scuro2

This one and what would have probably been a 4 ft tarpon if I could have gotten a tape on it.

I had that discussion with Dave the operator of Two Moon, he likes the ice fishing ban. He thinks further restrictions may be premature. Perhaps up on that part of lake but I've fished the other parts and you get many 12 to 15 inch fish but not many over 21. If you ever get the chance to fish LT waters where the laker fishing is light the difference is startling. If one is happy fishing many dinks with the odd keeper then there is nothing wrong with a 2 fish limit. If you want to see the lake get back to it's past trophy lake status then a one fish limit or catch and release would be the way to go. Who really needs to keep two fish over 22 inches for dinner?

Kipawa is nice because it is so big and yet still mainly wild and undeveloped. That type of lake no longer exists in our near north. There is fishing pressure with a fair number of lodges, and the limits for lake trout are a bit too generous. It once produced consistent LT trophies but now high 20s low 30s would be exceptional. I'm a leadcore fan and never had the need to try different. If I wanted to jig I'd be fishing walleye. I like AC shinners and flutter spoons but I use other stuff with success too.

We opted for Two Moon lodge for a family and friend gathering. We could have the lodge to ourselves if we had 12 adults and previously we had rented cottages together when our children were young. Getting a money commitment well before the actual date is not an easy thing. Originally we were looking at 9ish adults plus grandma and grandpa and were hoping for others to possibly commit to lower the overall price. When the time came our two original families had all of their kids commit plus 4 boyfriends. Then we had my brother and his family commit along with one of my best friends and his family. Out of that 25 there were four people who ever seriously fished and three were my wife, daughter, and I. What would the others who had never been to a fishing camp think of this experience? Expectations were high, based on the 2 Moon website, it looked like there was plenty to do including yoga for the women with great accommodations. The activities came as advertized but Quebec does a poor job rating the cabins with 2 Moon having mostly 4 Star accommodation. Later that week we looked at another camp and they had the same inflated ratings. It is a remote fishing camp but in no way would the accommodations measure up to even a Cuban three or four star rating. Initially there was a bit of let down especially for those who had never been to a fishing camp. One pitfall, especially obvious when the cabins are full, is that the two largest cabins of 7 and 8 don't have walls that go all the way to the ceiling in the rooms or bathroom. That is intimate living! But what 2 moon has going for it in spades is the setting and the "kids" quickly banded together into large groups and took advantage of the surroundings. ...so did those who liked to fish and canoe. They had some cedar strip canoes available. ...I'm a rare breed in that given the choice between walleye and laker fishing, I'll always laker fish, zero time was spent targeting walleye although we a caught a few in the eater size down around 30 ft. I've fished 3 entirely different sections of this 25 mile long lake and laker fishing was the best I had ever seen it on Kipawa. It could be the cold summer. Being one of only two people experienced enough to go solo fishing I had a lot of different people on my boat. ...and it was a welcomed change to fish with new people. Unusually, we kept 3 Lakers from my boat. Usually it is only one for me for a fish dinner. Our host generously offered to smoke our fish so we took him up on that offer. It was great to see two of my best friends and their families. I hadn't seen some of the kids in several years My daughter Sara's boyfriend took his two dogs out for a mountain bike ride down the trails into the wilderness. Unfortunately he went down a little used hunter's trail and soon got disoriented and totally lost. He did use the sun to find his way 2 bays down on shore. He was visible about 2 km down the lake, but not at that time of day because the sun was behind him. Dave the owner went out to find him and did a thorough search for him with the ATV for two straight hours. We could hear the odd spoken words in the distance but wondered if that wasn't fishermen. My daughter Tess and I hung out on the shore trying to get a response but we never heard a response to our calls, and that was probably because of the wind. Then one time I distinctly heard, "Tess". Only he would know her name so we raced out onto the lake in the setting sun with spotters and flashlights, and found him! Ironically what he had really yelled was, "Sara, look west". He had dragged that bike through the bush! All were well including the dogs. In the end the outdoors and nature lovers generally enjoyed the trip. The ones not used to remote living, well they may not be back next year. Kipawa, ideally is a place best enjoyed when one is on the water. For canoeists and fishermen the place is ideal. Many new bonds were formed and we will most likely be back on Kipawa next year. We won't be back with 25 but ideally 2 Moon would be best enjoyed with about 16 people.

We went to Cuba mangrove fishing and the gull kept on attacking my bud's lure. I had my back to him but heard a whole lot of squawking so turned to see my bud reeling in his gull like a kite. Too funny. The thing was all claws so once he had it boat side he had to grab it by the neck and submerge it. His imitation of noise is priceless...something like sqwa...gurgle gurgle. Took over a minute until the gull submitted to his will and then he unhooked it. You can see the gull in the pic.

Loverly pike...a beaut!

True, but no false advertising.

She has always been a fru fru girl so there was no surprise when she fished with the reel with the cool reflective finish even though it might of been a tad too big for her. Wasn't much different 12 years ago where she would only fish with the bubblegum sparkle lure. But there is something about nature which strikes a cord in her. We got letters from camp about the remarkable change they saw in her. Our girl portage a canoe...and get her bronze medal in a summer? You must be mistaken. She is well on her way to a career in film and had a job offer before she even went to Ryerson. Currently she's in 3rd year and doing some remarkable stuff.

Enjoy, look forward to the report.

I forgot to say the BC boys are nuts about Apex lures.

As good as it gets!

Beauts...just F-ing beauts!

Requiring a reciept or simply the original lifetime warrenty attached to the rod? They should honour what they state. One group screwed are shop owners who took broken rods and now get nothing.

Flutter spoon - thin...my go to lure. The lakers seem to be moody, reflective tape at times works wonderful, but then again not. Flutter spoons, AC shinners, and even the rapella's with the little blade at the front worked beautifully in choppy sunny weather. Then there is flasher and dodger question. Lakers are tough because you have to find depth, location, speed, and what razzle turns their crank. Now if you are monster hunting the game changes and huge spoons and giant swim baits are the ticket. A good laker fishermen will get on fish if they are there because they know lakers moods like they know the moods of their wife. In a nutshell I go with the spirit of the day tells you and reflect that with panache in what I present Mr and Mrs Laker. I tweak all the time.

About a dozen years ago I went fishing with my young daughter for the last time on a weekend trip. We bet gummy bears for biggest fish and first fish caught. Life caught up with us both and I lamented the fact that I should have nurtured that interest with the only one of my children who truly liked fishing. This summer it was just her and I, 60 miles south of James Bay, some days full with 12 hours of fishing. We started beautifully with a perfect day to fly, the gods were smiling on us both. Unlike other fishing partners this one was adapt at taking pictures...1500 to be precise! It was camera wars from the start.. While posed, her favorite pic of the trip! This might be a close 2nd. Here she begged me for my hat because she was getting burned...she loved my makeshift headcover! This girl can take pictures. ...and for the first part of the trip she'd take pictures more often then she would fish. ..or she would happily sit back and read a book. ...but something happened on the way to the art gallery... Dad just kept putting big fish in the boat. ...and when those "windows" opened she started to fish hard. ...she did have her chances but hey, dad scores again! The week was coming to a close and all of sudden in those last days she was fishing along side of me most of the day. She didn't land a pike over 30 inches but she made contact with several biggies and that is all that you can hope for...the opportunity. From the swirl of one fish and the screaming of the reel, I'd guess one pike would have been at least in the low 40's. Fish stories... here she is showing us how big it was!" The Hudson bay lowlands has a way of charming you and she was seduced by a part of the world she had never seen before. That northern big sky rain shower gives way to chairoscuro atmospheric lighting. ..and in the end that flame was lit again. She loved it all and might work there next year. ...and I look forward to fishing with her again.

I use the same stuff and the same pound test for big fish. Will go lower to 100 pound in smaller toothy critter water. Cheap, do it yourself, and pick your length of leader. Forget mono leaders!

What region are you fishing? Lovely cottage in the background of the photo of your girlfriend, is it yours?

Best fishing story I ever heard, and it was probably true, involved an elderly polish immigrant, a squirrel, a plank, and a truck. He wanted to catch a muskie and he saw one take down a duckling so he improvised and came up with his own method to catch a pike. He attached a giant hook onto a live squirrel by wrapping enough rope around the squirrel and the shank of the hook so that hook would stay in place. He had about two hundred ft of rope and he attached that to the back of the truck and the hook on the other end. Next he attached a second rope onto a plank, put the squirrel on the plank and let the river current take the plank and squirrel out into the middle of the river. When he got it out far enough he yanked out the plank from underneath of the squirrel and pulled it in fast so it wouldn't tangle with the main line. The squirrel started thrashing and sure enough a muskie hit it, at which point he backed up the truck until the muskie was on shore. The squirrel did not survive.

Part 2 Found what looks to be a good spot. The Mersey River Lodge http://www.merseylodge.com/ looks to be the type of place I like. I can't find hardly any info on it, how long it has been in business etc. No second hand reports, nothing on trip advisor, CAA ..etc It looks to be owned by the Vladi Private Islands (Canada) Limited. Any info would be appreciated.

BEEuuuutoofil!

A beautiful pictorial essay on kick ass fishing. As always, nicely done and thanks for sharing!

I'm a radar junkie!! lol

Why Art, what discussion? I just saw some grumpy Americans not wanting a Canadian to talk about the faults of the Arizona health care system. But I'm glad to see a commitment to politeness and I'll do my best to follow your lead. Shall we begin again? Previously BillB blamed the need to cut organ transplants in Arizona on illegal aliens. Apparently BB thinks that 22 million illegal immigrants have free access to medicaid and this is driving up costs, otherwise there would be no deficits for law abiding tax payers. Here is some video on the situation down in Arizona. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7127766n I don't know about you but Tiffany Tate doesn't look like an illegal alien to me, nor does Randy Shepard. Do you think BillyB was talking through his hat about this one? Does he have any data on this? What percentage of those whose transplants have been denied are illegal aliens? Was even 1 of the 100 whose transplants have been canceled an illegal alien?

Why Art, you Americans can come on our board and tell us about gun control but we can't pipe in when we see something wrong down south? Isn't that hypocritical? I am happy for you Art, it's good to know that you and BillyB have gold plated health insurance...I guess that means that everything is great? Art, this time around the US is the canary in the coal mine. What is happening in Arizona is going to happen all across the US. You folks have maxed out your visa card. I'm not predicting utter and complete doom but rather that you will have to make the difficult choices that we had to make way back in the early 90's under Paul Martin. Our health care system took a beating back then and you folks have made hay about waiting times ect since then. Well Art, the times they are changing. We took an axe to our health care then and determined what was most important. You folks have never done this, and things look grim already. By any standard your health care system is overpriced and under performs. What you see right now in Arizona is what happens when a state can't pay the bills. Wait until the federal US government is in the same boat. It's not a question of if but when in the US. DEEP federal cuts are coming. It's going to be such a massive change that I predict you are going to see American Dr.'s coming to Canada to look for work. Will that happen also in Canada? Back in the 90's when Paul Martin cut deep we made sure that our social institutions were viable. The boomers and the Harper deficits will put some pressure on us but it will be nothing like the perfect storm of unfunded boomer obligations you have in the US and it still is getting worse in your country. Obama and the Republicans are cutting payroll taxes as we speak, and extending tax breaks for millionaires. So this matters to us Canadians because certain idiots from the US will try to tell us, look we have to cut and dismantle our health care system and you do too!!...and at that point as polite Canadian's we can say thanks but no thanks. As a polite Canadian I can also say thank you to Ohiofishermen for respecting ones right to start a discussion without being attacked. Let's hope your fellow countrymen can be as civil and supportive of friendly conversation as you.

Oh so in your world Art only certain political issues can be talked about like guns, and if someone else wants to talk about a different political issue that they feel strongly about like healthcare you say that they are "fishing for conflict". What are you afraid of Art? Are you going to hear something you don't want to hear. You could just plug your ears and go LALALALA or should we just smile and pretend that these issues that are in news right now just don't exist?