ehg

Nice fish and great pictures/ report. Seems like you had an all round successful musky opener. Those canoes or fishing kayaks might be the way to go for stealth and getting in tight to cover, as well not having to deal with gas prices, etc... Thanks for sharing, ehg

Montreal truly beats Toronto for the urban fishing possibilties. Big walleyes and decent pike while F1 cars are flying around in background Even a decent possiblity of big muskies etc... Great post, thanks ehg

Hi, went up to Pigeon Lake with Mikeh from board for a little fishing in Saturdays heat. Wind was a bit gusty most of day but the fishing was still good. At least it was calm in lee of islands. Had so much a few weeks ago catching panfish on microtube/float setup tried again today. Panfish were now scattered and embedded in weeds. Still managed some crappie, bluegills and some fairly large perch. Some pictures of black crappie. Another one Kept some of these for the pan. Decided to head over to Little Bald lake which is connected to Pigeon to take a few casts for Musky. Mike started throwing a white musky spinnerbait and fairly quickly got a strike. The fish jumped straight into the air once hooked and spat the bait. I was throwing a firetiger musky spinnerbait and had a fish on shortly after which i lost in weeds and lily pads. Decided to head back into Pigeon and troll some shallow weedlines with big spinnerbaits. Again Mike hits a fish fairly quickly, kinda small but first musky boated for him this year. Shortly after on same run i hit into a fish.This little dude jumped a bunch of times before releasing itself boatside. The single hooks on spinnerbaits made for few quick unintentional releases on this musky opener today. cheers, ehg

The Chug Bug and 1/2 oz spinnerbait will catch alot of OOS bass. I'd stay away from them as you probably would have the leader deaden the action anyways. The J-13 and #5 inline spinner are better bets.

This explains the success of suspending jerkbaits. Pause, twitch.. Pause, twitch Otherwise fish react to flash or are just 'active'.

Not around Markdale i don't think, maybe from town of Durham downstream but i dunno. Good luck up there anyways.

The area around Markdale is a brook trout haven. The Rocky Saugeen to the west around Traverston is incredible for brookies. The Beaver River near Kimberley and upstream is great for brookies, all the little branches of river in the area have brookies. Get some # 2 Panther Martins and you should be good to go. ehg

Nice brown there! Must have gave decent scrap on flyrod.

Nice work there. That's a great tribute to this site. You forgot the pictures of those many monster walleyes youv'e caught in the video! Great stuff, ehg

Caught my first crappie on Pigeon in 1998, it was actually the largest i caught in Pigeon as well at 13.75 inches. Seems like the population is stable if not slightly increasing, but mostly 11-12 inch fish.

Very nice photos and story! What a great looking little weekend getaway. That's a nice trout there. I think that smaller fish is a fallfish. That picture of the lake says it all. Thanks for sharing, ehg

What a great post! Seems like you learned much from this experience as well as helped some. Thanks for sharing this story with us! ehg

Thanks capt. bruce was the kind of info i was looking for. So it can catch muskies but a shallow approach, almost surface. Hmmm...guess i'll grab one for the opener. Thanks, ehg

Have seen the musky charter guys on Kawarthas troll spinnerbaits on short lines, fast and near the top of the water, on openers over last 20 years or so...Near what would be well defined weedlines later in the summer. Usually they would zig zag around to pull the big spinnerbait near the surface and cover water. Never tried this technique myself, maybe this year.

Personally i just 'flick'#2 or for large waters #4 silver bladed Panther Martins in pools. If you can get clear space longish casts are good. Waders are a must to get unsnagged, cross river etc.. Good luck, ehg

Nice job putting those older fellows on fish. 93yrs. old and still fishing, life is good! Dalrymple rocks, caught a my PB crappie there in mid July on a bass topwater. ehg

Thought the same thing but actually tried fishing by the falls near Pottery Rd. I caught a few small chubs. The river kinda smelled and looked murky, probably one of most unpleasant fishing experiences. There were bums living under a bridge, a mass of cars crawling down the DVP and the fishing sucked. I don't think i'll go back.

Great report and pictures! Some nice brookies there, but those crappies are huge! Thanks for post, ehg

Thanks for further replies. The topwater 'dryfly' flyfishing is pretty cool. It seems like you get more in tune with the surroundings, to be successful. Some folks flyfish for bass on poppers, pike on big streamers etc...Might give it as go in the future. ehg

Thanks for replies! Two things made yesterday's little fishing stand out for me. One was the crash course in fly-fishing. Which looks like the way to go for shallow fishing during hatches, also was surprised at how precise a cast could be. Secondly i was really surprised at the quality of fishing within about a half hour of downtown Toronto. I've fished for last 20 yrs+ for stream brookies and get my best stream brookie at my closest spot to Toronto. This thing was held nearly vertical. Had to go 15 in+ it was fat.

Nice report and little read. Looks like a good time and decent fishing ehg

Great report and pics, always get a laugh from your reports and learn how to spell. (For ex. i learned how to spell Hugh Jass) I guess those white/yellow/silver/striped bass are good eating. What are they more like Crappie flesh or LB bass flesh? Thanks for post, ehg

Went out for a couple of hours with my buddy Dave to try for small tributary trout. Looked like a decent evening with the cloudiness and general murky feel. My buddy likes the flyfishing but i just threw Panther Martin's. I always scoffed at flyfishing, thinking lures and livebait was more productive. But the dryflies(mayfly) were the bite this night. You could see them flying around and the trout surfacing in the pools for them. Dave caught a bunch of brookies and resident browns by matching the hatch. He said it was almost like fishing for bass with topwaters, i guess for the same visual action. Here is a couple of the fish he caught on the flies. a nice brown Caught a couple brookies and lil'browns as well, but the flies way outproduced the spinners. At least i caught my PB creek brookie today. It was way bigger than they usually are. I was on a steep sandy bank, hard to steady for good photo. cheers, ehg

Great report and pictures. Thats alot of nice lakers, the fishing looks like it was good fun. Congrats on everything going your way. ehg