jwl

that looks like some great fishing,funny how that happenes some times when one of the holes gets most of the fish.

great report, man you folks are spoiled with all the toys out there, you where certainly rigged up to go get them that day. Nice mixed bag of fish and by some of the smiles, looks like some great company was had to boot, doesn't get much betetr than that. Great way to make the most of the winter

mmmmm....smells like fish, tastes like chicken I have witnessed muskies taking ducklings off the water a few times while sitting around the boat club in Chippawa where the Welland River and Lyon's Creek meet at the mouth. Every season there are small famillies of ducks and ducklings milling about, if it's been quiet in there and not much boat traffic coming in and out I have seen for example a mother duck with 7-8 ducklings swimming about, then out of no where..a big SPLASH!!!!, the mom duck goes nuts and when things calm down 1 duckling is missing.

gotta watch where you are fishing...lots of places pike are open all year but others where season closes March 31 for example until May, as for muskies...they don't open until June....not to be a wize guy but you should gets a regs book instead of asking people here as for the original question of using dead/frozen baits for pike...not bad for plunking down a hole ice fishing, but too smushy to cast

ok Bruce, give me about 40 minutes or so and I will be at your place for breakfast man

sounds like a great adventure, and some decent fish caught along the way to boot. Funny on the comments about the chinese food place, I actually ate there before as well,work brought me up that way, had to work at the Foodland(not sure if name changed now) I installed thier debit card system, rolled into town just as they where rolling up the sidewalks Checked into the Temagami Inn,went out to find some grub, the chinese place was the only place open to get some food they even stayed open late to accomodate me and my wife ...not even the Busy Bee across the road if we wanted chips and pop for dinner was open As for cold..well it was a few years back in May when I went there and everything was still frozen solid Thanks for sharing the report

right on, glad to here you had some success...if anyhting it's a good sign of things to come once you get out there and try a few things out over a couple adventures while trying to crack the code

that's cute man..wait until he gets a little older...my little one now 5..asks when we can go to the trailer all the time...and yes you have to watch out or you will soon find a chunk of your tackle is some how missing when you go to use it..my 3 daughter's are brutal for that perfect age this coming summer to start getting the little guy into some panfish for a thrill

sounds like another great example of some board members getting together and sharing some great times.

some people do the crushed eggshell trick as a way to cover the bottom with a light colour to make it easier to see down the hole if there are fish swimming under the hole.

I just make my own..if I am using big bait for pike, I tie on a large baitholder hook, then from the eye of that hook I use another piece of mono to tie on a small treble and adjust the length of the stinger hook depending on the size bait I am using at the time

you guys been doing so much fishin over there if you drill any more holes you will have that whole area opened up pretty soon looks like a good pot of stick to your ribs, belly warming food to take the chill off when you got home, it's been freekin cold, was out in the boat with Dan yesterday afternoon for some trout action, stopped off for a couple casts after we got back to the dock and everything was insta-frozen big time.....opted to stay warm today. I am going to have to get out there with you guys soon, and you are going to have to get out in the boat with me if it ever gets above -10 out

I saw you down there busting it up Friday just before we left,it has been brutal down there in the mornings,freezes back up over night all the time. In my reply from yesterday's post that you are quoting there.....I was talking about the Upper Niagara not Queenston

you will get a huge variety of opinions on this one...all depends on the extent of your fishing and how much $$$$$ you want to put into it you don't neccessarily need the $1000 rod and reel combo and $1000 trout fishing costume to get into fish that's for sure. do you plan on fly fishing?..float fishing?..drifting?..bottom bouncing? Your day can be a simple as tossing around a couple split shots a hook and a roe bag Be prepared no matter what you choose to use as your fishing equipment for the day to come with a wide variety of baits to macth the hatch...roe and or imitations in a variety of colours depending on conditions, also a variety of sizes from larger roe bag sizes to single egg presentations. Also a good variety of minnow imitating baits,streamers,different jigs in an assortment of colours, and other match the hatch type flies, always a good idea when you start catching fish or people around you are catching fish, try to see what they are usuing, if you keep a fish for the pan don't be shy, dig right in there and see what they are eating and go from there. If you look on the board as the year plays out and different locations and seasonal areas come into tp play you will see a huge variety of posts with different presentations ect along the way. If you read the posts of the people who go out there and catch a huge number of fish and make it look as easy as anything, beleive me, those people all did thier homework and have spent may years developing the patterns that catch them all the fish. They also take into consideration the conditions of the area,the weather, different times of year, different times of day, post and pre spawn conditions, water clarity, fishing pressure and all sorts of factors. The best rewards are just to get out there and give it a go and see what happens along the way. The best learning tool is expereince, get out with anyone willing to show you a few pointers. Take time a read back in different post ect on the forum lots of the info you are seeking is already there for you to read.

That's a great suggestion, Paul does have some great experience with the fly rods on the Niagara both from shore and in the boat. I know just to change it up some times Paul will go out with the fly rods just for the adventure of it when he gets a day off from guiding, he also offers guided services from shore too. He is a great guy to spend time on and around the water with and always happy to lend a few pointers along the way.

nice going!, glad it all worked out for you, I bet you will be sitting on the edge of the couch for months now, or pacing around the house looking out the window to see the boat..maybe sitting in it on a nice day pretending you are booting down the lake making little motor rev noises with your mouth so the neighbours will be looking at you like

cold is an under statement, I was out in a buddy's boat for like 2 hours today and it was freeking cold..can I borrow your plans for that high tech wind break next time I head out?? Good to see I am, not the only nut job. You guys caught a few fish and that's what counts right there, and sharing an adventure with the little ones is always enough to add soem warmth to the day

tell me about it man,I try to fish a couple times a week and this past while has only been a couple times all together...what we need is some normal winter temps..this minus 15 crap is starting to suck . I got late this afternoon for a bit on a friends boat and man was it freekin cold, first off had to shove some big ice chunks out of the way at the launch, then had to warm the motor up big time before we could head out, had to goof with the "tell tale" to get water to come out. It was so cold that every time we stopped the motor to drift we had to unplug the ice from it when we started up., everything that got wet instantly flash froze, my streamer went hard as a nail , when you put the rod down to do anyhting if the line, sinker or bait touched the side of the boat it froze right to it I still caught one though it was worth toughing it out, we made about 10 drifts that was it as it was about 3;30 when we started fishing, fish was a hen about the same size as yesterday..not same location

Welland River is frozen.....as far as fly fishing the Niagara, the gorge has been full of ice making it hard to fish..top water fly fishing will not work,it's simply not the presentation for the Niagara....if you have the gear you can drift with streamers for example if you can get your line down to the bottom....or float fish

you got that right!, only thing missed out on is actually getting out on the river. That was my 4th time in like a month, river has been brown...if not brown then super bad windchills, if not that, then tonnes of ice. Almost everyone I fish with, and also a guide I know hasn't fished the river hardly at all over this time. The gorge areas have been loaded with ice and virtually unfishable, it will get better as the ice bridge locks up. Still 3 months left of good fishin

I tried there Thursday Denis ,I'm the guy who made the path to the water in knee deep snow

I'll give 'er a go chilli, I am going to enter a steelie right now and get 2 bonus inches for my team in the tourney

thanks folks, it's been a tough few weeks, total crap conditons for like a month Coach, I shot you a PM with the pic and am enetring for bonus inches too

After too much sitting around and lack of fishing due to the crap conditions over the last while on the Niagara, I got out today for a bit of shore trashing. Ice in the river has been pretty bad the last while, and as of 2 days ago the launch was crap so it was decided not to bring the boat out this time and do a bit of bottom bouncing from shore. Got there first thing this morning and fishing was tough with all the ice around..maybe 1 out of every 20 drifts was a decent one at best, or you had to wait it out between chunks. We chucked our arms off for the morning..good thing my 11.6 noodle rod is pretty light Finally the fish seemed to turn on and I gained hopw when 2 fish where hooked within about 10 minutes from eachother a bit down stream of where I was. I tried every colour I had in the box, then fianlly went with a metallic chart/green corky and a bright green streamer and winded up with my only fish of the day Don't worry coach I have another pic of this one with a sign so we can add 25 inches of GL trout to our list of recent catches after I get the bonus inches we can make that 25+2=27 for the good guys

my boat is also through Statefarm and is covered all year