Fisherpete

Well, my laker curse has finally been broken on closing day (March 15th, 2009). Thanks to the advice of a really nice guy named Lawrence who I met on the Simcoe board and then out on the lake, and the use of an ultralight setup with nothing more than a splitshot and minnow on 4lb line, I finally managed to get my first few lakers on closing day. Brought my son Nick - oops I mean Fishernick - out with me and he shared my fun day, although he is more of a perch guy (needs constant action to not get bored out there). The weather was beautiful, the company was good, what more can a guy ask for! Maybe it is the new auger... I haven't been skunked yet since getting it, and have had my best days for both whities and lakers! GCD - for the tourney, do we measure the fish from nose to the fork or to the tip of the tail? The bigger Laker was 22.5" nose to tip, 22" nose to fork. HEY - that 1/2" might matter in the end LOL! The pics...

Nice to meet you out there today Joey, thanks for those minnows! The ones that were working for us today were quite a bit smaller than those, but they made good chum bits! I'll post our report later once I have some time to upload the pics. I finally got my first (and then second) laker ever today... woohoo! GCD... some inches for the Tourney are on the way! (Laker)

Camillj - I felt lucky just getting the auger in the first place - one, that the wifey actually said "Go ahead, that's a really good deal", which it was ($275 vs $550), and second that Canadian Tire actually had it in stock when I went there! Hey GCD! No, sadly I rarely bring the camera when flying solo... wish I had! Don't know if I would have taken a pic with the whitey left flopping around on the ice either since it was being released... I didn't have my OFC logo either, but both will be along on Friday's outing!

Blaque - whitefish like to wear bright red lipstick, just in case the fisherman whe gets them gives them a smooch. They are very sexy fish LOL. Seriously though - I don't know why they have such red mouths... maybe related to them bleeding from the gills sometimes since they are often caught and brought up from really deep water. p.s. Steve - I am still troutless LOL!!! But see my whiteys report from Monday, had a great day!

With my new 10" Jiffy Stealth STX auger from the CT sale in tow, I headed out solo on Monday morning from BBP. The day started out on the right foot - I got a legal parking spot! All I can say is HOW did I do without a power auger before! I quickly learned (after a soaker) to throttle down once the auger breaks thru the ice LOL... On my second hole drilled, I found 94ft of water and started fishing. Within 5 minutes, I had two nice whities flopping on the ice, around 3lbs each... they were so aggressive, that as my lure sank down, I watched them fly up from the bottom and smash it around 15 feet off the bottom! Another soon hit, I fought it to the hole and lost it when my spoon hooked the edge. Two more came right after that, bigger ones, a 4lb and 5lb, which both went back down the hole and swam straight down. The 5lb one had my entire Williams (sz 60) inside it's mouth! Not the easiest to remove from a whiteys mouth... I ended up clipping off the side hooks. Think it was hungry??? So far, 30 minutes 4 landed, 1 lost... Maybe a 10 minute gap, then THUNK! A really hard hit, and my reel starts screaming drag... I am thinking that maybe my first laker? Maybe even a big one? A 5 minute fight, and nope, no laker, but a TANK of a whitey comes up thru the hole! I would estimate this one to be at least 7lbs, maybe even 8. I was glad that I had bought a 10" auger, because there was no way this one would have fit thru the 6" hole that my old manual auger would have made. After that, I fought and lost one more, and then landed and released another 4lb whitey. So, in one hour (9:30am-10:30am), I had gone 6/8, including my personal best Whitefish! Guess what I caught for the rest of the day? NADA! Had two more hits, but that was it. Stayed at that spot for another hour, then tried all different depths from 40ft to 110ft with no luck. MNR came by for a visit, took some scale samples and a bone sample from my whiteys. Both of the fish I kept were naturals (no fin clips). They said that one other guy out there had a small trout, everyone else had nothing! I guess I had the lucky spot for the day! (which is now marked on my GPS woohoo! ) That hour was the most fun I have ever had ice fishing! Going to get out once more on Friday to try and break my laker curse. There was still lots of ice out there, probably 18" or so. A few guys were still driving their trucks out there, maybe a little sketchy when looking at areas of the shoreline.

I only use new 1lb tanks... I am going to try the compressed air trick tonight. Heading out tomorrow so I will test the results.

Thanks guys, looks like Monday will be a go...

Anyone head out from there today? I'm planning to go up Monday, hopefully all this rain doesn't trash the walk-on access too much... anyone who heads out Sunday please let me know how it was! Thanks...

Great, thanks guys. I'll try the fix and post the results later.

Well, I have a HAPPY Cdn Tire story today... I started checking online last night around midnight, and supposedly the Markham & Lawrence location in Scarborough had all 5 Jiffy models that Cdn Tire carries in stock... all the other stores around my area were either out of stock or "call store for details". I had my doubts, but just the same was there this morning as they opened the doors at 9am... there were about 50 people lined up outside just waiting to get in... I thought "This feels a lot like Boxing Day!" and watched a bunch of them literally run into the store, but WOOHOO none of them went towards the ice fishing section They DID have all 5 models in stock... exactly one of each model... including the one I wanted - the 3hp STX 10" for $274.99... SWEET! They also had lots of 5", 6" and 8" swedebore manual augers too for $35... I almost bought one as a backup! Had about a dozen rod & reel combos available... a few shelters (Frabill Outback?) They had the sleds too, a few pairs of the ice cleats and tons of lures & ice line too! So... $375 later, I have a brand new kick-bum auger, a half-dozen new lures, some Power Pro Ice line, a new sled, a HT rod bag and one sweet set of HT ice cleats. SOMEONE MAKE THE RAIN STOP AND TURN THE THERMOSTAT BACK DOWN OUTSIDE PLEASE!!!!! It'll be pretty sad if I don't even get a chance to fire that puppy up before the season ends!

Anyone else frustrated with theirs? I find mine constantly going out, every bump or slight breeze in the portable seems to make it go out. I had a Coleman one before, I think it was called the sportcat, which was much better at staying lit - but also at melting jacket sleeves LOL! The Mr. Heater does pump out a lot of heat... WHEN IT STAYS ON! Anyone have any tips on fixing this or on modifying/improving the heater?

I absolutely love my 30hp Honda 4 stroke. A friend of mine bought a 2 stroke 25hp Merc at the same time I got mine - and after fishing the past few seasons from both boats he wishes he had spent the extra $ and went with a 4 stroke.

That's wasabi. They serve it with Sushi.

My cottage is on Rice... I feel your pain. I don't know the exact tourney schedule, but know that there is quite a few in July.

The guy in the next hut over did OK, I didn't notice the number of his hut. He got two nice whitefish and said he was marking them all day. He was using minnows & spreaders with a high hook. My hut was #14 according to my son.

It does seem as if there have been more vehicles going thru this year. I have personally seen 4 frozen into the ice during my travels this season. I have witnessed many people out there this year that REALLY should not have been out there with their vehicles - you do need to know some basic ice safety rules to be safe. The whole Willow beach/Jackson's Point area is almost like a highway out onto the lake at times - you see guys blasting straight out and over cracks, weak spots, etc. with no hesitation - which to me means they don't really know to avoid these areas. They see everyone else driving and figure that it's OK for them too... sad and scary when one goes thru... sad for the lake too when all that oil,gas and other various contaminants leaks out.

Hey guys - sorry, I posted the ad in the classifieds but only have a few hours to get them sold - so if anyone is a Raptors fan please go check it out - the tickets are really good! (Platinum Club)

Went out with my son to Hank's huts today (Jackson's Pt. Lake Simcoe), caught no fish but had a great experience overall. He took us out to the 'far' huts in 85 ft of water. After trying everything in my arsenal for six hours with no luck (and no marks on the finder) I finally feel some weight on the end of my line while jigging a Williams half and half. Strange, as I am bringing it up I definately feel some good weight, but no headshakes, no runs... well, lo and behold, I pull up a head & carcass of a big laker (probably 10 lbs+) that someone had cleaned and then dumped down the hole. I immediately thought ''THAT'S why I didn't get squat today'! ' I have heard varying theories, that this 'sours' a hole making it useless, but others swear that it is great for the fishing. Either way, it was GROSS. I switched huts after that, but only had an hour left to fish and marked a few, but no takers. What do you guys think - does dumping the remains down there sour a hole or make it a sweet spot?

A few years ago I took my brother out ice fishing on Simcoe. We had been out there for quite a while when I saw him get this disturbed look in his eyes. I should have known what he was up to when he took the white pail and slunk off into the shelter even though it was a beautiful day to fish out in the open. A few moments later, he re-emerged, with shame in his eyes. The white pails, labelled on the side "Frabill Sit-N-Fish" have since had an "h" added to the second word whenever they come up in conversation. At least he put a layer of snow in it first LOL!

I use it on all my ice fishing setups, 2lb for perch, 6 or 8 on the whitefish & trout rods. I've been very happy with it.

If you are fishing for perch, I'm not sure that overnight is the best time... I don't think they are very active at night. I have fished until around an hour past dark, and found that they shut down around then. Anyone else have any experience with perch at night?

Happy birthday Lew, may the musky gods be kind to you once again this year!

LeBaron has it on sale for $229. I'm looking to upgrade from the model 525 that I have now. I already have a GPS, so no need for a combo. My biggest complaint about the 525 is that it loses contact/signal with the bottom unless the boat is barely moving, like JUST above idle speed. Anyone have experiences with this? Maybe my transducer is just wonky?

The public launch in Bewdley by B.J.'s costs $5, but more often than not there is nobody around to come and collect it (I think it is the guys from BJ's that collect the money on behalf of the town?)

Great, thanks for the info guys. I will surely be checking out JB's this week... I would love to join you fellow musky hunters for that show next spring, just remind me as it approaches and I'll be there!