jediangler

Hook them once through the sucker (tail) and they'll swim and squirm for ever. They can't stick to your thumbnail so hooking them this way is the easiest. Use a small jig or bait hook so you don't inhibit their swimming action. Just hook em once or they'll die sooner.

I always put the leech on my thumbnail and then slide the hook under the sucker and then up through it.

I love that tiny WGSF pic. The twin perch were from Orangeville and the musky was from the Bog.

That is one seriously pimped out yak my man. I had a rod holder on mine, but took it off to make room for a camera mount. Now I can back up my fish tales with photographic evidence.

Great report and beautiful scenery shots. Always seen the signs for Silent Lake, when I was in the area, but never had a chance to try it out. Liked the idea of it being a "no gas motors" lake. Truly lives up to it's name I imagine.

Valens is great. The bass that won the derby this year was 5lb9oz. I can honestly say that I've never been skunked at Valens. The pike are usually pretty eager to take a bait as well. Great pics & report.

Have a friend who is going to lake Bernard near Sundridge and he asked me what kind of fish there are in the lake. All I could find was info saying that lake trout are in there but no other info. I imagine smallmouth would be there as well. Any info would be appreciated, no need for secret spots or gps waypoints. He is visiting his girlfriends family and wanted to get away for an hour or two and try his luck. Thanks.

Beauty brookies. Thanks for sharing.

It's a lot closer to Port Elgin but Arran lake has pike in it as well as smallmouth like this one the Shipper caught last year.

Went up to Pigeon lake with the family for our yearly cottage rental week. My parents came up for the first 3 nights so I got to do some fishing with Pops while Grandma did some swimming with my daughter. We did see quite a few dead and floating carp all over the lake from Bobcaygeon to Gannon's narrows. I took the kayak along but only used it twice all week. I did manage to catch this little smallmouth on a 3" sluggo just out from the beach. While at the beach my 7yr old found 2 bobbers and was always checking for washed up treasures when she found this bag of glow in the dark bait hooks. I'm glad she saw them as there were several children younger than her playing in the sand nearby. She likes to go out in the boat but did most of her fishing off the dock at sunset catching many WGSF as well as bluegill and sunfish. She drove the boat this year for the first time and though I'm helping in this pic, taken by my wife, she did drive it herself for a minute. She didn't like the vibrations but would only drive full throttle, she's a speed demon for sure. While out with Pops and my wife I threw my favourite Mepps Musky Killer, gold blade & black buck, while they caught largemouth and perch on their jig & grub combos. I have a hard time fishing for anything other than musky if I'm on any water they inhabit. It paid off eventually with this little 32" scrapper that was caught in 8ft of water with scattered weeds growing to within 2ft of the surface. My parents left on Tuesday morning and by evening we had a visit from the Shipper. He drove his piglet (Honda Rebel 250) up from Kitchener to spend the night and do some fishing Wednesday morning before cruising back home. We started at 9am casting and drifting a previously productive spot without any luck. The Shipper is a troller by nature and I'm more of a caster but my way wasn't producing so we started to troll. After no more than 20min he hooks up with his little polish perch in 12ft of water. He's using my wife's bass rod & reel that is spooled with 14lb fireline and after 10min of deep dogging I get a bare hand under the gill plate and land it. It's his Personal Best musky at 39". We release the fish after a few minutes of reviving and it goes off strong. Checked the clock and it's 10:20am. Then we backtracked and trolled the last 100 yds again. This time I get a hit on the jointed orange rapala but it doesn't fell very big. I reel in this nice eater sized walleye with my Abu C4 and 50lb Power Pro not sure if it's just weeds or not. I was tempted to keep it but saw many walleye coming to the fish cleaning hut every evening and thought I'd give this guy another chance. There were some guys up from PA fishing musky that had said they were getting muskies and walleyes equally on their musky baits and were quite happy to share their catch with the other cottagers. We then went back to casting as it was 11am now and we planned to only fish till noon. I started to throw my nickel blade black buck Slopmaster in 6ft of water with lots of weeds and by 11:15am I hooked this 36.5" musky that I saw make a 20ft dash to hit the lure. It then jumped completely clear of the water and the fight was on. In less than 3min I hand landed it and released it after a few pics. The Shipper was asking me to show him how to land them bare handed when I get another hit on the Slopmaster. This one seems kind of small so I tell him he can try it out on this little musky when I get it to the boat. As it gets closer I realize that it's a nice walleye and tell him he'll have to wait to try because I'm landing this one myself. It was 25" long and was a little skinny but still my longest from Pigeon lake. I released it happily figuring it was the good karma I'd received from releasing the first one that allowed me to hook and land this one. The rest of the week was uneventful, fishing wise, but still spent some quality family time down at the beach and relaxing back at the cottage. The week went by so fast and we booked again for next year knowing that more memories will be made when we return.

The reason your musky had such nice markings on it was because it was a tiger musky. There must be some pike in that lake as well. As much as I love to see them, tiger muskies mean the end is near for musky in that lake and the pike will soon take over. By soon I mean a decade or so depending on the size of the lake. I hope your kawartha lake is on the Simcoe side of Balsam. Nice pics and that was a cool video.

Way to go Joonmoon, and good to see you got gadget into some fish too. I'll wait until next year for my return to the Berg, too many weeds for me.

That's what makes muskies so fun to fish for. If they couldn't hurt you it would be boring, like fishing for walleye

Great report & pics. I like the portability of your inflatable, but would be afraid of puncturing it with a hook. I'll stick to my plastic yak. Always knew of the TT, Pops was a racer and used to take me to races as a kid. Once I got my own bike I always wanted to go round the course, at a leisurely pace, on the Isle.

My limit is 30km/h, after that I'm heading for a protected area. I prefer 10-15km/h, makes for a nice drifting speed.

That's just what I wanted man, thanks a lot. You're the man Andy

Just bought a minn kota fishing barometer for my family trip to Pigeon lake. Anyone know the altitude (number of feet above sea level) of the lake. You need to set this according to your region before accurate readings can be read. I looked on the weather network for Bobcaygeon and googled a few ideas before I gave up. Then I thought of asking the OFC community. I'm sure someone must know this fact. Thanks.

You could also try Chesley lake, there is a launch at the north end. There are pike, walleye, and both small & largemouth bass.

I used to fish the river in Lindsay with my uncle when I was a kid. We fished below the locks for walleye and downstream for bass. I caught my first musky at age 12 in the Scugog river on a minnow. It was near a railway bridge, that is all I can remember.

Another great report & pics. Good on you for finding the magic spinner of the day. Hardly recognize you, in the old pic, without the goatee.

Great report & pics. The hassles are all worth it aren't they. Nice rainbow pics as well. I'd like to think that someone else is fishing with their kids right where that rainbow hits the horizon.

I wonder if people have been keeping all the bigger pike that they've caught. A lake that size, with that kind of panfish population should produce many 10lber's. I just hope that despite the huge numbers of boats that were out there on Saturday, maybe the big ones got tight lipped or managed to keep a low profile. I also forgot to mention in my report that only one bass died out of all that were brought to the scales. That's a testament to the good work done running the derby by Gord and the girls, sorry, ladies looking after the scales, measuring, and witnessing proper release methods. Congrats to the winners and thanks to staff and sponsors that made it a fun time on the water.

Great report & pics you two. Cliff, if you're going to keep at this fishing game, you're going to have to buy a REAL rainsuit Dude. Those garbage bags have got to go. Nice smallie there Bly.

I'm with Rich on this one. If it never got above 25C I would be a happy camper. Might have something to do with the fact that it is close to 50C where I work.

That's one nice sized accidental musky.