limeyangler

LOL...looks like Downtown Dryden

Hi Y'all, Well it was an interesting 2 days...lol. Saturday morning went according to plan, apart from the fact that Brkygetr broke down and couldn't make it, lol...that might have been blessing if it was fish you were after Dale!! The group for the first part of the adventure on Lake Keikewabik for walleye was Glen, Mark, Barry, Matt and his son Ian, Lew and myself, without Dale and Benbeattie I was the only OFC member for the first day. We arrived at Donnelly's Minnitaki Lodge near Sioux Lookout at 10:30am and were ready to go by about 11 am. Excellent camp...run by a nice guy called Darrel, very helpful, good service, lent us all kinds of stuff including a snowmachine helmet as one of our group forgot theirs, and got someone to lead the way across the 1/2 hour trail ride to the cabin. When we got there they had kindly already got the woodstove going that day so it was warm....did i mention it was only $25 per person for the night...generator and propane for cooking and lighting included...I RECOMMEND THESE GUYS ! ALREADY TO GO FROM DONNELLY"S After dropping our gear at the cabin we headed out onto the lake...IT WAS FREEZING!!!! It must have been at least minus 25C , but the wind was at least 30kmh....and where we set up it was being channelled through the islands and was gusting unto god knows what! Lew brought a couple of portable shelters but in his own words when he and Glen tried setting it up it was like " two fat guys para-sailing across the ice"....lol...i missed that...i was busy trying to set up my gear. The 1st fish went to Matt....even before we were all set up....promising! After that it was sketchy. A few more Jackfish were caught, and kept because we were worried about supper as Dale who could not make it was bringing the supper stuff with him. In the end we got around 8 Walleye and 4 Jackfish......I SKUNKED!!!! oh well always tomorrow MATT GOT THE FIRST WHILE WE WERE STILL SETTING UP IT WAS FREEZING...ONLY THE ONE SHELTER TO GET OUT THE WIND A FEW MORE JACKFISH AND WALLEYE IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS. <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/gtg4.flv"> It was sooooo cold and the fishing pretty slow we did not wait for the evening bite and were headed back to the warmth of the cabin with enough fish to eat by 3:30pm. The company was great, Glen was hilarious as usual, and kept everyone in stitches all evening, even when the Whiskey had closed his eyelids his jokes and banter were still going...lol. Hers a few shots from the evening. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL (clockwise from left...Matt, Glen, Barry, Lew, Mark and young Ian) HAD TO THAW THE FISH GOT ENOUGH FOR SUPPER MATT AND GLEN GOT TO WORK FRYING...YOUNG IAN ASSISTED LOTS OF JOKES AND BANTER........THE WHISKEY FLOWED BARRY WAS TOO FUNNY....HE KEPT LAUGHING 30 SECONDS AFTER THE PUNCHLINES.... MARK AND MYSELF GOT CLEAN UP DUTY We all agreed that Matt was a twisted firestarter, and was not allowed near a woodstove again...he cooked us all that evening...it was like a sauna in that cabin!!!!!! Shouldn't complain, was better than freezing your Cojones off. I was up at around 7am the next morning to get breakfast started, was freezing out again but the wind had dropped off completely...hoped it would stay that way. After breakfast we did a good clean up of the cabin, packed our gear and headed back to the camp to load up and take the short drive to Big Sandy Lake for Whitefish and Lakers. We had arranged to meet Benbeattie and his buddy Graham at the lake. BEAUTIFUL MORNING AT KEIKEWABIK LAKE ROLL CALL We got out on Big Sandy Lake by 11:30am, and as we rounded the peninsula we could see Ben’s 2-man portable set up by the reef. Ben had already iced a whitefish....things were looking up. Mark and myself went to the far side of the reef to cover more area so did not really have much contact with the rest of the group. I had all sorts of issues with my gear...first off i got water on the buttons of my fishfinder...so although i was not going to set up the shelter i did so i could thaw out the buttons to make it usable. Then my auger was malfunctioning....crappy gas in it, lol, and to make it worse i then ruined Graham's auger too cuz he'd run out of gas, and putting the stuff i had in it pooched it too...some maintenance coming up for the auger me thinks!! The smelt was thick all over again. Even thicker than where I’d fished 3 days earlier on the same lake. At one point my whole screen in 50 FOW was completely blacked out with smelt. Mark did not get a bite, i got one follow and saw another large trout high up the water column but that was it. The wind picked up again and normal service resumed...freekin' freezin'! did not even get a pic of Ben's whitefish, too cold to want to get the camera out...i did not even get a picture of the whole group that day. SMELT WAS OMNI PRESENT After an hour or so, Glen came over to say we were moving from the reef cuz we had to get out of the howling wind, also nobody had caught a thing...except Matt who snagged a smelt. We headed around the point of an island and set up, not really much fishing was done, and we built a fire, had smokies and chatted, The augers were kaput9both) and it took half an hour to drill 5 or six holes, Smelt all over the place again. Ian had quietly broken away from the group and had dropped a line down the nearest hole in 9 FOW, he started shouting "I GOT ONE"......he certainly did, one of those big Jackfish that inhabit Big Sandy had hammered his minnow................... GOOD JOB IAN!.........CANT DO MUCH IF A SWIVEL SNAPS. <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/gtg17.flv"> After Ions break off Lew and myself tried in vain to land a fish with no luck. I'm a little shell shocked as that is the 1st time ever i have not caught a fish in 2 days of trying! Oh well , that’s fishing. Shame the fishing was slow for the much anticipated meet up, but the company was awesome, we laughed a lot, froze our nutz off, ate well, and all returned safely without too much drama. Everyone agreed we should do lots of summer meet ups and next year do an ice meet up in March!...lol...a little warmer and perhaps the fish would co-operate a bit more. Anyway....that’s it for now. Cheers Simon

man o man o man...these simcoe reports are killin' me...lol those fish really are in the mood to bite at the monment...top stuff RF...its way to much fun, hopin' we get some action like that on Sunday. Keep up the good work.

excellent stuff Ben, i'm not jealous at all...lol just glad you'll be there Sunday so i can learn a bit of that fish catching know how from ya.....and paln to join ya fior some lac seul action ibn the next couple of weeks, like you said we're not more than 1/2 hours drive away if we meet in the middle.

Its not cheating in Europe...lol anyway...thanks ...might just need that luck...but we have some good fishemen coming......i'm sure they can succeed where i failed....lol.

WOW...NUFF SAID

Great stuff waterwolf...nice pike(s) I am still amazed at the variations in markings/colour of fish from lake to lake.

Excellent job guys...keep up the good work, mmmmmmm walleye supper....love it!

SEEEEEE....THATS WHAT WAS MEANT TO HAPPEN FOR ME TODAY ON BIG SANDY LAKE. Nice one guys

DITTO...... Looks like a great piece of kit there Kemps!

Thanks for the info again Sinker, i was just looking at my 30 yamaha 2 stroke, same thing a small amount of black oil on the garage floor,,,, good to know its ok.

Hi all, Went to Big Sandy Lake today for the first time this year. Last year was awesome, lots of big trout and whitefish. Today was very different....Nothing...lol...well I guess at a stretch you could say i avoided the skunk and landed my first smelt through the ice....A PB!!!!lol I don’t know whether it was just one of those days.......or the fact that the fish don’t hang out there this time of year...I’ve only fished that spot in March/April. Could be one or the other or both factors. Its a little worrying as Big Sandy Lake is the venue for the 2nd day of the NWO meet up this weekend, thought I’d do a sneaky pre-fish. On the other hand it has helped because i think now i will suggest the reef 1st instead of that spot. There were tons of smelt down there , just like in March last year, its just that the trout and whitefish were nowhere to be seen.....and believe me i tried just about every lure/bait combination for both species...Tube Jigs, airplane jigs, large/small sucker minnows , large small dace minnows but i was on a hiding to nothing, as i did not even see a fish on sonar that wasn't a smelt. WAS KINDA GREY TODAY LOTS OF SMELT DOWN THERE AVOIDED THE SKUNK....LOL <embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i263.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid263.photobucket.com/albums/ii158/vishuscirquel/smelt.flv"> Hope Sunday is better...cant get worse....lol....oh yeah...it could...we might not even get a smelt! .

thats great...i give a lot of fish to my neighbour too....he does small plumbing jobs for me in return...good set up. Come on Grt!, yuour sat rught next to red lake...you should be killin 'em....lol...

i cant say anything...except good luck...i mean that too but it sounds good.

Why cant all trout be that greedy!!!! great stuff JB, eagerly awaiting your next instalment. Cheers.

ooooops , my bad...oh well...still cool....lol...worth a 2nd look.

Hi y'all, Maybe a lot of you have already seen this, but for those who have'nt....if you fish for perch you gotta watch this! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Good going Joey. 8" of ice and there's a truck out on it....CRAZY!!!!!! How was supper.?..those perch look big! cheers Simon

RED BULL!!!!!!

Good stuff man! That whitefish is gigantical

I know...its just so warm....lol i need to get some bigger ones...they are the best tasting fish!!! they really do dont they!......lol

YUM

Great story and pics/vids (as usual) The kids look like they're havin' a ball, cant wait ...my wife's due any time now..

Great info here guys...keep going...GPS is my next toy. Hey JohnnyB...i was looking at either the 60csx or the one you got,...yours rocks?

Too funny.... sounds like a perfect 1st trip out...even avoided going to jail! Nice day, good company, fish for supper...good stuff thanks for sharing.