Slayingm

Hi Glen, Will do!.... been out on the Kawartha's alot lately for Walleye's and boated a ton.... will post a update soon so stand by!... Greg.

Hi Court R: So much great trout water for Brookies, Splake and Rainbows that way.... best of luck on your trip and look forward to your report. Take care and good Fish'n... Greg.

Hi Johnnyb: I have in the past and I have found that my best action in the past has been when the surface temps hit the 63 to 75' mark.... the actions seems to be great every year until Oct. after a couple of frosts.... then I have a really tough time so keep chasing Walleye's and Smallies moving into their wintering grounds. Good luck out there.... Greg.

The past few weeks I have been fortunate to pursue a different fishing passion that gets me out of the bassboat and into my 14' Square stern canoe to hit a few different Rainbow lakes in the province. Some trips saw amazing action while a couple of early season ones were poor with cold water temps keeping fish scattered and in a negative mood. The last couple of trips the water temps have started to climb and the Rainbows are starting to setup in their summer patterns suspending over deeper water off secondary points and islands. On one of the trips we caught some nice fish using the Storm Scat back which is a 1.5" bug shaped crankbait. The black/Gold and Brown/Orange colour patterns produced best and I trolled them on Rapala Ultralight rods with 4lb Suffix line and used small splitshot to get down to the depths I was marking the Rainbows on the vexilar. Luhr Jensen Davis trolls with a 3' length of flourocarbon line and muddler minnow flies in black and brown shades also worked well. The other successful pattern was just #1 spinners in gold/silver combo's tipped with a small piece of worm. Although most of the fish caught were in the 1.5 - 2lb range (Perfect for the Bradley Smoker )this 4lb Fish was caught by one of my guests on the last trip and the colours on this fish were absolutely stunning so thought I would share it along with some of the patterns I have been using. PS, If you plan on heading out make sure you load up on the bug juice and/or jacket. The black flies and mosquito's were really bad in the back woods. Take care and good fish'n.... Greg.

Myself and a couple of close fishing buddies took our annual spring Brook trout trip this past weekend somewhere between Bancroft and Renfrew. Although the weather was not the greatest we did OK and caught 25 Specs in 2 days of hard fishing. Small worm tipped spinners in gold/black and orange did the trick. All the fish were caught in 4 to 8ft of water off of shoreline cover and the hits were hard. We enjoyed a awesome brookie dinner and each managed to bring a few home to enjoy with our families. The trip was fun as we hauled bush buggies behind our ATV's and brought in a small boat and canoe along with a ton of gear. The trip in was up and down through some rough terrain and creeks and was just over 20KM each way but part of the fun for sure. Here is a pic of a few I got on Day 1 of the 2 day trip. These fish absolutely beautiful and some were full of scuds (shrimp) or leeches. Be safe out there and remember to bring the bug juice with you as they are out now!.... Greg.

GeorgeJ... Fisherman is right... its a Argo.... 8-wheel with custom heated hardtop... the ice is no longer safe on Simcoe even with my amphibious vehicle. I only have one more ice trip booked and will take my clients out to the Haliburton's on the weekend. Steve:... re: GPS units....you got that right.... sure beats my early gig of 3-point alignments with marker buoy's and shoreline structure used years ago.

As the ice fishing season winds down and I start thinking of getting the bassboat back out I have been fortunate to get a few more folks out onto Simcoe the past few days to take advantage of some of the best perch fishing this year for Simcoe Jumbo's where size is concerned. I have been working hard bottomed area's with no one else around for the past 3 weeks and the action has been great. 1 and 2lb test lines with Rapala jigging Raps and small flash spoons have been the ticket in landing a number of Perch over the 14" mark. I keep moving over subtle struction breaks in the 25 to 40' depths and the fish have been on big time. Attached is just a couple of pics of some of the fish taken the past few days recently..... G Although we still have lost of ice out there the intense sun is starting to break it down so if you plan on going out in the next week be careful out there. Take care and be safe out there.... Greg.

Hi OFC Gang, Well, its been a while since I last posted.... I have been so busy with work (IBM) and guiding 3days per week plus have 2 teen age kids in rep hockey so just not enough hours in the day Anyway, the trips out on Simcoe with customers the past 6 weeks have been nothing short of great. On one of the days we had 4 folks with a whitefish on at the same time!! We have also limited out on both Whitefish and Lakers some days. That said since we had the big melt and rain a couple of weeks back the light penetration and pressure changes have certainly changed the mood of the fish to more of a 'Negative mood' and fish have moved from some of my top producing area's to different depths. Being portable out on the main lake is key so that when the action is slow or your not marking any fish its time to move until you locate them. Most of the fish we are catching are in the 65 to 85' depths. Standard William's ice spoon's in flat and hammered silver and gold finishes along with Little Foxee jig's and #9 Rapala ice jigs have been the ticket. I always have different styles/colours out to the group to use so I can see what the best combination is for the day. Sometimes its a quick snap jerk retrieve and other days its just twitching the lure no more than 3" off bottom. When you find a successful pattern try and repeat it.... it will work on other fish! That said here are a few pics trips the past couple of weeks.... enjoy!! Take care and be safe out there!!.... with the sun moving further north and the changing conditions there are many cracks starting to open up to take you time on the main lake..... Greg.

Joeytier, Ya stay away from Port Perry and the crowds off Goreski's if you want to get some good Walleye fishing.....it's OK there the 1st couple weeks of the season but not as much now. I move around on the N. and Eastern side of the lake. Look for water in the 6-9' range that has green weeds and slowly work minnow tipped jigs off bottom. Don't stay in one spot too long.... keep moving around until you get into them.... more will be around.... we drill dozens of holes when we go out and cover the water. 5 of us were out there on Sun afternoon and 2pm to 5:15pm and caught over a dozen nice Walleye's including 3 big fish that we released. Good luck and watch out for the slushy spots out there..... Greg.

Finally had a opportunity to hit Scugog the other day for some Walleye action and could not believe the huts out there!! Lots of Walleye out there right now.... we moved away from some of the Crappie locations and hit some old GPS locations with some green weedflats in the 7-9' range. Although we did catch some fish on minnow lines the best action came working minnow tipped spoons slowly just off bottom with frequent pauses. We caught no Crappie at all but limited out with 8 nice Walleye's by 9:30am. Here is a pic of the 2 bigger ones we kept along with preparing for the fresh fish fry. Take care and good luck out there.... Greg.

Steve and Farsider are correct....the majority of the Rapala and Storm lure line uses VMC. They also own Gamakatsu hooks which are superior (and more expensive).... I usually change all spoon and hardbody bait hooks to these as they are even sharper and stick more fish. Both are chemically sharpened.... the main difference is that the VMC's are dipped in the acid approx. 4/5 times comparied to 8/9 for the Gami's. One point (no pun intented) to consider is although the Gami's are sharper because of the super fine point they do tend to burr easier on rocks etc..... Greg.

Great job JoonMoon..... best tasting fish for sure!!!!.....Greg.

A couple of rods over the years but the worst was 3 years ago when I had my new Lowrance GPS Expedition C with the new Navionics Gold chip slip out of the top pocket of my floater suit while getting a big laker out of the hole...down she went...ouch!

Hi Shawn, No they are not in the stores yet but believe they will be soon..... BPS and Le Baron's for sure will carry them as soon as they are available. ....Greg.

Although we got a late start I headed up for my 1st Spec trip to one of many lakes I fish in the Haliburton / Bancroft area. We did not get setup until 10:30am and only had 4 bites during the 3.5hrs that we fished. We worked shallow shoreline structure with downed trees with a soft bottom and focussed on the 2 to 4' depths. We caught the fish using small hammered spoons tipped with a piece of worm and still lines with worms. Here is a pic of the the 1st (and largest) fish of the day....it was dang cold in the morning and you can see the ice starting to glaze on the fish within a couple of minutes of catching it. Guess what is for dinner tonight!....... Be carefull out there.... although we were on approx. 14" of ice there were springs near the shore with thin ice or open water..... Greg.

Hi Stan, Spiel is right.... those are all mayfly nymphs and are in the .5 to 1" size range.... Greg.

With the cold temps area's of Lake Simcoe have firmed up enough that I was able to get out to some of my favourite Perch grounds off the E. side of the lake. Normark had just sent me some new samples of their new Trigger-X Pheromone scented plastic baits to try out so I was anxious to see how these new maggots and worms worked. I rigged up 2 different combinations to try. One was using the smallest size Blue Fox Lil'Foxee minnow in the custom colour that I designed for them....Chartreuse/White body, orange chin and a white/red tail. I then impaled one of the Trigger-X maggots onto the hook and dropped it down and started bouncing it off the bottom with frequent pauses. It wasn't long and 'Bang' the first of many big Jumbo's just slammed the new offering. Here is a shot of the 1st 2 fish I nailed.... I also had one of the Trigger-X mini worms hooked onto the treble of one of my favourite Perch spoons. Although it caught some really nice fish on that it was the Lil'Foxee jigging minnow with the Trigger-X maggot combination (both in Chartreuse and Red) that caught better numbers and especially size. The biggest fish taken was a 14" monster with lots of others in the 11 to 13" range. Here is a close-up pic of the new scented baits and the jigging minnow that I used. I caught these fish working the inside turn of a flat in 25'. When I checked out the stomach contents of the 1st one I cleaned its no wonder the big fish were here...... check out this close-up pic I took.... all their guts will loaded with these . Happy New Year everyone and see you on the ice.... Greg.

Buster: Cheese Balls, Crackers, Smoked Trout and a nice glass of wine... now I'm drooling. Hey if you weren't drooling before this pic should do it! Merry Christmas Everyone and have a Great and Safe New Year... Greg.

With all the cold weather I finally decided to make a trip to a couple of lakes in the Haliburton's on Sunday. Was a cold and partly sunny day to try for some Lakers and splake. Got up there late and only fished for 3 hours but did manage to land 4 fish and miss 2 others. Minnows on light line and small jigging spoons both worked well with fish caught in 20 to 45'. Check out the attached pic and see the difference in the meat on the trout that were caught in a lake that is full of shrimp and the trout's belley's were stuffed full of them. These are some of the best tasting fish out there but these ones are headed to the smoker for some Christmas season snacks. The other pale coloured fish was caught in a lake where minnows are the main forage.... quite a contrast... not only in colour but especially in taste! Carefull out there.... The deep snow on some of the lakes has pushed the ice down and flooded ontop.... one 1 lake we had 2" of ice then 3" of water and another 3" ice under that. Be safe out there and don't forget to where your floater suits..... Greg.

Well.... I like using 'chunk' spoons like the Hopkins....hammered Silver and Gold finishes both work great. Sometimes the fish like the spoons snapped really aggressively off the bottom other times they will only hit when they are 'quivered' right on the bottom.... you have to experiment each day to see what they will repond to. Some days when they won't hit the tubes they will crush spoon's and vs versa. Take care.... Greg.

....Of Simcoe Smallmouth that is. I decided to take one of the nicer days off during the deer hunt and took advantage of the flat conditions to hit Simcoe one last time before putting the boat away. Instead of sweating it out in the bush the action on the lake was hot as we boated a number of big smallies between 4.5 and up to 6.5lbs. All the fish were really fat and packing on the beef for the winter. Attached a nice pic of a couple of the fish... one was over 6 the other just under. Jigging spoons in silver and silver/gold combo's and tube jigs both performed well. We caught fish as shallow as 27' and as deep as 40'. Great way to end the softwater season. Best of luck to all planning on hitting the hardwater this year... remember to be safe out there... Greg.

Hey Nemo.... just getting back from a few days on vacation hence the delayed reply. You got the meeting place right and yes most of the Eye's came out of Kash.... took fish both in the S and N ends.... just one of those days when everything worked well. See ya out on the water.... Greg.

Managed to hit the Haliburton's over the long weekend for a few days and got into some nice smallie action on a variety of lakes. I concentrated on working rock shoals, island points, rock/sand and rock/weed transistions in 5 to 15' of water and the smallies were there! Tubes in dark (smoke, dark green and black) worked well (1/8 and 3/16 oz heads) as did Storm wiggle warts and jerkbaits in shad and firetiger patterns. Some fish (like this beauti) also came on a 5" jigworm. Man the fish are dark up north!!! The water temps are really starting to rise now and will start to move some of the bigger fish into deeper water where drop-shotting and draggin heavy tubes will be required in the up coming weeks so get out and enjoy some of the shallow water action now! Remember to be safe out there..... Greg.

I had a Guided Fishing Adventure todo on the weekend with 11 Electricial and Leasing contractors from the city. Apparently a number of them have cottages in the Haliburton and Muskoka area so they decided to limo a number of the boys up to the Haliburton's to meet me for a day a fishing. I was a little disapointed that they wanted to go out on the chain lakes (Head, Grass, Kashagawigamog, Canning and Soyers as I have only ice fished there before and never had my bassboat out on that water yet. I poured over my contour maps of the lakes, put a strategy together and headed out early to meet the boys. Everyone decided that Walleye was the target species for the day as a few of them wanted a fish fry on the long weekend. The boys rented a 22ft deck boat, 18' bowrider and I took 2-3 guys in my Stratos at a time and we switched up over the day. I headed to some classic looking structure and started fishing a variety of crankbaits and plastic grubs on rock points/drops and off deep weedlines. The weather was perfect with low winds and overcast conditions. Within minutes at the 1st spot we nailed a 4.5lb Walleye on one of the new perch coloured Storm crankbaits.... minutes later I tagged a couple of nice fish on a 3" plastic grub on a 1/4oz jig head and the day was off to a great start! Over the course of the day we caught and released a number of good Walleye's and a great time was had by all... in fact 2 of the guys caught their personl best Walleye on the trip( (5.5 and 4lb). One of the hot lure's for the day was the new 'Clack'n Rap' from Rapala which will be out in 2009... I have a number of them that I am trying for them and the Fire Tiger model worked well for some nice fish like this one..... I kept moving to some new area's and found some productive spots over the course of the day.... 3 different spots produced the most fish and by the end of the day we had a number of nice Walleyes swimming in my live wells and the boys were some happy. Here is a group pic at the end of the day.... Take care and Good Fish'n..... Greg.

Hey Johnny Bass: Stick with ripping some bucktail jigs for Walleye's .... its not only a productive pattern but on average catches larger sized Walleye then plastics do. In terms of colours I like perch (yellow/orange/black with a little white) or straight black or black with a few strands of dark red hair. I mostly use 1/4 and 3/8oz and find that even under cold front conditions I can trigger Walleye to bite with a real aggressive snap or rip of the jig off the bottom then dropping my rod tip so that it falls straight down. You have to watch your line carefully as the fish will hit while its falling.... as soon as the line 'Jumps' or twitches set the hook!... you seldom loss fish snapping a bucktail jig. I have used plastic twisters etc on them and it fact years ago I won a big Walleye tournament doing that... it slows the fall of the jig and adds addtional profile to the lure but 90% of the time I just fish them plane. Keep at it and will pay off bigtime ..... good luck!.... Greg. PS: here is a pic of a nice Walleye I took on a black bucktail jig.... I pour the heads.... use Gamakatsu hooks and tie my own.