adolson

Hahaha, that is awesome! It's good to always have a camera, eh? And nice fish.

Nice walleye! It looks bigger than 3lbs to me, but I'm not a good judge of weight yet.

The Fish ON-Line site is really inaccurate. They list no smallmouth bass in several lakes in each of which I have caught several smallmouth bass.

Very nice fish! Good work.

Thanks, all.

I guess I really need a scale. I was just going by the conversion approximation charts from RodRule.com. This guy fought harder than my 19.5" I got on Tuesday. It did feel to me that it weighed more than 1.2lb or whatever the chart said, but with no way to weigh it...

I was thinking about that $30 electronic scale that stores the weights and stuff so you can browse it later on, I think it's by Rapala. May have to just go get it soon.

She hates fishing. lol, but she likes to pick the lures for me when I'm not having any luck, and she's usually right. Her dad took her when she was young, but I can't seem to get her to pick a rod back up. She thinks all the fish are cute. Well, the small ones. And pike. I don't get it! At least she wants to come with me.

Bonus Round

I haven't slept yet. I just went off a dock in Gillies Lake. Got a 16" guy, probably just over 1lb, at 6:20am on my new favorite bass lure, Cotton Cordell Rayburn Red Super Spot. It fought like a champ! It was quite a ways out there, too, and it jumped four times, pretty high too. It was almost a majestic sight in the early morning light. It went under the front of the dock I was standing on twice, one time was really tough - thought the line might cut. Easily my favorite bass catch so far, even though it wasn't my biggest.

Obviously, I kept it. I'm gonna have a fish fry later today when I wake up, since I am now at my limit (maybe one under, I know I have one pike's filets in the freezer too that I may have counted, but better safe than sorry). Hopefully we will get our Auroras early on Monday, time enough to go after some bass after. My cousin's never caught a bass, so I wanna hook him into his first. My own first was just a month and a day ago. I've been hooked ever since.

Hey, I have a DSi too! I really only use it for Solitaire while on the toilet...

Nice fish! Man, I'd love to get something huge like that sometime. I'd be afraid it may ruin me for bass fishing, though.. But I'd still like to! Congrats!

Wow, nice! I would like to catch a muskie some day. Some day... I don't even know where I could get one close to me (Lake Temiskaming, maybe? I don't even know), and I would need a whole different setup, I think. Or are they commonly caught in a '68 Sportspal?

So, here's another "report" if you can really call it that. Not a ton of fish, and nothing big, but a good and fun day on the beautiful Anima-Nip with the wife.

She passed the boat exam yesterday, and so this was her first time controlling the boat. It was really nice and freed me up to quickly change lures the couple times I did, and whatnot. She doesn't fish, but likes to be outdoors and on the lake, so I figured, why not give her a more active role, right?

I started off using a Wally Diver, got one on it:

That lure got snagged a couple times (no depth finder yet, and still learning the lake), so I changed to my trusty Original Floating Rapala with new hooks. We saw a fish surface, and trolled over it just like we did last time. When the lure hit about that spot, I hooked it (or something), but after a little fighting, I lost it. I got another something on the line, and it felt pretty big, but it too got off. I kept getting bites and had another fish or two on, but they got off. Lesson I learned here: hooks probably matter a lot. I think the ones I replaced the rusty ones with suck (from an old mix pack of treble hooks I bought probably 15 years ago, looked like new), so I'm gonna change those again..

Then I switched to a longer, new Original Floating Rapala and took off the middle treble hook (three is overkill). I stuck with this lure the rest of the trip and landed four more smallies.

While trolling along, the wife says, "oh, a herring!" and I was confused. A herring? I don't think there's herring in Anima-Nip, is there? And how would you see it on the top of the water? So I turned and looked - not a herring, a heron! LOL

After hitting the trolling motor on a rock (watch out for the buoys! you just did the course, you know this! lol), we decided it was time to eat. So we landed on a little island. It was very nice, but too rocky to put a tent in there. Wild blueberries all over the place, though:

I think this was the biggest one. Biggest one I got on camera anyhow:

There MUST be bigger bass in this lake! It's a big lake! Right? Right??? Next one is gonna be a monster, I just know it...

...Yep! I knew it!

Do the big ones taste as good as the little ones? I have tried both. The answer is no.

So, it was a good day. I caught I think five little guys in total (one I ... accidentally released early as it shook and jumped back into the lake, haha). Released them all, because they were all pretty small and I have four or five in my freezer already anyhow. It was fun just to catch them.

On the trip back to the launch, we rounded an island and saw and heard several fish surfacing, I guess eating bugs. I made a few casts there, had one strike right as the lure was getting outta the water. I was going to try using my Jitterbug or Hula Poppers but the mosquitos came out and were getting us real good, so we just headed for home. My buddy Maximus was happy to see us return safe:

Thanks for reading and checking out the pics, even though there's no big catch or anything.

Next trip: Monday, going after the Aurora Trout with my cousin. May cast off shore tomorrow a bit, I dunno, we'll see.

No injuries? Terrible aim.

I know it may be heresy to suggest this here but man, I might have gotten tired of hauling walleyes into the boat at the rate you guys were hooking them

Hmm.. I think for me personally, the opposite might happen: if I had this experience, it might soil my "regular" fishing experience of getting one fish to maybe a handful... Or maybe I'd be perfectly fine going back to "normal." I dunno.

Yep. Your kids will never forget this, regardless of whatever else happens, they'll have these types of fond memories forever.

I don't really want to say more than that.

nice! lol.. been to bay lake...caught 3-4 smallies.. biggest was 3lbs... Lake is tiny... i think we fished every spot twice over weekend!

 

not to mention the crazy amount of tubers on that lake... madhouse!

I am sure there is more than one "Bay Lake" eh? This is the one in Latchford, part of the Montreal River system. Same one? It seemed fairly big to me (not Lake Temiskaming big, but big).

I've taking them home a couple of times (All about the size in the pic) and both times had black specs throughout the meat. Is this normal in rock bass? Seemed like a parasite to me, both came from different lakes with same results.

I read up on it, since I've seen that in smallmouths in the Montreal River and Gillies Lake, and if I remember correctly, it happens in nutrient-rich water, and it's safe to eat as long as you cook it thoroughly. I almost always freeze my filets for a couple days as well. If it was a crazy amount of specks, I probably wouldn't eat it.

I never even thought about eating a rock bass. Maybe I should have.

So you don't have a problem with her looking at you while you're eating her tail ??

"Hey, you don't mind if I watch while you eat my body, do ya? Don't be distracted if a little tear comes out... You can just tell yourself it's butter."

Jim Gaffigan is comedic gold. More good stuff can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV4Jl0Q-beE

This is why my wife only wants to camp at actual campgrounds, like Marten River, because she says they monitor for animals. I don't remember any cameras over our tent last time we stayed there!

I would rather find a small island and camp on that, myself. Put some water between the mainland and us, and that should help. I hope.

If that doesn't pan out for you I have an old Eagle fish finder sitting in my garage you can have.

That's very generous of you! I will let you know if things don't work out.

Welcome!

that he is reeling with his right hand on a spinning reel

Always have, always will. I reel like a gimp with my left.

I went out to Bay Lake, first time, and I didn't get anything except some weeds. Then I was trolling back to the launch and got this little guy on the line. I didn't even think there was a fish, I thought it was weeds at first. But then it pulled a bit.

I wasn't gonna bother posting this, but in that "gimme BoQ GPS coords" thread, you guys stressed how you looooove pictures, so here ya go. Here's a picture:

I joke it's a monster, but it actually is the biggest rock bass I've seen myself. I estimate it was about 1/2 a pound or so (no scale! gotta get one soon). I know the Ontario record is like 3-4lbs, though.

My left (rod) hand is in rough shape from so much fishing lately (pinky and ring feel rubbery... not good). I need a couple days off, and then I'm gonna hopefully hit Anima-Nip and Liberty lakes on the weekend. My uncle is hooking me up with a free older Hummingbird finder in a week or two, so that should help me out in the future! Kinda excited about that.

Nexyt step. Come to the 'School of Cudz' so I can show you how to hold the fish to make it look as big as it actually was.

Heh, well, this was one of many pics. This was the best pic of Me Holding the fish, and not really the best pic of me holding The Fish, if you know what I mean.

The self-shot pic in my avatar makes that fish look bigger than it actually was, to me anyhow. I shoulda did that again.

But I'm open to schooling. I'm here to learn.

Anyway, the government does subsidize your first CPAP machine if purchased locally through an approved vendor (who will help with the paperwork).

I thought I read that they'll pay their portion for one every five years, if needed (ie: may have to try repairing old one first).

My display name is Dana, which is my actual name. I am not 100% sure, but I think it means, "We wanted a girl."

Could you post that video?

I'll have to ask my mom if she still has it.. This was many years ago. I do recall talk of sending it into America's Funniest Home Videos, but I don't think it ever got sent. It was pretty funny, except for the fact that right as his leg was fully submerged I hit stop - I wasn't expecting it and was already in motion to stop recording. I hit record again as soon as I could, so it kinda cut from leg down the hole, to him bawling his eyes out. If she has it still, I have a capture card and a VCR, so I could get it onto YouTube. I'll email her and find out.

For ZZ TOP, I'll go.

I'd like to see this guy even more than ZZ Top themselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DVbt5W-DNc

Thanks for the responses. I read that entire site earlier today. I am still considering going. If I don't, it'll be another three years before I could go again. Well, if I don't go between now and October or whenever the season closes. I may call somewhere to make sure the lake is open, as suggested, so I at least know.