turtle

Main reason is it works for me. I've caught only a few on the spinning gear flat lining and don't invest much time.

Fished the cottage lake this weekend with a buddy. Caught 5 with maybe 2-3 lost. All down 3-4 colours leadcore (15-20 FOW) in 20-30 FOW, one on a wabler, rest on bomber minnow baits. Surface temp was 59-60F Saturday and 54F or less Sunday. Bugs were bad except on Sunday in the cold. Sunday skunked on the water.

I was out last Saturday off of Sibbald Pt. Ice was more than 24 inches but white except the bottom. Top was mushy but it was a warm morning & raining. There was a small 2wd car out where I was. Ice at boat ramp was good. Having said that there were lots of cracks. Would not recommend driving, not so much for going through but for getting stuck.

Congrats. I'd skip the lipping pike lesson.

Harper would also propose to legalize if he thought it would result in a net gain in votes. Doesn't however play to his social conservative base. Harper's attack ads on Trudeau say it would make it easier for minors to buy. It's obviously easy now and has been since I was 14 in 1975. I say make it legal to grow in your own backyard and only tax it if you're too lazy or can't grow it and have to buy. Regulate it like alcohol for operating motor vehicles etc.

The first year could be trial and error. You'll find out what does better in your garden and what doesn't. Sometimes year to year different plants seem to thrive while others don't. Every fall I put down manure, if you know a farmer composted cow manure, and leaves on the bed and let it all rot and break down over the winter. The beds should be rich dark earth with lots of worms. May take a few seasons to get there. Sunlight is a key factor for some plants like tomatos. Look into companion planting, some plants do better together, and rotate the locations every year. I don't use any chemicals and do OK with most plants.

I'd like to know what the actual proposals are and whether there is public input. In my experience on my cottage lake only, the lake trout fishing was only very good (for a cottage lake) during the period and a few years after the MNR stocked brook trout as a put, grow & take project. Very few brook trout were caught but in my experience I caught more and larger lake trout for a few years. The issue on my lake as I see it is that there are almost no forage fish (minnows, herring) and the trout are bug eaters (slow growing smaller fish) until a few of them get large and then eat smaller lake trout and bass. i am OK with a winter closure as I seldom ice fish there but it would impact tourism, I recall the article saying the proposal for stopping stocking is a budget cutback and not really about promoting natural reproduction. The lake I'm on hasn't been stocked in approx 30 years and all the fish are decendents of stocked fish.

I was up at my cottage in Haliburton last weekend and read in one of the local papers (Highlander or Echo) that MNR(F) is looking at reducing trout stocking plus reducing limits and open seasons i.e. closing winter fishing. The article was talking about the negative impact to tourism etc. Didn't bring the paper back and may have started the fire with it. Now I can't locate any mention of the article in the on-line versions of the two papers. And of course can't locate anything on the MNR(F) web site. Anyone heard about this or read about it or was I having a bad dream in between shovelling snow off the deck?

i did a similar thing in a loaded canoe going off a dock. Rather than fall in the water I muscled the canoe back to the dock partially tearing my pectoral muscle off my shoulder. Happened mid-week on a remote trip. Didn't tell anyone except my wife. She complained the rest of the trip paddling on one side only. Hurt like stink, didn't get it repaired by surgery and I'm still dealing with it 15 years later. Actual fish hook injuries none, but I seen a few usually caused and later resolved by alcohol in the Homer Simpson way.

My experience is that a very few people disapproved my fishing as a "red neck" pursuit, not the killing and eating fish part -tell that to the fly-fishers. My hunting, however, gets a broader reaction of disapproval ironically from meat eaters (make sure you miss, how can you kill bambi etc.) The only people I listen to who are anti-hunting or fishing are those that are true vegatarians and anti-killing of anything, except vegatables of course.

Fished for two days out of Tim Hales huts. Set up in usual perch grounds in around 25FOW on what looked like 8-10 inches of ice. Other operators are out but not many others fishing in the area. Huts, equipment & service very good as usual. Catching was a bit slow for me but given it was a social party trip and my electronics crapped out on the first morning, everything was good. Caught some good sized perch with the largest 13 inches. Threw back about 50% of what we caught. Kept one herring to eat because we could. Ironic thing, after seeing herring every time perch fishing for the last 5 years, only saw one large herring shallow that wouldn't bite and the one we kept caught off the bottom. Ice surface was pretty rough with not much snow left. Probably none after todays rain.

I'd also add is I've seen photos and home movies of my wife's father filling bushel baskets of whitefish (no limits) but they looked like only 1-2 pounds, not the 4-5 pound average size today. They would dump salties and stay all weekend in the hut. Long ago lake trout were caught by pulling decoys up and spearing them when they were close. The huts had an opening for the top of the long spear to raise through. Tim Hales outfitter has a display of them.

I've fished Simcoe mostly for perch since the mid-80's. First no limit on them, fished in relatively more shallow water and usually easy to catch half-decent to good perch. I used a hand line and spreader with at least 10 pound line and # 6 hooks. The water then was definately not as clear as today and you could not see bottom in 25 FOW as you can today. Used to catch smelt regularly, but not lots unless fished at night. Now water is more clear (zebra mussels), fishing much deeper at times (40-50 FOW), using light line and small baits and the bite is usually tougher. Now I see more smaller fish but still get into large perch at times. There is still lots of forage fish in the lake to support the game fish. Herring are now too thick in the perch grounds for my liking.

30 inch, 11.75 pound pickerel out of Lake Simcoe the first time I went ice fishing (1989). I mostly ice fish for perch so big is only 1 pound.

Great video & set-up on the ice. Got to like big perch hitting agressively on big baits.

Thanks for the update. I have trip booked with a hut operator out of that area in 2 weeks. Looks like I'm cutting it close. I was down at the Beaverton harbour on Dec 28th on the way back from the cottage. At that time there was rough looking ice as far as you could see but that wasn't far as it was overcast and the island was not quite visible. Floyd Hales didn't have its trailer etc. set up,

Tim Hales if you're looking at the east side of the lake. Good huts, well maintained equipment & well run operation. Interesting old Simcoe fishing gear in the office. Maybe less numbers of perch than Cooks Bay but bigger average size.

I've been spooled by a salmon. My buddy was spooled by a sail boat.

The deeper the snow/more powder and heavier body weight you need more loft =wider/longer snowshoes but maybe harder to walk in. Icy and hills you want the crampons/cleats underneath. I use MSR Denali Clasics and a newer version. They are great for harder packed snow, climbing hiils and ice but not so good in deep powder snow. There are also the aluminum frame with decking and the traditional wood and gut decking types.

If the government decides it's legal to hunt and kill an animal, it's legal as long as the hunter does what the government regulates in terms of seasons, limits, methods etc. Personal ethics or beliefs dictate some animals are OK to hunt, some are not or even the usual I eat meat but disagree with hunting. I don't target predators as I won't eat them but have shot a coyote at close range in turkey season when he showed he wasn't afraid of me and wouldn't take off. I also let go a number of coyotes and didn't shoot when they took off immediately when they made me. I like dogs and for a long time didn't want to shoot a coyote as it looks like a dog even though I know it's competeing with me for the same game. All were personal ethics as killing them on a small game license is legal.

During the first week deer rifle hunt a fisher came down a hill behind me and got up on the same log I was sitting on maybe 20-25 feet away. It didn't even make me until I said hello and it then circled behind me, maybe sizing me up, before it split. I was suprised it was oblivious of me at first. A couple other hunters also saw one. We had a pine marten hanging out on the meat rack in camp a couple years ago but not in the last few years as the meat rack has since been almost bare.

I never worry about a big company or bank taking a loss for my gain. I always worry about the low paid employee who would be in trouble for making a mistake, probably money trouble. I've returned money to a bank teller and straightened out cashiers. More likely being over charged than under charged though and I watch for it.

I recently took a mushroom ID course. The spore print is important because there can be non-edible look-alikes that you tell apart from the diffrent spore print. If the spore print is light/white you need black/dark paper to see it. The way the gills are attached to the stalk or not, what the cap looks like, what the stalk looks like and whether it has a bulb at the bottom are important keys to look for and when using the guides. Younger mushrooms of the same species can look different than older ones. In the class someone brought in a "Destroying Angel" that is fatal 50% of the time. There were approx 3-4 really bad ones to avoid and a bunch that can just make you sick. So far I've eaten wild oysters and chanterelles this fall.

Never saw one in the flesh but saw lots of moose sign two springs ago in the Simcoe County Forest in Rama township off 169. Not that far from where you saw the calf.

Last weekend north Haliburton surface temp was 15C. Thought the lake trout would be active and staging on/around shoals for the spawn but only got bottom and a piece of wood to bite. Previous weekend caught a couple about 30 feet down. Last two years the bite reallly slowed down for me.