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Sounds like a reasonable day. Better than being in the office. Pity about the camera and no pics. Which ferry did you end up catching? I've found that the Islands can be either the best place you've ever fished or the most frustrating place ever. Either way you usually end up covering a lot of ground and keepin fit! You'll always spot some fish though, it's just whether they are interested in biting that's the problem. 007

Congrats on a nice pike. How's your back after a tussle with that toothy critter? You must be ok if you were trying for Salmon! I might try my luck for pike at the Islands later this week. 007

It is true that the small bullhead catfish (less than a pound in weight) have razor like spines on their pectoral fins. On the bigger ones they don't seem as sharp. Either way I use gloves now after a few nasty cuts. I either unhook them with the MJL method with pliers or I grab them on the top of the head/body with my glove hand and pin their pectoral fins down against their body with my thumb and fingers. Hope this helps. Not sure how to hold Channel Cats as I haven't hooked any. 007

Mikeymikey's got it right - fish it all. Just pick a ferry and start walking. Look for all the likely places to find bass and you will find some eventually. Problem I find is that they are not always in the same place from day to day. So just because I caught one in one place doesn't mean I will catch one in the same spot the next day. Its best to walk around trying lots of different places. Try to find weeds - preferably green ones not dead ones in about 4-8ft of water plus try docks and along harbour walls. If you know where to look you can often see the fish before you even cast a line. Good luck. Look forward to your report and leave some for me to catch this weekend! 007

Congrats on a beauty of a Musky and the PB! 007

Welcome aboard! Post a report and some pics of your next fishing trip with the waders! 007

Congratulations on some great fish - Salmon fishing from a canoe - now that sounds like one hell of a ride! 007

Thanks for all the comments. Glad you enjoy the reports - will try to get a few more species before the end of the year. It's been great fun trying to catch all these different species. One thing I learnt quickly when fishing with my wife is that if she's catching she'll be enjoying herself which ultimately means we'll stay out fishing longer! 007

That's a fantastic musky. Great walleye there too Cliff. 007

Hi there folks. With such great weather this weekend I decided that I had to try and fit a few hours fishing in down at the Toronto Islands. Headed down there about 4pm this afternoon and fished till dusk. Started out by float fishing worms around weeds, but most of these were going brown, so wasn’t too hopeful of getting many bites. After half an hour and one small perch I moved on and tried next to some floating weed near some docks and sure enough I could see some large dark shapes taking a look at the bait. Second cast – bam – fish on. As I reeled this huge bucketmouth out from the cover I noticed two other large ones follow it! After quite a fight including about three jumps and a couple of powerful runs into the weed I had netted my new PB Largemouth Bass – all 20 inches and 4lbs 13oz of it! Beat my old PB set a few weeks ago by only 2oz! Still waiting for one to top 5lbs. After all that commotion I didn’t hold out much hope of the other bass still being around but I tried anyway. I switched to soft plastics but had no takers. I then tried xraps and mepps for a while to see if any of the resident pike were around but only had follows from small bass and perch. I switched back to the worm and fished a little deeper and hooked into a 1 1/2 lb Bullhead. Hadn't hooked one of these for a while. I decided to move on a little further and try again. Third cast – fish on – another big feisty largie safely in the net. This time the scales read 3lb 4oz. I continued with a float and worm – why change a winning formula – and had a fish attack the bait at the surface as I retrieved it. I assumed it was another bass so cast again – reeled it in and splash a fish takes it off the top. Not a bass but a little snot rocket of a Pike. Though I have hooked into bigger Pike this year, technically this was the first one I had actually landed (so definitely off my list now LOL). I noticed a few carp swim by, so I tossed in a few handfuls of corn and baited my hook in readiness. One carp of maybe 20lbs stopped and showed interest but got spooked and swam off. Time to go home. Here’s a few shots at dusk. Cheers 007

Great Report Joey and even better pics. Thanks for taking the time to post your report. I know from experience how long it takes to do well thought out reports with lots of pics. Its appreciated! 007

I used them at Pigeon Lake last weekend and they caught me almost as many fish as live worms - which is the best results I've ever had from any soft plastics. Fish that took them were big rock bass, bluegill and Pumpkinseed. I was fishing them under a float - the fish usually took it on the drop or soon after. My guess is they should also be fished on jigs. I was told that they are good for walleye too. They're pretty realistic. 007

When I was at Bass Pro Shops earlier in the week, I'm sure I saw some Shakespeare Ugly Stik rods that had pink on them and were aimed at girls/women. Maybe check out their websites. 007

Hi all. Last weekend I stayed at the Pigeon Lake Resort near Nogies Creek at the north end of the Lake. The plan was to rent a boat for two days and try and catch a few new species on my ‘quest list’ - particularly Walleye and Musky. My wife and I took the boat out Sunday morning to explore and look for potential areas to fish. I had hoped to make it down to a few areas near Big Island that people had suggested but because of the cold front and a strong wind my wife wanted us to stay in the relative shelter of Nogies Bay rather than venture across the wide choppy expanse of Pigeon Lake. After lunch I decided to fish from the resort docks rather than take the boat out, in the hope that the wind would calm down and the fishing would be better in the evening. So I started float fishing from the dock in and among the weed. It wasn’t long before I was getting bites with half a worm on the hook. For a couple of hours I caught fish steadily. Bluegills, Pumpkinseed, Perch, Rock Bass, Largemouth Bass and a big minnow (lake chub I think). I even experimented with a few small soft plastic baits as the bites were so constant I was going through worms too quickly. Found that the fish loved plastic leeches – caught some good sized bluegills and rockies with those. Later in the day we headed out in the boat and tried jigging for walleyes but had no luck. Here’s a few pictures from the first day…. Check out the deformed perch I caught too! Monday morning, we headed out again in the boat. The wind was still pretty strong so we tried fishing the more sheltered side of the bay – targeting rocky shorelines in the hope of catching some decent Smallmouth Bass to add to the growing list of species caught on the trip. Sure enough, a couple of casts in and we had hooked and boated the first smallie. Managed a few more but nothing too big, so we motored over to the weed beds around some small islands to see what we could catch there before lunch. The weeds were pretty thick but we managed to hook into a few fish including a beauty of a Largemouth Bass and some big Bluegill. Even saw an Osprey trying to get in on the action too. I did try for some musky off some deep weedlines but had too many problems hooking into the weeds with my spinners or rapalas so got frustrated and gave up. Later in the day, we ventured out in the boat back to the weedy area we had hooked the largies in the hope of a few more. My wife really enjoyed fishing in the sheltered bay and was catching lots of nice perch and sunfish, so I didn’t pursue my desire to head out across the lake to the better musky spots and accepted it was better that she was happy – which she is when she is catching! I then got a nice surprise fish. I got a really strong bite and set the hook in what I presumed to be a bass but as I reeled it in I realised I had hooked a big Crappie, my first of the year. Finally a new fish species to add to this year’s list and a PB too at 11 inches and just under a pound in weight. After that the fishing slowed and I got side tracked taking photos of a resident great blue heron. As the sun started to set I decided that I really should give fishing for walleye another try. So we started to drift back towards the resort over an area we had told had a rocky bottom and should hold walleye. I was having real problems knowing if my jig had reached bottom. But on the last drop I could feel that I was dragging the jig ad white grub along the bottom. So fingers crossed. After about a minute I felt two small bumps and set the hook – fish on! It had to be a walleye or smallie coming up from the rocks below, when the fish surfaced there was no jumping so I knew then I had caught my first ever walleye. Unfortunately it wasn’t the size of fish I had been dreaming about at 11 inches but that little cigar of a fish certainly put a smile on my face and was a great way to end the weekend’s fishing! Here’s some more pics… On the way back to Toronto we stopped off at Bass Pro for one last look and to stock up on some worms for fishing the next two months – as this is likely to be my last ever visit to BPS before I return to England in December. Who would have thought from this shot it was in the middle of a huge urban mall. I didn’t catch a big musky or a decent sized walleye but I hope you enjoyed the report. At least I managed to catch the famous ‘pickeral’ and also a nice crappie. Hopefully there will be a few more fish species and reports before the end of the year. 007

Glad to hear you're back into the fish. You gotta get a net to land more of those powerful carp. 007

Great going Tip-up. Looks like you've had a really good year fishin! 007

Good to see you fishing dsn. Hope the back is 100% soon. 007

Hey Loonietoon. Sorry I missed you at Pigeon Lake resort. We arrived later on Saturday than expected. When I took the rental boat out on Sunday morning I noticed your Chevy van pulling out. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Weather was pretty cool on Sunday too out on the water but had an enjoyable time. I will post a fishing report in the next few days - a couple of firsts for me but nothing huge and didn't bother targetting muskies in the end. 007

The best ways I have found of reducing light into the camera with my film SLR (I guess the same for Digital?) in order to create a longer shutter speed for the silky waterfalls shots is to use a small aperture (high number - ie 22) and add a circular polarizer and turn it to the desired setting. The filter also has the advantage of taking out the reflections/glare from the water too! 007

Great shot Deano. I too love the slow shutter shots of moving water. It's such a great effect, and gives a real sense of movement. Also like the way you have framed the subject with some foreground elements that are in focus and keep the depth of field. Great shot. Sometimes I go the other way too on close-up shots of waterfalls and shoot as fast a shutter speed as possible to capture individual drops of water. Both techniques can give beautiful images. Thanks for showing us the image. 007

Thanks for doing this Dan C - It's going to be a great new feature. Can't wait to learn and be inspired by all the great shots.

Here's a few of my thoughts for what they're worth.... I am pretty much a purist when it comes to photography. I aim to take the bext possible photograph at the time of taking the shot and therefore minimise the need to do post editing (this is true whether I am taking film or digital). It is inevitable however that a shot can be improved a little especially with all the tools available in the digital age. But I really don't like the idea of photoshopping to create something that wasn't there - i like my shots to be as true to nature as possible. However in this case you are using the tools to make slight improvements to what were already great shots without changing the essence of what you saw. If you have the time then this is worthwhile as you have proven with your shots. The photoshopped shots are better but still I'm guessing are a true reflection of what you tried to capture. I am fairly new to digitial photography and have so far only invested in point and shoots for convenience. When I am in my 'photography' mode I still use my film SLR cameras and shoot slides because the quality and colour on a film like Velvia is so good. However that will soon change as I have been saving and waiting for the arrival of Canon's new EOS 40D - which will be out soon. Then I will start taking digital photography more seriously and will need to learn all the tools that you and Dan C seem to understand how to use.

Muskiestudd, I have consulted my Birds of Ontario book and what you have photgraphed is most definitely a Great Egret. It is larger than the Snowy Egret and is about the size of a Great Blue heron. The give away is the slightly green patch of skin between eye and beak. They are pretty uncommon as they venture into part of Southern Ontario only in Summer. I actually saw one just like it at the Toronto Islands this summer. Pretty rare find and good shot. 007

Great shots - like the osprey.

Nice job Cliff. That's a pretty difficult subject to capture as like Dan C says dealing with the contrast and focusing is difficult and then there's the lowlight and the possibility of camera shake. You did really well.