solopaddler

I agree in principle, but living in southern Ontario crowds and steelheading usually go hand in hand unfortunately...unless you're driving to the north shore of Huron or Superior north of the Soo. There's always certain places or stretches of a particular river that offer complete solitude, but they're few. I do enjoy those rare days when I find it though...

Gull lake eh? They still pulling big ones out of there? I fished it once back in the early 80's, it was known for producing big ones then... As far as turnover goes, I'd say yeah for sure it's turned over by now. Was talking to a buddy in Port Loring earlier this week and their lake turned already and you're north of that, so...

Nice fish and even nicer country up there bud! Have you fished the rapids in town yet?

Congrat's, that's a very decent fish!

Wow, that's some gorgeous country.

Awesome, glad to see the big girls are starting to make an appearance.

That's a great rig and a very decent price! Hey, if you don't buy it I'm fairly sure steve paul will be happy to take it.

Hmmmm...not sure my body could handle it . I'm fishing on Thursday likely leaving around 4am and may not get home 'till around 7. Don't think these old bones could stay up that late after such a long day. If you guys ever plan something for a Friday I'll be there for sure.

Hey at least you got to see one of those legendary Georgian Bay beasts! You're right about the weather, definitely crazy for late October, maybe a bit too nice. Next time head out when the winds are whipping up, the temps have dropped, and there's snot dripping off your nose. Now THAT'S musky weather .

Can't argue with that statement, you've got a point.

Okay fine, if that's what you believe then why title your post "Farmer shoots two Pet Dogs"? Why not simply "Farmer shoots two dogs"? Or were you perhaps trying to sensationalize the issue not unlike the media .

Nice going guys, congrat's! (kudos to Steve as well )

Okay, forget everything I said . If you're going to do all the modifications then go with the 40, you won't be sorry. Although my first choice would be still be 40 horse 2 stroke because of the weight difference... As far the Lund floor inserts go enequivocally YES, they're fantastic! Incredibly durable, nice surface to walk on and not "that" heavy... Anyhow, here's a few pic's of my boat....not the greatest but all I have access to here at work . BTW these boats can handle huge payloads

I'll second that Speaking of pit bulls, I mentioned it in the post about my weekend trip, but Saturday night as we were having a campfire with the 2 kids we were approached by 2 very aggressive pit bulls, without collars as far as I could see. They circled our fire pit, hackles raised, yipping at us with the odd snarl and a couple of false charges and basically drove us indoors ending our leisurely evening. I'm a huge dog lover, but would have had no problem whatsoever putting a bullet in those 2 dogs, especially being pit bulls...

Croker=slang name for pen reared rainbow trout that have escaped into Georgian Bay. First gained popularity from all the escapees originating from the pens at Cape Croker on the Bruce peninsula.. The north channel of lake Huron is teeming with pen reared escapees and they're growing to mammoth sizes. That's the general vicinty where the new Canadian record rainbow trout was caught in the summer of /06, also a giant mutant escapee... Based on the fatness of those fish, the dorsals being a bit raggedy, and a good guess where they were caught I just assumed they might be "crokers". Maybe not though... Regardless of what they are they're gorgeous fish

Hey Mike, sorry to hear about your aunt... Nice read, but "photoshop", "iceberg effect"? I just thought you guys were fishing in thick fog .

My boat is also a 16' Lund SSV.(Great choice BTW ) I modified it by installing the Lund floor inserts, and put a casting deck on the front with a pedestal seat. Anyhow, I'm running a slightly older (2000) 2 stroke 25hp Yamaha on it. There's no question it's underpowered, however it's only used and is stored year round at my cottage so it's not a "huge" issue with me. It's alright for my lake and is only a pain when we're headed over to camp with a huge load of supplies and people. I would say that especially if you're not going to modify the boat and add extra weight to it, you'll be just fine with the 30hp 2 stroke Merc. The smaller size would be a huge factor for me, plus I'm a huge fan of those motors in general. I had a 2001 15 horse 2 stroke Merc and I LOVED having the gear shift incorporated into the throttles twist grip... That's an EXCELLENT feature especially if you troll a lot for walleye, or jig/troll, powerdrift (whatever you want to call it ) with a jig. One other thing that's unrelated to your question: it's very, very easy to add storage compartments to those boats. I bought 3 waterproof hatches from Cabelas, cut holes to fit (one in each bench, one in the front deck), dug out the foam they spray in there, then screwed down the hatches with a bead of silicone around the inside lip. Works like a charm and easy to do...

I got sucked into trying those rods a few years back trying to repair an old beater aluminum I had. Bottom line they didn't work. Was a waste of 100 bucks... Also, for what it's worth to get any kind of success with this product (which is minimal) you need a welding torch to heat up the boat, a regular propane torch won't get it hot enough.

Nice fish, they look like crokers. Mmmmmm....crokers

Who's to say they were'n't looking for their pets? Opinions based on assumptions and speculation have no value.

I guess it depends on what the two dogs were doing. If they were harrassing livestock on a REGULAR basis, then fine fire away. But if this was either a first time occurence or worse the dogs were doing nothing other than trespassing, well then shooting them was not justified and more than a little hasty. Interesting nevertheless....

Well that's cool then...glad to hear there's no lingering hard feelings. And yeah, you're right about Paul (he's a good friend). I had NO idea he did that! Ditto to you too buddy, LOL! Wow, this post is bringing everyone out of the woodwork . Nice avatar pic BTW, that was one heckuva trip wasn't it?

Thank's HH, although it's not really an insult. If it was directed at me from one of my peers, well then, different story. Now, I'm going to add some thoughts to this post 'cause I have a feeling that it's not going to die. I've been a member of this board for a few years, but became a really active participent less than a year ago. Why? Well, last year there was a "somewhat" similar thread except it was myself directing the comments towards Gerritt. I don't think my comments were too harsh, but nevertheless I had an epiphany of sorts and realized that whether I was right or I was wrong was irrelevant. The fact was I was acting like a jackass . I made up my mind to not be so condescending and attempt to become a more active member. Why? Is it because I "like to have my ego stroked" or need a "hero cookie"? No, it's simply because it's fun and no other reason. I'm in front of this stinkin' computer here at work for 2 separate 16 hour shifts and let me tell you if it wasn't for OFC I'd be bored silly. (I have a fairly stress free job ) I still only post a fraction of the fishing I actually do, and with the exception of extremely remote areas or fly-ins you still won't see me name a location.... I've also experienced criticism from various people because of some of my posts. I've learned to shrug it off. Perhaps Freud might speculate that such a critical person is entirely too convinced of his own place in the universe and more specifically that perhaps his entire sense of self worth is wrapped up in his ability to be a good angler. In the words of Seinfeld that is "Quite lame!" Me? I have nothing to prove to anybody and will continue to post on this board as I see fit. cheers, Mike

I don't "think" his comments were directed at me, if they were who cares? Nate is young and has some growing up to do that's obvious....

My friend Dave had been trying to pin me down for months to help him take his 2 young boys Tyler and Isaac aged 8 and 9 fishing for a couple days, and this was the weekend. I found us a decent cottage right on the river, and booked it for Fri/Sat nights so the accomodations were set... We arrived around 2pm Friday afternoon, checked into the cottage then hit the river for the afternoon/evening bite. Here's a couple shots of the cottage Anyhow, after the last couple of days I have to say I'm DREADING my kids reaching that age. The 2 boys, or as I like to call them SPAWN OF SATAN , were, how can I say this nicely, a handful! Honestly I can't even begin to describe how chaotic the last day and 1/2 was...but I tried! Here's Tyler set up on a nice stable rock fishing late Friday afternoon And the two of them geared up with hardware casting the surf Shortly after I took this photo they BOTH fell in the lake soaking themselves, and breaking one of my Avids in the process. Suffice it to say they both fell in the water multiple times over the course of the 2 days. Anyhow, it was impossible for us to concentrate on our fishing as the kids demanded pretty much all of our attention, so no fish were caught. The next day we hit another river, and Isaac decided he didn't feel like fishing, so without either Dave or myself knowing he propped my other Avid and Daiwa 1300 against the van and went frolicking in the river. By the time I noticed he had no rod and asked him where it was, it was gone. It was a busy access point and someone had stolen it in the 1/2 hour it was lying there unattended . What are ya gonna do? The highlight of the weekend for the boys: in the cottage was a shelf with a bunch of knick knacks lined up. Take note of the box on the far left. Here's a close-up of it, they thought it was hysterical (we all did actually ) Had a campfire last night to cap off the trip which the boys loved (until we were attacked by 2 seemingly feral pit bulls....seriously!) So not a single fish was landed over the 11/2 days (although both Dave and myself briefly had large fish on which we lost). The main thing was that despite being constantly wet the boys had a great time. Note to self though: do NOT outfit young boys with high end equipment! I'm gonna go pour myself a drink now....