Syn

The big fish pike, bass are old and hard. Would you eat an old chicken? I'd rather eat the smaller younger ones. There are ministry rules to what size you can keep and which you have to put back. "big" is a relative term. 53" muskie ---who would want to eat that? 53" tuna, or salmon should be ok to eat. Here is the guide which also talks about Contaminants levels in fish and how much you can eat. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/water/fishguide/guides.php

good catches. I use to go there but the dam 12v electric motor would take us forever to get around on the lake. Nearly impossible to get anywhere with a headwind. If you want to catch some big bass go here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source...mp;t=h&z=17 There are some fallen tree branches there on the south side across from the houses where fat LMB are holding. I use to twitch plastic worms there to catch them. IIRC the first house, sometimes the hot blonde woman would come out to fish in her tiny bikini. Bonus!

Did you google it and check ebay? eg http://setthehook.com/jointedXrap.htm

$100-$150 for the wifes gear. rod/reel/fishing line, then a mh for you. I got a mh and a m rod. It is so nice to switch back and forth once the active fish are caught with the mh (pike, bass), switch to more subtle presentation with m rod. I use the m for smaller stuff like plastic worms, small crankbaits, bobber fishing, mh for spinnerbaits, larger lures. spooled 60lb braid, 15 lb mono on mh rod spooled 12lb flouro, 6lb flouro for bobber fishing for small fish on m rod. This year I got a fish finder and it turned into a must have item for reading the bottom. That could also be a good purchase.

I always wear my fish "camo" suit while fishing. This is the ultimate fish magnet shirt though. Caught a 60 ft humpback whale (8lb mono) on balsam wearing this shirt: Would not fit in the cradle but was a quick unhook.

Yeah I noticed that too about kids. I let my little nephew pick a few lure colours and they are top producers.

yes, that's what I do with other fish. I don't have much experience with muskie so I thought I'd double check colours with you guys. I guess a fish is a fish. Red and black for me. I have other skirts to mix and match anyhow.

So I should be like Tuco from the good the bad and the ugly and build a lure from different parts like he did in the gun shop? Anyhow I just got a red/black one with a flourocarbon leader.

Blondes is always a good answer! Are you saying "use the force" like in star wars Ben talking to Luke and that Cowgirl colour does not really matter, I just have to focus on proper lure presentation and fish the lure confidently, muskie are not too picky? or are you saying "I can only show you the door" like in the matrix Morpheius talking to Neo meaning that I have to create my own path to lure selection though trial and error. j/k friday afternoon boredom.

Wondering what Cowgirl colour combo to get for Georgian bay muskies? At $20+ a pop I want to pick a good colour combo. They offer so many colours but I'm just starting with muskie hunting. I'm liking the red/black but I've been having success with blue/black smaller spinnerbaits lately. Help me "choose wisely".

A compass would probably do you some good too. I remember my first time out on Gpool coming though little lake, we did so many stop and gos between the islands that we got turned around a few times because we were focused on fishing. What saved us finding our way back was remembering the power lines were running north south. Of course you could use the sun as a guide but I found it hard at high noon.

http://www.muskeys.ca/facilities.htm <--phone # there Looks like they have a tackle shop from the pics. Likely they sell maps too. Give em a call a tell them to hold one. May I suggest that you spend a few minutes with the owner and ask him/her to point out any obstacles on the map and good fishing spots while you're at it. you can learn so much from the locals. If they don't sell maps then call tackle stores and see if they carry one. For example I like to buy the "adventure fishing maps" series because they are cheap $7 and mark general depths and obstacles. The best maps are the hydrographic maps, but I have not found a good place to buy one from. IIRC the ministry sell them for a pretty penny. You can use google maps on satellite view to kind of get a general idea of the bays and the possible distance you can travel before running out of gas. Georgian bay is huge.

This is the most important step and essential to success of most of my "projects"! "1st step, wait for the girlfriend/wife to leave the house and get everything spread out." thanks for the powder coat paint info, never knew it could be applied like that to lures so easily.

When I catch my first fish there then that's a good indication, based on the colour and type of lure I used to catch the fish. brown, maybe crawdad, white- shiner, yellow green -perch and panfish (pike fishing). Sometimes I get lucky and the fish coughs up its lunch and then I can tell for sure what they are feeding on. Also I'm always mindful of seeing the small fish and try casting using a similar lure in the area in case the bigger fish are feeding on them. ok that last part was common sense.

Get your pliers and bend your treble hooks upwards so the point of the hook is angled up slightly. This opens up the hook gap but also the hooking angle is improved. Anything that barley touches the hook tip will get set. Forgot to say: dont grip the sharp part of the hook with the pliers, grab the hook from the rear round part and open up the hook gap so the point is on a slight angle upwards when you view the hook from the side and the hook shaft is horizontal.. Sometimes when I'm really bored I even bend the hook so the point is also angled to the side and up like those "rotating" hooks that they sell. drew a pic, your hook angle could be a bit less open after you bend it: On my blue fox with large double Colorado blades (short fat lure lol), I cut off the treble and attached a longer shank 4/0 bass hook using a split ring. Then I just tip the hook with a small plastic minnow or plastic worm. This made the profile of the lure longer overall.

picthefish is a great idea. I'm tired after fishing all day, so I use picassa and upload the pics and video to my gmail account. IIRC they give you 1 gig to use and I can just send one link to the whole photo album for the fishing trip (private or public viewing) to a buddy. lol Where can I find fishing buddies like those.

Thanks for the tip. Had a couple in the storage. Just moved them to my tackle box for tomorrow at the G-Pool.

Maybe I did not phrase my last post clearly? When I wrote "For those trying to get the card..." The only way to get the card is by passing the test. You can't just buy the card that defeats the whole purpose of having the card. I hope people did not somehow read "you can buy the card". I hope I made it perfectly clear now. You can study the widely available info online before your write the test, or some testing centers like Bass pro offer a course before you write the test. But some places say on their website they charge $30 to write the test (you study the info online free) but when I called their provider he wanted $50 even after I told him the website says $30. I then emailed the president and he was surprised that his test provider was asking for $50 and confirmed $30 for the test alone. I'm saying beware of the prices some people are taking advantage of us. I can understand $50 at the boat show because it was likely advertised in boat show advertisements and also because they do testing for many people, sometimes groups of people at the same time. All testing centers must give you a temporary card even a print out until your plastic card arrives. The temp card is fully valid to use.

Looks like they doubled the price now. Here's the course providers database. http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/4/pcoc-ccep/search.asp For those trying to get the card, beware of testing centers that are charging more than $30 unless they also teach a course before the test or they have a excellent reason why to charge more, ie advertised and group testing many people at the same time. I called one place they were charging $50 when their website says they charge $30 at most.

Nothing wrong with using leaders. My buddy always uses leaders and catches as many pike as I do of the same size. He is just a few feet away from me in the boat. Leaders bug me when I switch to smaller lures, fat worms, fishing slow days for pike and I'm trying to feel what the lure is doing and imparting action. I use leaders about 40% of the time. When I do use leader say on a long rapala, I try to feather the line to help the leader not get fouled up on all the trebles when it lands. Sometimes I remove the middle treble from a three treble rapala. Too many trebles. Another good thing to have is a good net, like a muskie cradle. I built my own for $20 but had I known Bass pro sells them for $43, I would have just bought one from there. The cradle makes life so easy when catching and releasing the big ones. I don't like being slimed after multiple catches!

I feel that way too. I go commando sometimes and tie directly to 50lb braid. For some reason I always hook pike in the side of the mouth so I almost never had a break off. I think this is because they turn their head sharply when biting the lure.

One good tip is just to scale up your lures for bigger pike. eg: Instead of using small spinner bait switch to a 3/4 oz+++ with big body skirt, big flashy willow blades. Another good tip is don't just reel in when you lure reaches the boat, do a few figure 8's. I caught the majority of my big pike within 10 feet of the boat. Here are a few links that talk more about techniques such as letting the spinner bait fall between retrieves, and varying your retire speeds on casts, follow up lures if you are lucky enough to have multiple rods. http://www.wfn.tv/experts/protips/fishingtips76.html http://www.wfn.tv/experts/protips/fishingtips78.html Deeper water for sure 20ft+ this time of year, Also I've been experimenting with blu/black spinner baits and they seem to be working well in deeper water. I think the silhouette of blue black lures is more easily seen than the white/chart spinner baits in deeper water. So far I've been having luck with the 35"+ pike this season. I'm dying to catch a huge muskie though. Something made a big arch in 70 feet of water last week on my sonar, I was almost scared to cast there lol. Maybe it was a sturgeon.

IIRC they made a few baitcasting rods that the line would start on top then was guided by bottom guides. Early 90's I believe.

To supplement the first picture I found this info on another fishing forum with the same woman and her muskie. "This is one of the biggest muskies ever caught by a woman, 56 x 25 and weighed at 48 pounds casting a Boo Dadley. My friends Dave and Amber Smith from Kentucky started fishing yesterday morning for about five minutes and this was Amber's first musky and it turned out to be the fish of a lifetime. If any of you have a chance to fish with my friend Johnny Dadson on Georgian Bay this is what you might find. In late Fall this would be a mid 50 pound musky."

I thought it was because they were territorial fish so my lure was intruding on their property. Also maybe they realize that my lure is trying to attract pike and bass (vibration, sound, flashing) so the perch don't like the extra attention being drawn to the perch. Kind of like if your platoon is hiding and one guy stands up waving his arms, yelling and shooting off flares, easy for the enemy to spot them now.