Kerry

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone has fished at Depot Harbour in the past.Saw a couple videos on Utube. The Good,Bad, best time of year, what you have to do to fish there? We were at Parry Sound for a night and was yakking with hotel owner- looking at things I might be able to get my wife to do with me fishing wise if it is not an all day adventure.This would not be during the ice season!! Thanks Kerry

Great show Pete. Met you couple yrs ago in the fall by the BLDr launch.Any day with numbers is a fun day and to do it with Jim Saric would have been a blast! Kerry

huzzaba, there is a walking trail from one end of the park to the other.Except for the beach area you can potentially fish all of it where accessible.I have walked down thru the paths to the lake from the Lakeshore sites and fished several spots for smallies (top water) and slipfloats with microtubes for both panfish and smallies.I use a 10ft river rod myself so I can really get the stuff out there too.Also have done this at Bass Lake here in Orillia for large and smallmouth from shore.Wading will get you out further although most of the shore is quite rocky so be careful. Had a friend catch a musky from shore to the right of the boat launch a few years ago on a mepps spinner so you never know and being May maybe walleye could be in close enough to get one.Careful of regs there is a slot there. Kerry

And for whatever reason I tried again a couple hours later and everything was fine.3yrs done. Kerry

For some strange reason all I can get is to a page for a 1year renewal. I enter all my info which is from a 3 yr license originally.Any ideas?? I use firefox. Kerry

Nice!! you can even see the spots on it too. Kerry

Thanks Brian! I will pass that on to them.Lots of folks in their park pretty upset about not being able to get their boats in at the launch.Hopefully something comes about in the near future.I had good success on that lake a few years ago and never had the chance to go back.Still have a few spots on a hand written map I'd love to revisit one day. Kerry

Was just talking the other night to a couple friends that have trailers up there-the one by Norlund.Apparently the dam has blown out or is damaged in some fashion and the water levels there are bad bad bad low and the Ministry is apparently not going to do anything about it.The launch along side 45 is almost unusable unless you can walk a boat in.The launch off of Saunders rd? I think it is a very sharp drop in but there is water there for trailers. So knowing Head Lake to be full off shoals if you get out there drive slowly and have an extra pair of eyes off the front. Spinner rigs tipped with a white twister tail and piece of worm seem to be the ticket usually.Always a good chance of getting a musky on the same too. Kerry

But with musky being notorious for following baits the figure 8 or L turn or even a circle at boatside can turn that follower into a biter and may even increase your hookup rate by 10 or 20%. With the limited time I get to go out I want to use the most efficient way for a hook up.A lure in the water is better than one in the air. Kerry

Yeah, good ones!! And it would be a good idea to have the safety ring and wire clip to the boat for the rod too. Nothing worse than seeing the whole kit and kaboodle going out of the boat. Kerry

You cant beat you tube for learning the use of your HDS unit and navionics.Just browse through some of the tutorials. Kerry

I personally don't know why people have to take anything at all with them that they would throw away as an afterthought in this day and age.I go fishing I use a thermos and my lunch is packed in a bag which is used to take anything loose with me.I don't bother with live bait anymore with all the bio products available.I use the same philosophy whether I am shore, boat or ice fishing. Property owners have only one way of curtailling the problem and that is to block it off to public access and of course this doesn't just apply to fishing as it is the same problem wherever use of private land is allowed for public trails too.They do have the right to protect their investment, just sad that some elements feel they can trash the world and walk away. Kerry

Rather than soaking the whole thing with a pressure washer I just give my carpet portion a good vacuum with the wet/dry shop vac and spot clean with a diluted mixture of water and spray nine.I use the rest of the mixture to wipe down the seats and floor.Spray nine is one of the best marine based cleaners out there. Kerry

My buddy used to have a cottage on Dollars lake -other side of ESS Narrows. We used to fish up past Whip O Will Lodge for walleye.Lots of Pike and smallies in the system too.Classic canadian shield lake lots of rock and timber.All species love both but it's still a river and they do move around. Kerry

In this day and age anything is possible.As it is right now Lake St John is inaccessible by about 60 percent of available open parking space from last year alone. Kerry

That was MyLand Trailer Park.Long gone.That whole property is being redeveloped.Last I heard was 13 houses being built in there maybe more.Nice paved road done to the original launch there.Fat chance any outsiders will get any use of that either.lol Kerry

I don't know, they started cleaning up Bluebird Park a couple years or so ago and making it a so called launch albeit a lousy one that was already much as it is.Then last year the launch at Stepan was closed off by Stepan.Ramara posted some nonsense about them not knowing the launch was on Stepan property which is Bull as I understood it was Domtar(original company) property years ago and Ramara was maintaining the launch for public access.Sad considering they dumped several loads of stone the previous year and did a pretty good job of smoothing out the launch area.Now ramara decides to close in the lane to Bluebird to the point where only cartoppers will be able to use it.Well I guess tooners too so you will be OK.lol. As far as garbage the Stepan side was much better in the last couple years but maybe Stepan had enough of being the land stewart to slobs - who knows.Maybe Ramara is going the same route.Sucks as you don't need to worry about boat traffic on a small lake nearly as much-it really is a good fishing lake not a lot of cottager traffic on it. Kerry

Its getting quieter there Brian.Last time I was there they put in the wood posts and cut off a large portion of Bluebird Park.Lucky to get 4 trucks and trailers in there for soft water now and be able to turn around.Too bad one of the last small lakes in our region with a good mix of fish and sizes.Ramara obviously has an agenda and the weekend fishermen are getting the short straws. Just a reminder to anyone out there- The Stepan side (Longford Mills) is totally closed off from any kind of access. Kerry

Pretty sure if you go on the Navionics website for updates/downloads you can update your card to Navionics+ for an added cost. I got the navionics+ card with my Dragonfly this year and it has freshest update for a year like my phone.Definately nice to have the ability to update the fishfinder charts on a regular basis. Kerry

I can agree with that.I am more familiar with the area around the prov park at Balsam and tend to stick around there and the weed edges,drops and scattered coon tail.Only raised one good one early this year and it caught me totally off guard.I had two other follows of smaller fish and ended up getting a couple walleye on inlines a couple other times.Other areas of the lake apparently were more active this year but I havent put the time into them as usually my outings are short and I do want to catch something for my travels.If walleye start biting I will switch over to cranks.For me with musky its hard to change from a pattern ie inlines and spinnerbaits that draw fish in the hotter times of year to a slower presentation that I don't really get to employ normally and be comfortable with and do it at a time when the water is 35 degrees cooler. Kerry

TJ had stickers originally made from the old board in addition to the hats. I had them on my old boat. Kerry

That's a beauty! Kerry

Nice to meet you too Mike.It was too nice a day to sit and dream about it that's for sure.If it ain't froze and the wind is not crazy I'm gonna try! Merry Christmas Kerry

How about December? I tried Balsam on saturday as the weather was perfect to get out and the only time in recent memory that you could get out this late before the season closed there in the last few years.The shallows had nothing for baitfish that I could see,marked bait fish in the usual 10ft plus areas off the weed edges and drops to 20+ft but never raised or saw anything.Beauty day for a coleman picnic lunch at the Prov Park launch tho.Was only one other guy out there that day.Tried slow rolling 2 1/2 oz spinnerbaits deep and jigging 8" tubes and trolled at about 2.5 mph with a jointed believer. Kerry

Just remember to replace those rubber bands periodically.Once they get dried out and hard its a pain on lures that don't rarely get used or only get used seasonally. Kerry