Ron

Scary Mike, just scary! ha ha ha!

Although, most of the suggestions are good. I think many of these board members forgot what they had for gear when they first started fishing for Muskie. You say you are an avid Bass guy, so I would assume you would have a heavy flippen stick, say about 7ft or so long. If you are fortunate enough to have a good quality baitcaster, you need to only pick up up some heavy braid. I would suggest 65lb minimum but truth be known, 80 lb is better. 80 lb will not break on a back lash. Try in-line spinners for starters. You can get them in various weights so pick a couple up that your already existing rod and reel can handle. Favorite colors for the Kawarthas??? Walleye pattern- that would be light brown/yellow/white or light brown/yellow/orange. Rapala has a new lure, the gliding rap (about 3 yrs on the market). Pick up the Bluegill pattern, easy lure to figure out how to work. Sure a net would be nice, but you know, I didn't buy a net until after fishing for muskie for 3 yrs. I did however, buy a pair of long needle nose pliers, crappy tire mini bolt cutters and a jaw spreader. If you do any salmon or rainbow fishing from piers, chances are good you have a landing net big enough for the majority of the Kawartha Lakes muskie. Don't set your goals high for big fish when you first start out. Expect to catch fish in the max range of 40 inches, that seems to be standard for anyone who seems to just starts out fishing for muskie. So, the long of it... Buy: (prices are an estimate only) 80 lb power pro. 30.00 130lb flourocarbon leaders 12.00 long nose needle nose pliers 10.00 cheap bolt cutters 15.00 in-line walleye pattern bucktail spinner 18.00 Suick weighted 8" fire tiger pattern Rapala gliding Rap (large size in bluegill or hot Olive) 18.00 There is about 150.00 spent just to see if you are going to enjoy it or not. It will be the best 150.00 spent if you find muskie fishing isn't what you thought it would be. Once you get a taste of muskie fishing and you say to yourself "This is what I'm talking!!! Booh ya!", then you can seriously consider stepping up to the plate and upgrade your gear to "muskie grade". There is my 2 cents worth of advice. Cheers, Ron...

Berkley Gulp 1" minnow fry, I guess you could call it a parasite as they are a royal pain to thread onto a micro jig head. Cheers, Ron...

I have a 17.5 ft Lund Outfitter with a 90 Yamaha. When I am trolling for walleye on Quinte in the Fall, I put 2 cloth grocery bags out, one off of each front cleat. This will put my trolling speed down to .7 - .8 mph. The length of rope is long enough for me to reach over from the console to pick them out of the water. If you put one out on each side of the boat from the front cleats, you will still have quick responsive steering when required. Experience tells me by placing the trolling socks or cloth bags out from the stern cleats, the prop wash gets put into the bags and causes the boat to not respond to turning . The grocery bags take up no room, in fact they become useful when not used as speed control. On our back country trips, they work great for hauling water to put out our fire from the shore lunch. I also use them to store my anchor and rope.

I would fish the left side of the floating dock with a sledge, simply because that is where the Sun is shining down on mostly. Next I would cast a Bulldawg and let it sink down on the shady side. After that, next would be a tandem blade inline right along side the Lily pads. Sorry you said Bass. I would get the biggest red and white and drown a Dew worm, that would be about as exciting as it would get for me fishing for bass.... Cheers, Ron...

Meal worms is part 2 of your questions. These can be found at your local pet store. (Ask for dragon food).

Going fishing this morning!

Hard core, you know you got it bad when...

Hook and a Gipsland Earthworm. If I can't get those Australian worms at the local tackle shop, I resort to Sledges and Handlebarz tandem inlines. Cheers, Ron...

Considering you are from Sudbury area, i would assume you are not fishing Quinte. For most of my walleye lakes I fish, I prefer the straight silver swedish pimple. One thing I do most people don't, is what I call a reverse jig. Instead of jigging upwards and dropping rod for the pause, I hold my spoon about a ft off bottom and then abruptly drop my rod tip down and then back up to where I was stationary. Depending on the mood of the walleye, I will vary my jigs from any where's from a constant pulse to jigging every 20 seconds. A good fish finder is key for any type of ice fishing. This will shorten the learning curve on what the fish want for presentation. Cheers, Ron...

It was a great read. Nice to know people out there appreciate guys like Josh. This is a great way to get people aware of various projects that people could get involved in. I'll bet Josh has some great experiences fishing that he could write articles about. Looking forward to reading other articles from the gentleman. Cheers, Ron...

Thanks!

In a week or so????? What's up with that???? Come on, put the rods down and spend an afternoon in your chair looking at your computer monitor. You owe it to us! Nah, just kidding. If had the choice between fishing or uploading pictures to create a post for everyone to enjoy, I would take the fishing first too. Looking forward to the post... Cheers, Ron...

Ya, sure let the criminals into Canada. I agree, if it was a one time offence going back 7 yrs or more fine. You can pass that off as a mistake someone make in their life for what ever reason. The problem is, will the American Customs border, open it up the same way? I doubt it. Just like free trade, it's a one way street in my opinion. Sorry, I like to see any tourist enjoy our resources, but it would be nice to see the USA return the favour. One of my buddies got dinged for an impaired 12 yrs ago, he can not fish with me on the Niagara or some of the Southern tribs because of it.

I take it no one is going to this? Cheers, Ron...

The Bridgenorth Winter Panfish Festival is this Saturday on Chemong Lake from 10am - 2pm. There will be refreshments, (hot chocolate), hot dogs and such. More importantly, this would be a great opportunity to get kids involved in ice fishing. Every kid will walk away with a great prize too. Last year some of the prizes were Shimano soft sided tackle boxes, Northland ice fishing rods, Shimano winter hats and tube jig starter kits to name a few. Myself, along with several other people will be there, drilling holes, setting up Frabil ice huts to let people to fish out of. This will give kids and parents alike, a chance to see how nice of a set up you can have to enjoy the day out ice fishing. We will also have the new portable Aqua View mini camera along with Lowrance fishfinders. Some people say you can't run the HDS units as they eat batteries. i will be there to prove them wrong! If you are interested in helping out with this great kids event contact Mike Brown, ( I hope he chimes in). So.... is anyone from the board going to be there? If you are, look for me at the Frabil huts, the one with the blue Artic Cat snowmobile. I look forward to meeting a few new faces. Cheers, Ron...

http://www.michiganmuskieshow.com/

It can be beat Richard, you are proof of that! It's nice to see the support you are getting from this OFC. It's not often I post on threads like this but recently thought of how you would know we are always thinking of everyone that has had a tough time in their lives. Cheers, Ron...

Seems as though many many threads have come and gone with fish cooking recipes. So I thought I would try one that only people put their recipes on. Here is a few of mine. Pan fried: Take boneless fillets and paper towel dry. Beat one egg with equal part Ranch salad dressing. Mix Italian bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese (50/50), place in bag. Add enough oil in pan to half cover fillets and heat to 325. Dip fillets in egg wash, let excess drip off and immediately roll in breading mix. Fry in oil until golden brown, flipping once only. Serve with your choice of potato or my favourite, lemon rice and peas. Substitute Italian bread crumbs with you favourite flavour of Potato chips (all dressed is mine). Just be sure to pulverize them very well, almost into powder form. Deep fried: Do yourself a favour and go the Bulk Bin store. Get their powdered fish batter, substitute water with beer and you are golden. It is THE BEST I have ever had. Mix as per instructions and it is very important to let stand a minimum of 5 minutes. This lets the active ingredients work to produce a nice light and fluffy and crispy coating. Before you start cooking up the fillets, try some deep fried mushrooms. This will keep the hungry mouths away while you are cooking in the deep fryer. Another secrete to crispy batter is to use a proper deep fryer, something that holds lots of oil so that it does not loose it's heat as you place in battered fillets. Cheers, Ron...

Nice Mike! Cheers, Ron...

WooHoo!!! Nice to see it on the ice fNw. Gotta like it when a plan comes together. Tough going bout the tire but at least it didn't put a major kink into your plans. I'm liking the idea of getting your first fish framed and planting it up in the hut. I can see many more photos going up along with it too! Cheers, Ron...

For sure that would put some kids into a different time of their life. Very nice Bushart! I hope they accept this piece of art to display in some of the rooms. Cheers, Ron...

Hats off to all of those who put some time back towards the fisheries. It is a nice way of putting back into something we all so much enjoy. Good on ya's! Cheers, Ron...

There are several different "sunflower" styles on the market. Be sure to get the one with the fully adjustable valve, as like the one you see in Wayne's post. The other makes only have "off, low, medium and high" settings. Trust me, there is no difference in the 3 settings. At least with a variable valve, you set the btu output to match the day.

Hey, it's not funny! But it's a start... Cheers, Ron...