ccmtcanada

Nice work Rick! Thanks for putting that together...any chance you can make a hi res version available for download so I can burn it on a DVD? MPEG4 should be fine. Thanks!

Wow...what a great report and a very special time! Through all the adversity over the past year, you guys came out on top. Even if you didn't catch any fish, I'm sure this opener would have still ranked among the best for you guys. Congrats and great pics!

Great report Shawn! I'm sure you'll get into the bigguns...it's only a matter of time. Good luck out there tomorrow...looking forward to your report!

Slowpoke contacted me yesterday afternoon and offered Bly and I a few spots in his boat to hunt down some salmon on Lake Ontario!! Well...it was an offer we couldn't refuse. After quickly re-arranging our plans and bribing our oldest to babysit, the plans were set! My alarm went of at 330 this morning and we got ready to go. Here's a cool shot on the way to Bronte Harbour...check out the moon just over the sign.... We met up with Slowpoke at a Tim Hortons and headed down to the boat launch. It was a beautiful morning....18C with light winds. It was hard to believe that the water we launched in was actually Lake Ontario!! Very calm and warm outside for 630am!! Slowpoke began to set up all the rods. I decided to help by putting about a thousand pieces of sinkers, hooks and other assorted tackle strategically on the floor of the boat in case he needed it....actually...I bumped it and CRASH it went....just 2 minutes after he told us how anal retentive he is about his tackle....DOH!!! He graciously said it was his fault, but it wasn't. I was just happy he still let me fish...in case you've never seen him...he's a wee bit bigger and stronger than I am....LOL. We each had two in the water, with 4 running on downriggers, 1 on a dipsy diver and the other using a lead core setup. We hadn't even setup all the rods yet when Bly gets a fish on!! Here is comes.... Bly, in true fashion, lands the biggest fish of the day....LOL. A nice 35.5" salmon. Caught in 50 FOW, on a silver with green/yellow stripe NK Magna spoon. I was up next!! A little while later, again with the lead core setup, I get this small nice one...the colours were beautiful! When we went to remove the hooks, it burped up it's breakfast...here's a pic with the HOT lure of the day. Well...Slowpoke was up next...and soon he lands this nice little one...again...really nice colours.... Then Bly again...with a little guy... Slowpoke then lands our last fish of the day... A little while later in the morning, we all hear something that makes us turn our heads!! We take a look and this sailboat almost tips over when the winds started up...after a few times of listing far to one side, it finally regains control....but it was a few tense minutes. Wow...what an awesome day on the water! We couldn't have asked for a better guide for the day. Slowpoke took the time to explain everything to us, since we had no idea what was going on...LOL. We now know how to set up dipsy divers and we all took turns setting the up the down riggers. At least Bly and I know what it means now for when others talk about it on the board...LOL. It was a real pleasure for Bly and I to fish with Slowpoke...thanks a lot for thinking of us and inviting us to join you on this awesome day!! We truly did have a blast out there!

Combination of two things I think.... 1) She wishes in hindsight that she had checked her line 2) It was a very nice sized fish....maybe 30" or so She was just happy to get some action tonight....landing them is a bonus!! She wasn't running a leader...it was a big 1 ounce Red Devil spoon.

I honestly cant tell you except that we are very fortunate to live 5 mintues from Lake Ontario and within 20 minutes from lots of great tribs!! Thanks for your comments 007! Good luck out there!

Wow Douger!! Congrats!! I do remember now...when we met on the tribs back in early spring/late winter, you mentioned your wife was pregnant. Glad to hear everyone is doing fine

Here's that picture...it's not very clear...but the markings look pretty clear on it... Oh yeah...I have to add Sheepshead to that list of species for this year! I have another report up...

After spending the afternoon fishing, Bly was still eager to get out tonight with me after dinner. We convinced our oldest to put our little one to bed so we could head out a bit earlier than we normally do. I put on my lucky Jumla gold spinner and began casting into a channel with deeper water. Two casts in and I have a fish on! It put up a great little fight and I landed my first ever Sheepshead/Fresh Water Drum!! It measured in at a nice 24.5". I said on the Justherb thread that the next fish I caught was going to be dedicated to him....I wish it was a prettier fish though. I was a little disappointed about a half hour later, when I snagged up on something and lost my Jumla!!!! TJ...tell Avery that we're going to place an order for 10 more....LOL. Anyhow, I was hoping to hook into some more of those sweet trout that Bly caught yesterday, but I didn't have any luck. Bly however, had a great one on that ended up breaking her 15 pound power pro line after about it's 4th time jumping out of the water!! We only spent a little time out there tonight...we need sleep because we are meeting up with Slowpoke bright and early tomorrow morning to hunt some Salmon out in Lake Ontario! We're very excited...hope we get sleep...LOL. A report on that trip will come tomorrow afternoon...whether we catch anything or not.

Thanks everyone so far....never thought of contacting a taxidermist...great idea.... Entropy....so, when is your summer vacation again??? LOL

Bly has a big fish stored in our freezer in the basement. It's the only thing in there and we'd frankly like to unplug it as it's a waste of energy. Anyone who knows the story behind it knows that she tried in vain for over 30 minutes to release it. It's not in our budget to have it mounted, so we are looking to dispose of it. We are not interested in eating it, since it's rather large....and it was caught in Lake Ontario...enough said....LOL. Does anyone know if the MNR or another agency is interested in large Walleye for research....and if so do they come to pick it up? Thanks in advance!

Saw this news story on the Toronto Star website. Nice to see this kind of action! =============================== Fishermen throw lobster back Jun 29, 2007 10:25 AM Canadian Press PICTOU, N.S. Some lucky lobsters trapped on the last day of fishing season will live to swim again. Kay Wallace, director of the Gulf Nova Scotia Bonafide Fisherman's Association, said the organization will buy more than $240,000 worth of lobster from fishermen from Pictou, N.S., to Aulds Cove, N.S., on Saturday and will release them back into fishing grounds. "The effort behind this is we want to maintain a sustainable fishery," said Wallace. "Science predicts 80 per cent of those lobster will spawn again and molt." In areas where fishermen's individual lobster landings were more than 10,000 pounds, the association is willing to collect 200 pounds from each fisherman, one male for every five females of comparable size. In areas where individual landings were below that amount, they will purchase up to 400 pounds from each fisherman. "We're paying shore price," she said. Currently that amount is $6.75 per pound. Two fishermen at each wharf have been appointed project leaders and will issue payment when the lobsters are received. At the end of the day, project leaders will sail out to their respective fishing grounds and dump their load back into the Northumberland Strait. The organization is using its snow crab fishery allocation to fund the program. Wallace said at the majority of wharves from northern Nova Scotia to Cape Breton, lobster landings were down this year compared to 2006 totals. "It's been a poor season for weather and the lobster just don't move on days where there is an easterly wind," said the director. Fishermen experienced easterly winds on 35 days during the two-month long season. http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/230919

LOL...ok UA...try this...at the top of your post, click on "options" THen click on "Switch to Standard" Give that at try!!!

Wha??? Did you go to the doctor yet UA???

That sucks!!! Bly and I have been voting for you. Have you brought this to the attention of the contest/website? Maybe they have a way to filter those out...even if cookies are disabled, they should still be able to sort it out using IP and timestamp.

Some great looking fish there!! Good job out there!

Nice job out there! Some of my best fishing comes after a cold front. I'm just too stupid to realize that they shouldn't be biting....LOL. Great report and pics!

Great report nauti! Awesome pics too. You know it's summertime when you see that many angler's down at the local piers.

Our condolences to you and your family...and to everyone who knew him. Our next report will have the first fish dedicated to him!!! Cliff & Carole

The BEST news Dan!!! Congrats to you and your entire family.... I wont bother trying for the record...he'll have a great teacher, so I'll concede now

Awww Mike...this truly does SUCK!!! I know with your ingenuity thought that you'll be in BOQ enjoying the weekend. Good luck out there and I look forward to your report!!!

We thought the same thing...but then again, what do we know?? LOL. Apparently these fish may have been a little confused!

Come on Alex...put on the scuba gear and if it floods then take some underwater pics!!!!

Hmmm...I dont have an answer for you...but the golf thing makes sense...haha. One thing I've always wondered...for Lake Ontario, if you are in a boat, you can have 2 lines in the water. If I'm fishing from shore on Lake Ontario I can only have one line. If I drop a canoe just off shore (right in front of where I was standing) and fish from there, can I put 2 lines in?? LOL.

I dont have a problem one way or another when it comes to Carp. Do I fish for them...yes...why? Because they are there. Some anglers I have talked to will kill any carp that they catch because they believe that they are "destroying" the fishing in their area. I'm not one to just kill anything based on one person's word, so I have been doing some searching on the web and although there very few studies when it comes to common carp, there are a few interesting things that have come up. Carp are non-native fish to say the Great Lakes...that is true...but so are chinook salmon, rainbow trout, brown trout and coho salmon. They were all, carp included, introduced intentionally by man....dating back to 1879. The ironic thing is that it was one of the US Fish Commission's mandates back then to raise and release them into the waterways....now the Fisheries are trying to figure out how to control/eradicate them in certain areas. General concensus is that common carp are regarded as a nuisance species. They uproot vegetation and lower the visibility in waters, potentially driving out native species. In areas like Hamilton Harbour, the Carp are seen as a big problem in trying to restore the area. In reading studies on Hamilton watershed area, I found it interesting that it was because of man that species like the Carp are thriving there. It all had to do with the urbanization of the area in the early 1900's that made Hamilton Harbour prime carp breeding grounds. Bad watershed management back then effectively drove out native species....the carp just "moved in". There is another site that studied the common carp and the zebra mussel problem. It found that Carp "clearly demonstrate the ability of the common carp to prey on zebra mussels". Here's the quick summary of that study... Zebra mussel predation by common carp F. Cronin, J. Tucker, D. Soergel INHS researchers examined gut contents from 31 common carp collected at Mississippi River Mile 217 in August 1995 for evidence of predation on zebra mussels. We found between 1 and 407 zebra mussel beaks in 83.9% of the fish we examined. For all fish examined, common carp contained 118.2 beaks per fish or about 59 zebra mussels per fish. We found that large fish tend to prey more on larger zebra mussels than do small fish. These preliminary results clearly demonstrate the ability of the common carp to prey on zebra mussels. Considering that common carp are numerous in the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, they may have had an effect on zebra mussel demographics. More interesting info on invasive species can be found at http://www.marinebio.com/Oceans/Conservation/Moyle/ch10.asp So the question that has NEVER been answered...are they detrimental overall to the fisheries? No one knows because they have been here for so long!! 128 years...and still here after attempts to eradicate it from North America. True scientific studies didn't happen back in the early to mid 1800s...so there is not really any "base' to start from. The way I look at it, if the OFAH includes them in the Angler Awards as a sportfish, then I'll return them when I catch them, since the OFAH are supporters of catch and release. Anyhow, just wanted to put up a "non biased" view of carp. Bottom line for me is that the carp thing is just another example of how "man" thought we could control our environment by introducing new species to an ecological area without understanding the implications of those actions. Will we ever learn???? Feel free to jump all over me on this one...haha.