Beans

Why bother cropping out background shots of carp spots??? If you had spent the time and expense, however slight, to chum an area only to return later to find some yo-yos fishing the same area you would understand why... There are some areas we know that are chummed on a regular basis but we ask if the person would mind if we fished that area even though they don't own the water...only common courtesy...they usually don't mind as they know we will chum the area also...

Glad to hear your weekend was grand!!!...Your hosts are two of the nicest people you will ever meet...That Cliff burns a great burger as Cph mentioned last Wednesday...I was hoping to get down that way on Saturday to say ''hello'' but it just never happened...Andy sure likes to go fishing eh?

Sorry to hear about Eddy Lew...not the news I was hoping for...but at least he is not suffering anymore...nice tribute you made here about him. He will always be in your heart along with your son and dad so cherish your memories of them...God Bless!

Steve (CPH) and I had faith in our carp mentor...WTG !!! Hopefully the carp up this way are used to the boats going in and out of the locks and are getting hungry... Happy Carping old friend...

No rebuttal necessary...My bro-in-law and I could say the same about muskies...damn things wouldn't leave the bull bluegills we were fishing for alone last fall...raised six ! ...Come to think about it...that was the fall before the last one...like my friend Jack sez...''It's me age...don't you know''...

Crappieperchhunter and I took a run over to carp point Saturday afternoon but there was a constant stream of boats going through the locks for the first time this year so we figured that was the reason we didn't even get a line bump... Yesterday we went back to terrorizing the crappie and Steve kept a half dozen slabs for his mother but I don't think they will be around much longer...dang weeds! Actually. I didn't even set-up on Saturday as I seem to have sprained my casting arm wrist and only made a few casts on Sunday...Taking a percocet at night helps ease the pain enough to get some sleep...tylenol and advil just don't seem to cut it...I've done the cold treatments but am going to switch to heat next...this getting old sure isn't for sissies...sheeeeze... Maybe drift fishing for pickerel will be easier on my wrist...

Crappieperchhunter and I are going to give the crappie a rest this afternoon and give the carp a try for the first time this year...he has chummed the area we fish the past two evenings so maybe we just might catch some...if not, we got lots of news to catch up on... He has been up this way since Monday but Maribeth and I were away terrorizing Montreal (and Roy) last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday...Weather was lousy but we sure did see the inside of a lot of basilicas including this one next door to where we were staying...

407 East ends at Hwy 7 just east of Brougham...from there you can continue east over to Hwy 12 turn left and go north on Hwy 7/12 to Manchester...turn right and take Hwy 7a east over to Hwy 35...from there you can head north to Lindsay or go south a couple of kilometers and Hwy 7a continues east on over to Hwy 115 just east of Cavan...whereabouts is your final destination ?

Well said Sam...Up here in Bobcaygeon we have an excellent bait and tackle shop but...alas...he is only open from the end of April to the middle of November...(Kawarthas fishing season)...and sometimes during the winter season I have been guilty of shopping at BPS but only if I have a doctor's appointment that takes me to Richmond Hill...next best to actually fishing is seeing all the new lures etc...a gift certificate for BPS sent me there last time...and that is all I spent...

Happy Birthdays to Art and Joey... I hope you both get what you like or like what you get...

Cook's Bay (lower end of Lake Simcoe)...Others here must know of launch sites...

Speaking of black flies...I'm sitting here and can watch the guys building my neighbor a new deck...and doing a lot of swatting... They came on strong yesterday and if you don't get in and shut the doors quickly, their in the house and the car in quick order...

We loved to see minnows just before opening of pickerel season at Rice Lake...that meant the pickerel would be coming in to shore in the evenings...dig out the Rapala type minnow baits and cast into the wind wearing your chest waders when the season opens...

Congrats on 2 months...just remember you will always be just one cigarette away from having to go through the pain of quitting all over again... If you don't take the first one...it is physically impossible to have the second ! NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING is worth taking that first one !!!

MMMmmmmmm...fried catfish fillets... Betcha they tasted every bit as good as the bluegill fillets we had last week... Cph and Nanook had the crappie...

I've asked for help for you and yours...

So much for that dandelion theory...The bite was "hot" for a half hour at 06:00 AM then stopped...only the odd stragler was caught...the bluegills were still around but we didn't see a crappie after 08:00 AM...0*C at 07:00 AM Maybe some rain and +10*C overnight might do some good...???

I'm guessing (and hoping) the crappie haven't really come in yet...we are getting some but not like other years at opening...it is still very cold at night (0*C, +1*C, +2*C) so I think they are dropping back at night as it gets cool...CPH said his top eye was icing up the other morning... Today was the first day I noticed there were a lot of dandelions blooming in the neighborhood and I heard that the crappie don't really turn on until then... Will know better tomorrow morning...

Hey Cliff...All I use as a baiting needle is a straightened out jig with a thin wire hook...the barb on the hook makes it easier to grab the loop on the hair rig once you have threaded on your corn and/or boilie and the head of the jig gives a good hand hold for pulling the loop through...I bought some plastic stoppers that look like little barbells and come in strips...easy to cut off the strip...

Geeeze Roy... I hope you don't donate that lovely birthday present we gave you when you visited our place... Did you get a photo of the present?...I don't seem to have one.

Nanook and I both own 14 ft leaky aluminum boats... Last year he taped his boat's bottom with true duct tape...the kind that is like sticky aluminum foil that you take off the backing before applying...but...he never got it into the water yet to test it... Because mine is a slow leak from the outside in only and God only knows where it is, Big Cliff suggested slathering 3 coats of paint on her bottom and hopefully that will seal it...the paint I got was Home Hardware's own Rust Paint that has a poly eurethne mix to lend a bit of elasticity to it...I'll know better if it worked later today as I bailed out the rain water from the other day and it has been basking in the sunshine all day so should be dried out by now... Sure hope this works as I've already invested $80 in 4 tubes of aluminum putty (the kind you cut off a small bit at a time and knead it for 1 minute then apply to seams) to no avail... will let you know later... It is now much later... I got a last minute message to meet Crappieperchhunter over by Little Bald Lake for some crappie fishing after supper and you know how we got to keep our priorities straight...we kept a dozen or so "slabs" and Steve is cleaning them...he does a great job of it...not like the massacre job I do... So far so good with the leak (I think)...the only area that was leaking now was around the drain (I don't have a plug) but this drain thing that when you pull up and twist it stays open and when you twist it and push down it closes...I had a thought that maybe sumpin' was keeping it from closing properly so I opened it and some crap came in along with the fresh water then I closed it back down and watched for a couple of minutes and it appers to have stopped...I'll keep my fingers crossed...I have a whole roll of the above mentioned aluminum foil tape so I can do a bunch of sealing with that around the bottom of the drain inside the boat if necessary...BTW...all this testing was done dockside not out on the lake...LOL

Welcome to the world of carp fishing...where a comfortable chair is an important part of your equipment...you sure know you got sumpin' on the end of your line when you hook on to one... Lots of waiting time involved sometimes and that is when you get involved in brilliant conversations with fellow carpers... Sheesh...Carole matched my biggest first time out...

Five years ago my wife and I were in the situation of selling our home in Richmond Hill and looking in the Kawartha Lakes area for a place where I can be fishing in ten or fifteen minutes...not necessarily waterfront as that was too expensive... We bought in Alpine Village community on the north shore of Pigeon Lake a half hour away from our friends Big Cliff one way and Nanook the other and couldn't be happier...Bobcaygeon is a ten minute drive away and Buckhorn maybe fifteen minutes...Hospitals in Lindsay or Peterborough are about a half hour away...doctors are scarce around here but we did find a good dentist For a fee of $100 a year we have full use of the large private park at the lake along with a private beach, a shared dock and a good gated launch... We found this place using MLS and doing drive-bys...If we saw a place that looked decent outside we requested our real estate agent make an appointment for a look see inside... Good luck on your hunt...

Nice going Rick ! Thank You Maybe by thanking you for what you did it will be like thanking the good samaritan that saw my poor dad back to the nursing home he wandered away from... Strange that...After the war (WW2) my dad dispatched for VITA Cab Co (Veteran's Cab Co) and knew the downtown core of Toronto like the back of his hand...but at the age of 61 he was lost...the nursing home made the dementia patients wear an ID bracelet like they put on you at the hospital in case of such emergencies...

YEP ! *BURP*...That Meely sure does put on a spread...Gotta give him credit for sticking to his food plan (diet)...All that great scoff and he had salad with canned tuna and a couple of pieces of the crappie fillets... Thanks to a couple of the others that didn't eat fish I got to bring home a half dozen pieces of crappie for Maribeth which she enjoyed with a romain lettuce salad and raspberry vinaigrette dressing... I ended up having a dozen pre-cooked shrimp and a couple of hard boiled eggs with my cottage cheese and romain lettuce...that'll teach me to not catch any fish...LOL Mind you he can pack away my home cooked Chinese food...