setomonkey

Nice sounds like a great trip, and I think I might know where you were fishing east of that bridge... Mike

Nice pics. Bass Lake is a fun little lake if you don't have time to travel far from the GTA or if you've got a kayak or canoe. Mike

Happy belated birthday and good luck with the move, Clive. I visited Hailfax for the first time last year, looks like a great place to live. Mike

Thanks for the quick reply Matt, do you prefer one over the other? Mike

Nice report, I've been around that area, your pictures are great but no picture could do full justice to the scenery. Mike

I've got two baitcasting setups right now, one that I tend to use for trolling or casting heavy lures (Abu C3 on a medium-heavy rod) and an older Shimano reel on a medium Compre rod. I'd like to get another low-profile baitcaster this year, which I would use mostly for casting spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and spoons. I've narrowed my comparison list down to: Shimano Citica Quantum Accurist Abu Revo BPS Johnny Morris Signature series Does anybody have experiences with these reels? Positive or negative comments? Any recommendations not on this list? Thanks guys, Mike

LOL! I guess that's why I don't eat bass. Though I've tasted smallmouth a few times and thought it was pretty good. My #1 would be perch and then walleye, never tried crappie before. Mike

Some tough breaks but sounds like you made the best of the situation, and got some awesome fish while doing it. Mike

boaterexam online is probably one of the easiest ways to get the card, but I took the course at Bass Pro Shops and actually felt like I learned something (e.g., how to read buoys). Mike

Fantastic report and pics, felt like I was on the trip with you... Mike

Nice report, congrats on the big fish! Mike

Good meeting you too bronzeback, I've been looking forward to seeing your report. Glad you had a good time with your wife at Lost Lake. I agree, the hosts were excellent and the lodge was top-notch. Glad also to see you got into some nice fish too. Mike

The water is usually public, but you might have to cross private property to get into it. Hard to know sometimes with some of those ponds and smaller lakes. Mike

gforce, if you are willing to travel a little you might have some luck at the quays downtown, Leslie Spit, or Toronto Islands. Mike

Congrats on the new boat The only thing I know is that you do NOT want to use pressure treated wood as it reacts with the aluminum. I think guys here have recommended using marine plywood to build a deck. Mike

Glad you had a good time too, when where you at the lodge? My buddy and I were there June 23 to 30, also on Lew's recommendation, and another OFC member (bronzeback) was there too. Check out my report, somewhere further down the page. Would like to see some of your pics. I think you can get digital copies of your film pics on a CD at the processing place. Mike

Congrats! That's a beautiful fish and a great story (8 lb test!). Mike

Congrats on the fun day of fishing, and the surprise catch. Mike

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed the report. Glen: I like fishing for bass, anywhere, anytime! I like fishing for other species too, but Lew had mentioned that the smallmouth fishing was excellent when he was there before, and it did seem that the lakes were best for smallies (but I don't know about the walleye i.e., pickerel fishing). Lew: It was a great recommendation, you can't promise anything of course but it helped me narrow down my choice because there are quite a few lodges in the area. I'm thinking of going back, and will have to make sure to spend some of that time using topwaters... Mike

Welcome, it's a great board, hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Mike

Well, I mentioned in another thread that my buddy and I stayed a week at Lost Lake Wilderness Lodge, between Elk Lake and Gowganda, on the recommendation of Lew, who had stayed there a few years ago. Thanks Lew! We were really happy with the lodge. Very clean, comfortable cabin, service with a smile, and the owner’s son, Brian, was always helpful and friendly. Can’t say anything about the meals because we did the housekeeping plan, but some of the other guests were going for meals and they seemed happy. Met bronzeback, an OFC member on the second or third day, maybe he can say something about the meals if he gets a chance to post a report. The lodge is on a smaller lake (Lost Lake), but what attracted us to this lodge is that you can fish a number of other lakes by portaging or by a short drive. The biggest lake is called Hodge, and to get to it you have to drive across Lost Lake, do a short portage using wagons left by the lodge, drive across the next lake (Dinny), go along a river channel for about 20 minutes, do a longer and hillier portage by wheelbarrow, and then drive along another channel for 20 to 30 minutes! We only fished Hodge one day and I figure it must have taken us over an hour and a half to actually get a lure in the water (though we did bring way too much stuff). Hodge is a catch & release lake so we figured we had our best chance at big fish here. I got my biggest bass of the week (20") on this lake, but we caught some nice 16 to 18 inch smallmouth all week in different lakes. We mostly fished for bass, but my buddy got a pike in the low 30 inches and I caught some decent pike too. Only a few walleye, but we didn't spend any time fishing for them. We didn’t have any big numbers, except for one day where the action was steady all day, but we got some decent sized smallies and pike. I mostly fished with spinnerbaits and crankbaits, though some of my fish came on plastics. The most exciting fishing was when we saw bass feeding (only happened a couple of times during the week), you'd see a boil and you'd catch a fish for sure if you cast near it. My only regret is that I wasn't willing to take the time to switch to a topwater during these times, that would have been amazing. Here are some pictures of fish: first fish of the trip, on Lost Lake decent smallie - no I was not drunk in this picture typical bass big bass of the week for me 25" pike And here are some pictures of scenery: view from our cabin deck one of the channels to Hodge rapids into Dinny The weather was all over the map, it rained all day on our second day, then it was hot and muggy in the middle of the week, with the occasional thundershower, and then a cold front moved in on Thursday and the temperature must have dropped 10C overnight. I had two first-time experiences on this lake. The first was that I hooked what felt like a small bass on a jig and was reeling in when it suddenly felt heavier. At first I thought a good-sized bass had hit lightly and was swimming toward the boat, but then I saw that a pike had grabbed the bass while I was reeling in, and didn’t let go until it was boatside. The second experience I had was seeing a moose live for the first time, on one of the drive-to lakes (Everitt). She was swimming across the lake when we came upon her and then swam back to the shore where she started. The pictures aren’t great because the zoom on my digital camera isn’t very good. We also saw osprey, eagles, blue heron and other wildlife during the week. Moose swimming Moose coming on shore It was a great week, I'm glad we went. Probably my favourite thing about this lodge is that you had to book which lake you wanted to fish, so you could sometimes be the only boat on the lake that day. Not counting Lost Lake, we only one other boat on a lake with us during the week (Dinny). The other days we didn't see any other boats, which made for quiet and peaceful fishing. Hope you enjoyed this report, Mike

July 4, 2007 By ABBY GOODNOUGH BRANFORD, Fla. — “Lots of artillery out there,” an old man hollered from the safety of the Suwannee River’s edge, and he was right. The sturgeon were jumping high and fast, twisting their armored girth in midair and returning to the depths with a stunning splash. On the water, there was reason to be anxious. Florida’s season of “sturgeon strikes” — law enforcement’s term for collisions between the state’s largest freshwater fish and hapless boaters — was already well under way. It may seem bizarre, but it is no joke. Leaping sturgeon have injured three people on the Suwannee this year, including a woman on a Jet Ski and a girl whose leg was shattered when one of the giant fish jumped aboard her boat. Eight others were hit last year, and with traffic growing on the storied river, sturgeon are joining alligators and hurricanes on the list of things to dread in Florida. “These injuries are very impressive,” said Dr. Lawrence Lottenberg, director of trauma surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine in nearby Gainesville. “You’ve got people sitting on the front of an open boat, and the boat is going 20, 30, 40 miles per hour. The fish jumps up and usually slaps these people right across their face and upper chest. Almost every one of them universally has been knocked unconscious. If you’re not wearing a life jacket, you’re going to fall in the water and potentially drown.” Fortunately, most sturgeon in Florida stick to the Suwannee, which winds 265 miles from southern Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico. Known as gulf sturgeon, they migrate between the river, where they spawn in spring and relax in summer, and the gulf, where they return in the fall to feed. They have no teeth or temper, only a pressing, mysterious urge to jump all summer long. “You’ll be sitting out there,” said Melanie Carter, who boats on the river with her husband, “and then all the sudden, 5, 10 feet away from you, a big one will jump up and scare you half to death.” Sturgeon have been around since the dinosaur age, and they look it. They have long, flat snouts and hefty bodies covered in sharp, bony plates. Gulf sturgeon can grow up to eight feet long and weigh 200 pounds, but even the smaller ones can inflict serious harm. In recent years, injuries have included a broken pelvis, a fractured arm and a slashed throat. Brian Clemens was motoring down the Choctawhatchee River in the Panhandle in 2002 when a sturgeon “jumped up and hit him dead center in the chest,” said his wife, Joy. It broke his ribs and sternum, caused one of his lungs to collapse and put him in intensive care for three days, she said, adding, “There’s a permanent dent in his chest where that fish hit him.” Wildlife officials have posted signs warning boaters to slow down. Leah Daniel, a friend of Ms. Carter, said there was only one other precaution to take: “Pray.” Fear is not rampant on the gentle river, lined with ancient cypress trees and moss-draped live oaks, but curiosity is. No one knows for sure why sturgeon jump. “We say, ‘Pretty much because they can,’ ” said Karen Parker, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. She said the jumping seemed more frequent this year and last, maybe because sturgeon favor deeper water and are feeling cramped with the river unusually low. Ken Sulak, a biologist with the United States Geological Survey, has ruled out several theories. Since sturgeon do not jump in spawning season, Dr. Sulak said, the jumping must not be for reproductive reasons. And since they have no freshwater predators but occasional alligators, it is probably not an escape response. Might they jump for joy? Doubtful, Dr. Sulak said. His guess is that sturgeon jump to let other sturgeon know they have found a good spot to hang out. They seem to gather mainly within six short, narrow stretches of the Suwannee where there are deep holes, so they do not have to waste energy fighting the current. They fast and relax all summer, basically “just going to the spa for several months,” Dr. Sulak said. They can use the rest. The federal government has listed gulf sturgeon as threatened since 1991, and for nearly a quarter-century Florida has outlawed catching them. Ms. Parker said there were now 3,000 to 5,000 of them in the Suwannee; Dr. Sulak puts the number closer to 7,000. But with more people using the Suwannee, more farm waste flowing into it and urban regions eyeing it as a source of water, the sturgeon’s future is uncertain, said Bill Pine, a fisheries professor at the University of Florida. Dr. Pine would like to see speed limits on sections of river where sturgeon congregate. The state has imposed such limits along miles of “manatee protection zones,” but with fierce objections from boaters who say the restriction spoils their fun. Some irate boaters have called the wildlife commission and railed against sturgeon, Ms. Parker said, even asking the state to “kill all of them so people can enjoy the river.” Others think the fish are purposely attacking boaters who invade their turf, but Dr. Sulak said sturgeon were as docile as lambs. He sometimes acts as their public relations agent, encouraging curious boaters to watch as he nets sturgeon for population counts. They lie quietly on a scale in his boat, their rough, cold bodies looking bronze one second, greenish gold the next. Some onlookers melt. “Once they see they’re not monstrous, they don’t have big teeth, they’re not mean — they’re kind of lovable, in a way,” he said, “that kind of defuses things.” Jim Tomey, sitting by the riverbank, said watching for sturgeon was his summer ritual. As he spoke, one burst out of the water and returned with a mighty smack. “I love to come down here,” Mr. Tomey said, “and sit and watch them fish jump.”

I don't think it makes much difference considering we've caught fish close to the boat with the outboard running. But I prefer the peace and quiet, so don't have tunes out on the boat. Mike

douG, That spoon/fly combination is great. I don't fish for trout that often, but have used a similar set-up for both 'bows and brookies (but with a smaller rather than larger spoon) with success. Mike

Congratulations! That's awesome news, enjoy this new experience... Mike