Big Cliff

Now that is the way to do it! Those are some beautiful fish and well worth working for. Good job on the relaxing thing too, I'm just starting to learn that technique.

Since most of these shootouts seem to happen between groups of bad guys, I'd like to pay for those guys to take some shooting lessons so next time they can just kill each other and get it over with! Think about it,; fewer innocent bystanders hit and a couple of good gang wars and the crime rate would drop in no time.

Have you considered trying Lunge Haven Cottages on Sturgeon Lake. Super people, and the fishing has been fairly good although no pike.

OK, I'm on my way, I LOVE SUSHI! Nice report Teressa, glad to hear that that grandaughter of mine has such good taste!

Give me the time and place if you would like some moral support, I'd be happy to take time off work to come down and support you if it will help in anyway!

Simon and Sean (Pikeslayer & pikeslayer jr) had invited John and I to go out fishing with them on Lake O. Unfortunatly, john couldn't make it but what a day! I was awake at 1:00 am, couldn't get back to sleep, I was just too excited, you'd think by now I'd just take a fishing trip in stride but no, not me. Had my breakfast, checked the weather, checked my gear (two or three times) had my shower and was on the road by 3:30 am. I made really good time and was at the launch by 5:25, plenty of time to sit and enjoy my coffee before Simon and Sean showed up. They got there exactly as planned, about 5:30, these two have the routine down pat, and within minutes the boat was in the water and we were ready to head out: What a spectacular morning, light winds, the humidity was down, here is the view that greated us as we headed out into the lake. The guys were fantastic to watch as they rigged the lines and coordinated what they were going to use and what depths they were going to run. I have to be honest with you, it was really nice to be able to sit back and watch two pros do their thing. It wasn't long before we had a shaker on the line, a little guy about 2 lbs. nothing to get excited about but at least we weren't going to be skunked. Then it happened, all h broke loose Fish on! It should have been Sean's turn but he graciously told me that shakers didn't count to go for it. I thought about argueing with him for a second and then grabbed the rod. What a fight, we knew early on that this was a nice fish and it fought beautifully, a couple of spectacular jumps, it managed to get into the prop wash and use that to it's advantage but with Simon at the controls, and Sean on the net, that fish didn't stand a chance. (not sure of the exact weight because the scale kept jumping around, well maybe it was just because I was shaking so hard LOL) somewhere a little over 17 lbs. The rest of the day was no less exciting, another shaker hit but got off, and a couple of more hits, two more fish on but unfortunatly no more landed. About noon we headed back in, the sun was starting to get really hot. Back at the launch Simon and Sean did their thing again, bing bang, on the trailer and all secured in short order. It is really nice to watch a father and son team work together like that. Then it was off to clean the fish, relax, and have a bite of lunch. Again I was treated like I had just hired a high priced guide service; they took care of everything for me, (including an ice cold beer) they cleaned the fish, packaged the fish, packed the fish on ice, then off we went to their place for lunch. Right in Streetsville but what a beautiful spot. Simon BBqs some sausages and burgers, Marianne had some nice salads put out for us, Sean and Tyler (Simon and Marianne's daughter) sat in the shade, talked and relaxed until lunch was ready. Then it was time for me to head for home, the drive home was a lot slower but I still made it home in good time. I came in the door expecting to have to make Sue a nice fish dinner but she had already planned everything for me. Dinner, a beer, and I was done LOL. I crawled into bed and didn't hear a thing until about 7:30 this morning. Simon, Sean, Marianne, Tyler; thank you all for making this a most enjoyable day! John, so sorry you couldn't join us but we'll get together soon.

Oh christ, I always thought it was the "hind lick" boy am I ever glad I haven't had to use it on anyone

Don't be so sure of that, the people that are doing this read this and other boards every day looking for information on where to fish. That is why I don't ever post any specifics on locations or anything that would help them. If someone asks me for information, I'll email or PM it to them if I know who they are or if they have been a contributor in the past. You should see the garbage that washes up on my shore every week! I know of several spots that have now been posted in this area just because of the garbage left behind and it isn't by locals.

I'll second that one Lew, too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet, when you can walk out your door and fish anytime you want, you can aford to be choosy!

All the very best to you my friend!

I have used guides a few times! It has never been about how many or how big for me, I just enjoy the opportunity to get out fishing some new waters or species with someone that does their best to make it as good a day as they can. For me, it is all about the experience! As for how much? It is really hard to put a value on something like that. I think it all depends on what is supplied. When I was much younger I use to guide in the French River mostly for American tourists. I always tried my very best to put them on fish and teach them what to use and how to use it. I always tried to make sure they had a good experience without leaving them exhausted at the end of the day. If it was hot or cold I took things like that into consideration. Hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolat on the cold days, plenty of cold drinks on the hot ones. I tried to plan shore lunches that would satisify all in the party and always tried to insure that there were no special needs (diabetic, food alergies, whatever). I made sure that the boats were always spotless and in good condition, was always ready to go at least 15 minutes before we were to leave so they didn't end up standing around waiting and wondering what was going on and tried to insure I was prepaired for the unexpected, first aid kit, toilet paper, plenty of bait. I always made sure their catch was well taken care of (packed on ice) and cleaned and taken to their cottage shortly after we returned from the day out. I guess it worked because many of them would ask for me by name and actually book me when they booked their trips. I also made some awsome tips, sometimes my tips were more than the lodge charged them for the service for the day. Did we always catch our limits? No, but when we didn't no one else was either but for the most part we did as well as or better than most and I would always help anyone that asked. In fact, that is how I met Rick, he was fishing up there one spring, I was acting as a guide for 3 fellows, we kept coming in with nice stringers, no one else was catching much, I quite happily told him where we were fishing and what we were using and how. Never realized we'd both meet up here on OFC one day LOL. Good luck with your new venture, best advice I can give you is do your best to make sure that you give your customers, above average service. Think that if you were the customer, how would you like to be treated, and base your price on providing good value for the price you charge.

Wow, the whole porch and all of the shrubs are just gone, I've never seen anything like that before, to just rip all the shrubs out of the ground? Must have been a lot more than 100 mph.

Well, I have been promising to take Motv8tr fishing for a long time now but our scheduals just never seemed to mesh try as we might. We finally managed to set and keep a date; today! We got off to a bit of a late start (my idea), as Moe had to drive about 2 hours to get here so we didn't get on the water until about 8:30. Came in for a bit of lunch then fished again until 4:00. I was a little concerned that the high heat, humidity, clear sky and light winds would make it a bit tough to put fish in the boat, I shouldn't have worried though, that girl is a fishing machine extrodinar! She is persistant, insistant, and consistant! It took us a while to figure out what was working and where but when we did! We boated muskie, (thanks to a wonderful net job by Moe)countless (and when I say countless, I mean we totally lost count) SM, LM, perch, rock bass, sunfish, blue gill, about the only two things we didn't boat were a walleye and a crappie and I'm sure if we had gotten an earlier start or fished this evening we'd have landed some of them too! Once we got onto them, it was one fish after another and several double headers. Moe, thanks for the wonderful day, your company, conversation, and that spectacular netting job with the muskie. I haven't had a day on the water like that in a very long time. You are welcome in my boat anytime (oh and thanks for leaving the banana on shore). All fish were released, sorry no pictures were taken, and no, we won't tell you where or on what we caught the fish LOL. Oh, and Moe, thank you so much for the donuts, I'll have one for desert tonight, Sue already had hers, she said they were just too tempting LOL.

This doesn't make any sense, someone with some brains in a position of power??????

Thank you very much Art! Good info, I'll check the timers today.

Welcome to the board G-man, it is really nice to see you taking an intrest in fishing and you have a good teacher there but I'm sure you will be teaching him a few tricks in the very near future! Keep posting and remember, we love lots of pictures (especially when your fish are bigger than dad's)

Ok Art, I am also on a septic system, I have a green sand filter to remove iron and sulpher, a water softener, and a 5 stage RO system for drinking water (although we also have a UV system to insure that all our water is safe). Now I can only imagine how much water these systems are putting into my field bed, would I be better discharging the waste water into some kind of evaporator system at least for the summer? Oh, and our airconditioner also discharges to the septic system.

Sounds to me like it is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other when it comes to which phone to use. I just got a BB curve and started learning how to text and email from it. Works perfectly for what I need it for. As for "who should be paying for it?" Teach the kids that you get out of life what you work for. You will be doing them and you a big favour down the road!

I have the HDS 5 and love it! Last evening we were on a part of the lake that I am not familiar with and needed to find a particular island (very small and hard to detect because it was fairly close to shore). I was able to pull it up on my GPS, see depths, even a couple of submerged rocks long before the fish finder would have seen them and by then it would have been too late. I also use it to help me when I am looking for likely shoals that might be holding fish and even for just getting around Sturgeon Lake up through Scugog, Balsam Lake). To carry all thise charts around with me would be a hasssle. If I was buying another unit it would be an HDS 5, 7, or 10 Biggest my dash would accomodate. I use the GPS probably more than I do the fish finder, I know I trust it more.

I'm beginning to realize that more and more LOL. Fortunatly I have had some serious offers, I'm sure we'll get it done! Thanks for all the offers and the comedy!

Just kidding about selling her bud. There isn't enough money in this country to buy her! She is an absolute doll.

This is our Mandy

OH! I have enough trouble just understanding English! Sorry Terry!

Terry! I am surprised at you using language like that on this board, there are ladies and children that could see that!

A friend of mine has an excavator that he bought used, all the labels in it are in Japanese and he'd like to get a rough translation of what they mean. I have photos of them and will post or email them if anyone thinks they might be able to translate them into English. Sure would be appreciated! If you want, you can email me @ [email protected]