ehg

As a chef have made many stews with scotch bonnets, habaneros, etc. The thing is not to let them puncture or break. They will flavour nicely and add heat but as soon as they open, break or puncture the food becomes inedible. These Bhut Jokoia would be similiar, don't cut or puncture unless you like the extremely hot excitement.

Fish don't 'roll'. they do headshakes. They are designed to stay upright. After catching thousands, I would say 99.9999% came to net in normal upright position. Sure they did a headshake or jumped. If they rolled they came in belly up which was problematic. Anything with teeth would have punctured the eyes of the walleye there, not squished them down.

Maybe to shake a hook fish will jump or seem to roll. Otherwise they are designed to stay upright. Dorsal fins, pelvic fins, etc... are there to maintain this balance. Basic high school biology shows that a fish needs to stay upright to maintain swim bladder and other vital organs. Alligators do "death rolls". Fish may jump or appear to roll when hooked to save their lives. Basic biology shows the need for fish to stay upright. "death rolls" Geez....

Ya wow, it is like winternet in summer. If you go down 10-20 ft.the water temperature really drops. Especially down St. Lawrence way. Lots of opinions from folks lacking experience. Marc Thorpe deserves way better.

Fish don't do death rolls. Think you are confusing fish with alligators. Fish don't swim backwards either. Have caught hundreds of musky/pike after 30 yrs. hardcore fishing. Had musky/pike hit walleye while reeling in. They don't leave single puncture wounds or do death rolls. Usually there rows of teeth leave large mouth shaped cut wounds from rows of relatively small but razor sharp teeth before they let go. The first answer of snapping turtle seems most correct and have seen minks raid stringers as well. Oh well...

There is a reason why Marc Thorpe is probably best musky guy around. I remember those reports from a few years back where Pete Mania, Aaron Shirley etc...used him to guide them to 58+ inch muskies. Miss his reports around here.

Wrong. Saw a snapping turtle rip a fish off stringer and consume it quickly just couple of weeks ago. Broke the jaw bones with mouth clamp then neck pulls. Threw a whole chicken carcass later to it and completely ripped it to shreds. Their necks, jaws and legs are pure muscle.

Yup, most definitely a snapper took it for dinner. Happened a couple of weeks ago to me in Algonquin with a big catfish. Snapper ripped it right of stringer and mostly consumed it within minutes before being witnessed.

Those rounded finger like clouds are called mammatus. The after pictures were further storms that didn't come to fruition. Mammatus are seen on the back end of severe complexes after they pass. My guess is that weather that was stronger passed to your northeast. Only see mammatus about once a year in around GTA. We only had a FEW drops of rain in downtown Toronto but we had stormy looking clouds and a bit of mammatus as well. The main storms were northeast of here. Nice pictures!

Back 20 yrs. ago + they were officially referred to as " yellow pickeral" in all MNR literature. Only since the term walleye has been used in Canada. Anyways, any attempt at stocking them in Lake Ontario is good despite whatever. They are native to the lake and could thrive if industry cleaned up. Apparently they spawn on wind blown shallow rock shoals not up rivers. The big walleye/yellow pickeral in my avatar was caught in northwest Lake Ontario. Always thought a world record sized one would come out of there.

Not sure about another 'Fish'n Canada flop'. I remember back in the late 70's- early 80's the brothers Reno and Angelo Viola owned a home on my paper route. As a tween i thought they were odd but...a few years later they opened big fishing store in the 'Shwa there Barclays. Fish n' Canada eventually happened and lasted a long while. It brought us Pete Bowman who i thought was great. Many of the lakes and techniques he used i tried successfully. Now nearly 30 yrs. later i would say after seeing their humble beginnings in south end Oshawa to near Canadian fishing celebs isn't flopping but a testament to fishing abilities. They should just get Pete Bowman and fish southern Ontario lakes like in their beginning.

Great stuff there Jacques. Eating them fish is what it was all about.

Excellent looking adventure but still need bushwhacking to get to near untouched waters. Definitely seemed worth the effort. Incredible big pike picture there. Thanks for taking time to tell story.

Looks like open fires are restricted from just north of Toronto and east of Ottawa for entire province, Algonquin included. Check out this map. http://forest.lrc.gov.on.ca/AFFM/fire/interactivemap/RFZ/map.html

Amazing spirit and progression! Fighting against one of the toughest situations i have heard. WTG Jen! Never give up!

Polluted with walleye there? Constantly targeted walleye but caught channel catfish and musky instead. Next time i will try night fishing and try to not hit deadheads littered everywhere. Like mentioned did find a 30 inch walleye skeleton so big ones are there. Great place to go!

Don't believe the hype. Having fished hardcore for last 25 yrs. I have seen numbers of people fishing dwindle. Back in early 80's would count 90-100 boats fishing north of Pigeon Lakes Big Island on a summer Saturday night. Now there might be a dozen max at same time. A few years ago i would post spots close to GTA with good catches. Never saw an increase due to internet post or whatever. There is no increase due to internet overall. Look at page views numbering 500-1000, mostly return visits. Maybe about 10 people might actually fish spot because of post. Whether they are successful is another thing.

Wow! Yes, a catch of a lifetime. No need to go to Great Bear Lake in NWT.

For clear water bass try very early morning or sunset and cast shorelines with topwaters or shallow running baits.

Dalrymple is great fishing lake. Caught bass smallies and largemouth to 5lbs., PB crappies up to 15 inches (on topwaters!), and a gazillion pike everywhere. As others have said Avery Point is good place the north lake on east side is deepest. The south lake is shallow weedy and i never caught anything there. Good Luck, ehg

Thought i would bump this since having to answer a few PM's asking for advice. Never used large baits. Just used jig with worms in 30ft. of water caught channel cats and a musky that way. Also caught musky, bass and channel cats on blue/silver clackin' raps, jointed shad raps and original Rapala. Caught a couple musky and bass on Kopper Live Target frogs thrown shallow. Hooking percentage was low but cool to see musky jumping at them. Took a look at Barron Canyon since was on the road on the way. If was able to climb top of Petawawa cliffs probably would look similar.

Always an epic report from you. Good stuff!

Thanks for replies. Couple of more pictures were sent to me. Both these fish were kept for consumption. As there backs were turned unloading boat a snapping turtle ripped the catfish off the chain and by the time it was noticed only the head was left.

Started a topic a couple of weeks ago wondering what was good food to pack for Algonquin considering no bottles or cans were allowed. Anyways, was well fed on this trip of 6 nights on Petawawa R. with an old buddy and his 17 yr. old daughter. We ended up having a fantastic trip despite the blasting sun and 32-35 degree heat. I didn't do much from noon till 6pm as heat and sun are enemy of MS disability i have. Caught a bunch of channel cats and some musky and bass daily. Wanted to catch walleye but none were found. Did find a skeleton measuring 30 inches of a walleye so big ones are in there. Ate some bass which were as good as Kawartha walleye. My buddy and his daughter aren't into fishing but still caught stuff. Here are some pictures. Great times! Cheers, ehg

So, this shows that a de-clawed not wild cougar was shot. Not definitive proof at all.