Northhunter

Don't question the powers that be, Terry. OFC's a loving, caring, internet "community" now

That's happened a number of times. It's hard to fish 'eyes on nipissing any length of time without it happening, although the fight's usually over before it begins if you're leaderless. I've landed 4lb+ smallies on a panfish outfit. Talk about fighting a whale! I guess if you were relying on the drag and it hung up, you'd be screwed, but other than that I'm not sure what you mean?

Isn't that what a drag is for?? A light setting on a decent reel serves the same purpose, but you don't have to take your hand off the reel. A good fish that runs could really get some momentum going on free handle/spool.

I haven't been on it since everything froze over, but I would avoid the West Arm for a little while if you're not sure where to go or don't have the advice of someone who does. The "river" is a different animal than the rest of the lake. I was on it last year in late Dec. / early Jan. and the ice in spots had me a little worried, even though it was plenty thick enough where we fished. We came across two open holes where there was no current.

I wasn't referring to any sort of "emotional" stress. If a fish on the end of a line has a "fight or flight" response than how does that compare to someone jogging, unless a grizzly is after their behind? I agree, a C&R fish is more likely to live than one that's caught and kept, but one that's left alone completely also has a higher chance of living than one that's been handled purely for "sport". I'm not trying to call you out Ter, it just irks me that a lot of the people who have issues about disrespecting fish and all that jazz are purely C&R anglers who often angle many more fish in the name of sport than someone who goes out and keeps a few, enjoys the resource and then goes home.

Whether you angle it or spear/arrow it... you're impailing it with something either way. I think the walleye would have gone through a lot more stress fighting on the end of a line. If it does so for the sole purpose of providing pleasure/fun to the person who angled it, who isn't going to keep or eat anything they catch... all the worse. Just my opinion. And the dude doing the spearing was free diving. Just him, the spear, and the fish.

The bigger concern is finding bait? The bigger concern for me would be, well.. going through Screw minnows. I would take the operators info with a grain of salt. Sounds like he's betting on ice that isn't there yet. They're calling for warmer than normal temps up until March, and we've had two cold snaps already that produced fishable ice, only for it to go back to the springtime weather and soft ice/open water. Who's to say it won't happen again? I posted a while ago (maybe on another board) about guys getting gung-ho for "safe" ice. Don't risk it.

I have not fished the lake, but it's a stone's throw from the west arm of nipissing. Same fish species, fishing and similiar topography from what I have heard.

Awsome. I like the pics the way they are. Digital has it's place, but there's just something about outdoor shots and film... I'd like to do something like that someday. I don't know how long I'd last solo though.

5+ inches? I find that hard to believe. I was up at home (west of Sudbury - we live on a lake) and there was no safe ice. Guys actually put an ice hut out near home with the last "cold snap" and I wouldn't be surprised if they lost it, as the ice went south after that. I drove south on 17 Sunday, everything was open. It's just gotten cold the last couple days, but not cold enough to make 5 inches (the first cold snap we had a while back put about 4" down where I was, and that was after 4 or 5 nights of freezing with temps down to -20). The low for sudbury tonight is 2 dregrees with a possibility of rain tomorrow. If we get the temps they're calling for, there might be 5" by the middle of next week?? Not now.

It didn't look like they were gonna be able to tie it, but the shootout was intense! I don't get it either - someone posts about the laughs (leafs) and there's pages of replies. A team made up of our best players who aren't yet in the NHL beats the U.S. in a shootout with 4 extra rounds to make it to the gold medal game against the Russians and there's 6 posts... :/

I guess they can be pretty loud - they make them to varying degrees of "hotness". Cancel that last suggestion if you don't live in a rural area. We threw nearly a hundred into a fire pit with a good bed of coals once...

I checked our lake (west of Sudbury) last night - there was 4" where I drilled. We're getting snow while the new ice is forming though - not good.

If you're comfortable handling them... You can cut the crimped end off the plastic and dump the shot out, then the gunpowder (note: don't cut through the steel part lol). Once disassembled they won't go "boom". Flush the powder down the toilet and save the primers (what's left in the steel/brass end - don't try to remove these) for the next time you have an outdoor fire - they're like small firecrackers.