Gregoire

That's what I do from the GTA. If heading to the tri lakes I prefer to get off before Peterborough.

That is a healthy long fish. Did you measure it?

This year I have been out twice, and seen a few musky breaking the water. I have not seen a fish with it's entire head out of the water yet. One of the common explanations, as has been suggested, is that the musky, for whatever reason, is gulping air. The suggestion that it is looking to fill it's air sac seems as likely as any other.

If you gave him skates and a stick he would be more mobile than Phaneuf, or as a forward would probably play on the second line.

That would definitely keep it safe, as no same maritimer would dare touch it.

I'm wondering if the lobster meat id blue as well.

Now you are just rubbing it in. It's always good to see those pics again.

Thanks for sharing, that was a great report and I am envious.

That sounds like a heck of an experience. I echo the sentiment that posting a pic would not be a great idea, and am happy to hear that it was a water release. Maybe someday there will at least be a catch and release open season for these mammoths.

Good luck. If they are interested but not taking try changing up colours or retrieve speed.

Thanks for the reminder...I feel shame.

Thanks for the report. Too bad about the fishing, but at least you had some good times.

I know it was slow last weekend. It seemed like there was a very narrow time when they were active, and the rest of the time was just spent washing lures. I would just keep pounding spots where you know there are fish. If you know there are fish they will bite eventually.

I would love to see a pic of that beast.

Nice collection. I'm waiting to see your spinning combos and a drop shot rig.

I caught this guy casting for musky with a topwater

Love the Algonquin reports. Thanks for sharing.

I got a chance to go up to a friend from the board's cottage this weekend. John, extended me an invite to fish Saturday night and Sunday. When I got up to his place Saturday night, John was eager to go out, despite the fact that he had been up and pounding the water since 4:30. I was eager to get out, as it had been a long cold winter full of musky hunter and lure collecting. We hit the water for an evening fish, and I was ADD lure chucking. No more than 5 casts with a lure before I would put a new one on so I could see how my new toy was running in the water. After about an hour of that, I decided to get serious. Since there was a mayfly hatch going on, I decided to attach a topwater. After a few cast I felt a strike, but only a littel resistance. Thinking that it was an OOS bass, a lazily reeled the fish in. To my surprise I had landed the second topwater walleye of my life. Luckily for this guy he was fairly husky, and above the slot. Off he went to swim another day. That was it for the action. We retired to the warmth of the cottage for the night. I got to know his John's lovely wife, and started to realize how lucky he is. The next morning we slept in a bit. I got to meet John's talked a bit with John's two children, who are both as smart as whips. After hanging out for a bit we headed out for the day. It was not an easy day of musky hunting. We both threw everything in the box at them, and by the time we had stopped for a late lunch had seen a few, but had nothing to show for our efforts. After talking about our game plan at lunch we headed out with renewed energy, which was aided by the fact the we conveniently stopped during a brief but intense downpour. Feeling lucky to be fairly dry we started casting again. The ice was finally broken as John pulled in a smallish musky. No pic, and nothing to brag about, but we had broken the ice. After casting for a few more hours John handed me a lure that had landed the only musky on Saturday. I took two or three casts with it, but being my stubborn self I though one of my shiny new lures was better, and handed it back to John. On his second cast he had a violent hit. Fish on, and it had some size to it. I fumbled with the net... I fumbled with the trolling motor, I almost booted the net job, but we landed him. A nice 40 incher. The lure was caught in the side of the net, but out came the knippex hook cutters, and the fish was quickly released. For all of you who fish musky, and those of you who don't, Sunday was a great example of why the proper release tools are needed. The smaller fish inhaled the hooks, and the bigger fish was caught up in the net. The minutes it would have taken to pry the hooks from these two fished faces probably would have been fatal, but cutters made quick work of it, and both fish were out of the water for less than 30 seconds. After attaching new hooks, which is quite easy with split ring plyers, John got to casting again, and immediately hooked up again, with the lure that I snubbed my nose at. Unfortunately the fish spit the hook. All in all it was a good day, if not a humbling one for me. I wish there was less text, and more pics in this report but Sunday was a weird day. It seemed like there was a brief feeding window of about a half hour or so. Outside that window the fish did not seem active. Thanks to John for a great day fishing. I will go back to the drawing board in the hopes that on my next trip I get to feel the violent strike of a musky.

I went out and discovered a new way to catch trophy walleye. My secret lure is a topraider.

I understand your sentiment on this topic, and think that the MNR is headed in that direction, especially in terms of the Atlantics and to some degree the bows. I do disagree with you though. The deep water trolling industry, especially in Lake Ontario, is mainly a sport fishing industry. The derby puts a lot of boats in the water and a lot of money in people's pockets. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the MNR is stocking more Atlantics than it ever has. From talking to some charter and derby guys, it seems that they are the ones spearheading the King stocking program. I do not think that they will stock more of the other species, as it is the King fishing industry that keeps them in business and puts them on the water.

Thanks for sharing, but this thread would have been more suspicious if it was subtitled "downtown from from Parliament to Jarvis"

Nice report. Thanks for sharing.

If you are looking at a combo to burn bucktails you should be looking at Avet reels. They fit into your price range but are non level wind and have a lever drag, so a bit different from a conventional musky reel. If you want to go more expensive shimano makes an ocea jigger in lefty, but it is 500+. If you just want to pull in big blades easily I would agree with PABMusky and go with the winch. I just bought one and will be using it this weekend. I have heard from several people that it makes pulling in the big blades effortless.

Thanks for sharing

Are you a righty or a lefty?