frozen-fire

LOL highlight of the night. Shots fired!

Us city boys can land some fish after a bit of food in the tummy. Nice seeing you Brian.

Brown!

Scenery pics are outstanding! The fish are nice too.

Another vote for Michelin X-Ice!

Like you, I will never bring my WRX to the dealership again. I've had my car for over 3 years now and I go to a mechanic that works almost exclusively on Subaru's. He's in Markham though. If you want I can give you contact info. From what I've heard, Seven Automotive is a great option.

I think your best bet will be Seven Automotive in Newmarket. http://sevenautomotive.ca/ Well known for Toronto Subaru Club members to the north.

After a few years of consistent lake trout ice fishing on Simcoe, I really wanted to change it up this winter. I have caught some walleye through the ice, but they were always unintentional catches while targeting crappie. Having never specifically targetted these fish through the ice before, I knew that there would be a bit of a learning curve involved. My first lake trout took me a whole season and a dozen trips before I got the hang of it. I certainly hoped that this wouldn't be the case with these walleye. Bay of Quinte was my goal this year. I have never fished it before either on softwater or hardwater, but I have seen the pics and heard reports and know that monsters lurk these waters in great numbers. With this winter being so kind to ice anglers, I was able to get on the BoQ before the new year. My first trip out was around mid December. There was a good solid 5 inches of black ice and safe for travel on foot. A group of friends and myself made the journey and decided to fish an area that doesn't have easy access and actually wasn't fished at all since the ice was safe. Using navionics on our smart phones, we walked to areas that showed potential. Wasn't long until we started marking fish on our sonars. While it was exciting to know that there was potentially my target species swimming around underneath me, it soon became annoying when these marks weren't hitting anything I dropped down. It soon clicked in that these were dink perch and so small that they couldn't take in the lures/bait we offered. I downsized to a micro jig and confirmed that these were indeed really perch. 3 to 4 inch dinks. We moved around a lot. It paid off for two in our group that each ended up with one walleye each. Very respectable fish. I was jealous! The evening flurry of action started and marks appeared on my finder, and I tried different jigging and retrieval techniques to no avail. Perhaps it was my instinct to take the lures away from the fish that was ingrained in my head from fishing Simcoe too much which caused me to not hook up on this day. I left the bay with a smell of skunk. The second outing, I was more prepared. Watched and read many tutorials online and was more confident than ever! Me and a member on this forum headed out to another area on the BoQ. This area was more heavily fished and the first thing that came to mind was that these fish were really under pressure. It was boxing day and I was surprised to see so many anglers. Once again, we walked out on foot to locations that looked promising. It wasn't long before my screen was lit up. So many fish that I actually lost track of my lure. Finally a good tug and I set the hook. Relief set in as I reeled in what I thought was to be my first BoQ eye. A shiny silver sheepshead poked through the hole and I cried . Turns out it was a big school of these fish moving through. It wasn't until noon when I saw another mark on the screen. I knew I had to fine tune my jigging technique to keep this fish interested. The fish stuck around for a while, so I knew it was interested. Eventually the fish met my lure and all I felt was weight. The fish fought hard and went on a couple runs. I knew it was a walleye. It finally showed itself and there's nothing better than seeing a hole with a mouth full of teeth . My first BoQ eye. It wasn't a huge fish, but I was screaming and prancing around like a little girl and surely looked like an idiot to other anglers nearby. 15 minutes later, another mark appeared on my screen and using the same jigging technique, I managed to set the hook into another fish! I am really starting to like this! Both fish were released and I had to call it an early day. Didn't have enough time to fish the evening bite. I was smiling the whole way home, and I wanted back at it as soon as possible. I was hooked! A few days later, I returned and had the full day to fish. My goal now was to be part of the 10lb and up club. It was right before the new year on Dec 29. It would be great to start the new year with a 10lb'er under my belt! The action started early. I finally iced some eater sized walleye in the 3lb range. Wasn't long before I hooked into a massive tank that fought hard. I knew it was my new PB when it showed it's huge head. My buddy had a scale on him and we got a quick weight. 9.84lbs. Oh so close. It was about an hour later when I had another huge fish on the line. After a quick fight, it was on the ice and I put the scale to it. Twin! It was 9.85lbs. If only this fish ate another perch before it took my lure, I'd be at 10lbs . My buddy was sleeping in the hut, so no pics with it. Snapped a couple pics of it on the ice before I slid her back down into the depths. I ended the day hooking and icing 8 walleye and losing a couple more. Only 2 fish were small in the 3lb range which went home with me. The rest were 6lbs and up. What an amazing fishery! The season ends at the end of February, and I wanted to make a 4th trip out there, but it just hasn't happened. No doubt I'll be back for more though. Since my last BoQ trip, mostly lakers and crappie have been keeping me busy. Hopefully I'll get out a few more times before the ice goes. This winter has been phenomenal for crappies. Many fish in the 12 to 15 inch range, with quite a number of huge jumbo perch thrown in the mix.

Too much lake trout in these pics. Needs whitefish.... and ling

Nice! You are the last person I would expect to take vids.

Fantastic opener!

I wanted the power from the turbo version. Wasn't too keen on getting a newer wrx (08+) due to price and how they looked. I much prefered the GD chassis (02-07) and body style. Plus saved some money going back a year. Here's my car as she sits now: I find I'm getting older and not too into the fast car craze anymore. So I have been in and out of looking for a used forester. I was ready to let my WRX go (actually to a member on this forum), but decided I would keep it for a little while longer. My very first car was a mitsubishi, then I got a civic...and finally went AWD with subaru and haven't looked back. I came really close to getting an 06 Forester XT - auto. It had just over 100k km on it. Really clean car and was well maintained. Wanted to think it through and it got sold before I could decide. I kind of regret not jumping on that one. On one hand, I really wanted a 5spd because it's what I'm used to and it's a lot more fun to drive. But my better half would much prefer an auto so she could drive it as well.

I will likely stick with Subaru for life. Been driving one for about 4 years now. Started with an 08 Impreza 2.5i. Currently driving an 07 WRX sedan. Absolutely love the thing. Especially when it snows My next car will be an 06-08 forester XT for the extra cargo space. It's so hard finding a 5 speed manual these days. To me, it's the perfect fishing vehicle with a nice balance of power and space. I would recommend to seriously consider looking for a used forester.

Hard to believe that 2013 is almost half way through. This forum and its members have always been helpful to me when I've had questions and whatnot. It's always a pleasure to share photos we all love. I don't really post much anymore... so here's what I've been up to since the beginning of 2013 to make up for my absence. First ice. Always head out for panfish as we wait for safe ice on bigger water. This year, my buddies and myself decided to do some exploring with new water and it didn't disappoint. Lake trout. Once Simcoe freezes over, we usually stick with these aggressive fish until season closes. This year was special. Truly the year of the lakers. Got my PB, and the numbers of fish caught was amazing! Everything seemed to work. Definitely my best season on the ice for lakers hands down. Even managed a "rare" whitefish that have seemed to disappear! Last ice. More slab crappies. Spring steelhead. After winter laker season closes, I usually dedicate my time on the river chasing fresh chrome steelhead. Trout opener. I'm not a huge fan of fishing for spawned out dropback steelhead. With the late spring we had, I was hoping for more fresh fish, but all the fish caught were rather dark and on their way back down to the lake. Still got a good number of fish and had a good day on the water. Spring crappie. I've been going after crappie for about 25 years now. Seems like the fishing keeps getting better. Or maybe I'm getting better at it. Back when I was a little kid, my dad used to bring me out around Georgian Bay and Simcoe areas - they were the only areas where crappie were available. Now that they have spread throughout the Kawarthas, we have endless options. I managed my PB this spring. A feisty fish that measured 15.5". On this day, the fish were everywhere...but were very finicky. My buddy and myself carefully creeped up on these fish in a quiet electric powered sportspal canoe and we still had a hard time getting them to commit. Finally, we found out that the solution was to downsize.... significantly. I wish I had my 5wt fly rod...would've got a lot more fish with that for sure. Anyways...fishing over about 10fow and the fish hit at 6" beneath the surface. Thought it was a bass at first. We shouted and hollered as the fish came into the canoe. Good times. This year, a lot of 13"+ fish were boated. We've made it our mission to avoid dinks/crowds and specifically target larger sized slabs. I've also made a new goal recently - I want to get into white crappie. I know they are found in the Niagara area and more southwest. If anyone has got any tips or suggestions, let me know. Spring walleye. I was taught the technique of the bucktail last year. It looked so awkward at first and I had a hard time picturing it in my head how it would work. But the results proved it was the way for weedy walleye! This year was the same. Although I spent time with plastics and cranks as well. Lots of slot sized fish and a few bonus bigger sized ones. Spring pike. Always fun casting for pike with cranks and jerkbaits. Unfortunately, no monsters this spring. I'm not big into muskie fishing and have never went out specifically for them. Usually always get at least 1 or 2 accidentally while targetting other species. Perhaps I should give it a serious go one of these days. Spring carp. As spring comes to an end and summer begins, the crappie/walleye/pike fishing seems to go bland. Just doesn't excite as much as earlier in the season. Best solution is to turn things around and go for big carp! I've only been out once this year, but the excitement with the screaming runs and the tough fights these fish put out will draw me back in for sure. These fish don't get enough credit. I'm always a believer in changing things up and keeping it interesting....which is why being a multispecies angler is the way to go! You can see behind me in the following pics - 2 guys in a nice bass boat...drifting the same run over and over again trying to hook up with some walleye. Each pass they made, we were battling nice carp while they watched. Didn't look like they were having much success. Made me glad I was on the bank with a couple buddies, chatting, eating, sleeping, and most importantly... catching nice big carp! That's it for now. Bass is just around the corner. Topwater is one of my favourite ways to fish for them. I can't wait. I'll have to dust off and prep my frog setup. I didn't get a chance to head out for resident trout either. Hopefully I will get into some of that before the vegetation gets to be too much. More of this to come in the following weeks.

Fantastic!

If I don't get an opportunity to go fishing, I enjoy running Last year I did my first halfs and full. It seems wild when you think about it... running 42km. I also have a knee problem on my left side. It does bother me when I run too often. My goal this year was to run the Sporting Life 10k in under 50 minutes. I was fighting a bad cough at the time and my respiratory system wasn't cooperating. I ended up couging my lungs out at around 8k... that put me behind for sure. I ended up with a chip time of 50 min and 19 seconds. I will do it again next year hopefully and beat 50 minutes. Big congrats to Victor (on this forum) who ended up doing the 10k in 39 minutes and change. WOW.

Fantastic post!

Very cool footage...love the jumps.

Thanks for the comments guys! Nope... I hope to start tying them one day though.

In the end, it likely wasn't anywhere close to 20lbs...I never weigh any fish, but I'd say it's around 15 . The excitement really gets to you! My biggest for sure so far. It's a very cool thing to see the fish swimming around at your feet through the clear solid ice. Pic doesn't do it justice Release. 8" hole. We did well and ended up with lots of fish on the ice, but also lost ridiculous numbers of fish bringing them up as well. Just wanted to share

I figured some of you may enjoy this interesting footage. Trip of a lifetime! Many thanks to Jet for inviting us out and being a great guide. GoPro was only used for 2 days out of the entire trip, but got quite a bit of footage. I'll work on uploading the rest later. Note: audio is very low due to sealed waterproof case, but there is some swearing.

Amazing video of some very cool fish. Love it! Thanks for sharing.

Nice! Love the carp and channel cats on the pin! It was nice to bump into you at the river this fall.

I think what the OP wants is our opinions on FLASHERS...not sonars in general. Here's my input: I went with a Humminbird 345c a few years ago and couldn't be happier. I had the option of getting a flasher, but it just wasn't for me. The constant buzz and the flashing lights of a flasher just isn't what I'd like when out there on the ice. My unit has the option of using a flasher display, but I never use it. I always stick to the graph. I love how it records and shows a brief history of what happened, whereas flashers won't do that for you. You can be jigging away, and there's nothing on the screen. You turn around and talk to a buddy for a couple secs to see how he's doing. Turn back to your hole and you realize a fish just came up to your lure and went back down. Now you can drop it and try to entice it again. A flasher won't show you what happened. At least I don't think they can. Visually, I enjoy the graph a lot more as you can see those lines come up and smash your lure! I'd say let your friend try both and see what he likes.

Great photos Mike! Sorry to hear about your uncles health. All the best to him. The pics of your little man in the waders are great!