Jonny

It's fascinating to watch them fish. An osprey will make slow lazy circles about 60 to 100 yards above the water (my guess). When it sees a possible target it will stop and hover, beating its wings rapidly to stay in one place. If the target isn't good, it will resume its glide. But if it's a good one - watch out! It will stoop (dive), sometimes with a quick pause part way down (to line up better I guess), and then smack the water hard, disappearing in the spray. If it comes up with a fish in its claws, it will shake itself to get the water off its feathers and then line up the fish underneath it, ALWAYS with the head of the fish pointing forward for streamlining. Then it will fly off to its nest.

The annual shad fly (may fly) invasion on Nipissing isn't as intense this year. http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1649488 Maybe the fishing won't slow down as much as it usually seems to do when they're in full hatch. But shad flies are apparently a good indicator of the health of the lake. So I don't mind putting up with them. My 3 year old grand-daughter loves 'em. She picks them off the wall of our house and lines them up on her forearm and walks around with them. She's fascinated by all bugs, so much so that I have a file of macro pictures for her on my laptop. She'll sit with me and rhyme off dozens of names - "Dragonfly, damsel fly, mayfly, sawyer, weevil, sowbug, spitbug, firefly, fiery hunter..." etc. etc. A fiery hunter is a big beetle that might make good bait --- if it doesn't bite you first!

Yep, I've got an old copy of that one too. I don't think there's another book out there with as much fine detail about Canadian fish. I've got mine from when my father was running a toxicity lab for INCO. He monitored water quality in all the effluent waters for INCO operations in the Sudbury area. The bigwigs would always include his lab in any tour they were giving visitors. He had some nice trout in his aquaria!

Great shots, Raf! What's that toothy skull you're holding in the last pic?

I know we're within their range, Raf, but we've never seen one up here on the north shore, definitively anyway, with the white head. Still, whenever we see an all-brown eagle, we're not 100% sure it's not a juvenile bald. Whatever they are, they're impressive birds! Way bigger than any other birds we see except the turkey vultures that like to ride the updrafts on the north shore (Beaucage) near the Nipissing Lookout on Hwy 17.

Some good chuckles here. Mine's a bit more serious. We lost our son Rob a couple of years ago (25 yrs. old). He loved to fish ever since he was a little gaffer and never got to do enough of it. Whenever my wife and I go fishing we always take a laminated picture of him and prop it up on the dashboard of the boat. We like to think he's led some nice fish onto the ends of our lines. I hope this doesn't put a damper on the fun stuff here, but that's my superstition.

I love ospreys. (I guess you can tell from my avatar.) They're a fascinating bird to watch when they're fishing. Here's a pic I took last summer of one just a second or two before it hit the water about 200 yds out from our shore...

I just saw an eagle cruising by our shore (Nipissing) yesterday and got a good look through my binoculars. I think it was a golden eagle, based on its all-brown appearance. I know that the juvenile bald eagle is all-brown, but we never see any adult bald eagles here, though we do see all-brown eagles every summer, so I'm tending to think that it's goldens that we're always spotting.

Teachers have free admission? That does make some sense, but are you sure it's correct? It's the first I've ever heard of it so I'm just double-checking.

I was browsing the ROM site and came across this book - it looks like a nice basic reference... http://www.enssc.com/default.aspx?store=525 Type in keyword "fishes".

There are actually three true pickerels - redfin, grass and chain. But they are to all intents and purposes practically unknown in Canada. If a Canadian calls a fish a pickerel you know exactly what he means. A grass pickerel is usually called a grass pike. I don't see any "disrespect" in the name "pickerel" for walleye. It is what it is. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

It seems to me that the NF tag that is customary on non-fishing topics should be sufficient warning for those who don't want to click the topic?

From today's North Bay Nugget...

37 Bucks!? Wow! That alone is enough to keep a lot of people away. I used to handle the finances for our school Toronto trips and we used to pay, IIRC, about $6 a head (group rate). I'm of a mind to say that this kind of publicly-financed, youth-oriented institution should be practically free of charge. Great building, beautiful setting, but I agree that if the admissions are exhorbitant and the contents are getting ho-hum, it's not very attractive. One thing I'll note is that even when we were there, there seemed to be a lot of wasted space - large areas that could have been used for displays or activities that were almost empty - at times even that cavernous "rotunda" at the end of the glassed-in entrance walkway. In a nod to making this thread less "NF", I think that the MNR and the MOE could certainly fill areas with interesting things to do with Ontario's lakes and rivers, the environment in general, energy conservation, careers in biology and wildlife management, etc. I know that when I visited Science North (Sudbury) with my family there were some things of that sort. Kids could hold a baby beaver, pet a porcupine, etc. Those things stick in my mind.

Funny you should mention that. Nothing against our good friends to the south, but when I first started paying attention to the term, I considered "walleye" to be American, and that us good ol' Canadians called them pickerel. Maybe my impression wasn't so accurate even back then. To me, however, they'll always be pickerel. Whoa! I'll second that! A bottle of Canadian whisky - Five Star, V.O., Wiser's, Alberta Premium, doesn't matter. Anything that gives my Pepsi a kick.

Wow, I was kind of hoping that "walleye" wouldn't out-poll "pickerel". Just made a shopping trip to North Bay today and counted 3 signs, all advertising "pickerel". I guess the term is alive and well around here.

I thought some of you might get a chuckle out of this. The singer is Dave Carroll, a member of the "Sons of Maxwell", a group from Timmins. What a great way to get back at people who treated you like crap! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SxYGB8m2HA...feature=related

Yeah, but the kids change, so it's always brand new to them. What I found was that after a few visits to the ROM with a guide, I could take my students independently, give them the same content, and allow a little more leeway for the kids who were fascinated by particular aspects. We could give the Bat Cave short shrift, and spend more time with the dinosaurs and the Egyptian mummies.

Great report, Scuro. I enjoyed the non-fishing photos as well. The weather's always a mixed bag when you're that far north. It can get pretty cold at times. You always have to bring cold-weather gear, shorts and sunscreen. You never know what you're gonna get! One time we were tenting on Little Abitibi for the May Run and it was so cold the first two days that we woke to snow on the ground and had to motor back to the campsite every hour or two to warm up at a blazing fire. The third day, by contrast, was hot and sunny. You lucked out with a great fishing partner. I did too, and thank my lucky stars.

On our end-of-year trips from Timmins to Toronto, I took my students there numerous times from the 80's up until our last visit ca. 2002. I never noticed it changing all that much except in the big round hall just past the glassed walkway, where they always had different displays set up. There was always plenty to see and do for a couple of hours. You indicate that it has changed (for the worse) over time. How so?

With that exception, yes.

Cute little apprentices! Some of the best times are when you're out with the family... awesome! I second the screen tent. When we were doing a lot of camping with our boys we wouldn't do without one. It's worth the extra packing and setup - both for the insects and for rainy weather. We had a 12 x 12 with roll-down flaps that we could also heat quite well with a propane heater for early or late season fishing. (It was also great for moose hunting.)

Sadie loves to go fishing. The only problem is, if we get too close to one of the islands she'll jump overboard and swim to shore! She likes to wade and swim off the rocks while we're casting.

Sorry, haven't been around here long enough to know you had one. So I appreciate the responses. I guess if a cyclical topic comes up (and clearly marked, like this one) you can just skip it? It's only a temporary waste of space. So I guess "pickerel" might be more prevalent in the north? The picture I posted is typical of the North Bay/Sturgeon Falls area. A number of eateries (restaurants, chip stands) advertise "pickerel" on their signs, but not walleye. So that must be the name people here mainly key in on. Every once in a while you see it mis-spelled as "pickeral".

Not to mention that a mortally wounded fish must not be released...