Jonny

It's a good rule of thumb to keep your mouth shut, or at least be very careful what you say. Something innocuous can cause you trouble. A guy I know quite well mentioned to a few people, and one of them obviously the wrong person, that he had a few good feeds of fish in his freezer. That person put that together with the fact that my acquaintance went fishing a lot in the winter, sometimes days in a row, and put in a call that probably went something like "I know a guy that says he's got a lot of fish in the freezer. He goes fishing almost every day, so he must have a freezer full." Sure enough, the MNR showed up for a search. True story. He did not have excess fish, but lesson learned - he should have kept his mouth shut. NOBODY wants officers poking around in their home. In totalitarian societies, this tendency of people to report on other people is used to great effect. That makes me think that it's important to realize that not all reporting is a good thing, and we would do well to be careful what we say, and to whom whom we say it.

I can't believe I spent so much time on it last night, but it's intriguing even though my experience with salmon is limited. There are some spots on the dorsal, as well as on both lobes of the tail, so my best guess stays the same.

Going strictly by book larnin', since I've only caught a few salmon - all chinook - and I can't remember the distinguishing features in fine detail... Process of elimination: Definitely not Atlantic salmon, which has a few large well-defined spots on head and gill cover, as well as on the sides. Definitely not pure coho, which has spots only on the top lobe of the tail fin. Gum colour doesn't help distinguish coho and chinook in the Great Lakes. The gums look black, and since the tail spots are on both lobes, it's looking good for chinook. What your picture doesn't show clearly is whether the tail spots go pretty well all the way to the extremities. Since they seem to be only at the base of the tail, it's not looking good for chinook. The male chinook has a bit more of a V in the tail than the female. The female chinook is almost a "squaretail" like the brook trout. so are both sexes of coho. So the pretty much square tail in your photo looks good for a female chinook. The dorsal fin of the chinook is covered with spots, the male coho has a few spots only at the base of the dorsal, the female coho none at all. But your pictures don't show that either. There are natural hybrids of chinook and coho known. My bet is on a co-nook, although if I could see the entire tail and it were spotted to the end I'd change that to chinook. We are talking a Great Lakes fish here, right? You didn't specify. Anyway, that was fun - I await your revelation.. --- Or did you throw a real monkey-wrench into this? Could be a steelhead, although that should have some spots on the top of the head. But the tail is similarly spotted. Skamania? I don't know - can't find a really good picture or drawing of one.

Beats me. Especially when fishing (and netting) by yourself, having the anti-reverse off spells almost certain disaster!

Talking to a CO is kind of like the customs check when crossing (either way) between Canada and the USA. You get asked some simple questions, your attitude and nervousness are judged, there's a look for anything that seems out-of-kilter, and you either get waved through or you're pulled over for a thorough check.

OK, Jacques. You asked in the other thread, so I hope you don't mind me adding to this one, because it seems a better fit. I made this wooden lure years ago, when I lived a couple of hundred miles from anywhere you could catch a muskie. I guess some fishing mag reading I had done put the bug in me and I figured, "Some day I'm gonna try this." The body is pine, the bendable tail fin is aluminum pinned in place, and the eyes are thumbtacks! I think it's probably a poor design so I never did try it. But you never know --- people catch pickerel on Vienna sausage, perch on bits of salami, and gar pike on pieces of thread, so why not a muskie on this muskie killer which I call "Wishful Thinking".

Well I'd have to dig it out of a box and get a picture of it. But I just might do that. People tie their own flies, so I'm surprised we don't hear of more people who put their woodworking and artistic skills to use skills to use and create their own lures. Did you catch this thread a while back?... It involves painting of an already-manufactured lure but I still thought it was neat! ... http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...c=34127&hl=

Well that's pretty clear, thanks. I read that a while ago but forgot about it in this context. So much for all the stories we hear about what a CO can and can't do. He can do basically anything he wants, with what he considers to be reasonable grounds. The worst that can happen is that the charge is thrown out IN COURT, with not much repercussion for the CO, but expense in time and money for you.

You're right, to a large extent it's simply state of mind. What's surprising is that catfish and ling have survived their dang ugly looks as far as being considered acceptable table fare is concerned, while drum, which are a much more "regular-looking" fish, have such a lousy hearsay reputation for eating.

Confusing. First you said YES they can enter the cabin. Now you say they need a warrant. Here's the situation I see developing if you refuse entry: The CO's call in the OPP with a warrant, on the grounds that they think you're hiding something. Neat way to ruin your holiday --- especially if you think you haven't done anything wrong. Seems like the only way to keep some of these buggers off your back, even though you're doing more than what the regulations require, is keep a good sized patch of skin on every fillet or piece of fillet until it's ready to go into the pan or until you have it at home (your legal residence). Even better, leave the fillets intact and leave ALL the skin on. I can see that being a gooey mess with pike but not so bad for other fish.

Great report, especially the part about getting your grandpa out. I've wire-lined Manitou out of Sandfield with good success, But I've never tried downriggers. The flower is a wood lily. Aboriginal people collected the bulbs for food. Nice shots of the Niagara Escarpment.

That one surprised the hell out of me. Isn't your camp your home for the time you've rented it? I can see having to have patches of skin on fish that are being taken along at the end of the trip, but not this!

Like I've said before, if a CO stops you, be polite, don't offer information without being asked, don't engage in 'friendly conversation' which is designed to try to trip you up. If you've done your best to comply with regulations, you're probably OK, but you never know if you missed something that they want to pick up on, or whether you're dealing with one of the CO's that's a real jerk. Given a choice or an "out" I would not talk to a CO, even though I try to do everything by the book.

Me too, Indy - starting in the 50's when I was a kid camping on those islands (Jocko Point and Goose) with my parents. This used to be our favourite camping spot - beach, high spot under the pines for the tent, sheltered from most winds... --- I've never heard it called "Sam's Rockpile", JohnnyB, but lots of people have their own names for features. White dot for sure... most days we can see the white dot from our front deck, 6 miles away. --- I don't know much about the nesting habits of cormorants. I thought they always nested in trees. We've been at the rockpile before, and seen a mix of cormorants and gulls roosting on it. But the cormorants were completely silent. This time we heard them constantly croaking - a deep guttural rasp... protesting the presence of the gulls near their nests? The gulls were vocal, as usual. I checked some pictures I took on July 29, 2008 - there was no evidence of nests. I don't think seagulls nest there. Everything I've been able to piece together seems to point to new cormorant nests. They appear to have "colonized" the island. I have no use for cormorants.

Looks like you have the place and the system down pat. Nice fish! That "nickle" may be only a matter of time. Good luck! Can you post more specifics on that digital scale you're using? Sounds like the perfect "de-liar".

And why not? I like to find out where potential problems lie, so a post like this, to me, is informative. Maybe you should just skip threads like this from now on. You don't have to read them.

Happened to my son. By the time he noticed, it was only a couple of weeks til the new renewal date so he figured, eh, might as well wait til I get the new one and just skip a year. A couple of days later he got stopped. It cost him $150 plus the past year's sticker, plus the new one. Crime doesn't pay.

Well that depends where you catch 'em --- not Hamilton Harbour that's for sure! The crustaceans and molluscs they eat probably glow in the dark!

I made one of my own lures a while back - a musky lure of all things. I may have the courage to post it some time.

It's a good thing my "motto" (below) is something I believe in. Today was the first really beautiful day we've had in quite a while - 26 C, light breeze, sunny. My wife and I spent the late afternoon and evening on the lake. We did fish for a couple of hours but we caught nothing (perch don't count). However we spent a lot of the time at our favourite beach on the Goose Islands just swimming and soaking up some sun (that big bright thing in the sky that we haven't seen much this summer). We passed by what locals call "the rockpile" - for obvious reasons. This shot gives you a pretty accurate idea of the closest distance we came... Both seagulls and cormorants were roosting on the rockpile, and we saw a few tussles between the species. We thought they were fighting for preferred roosting spots and I didn't realize until I downloaded my telephoto pictures to the computer that there were nests involved - you tell me if you agree... it looks like the cormorants were nesting. The tussles, I'm assuming now, were caused by seagulls raiding the eggs. GO GULLS! An evening shot... looked like the perfect conditions for surface poppers, which we tried, along with spinners, Little Cleos, and a couple of other things. The bass weren't interested. So anyway, a fishing report with no fish, but a beautiful day just the same!

You should have said, "Is that a trick question? Fish, of course!"

If you're shore-fishing the Ottawa, you should be able to hook into some pike. Even if you don't want to keep them, they'll sure liven up an outing! Red-and-white daredevils (the cheap ones Can. Tire carries) are good for them and you can lose a bunch without it costing you much. You'll catch other fish with them as well. Mepps, Blue Fox or Panther Martin spinners (in various sizes) are a slightly more expensive alternative. If you think the water is fairly deep off shore, cast out and give a slow 5-count or even a 10-count and then retrieve. If you're fishing alone, make sure your net is always within reach! Make sure you have a few fairly heavy baits as they make a big difference in how far you can cast. Switch to a bobber-and-worm rig when you feel like sitting down and having a sandwich or just communing with nature. If there's a current you can cover a lot of water, especially from a point.

Believe me, it's not that easy to find an acceptable site for camping on crown land. You did the right thing in asking for some tips. Use the map link (and topo maps if you have them) and keep looking for tips before you go. Sorry, I can't help you with tips that far south. But I've found, even quite a bit further north than you want to go, that decent places you can camp on crown land, and can drive to, are few and far between. Now if you want to take your gear across water to an island or further along a shore, that's a totally different story. The possibilities open up tremendously. We always found that the extra effort to find campsites by boating was well worth the effort. There are some areas, like the West Arm of Nipissing, where you can leave your vehicle and trailer at a launch and then go out and have numerous good spots to choose from.

Nice fish! I'll remember the bait, even tho we don't have much largemouth around here. Hey, nice tats on the arm - way outdoes my one 3-incher!

My first LCD was an Eagle - worked great for about 3 years, then PFTTTT! Nothing. I've had better luck with them since then. I think hard re-set is a hammer.