irishfield

What Verno....she couldn't get out of the bathroom afterwards....

I'd starve if my wife didn't feed me...simple as that. I get a real appreciation for what she does daily for us when she gets sick...we try to prepare the meals and God forbid if we run out of supplies and have to try and shop for groceries. Of course I BBQ once in a while, cook a mean Beef Stoganoff once in a blue moon etc...but Leah looks after me..no doubt about that.

Thanks Drew....needed some comic relief today! My 20 foot commute to the shop was purdy dangerous this morning....ice on the back step and then damn near tripped over that darn bird that follows me around everyday. Thing has gotta be my dog reincarnated.

This was just the back bay where the marina is. U could still launch a boat at the town dock and go up the main lake. Ice fishing is ice fishing as far as I know...if the ice is there drill a hole and go, even if it's August! Just watch what is still open etc. There was ice on most smaller lakes all the way up...and even some ice floating on Midland Harbour when I left yesterday.

Keep in mind you can only fish Lakers on Temagami from Feb 15 to Mar 15. This will also LIKELY be the time frame for every other lake North from Nippissings South shore when the new 2007 regs come out...unless the lake has been stocked in the last couple years.

Figured the sun was shinnin and I could run it up without worrying about the cover. Glad I took it up now...already snow on the ground and the lake is STIFF. That's just an empty barrel..holding the dock anchor chains for the winter.

Could have been training from the 20 years that I did drink and things were blurred...or could have been 25 years of squinting to make signs readable...before I realized I needed glasses!

A pictures says a thousand words! I'm also now boatless.... I know there was a few here that had interest in my Glastron...but I couldn't pass up saving the tax on the trade value. If anyone has interest PM me...I know what they are going to list it at and of course what they can afford to let it go for. Wayne

Great stuff Peter!! You guys were hard core for sure...Dano and I watched you come in on Thursday during the monsoon. Don't think we would have headed out in that...but then again.. LOL

Looking at Ron's pics I'm pretty sure it's 46E 30667 or 48E 30667. If that brings up a Legend...bingo!

Great report Paul. That coffee maker was a riot and hopefully next year you can snag up what you were really after! That Laker might have made a good meal!

All fish were released in much less than a minute from time of netting to swimming again. We had cameras already on...OFC sticker in pocket and ready to shoot.

Other than the one up the highway with it in the morning....YES.

Headed for Picton at 8am on Thursday the 16th of November. Stopped at BPS in Vaughan to pick up Dano @ 10am. He made arrangements with store security to watch his truck over the weekend and felt it was a much safer place to leave it compared to a car pool lot at Hwy #9. we did our rounds in the store and were able to get through the cash register by NOON! Hit the highway for Picton...arriving at Merland about 2:45 in a monsoon. I'd reserved way back a few months back and got cottage #12 on the water Dano moving in with our junk. We had enough food between us to feed a small army. The flood outside our door It rained and it rained and from 1am 'till about 5am Friday. The wind was HOWLING and our cottage was moving...a window blew open and I was sending telepathic messages to my cell phone to ring hoping it was Lloyd and he wanted to cancel. Off went a phone and I though YES>.. only to realize it wasn't my ring tone..it was Dan's alarm clock. Up we got 5:30 to meet Lloyd at 6am. Lloyd called to tell us he was hiding in the local car wash setting up the boat. We met him there and then followed to the Picton launch. Dano...wet and driving as Lloyd sets up the lines about 6:25 am Dano much happier and warmer after I let him have first fish at only 6:35am. A scrappy little 27'"r and you can see it's already getting rougher. Winds were 40 gusting 69kmph on Friday Happy Dan after his first BOQ hog.. Now really starting to get mean. One thing....we had the reach to ourselves. 5 trips in total trolling down, pulling in all the gear and running back as close to shore as we could to stay out of the big ones. My back wasn't appreciating it...but adreneline kept me going. Since we were on a charter I'm not going to share speeds/tactics/lures etc on an open forum. I think we owe that to Lloyd considering years of perfecting on his part. Gear out and you can get an idea of the wave height. They were about 4 feet to 5 feet high. Our guide Lloyd Daume and myself deep in thought it appears. You won't meet a nicer guy than Lloyd IMHO The next one I can't describe in type...many heard the story around the fire/Picton Inn dock..but we faught this one for a good 15 minutes. Lloyd said fish on...I said weeds and handed the rod back. Then the rod tip would take 5 or 6 pulses and he'd hand the rod back. Needless to say the pic says it all....but we had a good laugh about it... We toughed out the rain/wind right thru the day. Almost 7 hours between fish...but at 3:10 I reeled in this baby. 31 1/2" and over 12 pounds. We were having a good laugh and thought we'd try the full arm length pose! lloyd being shy! LOL We tried for another 1/2 hour and then packed it in. Of course we were now down past the lighthouse again and it was a VERY painful ride back thru 4 and 5 footers at full steam. THANKS Lloyd...we had a ball despite the weather that was thrown at us. Back at the cottage Dano and I had supper and some visitors for some immense laughs. I think we had Emil a bit worried at this point....but he figured us out I hope! On the couch l to r...icefisherman (Emil) that was bunking in with us and douG...with Dano fillin his face. Up the next morning and headed for the reach. "Captain Dan" driving while I got our line spread out. Captain Dan's first mate "Forest"...I mean me irishfield. The planer mast doing it's thing. Worked like a charm with that adapter I made up...never budged a bit Looking back. Two lines on planer line and two on riggers. We were being carefull on the riggers with nothing below 35 feet. Spoon on one and a diver on the other with the canon ball at only 5 feet. About noon Dano hooked into a nice 28"r. Not much fight...but it sure warmed him up bringing in 200 feet of line! Just thought this made a nice shot of what was going on in the boat and on the lake. Rear 1/4 shot showing rods/planer board and the fact it's a lot calmer today A short time later I hooked into this 28" scrappy bugger. It took a good 20 minutes even throwing the boat in neutral on and off. I was sure I had the biggest darn Sheepshead on...I was using a 10'6 rod and 5601 reel and I couldn't convince it to come in. I was doing good at times to hold it in place and while I'm doing that Ron is calling and calling on the radio. Once the fish was in i called him back only to find the bugger was trolling right beside us and just trying to make me busier. I'll get ya back Ron...don't worry bud! LOL Saturday night we were all sitting around shooting the sheeeeeet and Dano and I said we were going to sleep in...take a day off maybe even since we had Monday to fish as well. We no sooner said that than Kevin that owns Merland walked in the door and handed me a note. "Buster will be here at 7am". damn...forgot about him...so we told Terry to plant him in front of the TV 'till we got up! Buster showed at about 7:05 and we didn't let him sit long and were out on the water by 8am or so. Buster We let Buster have first fish...since we already had two days behind us. Scrappy "little" 27"r. I forget the exact weight...but it was 6. something. Dan cold and looking miserable (he wasn't miserable just looked it!) Not too much longer and Dano had on his next fish. This one was only a 1/2" longer than Busters yet weighed in at 10.2lbs!! Another ship..this one not pushing 6 feet of water and a little more nervous of the boating fleet. He even called on 16 for security that he was leaving the picton docks. The guy on Saturday didn't bother with that smart call and roared down the reach with boats scrambling out of his way. Beautiful waterfalls that come out of Lake of the Mountain. Hope you enjoyed that and sorry for the dial up hell...but that also took me a couple hours to do since I'm on 22,800 dial up myself. See everyone at the next G2G! Wayne

We didn't lock the door Don...you should have just walked in. The campfire was beside our cottage..the Walleye Wonder. Yah...I'm venting. Never heard of anyone hyped for fishing that slept in in the morning. Lots that had a wife that said no ..... way bud though!

Yep...ya gotta point Roy and it was great seeing you again and all the other OFC'rs we visited with in our cottage, around the fire beside our cottage, down at the Picton Inn and out on the water waving/cell phoning and VHF'ng as well. Why do I bother worrying about how to make other guys lives a little easier...more enjoyable. Who am I to try and help them out, adding thoughts on how to make things go smoother for them next year so they can get out on the water. I'll just shut my mouth now...call Dano/Terry/etc on the phone and we'll do our own thing at BOQ next year and not worry about anyone else having fishing partners etc.

GREAT Stuff ! Worth the dial up wait for sure.

It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission!!

Hey Lloyd...was it something we said....didn't do that for us out there braving that 40 gusting 69 crap you took us fishing in on Friday... for 10 back pounding hours ! LOL Great stuff none the less...good to see you squeezed a great day in between fronts.

Great support/product stand behind Mike....BUT can you get any of them to run straight! LOL

Art...break the Pepsi back out...I asked my Doctor and friend exactly what you speak shortly after Lakair last year. He told me in his opinion dark pop had FAR less to do with stones than genetics. Maybe Joe's stones shatter when he runs those darn 5 miles every day. Maybe you should run along beside him...on foot...not the tractor for a change! LOL

Blackfish..grow up. I'm just trying to make people aware of how better communications could make everyone's fishing trip more enjoyable for next time. Not beating on anyone and if you think so well I guess that's your choice. Remo came to our cottage said he had called you and you were supposed to call him back. It was now 9:30 and he still hadn't heard from you. If I had of wanted to single you out I would have put your name in print, which I did not...and if we had of known he was going to be out alone...or if Stan had of hung around he wouldn't have been sitting on shore at the ferry dock....he would have been on the water. There were other cases of this as well...just not going to list them all as not necessary to make the point of COMMUNICATIONS.

The darn tow vehicle gets a little damp doin it that way bud!

Good to mention HH...last year the guys that didn't even hit the reach did better than everyone else. They just fished in front of the cement plant right there in Picton. Also keep in mind that the roughest piece of water can be the area just WEST of the Ferry in that big open gap...so if you have a smallish boat keep that in mind for your launch spot. There are other launches along the shore. One in McFarlen (i think) Park just east of the Sportsman Inn. Others further down the reach past the Ferry..but take some work to find the first time.

You can launch right at the Ferry..but you have to take it across to the North shore to do so...free..runs every 20 minutes 6:30 to 1am. There is also a Marina almost down to the Ferry on the South shore you can launch at. Everyone has there idea of what trolling speed should be. Some are .7 to 1mph others are 1.8 to 2.1 I found my boat with two pails draggin...two rigger balls down...two big Canon boards out and 4 lines does 1.9 to 2.1. We caught fish. We caught on all makes...TD-11..Manns 20..Reef Runner and a spoon even. Colours that worked changed each day it seemed.