Dave Bailey

Just punched "smiths mill pond"ontario into Google and got a map, apparently it's south of Brantford. Link

Nope, didn't even put the canoe in. I went to the Progress Frenchman's Bay East Park, on Front Street.

Never met you or your daughter, but you both sound like great people. Hugs from everyone here and keep us posted.

Slow day so I decided to head down the road to the bay and see if that might provoke the boss into beeping me. Decided to go very simple and rigged a Slammer weedless and threw it toward the cattails. As soon as I started reeling I felt resistance, the guy must have hit it the second it dropped in the water! He managed to get wrapped up in some weeds but fortunately they weren't rooted so I just hauled the whole bunch in. Not a big one but better than sitting at home waiting for a call! Spent about another half hour, got a couple of soft strikes but that was it.

I just stole that and put it on an aircraft modeling board I hang out on!

They might own the land, but they can't own the water. If it's navigable enough for a canoe then anglers should paddle up there and drop lines in defiance of their sign.

Thanks Joey!

Nice thing about living in Pickering, we never use the 400 to go north. Straight up Hiway 12, usually moves well.

I'm certain that I once read that it's illegal to prevent someone from legally fishing, but I can't find it in the book. I'm not getting hassled, just wondering.

From the Ontario Parks web site:

Just to clear up any possible confusion I've done a quick illustration in MSPaint. The red and white bobber is obvious, but you can use any style you like. The green chunk is a Slammer on a hook, because I love Slammers! The two little grey balls are split shot sitting on the bottom, with enough free line at the end for possible adjusting of bait height. You can see the line coming off the top of the bobber to our hero on shore, who has just flung this rig out to the side, placing it over a rock fall 30 feet away along the shoreline that he couldn't walk to without getting into water over his head. I didn't draw all the rocks because I'm lazy. What you also can't see is a 6lb smallmouth taking interest off to the left, and he's about to move in and absolutely hammer the Slammer.

Yeah, but if you don't know how deep it is, how do you know how much line to put beneath the float? Simple - you can't. The system I'm envisioning should enable you to keep the bait at whatever height you want regardless of how deep it is. If you find you're not getting strikes then haul in and set the weights higher or lower until you find where they're feeding.

Why would a float stop trying to float just because it's underwater? It still contains air, therefore it's still bouyant, there's no way it can't try to float. It has to float upward otherwise something has gone seriously wrong with the physics of our universe. You would have the weights on the bottom, the float trying to pull them up, and the bait somewhere in the middle. And I don't want slack line, I thought the whole purpose of a drop-shot was simply to keep the bait off the bottom. I drop mine until the line goes slack, and then pull it up so it's only just tight. Or have I entirely misunderstood what a drop-shot is supposed to do?

Occasionally when fishing from shore you can see a spot that might be a good place to drop shot, but for some reason or other you can't quite get there. So here's what I'm thinking; set up the drop-shot rig as normal, but with a tiny little float that will sink with the weight but still have enough flotation to hold the bait off the bottom. Cast it toward the area you want and wait. Workable? Can't see why not, but since a lot of you guys seem to have more time on your hands than I do[/envious] it seems I'd probably get a faster answer than if you experimented instead of trying it myself.

16 years old and you're bagging walleye, in a small reservoir, in a canoe. That tears it, I'm taking up knitting. You only signed on to make me feel bad, didn't you? Whippersnappers...

Yeah, tell me about it. Ten years ago we rented a boat and went out on Couchiching, and it was a normal July day on the water for that lake. Translation: BUSY AS HELL! While tootling along about in the middle of the whole stretch of water, halfway up and halfway across, I suddenly noticed something bobbing around in the water ahead, and slowed down. As we got closer we saw that it was a guy swimming, kind of a breast-stroke, and we pulled up to see if he was okay, figured that far from shore he might have tumbled out of a boat. "I'm alright" he said, "my girlfriend and I just wanted to see if we could swim across the lake." ?!?!?! We looked around and finally located his girlfriend about a hundred feet away, barely visible in the slight chop. Both were wearing dark floppy hats to keep the sun off, not realising that it also made them just about invisible. We finally convinced them that with all the boats whipping around at high speed the continuation of their little adventure might not be a good idea, and they climbed in. After we got them back to shore some friends asked them if the 'other two' had made it all the way. W?T?F? We had seen enough silliness for one day and decided to go back to cruising the water and fishing, but we kept a sharp watch for any more heads.

There is nothing, NOTHING, more exciting in fishing than watching a topwater lure get smashed! Looks like you had a great day!

Sure, we know that trick. Hold a 4.9 pounder closer to the camera to make it look like a 5 pounder! Sheesh, some guys, nice one like that and you have to make us feel like dirt by posting it.

Speaking as someone who suffers from IBS and has come close to that a few times, and therefore can well imagine the shame and embarrassment, I say YEAH!

Throwing a Chug Bug off the causeway at Mitchell Lake, got a few strikes but the only one that latched on was this guy. Took it down so deep I had to cut the line and remove the lure backward through the gill. Just a quick pic while the hook was slowly working its way into my finger, fortunately didn't get too far. Fish was released and swam away immediately, no doubt with an unbelievable story to tell his buddies.

Just got back into semi-serious fishing recently, and never heard of drop-shotting until last year, on this board I believe. I use a 'quick and dirty' set-up. Palomar a hook about a foot and a half to two feet up the line and pinch some tin or bismuth split shot on the bottom. Worked well on smallmouth last year up at Killarney P.P.

And that eye, or other body part, might belong to an innocent passenger. The operator is the only one who is assuredly guilty, nobody else.

Delightful! Cherish these moments, he'll be growing up too fast, they all do.

Had one attack our car about 25 years ago, down near Lake St. Clair. The tom was herding his harem across a road and even when they had all crossed he wasn't going to let us move until he wanted us to. Every time we inched forward he would run in front and start banging on the grill. We finally had to just gun it, and he chased us a couple of hundred feet down the road. But there's actually a very good explanation as to why they act that way - they're stupid. Mind boggingly stupid. There are many things with more brains than a turkey. Which reminds me, I have to water the house plants today.