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Jonny

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Everything posted by Jonny

  1. Good idea! That didn't come to mind. The other thing I forgot to mention is that with lake trout fishing, if you're trolling in the summer, you have to have a lot of patience. It takes considerable time to get a lure down to their depth and set up a proper troll (unless you're rigging), and often you will troll for hours with very little return. I've tried both rigging and wire line, and I've had better success with wire line, mainly, I think, because you're in frequent contact with the bottom.
  2. This one is out of town and mainly serves a local bayshore community of about 300 cottages and year-round homes. "Busy" is having to wait in line behind four people! Every spring I hope they open again, and they do. Business must be good enough. In Sturgeon Falls there are several chip stands (four that are very popular) where you can sometimes have to wait quite a while for your order. There are six or seven chip stands, in a community of about 5,000. Same up in this neck of the woods. When I first moved to Timmins, where I lived most of my life, there was a bar/hotel on just about every block. The local hotels would stop serving at supper-time so the miners would go home to their families for supper. Things have quieted down a lot. Same in the North Bay/Sudbury area. Whatever we call 'em, pickerel have always been the premier freshwater fish for eating. Sounds like a business opportunity!
  3. You mean Lake Manitou? Maybe somebody can give you advice on jigging, with the equipment you have. In summer my preferred method has been trolling with steel line, including on Lake Manitou, out from the Sandfield launch. The lakers are down deep now - probably 60 to 100 feet, and they're hard to reach. Unless you jig, I think the only way you can reach them reliably this time of year is steel lining or downrigging. Shallow trolling only works in the spring. At those depths, if you're jigging, I think you'd be better off for feel and for hook set if you were using a non-stretch line, not monofilament. If I were trying it I would look for any significant up-slope (might even see some "hooks" from suspended lakers on the depth-finder) and I would start with silver spoons - maybe a Williams Wabbler or a Williams Whitefish. Drift up the slope so I could adjust as I feel the spoon hit the bottom. Sorry, I'm kind of guessing here, but that's what I would try. Seems to me there were some pickerel in Manitou. I never tried for those, strictly lakers with wire line, which is quite a technique in itself if you're not used to it. You didn't mention whether you have access to a downrigger. If you've got one of those, you're good to go with a medium spinning or casting outfit. Take care on Manitou --- it's wide open and it can get rough.
  4. Well you can call it the way you see it, but I wouldn't "mess" with a CO. Keep it simple and courteous. He can write you a fine, or confiscate, and it can be a hell of a lot of trouble to fight it, even if you're right and you win. Not much skin off his nose but he can make it so you have to jump through some hoops.
  5. You didn't mention you were pulling a trailer. That'll cost extra, of course. Ferries always go by length and height once you exceed a standard car/SUV/pickup. Anyway, enjoy your trip. There's some great scenery up that way. If you have kids along with you, and you have the time, you might want to try pulling over on one of the wide curves just after you get over the Little Current bridge, heading to Espanola. IIRC the shoulder is wide. You can easily pick up some very early fossils there - Devonian or Silurian I think - simple shells, etc. from the limestone strata right beside the highway.
  6. I agree with those who say a regulation for a tape measure is too much. As for CO's, I've met some straightforward ones while fishing and hunting; I've also met some sly and nasty ones. Here's a tip. NEVER volunteer information to a CO. Many of them will approach you in a very friendly manner and just kind of "shoot the breeze" with you. But they're looking for you to say something suspect. Keep it simple and truthful - show them what they want to see, answer direct questions, and leave it at that. They can nit-pick enough without you helping them by raising red flags about stuff you may not even know about.
  7. OK, could be there was some mis-communication on the phone, though. Here's the site for the ferry, with full details... http://www.chicheemaun.com/chi/english/schedule_fares.html
  8. Once your motor weight goes above about 100 lbs. you'll have a hard time handling it by yourself, even to get it onto and off the transom, if that's a consideration. For that boat, I'd seriously look at something like this... http://www.yamaha-motor.ca/products/produc...up=O#contentTop or this... http://www.yamaha-motor.ca/products/produc...up=O#contentTop I'm not so sure any boat should be powered by a motor that hits the max rating. Two stroke/four stroke, I think it's a toss-up. If money is a consideration, I'd look around for a well-cared-for used motor, even 15 to 20 yrs. old. They're out there. --- "Exhaust stench"? Man that's perfume! I've loved that smell ever since I was a kid. But you don't get much of it, if any, with thru-the-prop exhaust.
  9. If the guy was that desperate for some good eating he could have done up one of the pike, instead of being an ass, as well as illegal, by keeping a slot fish and sneaking around with it. Some people...
  10. You want to stay away from those damned areas at dusk. Or wear a cross and stuff your pockets with garlic --- then you should be all right. The west side definitely, especially if it's steep like you say --- more shadow earlier.
  11. One of the local chip stands. They're a big business in Sturgeon Falls and area! French fries, poutine, hamburgers, pogos....... and PICKEREL!
  12. That's kind of what I thought you might say. I thought you were talking about you and your wife, but even for a family of 4 it's still only about $89 (or less, depending on the age of the kids) - unless you've got a motor home. If that's the case, it's still not unreasonable.
  13. I get about $69 for 2 people (and vehicle), one way. There and back - $138. (see below) I've been on ferries all over (BC, NS, PEI etc.) and they're not particularly cheap anywhere. Che-Cheemaun is a nice ride, and it would save a fair bit of time, especially if you'd be up on the Bruce already.
  14. I guess, like you do Jim, it's best to play it safe. I try to do the same. I try to tightly compress the tail of a pickerel that looks under slot and not so hard on one that looks over slot. If it's close, back she goes. Too bad you didn't get more eating-size under-slot fish, but it sounds like you had a decent catch anyway. Hopefully a few pike and bass too to liven things up. But it sucks that the weather is so unsettled this year. Yeah, I guess so, but if it's as close as he says it was, well, he's not too much of a criminal.
  15. Terrible. Seems like no place where people live is safe. Sooner or later one can touch down anywhere. http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1647462
  16. Sorry to hear that, after probably a long and illustrious career on the water. Bet you've got lots of stories to tell that some of us haven't heard before.
  17. Yes, it does. He should have known better. Expensive lesson on how strict the slot limit is. He says the fish was about 1/4" inside the slot with the tail pinched.
  18. I'm pretty sure he thought the fish was legal. Lesson learned.
  19. As I understand it, an error of about 3m radius is pretty accurate. I didn't think it could get any better than that.
  20. Just found this out today... A friend of mine was out this past week and a CO stopped his boat when he was on his way home. He had a limit of pickerel but one of them, when the tail was compressed, was inside the slot. The CO confiscated that fish (but not the others) and slapped him with a $180 fine. That's an expensive fishing run.
  21. My wife and I sometimes take out a friend of hers with us when we go fishing. The friend doesn't fish --- just likes to go out with us on a nice day and enjoy the outing and the shore lunch. I usually have four or five rod-and-reel outfits in the boat. I always assumed that we're OK as long as she doesn't put a line in the water. Am I wrong? We have also taken her friend out with us to our ice hut occasionally. We always only have four lines in the water, though we have about 8 rigs stored in the hut, and usually have six or eight holes cut (both inside and outside the hut) so we can move around our four rigs once in a while. Again, the assumption is - four lines in the water, two per person with a fishing license.
  22. Garmin etrex has worked well for me over the years.
  23. Nice town, Iroquois Falls. We've kind of traded places. I lived most of my life in Timmins but now I'm in the North Bay/Sturgeon area, retired on the shore of Nipissing. (My history with Nipissing goes way back to fishing and camping there as a kid with my folks.) I was through Iroquois Falls many times heading up the Abitibi road to fish and hunt in the Abitibi Timber Limits and up at Pierre L., Abitibi L. (Eades) and Little Abitibi L. Sadly, you won't catch any muskie up there! But some good pickerel and pike. You'll love this board. PS - Don't be put off by the pale colours of the pickerel and pike you catch from the turbid waters of Big Abitibi. You'll get used to them, and even come to appreciate the kid glove white of the lower body of the pickerel.
  24. Great stuff. Found this on youtube as well... she works for that fish!...
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