Canuck

What about Frenchman Bay in Pickering? Right near you and has carp, pike, trout, panfish etc.?

I’m in Oakville too and we back on a small forest park. Coyotes go in therein winter to get rabbits. And around a local storm management pond they show up all the time. A pack stalked my son a few years ago when he was walking his dog around the pond. He took a video and it was clear they were going towards them boldly.

If you fish smallmouth you should! I was fishing on Georgian Bay last summer and bouncing a worm on a shoal. It was getting nibbled by gobies and then I got nailed by about 5lb bass. When I brought the bass in, there was a 4" gobie hooked on the worm in the corner of the bass's mouth. SO looks like the gobie got hooked, and started darting around, then the bass nailed the gobie.

Massassauga PP is great for bass and pike, but I go there by water and anchor in the bays overnight. LOTS of bears in the park and especially around the campsites where morons have not been careful and have left food scraps around, "training" the bears into being a problem.

Smelt also contain high levels of the thiamase enzyme. Alewife also have a lot of thiamase enzyme in them. But the salmon thrived when there were lots of Alewife in the lakes (that was why chinooks and coho were stocked originally). Maybe not as good as they could have if that enzyme was not there, but they seemed to do OK. Now that alewife are basically gone in Georgian Bay, the salmon are eating smelt as their primary food. I think lake herring are probably depleted because of salmon predation too. They may be the one food that the salmon truly thrive on and it is one of their main food sources in the oceans. Anyway, likely multiple reasons for declines and I expect that warming waters is part of the whole picture, and impacts both salmon spawning and probably the food bait spawning and down the food chain.

I have done it. I can't remember where I bought the tip, but I think it was probably at Sail and I think it was a kit with multiple sizes of tips. I carefully cut off an extra inch of rod in case there was any splits that extended back from the break. Found a tip that fit reasonably snug, then some very light sanding of the surface and simple epoxy. Then a light thread wrap for looks. I lost about 3 inches of rod from the break, but it was and is a decent rod (older quantum hi-mod graphite). Easy fix if the rod is worth keeping as a backup (or for guests on your boat).

Not for one-piece rods, but I made myself a rod case with PVC pipe. I glued soft 1" thick foam in each end to really cushion rod tips. I glued one cap on one end, and just friction fit the other end. I drilled a hole in each cap and ran shock cord through the pipe to keep the cap on and to provide a bit of sideways cushioning in the tube to keep sideways movement controlled a bit. I made a handle out of a slice of the PVC tube, shaped with a heat gun and used PVC cement to glue it to the side. Painted it all to make it look less bush league. Works great and holds two or three 2-piece rods. Oh yeah another tip. I bought a pack of black womens stretch hair bands. The ones that are made of light shock cord material and about a 1.5" circle. I use them on the boat, in the car, and in this rod tube, to hold the rods together by wrapping them at each end. Rods go tip to handle and the tip is supported by the handle. Keeps them organized even if they have the reels and line on them. Then I made a simple lock for the open in case I travel by plane. I plan to use a TSA approved luggage lock to lock it if I take it by plane. Anyway, here are a few pics.

This is my main knife Grohmann I also use a Rapala wood handle 7.5” on the boat. For skinning the big salmon I have a 9” cimitar meat knife

I take friends and neighbors salmon fishing all the time. I just get them to buy a one day license on-line. Sometimes even on the boat as we are heading out. Couldn't be more simple IMO.

This probably wont be any help to the OP, but its all about the drags. I fish for salmon but not musky so that is my experience. Mostly downrigger, but I do have dipsy gear, just don’t use it much. I have one LC, most are just LW of pure conventional (non-LW). I have a convector that I don’t really like. It was smooth in the store, but I have had it randomly free spool. I have taken it apart, cleaned and lubed it right, and it all looks fine, but something in its design cause it to do that very randomly. So its on the 4th line in my set. I don’t have any high end reels and my collection starts with an old Daiwa that was my first salmon reel bought about 30 years ago or more. Its plastic body LW. It was “OK” but started to get weird with the drag where the drag would hold hold hold then release in huge zing, then hold hold hold. Started to lose fish so the reel was put on the 4th line or actually down to the farm team. Then about 10 years ago, I saw an HT100 carbon fibre drag washer set on eBay so bought it. That new drag fix put that reel back on the bench (2nd line though). Believe it or not my most reliable and smooth workhorse is a Penn 209 LW that I have also upgraded the drag to HT100 carbon fibre. That reel is steel framed, pretty darn smooth for an old bugger and the drag is reliable and smooth. I also have two other old Penns that are pure conventional (one is a Del Mar) with upgraded drags and they are great. Smooth and drags are nice. They are my backups. I also bought a Kastking LC on Amazon two years ago. I have to say its pretty good. If I am running two rods its one of them. Its too early to say if it will hold up, but for now its caught a lot of salmon. It has a pretty fast retrieve too, so sometimes that has an advantage when I have a salmon that is charging the boat. It has HT100 carbon fibre drag washers. (Yeah Yeah, Chinese crap that may not be able to get parts for. I get it. I think its better built than most Chinese reels though.) I also bought a saltwater conventional non-LW star drag reel (a Fin-Nor 20) that my idea was to use it for trips south as well as maybe try it on musky or salmon. Its pretty big though. Not too heavy. I picked it because you can cast with it too. Its super smooth and casts a mile with heavy lures, and can be used for trolling too. The drag stack is huge and smooth. Its designed for much bigger fish than even our larger salmon or musky. I haven’t used it for actual fishing yet though. Just playing around at the cottage. I loaded it with 60lb braid for Florida bottom fishing and then didn’t do that trip so its not really set up for downrigger fishing up here. Anyway, probably not much help. But for me, its all about the drag smoothness IMO and I think cheap plastic may flex too much to allow the drag stack to be smooth.

Did you say "pickeral"? Too bad its summer or you would have started a whole walleye vs pickerel name debate LOL.

It takes about 2 minutes for an empty launch to become packed when a few people arrive to launch. So follow the proper etiquette and protocol even if the ramps are empty IMO.

My little fishing boat is my 33ft Sea Ray with twin 454s. Total fuel is 850L. It gets about 1mpg at 30mph. Much better idling on one engine when trolling for salmon and lake trout. I won't be doing any long runs out in Georgian Bay this year. But I will use it. Life's too short to live it trying to save money all the time. I have a 10ft dinghy with a Yamaha 8hp that will get a lot more use this summer for sure though.

Depending on where you are camping: 1. A folding grill for cooking over an open fire. Those park ones are nasty and you can lay these over the nasty grills or use them on their own. 2. Lots of aluminum foil for cooking things on and in 3. Extra tent pegs and those screw in dog leash holders are great for anchoring a tarp in wind when the trees are not where you need them. 4. You can get those little battery powered LED lights that are cheap and are great for nice subtle lighting under tarps or over your picnic table. https://www.amazon.ca/Lyhope-Battery-Operated-Waterproof-Decoration/dp/B07DL531D9/ref=sr_1_52?crid=2L5RDQKUHEIDC&keywords=battery+led+lights&qid=1654616042&sprefix=battery+led+lights%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-52

When I had my boat in Bronte and fished salmon a lot, my kids (little at the time) called the salmon “Mealamonthfish” because they had heard me say that whenever I caught and released a big one. Lake O is a great catch and release fishery for sure, but getting on remote lake with clean(er) water is a great experience.

Daiwa BG. Much much better value but prices are up, like most things. I do have a Kastking line counter trolling reel that seems pretty solid for a graphite frame reel. Not sure about their spinners.

You might want to wash the DNA off those "striper" wigs before you handle them too much.

Great information you are getting! As a kid I lived in the Yukon and in the NWT with relatives in Northern Alberta. So lots of experience with grayling. They are great scrappy fighters. Small spinners work well. Make sure you have a few tiny Mepps black fury's as well as some brighter colours. They are also great fun on a fly rod. Small nymph style were our go to, but they take dry flies in rivers and creeks. We used to eat them too, but I can't recall how they tasted. Too long ago. I did a short fly fishing trip near Banff a few years ago and we got some graying in a catch and release lake. It was fun.

Hmmmmm. Feeling good about getting your own money back? That is Trudeau's approach to the carbon tax rebate.

I think I must have started to reply to one of your posts earlier and not finished. Then when I actually replied to this thread, it left the reference to you in my message. I think I just fixed it???

1) Berkeley Chigger Craw plastic in a dark colour - black blue fleck 2) Wacky rigged plastic worm 3) Rebel craw 4) Tube jig 5) Plastic grub either on jig head or on spinner

WOW. What a beast!

I remember those smelt trips from Sudbury (Garson actually) to Britt when I was a kid, netting smelts at night. Then taking a bucket home and gutting them in the morning, frying a bunch up for dinner. Good stuff. Much better fresh, compared to frozen, although I eat them frozen every once in a while when I see them and get a craving. The first time I tried the fried anchovies in Italy, I realized how similar they are to smelt when they are fresh.

Thinking about the size of the asses on typical sized bass or trout from years of cleaning them, and I don't think a normal sized plastic worm or grub would be able to pass through the average or smaller fish. As for people that say that "I have cleaned fish for years and never cleaned a sick fish with plastic in their guts", well. if most of the fish that ingest plastics die fairly quickly, the less likely you will be catching them to see what they died of. And I can tell you, if I am going to keep a fish to eat (since there are limits) there is no way I am going to keep a sick looking fish as one of the ones I keep to eat. Its going back. So, basically the worse the issue is for fish, the less likely fishermen will be catching large numbers of them and seeing the "evidence".