Fisherpete

For rip jigging I use a 6'7" MH Rapala TS2 - I think it is actually supposed to be a jerkbait rod, but it is very light and suporisingly sensitive to hits - and stiff enough to rip thru the weeds really well (I use it on Rice). Was only around $50. Pete

Thanks Greg - will be making another post shortly with fish that others have caught in my boat or while I was in theirs.. I'm sure you will be making a few appearances! Same goes for you Andrew... remember that little one from LOTW that you caught in 2012?

Thanks man! Love hunting these toothy critters... just wait until you get into your first big one. Then the real fun begins! Spending a week in the west arm of Nip will certainly give you a great shot at a giant.

I followed the lead of Mike and others and have added a guided day of fishing with me as an auction item Dunnville catfish (2 guests) Kawartha muskies (1 guest) Lake Ontario Salmon and Trout (1 guest) Your choice!

Thanks for the kind words Ryan - and glad to have you back! There's a spot for you in my boat whenever you want to try your hand at Kawartha muskies. As for mid range SUV... I would not recommend my Escape as a tow vehicle - it does OK with my boat, but my boat/trailer/motor etc. is probably around 1000lbs. Andrew (Lunkerhunter here on the board) does very well with his Nissan X-Terra... pulls his 18ft Princecraft around pretty well, even up the ramp in Dunnville in March. Welcome to the world of musky addiction THERE IS NO CURE

Yeah I was going to say it looks like a rod for fishing pockets in the weeds, or for panfish like crappie? Either way, very neat!

I doubt it would leak, it is similar to a cell phone battery... Li-Ion... but I guess only time will tell. The camera owes me nothing, it has taken thousands of pictures and quite a few underwater videos... and it was only $150 to start with! Like Ivan Drago said in Rocky IV... "If he dies... he dies..." LOL

I was a sucker on a previous camera... which was high end at the time in 2003 (Canon G3), and paid $110 for a second battery from Future Shop when I bought it... never again!

I have had my Fuji XP10 camera now for a few years, and the battery would no longer hold a charge. I looked around, and to get the same replacement Fuji battery would be between $40 and $60... yikes! Found a dealer on Ebay that carries aftermarket ones... with higher capacity (1200 mAh vs the stock 700)... the price - $3.69 each! Two of them to my door, including the shipping, for $10.60. Tested one out yesterday - took over 100 shots and the battery still read full! Happy camper!

Wow, very nice pickereyes there Steve! Pete

Wow - now that is a greaser!!! Love the dark colouration too. Congratulations! Pete

Sweet video and a couple nice ones there! Pete haha Brian beat me to sweet by a few seconds

LOL sorry Mr. Borger, I will try do better next time! Clive - that was in November 2012 - I think you were still in NB then? But would love to have you in my boat this year now that you are local again! I'll PM you my cell number. It was funny - I almost didn't go that day when I saw the forecast... glad that I did! Thanks Cliff! I will be spending more time this summer on 'big fish' water - so it should happen!

Sweet - sounds good!

Haha good one How about this one:

That's exactly it Mike... in LOTW both times I saw numerous 50+ fish - had a bunch of them chasing on figure 8's... just no takers yet. I lost one fish here in the Kawarthas that I suspect may have made that magical mark as well. I do find that in the past few seasons as the size of my lures has increased that I am seeing bigger fish more frequently as well. They are here in my home waters, just few and far in between. I'm planning some time on LSC for the summer, that should give me a shot... maybe another trip or two to the Larry as well (hint hint LOL)!

LOL Joey... it's a great place to be when not on the water! A few weeks ago John (cowanjo) mentioned that he wanted to see more fishy posts... so I had it in the back of my head since then to do this post!

JBailey - sorry for the late reply, missed your question. There was at least 9 or 10" of ice on my last trip to Simcoe - 6 or 7 black and 3 white. I'm sure even more after the cold weather in the past two weeks. If you are talking about that thin ice pic - my buddy said it was less than 2" in that spot with 5" less than 50 feet away! Scary stuff. Quinte had around 5 or 6 inches but that was almost a month ago.

Part 3 My first LOTW muskie - 42" Heavy 44" that gave me one of my best fights to date 46" beauty from Sept 2013 Personal best falls again - September 2010 - made a bomb cast along a weedline, and watched the lure coming up towards the boat when this fish rocketed up from the depths and almost ripped the rod right out of my hands at boatside. Insane boatside battle followed. This fish was MEAN and I mean MEAN. Even looks mean. Love it. 48 inches of gnarly. Personal best falls again - November 28th, 2012. Solo trip in a blizzard - could only troll on this day the waves were so bad. It was so cold out the camera (which is supposed to be a 'tough' water/shock/freezeproof) would not turn on. Managed a few pics and a video clip on my crappy phone - but once again, nobody in the boat to capture my moment for me. Water temps were 38F and this fish hit hard - then came in without too much drama. Good thing too, because my Stowmaster net would not open properly - but I somehow managed to get her to swim in the foot wide opening in the V. Lip hooked by one prong of one treble... everything was against me but got her in the boat somehow. Was this finally my 50"? Nope - 49.5" with a tail pinch. And the quest continues... Release video And finally my heaviest muskie to date - from my LOTW 2013 trip - 48" and thick from head to tail. I actually had a pretty hard time holding this fish up for pictures. Thought for sure she was a 50 in the net but was not even disappointed when she was not - just in a total different class than any muskie I have caught before. Tight lines all - and may 2014 be the year of the 50"

Part 2 NIce looking average fish, just like the pic again taken by my son 42" from 2013 caught at sunset Speed trolling worked on this one 43.5" from 2013 PB tiger @ 41". Such beautiful fish! Wacky worming a dock for bass... lift the worm out of the water, muskie comes flying at the worm and misses - heard the jaws snapping open and closed in mid air!!! Throw back a spinnerbait and she eats it. 46" October beauty trolling deep water Nice tiger with the craziest set of teeth ever Reward for fishing a tough fall day End of day beauty Fat October 43.5" Pair of nice clean fish - 2 in 10 minutes Nice 42" from a 4 fish day Who says you have to go to St. Clair to catch a spotties? Clean 39" 42" right before a thunderstorm smacked us

9 years on OFC, wow... time truly flies. Just would like to say thanks to all the great people I have met and fished with on this site, many have become good friends. As many of you know, muskie fishing is my passion. I started muskie fishing in 2003, and have evolved quite a bit from an Ugly Stik Lite, 8lb Fireline and Mepps #5 kinda guy. So, to make this 1000th post a special one, here's a collection of some of my babies from the past 10 years. The first - a 35 incher - being a perch, bass and walleye guy, this fish seemed like an absolute monster to me. It sure fought like crazy on that 7' Ugly Stik Lite, and hit a blue fox #4 if memory serves. This is the fish that hooked me on these creatures! 45 incher - September 2003. That 35 incher that started it all was dwarfed by this beast. I was fishing for walleye, and had already caught a bunch that day on a Mepps #4. Guess she wanted an after dinner mint and ate my offering... I had a replica of her made at Advanced Taxidermy thinking this was the biggest I would ever catch... well it did stand as my personal best for a few years but not any more! The. second pic, which is my avatar, remains as one of my favourite pictures. 43.5 incher - glass calm day, great battle A couple nice ones from a six fish day 43.5" that had amazing colours Fished Sturgeon Lake for the first time - launched the boat around noon, and started trolling towards the first area we had picked on a map to fish - rod starts screaming! This 44" that gave me the worst cut I have ever had from a bite. Bled like a tap for a very long time. I took the picture below without incident, and was showing my brother how to hold a muskie by the gill plate when she thrashed and got me. I actually had to stop fishing and drive the boat to the cottage my brother was staying at and patch myself up.Turned out to be a crazy day for numbers as my brother and I went on to land 8 - but the second biggest was only a 37". Golden beauty - 43.5" - and the nice pic was taken by my son who was only 9 or 10 at the time! What happens when you skip watching the Leaf home opener and go for a solo evening trip? You catch a personal best and get a crappy pic of her on the floor of the boat. I was pretty ticked off. She taped out at 47" and was heavy too. Really crazy hit too... my lure just stopped dead - thought I had snagged a log on bottom. Nothing but weight for a good 5 seconds until I set the hook a second time - then the fun began. Ever used a cradle solo on a 47" missile? Good thing she was hooked well... Still a wee bit bitter about the lousy pics of my PB a few days before, I hit the same lake and pulled out another 47"! Not nearly the same girth however. Caught on one of OFC's own luremaker's creations - one of Clive's Rockstar inline spinners! Flawless 40" November fish with girth Heavy, heavy 46" that fought like a freight train Beautiful 45.5" - the fish that started a pattern for me in 2010 that would lead to a 109 muskie season Nice 42" that took the sting out of four hooked and lost fish that day First tiger continued

Another vote for Torbram electric - I used to run a restaurant that had many different kinds of lighting and they had all the different bulbs. You can even buy by the case if I remember correctly. I used the Scarborough location, not sure if they have others. Their prices were very good. My brother is a contractor and had an account there - I used his account - probably why the prices were good for me.

What do you get when you cross OFC with Pink Floyd? "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?" "Lew! Yes, Lew behind the boathouse, stand still laddy!" Man do I need some sleep LOL

Thanks all! Hoping to get out again this weekend.

A few fishies from the first few trips on the ice this year… Quinte – Andrew and I caught 5 each – my first 5 eyes thru the ice. My new digs for this winter. 3 man Eskimo pop up. Love all the room inside. Mmmmmmm propane flavoured weeeeeeeiners… nice to have something hot to eat while out there! Simcoe Sketchy first ice… was 5” in one spot, then this 50ft away! Nice one by Andrew Beauty by Scott – top secret lure (not really) sworn to secrecy LOL Took my brother out for lakers for the first time – and he catches this on the first drop after I tutor him on how to catch one using the sonar… 33.5” that he fought to the hole, then had it run all the way back to the bottom in 110’! I got skunked that day while rassling with my sonar. Also got to meet two legends of the lake for the first time out on the ice – Brian and Terry – great to meet you! Next trip – my sonar issues now solved – I hooked 4 lakers, landed one 5-6 pounder, lost another at the hole and two halfway up. Probably had around 20 chasers throughout the day. Only marked what I am pretty sure was whities a few times throughout the day and could not get one to bite. It was my brother’s turn to get skunked, although he had 15+ chasers as well. Walking through the slushfest was a good workout on this day. Beauty day out there, very mild – I never went in the hut once thru the day. Lovin’ the ice this year! Can't wait for one of those banner days when the chasers are all hungry!