NAW

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??

Nice job man! Your becoming a pro!

Nice pics! Too bad about that soldier.. that really sucks

Great thread Joey! I'm going on my first ever speck hunt this weekend. I've absorbed the comments above, and hopefully will be able to post up a report come Sunday Funny thing is. I was going to post the same thing earlier today, but didn't think I would get enough feed back in the short time period before I left for the back lake.

I wish I wasn't so overwhelmed with work, or I would have also made the drive down. But from the little that I new Tony, I think he would understand what a heavy work load is all about. That guys cell phone was ringing none stop for a good while at the Nip G2G.

That's what I was thinking, but there are some many knock off's these days. The only real Meegs I've seen are warn out, with no paint left on them.

Love it. Is it wrong that I'm already getting excited for the fall duck hunt

Don't you need numbers and registration on any hut left over night? Never seen numbers on a flip up clam before.

Congrets Juli! That's a beast.

Well written. Thanks for the report! We've all has that feeling before.

It sounds like you know what you need to do Alex. It's going to be rough, but you will make it out in good shape, I'm sure of that! Being the man of the house is nothing to be afraid of. Just take it one step at a time. Edit.. If you have any pictures of your old man holding some big fish, you should post them up! P.S. When I was talking to your dad a few weeks ago, he could stop talking about how great of a son you are. He was proud of you, and your achievements.

I went for a walk this morning in my bush. Ended up walking across a frozen river (I thought). Took a plunge up to my neck. Had to walk 1.5km home soaked to the core.. Seeing you that close to open water made me cringe a little.

Great report Chad! I was gone all day Saturday. So instead of hitting the ice today, I decided to hang out with my wife for the first time since Christmas!

Stay strong Alex. If you need anything, fire me a PM. Even if you just wanna go cast a few lure this summer. We're all here for you.!

I was looking for the same links Blair. Here's a video of Tony and Alex releasing a slot pickerel.. http://s944.photobucket.com/albums/ad282/guertin/?action=view&current=100_0037.mp4

Oh my god. This is horrible. I feel sick to my stomach. I'm so sorry Alex that you have to go thru this. I had a long talk with Tony about his new 2-up snowmobile. He was very excited to get out on the trails, and do some exploring. Man....This really sucks.

Nice job Dan! Healthy looking fish.

I see I'm on the list, but no size. Mark me down for a Large please. If there are going to be two be two colours, then please up me to 2 large shirts, one black, and one a different colour. But only if there are two different colours to choose from.