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I have a cottage on the lake. Easy to catch numbers of small smallmouth bass, challenging to catch a good one. I concentrate on lake trout, you need the right gear to target them although the odd one is caught relatively shallow in the sunmmer. A large number of brook trout were stocked awhile back, however I've only caught 2 and that was several years ago. Its a beautiful lake (I'm biased) with lots of side trip opportunities into other lakes by canoe or kayak.

There was talk a couple years ago of an extended bow only season for January in the higher density areas. Didnt happen and wont happen now because overall populations are down. May see more reduced number of antlerless and additional bow only tags here. I'd rather not kill a pregnant doe, better for the population to take her in the fall.

Fished for perch yesterday, some people were out on the whitefish grounds. Ice varied between estimated 4 to maybe 7 inches. Told it was open water a week ago. Ice surface very rough especially closer to shore, looks like it broke up and refroze. Challenging for walking and pulling sled as the sled hung up on the ice sticking up. Lots of slush under the ice also challenging. Light bite for the most part and slush was tough, caught 10 all 9-12 inch keepers and lost 2 nice ones at the hole in the slush. Fairly slow but lots of sun and nice to be on Simcoe again.

I spent new year's weekend up there as well, I am fortunate to have a cottage that backs on to the Haliburton Forest. I caught one small laker Friday afternoon and got skunked on Saturday in the one hour at -30C windchill without a shelter. Wish I was up there now.

Same as last post, watch the ice conditions. May not be safe at all this weekend. I've only fished it once for a few hours and got skunked. I was at the hwy 35 side south of the dam and inflow from 12 mile lake. I've seen people ice fish just below the inflow and pretty close to open water. There was a post of what to use a few days ago. I would try 20-60 feet off points and islands etc when you get out. I'll be driving by it Friday on the way to my cottage, our bay will probably have safe ice but the main lake wont.

White tubes and williams spoons as posted. Also the bad boyz-humpback creeper tipped with a micro tube-works on Simcoe and on Haliburton lakes. Last year best bait for me was a williams wabler hammered 1/2 & 1/2 tipped with a minnow. Fish can be anywhere in the water column and will chase a bait both going down and up. You can walk to laker and whitefish grounds from the west side of Simcoe.

Thanks. Not exactly sure as its a rental and someone else is organizing it. I've got a hydrographic map and dont mind searching for the perch. Depends on the day and weather and how far I want to walk.

Now that its almost hardwater season I thought it was safe to post an icefishing question. I'll be staying on Couch around Cumberland Beach mid-January. I've fished Couch in the early winter before out from Airport Rd on the east side close to the islands and did OK on the perch. Can anyone give me some directions on the west side? I will be walking. Walk straight out and start looking or are there any areas to concentrate on? Thanks.

I havent given up and I am going out again this afternoon. Most hunters I speak with saw and harvested this year 1/2 of what they did a couple years ago. I've only seen two deer and didnt have a shot at either. Two friends both harvested nice bucks on the first day of the December shotgun hunt however. Probably been discussed before, two long winters and high predator population. Both bait piles where I hunt had coyote crap near.

Great video. I can relate to "push him toward the road".

I've seen them live a few times in the 90's, once opening for the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Omar blew them away (at least on that night). Good texas guitar and B3 organ blues boogie. Havent heard of them recently but not following blues as much now.

Thanks phil65, I'll get the grey tremclad, didnt think I needed special marine paint.

I have a approx 10 yr old Honda 15HP outboard that most of the prop paint has worn off and needs repainting. I would think that first it needs to be sanded and de-greased and then painted or primed/painted. Is there any specific marine paint for this or can I just use something like Tremclad? Any suggestions? Thanks.

My experience for lakers is in the Haliburton area, not lake O. I try mostly the north shore of lakes where it warms up first and the usual points and drops into deep water from shallow, also creek mouths with inflow. I fish mostly by trolling shorelines close to shore because the fish are scattered, both long line and down to 15-25 ft. Mostly spoons in spring, minnow baits later on.

If its the Beech Lk off hwy 35 thats between Boshkung and Maple, I am familiar with it but not having fished it I dont have any spots. Maple is supposed to be good for bass and connected to it by river is Grass (Green) Lk. where there are walleye & muskie. Try the mouth of the river on either Maple or Grass.

Dont know about Simcoe but I do fish for lakers in the Haliburton area. Last weekend was good, water is cooling off and the fish shallower around shoals getting ready to spawn. Having said that alot of fish caught may be females, but maybe not an issue on Simcoe where is more put and take. Closes Sept 30th.

Thanks for the quick replies and info. I'm flying out from north of Sudbury and think its in WMU 39 Espanola (I'm not organizing the trip).

I am doing a fly-in moose trip around thanksgiving and will be on a tea stained lake with sm bass and pike in it. I fished a tea stained lake before for walleye and the best baits were lead head jigs and twistertails in orange, white, yellow and chartreuse. I am thinking along the same lines for colours for the bass and upsizing for the pike with some inline spinners and crank baits. The water will probably be colder as well. Any recommendations? Thanks.

Alcohol-the cause and solution for all life's problems. H. Simpson

Most of my fishing is for lake trout. My two (I have two favourites): williams c60 spoon in gold/silver hammered pattern and silver/black yozuri minnow bait,

I prefer the 3 1/2 in williams whitefish c60 to the williams wabler, bigger whitefish, flutter spoons and really any other spoon. This is the common vertical jigging spoon for Simcoe whitefish. I use it for lead core trolling for lake trout. I cant find it in any of the large retailers eg BP, Can Tire, LB. They have the larger C70 and wablers. Some smaller stores have them but seem to sell out fast. Anyone see these spoons for sale in the GTA-GTA north area? BTW -Haliburton area water was 9-10C, lots of black files and the trout I caught were down 40-50 feet. Dont know if they were shallow already or havent come up yet.

I do much of my soft water fishing for lake trout (avg. size around 2 lbs and 21 inches with the odd 4-5 lb fish) using a penn reel, daiwa 6 ft 6 lead core rod,. kerplunk 18 lb lb lead core and about 12 ft of mono. I find this set-up my most productive but heavy for the average fish. I used to use a penn "pool cue" rod but scrapped it for the daiwa. I know the rod has to have some backbone and wider line guides to handle the lead core. I fish close to shore most of the year where the depth changes quickly and there is also deep downed timber so I dont use a downrigger. I've tried wire line but prefer the lead core. Any recommendations for another lead core set-up that has some backbone but is appropriate for the smaller size average fish? Thanks.

Never fished it but I have a cottage on a neighboring lake about 20 minutes away. I would suspect its pretty similar to my lake, lake trout and smallmouth bass, rocky, deep, clean clear water, not much in the way of weeds and not much in the way of forage fish like minnows. I mostly fish around islands, points, drops, shoals (the usual). By July the lake trout will be down at least 35-50 feet. My lake is a pretty good trout lake but only good for numbers of bass. There is also the Halibuton Forest approx 10 minutes from Little Redstone, take a canoe in for lots of back lakes and scenery (daily fee however).

Nice fish. In early spring I get as many lake trout down 20-30 feet or 10 feet down suspended over deep water than I do in shallow water (less than 15 feet). I find them scattered all over and get most by trolling. I have caught the odd one shallow on a white tube. Its great to be out that first time on a quiet lake by yourself.

Thanks again. Looking forward to all day chill out BBQ sessions.