esoxcrazy

Lots of local bait retailers. Please dont bring the southern bait to our waters! Lots of small dealers here can provide all your bait needs! Point au Baril, Alban, Noelville...

The price point on the new vexilar smartphone transducer is worth a look. New technology is gonna change the big guys I'm sure. Totally worth a look.

I have been using the Crucial 6'8" Med with x-fast tip for Jigging and jerkbaits for the last 3 years and have yet to find a suitable replacement.

Ice-55 hands down my favorite fishing purchase to date! Its will go on year 4 now and I also use my humminbird 596 lcd, but the flasher is the bomb!

Beautiful fish, congrats! I agree with the bump board though! When your up on LOTW stop in and see Ryan at figure 8 baits in Kenora, that is where I picked up mine and it is awesome.

www.sandbeachlodge.com I believe we have everything you are looking for. Only a 3-3.5 hr drive on mostly 4 lanes and very quiet river as majority of the shoreline is provincial park.

Steady decline? I have worked on different sections of the French river for 8 years and the fishery is incredible! Take a look at the map and you will see there is much more water that just wolsley bay. Dry pine bay and the main channel (right under highway 69) has a ridiculous amount of water and endless new water to explore. I am bias as this is where I have worked the past 5 years for a fishing lodge and I get to spend about 80 days a season on this water. I would encourage anyone to try all species at most times of the year and you will be pleasantly suprised. From limits of walleye to jaw dropping Smallies I am not sure what this river doesn't offer. I mainly fish musky and use very basic tactics for walleye, pike, and bass and have very little issue keeping the bite going. The area has not been charted yet and the Dry Pine section is by far the easiest to navigate with very few spots to leave your lower unit. Take a moment to check out what our French River Resorts Association has to offer on all areas of the river and it will be worth spending a few days up here. Some of my top pics will include Sand Beach Lodge, Presquille Cottages, Dry Pine Camp, Cranes Lochhaven, Wolsley Lodge, Bears Den. The upper part has some incredible action as well with Chaudierre and West arm lodge. I can provide pics to back it all up too and have no problem answering basic questions with a pm. Hope to see some of you up here this season.

http://www.ofah.org/news/bill-c19-passed I guess they keep some promises.

http://www.xplornet.com/index.aspx I use this at the lodge over the summer and it works well for what we need. The best part for me is that I only need to pay for the months I use it, not contract. They, with the help of our federal government, are implementing full coverage for all rural Canada. This company will grow very soon.

Not sure style of fishing you prefer, but the double bucktails up there were definetly the producers! You will see plenty of fish that have seen plenty of baits, your ability to figure 8 each cast will make the difference. The cowgirls just seemed to make em eat in the 8. Black and orange, the chart/black, and chart/white worked best for us. I think it was mainly just contrast patterns that they honed in on. We got a couple on perch believers as well. I don't know what the water is like in Sioux but the south east/ Sabaskong was ultra dirty water and the Kenora Big Narrows area was gin clear. We fished the clear water with only a couple of follows in a day. Next time I head up we will spend all the time up in Kenora end. Good Luck, you will be hooked on the structure up there! The musky mecca!

Flasher over LCD in cold weather anyday. I would have to say my Ice-55 has been my best asset fishing for all seasons. The realtime reading of the flasher will be that split second you need some days on your display. With the power of the unit I use it all year and just have the puck in a bit of water in the bottom of my grumman canoe and can mark my 1/32oz jig in 20ft of water. I have had mine since '08 and have had to replace the motor in it last year (warranty) and they gave me another full year warranty on the unit. I think the 55 and the marcum lx-5 are the best of the best and each have there own pros. I fished with the showdown a fair bit last year and still found the display slow compared to the top end flasher. I know there are a thousand people using the lowrance X-67, and basic fishfinders will work, but I like my unit to react the same in all fishing conditions. I have seen the slowness at cold temps with LCD. I cannot say enough about the hummingbird line and I am not gonna knock the vex as I don't have much experience with them and we have no local retailer so it was off my radar when choosing. The seperation will blow you away with the 55, especially in deep water. My only complaint with the hummingbird is the ability to reduce/increase the gain, from 1-50 you will need at least a setting of 40 even in 20 ft or less. either no power or full power.

There are a few sections of the French, why not try em all! Easy drive to location, are you looking for housekeeping cottage or do you want your meals included? I have been fishing the French for years and the first few weeks of walleye are usually incredible. For a 5 hour radius There is no need to go further north. Unless you want to drive another 3-5 hours.

Well the accuracy of the gps signals for civilian use has been a topic for many years. There is only a few ways to help you map as accurate as possible: The use of the external antennae is a must! I run lowrance 520C with the external puck and the 522igps on the bow. I also have my garmin hcx with the accuracy onscreen display. The internal 522 is definetly not as accurate as the external reciever. Having the accuracy of the waas reciever is a great piece of info that is gonna get you back on those "spot on spot" locations. You may need to hold off for the use of the european "Galileo" system that is expected to blow the american gps system out of the water! In 1999, the different concepts (from Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) for Galileo were compared and reduced to one by a joint team of engineers from all four countries. The first stage of the Galileo programme was agreed upon officially on 26 May 2003 by the European Union and the European Space Agency. The system is intended primarily for civilian use, unlike the United States system, which the U.S. military runs and uses on a primary basis. The U.S. reserves the right to limit the signal strength or precision of GPS, or to shut down public GPS access completely, so that only the U.S. military and its allies would be able to use it in time of conflict. Until 2000, the precision of the signal available to non-U.S.-military users was limited (due to a timing pulse distortion process known as selective availability)

I was lucky enough to spend most of my summers as a kid in the Sudbury Aviation lakes. My father helped Marg (the owner) build and set up most of the camps. There are definetly some great fish populations on these lakes. I prefer some of the smaller lakes for some incredible pike numbers and the average size is well above most drive to lakes. Some great trout (mainly lakers) opportunities at certain times as well. We would just use a few williams spoons as you were lucky to see a rapala last more than a few hours, if that. I am sure you wont be disapointed if you choose them as your trip.

Well i have been fortunate enough to scratch a lot of my bucket list, but some big trips still remain -Grayling and char in the yukon -tarpon in florida -tobin lake sask -st john river musky -Lac seul

I am not much of a troller, but when I do it is usually in the 12" range. Like Mike said the boat control and short line can be very precise and effective with the big lipped cranks. In the last few years my trolling hours per fish are much less than casting. Rattles or not as long as I am wearing down the lip. Nothing better than washing "Hookers" on a nice fall afternoon!

Hoping to break the French River PB with a another or one from LSC.

I have the same complaint with the packaging. I started this season with about 150 asst packs of Trigger X. I maybe used 25. The fat body grub was a really great size in 4". The natural paddle worms were pretty deadly as they stay rigged on many set ups. Caught many walleye per worm on these. Tried and hated most of the others. couple of the bass worms were ok, but not top quality plastic, again firm in most baits. Carrying 10-15 packs was a little ridiculous with the packing, and returning with a mound of wrappers and torn dried plastic wasn't much fun either. The chartruse is pretty bright some days...

I tend to use the Aqua-vu ice pod. its a cheap plastic tripod for the transducer that once set to depth it makes moving hole to hole much easier without banging the ducer on the edges of the holes. It has collapsable legs and works great. Also a great handle to remove the tranducer before/while landing your fish. Not sure if the 45 is packed with the 9 amp hour battery or the 7 but I have also changed all my winter electronics to 9 ah batteries and no problem with full day fishing at max gain. just don't sink it and you'll get the years outta it!

levels are probably down 3 feet from precious years average and close to 5 feet from last year. the bite is really picking up as most of our guest are hitting walleye through the day in this heat. Some big pike boats yesterday as well in horseshoe bay.

Chef is listening! Thanks again for the night fishing! I fished one of your spots just 2 days after you left and ended up with 43 walleye in about 2.5 hours! I was unbelievable. 27.5" that was easily in the 8 lb range. 2@26". 30 in the slot and 9 under at about14". I went up to cast Muskie in some of the areas you showed me but the walleye bite never stopped. Hope to see you again balsamlaker. The lodge has recently changed hands in the last 3 years and one of the main reasons I am with him is his forecast of bringing this back to A fishing lodge, so any input is appreciated.