Big Cliff

Zone 17 opening weekend for walleye. It had been beautiful all week until the cold front moved in on Friday. My boat was ready, all my rods were respooled my tackle sorted and ready, then I woke up Saturday morning. White caps on the lake, wind howling, and cold. I took one look out my front window saw about 25 boats out there bouncing around like corks and decided that no walleye was worth going out in that, at least not when I can fish almost any time I want. Sunday turned out to be even worse, rain, snow at times, white caps on the lake, the only difference was there were only about 4 boats that I could see that were brave enough to head out and try their luck. Again, I wasn't one of them, I'll wait for a nicer day before I get out there. I talked to a few of the fellows that had braved the elements and the story was pretty much the same from all of them; fishing was really tough and not a lot of fish were caught. Guess it was a good call on my part. I love fishing but I want to be able to enjoy myself!

Excellent advice, I always keep a piece of trimmer line in my tool box to clean the pee hole out if it gets plugged up with weeds and such.

Save yourself a lot of headaches and go get it done by someone that is qualified and experienced. If you do it yourself and the brakes fail for any reason and there is an accident, you might have a problem with your insurance company! Could end up costing you a lot more in the long run.

Went out last week and got a nice bunch of wild leeks and a good size bag of fiddleheads. It was still about a week early though where we pick them. Black flies were really thick though.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/man-survives-vicious-bear-attack-in-northern-ontario-1.1278336 Something not adding up here. The bear attacks out of nowhere, dog and bear get into it - Man runs into his house and makes phone calls - next thing is the bear chases the guy 40 meters then drags him into the bush? So, the guy was safe in his house and goes back outside? This guy deserves the Darwin award!

Always enjoy seeing you and that lovely bride of yours beagle dad. Glad I was able to help you!

I have a 2006 Polaris Sportsman belt drive. Finally changed the belt for the first time this year, it was still working but I use mine for hauling logs out of the bush and all sorts of things, it is a real work horse! After 6 years of towing other ATVs, trailers full of stuff and treating it like a tractor I just figured it was preventive maintanance.

A couple of years ago our daughter ended up in a situation with some property she had purchased. John F very kindly came to the rescue and offered advice and support. Saddly, he was needed elsewhere and couldn't be here to see the results. While it has taken a couple of years to sort out with title insurance and the courts I am pleased to report that as a result of John's input and guidance they have now had very satisfactory resolution of the problem! They and I will never forget his kindness and expertiese in giving them the information to guide them through all of this. Forever in our hearts! Big Cliff and Family

So much for that stupid myth about the unlucky 13. Congrats and all the best for the rest of the year and many more to come!

Yes, but what meat I don't get off the bones goes into the pot bones and all to make fish stock. Try it some time if you like to make chowders and suchit makes an excellent stock for your base. Waste not want not!

Temperatures are about 1' below surface. Crappie like very shallow water this time of the year and you typically fish for them just under the surface. I'm not sure how much difference there is in the water temperature at 2, 3, or 4 feet down but I do know that when I can find that 58-62° range that is when they seem most active for the style of fishing I typically do. That doesn't mean I don't catch any outside of that temperature range, I have often caught them ice fishing and in the middle of the summer but when I have catches of a 100 fish in a couple of hours it's always when the water is in that range.

I filet them the same as I do perch, cut slab off of each side, scoop out ribs, cut meat away from skin. There is very little waste and they are awesom eating!

Well, after yesterday's results and the high water temperatures I decided to head out early this morning and try to find some crappie before the water got too hot. Tried a couple of different spots with limited success then happened to see an osprey dive about 100 yards from me and come up with a fish. Within 15 minutes I had watched a total of three osprey hit the same area. It was a little hard to tell if it was crappie for sure but they did have that silver look to them. I moved over to that spot, water was 59° and first cast and it was crappie on. I fished for about 2 hours and landed easily 100 of them, mostly small to medium but a few really nice slabs thrown in just to keep things exciting. I had to pack it in at 9:30 because I had promissed to help a friend with some stuff but all in all a stellar morning of fishing!

Well, I'd say you did better at catching than I did LOL. You got a keeper!

Yesterday I hit a favorite crappie hole, water temp 57-59° during the couple of hours I was there. it started off slow but overall the catching was pretty good, not a lot of huge ones but I did manage to bring home 20 decent size ones for a fish fry I promissed some friends. Today I decided to head back over just for a bit of fun. Water temp was up to 66° and the crappie were few and far between. I moved around quite a bit trying to see if I could find them but in two hours of fishing only managed 2 small ones. I decided to explore another old favorite spot but the water temp in there was only 54° and in 1/2 an hour fishing I didn't get a single bite. Oh well, time to change tactics and try early morning or evening. The real key seems to be that 58-62° water no matter what the time of day.

I say let him be and let nature take it's course, there is no need to kill anything unless you intend to eat it or it is a threat to you or your property. I have seen plenty of animals survive with only three legs, you'll be surprised at how well they can adapt.

Went out to one of my old favorites yesterday with Pikeslayer and his son-in-law, counted 32 boats in the little bay we like to fish. There wasn't a lot of catching going on and of the ones that were being caught most of them were small. A couple of hours fishing and we managed to bring home 10 that were big enough for the table but the biggest one we caught was only about 11". It was still a nice day to be out on the water and spend some time with an old friend.

As of last night it had dropped about 6-8" from it's highest level. Lots of floating debris so becareful if you are going out in a boat.

Well, first of all if you expect anyone to post on an open board where there is good fishing of any kind then go have another drink and forget about it! Even if they did tell you where to go, by the time you get there there will be so many people you won't be able to fish anyway! Saddly that is the reality since this site became so popular. Think about it, there has been 178 views of this post already, How many of those people do you think are looking for a good spot to go fish crappies, how many of them do you think will be telling their buddies "I just heard the crappie are biting good at". There are lots of places to fish crappie, If you were to PM a few of the guys in the know, you might get a little more help but that will be dependent on what you have done to help others.

I'll second that warning, I have already pulled enough wood from the lake just off my dock to keep my fire pit going for the summer. Some of the logs that I have seen are huge but floating just at the surface, you wouldn't be able to see them until it was far too late. One that my neighbor and I saw float by on Sunday had to be 30' long and at least 18" in dia.. Water levels on Sturgeon Lake seem to be holding steady but they are calling for another 15 mm of rain over the next two days. The dams and rivers are already over flowing so this could add to the mess.

I went out yesterday for a couple of hours, tried a couple of favorite spots and got a few but mostly small ones. The water temperature when I went out was about 47° but by mid afternoon it had warmed up to 53. I find the best crappie fishing is when water temperatures are between 58-62°. Was still nice to get out and get a nice feed of fresh fish though.

It did go up more yesterday, perhaps another 3-4". Got my board walk fixed with my son, my neighbour, and I working on it. All sorts of stuff floating around out there yesterday from huge logs to small islands.

Sturgeon Lake is easily 2' above normal right now. The point over at the marina is under water right now, I haven't seen that in the 12 years we've been living here.

I asked them if they would do that but they said no. As far as service from CTC, I have no complaints what so ever other than this issue, it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way that they offered a promotion that I couldn't get.

Snow here too this morning, 30 K winds high of 1° C. Will spring ever come?