irishfield

Thanks Folks! I debating posting any threads at all... but I had to do something with the 1200+ pictures I had taken since May ! lol

Here's the link to the livewell winterize thread from last fall. http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...ell+winterizing

Great stuff Will !! Can't beat fishing with your Dad.

Won't be in my boat Dan... will be in Lloyd Daume's new ride!

Dano, Terry and I will be on BOQ that weekend... but we won't be at Perfect Vue

LOL Dave! Mine won't be going away until the lake is frozen. But I bought my stabilzer yesterday as the big bottles are on sale at CTC. It will get added somewhere late in October/Early November. Boat will be coming home late in October and I'll winterize my livewells and power wash like I did last year before hitting GBay for Muskies 'till after the snow flies. Maybe I should dig that thread up to save someone some grief. A little birdy tells me someone here almost sunk their boat this spring thanks to a cracked pump!

For you early quitters!!! Don't forget, as you prepare to make your last few trips on the water with your boat, to add some fuel stabilzer to your tank. That way it's done and it's thru your motor properly for winter storage. Be certain that your live well(s) are dry and your pumps are free of any water as well !

That's Smiths Falls bubba! lol Looked like a great day Will ! PM me Ken's last name... I'm a Sin City boy myself.

Yep.. not much to it Joey.. but it's up already.

In September we did some exploring and hiking with our neighbours (from Campfire Island across from us) Doug and Anita. With the summer winding down it was great to get out for some exercise and to get to know these two better. They've sold their homes in North Bay and have moved up to the lake permanently. Doug's on cloud nine.. Anita a tad hesitant wondering about the wait for safe ice in the fall and ice out in the spring to get off their Island. Doug scared the crap out of me one night pretending he ran into my airplane with his pontoon boat... so we pranked him back. Stole his Scotish Standard and put up 'ol Jolly Roger. Good for some laughs with the rest of the neighbourhood over the three days it took them to notice it. Labour Day weekend the youngest (20) came up with her boyfriend to try again at the canoe trip thing. This time they limited their travels to as far as the broom islands (THANK GOD!) Another tree in a terrible place. Why do people let this kinda stuff even start to grow? Of course this one leaned back over the work shed, had a very small window to be dropped in and was another rope down to the water and leah pulling with the boat trick. Success with only one shingle broken off the rear entrance to the cottage. Now with the tree down I have next years project. Rebuilding the back entrance/wood storage area. Put a new roof on it last year.. now I need to rebuild and side the rest..... and then I think the place is done! YA RIGHT. On Labour Day my buddy from Elmvale, Joe Dyer, dropped in. Didn't even hear him pull up to the dock and spotted him half way up the steps. He was on his way back from Kesagami of all places. We shot the bull for awhile and with the heat of the day decided he'd better get back in the air for home before the thunderstorms decided to build. Next morning Leah and I decided to enjoy the fact that summer had finally arrived (high of 31C) and went out in search of some Lakers. Leah came up with another little fella. Like I keep saying... great to see the reproduction... but a monster would sure be nice by now! LOL We got out again the next day and while I was setting the lines this boat kept coming at us and not turning. I said to Leah does this not see us? Turned out it was a long time customer of mine. I built this guys airplane the first time in 1996.. again in 1997 and again in 2004! lol He got it in his mind to come to Temagami and visit. Drove around Temagami looking for a boat rental and got one from Temagami Shores for $40 ! When we weren't at the cottage they went back to town.. got some subs and went on a tour of the NE Arm. They never saw us on the way West... but luckily spotted us on the way back to town. He'd seen my boat once in the hangar and thought he recognized it.. and was right. Pretty brave for a couple of 70+ year olds. This is the exact spot I was hammering thru 6+ foot swells last year on my way to get our daughter and her canoing friends! While they were along side.... I thought I had a good fish on! This thing fought like crazy being snagged perfectly dead center. Then the weather went back to crap and about a week later we headed up the North Arm to give them lakers another try. Almost came up empty and at the very end of the "trough" in front of the Rabbit Nose Bluffs I got this little guy. He was lively so back he went to swim somemore... but I sure wished I'd kept him to eat. Something we never got to dine on this year. Things are coming to an end when this happens and it's a depressing job. Vacuum out all the lines and gift wrap her for spring. Two days before we headed home I finally got up the nerve to go out and land (and attempt to take off) on Brown's Lake for stocked Specks. All I took with me was my fly rod and an ultralight spinning rod. I get to the lake expecting to do a curved approach and landing slide around three islands on the lake... and low and behold there are two boats fishing right in that path. Figured I'd leave them to their peace and tranquility and headed off to the North. Now to find a lake with something in it that I was prepared for with light rods. I took a shot at Jackpine Lake... but nothing was happening there but a whole lake to myself. I think even the fish had gone somewhere else. Hope I didn't bore you with all that. Going back up on the 15th or 16th of October for about a week or 10 days to close the place up, blow the water lines out etc and I guess to fish for pike and pickeral. Lakers are now closed.

If nobody jumps on it let me know TJ... I don't think anyone that I know in the Temagami town site has been able to get a bull tag in the last 4 years.

We'll take my truck to BOQ bud .. LOL

You're a darling Lloyd. If you weren't so ugly I'd kiss yah! LOL Great offer guys and a GREAT way to learn the ropes on the BOQ !

Some nice fishies there!!!!

LOL Goran!! Theres's a rock shoal off the swim ladder and I always get hung up on it. Holder is to put the rod in while I untie the boat to retrieve! Highdrifter... I'll have to look at my map... you're probably right on the spelling. Either way... it's the highest point in Ontario.. about 35/40 miles from the town of Temagami. Maple Mountain is the 2nd highest point in Ontario.. about a 100 feet lower than the ridge. Note: Looked it up and you are absolutely correct Highdrifter! Thanks for the correction! I fixed it on my original post.

Only if you forget to bring said wheels up to land in the water! LOL Definitely no reg against landing floats and wheels on the same day.

The sun made a rare appearance on August 3rd and Leah said.." why don't we see if we can find TJ's camp in Matachewan". So we blasted off in our transporter and headed North. A bit of scouting around and we found Camp Jiggy Jiggy from the air. Circled it about 5 times hoping to wake the "beast"...and to find a landing path. A eventless approach over the rapids downstream from camp and landing onto the moving water of the Montreal River. Taxied up to TJ's dock hoping someone would run out and move the boat.. but no apparent life. I jumped out quick.... moved their rods that were sticking out and tied off to the side of TJ's boat. We called out and called out for TJ but nobody appeared to be around. Knew someone had to be around as the music was still going in the camp. Leah and I had a picnic lunch we'd brought along and left TJ a couple beers and a note after waiting about 2 hours for someone to appear. We loaded back into the airplane and blasted off upstream climbing out over the village of Matachewan and headed back to Temagami... crusing thru Smoothwater/Lady Evelyn on our way scouting lakes for future trips as we went. On approach to land in Temagami we had a seagull flutter in front of the windshield 900 feet AGL and I told Leah to cover her face. I thought it was coming thru the windshield. Luckily it drifted left, but I got it with my wing causing a bit of damage and a blood covered wing. I watched the bird spiral to earth... landing right in the bow of a boat heading up the lake! August 4th was Leah and mines 26th wedding anniversary. And being the sweetheart she is she told me to go off and play with the other women (my airplane). So I took off to Side Rock Lake (on the side of Devils Mountain) to hunt stocked brookies with my fly rod. Found a nice spot to get the plane tied up, dawned my (leaking ) waders and tried to russle up supper. I had the buggers swimming around my feet everywhere I stepped in 2 to 5 inch size.. but couldn't tie into something worth keeping. Clamped the camera to a tree for a shot just before departing... and yes this time it was in my waterproof case!! Clipped a tree going out in about the exact same spot as the seagull. Two strikes... what's gonna be number three? It was a loon on slide out when landing in front of our cottage. Not sure if I got it or it dived just in time. The following weekend Dano and his honey Fern came up to visit us Thur night 'till late Sunday afternoon. Friday we took them way up to Whitefish Bay and worked our way back downrigging. Fern had a MONSTER on that she couldn't budge. Tried lifting and reeling down and we even cleared the other lines so we could stop the boat. She faught it for a good 15 minutes and it was GONE! Dano into one next and working on bringing it in. Hold it out a little further bud! LOL I think he's hooked..... Shortly after this shot a harmless looking overcast came in from the South and just as it was about half way over the NE Arm of Temagami a HUGE lightning bolt came out of it beyond town and the boom was immediate and we almost jumped out of the boat. Said to Dan.. "you had enough" and he was already reeling in. Then he said "your riggers don't work". Blew the positive stop/+ ion boards out of my brand new Cannon 10HS's. Took them to Bay Distributors at Noon the following Friday and George Bishop had them repaired with new boards (under warrantee) at 8am Monday am. Worked the weekend to get them back to me! THANKS George! Want something done right... ya gotta do it yourself. Me hunting down my power steering issue that Lund/Mercury were useless to help with. Yes.. I fixed it! Leah out for a paddle. And me fixing the bottom log in our crib dock. Next to the lake was Leah's father. Again we headed up the North Arm and got into some action in Devil Bay. They even let me reel one in. And Leah with another wee lad. Great to see the reproduction happening on the lake. A Marganzer (sp) with 22 babies in tow, across from our dock. Next day we headed down into the South East Arm and I got the first line down and had just picked up the second rod to start putting it out. Asked Leah's dad if he wanted to get that while I loaded up the second rigger! First rod had gone off within a minute and a half. It put up a good fight as well... A pretty respectible fish that we released for another day. My general policy has become if they arrive at the boat DOA we keep... if they're kicking they get released. Leah in the middle of one of many 3 to 4 hour phone calls with Bly. Again thanks Carole for helping her through a tough summer...but I'm still gonna razz you about the long calls! With the weather so crappy Leah could rarely go out to fish with me and fishing alone is boring... so I had a drop curtain custom made for our boat. Leah calls it the "Pope boat" now! But it does it's job and gets her stripped down to a tank top when it's only 10 degrees... I mean keeps her warm! Got the deck chairs all stained and the railing all done. Tuesday night, on August the 19th, DanC called me from Thunder Bay to see if I was still on for Nipigon. I told him I'd had a call from Moosebunk a month or so earlier but didn't know the state of where things stood. At this point I had talked myself out of going because the weather had been so bad all summer to this point and couldn't even venture off the lake without weather changing. With Dan's phone call and telling me Bunk was already on the lake... it reignited the fire to go fish with them on Nipigon and the weather forecast looked good. Friday morning I took off in beautiful sunshine at 9am. Plan was to hit Marathon for fuel shortly after noon and onto Nipigon... hopefully by 2pm FRIDAY. At this point I'm over Smoothwater PPark approaching the highest point in Ontario. The Ishpatina Ridge 2350/2375' ASL. The fire tower on the ridge. Now that great weather forecast and a clear day report I got from Flight Service went to hell in a handbasket real fast just shy of Chapleau. Rain on the windshield and vis disappearing. Knew I should have stuck with plan A and stayed home... but heck.. I'm this far, lets see how far I can get. Well with some dodging here and there I got within 58 miles of Marathon and EVERYTHING disappeared. I was already lower than I should have been and looked back thru my rear skylights and spotted a lake. Didn't have time to scout it for departure.. but knew I could land on it. And I did THREE times as I waited out a few squalls and took off... only to go back to it again and then again. Only spot I could kinda get to shore on the lake. Rock between the floats and holding the ropes. Shoreline was a bog and I couldn't go anywhere or set up camp. Also had no cell service and I'd told Leah I'd call her from Marathon. She knows enough to give me a few hours leaway, being a pilot herself, but overnight and I'm gonna have a herc blasting around looking for me.... so off I plugged to Marathon. I won't write about it here and incriminate myself... lets just say TCanada might pull my licence for how I got there... but got there I did at about 2PM. Fueled my airplane and waited and waited and waited for the fog bank to clear...thanks to the south wind across Lake Superior. Almost got to sneak out around 8PM... but it didn't leave me enough daylight to find the lads on Nipigon, so I spent the night sleeping on the airport terminal floor. Next morning still fogged in and from 6am on I kept asking the helicopter pilot, that was shuttling drilling equipment only 7 miles, if I could go yet? Finally about 9am he said if you can scud to the shoreline of Superior you can go West... so I did! Almost there... big hydro dam on the lake just East of Nipigon. I arrive over Nipigon to see 4 and 5 foot swells. Circled a few times while I decided what to do. I had an "out" lake to the East that would require finding a spot for the plane and treaking thru the bush for a mile with the compass..but didn't really like that idea. I scouted the lake somemore..found where the wind was howling from and nosed the airplane into it... stretching out the landing to the far side of the south end of the lake holding it off until I was almost out of lake. Stopped with about 400 feet of lake left in a calm bay and noticed three tents. Couldn't be.. way over here... supposed to be camping over by the launch and I had a google earth print out from space of where I needed to go. Unfortunately it was thru those 3/4/5 foot waves for about 2 miles. I should have just tied to shore...but I went for it. Almost cost me my airplane more than once with the wing hitting the water... but I made it to the shelter cove where I was to met DanC. Apparently Bunk saw me circling and just as I made the dock DanC and Bunk showed in Dan's boat... and said... "did you see where we were camping on the other side of the lake"! So off we went and I taxied back across the lake... at least this time into the wind and got the airplane secured to the shoreline in a nice sheltered bay (the same one I landed in!). We unloaded the plane and got my brand new tent set up (THANKS DAN!) and off we went fishing. Dan's best friend. Never seen such a well behaving/smart animal. Speck Master with FISH ON ! Beauty Dan! Brunch time! Thanks Drew! Drew with a nice speck. Me with a respectable pike. A couple more specks for Dan. Trolling for more! Pat/Rich/Drew/myself/DanC Couldn't have had a better beaching spot. Another fisty speck for me on Sunday evening. Beautiful sunset on Lake Nipigon. Sunrise Monday morning and it's time for me to check out...unfortunately. But I know my nephews have already arrived at the lake and it's time to teach them some more about fishing. Monday, thank God, was a beautiful day. I couldn't handle another like Friday. Off to Marathon for fuel again (bridges are just West of Marathon on Hwy 17) and then off to Temagami. Where I had two boys just waiting for Uncle Wayne so they could hit the docks to fish. Finally got around to taking my sister-in-law up to join the mile high club. First ride I've gave her in the airplane since I had my licence. (only been 19 years LOL) Boys tubing. And still trying for the big one. I need a nap after that one. September will come tomorrow I guess.

Thanks Wild.. and everyone for the comments!

Well if that's the case I guess Dano and I won't be there that weekend. Lloyd was taking us out for a weekend and I'd asked him about the 15th/16th. Guess that answers that.

She marked that off her "bucket list" last year Terry! lol

Was my first thought too Viper... but as I said.. we watched it swim the 40 feet to the next island in September. Guess it's hunting both islands. I figure it's living in the thick bush on top of the hill on our island or possibly a cave in the back cliff area on the island.

We started out July with our two daughters and the younger one's (in the bow) boyfriend coming up for the long weekend. It's great that while many children this age go anywhere BUT where their parents are ...that we have at least two (of three) that don't mind spending time with their parents. Jennifer couldn't wait to get into her Ryerson rowing outfit and hit the water in Leah's kayak. She's been healthy as a horse since her Crohn's operation last winter, when they removed 2 feet of her upper intestine. Day two we were into rain and Kristal finally got around to assembling the chair she gave me an IOU for two birthdays ago. She designed it... cut it all out and put it together. Left me to do the staining of course...but turned out to be a REALLY comfortable chair! Chair done we hit the water for Lakers and had a great view... just no fish ! Kristal and her BF went off in the canoe to fish the back "bog" behind the next island up the lake from us. Her bf got a nice smallie and wanted to eat the thing. I told him... "you catch it... you clean it". He got a few cuts in and then managed to cut his thumb. I still think he did it on purpose so someone would finish the job for him!! Kristal took over and she would make any father proud. I didn't even coach her and she did a fine job. I guess she's actually been paying attention all these years when I'd cook up a bass for midnight treat when we were camping. Get the idea Leah has a thing against PWC's ?? ! "Kids" even sitting around and socializing...or was it my beer... I don't know! Some tubing and some swimming to round out the weekend... ...and then the 4 of us headed home on Tuesday to see how my turkeys were doing. Just fine it appears. I flew back to Temagami the Friday after Canada Day and had left at 6:30 am. Every lake I went past was totally fogged in and I got worried I'd be screwed when I got to Temagami but luckily the lakes cleared up about the time I was over Sandy Island on Lake Nippising. Our railing components had finally came in so Leah and I rushed down to North Bay before they closed to pick it up. That night I got the posts up and here's Leah imagining that her glass wind wall is finished! Next day by noon I had most of it installed and came to the realization that we had been shorted a couple bottom stair railing posts to finish the job. Put us into another 2 week wait for those to come from Surrey BC. More crap weather... but a beautiful double rainbow. One of a few baby rabbits we had on the island this year. Leah and I got out for what seemed to be a rare fish this summer and pulled up a wee baby laker. While on one hand they are a tad disappointing it's great to see that the lake is doing so well on natural reproduction. Lake Temagami hasn't been stocked for many years and we seem to be seeing lots and lots of small lakers less than 16 inches long. These little guys prove that tackle is never too big. We've caught a couple that were shorter than the big Len Thompson spoon they tried to eat in 95 to 100 FOW Missing railing parts finally arrived and I made them ship them up to Dad's Outfitters so I could just go to town and pick them up. A few hours of cutting and installing and our railing system was complete. It makes such a clean finish to the deck and easy to install (with some forethought before cutting) that I don't think I'd ever do a wood railing again. We also tried out the plastic lattice board, to close the deck in, and found it worked great! Is it just me... or does this guys head look like Mickey Mouse? So we're sitting in the hot tub one night at about 8PM and I say to Leah... " Is that a cougar or a lynx behind me". She laughs and I drop my shoulder!! Now it's not so funny... but I said to Leah "I wish I had my camera". While the cat sits there staring at us, from about 12 feet, I slip out the back side of the tub... go into the cottage.. get the camera and come back and just when I take a shot it turns. Then it sat down again along the bush.. about 15 feet from the tub. We now know why we don't have the dozens of squirrels/chipmunks on the island anymore!! We saw the cat again a few days before we came home in September. Walked within 20 feet of us and then swam across to the next island in front of us. Late in July my 83 year old mother and my step-father came up to visit for 4 days. One day I took them for a lake tour and we had lunch on a shelf at the bottom of one of the mountains in Ferguson Bay. Seemed like a great spot... till all the snakes started moving around! LOL Aug and Sept to go!

Great to see isn't it Bernie!!!! They also got/seized gear/boat/truck/trailer off Lake Temagami early this summer. Haven't seen that one come out in print yet.

Good stuff Rizzo ! You'd think the poor bugger, looking like that, would have stopped chasing bait by now

Appreciate the concern Wild. Haven't fallen out of a tree yet nor dropped one on anything I didn't want destroyed in the 30 years I've been dropping them. I cut about 6 bush cords of hard wood a year and have done as much as 50 cords in one season. Angle cut was concern for kick back when the trunk hit the deck edge. I've had a tree almost impail me before and was taught to angle cut to lessen the likelyhood of this happening. Right or wrong it's worked for me and always sent the tree in the direction I want. Consistancy I guess and hard to change from that.