Rich

I gotta admit, I take advantage of my legal right and use barbed hooks almost all the time. Why? For the same reason I use a flippin' stick for bass, braided line and sharp hooks - it increases my odds of putting fish in the boat. However for trout I often do go barbless, and any of my musky lures with trebles have the barbs pinched down. Safety thing for the muskies, and trout tend to get injured easily and I don't really care so much if I land them or not.

It's hard not to do well on Balsam. Big spinnerbaits, deep weedlines! Cast or troll, trolling seems more productive for me personally.

Pike are great scavengers, in fact they say the best bait for big pike is cut or dead bait on or near bottom through the ice. I don't see why it wouldn't work in the summer.

I simply take them home and rinse them off in distilled water, then freeze them in whatever container is convenient. I tie enough bags for each day and keep the rest frozen. Works well enough for me.

I've experimented with other types of eggs and never had any success, only thing I had was one time tied pike skein just for fun lol and caught a small resident brown. You're best off with the real deal. But, I'd love to be proven wrong. Give it a try.

SP and I did a runaround looking for salmon in local tribs yesterday, the pinks we saw last week are all gone, didn't see any chinook or cohos yet but I did see a small bow jump at one spot. The minnows are up thick so the salmon ought to be up too, maybe I just wasn't lookin' or casting hard enough.

Gotta love those small urban water bodies. Much tougher to catch a big bass there than in a huge lake. My hat's still off to the wife!

Next time I'll just bet on carp fishing instead my poor withered hands!

Technically the first day you can't legally fish trout is October 1st, so I wouldn't fret too much.

If the bass were there first, he fed them 400 beauty trout for breakfast one morning.

Aw come on, I get all my information from OFC!

Yeah, creek chubs are like fleas here. Though I must say I've seen the biggest ones of my life here in Simcoe. I caught a 15 incher a couple years back.. I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't some sort of cross-bred trout. lol

The Grand is a close 2nd for most polluted rivers... and it's full of fish. Give it a shot.. and wear gloves. lol

Great stuff as always!

Bronte's where I'd be if I lived there!

Took a little bit of time on my day off to fish, it sure felt good to wet a line after so much "dry time". Just hit up a whole slough of local carp spots. My first spot is completely silted in, not sure what happened there but it blows because it used to be a reliable spot for bigger ones. Now the whole just barely out of casting range and when I climbed up on the side of the ravine just for a look I didn't spot any cruisers. Usually see 4 or 5 in that spot. Anyway, I did manage a whopper chub minnow in that spot. Next spot was Simcoe's toilet where I first spotted a little guy feeding who was glad to suck in my offering. Quick fight and quick release, no need for a pic. THEN I spotted a BRUISER for the Lynn, we're talking between 15 and 20 pounds. It was in a group of 3 following a flock of geese up the river. I got my corn in front of her and she sucked it up. I actually had an audience of local passers-by for this fight. She ran wayyyy down river first, under a bridge where I thought for sure she'd be gone, but soon enough she came back and ran wayyyy UP river this time, no snags up there so no worries. Then she came back right across the river from me and made a turn for the worst. There is a small ditch that flows off the Lynn around a pedestrian bridge, not sure why it's there, but anyway, she ran right into that ditch and around the bend and my 6lb test just couldn't stand up to a wall of concrete as she went around the corner and out of eyesight. There was a huge "AWWWW" by my audience at that point of about 6 people, lol After sucking it up I continued searching for sight-feeders and couldn't find any. So I headed to the magic dam where Sugarpacket and I spent many winter's days. The water was murkier here so I couldn't spot any with my polarized goggles. I tossed my corn out, stuck my rod in some chain link and had a smokeroo. My smoke was interrupted however as the rod started pumping and I landed my final carp of the day, a dinky little 2 pounder. At this point SP was almost done work and I had to be a good little housewife and run home to do dishes and make dinner. Grandma was nice enough to take Splenda last night just so I could get a little fishing in before my next incredible stretch of work days. Now I sit and only dream of fishing again.. amazing how when I was fishing everyday I took this carp fishing for granted. Stick me behind a cutting board for a couple weeks and suddenly this little carp trip was a memorable excursion. Can't wait for next time!

For salmon I just use a 7 foot medium action spinning rod and 8lb test. I don't bust out the float gear until the steel moves up.

And it begins.. the great fall salmon hunt. On the brightside, at least they used fishing rods and not pitchforks.

Bright body baits dude. Get on 'em

I'm glad someone else said it first.. definitely a rainbow, and a good one! Nice work!

I like carp fishing in January personally.. Keep at it dude! Some days they skunk the best of us.

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/bmb3d.jsp Kinda challenging.. nothing like real fishing but a good time waster, lol

I didn't even know there were 'eyes in there. Good to see! Thanks for the report.

If you're cryin' about global warming please turn off your computer right now, unplug all electronics and sell your vehicle. Since nobody can feasibly do that these days, then I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see what happens with the global warming. I agree factories, hydro facilities, etc. should not be polluting as much as they do, and things can be done to cut way down on pollution. These things should be done. Do I believe if we don't, everyone will freeze or the world will explode? Nope. But I do believe it'll hurt the environment, the lakes where we all fish. This is still a fishing site right?