frozen-fire

you guys are the best! thanks for the wealth of information. since i drive a 2 door and the car is short in general, should i get a 15 footer? or does the length of the canoe really matter as long as it is properly tied down on both ends? the sportspal sounds very intriguing! whereabouts do they sell them and for how much? i'm going to go check out those canoes at CTC for sure. 399 sounds perfect. I'm not looking to travel that far from the launch... most likely going to hit shore spots, but a little further out, where the shore people can't cast to . Also, I'm not a huge guy..only roughly 145 ish lbs. so a 60-70 lb canoe is perfect in my eyes. I won't be fishing alone, and will always have a companion. We already have life jackets and will purchase necessary safety equipment.

Hey guys... Need some advice on my first canoe purchase. I want something that is not too big/long and able to support two people (my girlfriend and I... we probably are around 250 lbs put together). I'm not interested in any trolling motor at the moment, we actually would like to paddle! She's more interested in the paddling around a calm quiet lake and getting good exercise out of it, and well.... I'm interested in getting more fishing time in. To get away from the shore for once is a definite plus! There must be bigger fish out there! I currently drive a 1999 Honda Civic coupe. This canoe must be able to go atop. It's a small car, so there probably will be less selection, no? How will I deal with an anchor? I don't want to drift around all day and drain ourselves paddling over some hot spots. How long should this canoe be? What make should I go with? In terms of car mounts, I know that places like LeBaron's sell foam mounts. Should I just get something along the lines of this, or invest in a car rack instead? Sometimes I regret the purchase of the Civic. Should've went with a larger sized car so I can drag an actual fishing boat around. Oh well... at least the Civic is pretty good on gas. Any advice from you experts and people who have gone through the same phase is greatly appreciated!

awesome tips and advice! thanks a bunch! if anything worthy of a report happens to occur, you'll see it here.

thanks for the replies guys. looks like i'll be researching on nearby bodies of water in that vicinity.

Heading up to Killbear next weekend for some camping. Was there last year and didn't even get a sniff All we caught was a 5 inch perch. Any of you have luck at this park? We will be fishing both from shore and a rental canoe.

i am so jealous... i want a girlfriend #2 also!!!! congrats buddy.

that is not a common snapping turtle hatchling, but a rarely seen map turtle. this is the second time this year someone posted a map... perhaps they are making a comeback!

i know that bass is closed until the 4th saturday in june. i just wanted to know if other in season speices could be targetted other than rockbass. thanks robinwood for the info. it is much appreciated. i will not bring the rods then.

Hey, My friend has planned a trip to a cottge on Steenburg Lake (Limerick township) in early June. According to the Guide to Eating Ontario Sportfish, the lake contains smallmouth and largemouth bass and also rockbass. Bass are not in season yet, so do I expect to be aiming for rockies? I'll be fishing from a canoe by the way. Any help and advice is appreciated. Thanks

wow... now that is a hardcore carp outing. i gotta get in on some of that!

great report. a joy to read

and no, i don't have any secret spots. i think it's fair to say that the toronto islands is pretty heavily fished. there are so many people that fish it, it's ridiculous. But hey... the fishing still produces. When we got off hanlans, there were already 3 people fishing as we arrived, half an hour later, another fishermen from hanlan's passes us. towards the end of the day, we see another group of fishermen all targetting pike.

thanks guys... and yes, the females always outfish the males for some odd reason! it's so hard to satisfy the crowd here. I've posted before without blurred images and got some pms asking me to blur them. I blur them this time and people get annoyed of the blurring. i didn't blur the carp pic cause it didn't reveal any shoreline structure. i know you can recognize the vegetation though. next time i'm just gonna say what i caught and not post any pics. hope to bump into some of you guys!

good job on the crappie. buckhorn is one of my favourite places for them tasty fish.

nice fish bud.... you need better blurring too haha

actually... it's NOT a cement wall at all hahahahaha we don't fish that cement wall often. you need to go more often!

the carp are in there THICK. i had to get out of there cause i was afraid to foul hook more of them. we should all forget about pike and go for the carp!!! next time i'm bringing a can of corn hahaha. if you guys can recognize those areas even with the blurring, then you're regulars who know the area well... like me haha. hopefully i can bump into one of you guys one day. might head down thursday.

Sorry for those who oppose blurred images. I don't want to upset anyone. We decided to hit the islands for some pike. Skipped opening weekend cause of the weather, but today wasn't so good either. Chilly, overcast, and on/off showers. First fish was my gf's. She had a solid hit and was really excited. It then came off a few seconds later. She reeled in her line to show me that her leader was all twisted up. I knew that the pike had overshot, and took the line instead of the lure. I told her to throw it back in the direction where she got the hit. She didn't really believe me that it would strike again, but what do you know. The pike comes up and inhales the lure! Nice healthy fish. The next fish was accidental. I thought I had a pike of a lifetime!!!!! Solid fight.... but it turned out to be a foul hooked carp. It was snagged on the dorsal fin. I brought it in to remove the lure, but decided to take a pic of it too. Pretty big one! I then finally get lucky when I switch up the xrap for a jointed rapala. Small little guy, but fun nonetheless. It completely cleared the water twice. I was surprised it had so much energy considering the water is still pretty cold. We bumped into other fishermen later into the day and they had some good success. They are also member on this forum too! They told us that there are police boats cruising the islands looking for fishermen and asking for licenses. Don't forget your licenses people. They are charging those fishing without them.

Wow...looks to be a large female map turtle. There aren't too many of those around these parts anymore. What a great find! Like the post above stated, you got close to it only because it's so sluggish from the cold temps. If it were in the summer, you probably would've heard a splash even before you saw teh thing!

a couple days ago, i saw a hawk ripping bits and peices off of what i believed to be a european starling on my backyard fence. left a big bloody mess... but the rain should've took care of that.

awesome job!

I was once on the DVP going northbound just getting on off of Bloor and was greeted with very heavy traffic. Few minutes later, I see that a car had struck a deer in broad daylight. Was a cop there and everything. IIRC, the car has badly damaged... I was blown away about the deer being in downtown toronto haha.

Wonderful report. I always got excited when you posted up reports. Beautiful pictures everytime. Please do come back and take care in England.

that looks delicious! it's crazy...the crappie are going nuts in the kawarthas! but i guess it's like this every fall.