Big Cliff

Some really interesting replies! I think it all boils down to "you have to do what feels right for you", if you want to live with it then it doesn't really matter what anyone else would do. I would be interested in hearing what you decide though.

That is fantastic Wayne, good to see that she got released to spawn again and help the fishery. Hope you win the mount!

How far North of Barrie do you want to go? Are you looking for somewhere you can do some ice fishing? There are plenty of resorts in the Muskoka area, if you pick an area you are interesteded in and just type in "resorts (and whatever area you want) in Goggle, you will get plenty of listings and information on them. Enjoy your weekend away!

I never fished there early spring mostly because I lived up river near the Flat Rapids and running down the shoot in high water was just plain dangerous even for those of us that knew the river well. I always got plenty of fish much closer to home choosing to fish areas like the train bridge below the Flat Rapids or fishing below the Flat Rapids in the morning and above the rapids in the evening. I did fish down there later on in the summer when the water levels dropped and use to do very well just using a night crawler on a hook with a barrel sinker to get me down to bottom in the current. Sure is a beautiful area though as is most of the French River.

Thanks Jeff, Beans and I are going to try heading out from this side of the lake instead of driving all the way around to Innisfill, It'll save us an hour drive each way. Looks like it will be a super day for it, light winds and not too cold. good luck out there!

I have the GPS 76 and all the charts for it and they are easy to up load but it does have limited storage. If either of you are going to be in my area, I'd be happy to show you how to do it and even load what I do have if you want it.

I use to buy smoked white fish up in Godrich and it was fantastic. Now if I could only catch a few, I'd like to try smoking it myself. Anyone got a good recipe for smoking white fish?

Now that would be FUN, I would love to get some time out on the ice with those two. We'll have to see if they would mind two old guys tagging along LOL. Whatever happens lets plan on heading over that way. See ya @ 5:30 Sunday, bring a lunch, I've got my 6" hand auger and will bring all the usual.

Now that the car is dug out, where do they think they are going to go?

Morning buddy! Sunday looks like it might not be too bad a day to hit the ice and from the looks of it there are areas where we could drive out to and have a chance to get some fishing in. (Might even be able to hook up with some of the gang and get some pointers on how to catch a few LOL). Anyway, let me know if you want to give it a try, Sue said I can have the buggy again but I would want to be out of here by about 5:30 am.

Fantastic report! I don't think I've caught a laker or a white fish in more than 20 years. mayby I'll see what my buddy Beans is doing on Sunday.

Got a promotion did you?

We are on a RR and our service is fantastic! mail gets delivered between 1 and 2 pm every day (unless there is a REALLY bad storm then it might be a bit later) but get delivered it does, I've seen that lady go through snow drifts right up to the grill on her Jeep to get through. I couldn't be happier with our service!

Propane all the way. I had an oil furnace and an air tight wood fire place. My neighbour had an oil furnace and a fitting cracked and leaked oil onto the ground. Cost so far to clean it up $1.2 million and he isn't done yet. I have since switched to propane, no chimny to maintain, clean efficent, but you should have a gas fitter to hook it up for you. I also have a propane stove in our kitchen, propane hot water tank, and my BBQ is hooked up to the big tanks too. I pay $49.00 a year to rent my tanks (2 X 440s) and the company I deal with does a free annual service on all my equipment. Cost of the propane as opposed to oil works out to be about the same if you are using a high efficiency furnace.

Really nice read, thanks for posting! Good luck with your girl's surgery today and hope she has a speedy recovery! Keep us posted.

Beautiful package, would love to get love to get something similar but it'll have to wait until I win a lottery or something. BTW if you do hit a reef in 27' of water don't worry about it, worry about what caused you to get down to the reef in the first place LOL.

I hate it when you laugh so hard the coffee comes out your nose LOL. Now that was funny!

This is the OFC family, just like any family we have our moments but we are always there for each other when needed! It's a good place to be.

If you are going to keep them to eat, kill em quick and pack them on ice right away, clean as soon as possible. If you aren't keeping them to eat, let them go right away. I often go fishing in the evening and the bite only lasts about an hour, if the water temp is cold enough I will occasionally use my live well but make sure it is filled with fresh clean water. Even when fishing on my dock, I have a 17.5 gal tank that I have hooked up with a bilge pump to pump fresh water from the lake and I will sometimes put my fish in there for short periods of time but if I am going fishing for a couple of hours I always put a bag or two of ice in the live well. I would never use a fish chain or stringer!

Got to try my Aqua-View out for ice fishing for the first time since I got it, unfortunatly the water was so tea stained even with the lights turned on full I could only see about 3' so it wasn't much help. I had put it in the back of the truck so I could plug it into the 12V outlet instead of using the internal battery and to make the screen easier to see. We were fishing in 31' of water and bottom temp was 35°F. (anyone tried rigging it so the camera points straight down instead of horizontally)? While the catching wasn't the greatest the fishing with my buddy Beans was, as always, very enjoyable. Ice conditions were excellent with a solid 14-16" of ice no slush, and only about 3-4" of snow on it which made driving out quite easy. (we don't like to walk too far anymore LOL) I talked to several other groups that were fishing in the same area as we were, no one else was doing any better than we were, one very nice man I got to talk with fishes there on a regular basis and he spent a good bit of time showing me how his flasher worked and explaining why he prefers it over using a graph type of unit. Expensive unit but it was quite impressive. Even then, he only had three fish on the ice so he wasn't doing any better than we were. He was saying that the crappie had started to disperse and were moving out into other areas of the lake but that he has had days where he caught over 150 in only a few hours (didn't say if he kept them all). He doesn't use live bait, just a small white tube jig and no sinker on his line (other than the jig) he claims it spooks the fish. Strangly my best producer for crappie through the ice has always been a small hook with a pin head minnow and a single piece of split shot about a foot up the line. Anyway as Beans mentioned, even though the sun came out and you could feel the warmth right through your clothing, once the wind came up we started to feel the cold and rather than stay and be uncomfortable we decided to call it a day and headed off the ice about 12:30. Going to try for the evening bite one day this week if the weather cooperates but it isn't looking good at this point, figures, season closes the 29th, and next week looks promising as far as the weather is conserned. Oh well, soft water will be here soon!

Rich, I am so very sorry to hear that, I know how hard it can be but you did what had to be done and she trusted you to do what was best for her. It doesn't make the loss any easier but keep her in your heart forever. It's a warm, safe place for her to be.

I'm picking up the sausssages this morning and Beans and I will be out of here about 5:00 am tomorrow, should be there by 7ish to help with whatever. Beans, do not try to come down the driveway, it is all ice, I have put sand down but there are still slippery spots. I will be at the garage with the truck warmed up at 5:00 am so if you are here a few minutes early just park in front of the garage and wait. I don't want you falling or anything.

Thanks again! Jen, we would be better prepaired but this came up rather suddenly, my son's father-in-law, who is Canadian was visiting his son down in the States and became ill, (he is in his late 70's and starting to show signs of dementia which has accellerated rapidly since this recent illness) we need to get him back to Canada where we can care for him properly. We looked into getting him transported by ambulance but that was going to cost in excess of $5000.00 which none of us has, we looked into trying to fly him home but because he needs to be on oxygen and he sometimes gets confused and agitated we were told that that wouldn't be a good option. We wern't left with many choices so his son will drive him to the border (20 hrs one way) and my son and I will bring him from there to Sudbury where he can get the help he needs then my son will drive me back home to pick up his car and return to Sudbury. Looks like we are all in for a long road trip but that's what family does!

I had a Nissan Frontier 4 door for years and loved it. Excellent pulling power on the low end good gas milage (for a truck) and it was very reliable. Only reason I traded to an SUV was because I didn't need a truck anymore. If I was going to buy a truck again I would be looking at that first.

Don't know the lake and I'm not sure if it is zone 17 or 18 but Sturgeon Lake had lots of slush on it as of yesterday, these cold nights might have firmed things up a bit but most likely it will have just made a crust on top of the slush. Sorry I can't be more specific but if you are going make sure you have water proof boots. Nothing ruins a good day fishing faster than wet feet this time of the year.