Ness’ Outpost

Tonight at the LCBO on Appleby and Upper Middle I was trailed into the store by Bob Izumi of the “Real Fishing Show“.

While I was star struck I didn’t bother him, he was just trying to get a bottle of wine like the rest of us and probably didn’t want to discuss if I should get a float suit or a ice shelter this year with my ice fishing budget.

Ok, stop laughing at me now. Maybe he isn’t a huge celebrity but I wouldn’t turn down a chance to talk about or better yet go fishing - with anybody.

Remember when your Mom used to make you write a list to Santa. Well now in the digital age I can do it online, update and make changes up to the night of Christmas. Of course that doesn’t mean I won’t get a lump of coal, but what can you do:

• *NEW* Survival Suit - likely Large or XL - Bright coloured and floating for ice fishing.
• *NEW* Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ By Bjarne Stroustrup
• *NEW* Paper shredder - For all this mail I’m getting with my personal information all over it.
• Snow Shoes
• Gators
• Walking Poles
• Tool Chest (Craftsman)
• Tilly Socks - full length and the Unhole-y ones ($20/pair) - absolutely worth the cost
• Hiking Socks - smart wool or other moisture wicking brands
• Pants - For work and a few for play
• Rain pants - for hiking in wet conditions - I have fleece lined winter ones, but those are too hot for non-winter activities
• Flys for fishing in southern ontario - targeting bass, trout, and the odd pike - Check out number 3 at the link
• SOLD OUT?
  “Fumbling with a Flyrod: Stories from the River” By Ian Colin James in hard cover if you can find one that isn’t a collectible. You’ll know it’s a collectible because it will be ridiculously expensive. Otherwise paperback is fine.
• Waders - unfortunately a very personal purchase based on fit, value, features, etc. and are likely going to be in the $300-$500 range
• Wader Boots - no sense buying these without having a pair of waders. Waders may come with boots as a combo.
• Canadian Tire or Home Depot gift cards are always welcome! ;)

If it looks like most of my gifts could come from MEC - you’d be right.

Chantelle and myself donned our rain gear and headed out to a trout pond in Milton called Fish4Trout.

Chantelle had my Ugly Stick spinning rod with 10 pound braid and 7 pound fluorocarbon tippet about 3 feet in length. Spinners were the best for her. Retrieve the lure just fast enough to get the blade spinning, but no faster.

I was set up with my 9′ fly rod with floating line attached to 3 feet of braid and then 3 feet of fluoro tippet just before the fly. I only used one fly all day, a green woolly bugger with some attractive flash in the tail I bought at my local fly shop in Mississagua. I need to find some time to get there on a Saturday and start tying my own flies over the winter. A great fly and well worth the $4 cost. It held up to being water logged all day and the trout pulling on it and trying to swallow it whole. Way better than the cheap Canadian Tire specials - if you can find them - that are throw aways after 2 hours of fishing.

Here are some pictures of Chantelles catch - which became our lunch. I paid the extra entrance fee for catch and release and each trout was released successfully. Anything that was killed on my fly I would have to keep and pay for, but everybody swam away after a quick hook removal. Be sure to debarb your flies which helps a lot when you are in a catch and release situation and makes the catching part more challenging - which is ok here since there always seemed to be a trout willing to take a fly.

Don’t be scared of the larger upfront cost of catch and release. If you’re a good fisherman you’ll easily land 20 or more fish in a morning and at 60 cents an inch that can add up. Besides, the pond needs that money to breed new fish for you to catch so they can replace the ~10-30% mortality rate of catch and release - even if the fish swims away.

If you ever are down on your luck and need an outing to pick up your spirits take a trip to Milton and go fishing with the folks at Fish4Trout. They were friendly, helpful, and prepared our catch for transport on ice. I’d go again.

Grant and I braved the snow storm from earlier in the weekend and headed out onto Lake Simcoe again to try and find some tasty perch to jump into our bucket. We were supposed to have two more come along, but the 1.5′ of snow we had dumped on us the previous day didn’t give them a warm fuzzy feeling about driving up to Keswick.

The good news is that Grant has an all wheel drive Subaru so we didn’t have any problems and the main roads were cleared in plenty of time for our arrival. The Albertan and Naval man who were supposed to join us were easy targets the next day at work for their fear of snow.

Grant and I did alright pulling in 13 and 15 fish each. A few were too tiny and had to be released, but we had about 16 eating sized fish which Grant kindly cleaned and then cooked at his place. Lauren really appreciates that!

Once again we went out with Simcoe Fishing Adventures and other than Grant forgetting his wallet in the car on shore things were great. I’d highly recommend you contact Whitey if you’re looking for a pleasant day of fishing.

We had the “non-extravaganza” ice fishing day today. A bunch of guys from work get together and head up to Lake Simcoe for some ice fishing to have a few BEvERages and catch some fish.

I’m a little embarrassed and yet proud that I pulled out the largest fish today. A 1 pound rock bass. I didn’t think it would stand but the bite died off after the morning, and we moved after lunch. The move put us in a weed bed that turned out mostly smaller perch and no pike as I would have expected from a normal day on Simcoe.

Check out the photos. Thanks Whitey at Simcoe Fishing Adventures!

We all went to Grant and Chantal’s for her big 3-Oh! early surprise birthday party. After a great night of Indian food, blender alchemy, cup cakes and board games Adriana and myself woke up just after the crack of dawn to go fishing.

On the ride up to Guelph we found a live bait vending machine at a gas station (yes, I know… vending machine at a Pioneer) but they were not stocked any more since it is a little out of season now. It was too late to find a bait shop in Guelph so we were stuck with artificial tubes. After finishing our coffees with lazy fishing — cast, catch the bottom and let your bait float on a secondary line just off the bottom, wait, repeat — we decided that more active means of catching fish should be sought out. So we went back to Grants place, I dug for some worms in the garden and we tried that again in the river behind Grants.

The Jack (aka Northern Pike) showed up below the spillway in the river, it was my 3rd or 4th cast and I had him on. A beauty of a fish he made 3 or 4 good runs before tiring and calmly coming into the shallows. We had a hard time landing him as my net with a 1′ diameter and about a 1′6″ rubber netting basket was far too small. I suggested the scoop onto shore method that didn’t work out so well so I started to manhandle the fish on the line and pull him up over the 1′ break wall we were standing on. A quick bite of the line — I didn’t tie on a leader, and now I’m kicking myself for it — and the Jack was off with my lure! A short distance release.

Ah well, Adriana and myself had a good look at him struggling to get him onto shore he was easily just under two feet long and a beauty of a fish. If you catch him, and a 1 ounce blue and silver little cleo is stuck in his lip let me know. I’d like my lure back, it’s caught a few fish.

I returned from a vacation on PEI visiting family and relaxing with my family. We arrived after 19 hours of driving through 4 provinces and a few bathroom and gas breaks. Things were wet on the way to the island in Quebec and then the rain seemed to chase us across the country.

Mom and Katharine fell sick on Tuesday so that limited the people we could go visit, but it just meant more walks on the beach and nosing around the cottage getting some reading done.

We were able to go to my Great Aunt Vivian’s 85th birthday dinner at the New Glasgow Lobster supper hall. Most of us had the lobster meal, but a few had scallops.

I also was able to get out and do some deep sea fishing with the “Bearded Skipper“. We set out at 6pm into the open ocean from the North Rustico wharf. I pulled up a small mackerel and a decent sized cod was reeled up from the bottom. It was approximately 3-4 lbs.

You can find some pictures from the week here.

Lauren and I went up to Trevor and Carly’s “camp” (aka cottage) on a small island north east of Manitoulin Island for the Canada Day long weekend. Trevor kindly played tour guide and outfitter for the weekend captaining the boat and showing us the way to the fish.

The big fishing didn’t happen during the mornings though, but in the mid afternoon. I pulled in a 4lb smallmouth bass by jigging off the dock. It was a bit of a surprise as Jen and I were pulling in little perch and bass, some fish so small they were barely larger than the hook. All of a sudden, Jen, myself and Rich had a bunch of large fish on the lines.

Pictures are found here.

For the Queen’s birthday I’m going to be spending some time in Guelph playing with power tools and helping Grant construct some built in shelves for his apartment storage space.

After that we’re taking his new canoe out onto Guelph Lake to do some fishing. I picked up two new Rapala lures from Canadian Tire - the countdown sinking (CD-9) and the original (F-7). These are my first multi-hook lures (one in the body, one at the tail) which is something to look for when taking the flopping fish off the hook.

Then it’s BBQ time and Sunday night we’re going to go see some fireworks. Perhaps the best part is not working on Monday.

Kurt and his family were kind enough to invite me up to their cottage on “Go Home Lake” which is kilometer 178 on highway 400 outside Barrie. Traffic was fine since we went through the back roads around Borden zigging and zagging our way north through the many lines and concessions - much better than being part of the 401 parking lot. Kurts cottage neighbours left at 8am Saturday morning and didn’t arrive at the cottage until 2pm. I’m sure I’ll take that route for the Sudbury wedding come the Labour Day long weekend.

There was lots of boating, swimming fishing and all around lounging around at the cottage. I of course got my normal sunburn, sadly on the top of my ankles which is a pretty sensitive spot by the way.

The lake was mostly making fun of my fishing skills, but I caught a sunfish and I pulled this monster out of a pretty strong current in the Rohmann’s bay.