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Thanks for the tip on splake tackle, Mike P. I only tried spoons and spinners today, but next time I'll try a crank. Haha, well yeah, it was fun. It took off and peeled drag 4 or 5 times, dove straight under the Sportspal a couple times. There aren't many weeds in this lake so it didn't wrap around and just sit there like in many of the other pike lakes I've fished, so it put up a good fight. It was pretty exciting and fun, I just really wanted trout.

I went fishing for splake this afternoon with no luck. I could see fish in shallow, but I wasn't sure what kind and they weren't eating my lures.. I did have a couple bites right after a heavy rain fall, but they're tricky. I did a bunch of trolling and all I caught was this pike. It's not gigantic or anything compared to what some of you guys catch (34") but it's the biggest one I've seen in person. My right arm is wet because I didn't take a net with me (just forgot it in the trunk, but it wouldn't have fit in my trout net anyhow). A nice cottager took the pic for me and we had a good chat for a while. I would have much rather caught a little 14" splake, but at least I caught something. I also caught some kind of Matrixx lure that someone lost, so double bonus.

It's probably cheaper for you to just buy one than waste a roll of duct tape on your Red Green Rod Holder. It's like $4 for a proper, metal rod holder at my local flea market and it works rather well in my canoe.

I wonder what lure the guy who caught the fish the second time was using. Without a doubt, it had to be a.... Lucky Strike. YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh

My sister has a ferret named Aurora. She was running under the couch and when she came out, I caught her. With my bare hands.

Thanks! But the camera is no SLR, hahaha. I wish. It's just a Fuji XP50... The pics aren't as good as my Canon PowerShot SX130 (also not an SLR but I can get some decent pics out of it - see here for a few I posted before: http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=55258), but it's waterproof and all that, and was bought specifically for fishing/camping trips.

Thanks, everyone! Glad you liked my pics and stuff. Last year my goal was to catch 100 fish and I passed that. This year, I only want to catch one of each of the trouts in my area, and maybe try one or two days for auroras, but not like last year. So far this year, I have only caught 16 brook trout, 4 lakers, and one splake. Only thing left is rainbows, which I don't think I've ever caught. I talked with my father and he said my first fish ever was a speck, and told me where. I'm planning to revisit that location and see if I can catch one there myself. I'm also going to be a dad later this year, and if there are still brookies in that creek, I'm going to do what I can to make my kid's first fish also a speck from the same creek. Chad, maybe you and me could hit this lake sometime.. I think you'd like it. Anyhow, I went back to this same lake tonight with my brother and his girlfriend because they wanted to catch trout and we were going to take the cached boat in since it would hold the three of us... But it's actually chained to a tree with a lock, so I guess they don't want people using it. Oh well. We fished from shore like I did yesterday. We caught only three, this time they weren't touching worms on hooks, but they were hitting Little Cleos and a cheap no-name spinner of some kind. I had a few bites I missed but I caught the first one, my brother the other two. He actually caught the second one practically on top-water, as I witnessed the fish jump to grab the spinner right as the cast landed. Pretty crazy sight! Overall, there was far less activity than yesterday - not as many jumping, not as many bugs on the water, and no wolves. Still, any day you catch a trout is a good day in my books. On our way back to the launch, I had some little fish on and lost it, right at the same time my brother's girlfriend caught a 16" walleye on a crankbait. Here are a couple pics from today:

Very nice, Joey! I've got about four or five creeks I have planned to try, so hopefully I'll catch a few of these babies myself. I'll be sure to pick up a small net like that first.

Beautiful fish and scenery! Trout are so pretty.

I was going to go after rainbows today, but the lake I had planned to try is in one of the areas said to be inundated with smoke from one of the many fires going right now. So instead I decided to try locating a little speck lake I'd heard about. After about a 10 minute walk through brush and fallen trees, I found the lake. I put a bobber and tiny hook with a piece of worm on, tossed it into the lake from shore, and within 90 seconds, I had this guy. I snapped the pic and released and put on a new piece of worm. I was at the lake for a total of about 45 minutes and I caught five specks in total. I would have stayed longer and caught some more, but a pack of wolves showed up and I was getting a little nervous. One of them started making its way around shore to me, and it got really close before I toss a rock into the water near it and it took off. I don't know if they typically attack people or not, but I wasn't in the mood to find out. Still, at less than 10 minutes between trout, I thought it was a great day and was happy with that. It was pretty crazy though. The first time I've ever seen a brook trout try to eat a bobber... Two different casts, too. Pike, I could see. Bass even, maybe. But those trout must've been pretty hungry! I met some Americans on the way in, and they were trying for pike and walleye in the first lake. When I relocated my canoe on the shore where I'd left it, the Americans were close by (this was about 3k from the launch, in one of many bays). Anyhow, got to talking some more with them and they offered me two free lures, because they are so cheap where they're from. They were all casting the same colors and shapes and catching pike and out-of-season bass, so I tied on one of them. I wished them well and went on my way. I stopped where a good pike location stood out to me, did a cast in and hooked into one in about 3-4 feet of water. But it was no pike, it was a walleye! Too bad it was in the slot. Bah. But then I did a couple more casts as I made my way along the shore and I landed a nice pike. Satisfied with the hat-trick, I motored back to shore and headed home, early, so I could rest up and pick a lake for tomorrow. Here are some more pics: (three wolves are in this pic, which is hard to see since this was taken from a video. I didn't take a pic when the one got really close, I was busy with a fish on and then had to find a rock real quick like.)

Yeah, I don't know what magical fantasy land you live in, but brooms don't work that well on gravel driveways, much less gravel driveways that someone came and used a street sweeper on yesterday that was, I am guessing, supposed to sweep up the glass but instead thoroughly mixed it into the rest of my driveway. And the days prior to that, there was police tape sectioning off the exact portion of my driveway, as it was being treated as a crime scene. I am not trying to "cash in" here. Tell me how exactly I would benefit from having various sizes of glass all over my driveway cleaned up? Having my driveway back the way it was, is somehow going to make me rich? Why do you have to be so hostile towards me? This isn't the first time.

As you probably know, my neighbor's house exploded and tons of broken glass was sent onto the street and all over my driveway. My wife is extremely angry and upset because we can't park our car in our driveway beside our house. She had the day off today and the rain took away all the snow, so she spent some time trying to pick up the glass. She got a bag full of larger pieces, but there is still lots more, and many small pieces. It will take many hours of work for us to pick it all up by hand, and by the weekend, who knows if it'll be buried in a foot or two of snow? Is this really our responsibility to clean it ourselves by hand or pay someone out of our own pockets to clean it up? Is that how it works? Is there any actual way to do this? This is the first time a house has blown up and shattered massive windows into our driveway, so I've not got much experience with this. Thanks for any advice.

Good advice. If that ever happens to me, I'm gonna try to get the plate if possible. Maybe get out at a red light or stop sign and go confront them. Or make an unnecessary turn into the nearest police station. Go stop at Subway and get a fresh footlong turkey breast on whole wheat, and see what they do then. Or just make an O-turn and tail them (maybe tough to do with a boat and trailer, haha). But this probably won't happen to me, since my old canoe sits on top of my car pretty much whenever not in use, and there's rarely ever anyone at any of the lakes I go to. Still, I wouldn't have thought to keep an eye out, so that's good advice for all.

Reel arm is reversible... lol

Last year I got this game for Christmas. It's probably the best fishing game I've played, and even has a special controller with it: Considering the ice has decided to come and go and who knows if it's coming back, I may have to dust this thing off, myself.

I had the same sort of thing happen when I listed some things on North Bay Classifieds a few years back. Almost the exact same wording, too, complete with the same stupid question about price - clearly indicated in the ad! Except instead of PayPal, it was Western Union. I told him I would only take cash and to give me his address and I would personally deliver it to him. He insisted on Western Union. I insisted on cash and in person. That's where it ended. It was painfully obvious it was a scam. Now, if I was selling something and the guy simply asked if I'd take PayPal, and sounded like a normal human being, I'd entertain the thought, possibly put some conditions such as the money has to clear and the shipping address and name has to match, etc. In general, PayPal is fairly safe, but I have only used it to buy things online and sell on eBay, as well as receive payments for minor side consultations for some guy in the US that considers me his Linux guru. Interac Email Money Transfers are still my preferred method of accepting payments, though. I've had people rip me off in person because I was too trusting and figured they handed me the full amount ($20) when they actually handed me a rolled up ten and a rolled up five inside... For example. EMTs, I can see the amount beforehand, it's deposited immediately, no fuss, no muss. But that's just me.

In their hot water tank?

Benefit of the doubt: maybe he really is concerned and has been seeing them, but could never get a pic so he figured if he faked one, he'd be taken seriously. My dad and uncles and now-late grandmother have seen cougars on their farm property up this way, but that was about 15 or so years ago.

Well, the police and fire marshal finished up today, took down the police line tape, and I guess that's a wrap. They didn't ask me for a statement, despite telling me they would be around on Monday evening. I saw one of them today with some kind of device, touching the ground in many spots with it. I assume it was a hydrocarbon sniffer or something, but I don't have much knowledge of these things. The news reported on this last night, and they said that the wife was injured in the initial explosion, but we saw her outside and she wasn't hurt in any major way, thankfully. I heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone that the initial blast was a hot water tank that exploded. The wife is still mad that nobody cleaned all the of tons of broken glass out of our driveway. I am glad our house didn't burn down.

Thanks for sharing! Love your guitar tone. Her singing is good - way better than mine, haha! My wife and I shoulda did another Christmas song this year... Argh. There's still time... I'll think on it.

Even as a kid and teenager, I fished a lot but never have I had as much time put in, fish pulled out, and enjoyment experienced as this year. Three or four years ago, my boss invited all of the programmers out to his cottage on Mattagami for a fishing weekend. We caught a bunch of walleye and I also got a pike, and I was sure it kick-started my passion again. However, I lived in North Bay at the time, was getting fatter by the day, had no money for a boat and no desire for a cheap canoe. I did do some limited shore fishing after that, but only pulled in a few little gross things (catfish). And that was that... A little over two years ago, I moved back to where I grew up. Many good lakes no matter what direction I drive from my house, but south to the Temagami area is my favorite. I had always liked the idea of photography, but never had a very good camera. Last Christmas, the wife and I tried to take a family portrait with our pets - it ended up in one smashed Canon A440. I was so angry - fresh alkaline batteries, fully-charged NiMH, new L-ion batteries, it did not matter - the thing would pop the lens out, then pull it back in telling me to change them. And so, thus the tale of the Canon A440 ended in dramatic fashion, with repeated hammer blows to the back of the head. I had always liked the idea of photography, and being a photographer. Not to be a professional, but just to get outdoors, snap some pics of the tapestry God has laid upon the land, and preserve that beauty for future reference. I headed out to our new Staples outlet and after a couple trips ended up with a new Canon camera with many features I never had before. I got out in the winter and started taking pictures of sunsets, night time shots, bought a tripod, and so forth. I was determined to find and photograph water in the spring and summer, and get some cool pictures to hang on the wall. In order to be able to hike, I needed to get into shape. Actually, I needed to get into shape, period. In March, I began a light workout regimen, which I will not get into the journalistic details here. Suffice it to say, I got a little lighter by summer time (my starting weight was literally off the scale, and now I am about 40lbs under the scale's upper limit), and much stronger in both power and endurance. I could now begin living again. That, of course, means I could get out and take pictures and - though I did not know it at the time - fish. I did not touch a rod until this June, when my boss invited his small team back out to his cottage for a reprise of what went on a few years ago. I admit I was both looking forward to it and hesitant due to my strong desire to stick close to home. We caught a few walleye each day over a long weekend, culminating in a feast of pan-fried and lightly-seasoned fillets. As soon as I felt the first fish take my bait, I knew that it wasn't a walleye that was hooked - it was me. A day, or maybe two, after bass opener, I took a trip to the Montreal River with my wife. An amazing woman, that one. She's stood by me through thick/fat and thin (well, slightly thinner), for almost ten years now (soon - 29th). She stood by me, camera in hand, to watch me achieve something I only managed to do in video games dating back to the Super Nintendo game, Super Black Bass. I landed my very first smallmouth bass. I was absolutely ecstatic. Any chances of fishing once again slipping away from one of the top slots of my hobby list absolutely vanished at that point. My wife was happy for me, despite being a vegetarian who thinks pike are cute and doesn't like to see them get hooked, and she's been amazingly supportive and happy for my re-found passion. I bought an old Sportspal canoe that's been in the family since '67 or '68, fixed it up, and got out as much as I could. I caught fish at night on topwater. I caught brook trout. I tried lakes I never heard of. I met up with a stranger from the internet who thankfully slaughtered walleye, rather than slaughtered me. And so, in a rather hurried fashion, my life became less about video games and sitting on the couch (I still do that - I've put over 120 hours into Skyrim on PS3 in the last month, but that's actually down from before, and in large part due to weather being non-Dana-friendly at the moment), and more about eating healthier, getting outdoors, living a more active lifestyle, losing fat... I've watched about four or five seasons of The Biggest Loser since April, and that show is so emotional for me. If you haven't gone through what those contestants went through to get to where they are when they decide to make a change, you might write it off, but I can identify with most of them, and they inspire me so much. The trainers motivate me, even when I'm just sitting there watching it. They teach the contestants to celebrate the small victories. I can do that now, too. The first time I ran a half-mile on a treadmill, that was an achievement for me. When I did 4K of walking/running intervals on the treadmill, that was something I never thought I could do. My ability to get out and fish like I did this summer - for example, walking up and down the banks of the Montreal for six to eight hours straight, without sitting down, without getting tired whatsoever - is thanks in no small part to the motivation and inspiration I got from that reality show (the only reality show that truly makes sense and makes a difference, I think). I set a goal for myself of catching 100 fish this year - lofty, considering the best day before that in my life was seven pike each for four of us, and that was over a decade ago. But, I did it, and then some. These are rewarding things for me. I don't mean to harp on fitness here, but they go hand-in-hand for me. Without one, I would simply not have the other. I just wouldn't. I still have much work to do, but I'm off to a good start. And of course, getting outside and living - fishing - is the greatest reward. It doesn't look like the ice is coming this year. I can not freaking wait for spring. I wish I could let go of everything and just do that. You lived the dream. I can only hope to experience small parts of that, spread throughout the remainder of my life.

I thought that, but... The above reply seems to make some sense to me.

My anger will perpetually be fueled by those who continually search for the absolute most precious portions of our province, country, and world, and seek to permanently scar or destroy it without any thought aside from greed-driven monetary flow to their pockets.

Hey, fire guys. This is may be a stupid question, but what good is "saving a basement" anyhow? Presumably it makes rebuilding easier, but there must be something more to it? If that's the only thing, and my house burns but my basement is "saved," it's of little use to me, as the town here probably wouldn't let me rebuild due to changes in the building code or bylaws or whatever. I own a lot that used to have a house on it, and I was told I would probably not be permitted to put a small garage on it now because of such issues. Anyhow, I was just curious. Why can't it be both? We feel bad for the people who lost their home, and see whose firehose is longer. Or something.. It's not the length of the hose, it's how much water it sprays!

Once every year or two is probably accurate here. If three houses went up in flames every week, this entire town would be ashes in 2-3 years.