Big Cliff

Again with the great ideas, I wouldn't have thought about how useful a nylon fishing net could be but it could have many uses, Thanks! Good point Doug, Thanks! I'll be sure to ask about the supply of potable water! That just might be a super idea as a backup if needed. I did a canoe trip into Tim Lake many years ago and we had one of those (style) kits, did a super job for us. thanks for the reminder. Again a good point, I think I might just pack an extra week worth of meds (not that I take a lot) but just in case. I wouldn't do well without them if anything did happen and we were delayed. Also, a friend has also suggested packing meds in two separate packages just in case one got damaged or something. You are one heck of a good friend and I would love to do a fly-in with you anytime but it ain't going to happen this year LOL. I do plan on doing one every year from this year on as long as god lets me though so there is always a chance! Well already the menu is changing, we are allowed 150 lbs of food and gear each so: instant mashed potatoes are gone in favor of real potatoes, butter is a must (hadn't thought about that as one of the things we needed to take) Onions, carrots seems we can cover everything without having to skimp at all. OMG I am so excited!

I think they are fairly well fitted out Ernie, they do list them as Deluxe and it sure sounds like it! Check it out; www.walleye.ca Vick Lake. AND it's private!!!!! Features & Amenities Solar powered fluorescent lights Two way radio communication Hand crafted pine furnishings Hot/cold running water Shower New Lund boats (2 people per boat) Padded swivel boat seats with backrests New Mercury motors (plus a spare) Unlimited gas Unlimited ice Large popane freezer Full sized gas range Propane refrigerator with freezer Gas barbeque Screened in fish cleaning house Wood stoves for heat Plenty of firewood All cooking & eating utensils Large deck for sitting outdoors Propane fish fryer Inverter for charging locator & camera batteries

I phoned Don today (Mike I put in a good word for you) June 24th to 29th. at Vick Lake. We'll drive up on the 23 and spend a night in one of their guest cabins and be ready to head out to our private lake on the 24. You have to check this out http://www.walleye.ca . Only thing I was ever so excited about was the birth of my kids (ok well maybe the thing that caused the birth of my kids LOL) Now we are busy planning the menu and things. CPH your idea of the insulated coffee mugs was awesome, thank you! That is one I wouldn't have thought of. So here are some of the things we are thinking of: 2.5 lbs of bacon (14 to 16 slices /lb) should cover breakfast for the two of us, I'll take 2 dozen eggs pre scrambled and in a 2L pop bottle. Steaks one night for supper, hamburger one night for supper fish 3 nights for supper (Tempura batter for frying the fish) Some KD, rice, and instant mashed potatoes. Powdered milk, lemon juice, onions, salt and pepper....... sugar coffee, all the bits and pieces.

There is always room for one more at the OFC table! Welcome!

LOL, isn't it funny how we get something stuck in our head and just can't take the chance on changing it! I remember fishing with two very old and deer friends on Quinty one time, We were drift fishing for walleye and my favorite worm harness broke off. I grabbed some bits and pieces out of my tackle box and made what my buddies refereed to as "Cliff's Christmas Tree". Long Story short, I landed 11 walleye and they landed 2 between them. When you know it works it usually does!

Yes, I'd agree with that observation 2:1 ratio and most of them are middle aged women who you would think would know better! You are so so right! The problem is we don't teach our kids to accept responsibility (we give them trophies just for participating) . How can we ever expect them to understand there are consequences to their actions when we teach them they can not fail? I only wish there was mandatory classes not only for high school kids but for any new drivers. (although they aren't always the culprits) In Lindsay we have a steady line up of people taking their road test (why in Lindsay you ask? Well they can't drive in Toronto so they come here to do their test which we offer in something like 26 different languages. (Anyone around here ever seen a road sign in other than English or French, if you can't do the test in either of those two how can you drive here?)

Sadly it isn't usually the DUI that suffers the worse fate, it's usually some poor innocent person. I agree that DD is just as bad but I see so many people with their cell phones in their hands or sitting on their lap (sitting up in a truck you get a great view into the car beside you) If I was a cop I bet I could easily nail 25 or 30 people a day without any problem. Good job on sharing that pikeslayer!

Knowing and understanding what you are seeing on the screen

Mike, you know the value of quality from your own experiences, once you have decided to go look at the difference in price between a "basic package" and a "deluxe package". for a few $ more you move up the ladder really quickly.

Nothing but nothing beats a nice light tempura batter for fish. If you have taken care of your catch then a nice light but crispy tempura batter still leaves you with that beautiful fish and nothing to take away from it. I don't like my fish buried in breading and salt and garlic. Clean fresh, perhaps a bit of lemon and a very lght golden batter to package it all, OH YA!

BINGO, we have a winner! This is the kind of thing I'm talking about "Understanding what you are seeing". so, Why do fish show up as an arch when you are trolling? The transducer picks up the fish at a distance = lower signal further away. You get closer = stronger signal and less far away, and as you move away from the fish the signal lessens and becomes farther away. (weak WEAK weak). Good job dave524! Again, right on the mark! Know your transducer and take care of it. There are lots of other good ideas already, but I just got in from a long day and haven't had supper yet. Keep em coming guys!

Wow, some excellent suggestions already, thank you all so much and PLEASE keep em coming!

Well, it's been a long time coming but I figure I'd better do it while I can still enjoy it LOL. Thanks to Mike, the list got narrowed down pretty quickly to five outfitters, a couple of emails and reading up on them narrowed it down to two and the detailed replies and prompt responses narrowed that down to one; Don & Annette Elliot Mattice Lake Outfitters I didn't realize how much work was going to be involved in planning "the perfect trip", It turns out that there are plenty of options, American Plan, Lodge, remote cabin.... ok that one was easy, we like to be alone together and both of us can cook, remote lodge it is. Neither of us is a "hang it on the wall" kind of guy so a trophy fish isn't really high on our list of priorities but numbers would be fun, we've both had 15 or so walleye days but some of the reports we are reading are 100-200 walleye days, now that sounds like a real blast!!!!! We both agree that numbers would be our priority. There is one small catch though, we are going for 5 days, would we want to perhaps mix it up a bit and get some trout fishing in? Well to do that we'd have to fish a clear cold lake but the walleye can be tough to catch in a clear lake on a sunny day; we could portage but I'm 71 so depending on how difficult the portage is...... Well, we've at least narrowed it down to two lakes and I think we have pretty much decided on Vick Lake, tea stained but loaded with walleye. The other benefit to Vick Lake is that it is a C&C (catch and consume) lake, some are only C&R. If we are going walleye fishing we do want to be able to have a nice feed of walleye, we really don't care about bringing some home with us but we do want a feed (or 5). Then comes choosing a date to go, June = lots of bugs, Aug. Sue and I have a commitment on Aug. 12 that we just can't miss and at some point Sue and I want to head down East for 5 or 6 weeks. Ok, so we still have to choose a date, we're thinking last week of June or first week of July.. I'm just waiting for my son to figure out what works for him. The list of stuff to bring suggested on their website is really good but now we still have to plan meals for the two of us for the 5 days (no 10 lbs of bacon just doesn't cut it; that was my first choice though LOL) So if any of you have done a 5 day fly-in suggestions for what to bring in the way of food would be much appreciated. We have refrigeration and full cooking facilities and we can both make a dinner out of just about nothing but suggestions from those with experience would be appreciated! Neither of us are big drinkers, my son might have a shot of rye on occasion, me, I sometimes like a shot of brandy in the evening and I've been known to enjoy a cold beer or two on occasion but I'm not expecting booze to make up a large part of our weight limit. For fishing tackle we are both taking two rods (just in case) and a selection of jigs and plastics (might take a couple of hundred worms). I make my own in-line spinners my whole kit probably weighs 5 lbs and I can make harnesses, spinners, go getters, of almost any color or style we want so I don't think tackle will be a problem (but again anyone that's done it, suggestions based on experience are MOST welcome!) Remember we are likely going to be fishing tea stained water so I'm thinking slow and scent are going to be a big part of it. At the end of all of this I hope to be posting a very detailed report on the outfitter, the resources, (although from everything I've seen and read so far we couldn't have gotten a better outfitter) what we learned and suggestions for those that might follow. Thanks in advance for any help!

I had a really interesting talk with my son the other day, he was having trouble with his fish finder and couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. We spent a long time talking on the phone about it. He wasn't doing anything wrong, he just didn't understand how to interpret what he was seeing. That prompted me to post this! How many people REALLY know what they are seeing on their units? When should you see an arch, when shouldn't you? How big a target can you see, what's the proper scroll speed, why is there a solid line a foot or so off bottom when I'm still fishing..... The list is endless! A few of the things we discussed are learning how to interpret what you are actually seeing; when I got my Lawrence HDS 5 the first thing I did was take it for a boat ride. I found a nice deep spot, stopped the boat and dropped the anchor over the side and let out about 15' of rope, then I played with the settings until I could see the anchor. Then I dropped the anchor to the bottom and started working with jigs until I could see a 1/8 oz jig head..... ok, you get the idea, I learned to understand what I was seeing. Next, I dropped a weight with a line attached and a float so the float was about 10' off the bottom and I trolled back and forth over it so I understood what the arches meant. In short I spent a good part of an afternoon simulating what I might see in real life, the result was I could read that sonar as if it was a book, weed clusters, hard bottom soft bottom, larger fish, bait clouds, that unit and I became best fishing buddies and there were plenty of times I'd go out and pound them while other guys would be catching a fish or two. How many people mount them, turn them on but never really understand what they are seeing? Got some tips? Post them!

I am not sure you really need a fancy fish finder, bass tend to hold tight to cover and so do pike, a GPS will probably get a lot more use. If you were fishing deep water, suspended fish, I might put more money into a unit but for what you described I'd be going very basic. Just my $0.02 worth.

Never had the time before and when I did have time I didn't have the energy. Last year was the first opportunity I'd had to get out with an operator, when I looked at what it cost me and what I was saving by not having to maintain a machine, hut, buy bait, supply propane, and do all the work of moving, storing, and insuring everything, $60.00 a trip with nothing to do but fish..... Well fishing is fun again LOL and I love those nice firm clean perch I'm getting from Simco.

Same here, looks like I've still got a few more perch trips left this year.

Geeze, don't do that, I'm trying to figger out how I can sneek into the US so I can get caught sneeking back into Canada.

Sounds like you have one heck of a good team there, I suddenly have a feeling you'll come out of this just fine!

I don't know why it's going to "piss a lot of people off" it was an honest question and deserves to be answered in a respectful manner. Perhaps the "Exhaust all options" approach is a better solution, shouldn't the ultimate outcome of any program be corrective rather than just punitive?

I recently heard of one situation where a person DUI caused death and got 10 years in prison. They served 1 month and then were released to a healing lodge to serve the remainder of their sentence. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/drunk-driver-who-killed-family-of-4-moved-to-healing-lodge-after-serving-1-month-1.3300680 I am not saying this is a bad thing, it might very well be time better spent than in prison but I don't think this happens unless you are an indigenous person.

It's not just the truck, what about all the contents, what about the inconvenience..... what about the just plane aggravation of it all. I am so sorry to hear that this happened to you, sometimes I think that Karma just doesn't count, you sure didn't deserve this! Hope it all works out for you and if I can ever help (and I usually can) just give me a shout!

Haven't got that far yet my friend but that jar of mushrooms..... OMG The wife almost promised me (can't say that here) if I would give her some more of it! That is some good stuff. The wine I am saving for a very special friend to come for a visit and the red sauce, well I am thinking that will be my secret ingredient in my next batch of spaghetti with meat balls for our next pot luck. ( I got three proposals from ladies here in the park after I took my Newfi date squares to the last one)

There was at least a foot of solid ice on the perch grounds (I AM NOT SAYING IT IS SAFE!!!!!) But that is why I only go out with an operator especially this time of the year. You remind me of me when I was your age, always on the go and doing something, Like I told you; "if I can ever help you all you have to do is say what you need"! The buckets; well all I did was take a drive to visit a friend, he supplied the buckets (and a few treats). Looking forward to seeing you and Lori soon again. Well, I use the special one cause it takes care of everything above twenty, see it goes 1,2,3,.....22, 23, 24 stroke. Each stroke = 25. Now if a stroke = 25 and 25 = 1" then enough strokes to = 4" must = 100. See, it's the new math, I really like it

I actually mark it down as I'm catching them, got tired of coming home saying "I must have caught 100 or more" LOL