scuro2

The weather was wild this time around...not so good for fishing but great for photography. I never caught one large enough for the laker slot and I didn't even bother measuring any of them. I'd say biggest was about 20iches. The only fish picture I have is this fish on my 3rd outing to prove I had caught fish. Roughly on average a fish per 2-3 hours...pretty slow. The rest of pics are of sunsets or cloud formations. Enjoy [/url] My wife came up for the second week. We ran into a heat wave. Fires are still burning in the area. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Old Ironmaker, A photo just for you...the biggest Coney of the trip. They can get up to 60 pounds and a little under 4 ft long. Bigger ones then the one in this photo have been caught there. These are expensive trips...a trip of a life time for sure for some. I had retired and planned to do so with my wife at the same time. She changed her mind and has worked for an additional year. I think there was some guilt there and there was extra money, that combination is great for, okays from the wife! I think any early trip now I will take a great first layer. I actually have the gear...real hunting gear for the late fall...but it is bulky and heavy. I did not want to be in my rain gear all week but I had to do it. It wasn't super cold but you are whipping around in a boat and the wind off the ice comes in cold!! I lucked out in that it didn't rain. Had it rained I would have taken those days off...I couldn't have afforded that any of my layers would get soaked. By the way....this is the most comfy flyin I have ever done. Hotwater shower, flush toilet, and three hot meals per day. Cabins are basic but mattresses are relatively good.

Snidley, that's about as close as you can get to an "old man" rant hopefully without being 80.

Best comment by far! Nothing like straight up mockery to shoot down dumb ass comments.

So for the fishing to be predictable, and only in August they were probably on the move to spawn, or that was close to their final destination.

Holy crap...you would float plane it to the Arctic Ocean for Inconnu? A little research suggests that some Connies live in the ocean part time and then come up river to spawn in August. While other Connies in larger lakes no longer migrate to the ocean but rather go up small tribs to spawn.

Isn't the water around the bridge 2-3 ft deep at best? Bring your topwater

That now makes sense with the wounds and blood. So does Plummers see Inconnu on Bear and Great Slave? Do other fishing lodges promote Coney fishing. I saw a few resorts in the Yukon talk about this fish. I guess you need a river nearby and if you have guests coming that far north it is usually for some other monster species like LT, the Inconnu may be ignored. As a species the natives will harvest it because it smokes well. Is this an inland species or does it travel to the ocean each season? For me it saved the day because both the walleye and pike bite were slow at the beginning of the week. There is so little information about this fish.

No life jackets...cold water will kill you quickly.

How did they catch them? Spear fishing or are those bullet holes? Seriously there is a lot of blood in that pic for a species that usually can be hooked and unhooked easily, especially compared to pike.

Can you wait until the ice melts? Seriously,...knew next to nothing about this fish going there. It was my goal for sure going so early. I'm not even sure if places have a reputation for Coneys and if so what are the prime destinations in NA?

I landed in Yellowknife May 25, it was about 4 degrees Celsius and I had hours to wait for the float so I shared the picture of the flight over Great Slave lake with the guys who fished it with me last fall. Jokes were made about ice fishing and how Burbon needs ice to bring out those fine sour notes. The south end of this massive lake looked better with only a few ice flows. I was chilled to the bone the first "night" with those cool winds coming off the ice. We went out after supper and really I could only hack 3 hours of it. The next day I ended up wearing my long underwear, pants, pajamas, and rain gear to stay warm and that is what I did basically for most of the rest of the week even though temps were in the low teens. It was the wind that chilled. What I really needed was a proper outer layer. Had it rained also with that ever constant cold north easterly wind I would have been toast. Luckily we had only a few hours of rain that week and most of it was during one night. The target species was pike but the wind had kicked up sediment making most shallow water opaque. My guide didn't believe that NWT pike stay shallow beyond the spawn. So we fished patterns like wind swept walls and had some luck. My first Inconnu. Occasionally there would be a kill during hook up and when that happened the guide kept the fish. It is a lot rarer with Coneys because there mouth is a lot smaller. Here is Garet prepping the fish for smoking. Basically a Coney fights somewhat like a Tarpon in that it instantly reacts to the take and never gives. They are tough fighters that can really wiggle and are hard to hold for a pic. Boy can they get thick and hit the lure like a freight train. Since we were not fishing shallow we fished the river but how many times can you fish that river until you get bored? My guide took me out to the ice flows. I thought he was nuts...out there the ice forms into shard patterns...very cool. Up the river the trees were greening and temps could be 20 degrees warmer. You could pick up trophy pike....just not the PB size I was looking for. To tell you the truth the two other guys there trolled the lake and the end of the river channel for almost 7 full days. They had a FEW bigger fish but not as many. They were trolling Bull Dawgs and other relatively massive lures for early spring. I was happy to get off the main lake at least for part of each day. The water being so cold, you would think deep would not be where pike were hanging out but this one was caught with a tiny hot'n'tot with a good sized lip. Unlike the fall most pike were relatively undersized. I've never been enamored with Walleye so I was very happy to fish for Coney. ...and sometimes you would get a good one! My guide persisted with fishing the ice. I looked at him, the ice edge? Here I snagged lures on chunks of ice! I don't think he did it much because he wasn't sure of success either...which ice flow was better...was a km off shore too far...2 km?...which edge of the ice do you fish? I had caught one tiny pike the previous night so I said you show me how it is done. He got a Coney and then so did I. This one spot was active and we were having success with all species there. This is a pattern I would have never believed in a million years...pike, walleye, and inconnu all busting bait at ice edge about a km off of an island. Better yet they were so aggressive I used a surface swim bait and it worked well...so I had to take a pic in case anyone didn't believe me. Anything silver or white worked well. Underwater shot What ended up happening was the focus went to catching Coneys Finally on the last day the weather changed. We had a mild and warm south wind so we made a trek to another bay about an hour away because the wind was low and the ice finally gone along the shoreline. The bay known for pike was mostly empty...I wanted to check the upper shallow lake but NWT pike don't stay there. I used a big white and orange Len Thompson spoon and found the only trophy pike that morning. It's a great tool for exploring. Back at the bay channels were opening up because the muddy water from the bay wasn't being carried as far. And then we lucked into some fabulous fishing. Inconnu were surfacing chasing the tiniest of bait. It took us some time to figure out what else they wanted but once we had the lure the fishing was fabulous...all species were aggressive and you would have a fish every 3rd cast. We did this till supper. Before we left the owners son told us he got a 46 pike in the back bay. Do we switch...where there more? The problem is when you only have had brief windows of success all week you go with what works so we went back to the Coney hole..and it was slower but then I caught this beaut. Finally we moved off our hole and I asked the guide to check the bay out for only a few minutes. Being a good guide he stayed on the spot because there were fish and soon we realized there were probably 2 dozen trophies there. The water was as brown as I have ever seen trophy pike sit in...my guide's mind was blown. I said the trophies are in warm shallow water and he said, yeah today they are! There were probably some PB sized pike in there, I even hooked into a good one but lost him. I did get what is probably a PB walleye...somewhere around 25 inches for me...and the clouds rolled in and that was it. I did come back in the morning hoping hoping hoping...but a 46 pike or bigger will have be a goal for a future trip.

This is why you need a large spool bait runner. Try feeding them pieces of bread by throwing it to them...after a few days put a hook in one piece and test your new baitrunner out! Sadly the hook in bread trick only works a few times in one area

If your selling your home in the GTA you can pretty well downsize anywhere in Ontario. Retiring and moving to Chatham, ...is the Thames river that much of a draw! You forgot to mention it would be warmer but also you have much higher air pollution rates from Ohio's coal fired power plants and Detroit. Not good for anyone with Asthma. Also effluent off of farmer's fields pollutes many local streams and waterways.

These lures are about 5 inches. The rest of the collection looked to be for larger trout or pike. Apparently there is a whole Cisco product line and they are/were made in Canada. http://www.canadianwiggler.com/cisco How do you fish them?

Got these at an estate sale along with a pile of other spoons. From the look of the other spoons I would guess they are about 20 years old? I've never fished them, are they any good, and if they are when would you use them?

Brad Marchand....seemed the licking thing has garnered him some attention from social media

Chirping Winnipeg eh? I guess you finally have a reason to live in Winnipeg...the Jets!

It's worth it just to check out the back lakes...

If you have use for the money it is good. If it is for personal growth it is good. If it is to feed your ever growing fishing addiction well now we got something to talk about.

A great rant but that one was a low blow. Ouch!!

Labels do matter and I really don't like when we hype everything to the ninth degree...like home invasions for a burglary. I'm all for labeling Islamic terrorism or white terrorism but this was a mass murder by guy with a screw loose and an axe to grind. Also I don't buy the conspiracy hoax angle.

Ohhhhh Maaaaattttt...where are yoooooou?

I have been chatting with southern fishing guy...the Shout hook in his opinion is too heavy for even the largest fresh water fish and could impact lure action. He recommended a hook which led me to discovering this website which has everything about hooks on it. https://makewoodenlures.com/fishing-hook-guide/