irishfield

Not sure if I'll make it or not cliff. I'll see if I can get the house back in order... see what our younger daughter needs to accomplish on her reading week (that's been tanked on her) and when she wants me to drive her back to Ottawa. I think Sunday..but not sure yet. Need to check the other threads for start time, ice/snow conditions etc and I need to see if I can get up that early as well. Been a long week. Thanks guys for your comments! Much appreciated.

Just want to take the time to THANK EVERYONE that sent well wishes, posted a response to my good morning thread Wed, said a prayer for Jennifer, sent a PM/text message to me with concerns for our daughter. Roy for being there the last many weeks talking back and forth while things went from bad to worse and now hopefully good for ever. Dano for the daily (multi) text messages to make me smile. Joe for the lunch distraction yesterday, you don't know just how much that meant and to Maureen for double parking her bus yesterday and having a coffee with Leah and I at the hospital. Both Cliff/Bly and Joe for offering accomodations...beyond the call of duty...but we felt better being just up the street at the hotel. Wednesday surgery was hecktic for everyone. Just before OR started up they put all surgery on hold because the air intakes sucked in smoke from the big fire at Queen/Bathhurst. Once they got the intakes closed and the air scrubbed they proceeded and luckily Jennifer was a first of the day...unlike some unfortunates that got cancelled due to the delay and a few air ambulance arrivals that bumped some day surgeries. For those that don't know, our daughter has/had Crohns and hasn't been able to eat a proper meal in at least 5 months and has been controlling this nasty disease for the past 6 or 7 years with $450/month worth of drugs. She's 23 and weighs 97 lbs. They opened her up and found the diseased part of her upper intestine was about 5 times the size it should be and almost totally blocked. They also found she had more intestine that most people so they removed a fair piece with the diseased area and 4 other suspect areas and joined it back together. They say she still has a normal amount of small intestine left (400 cm) and at the current time, and hopefully for ever, is Crohns free now. 6 or 8 weeks of recovery and we hope she can get on with her life... get back to work in her field and enjoy a quality life style for the first time in about 8 years. She may be in the hospital for 2 or 3 more days as she got behind in recovery being sick all day yesterday. Today she's a lot better and should be walking the halls tonight a few times and again tomorrow to prove she can go home. Leah is still in the city until Jen is discharged. And like fishing... I always have my camera in my pocket (when it's not at the bottom of a lake that is!).. I've never seen anyone so happy to be in the staging area for surgery. Brave little gal.. just wanting to get things snipped and sewn back together with no fear...just wanting some sense of normality to her life. Not so chipper later that day. Pretty ill yesterday hoping her team might win another! Make'm smile anyway you can... puke bowls! Getting stronger.. just before I left today. Thanks everyone for caring about another human being... and for helping us thru it as well. Doesn't matter how old they get...they're still your babies! Wayne and Leah

We're going on 29 years together Joe.... maybe when we get to 30 she'll have me trained right ! LOL I stuck Joe with the lunch bill too !!! THANKS big time for the "mental diversion" for both of us Joe. You're part of the best of the best we have here on OFC ! Wayne

Figure I'm up at Lew o'clock... may as well say good morning for once! Have a great week folks... be back in a few days. Off to St. Mike's a go to sit in a waiting lounge all day. Wayne

Lock your trailer tongue latch closed OFF of the pull vehicle if you can and 3/8" to 1/2" cable thru the trailer wheel/around the frame. Locking the tongue to the ball and the receiver to the hitch does nothing to stop theft... they just undo the ball retainer nut and take it ball and all... rebolt to their empty receiver and go ! Defeats that $80 you spent on a locking receiver pin and tongue latch pin PDQ.

The year before I had to put my Lab down he was getting a tad alzheimeristic @ 13 yr old. He swam over to our neighbours island that rents the place out. Dispite the fact that he had a luggage tag on his collar with phone number..island address etc so people would return him when he forgot where he was......They fed him hot dogs...took him in for the night letting him sleep on their kids bed. They even held the dog back in the trees when my wife went by in the boat by calling the dogs name. Second time by she spotted him and asked them WTH. She brought him back and the next day... which was check out morning for the renter... they were 10 feet off the side of our island with hot dogs calling the dog and trying to get him to come to them. Suspect they were going to dognap him. Great for a dog that was on thyroid pills.. to say the least.

Great weekend with the fambly Mike ! Maybe I should take my skates on Sunday, for some exercise, when I return Daughter #2 to Carleton U. NOT !

Go to a good book store/outdoor store and buy the 50,000 scale topo map for the area in question. Look at the border scales and find the lake the good old fashion way.

We both have 4 wheel Mike... but I think I would have made it in 2 wheel with Terry's ATV in the box. Wouldn't have got off with 2 wheel drive though on Monday!

extremely if you had the "seconds" of the coords and not just degrees and minutes.

I think it's a REAL sad day when someone needs to be paid to return something that rightfully belongs to someone else. Guess I should have held that dodge ignition key ransom, that I picked up out of the snow today at CTC, instead of handing it to the courtesy desk for free.

Use Google Earth and just plug in the coordinates... it'll take you there !

Somehow I tend to agree with Spiel for some reason...can't quite put my finger on it.. but i do! lol That first foot is the sensation trigger for you.. fishin them finicky pickeral fishes.

Nice mix of fish there for sure.. and a free meal.

I was going to do another trip up to the lake before closing Steve and put some lads together for it... but I can't make any plans until we get this week over with at least. Will know more tomorrow night I hope. Still waiting to hear back, based on pre-op today, what time surgery is tomorrow... so I can get my butt to TO later tonight or early tomorrow. Hopefully they're not getting snowed on up there...like we are down here right now... as it shows -20's for the next week or so and that should lock some of the mess back up out on the lake.

Also saves being shot reaching for your ownership in the glove box! Why I keep mine in the visor...

You know what they say Bud ! Three strikes you're out... you've had TWO !

Guy showed up late today I bet as well Joe! PM me your office number. Maybe we can grab lunch one day this week as a distraction for me/Leah. I do have your cell #...

It won't work because a store is only obliged to take Canadian funds at Canadian prices. If it was that easy Steve I'd be putting to use my US cash PDQ!

Thanks everyone for your comments and well wishes too. Yes you can have a great time... even without fish.... with a gang like this that's been brought together by a fishing forum or two. Thanks Dave... should be good but I've got your number in my phone just in case. Jim..yes PB for me open water or ice. Was hoping the others would add some pics or do a thread of their own. Realized I was the only one with a camera most of the time. Terry got a few videos I think. Ron and Dan never had their cameras on the ice I don't think and Lloyd was too busy slaying whities to leave the tent!

Too much tackle... you mean you're not supposed to tow a support boat behind you....with your spare gear?

Prices are cheaper state side so they can pool their left over funds for medical issues. Sure wouldn't want to be handed the bill for tomorrows episode with my daughter. Remember...someone pays for our free medicare here in Canada... and it ain't the government !! Companies in the US don't have to raise prices on everything to cover the 2.95% OHIP charged on gross Payroll. Don't suspect they match the CPP or 1.4x UI payments made by employees either. Not sure what the US pays for workers comp... we get nailed for anything from 2% to 30% depending on the industry here in Canada. Property taxes are no where near as high in general in the US (hell parts of Texas, and some other states, will give you free facilites..and I'm talking anywhere from 10,000 square feet to 1/2 a millon square feet... and wave all taxes for 5 years just to go there), although electricity (at least used to be) is more expensive. Thanks to all this, and other issues, even with the dollar par for par and a supplier next door to both a US store and a Canadian store selling at the same wholesale price... the Canadian store has to have a higher sale price to make the same profit.

I left all that mizery out of the post Kyle. I got stood up not only from the guy that was supposed to lend me a double trailer...but my back up stood me up as well. I then did a lot of calling to get a trailer at 8Pm the night before we left. Dano dropped his sled at a shop that promised it would be done in time for leaving...and at the last hour he had to bum a sled as well and was fortunate enough to get someone that not only stickered a machine, but put insurance on it for him as well the day before we left.

Sorry for the condensed report ! The lads will fill in the blanks I'm sure. I wanted to get this posted up before I head to the city, for an undetermined amount of time, as our older daughter's into St. Mikes's tomorrow afternoon for pre-op and an operation on Wednesday.

Waited a year to get our group ice fishing trip to Lake Temagami off to a start and here I wait for Terry and Dano to show up with their stuff, 9am Thursday Morning. Right on schedule....arriving within minutes of each other, we loaded Terry's Quad and then Dano's sled and the TON of stuff they brought. Thank goodness for a large supply of ratchet straps! Ready to roll and Leah out to see us off, despite the fact she shouldn't be out in the cold. Gotta love a women that stands behind what you do 150% and came out to say hi to the lads. She also of course came out to take a picture so she could post an amber alert for us if we didn't return. Terry, myself and Dano. Shortly after leaving my laneway we had the opportunity to pick up some free meals. A non-eventful 4.5 hr drive to Temagami and instead of finding an iceroad to greet us, that my neighbour usually has plowed, we found 12" ++ of snow on the lake. Choice was unload and sled everything out..... Or go for it! We picked go for it and had no problems getting the ¾ mile out to my island, did about a dozen circles to pack a parking area and unloaded. Dano, got to shoveling his favourite trail! And I went in and turned the power on, and got the wood stove going. Then we got all the machinery unloaded and our stuff into the cottage. Had some supper and went out and drilled some holes just off the island to see if we could get a few pickeral.....while waiting for Ron and Lloyd to arrive. They got delayed due to an accident on #11.....but arrived around 9:30 PM. Ron.... via cell phone with me..... attempted to negotiate the path I left in the snow, with a bit of wandering one side or the other, making it out no problem either. We helped them unload their gear and we settled in for the night of laughter, fish tales and other lies. Got up bright and early.. thanks to Lloyd and his 6am alarm. Had a quick breakfast and got ready for the run up the lake.... About 8 miles! Tried out my new ice finder. Had some battery issues, but Ron had a spare that he was nice enough to lend me. Dan, Terry and I set up on a 20 to 30 foot hump.. and Ron and Lloyd set up in 50 FOW a short distance away. Well it took about 38 minutes before Dano yelled fish on!! I was getting ready to reel up and run to take pictures of his fish when I saw a BIG arch below my triangle jig pattern showing on the finder. I gave my bait a couple good 5 foot pulls and FISH ON!! and what a fight. Stripping 100 feet of line at times. Dan landed, released his fish, walked over, watched the fight for awhile, asked me for my camera, got action shots, etc. I thought my rod was going to break. When I finally got it up by the hole it started swimming in circles and I thought for sure it was going to cut my line. But I got it up the hole and got a hold on it. Sure glad Terry cut me a 10 inch hole! I look like I'm wasted on crack....but we were laughing pretty hard on this one. Massive head. Fish was 37" long x 19" girth and weighed 18.5lbs..then released very well back down the hole for someone else to enjoy. Wish I had of got a better hold on it..but what can you do after it's down the hole!? Friday was a beautiful day. About -12C or so, sunny..but the wind came up. Sure glad I made the Clamp-it shelter on the side of my cutter. Worked GREAT to block all the wind while sitting on the sled set. I heard Ron mumbling something from his shelter... fish on! Nice eater Whitefish that Lloyd and Ron seemed to have dialed in....taking home 6 or 7. Friday over and we all settled in to a good supper and some TV. What else... Pete Maina muskie Videos ! Ron, Dano, Lloyd Daume (Fishhunter) Next morning it was a balmy -31C !! Up the lake we went again and about ½ way there my ears started stinging. Guess a bit of a draft thru my old helmet. Lloyd was right on the Whities. We couldn't move him off his spot. Three days on the same spot. Ron running the take out window from his hut. Mr. Noodles and wraps heated on his hut heater. Calls you over for you meal and hands it out the window of his Eskimo. Dano had a BIG laker on and was in a big fight. I had time to walk over from about 400 feet away and get a shot of him in action and a shot when the lakers head hit the ice and the hook ended up embedded in same! GONE! I prefer Quality over quantity any day. Big bait! big fish !! Red October Muskie tube! Lloyd still at it ! Ron with another.....this one he released. Slow day for the rest of us and the cold took it's toll a bit early so we headed in as we were going for Chinese Food at 6pm. Our gear wrapped up ready for the next day. Was VERY glad to see my stone work still on the wall! That night my left ear lobe was really sore and swollen. It then started oozing clear liquid. Next thing I know many THICK layers of skin started peeling off. Frostbite had taken it's toll on it and I learned a very important lesson. Buy a new helmet! Use a hoodie or bellaclava at all times when running at 30 MPH in -31C temps! It's a real mess today.. my ear that is. I'd arranged for Johnnyb and his "buddy" to join us Sunday am early (7am) and we took them up the lake to our "spot". His gal Jesse put on a clinic for us ! Started to snow VERY hard about noon on Sunday. Only way I knew which way was home was based on the way I was sitting on the sled seat. It went from a blizzard to freezing rain..to rain in very short time. Jesse showed us how it was done a couple more times and we stuck it out to 3pm or so and then headed back. Can see Terry was a boy scout leader in another life! LOL We knew Monday was going to be a right off. That foot of snow was now about 8 inches of heavy wet slush. We had a hard time even loading the sleds on the trailer. Loaded up, cleaned up the cottage, re-antifreezed the plumbing drains and turned the power off until we make it up again. Want to thank everyone for making it a GREAT weekend away. Thanks to OFC we've put together some great fishing trips with the same lads over the last couple of years and it's always a GREAT time!