they are expecting the bones inside. It sounds like alot of work but it really isin;t if you are handy with a knife....it probably only takes like 10-15 minutes to debone the turkey.

them crab nuggets are itchy little buggers eh

I don't generally jump on the brand bandwagon, and don't make too many comparissons on products but my experience with Diawa is they all suck...every spinning reel I have ever had the drag smoked on them right away, one in like 2 days of salmon fishing after about a dozen fish. Others I had, the drag was really jerky and not smooth..that's ok for sunfish maybe but not the kind of fishin I do on Med tackle 8 lb line. Another one the bail spring didn't last a season. They where all gifts, I will never buy one after my experiences. I am not stuck on any brand as I said right now if I look at the rods I have in the basement handy on a couple of my rods I got.....Quantum,Cardinal,Shimano,Okuma on the rods on hand, they all have one thing in common, ultra smooth drag. I need something that lasts..I take care of my fishin stuff, I do not baby it however, but I use it alot and put it to the test all the time. You will probably hear alot of great reviews on what you are looking for, and some people probably have great experience with alot of Diawa products..don't get caught up on everyone trying to tell you what to get someone for a gift..I just commented on my expereinces over the years. If you like the product and feel it is a good choice for the gift go for it...specially if it's getting you browny points with th big guy for getting him the one he wants....that will help make his day right there

some nice fish folks, lots of great catches. Ok I will bite too..these are not some of my over-all PB's but they are my PB's for 2008, I fish 12 months a year so it goes from last January up until the last little while. Cold weather pikin in January My best pike from the trailer this year A couple hog largies off my dock at camp A day out trolling on Erie with some good fishin friends A pig of a steelie from this past spring here is one from a couple weeks ago and the 34 1/2 laker I caught a few days ago that pretty much sums up some of the bigger fish for my 2008 season

you guys are right about that...sometimes ya just gotta give it a good go , be a nut case and hope for the best..this is from January 2008...rediculous wind chill, fishing an area that was iced up, we had a mild spell and she opened up and what ya know..hopped in a buds tinner to give it a go and the fishin was on fire...and so where everyone's faces, hands ect from the rediculous wind chill. So just shows ta go ya, that you just never know unless you get out there and try I guess you can tell yourself it's ok Cudz, you aren't the only nut job out there

it was definately a fun excuse to go out there and try to catch some big fish for the season , some great fish where caught, many great pics and reporst from all the teams..I know I had a ball since I signed up. Now if we are starting this up again soon for 2009..and we can start with a bit of friendly ribbing along the way....ummm..technically speaking The Slammers did have a 1/2 inch more "real inches" let's get it started folks...I have been all over the GL trout and will be until spring and been catching some pretty respectable sized fish along the way....and I must add that my PB pike for 2008 came in January Thanks for keeping tabs on all this Cliff, and taking all the time to make and post all the updates along the way

hey thanks for sharing that new pic...that's definately a nice fish there Walleyemen lost one at boatside just as everyone was coming in that rated right up there with the 2 big ones...our tactics now that season is closed We started off by trolling an area I know can be productive.....he had a decent little one about 10 lbs on trolling 20fow with a deep diving Salmo-whitefish in perch pattern.....we continued to troll the area as I was marking some big fish on the finder for a few passes. We changed up tactics for the afternoon,as I figure the fish where not too agressive in the cold and where not really into chasing down our baits. I talked to Walleyemen about sticking to the same general area and switching it up to slow things right down. He agreed with my choice on giving a small area a big workout, and I suggested that we switch it up to big soft plastics and give that a try. Weapon of choice was 10 inch FinS minnows....white/silver and a rainbow pattern....rigged up like a large scale version simular to drifting for trout. With the winds and current, I had to experiement a little with boat placement on how we where going to drift..it didn't take very long before Wayne had a fish in the boat for us after that. We where drifting a transition area where the bottom changed from a mud flat to small rocks going from 6-7 fow, drifting out of that area along a slope where there is a drop to 15 then another drop on the rocky edge to 21. The idea was just to have enough weight on the baits so that we could stay in contact with the bottom while the bait could swim freely with about a 3 foot lead. We hooked up on 3 fish this way in about 2 hours, and I still marked a couple in the area right up until it was time to come in for the afternoon. The key was hitting the area where it changed from mud to rocks,you could feel the bounce along the bottom to tell us we where in "the right spot". I have a feeling had I decided on switching things up a couple hours sooner we could have been into a few more fish for the day. hey, but that's musky fishing for you!!! Thanks again guys for throwing this together, thanks again to Wayne for sticking it out with me and going on my better judgement for the day when it comes to the area we fished and the tactics we used, it's always a tough call when trying to be somewhat of the guide for the day, but I am glad I helped throw a pattern together and get one in the boat, although it is a bit frustrating when you hook into 4 and only one sees the net Congrats to the other 2 guys who caught some pretty respectable fish out there!!!, and thanks for sharing all the pics

it was a great time for me as well getting to meet some of the hardcore nut jobs from this board too...awesome to see the way everyone kicks in together to make the day run as smooth as possible, and make the best of it out there!!!! I was planning on doing a bit of last day action today but the rain and winds reallyt sucked here so me and my buddy called it off at about 10 this morning..gotta wait until next year now..and you can definately count me in for the G2G,I will practice up a little next year...we went 1 for 4 in the area I chose to fish..not bad considering that was my first trip out for muskies on the river for 2008...main thing is I got my partner for the day in on some action I think I am still full from dinner

funny about that pic...there is some clause in the insurance for my boat that states the WHOLE boat has to be submerged for the policy to cover any salvage/recovery fees and damages ,any part of the boat left sticking out of the water and it's not covered.....guess I would be SOL unless I had a big hole ripped in it or something becuase althuogh I would never want to put it to the test, it is rated as level full floatation

a bit off topic, but when I lived in The Soo and went ice fishing on part of the Montreal River a few times, heck they would drop and raise the water levels all the time...you could feel the ice drop when you where standing on it , now that is a wierd feeling.....it wouldn't go anywhere because it was locked right in a bay like section of the river and it was pushing 30 inches thick, but still a freeky thing to have "the floor" rise and lower on you in a day

this one has spots on it's fins

I think there is a cure for that but you may experience...excessive slobbering or dry mouth,in some rare cases high blood pressure may occur, or low blood pressure, you may experience high levels of hyperactivity or may cause drowsiness,may cause constipation,excessive diharrea, and gas with oily discharge

I saw that guy before at a Yuk Yuk's club he has a pretty good routine

every musky I have ever seen has spots on it's fins

I will also have to go with Bucktail on this one, I have seen alot of muskies from the Niagara of all different sizes and some have some pretty amazing markings on the barred muskies, others are just all light green, while some are spotted, and if you look at the pic of the one walleyemen got in my boat, you will see it is kind of a combination of barred markings and spotted toward the tail. That is one of the reasons a few people I know have gotten together and helped to get the "know the difference" signs put around the launches. The first one is really dark that's why I think it is a tiger..Niagara muskies tend to be pretty light in colour as opposed to some areas, they always have pretty cool markings, if I compare that to some of the big ones I have caught at my trailer...the ones at my trailer look like old beater war horses...dark green, and splotchy.

Wayne it was a great time having you in the boat for the day, thanks for going the extra mile and showing up a bit early to grab me and the boat so my wife had the option of using our van for the day to go out with my kids. And also so we could show up a bit early and start clearing the ramp...boy did we ever need to do that!!!! By the time everyone rolled in, which I must add I was very impressed that we had 7 boats out there for the day!!!, we had accomplished the mission and everyone was able to launch without any troubles. Thanks to Corvette1 for popping the boat in first and being the icebreaker for the skim on the banks. It was great to see that we had some action with only about an hour into the day!!!, it still amazes me when musky fishing sometimes when you are using huge baits with a load of hooks, and fish still get off the hook That first one you had on sure tested the gear ratio on your reel when it bolted straight at the boat and didn't stop!!! That made my morning right there just to know that we found what we where looking for. The Niagara River can be a tough code to crack as it is an ever changing body of water when it comes to currents and wind ect, it plays a huge factor in the day. We sure managed to pass the day very well for a pretty chilly day, with some great conversation of fishing adventures from each other's season, and times gone past and some other common interests and family ect along the way. We must have had a great time because for sitting out there all day long in the cold, we sure managed to pass the day pretty quickly. Thanks for bringing the thermos of hot tea out there it was good to warm the belly if you drank it fast enough that it didn't get cold By the way, you left it in my boat if you are looking for it, I found it when I was covering it up last night and organizing a few things....will figure out a way to get it to you soon!!! Thanks alot for having the patience to stick by my decision of not doing so much exploring but sticking it out in basically the same area for the whole day, alot of people would give up on an area after a while, but I had to trust my instinct on this one,perhaps it wasn't the huge adventure you where looking for, but I feel I made the right choice. I think you will have no problem remebering that general area as a future refference..specially seeing as we pretty much blacked out that whole section on your GPS with our path I am also glad that in my decision to stick to a general area that we had some action. I love when my instincts and expereinces pay off and I help people getb into some fish for the day. I don't generally care who catches them as long as the targetted species see my boat, it tells me I must be doing somehting right out there...although I do like to catch them once in a while too I had somewhat of a game plan for the day, with a couple different presentations in mind, my only regret is that we didn't change up to "plan B" sooner, I have a feeling we would have been into to even more fish. Once I decided to change tactics and you agreed to give it a go, then there was where a couple other factors of river fishing come into play....where to put the boat when starting a drift...gotta experiment with the way the current is going to take the boat, and also where it is going to take your line in comparison, and yesterday the wind was also a big factor in this as it picked up throughout the day. You need to have as natural as a presentation you can or you won't get the fish in my experience. It did not take us too long to find it for sure. In the short remainder of the day we had left after revamping our game plan we some great action in my books. Everyone who targets muskies knows it can be a tough go on the best of days, many hours put into it, and many skunk days in the mix, so for us to connect with 4 fish in the day..the last 3 being within a short time of the afternoon, I would have to give us a big pat on the back for doing something right, although we lost 3 The last fish of the day you had on was sure a nice one...I would hazzard a good guess to be well into pushing a 4 footer and a good 25 lber no problems...I still cannot believe that it just seemed to get to the boat..open it's mouth and out pops you bait...and I even rigged that one up with a stinger as well Funny part is I was talkign to you about that earlier in the day saying it has happened to me on a few occasions over the years while musky hunting...and it happened to us a couple times..maybe next time we should talk about how well they where hooked. Thanks for sharing the pics...gotta admit it, you look pretty cold in that pic, hard to smile with your teeth chattering???..lol Thanks again for chipping in all you help and being part of a great day out there Wayne, it was a pleasure sharing my boat for the day and doing our best to get into some Niagara hogs..next time bundle up and I can give you a lesson on catching the monster steelies on the other end of the river

Thanks for planting the bug in the first place Lew. The day went off great, everyone chipped in to make sure the ramp was useable for the day, all boats went in pretty smooth besides the usual winter things like being frozen to trailers, and a couple extra seconds to warm up..but all of us that use our boats in the winter know that this is to be expected. It was great to be part of the musky G2G where there where actually fish caught And nice to top it off with a big hot meal at the end of the day. Glad to hear that everyone who travelled got home safely. I will definately set aside that date next season to do it all over again!

nice fish man, we saw you guys boat that one...good move on the jigging, we slowed things down too and drifted some huge FinS minnows about 5 hours too late,although by 9:30,walleyemen had already lost one at boat side..great plan that one. I my partner walleyemen got a pic from my boat of you guys netting that . Not a tiger however..Niagara muskies take on 3 colour patterns..that's a typically marked barred musky for the river.