Jonny

Not all that much, I'm afraid. And the dry ground soaked most of it up. It rained heavily off and on for a few hours but then kind of petered out. We now have a winter storm watch - freezing rain, snow and ice pellets in the forecast now for overnight and tomorrow. But who knows how much we're gonna get. Feels strange to be coming into spring and hoping for bad weather!!! Still no water coming over the Sturgeon Falls dam when I passed by it an hour ago.

Yeah, and down in Florida they use shrimps for bait. Poor misguided souls.

It's raining!!! And coming down pretty nicely too. You can't believe how much we need this. Radar shows good rainfall north of us in the watershed as well. And the forecast is rainy for the next 3 days. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the information. But during the smelt run, nobody, and I mean nobody, seems to either know this or pay attention to it. And I've never heard of a CO interfering with smelt fishing. I haven't seen a sign like that posted anywhere (of the places I go). It seems to me that for this whole issue they're expecting people to know things that aren't properly publicized. That may also be why there doesn't seem to be any enforcement, for smelt fishing anyway. The whole thing about how they handle the Nipissing fishery in the spring ticks me off anyhow. They're too lazy to enforce season closures for the major species (pickerel, pike, bass) so they close the whole lake for EVERYTHING. You can't even fish white bass and other non-game species before the Victoria Day weekend. Apparently that includes smelts in the creeks? What a crock!

Come on, baby! Keep coming north!

I've got an underwater cam and I'd love to get a shot or two like that! How did you set that up to keep the cam so steady?

Send some rainy thoughts my way too, Bernie! We need some heavy rain all over the watershed to get the level up. If I tried to launch my boats right now, they'd be sitting on sand. And they're both too heavy to drag 100 yds or so to water. We're only getting little sprinkles here and there, tb4me. Nothing of consequence. If we're lucky, the rain forecast for Friday will be one of those steady all-day rainfalls...

Good to know, thanks. I was considering a drive from North Bay but I wanted to scare up some info first. Looks like I'll pass.

Well, yes, but Bear Creek, Laronde, Little Sturgeon, Duchesnay, as well as almost countless small creeks and inflows? In normal years the smelts have been coming up inflows so small that you can step across them and that hardly give you enough room to get a dip net into!

But if they're up in the rivers and creeks, maybe that's not Nipissing per se? I don't know the technicality of that, and judging by the people out for them, they don't know either.

Thanks. That's about as much as there is anywhere. The show's organizers and sponsors don't seem to have discovered the importance of the internet yet.

The ice on Nipissing is gone. Well, apparently if you look hard from a helicopter you might still see an isolated patch or two floating around the Manitou's. The water level has not risen any in the last few days. I can still see the same sandbars as I could a week ago.

The smelts have started to run at Nipissing.

Come on guys - admit it - the pic isn't good enough to be able to tell.

I saw a highway advert for the Sudbury Sportsman's Show Apr. 9-11 at the Garson arena. Anybody know where to find more information - exhibitors, ticket prices, hours, etc.? I googled it and came up with only one site that gives very little information.

Another creative solution: http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2517134

From a Toronto Star list of cars not to buy...

We've got a fire ban already up around here too, in MARCH! That tells you something. Strange strange weather.

This is a good site for some opinions... entertaining anyway... http://www.tobp.com/review/list_alpha.asp Even if they were budget-priced, I wouldn't buy most European beers. There are a number of good home-grown brands I would prefer.

Yeah, yuk it up guys! In the meantime the poor cormorants will be dying in droves when they get their beaks stuck in the bottom.

Carling beer is re-labelled from how it looked last summer. I think it tastes better now. Seriously, if you can't find a decent-tasting beer from among the budget brands, there's something wrong with you (could be an irresistible desire to waste your money?)

Good photos. It looks like the spawn is going to take a MAJOR hit this year. Not good.

Or fill your boat with water at home, get it on the launch ramp, open the drain plug, and contribute! The forecasts keep looking the same... rain predicted several days away, but it never comes.

Yes I see the reply now... in the original message as well. Strange, I've seen other posts where there was just a quote and no reply. But most "quoted" posts appear normally. Your observations are worrisome. After the dry March (desert-like, almost) around here, I wonder what the chances are of heavy rain in April?

I see the quote, Randy, but no message with it.