Big Cliff

Took my friend and I about 6 days to get back to feeling good again. Glad it's done and over with.

I and a friend got our second shot last Wednesday, we got the pfyizer first shot, Maderna second. Both ended up with sore arms, upset stomach, and very tired. Finally started to ease up as of this morning.

I guess thats where the differance is, the lakes I usually fish are small backwoods lakes and tend to be quite shallow.

I have a 2004 Winniibago 30' class A and love it. I did tons of research (4 years worth) prior to deciding on the class A but I am really glad I went that route. There is so much information to share I couldn't possibly put it all on here. Be careful of very low milage units, they have been sitting a long time things tend to be dried out and seized up. Watch for evidence of water damage, make sure propane appliances especially things like the fridge, and air conditioning are in good working condition, they can be very expensive repairs. I would be happy to try to help if you have any specific questions or if you want to phone me, pm me and I'll send you my phone number.

I fish pike a lot. I prefer shallow, weeds, and make lots of noise. Often I back the boat into a weed patch (lilly pads) then blast out about 50', stop and cast back into the prop wash, pisses them off and they will hit almost anything. If you are trolling, keep close to the weed edges, keep your luer in the prop wash and just far enough back that you can still see it usually about a foot below the surface. My favorite lures: 5 of dimonds, red devils, half and half silver/bronze williams wobblers. Good luck😊

The ESSO at Magnetawan is not too bad for price plus they have a Tim's and washrooms.

Fishing has been really different this year even in the back lakes, bass are here but much deeper than normal for this time of the year, we would normally be pounding them with top water presentations, we've had to go deep to get any action. I am at 1236 Hartley Bay Rd. honk as you go by tomorrow (I'll probably be gone fishing 🙂 ) and safe trip home.

Just a bit of an update: The ESSO at Key River is now an Econo gas station and his price is about $0.10/L more than anywhere else. The bridge on Hartley Bay Rd. Is being widened, ditches are being cleaned out, and they are blasting rock in several areas. Expect delays!

We use to do things like that, pack all our gear in, fish, pack everything back out.... I am 75 now and there is no way i would be able to do it anymore which meant my son was carrying the bulk of the load. I can guarantee that you couldn't access some of the lakes we fish in the summer without an Argo or a lot of long portages 😊

Yes the one at Key river is still open but his price is higher than anywhere else. 69/400 isn't bad at all, Hartley Bay Rd. is a mess though. I wouldn't do the Hwy. 11 thing, it's a lot more km and going through North Bay would slow you down.

I don't remember an ESSO station near the Pickerel River, there is the one at the Magnetawan with the Tim's, that one is open. I haven't fished that area for over 40 years but IF I remember correctly there is a shoal out in the middle of Hartley Bay that you can't see until you hit it, once past that if you stay in the middle of the river you are pretty safe. Just ask around or go slow you'll be fine.

Samsung, LG, they all seem to be building disposable ones these days. When my LG quit at 4.5 years I did some digging and found that there were a lot of other people that had theirs pack it in about the same age. LG even told me theirs were only prorated for 5 years.

Stopped in at FRTP yesterday, had a nice chat and contributed to the local economy. At this point they think they will be able to stay open after the new highway is open, I think they would be better off if it was a full service stop with fuel, there is nothing else from Magnetawan to Sudbury. The turn off to Hartley Bay Rd. just gets more confusing by the day and there are a lot of heavy trucks running the road, be really careful especially going into some of those blind curves, those guys take up a lot of road and tend to move pretty fast.

Well I do have to say that it sure makes the drive up from Lindsay a lot faster, just over 3 hours door to door and I set my cruse an about 10 over. Right now the whole Hartley Bay road thing is a total mess, there is an Alstone quarry, right after you get off the highway, detours, and they are doing a lot of work on Hartley Bay Rd. itself. The trading post might do ok if they upgrade it to a service center but I can't see a lot of people getting off the 4 lane and stopping to buy souvenirs.

If you are coming in Hartley Bay Rd. you want to be very careful, there is a lot of work being done on the road, they are putting in new culverts and cleaning out ditches...... just slow down please!

Just a heads up, things have really changed in the last few days as they are working on the new highway, the turn off to get onto Hartley Bay Rd, won't show properly on a GPS. I am not sure if the French River Trading Post is open anymore, the new 4 lane Highway is going to drastically reduce their business but there were a bunch of cars there today.

That is so very true Lew, many friendships some lasting right back to the beginning and so many memories. That was part of our discussion when I was telling William about the site and how no matter what there is always someone that will do their best to help anyone out that needs help. It's more like a family than just another website.

Was talking to a friend yesterday about our community and that I have been a member for over 20 years. The question came up about how many members we do have. I tried to find out but can't seem to find it? help, anybody?

Well it's not something I have to worry about, I have one of the best agents in the business and when she tells me I am fully insured I trust her and I can assure you no one is going to be driving my Argo that doesn't have a license on private or public property (unless it is stolen in which case I am insured).

LOL, we had a few of those "field bombs" too, one was an old Datsun we stripped of everything it didn't need to run, even the gas tank got moved up into what was the trunk, that was our first ATV. Yup, an ATV with a 4 on the floor, many many hours of fun! If you want to run an Argo on crown land it must be plated and insured (Just like any ATV), I have full coverage on mine but I believe you only have to have liability. I did have a chat with the local CO last week about also having to register it as a pleasure craft and he told me that as long as it was plated he was happy and he didn't see the need for both, the registration numbers or a plate were just a means of identifying it. As for the drivers license I do believe he would have to have one to drive it on crown land but not on privet property, and yes he could insure it without having a drivers license, might be a bit of an issue if he got into an accident outside of privet property though.

It's different from driving a quad for sure, after spending a few weekends playing around on it I would never buy a quad again. These are much more maneuverable, it will literally turn 90° which is a whole lot easier than trying to turn a quad around on a trail. Not having to worry about how deep the water is when you come to a wet area, there is a ton of storage so you don't have to tie everything down; my cooler, tackle bag, and all the other junk that makes a backwoods fishing trip more comfortable fit right in. There are some skills to learn in driving one and it does take some practice, it has taken me a bit to get use to how well this thing climbs and descends hills and how steep a grade it can handle. Climbing over obstacles, things I would never have even attempted with a quad, entering and leaving water..... there definitely is a whole new skill set to learn but it sure is fun. My son and I spent the last two weekends clearing a trail in to a lake that has hardly seen anyone fish it. The only access is through a combination of a couple of miles of water and bush, too much water for a quad, too much bush to easily carry a canoe. We'll be fishing it this weekend 😉.

We thought about tracks Doug but I don't expect to be using mine much in the winter, we can add them later if we do decide we want them.

I did add the pictures, they were on my cell phone and i had to transfer them. It moves really well in the water under it's own power at about 1/4 throttle we were at a fast troll. We are going to add an electric trolling motor mostly because it's quiet and we won't be using gas.

I will try to get more pictures this week, we didn't get tracks, believe me if you can't get there with the wheels you probably shouldn't be there. We decided to go with the 650 instead of the 700 for a couple of reasons, the main one being the 700 is efi and the module is below and behind the engine, the only way to service it is to remove the engine. The 650 is carburated and a breeze to service. I am truly amazed at how well these things are made and what they can do and the adventure has just begun. It's a blessing for both me and my son, no more having to strap outboards and all our gear to our ATV then un load, reload, hope the cached boat is where we left it or isn't being used by someone else. We can fish together or indipent, the seats are padded and quite comfortable, lots of leg room and you can move around very easily. As far as 8 wheel or 6 wheel, the 6 wheel is perfect for our needs, if I was a young man with a family I might go with the 8 but since most of my usage is going to be 1 and occasionally 2 I think this was the right choice. 😊

You won't believe the places this thing will go..... we just picked them up on Saturday. Well you know the first thing we had to do was drive them down the road, through a ditch and into the river. Swamp grass, water, mud, beaver dams, you name it, we tried it and all they did was keep amazing us. We ended up hitting a little lake we knew for some pike, OMG amazing, we caught so many fish we lost count, ( you couldn't get there any other way) we went places you couldn't get with a boat or an ATV, we went places where you couldn't walk. We went places you couldn't get to even with a float plane, ( well you might make it in but getting out would have been a challange 😊 Now I will admit you can get them stuck. Yup I did LOL, I tried to cross a small creek just wider than my wheel base, it was deep with very steep sides, ya, my son did have to winch me out. Well if you don't get one stuck you don't know what it takes right ? 😊 IMG_1325.MOV