wantabigone

Thanks for the replies. I am taking the claim with a grain of salt. It is a rather large claim in northern waters for walleye. I have fished Ogoki Lake twice and we caught hundreds of walleye but very few pike. I hear that mid summer July/August is better for pike fishing and I have fished only late May and early July up there. I am still doing my searching for a good affordable flyin lake for my dad and I. Who knows - we may end up back at Ogoki. I just would like to find some of those big pike. Maybe we should try later in the season this time around.

Hello all I am wondering if anyone has fished Esser lake north of Nakina. I see on the website that they claim... "There are lots of Walleyes in the 5 to 10-pound range in this lake. " This sounds too good to be true and as the saying goes if it sounds too good to be true.... I hope someone has fished this and can comment on their above claims. Thanks in advance. Have a good weekend all.

pretty much anything out of Nakina is good to be honest for numbers. Size is a different issue. There are less good lakes with big fish at a cheap price. Of course there is always the chance of getting a big one on a lake not known for big 'uns.

What a great guy to know. I hope the next lake is even better for you! (if possible-maybe a good pike lake or river!) Seeing as how there are no cabins I doubt my 80 year old dad (my fishing buddy) would be able to do a trip like that anyway. Tight lines

good luck

Increadible water colour. What a gem

BTW - That's me begging

Seeing as how you will not say the name of the lake-would you consider the name of the outfitter that flew you out? PLEASE (PM would suffice)

Hello all. Just wondering if anyone has had the opportunity to fish this body of water for pike and walleye.

Love the write up. I really enjoy seeing your sons huge smiles. I really need to bite the bullet and take my youngest (8) to a fly-in lake. You really need to get a gig as an online writer. (Ontario fisherman etc) In the meantime I will simply enjoy the free writeups you so generously share with this board.

Thanks for the reply guys. Thanks for the other locations Craig, I will check those out. Carl- I dont own my own boat so thats not an option but yes, one can bring their own boat and stay at the local hotel if one chose to - or camp.

The only lodge I can find is Osprey and they are way out of my price range!

waurthog- I sent you a PM.

I tried the hair rig with little success. I am guessing my bait was not being held securely below the hook. After my 3 boys with me caught 5 fish I switched over to my treble hook. Now that I have thought more about my experience I have a new idea to attach the bait below the single hook. I am thinking of tieing a small amount of styrofoam below the hook and to use that to anchor and float the bait off the ground. I may try this on the weekend. My boys are already asking when we can go again. Now to decide do we go back to the place in London for the numbers or do we try other areas for bigger carp? decisions decisions. Oh, I need to find out where to buy real grits (not cornmeal)

They sure do put up a good fight! Now I need to find where the big ones are hanging out.

oops - I thought cornmeal was grits as well. Learned somthin' today.

Thats what I use, mixed with a few other things. Fantastic and cheap!

Finally wet a line this warm season with my 2 boys. We fished for carp in London and had a blast. We caught dozens in the 5-12 pound range. My youngest son (age 7) and I stayed upriver and caught 5 but lost at least 12 due to poor hookups. We had many hits only to see them steal my bait which was evident by the bare hook when I reeled in. My oldest boy(17) was more adventurous strolling downstream and catching dozens of carp in the various small pools. Weather was perfect and the boys were excited. PERFECT day with my boys. I have a new idea on baiting my hook and am looking forward to trying it out in a few weeks to see if I can get a better hook up percentage. The only thing I regret is that my oldest said he saw 2 walleye on a stringer and he was going to release them when he was confronted by an "older" guy yelling at him to leave them alone. As they were not in season in the area they never should have been on the stringer. Unfortunately he did not say anything to me until we were half an hour away heading home. I would have gladly released the fish!

Many years ago I fished the whirlpool. I basically fished striaght off the shore slightly to the right of where the path leads to the area. I managed to get a snag. I would pull and feel whatever I was snagged on come toward me but never actually come free. It felt alot like getting stuck on a branch and the branch would stretch toward me and once the pressure was released the branch would settle back to where it was. After doing this a few times, I finally pulled with enough strength to beither pull the lure free or break the line. (8 pound) To my relief I pulled the lure free and reeled in. I noticed something hanging from a treble and on closer inspection it appeared to be flesh. It smelled horrible, like rotten meat, and thought perhaps a dead fish had been what I hooked onto. I fished for another hour, catching nothing, and made the arduous walk back up the hill. Let me tell you, even at 20 years of age my asthma was NOT liking that hike up. I took many breaks, especially the closer i made it to the top. Now for the reason of telling of my snag.... The next day, on the news, they announced that a body had been found floating in the whirlpool that had obviously been in the water for quite a long time. To this day I believe that this was what I was snagged on and I helped loosen the body from its snag. I have never gone back there-not because of the snag but the walk back up. I don't think I could make it up that hill now some 25 years later. Beautiful spot to fish however, very peaceful.

I use 17 pound mono or steel cable if I know pike are around. Number 4 or 5 colorado blade(various colours). I tend to favour two coloured blades (with stripe) I believe the dual colours give a better presentation as they spin in the water. The single colours look like one solid colour as they spin in the water. (meaning you might as well just have a round coloured ball, not taking into account the vibration of the blade) I always use floats inline with beads to help the bait float higher in the water column. Sometimes use propeller floats inline. I have yet to find a hook that has a wide enough gap for my likeing. I often use minnow gulp bait and haver found I miss fish due to the reduced space between bait and hook. I think I will experiment with the hollow rubber baits to help with this as the bait will collapse easily as the fish bites down on it. If a manually increase the gap in my hook I have found my hookup success is almost 100%. I make my rigs with 24 inches of line. I fish the rigs mostly with a banana style bottom bouncer. Sometimes with an inline triangular weight. I often tip the rig with a 1 cm piece of crawler. This vastly increases hookups as "short" bites result in hook bites.

nice choice, have fun with it!

I get the 3 year, always have. Saves on time(not having to do it every year) and if there are any price increases in the meantime i save a bit.

great report pike - just need one lure, johnson silver minnow walleye- anything seems to work, jigs,spinners,body baits. You caught some really nice 'eyes there. I never had that much luck up there for big walleye. good for you!

you can contribute up to 2500 a year until the child is 16 and receive the government contribution. If you have started late (i.e. your child is 5) you can double up your payments until you have caught up on your maximum contribution. So.. you can contribute 5000 a year for 5 more years and then only put in 2500 a year after that until he is 16 getting the govt contribution. The government will contribute 20% of what you do. So if you put in 2500 the gov't will put up 500. You can have multiple people contribute to your child's RESP keeping into mind that the maximum still cannot exceed 2500. You do NOT get a tax break- the money going in is after tax dollars. You can have access to the money if an emergency comes up with no penalty and you keep the capital gains that have accrued. However the govt money must be returned. The current maximum contribution is 50000. It is best to speak with a bank RESP specialist to get specific questions answered accurately. I hope this gives you some information you did not know before.

I'll wade into this conversation and throw in my uneducated opinion. They should not be protected, their numbers justify a controlled hunt IMO. They are native and should be allowed to exist and will find a balance in their numbers eventually. (remember the passenger pigeon anyone?) As far as their range goes, the weather patterns have changed on the past several decades which have allowed all species to increase their range further north than in the recent hisyorical past. There is proof of this everywhere. This is not my opinion-it is fact. It is good to hear that the MNR is doing some culling but IMO some areas need to be more aggressive in this area. It is true that the tree huggers will protest if outright culling occurs publicly. The best bet is to open them to a hunting season. All my 2 cents