NAW

Good job putting your buddy on the fish of a lifetime.!!

That's great news man! Congrets. My first is due Sept 3rd! Seeing this post has got me excited. But 9.2lbs have got me a little scared for my wife

I was thinking about fishing there this summer a little. Know that I live just down the road.

I've heard there are a few good spots for pike in the area.

I use a thermarest too, and have the same problems. I find a mickey of vodka helps me sleep. And another in the morning to get ride of the neck/shoulder pain.

My wife has a bad back, so when she comes camping, we take one of the big double wide blow up matresses. They are a little bulky, but in all reality, they compress down just as small as my thermarest. Even with the little air pump, it's still the same size or smaller them my thermarest when packed up.

And they are cheap!

I'm interested to see some of the replies to this. Good post!

As for loosing your whole season.. Your from Inissfill right? There lots of ice if you go an hour north! But I hear ya, I'm realling craving some Simcoe white fish

Love the background music.

A couple of Ontario kids. GTA I think..

That combo looks like it's ready to go fishin with Mercman! You should take it out Musky fishing this summer

I've been on this board for a few years now. And that is the most well organized plea for a fishing partner I've ever seen!

I don't fit your criteria.. But I'm sure you'l find someone willing to tag along for a few weekends.

But if you're ever heading to Simcoe for a troll and need a partner. Fire me a PM! I might have a hole in my schedule.

You gotta love the warm weather days eh! And you found to schools of fish to. Nothing to complain about!

Awesome weekend nick, great pics, eats, and fun and best of all your going to be a DADYYYYYYYYY, congrats to both you and mel!!!! next year at the GTG we can swap kiddie stories!

Thanks Kev!

It took a lot of will power not to tell you about the good news a few weeks ago at the G2G. Seeing that play pen in your ice hut gave me some really good ideas!!

Now that is truly a family day report. Nice specks!

Thanks Joey! I used lots of the pointers from the comments in your speck hunting post during that trip. It definitely helped me ice those specks

What's a bass?

Nice! Looks super comfy! Glad your getting some good use out of it.

Awesome report bud,and the last part of the post is great news. Congrats to you and Mel.

 

Good thing you have a deer stand close.LOL

Thanks Brian!

Ya.. Good thing my stand is close. I'll be able to hear the baby crying from my stand

I gotta admit Nick...i scrolled to the end of the report to find out the news

No worries Simon! That's why I put the short form version

Congrats Nick and Mel. You are gonna make a GREAT dad.

Thanks Blair! I sure hope so..

Great post and congratulations, Nick!!!!! Specks and crappies, mmmmmmm...two of my favorites on the plate.

Ya, I had some really good eats this weekend!

Great report. A couple of successful outings. Time with family, and at the end, the best news in the world. Five words that make most men feel they're on top of the world; "I'm gonna be a DAD"

Thanks Bruce! "on top of the world" is an understatment!!

AWESOME Family Weekend Report N.A.W.!!! And a HUGE congrats on the baby - I'm so happy for you guys after trying for 2.5 years! Best of luck with everything!

I appreciate that! I just have my fingers crossed that everything works out.

Epic report. Wonderful time and great pics

Well, I don't know about Epic. But thanks Joey!! I'm glad you liked the pictures!

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks!

Glad you had a good weekend to! The weather was fantastic. To have 3 days in a row, you really can't beat that

I shudder to think of how this guy could drive out on that ice with his whole family in the truck!! Glad to hear they all made it out safely, but the driver needs a swift kick in the

 

S.

X2..

That's how everyone should act. Good on ya!

I just read this entire post.. What the heck is going on man? Is the line banging off your fingers as it comes off the spool?

You need a little "reel cam" to record what's going wrong. You know, like the gold professionals. It's obviously in the technique. I've only ever had a birds nest on a spinning set up a hand full of times, all because of spooling backwards, or crappy swivels.

Thanks Mercman!

Sorry to here about you and Barb. Thank god you live in Quebec! My fingers are crossed for you

Short Version:

This family day weekend was great. I went on my first speck hunt, and had success. Did a little crappie fishing, and cough more crappie then I ever have in my life. Plus my fishing partner had a PB Crappie. Had dinner with my in-laws, and a good'ol fish fry with my side of the fam. And I went coyote hunting for the first time ever. And though we didn't get any dogs, we had some come in just outside of gun range. See pics bellow for more details!

Long Version:

I usually try to keep my reports somewhat brief. My grammar is horrific, so the shorter the better. But this report is something special to me. I have a very big personal announcement to make, but you'l have to wait until the end to find that out.

My family day weekend started off on Friday, when I had to work late...What else in knew :wallbash:

Saturday:

My fishing partner has been talking about going on a speckle trout hunt for a few weeks now. He did a bunch of research, and picked a new lake that he's never been to. Either of us have been on a hard water speck hunt before. We set off a 5:30 on Saturday, headed to the Algonquin park area (not in the park though). 2.5km hike to the spot. It turns out the trail was all packed down by snowmobiles, thank god, because I forgot my snowshoes!! The first few spots where a bust, but we finally managed a few fish. Nothing big, but prefect size for eating! I think I might get addicted to this speck hunting. It's so peaceful out there. The exact opposite of Simcoe.

Here's a few pics from Saturday.

The one speck's eye is a little mangled cuz I missed my mark with the club, and shanked his eye by accident..

My god, these are one of the tastiest fish on earth

Sunday:

We headed out to our Crappie hole for the morning. Both of us had family functions planned for the following day, and we each promised a fish fry.. So the pressure was on to catch some slabs. It took a while to find them, but once we did, I iced about 30 Crappie. They where all small, and about half where thrown back, but I did keep 15 for a fish fry. My fishing partner iced a few as well, including two titan 14" crappie. Once I got home from fishing it was off to the in-laws for dinner. My mother in law can COOK..

Here's us with our feed for the day

Me with Steve's fish

Here's diner at the in-laws. Delish!! And I drank almost all of their beer

I asked for extra whip-cream with desert. Somewhere in there is a piece of"wallnut and Ricotta" cake

After dinner we sifted through some old stuff they had kicking around. They where going to throw out this old book. I thought it would look good on the book shelf at home, so I scouped it up!

Monday:

In the morning I had a ton of house work to do, then clean 15 Crappie. My mom, sister, brother in-law, and their two boys (2 and 4) came over for a fish fry. We had fried crappie, chicken wings, shrimp, and taters. I'm tellin ya, those little boys love fish! Like clockwork, my family left, and as they where pulling out of the drive way, a few of my co-workers pulled in, all loaded up for coyote hunting. It was a first time event for all three of us. We tried all sorts of stuff, but couldn't get the dogs to come in to shooting range. We did hear them coming close though. After they left, I went and sat in one of my tree stands to watch the sunset. I managed to get a few dogs to come in to about 200 yards, but didn't have a clean shot through the trees. I did get a few scenery shots for you to see, but no coyotes!

Here's my lunch (before the shrimp came out of the oven)

My nephew loves ketchup..

The gang enjoying time together.

Maybe we went over board, cuz we all left with full stomachs, and this was the left overs!

And rather then dead coyotes, here's some scenery shots.

This is on the way out of our first Coyote hunting spot.

And here's the view from my tree stand.

Had we killed a coyote it would have been a perfect weekend, but I'm not complaining. The weather was incredible, I got a sun tan, and I got to spend lots of time with my family! That's was this weekend is all about right?

And to top it all off. As a few of you may know, my wife Mel and I have been trying to have a baby for a long time now. It's been 2.5 years of practice with not even a sign of success. I have to admit, it's getting a little stressful. However, as of today, my wife is 12 weeks pregnant!!! I'm going to be a DAD!!! YYYEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAA I've been holding of on telling my friends per the doctors orders. He told us to wait until 12 to 13 weeks. Today is the exactly 12 weeks, so now I can tell everyone. The due date is September 3rd.

Thanks for reading my post. Sorry for the crappie grammer, and the poor cell phone pictures!

No offence.. But how can you fail these tests.

Get the book. read it a few times. Study!!! Then write the exam. No problem.?

Welcome aboard Kris.

Wow.. Bruzer.

One guy looks like he's wearing chest waders, and the other a wet suite??