colin519

I would stick with whatever you own software on. I like the iPhone and iPad better, Android is less consistent

ya i was thinking mexico, texas, florida? here, i think theres monsters all over SW ontario. all it takes is a decent weedy end of a lake that doesn't get pressure and you can have hogs.

BIG fan of the Xraps right now. great action and suspending.

Headin up to hit the lake for some bass and walleye. Just about a month away now Hows it been this year? Hows the water level now? Anyone know? Thanks!

Agreed. I'm usually doing the edges and pockets along those beds. That said, when I was young I'd fish largemouth in sloppy weeds with my brother in the dead of summer. We'd bomb big blue gold or silver Blue Fox spinners or other flashy buzz baits where we could, ripping them fast on heavy line often dodging in between grass blades and reeds. if you catch a fish in that on anything you've gotta pull it through slop anyway, but we would get some big bass that way. you would clean your lure every cast but eventually you'd clear a little lane or 3 to buzz. Haven't done that in years, now that I'm not shore fishing in ponds often.

I've heard of the odd big pike in Rondeau bay, good place to visit for sure. not sure on the camping, i like backcountry camping.

1) add a stinger 2) sharpen the hooks 3) change to a Rapala Skitter Pop, one of my favorite top waters (other than this, I'm a classic Heddon, Crazy Crawler or Zara spook guy) seems like the perfect option for here. I hate the poor hookups of most weedless lures, so I just throw the Rap with extreme accuracy and try to keep it out of it. That can mean the pines or the reeds LOL I toss it on a medium action Abu rod with 6lb mono and a fairly decent Pfleuger reel. great control and great fun to hook up with a smallie, i've only got a 2-3 lb smallie on top water a couple times, but its always fun. I actually am a new fan of the Xrap line from Rapala, The red/white feathering on the rear treble is great for adding action to a slow retrieve or that flash of colour of a wound. Frankly, I don't know if I'll buy Rapala without that again. On the frog it looks like some messed up legs. I think they've got 2 frogish patterns. http://www.rapala.com/rapala/lures/skitter-series/skitter-popandreg/Skitter+Pop.html?cgid=rapala-lures-skitter&start=3

that get the rods out song is pure gold

i fish with rentals so usually small boats. it can get big out there real quick, and usually the reality would be a prop knock or engine failure that causes you to spend the night paddling or camping if you are down the lake. i just carry a slightly better backup of what the rental boat kit is, with some extra items. i got this new Maxpedition bag to make it something that can just go into my tackle bag. Now in a Maxpedition Bottle Bag, in a stainless Nalgene bottle, I've got a solar blanket, 20 aquatabs, bandana, 50ft paracord, swedish fire steel and a lighter. In the little pocket, my Leatherman multitool, powerful flashlight, loud whistle, could probably add a small flare or 3. I've got some floating rope in my tackle bag too. Would be easy enough to fill the Nalgene with water and jam some things into the bag or pocket if I wanted to use it for extra water, but I usually use another water bottle on the boat. Just seemed like it would be good to make sure I had something to stay on the boat, as we often shore lunch randomly or fish all day off and on and may have left some gear at camp having just planned to go out for an hour and end up out for 4 hours and low on fuel.

this is crazy

Everyone buys $16 dollars tickets and then stands above the 100s, thats why it's empty looking when it's sold out. That said I paid 40 bucks each for tickets at 1pm on Saturday and it was worth every penny!

cheap for me is bang for my buck. i am big on jigs so buying other tackle for me is all a bit foreign, or at least its something i didn't do when i was young. i try to buy mustad or gamakatsu when i can just because they tend to catch pretty much whatever they are around. any recommendations on that stuff would be awesome. what is the consensus on danielson? they've got it at canadian tire and i picked up a few leaders of theirs. okay for hooks? i'm not sure what the swivels were now. my rod is a 6'6" abu garcia specialist. the combo now sells for like 80 bucks at canadian tire (or 40), but it was more $ and a better styled reel when i got it 6 or 8 years ago. they have the nicest guides in an inexpensive combo IMO. however, the reel was stolen and i've purchased a plflueger president that i'm looking forward to trying. it seems well balanced with the rod but only a weeks fishing will decide if it's a good match. we typically target smallmouth but usually get the odd pike or walleye throughout the week. as far as al flahretys goes, it seemed like they cater to the Lake O crowd and the heavy river crowd. Not my scene at this time.

absolutely PM me with some details please!

i checked out the site and they are all ~200 bucks or so! i don't dispute that the Gerber isn't nearly the quality that i wish it was, thats why i'm open to new knives. i did use a sypderco for a camping trip a year or so ago but having nice convenient folding blade is great and i should grab one of those at some point. i have liked the fixed blade thing so i'm gonna stick with it as a primary knife.

Gerber's Bear Grylls knife is a great knife. i looked at all these places (SAIL,Flahretys, Canadian Tire, BPS and Cabelas website, the Helle site) for something that would make me spend money to replace the BG knife i've had for 2 or 3 years. I can't do it. it's just perfect. it's cheap, made well enough that it would actually help you survive without breaking, heavy enough that you never have 'too little knife' and if you lose it, who cares? buy another one. the firesteel and orange colour are just too practical to go to something without that built in. FWIW, I usually do Algonquin/Temgami camping or elsewhere in Ontario. My needs are for scouting, fishing, emergency. I also use the knife to quickly remove the suction cup from my transom (works perfectly for this). i do find that it's a bit too big to easily cut line from a tied knot but i've been using clippers for that since i was a kid but the serrated edge is beautiful against braid so it kinda evens out. does anyone else have a great knife suggestion that might replace my trusty BG knife? I would love to have something that doesn't make me look like an idiot consumer in front of the grown ups also if you'd like to encourage me to stick to my guns and use what works i'd love to hear that also

hello again folks, i wanted to come back and follow up on my post. thanks to all that offered their advice and help. i have broken the bank and replaced what i had to so i didn't feel undergeared. i only get away once every couple years so it means a lot to me to enjoy myself while i am up on the lake. this ended up being a bit more then I wanted, but i also got a couple of things i didn't have before. anyway as far as tackle: terminal stuff: gamakatsu bait holders (great for senkos), mustad 1/0 for worm fishing, a couple packs of gama mono leaders w/ smaller bait hooks, 3 x 30lb small diameter wire leaders (gotta be able to target those pike), $25 dollars worth of various jigs. 5 bucks worth of splitshot of various size softs: gulp alive black shad 3" (1/2 pint for 9 bucks), 3" black neon (black with red fleck) YUM twistertails small packs of YUM twistertails Yellow, black, silver fleck, brown. gulp 3" chartreuse twister tails. 4" gulp minnows, 4" senkos hards: i picked up a rapala top water, a couple of cranks that dive and got a pretty cheap deep running crank, 2 x williams wabler (gold and red/white of course), 1 x bluefox vibrax spinner , 1 x mepps black fury, 2 x strike king small buzz baits i ended up getting terminal tackle at al flahretys. they were the cheapest, most convenient for me. they were lacking a bit in their soft plastic dept. most of the stock was older but i grabbed what i could from there and picked up the missing items at SAIL. while i was at SAIL, I replaced some of the other items that were lost, mainly a headlamp. here what I have learned (aside from 'never leave anything of sentimental value in a car in downtown toronto') -Al Flahrety's is my new go to for anything I can. they are inexpensive and pretty helpful. they don't have a selection like SAIL/BPS, but if you need what they have they are great. -SAIL is definitely my go to for camping stuff and any specific fishing stuff where i really need to have the exact item I want (black neon 3" YUM fall into that category). -Canadian Tire is great for cheap combos but if you just needs the basics you can do better. you can however, get crazy deals on camping stuff here

best part of those is that they float even when you flip them. how durable are the outside of the pontoons? are they susceptible to hooks?

thanks for the replies so far. the local canadian tires down have much but it's worth checking out. to clarify, i leave in a few weeks. spending a week up there.

Food comes from a shelf or a freezer. I'm 28 and of all my friends love the outdoors but lack actual knowledge about it. Going up north means going to a cottage to drink beers and listen to music. 'Roughing it' is going any where with mosquitos. You've gotta make an effort to teach children this kind of knowledge and very few people do.

Hello all, So I am in the unfortunate position of needing to replace all my necessary tackle in the next few weeks (before I go to fish Temagami for a week). I am going to need to buy a new reel and at a minimum some terminal tackle and likely a few spoons and Rapalas. Some punk smashed my window (ya ya I shouldn't have taken all my gear with me to work ) and stole my KVD bag with all of my reels, line, and my box of (mostly new) cranks. The police have caught the person, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to see any of my items back. Is there a cheap place online to do this? Bass Pro and Cabelas all seem expensive for jigs but maybe it's just me. Is there a local place (local to London or to Toronto) that is worth going for all this stuff? I'd love to one stop shop as I've already been to two or three places to get items right before this happened and I'm kinda dreading touring around to SAIL, BPS, Cabelas. Any suggestions for must have items? Basically at this point, I'm falling back on minnows and jigs and may grab a few cranks and spoons if the budget is still there after the trip is paid for.

I only go to BPS for when Sail doesn't have the item I want. They just aren't cheap, they've got a great selection but I would say 80% of it is crap.

It all comes down to how familiar you are with the body of water you are fishing, how much time you have to familiarize yourself with it, and you ability to adjust your tackle to the situation. The electronics I think just help you find structure and stay on it, as well as help identify trends in catching depth etc. Also, trends in not catching of course. Of course, gimme some white, yellow and black/purple twister tails and jig heads and you can catch something pretty much anywhere in Ontario.

I couldn't work out the Friday off, too much work to do with a major client. Also, in Toronto, everyone knows Thursday is the new Friday. My plan this year: book the Tuesday, leave Saturday at o-dark-thirty and be on HWY11 before 6AM. Drive home Tuesday afternoon. Let's hope it works out!

It wouldn't be carp fishing in SW Ontario without an old tire nearby...not my bag but looks like good fun

I have fished Tamar but only in August. I know the area fairly well after quite a few years and I would suggest that you spend at least some time in the major bay where Tamar itself is located. It runs fairly deep with some humps that I've gotten pickerel on. Bruce will set you up though. Give him my best.