solopaddler

Sounds perfect, looking forward to the pic's as well.

Glad to hear your wife and daughter are on the mend. Beauty fish!

Seems like too much of a coincidence that it was found on the eve of the conference... Still, if it is a hoax it was likely done to draw attention to the problem and their motives were probably good.

No kidding, I didn't know that. On most shield lakes that's pretty uncommon. Mostly rock, sand and gravel and mud. I've encountered that pattern a bunch of times over the years on different lakes, and every time have hit the jackpot with walleye. When I say clay, I really mean clay as well. Whitish/grey in colour, smooth and slippery. You could make pottery out of it. Problem is unless you've got an incredibly good graph and know how to interpret what the bottom composition is, they're very hard to find in deeper water. I've found 2 on my lake by dropping a heavy anchor down in what I suspected was clay flats. If it's clay it'll stick to the anchor..

Good for you bud. In my experience nothing beats mid lake humps for summer walleye on shield lakes. (If you can find a clay flat in 17-25' of water they're walleye magnets as well )

Bingo, I'm 57! Just kidding, you were right about the diaper thing (but you look younger) I was born under the sign of the fish on the ides of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty five.

John, based on your avatar pic you might be a bit older than me but I'll bet not by much. Unless you're employer hired toddlers to do claims work..

Man what a beautiful looking fish!

I don't know Joey you may be right, but my first call was to my broker, my 2nd was to my insurance company. Both told me the same thing. Damage to my property would have been covered for sure, but the damage was minimal and my deductable is $500, so it wasn't worth it to put the claim in. Cleanup of the mess wasn't covered at all...at least that's what I was told .

The extra bit of money (minus the truck rental) was spent on my wife. Surprised her just this past Monday in fact with a session at the local spa... The good "karma" I get back from Joanne is a lot more enjoyable than the "karma" I would have got from the lady in Dundas..

Noo, that's not what I meant .

Nice goin' Jay, that's one healthy looking bass!

So, how was Algonquin?

You are intuitive sir. What I didn't say was, it was the guys wife who knocked on the door with him standing in the background looking sheepish. As mentioned we're good now, but fact is I feel a little sorry for him . As far as karma or fate goes, I'm not necessarily saying that's what I believe....just that it made me stop, pause and go hmmmm.... . I generally believe we're masters of our own destiny. It's our own choices, decisions and work ethic that make a person who or what they are.

Well....my normal guide fee is $250/day plus gas, so.......

Some of you guys might remember, but a couple days before we were set to leave for up north last week a huge storm hit Grimsby and my neighbours 80' pine tree fell over landing mostly in my backyard. Damage was relatively minimal, but the cleanup was unreal. First off I had no time to deal with the problem as I had a million things to do to get ready for our trip. But what are you gonna do? I figured that it was the neighbours tree right? So my first thought was cut the damn thing up and haul it all over to his driveway and pile it up neatly. Sounds reasonable? WRONG LOL! I called the guy to let him know what my plans were and he instantly went nuclear on me. "I've checked and it's NOT my responsibility! YOU are liable for the cleanup, NOT me!" He pauses to catch his breath then shouts "If I see ONE piece of wood that's on your property back on mine I'll sue you! I've taken digital pictures of the whole scene buddy...blah blah blah" I pause myself to check my anger and say "All right, fine. I'll check with my insurance company and get back to you. If it turns out you're right I'll take care of it. And by the way, thanks for the great welcome to the neighborhood BUDDY, we just moved here a month ago and it's nice to see I'm living next to such a great neighbour" Anyhow it turns out the guy was 100% correct. It's considered "an act of God" by the insurance company and I was indeed liable for the massive cleanup. I didn't even bother calling the guy back, just resigned myself to the task. My first thought was pay someone else to do it as I really didn't have time. So I called a local tree service company and he quoted me $1200 for the job. No way jose! The day before we left for up north I rented a truck and worked ALL day cutting, raking and hauling 10 loads to the dump. The more I worked the angrier I got LOL! My mom came down to watch the kids while I did this and AMAZINGLY while I was on my last dump run the neighbour came over, knocked on my door, apologized like crazy for the way he talked to me on the phone and handed my mom $300 to give to me for my troubles. Incredible eh? Me and him are on great terms now (thankfully). Now, the reason for this post. Yesterday I was working out at the gym and happened to bump into my old next door neighbour from Dundas. We get to talking and he says "Hey, did you guys get hit with that huge storm about a week and a half ago?" I say, "why yes as a matter of fact...." He interrupts me by saying "The entire basement in your old house was flooded! She had one quote from a contractor and there's over $6000 worth of damage!". "When they tore down the drywall and wainscotting apparantly there was a HUGE mold problem...." Unreal, just unreal. There but for the grace of God go I......

Just curious but do you mean Mulven lake?

Thanks Rene. I'm pretty sure you know exactly where I was fishing as well .

Wow, excellent fish! Spider bite? Did I miss something? LOL!

Nice going Steve, you're a machine .

Great stuff, thanks for posting!

Thanks everyone, truely.

Part one was devoted to my back lake excursion, and you can find it right here: http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...t=0#entry241099 Part two is basically the rest of the week.. So anyway I'm lounging on the deck one morning around 7am coffee in hand watching the mist rise off the lake wondering "What can we do today?". I mulled it over. If I had my way we'd fish all day long. But....no. It had to be something we could all do, something momentous, something memorable. Something that looking back, my little clan would talk about with excitement. I had it "Why not climb a mountain?!" I knew all I had to do was get my 5 year old Riley stoked and it was a done deal. Joanne would fall into line and my 11/2 year old Brendan? Well he'd just be along for the ride anyway . The plan was sprung over breakfast. The clincher was my promise of hordes of blueberries at the top of the mountain and a picnic and swim at a spring fed lake after the climb. Everyone thought it was a marvelous idea (even Joanne, although in her defense she did have her doubts about hauling a 11/2 year old up a mountain). Regardless a little later we were off to climb the local landmark, Mont Chaudron (Or Mount Cheminis depending on your slant). Here's a faraway view of the summit: There was actually a trail most of the way up. It started out pretty tame: Then slowly but surely grew a bit more.....rugged: I played sherpa and carried Brendan on my shoulders for most of the way. He was having a great time laughing at nothing in particular and either constantly pushing my hat down in front of my sweaty eyes, or grabbing my neck and choking me with a python like grip. Ahhh the joys . The last 100' or so were almost vertical. It was here that Joanne expressed her concern, but still, we pushed on (very carefully). Brendan wasn't too thrilled with this part of the climb as I had to lug him up under my arm. No pic's of this critical leg, I was too preoccupied with the ascent. At one point I was getting delirious and think I called out to Jo for an oxygen bottle. The air was getting thinner. Suddenly a huge Golden Eagle flew out of it's nest in the rock face and soared right past me. Who am I kidding, it was actually a sparrow, but still, it was a proud and majestic creature. Finally the summit!! First things first a rest: Some of the vistas were amazing: Were there blueberries? TONS! (THANK GOD). We picked almost one large zip lock before deciding we had enough. If anyone cares we claimed the mountain as ours and renamed it Mount Riley. We're also staking claim to all mineral and blueberry rights . After surveying our new domain we began the lengthy and arduous descent. No pic's, but then they'd be redundant anyway. Next on the agenda was our swim and picnic. We travelled further down the bush road and found a perfect little lakeside oasis: Riley and I immediately donned our trunks and hopped in: Joanne refused to enter the lake, mumbled something about leaches? Brendan munched on his PB&J and laughed at us. I love it when a plan comes together. Next morning back at camp Riley begged me to take her fishing (yes there is a God). On the eve of the trip I had let her pick out a lure at our local shop for her tacklebox. Of course it was the most hideous hot pink crankbait I've ever seen, kinda goes without saying.. Anyhow she refused to use anything else so off we went trolling the edge of the shoal in front of the camp when WHAM it happened. Here she is fighting her first large esox: She landed it entirely on her own, even caught on to the pump the rod up, drop the tip and reel in the slack thing. When the fish ran she let it run. I was one proud poppa . Only thing, she flatly refused to hold the fish so she took a picture of me holding it. Pretty big for a little girl I think: The rest of the week was a blast. Without getting into a long narrative here's a few random images. We went tubing practically every day: Brendan always insisted on trying to fish with his rod, insisted quite loudly in fact: The kids were constantly playing together in the top bunk, it was their little hideaway: Headed back to camp after a long day on the water: Riley likes to "surf" in the bow of the boat: The view from our deck in the early morning (I take the same picture every time, can't help it ): Brendan trying hard to help dad steer: The cabin from the water: It's kinda hard to see but I made a plaque out of concrete for Joanne and cemented it into the point in front of the camp: Full moon over the lake on our last night: And of course the campfire and marshmallows on our point. Great capper to the trip Hope you enjoyed, Cheers, Mike

Okay I'll respond, Joey asked as well... The bass in question was in rough shape, barely clinging to life. I was horrified by it's plight and was adamant to give it CPR (catch, photo, release), but he was fading fast. I quickly tried to give it mouth to mouth, but that grossed me out and I couldn't continue. Alas the feisty little beggar passed away. Neither myself nor my uncle eat bass, so we sacrificed it to a nearby gull. Fear not nothing was wasted

You're most welcome to join me anytime Dan .