Moved the date to saturday/sunday because of weather. that’s late november in canada, could be +15, could be -15.
It’s going to be an interesting trip. I’m not experienced at this kind of fishing in this area. We’re going to be using big 8 foot trolling rods in rod holders. Two of them I have are ‘lead-core’ which means the line is actually lead with braid casing. That makes the line sink under it’s own weight so you can get deep. Two of the rods are just monofilament, sort of regular fishing line, but then we need something to get them deep. I have deep diving lures, then I bought these special attachments that clip onto the line to hold heavy weithgts, hopefully that gets them down deep enough. They make a thing called a dipsy-diver you can attach to the line that makes the line dive, but they’re like $30 and I’m cheap.
Then because apparently the fish don’t like boats driving over top of them, I have planer boards that you attach to the lines. The boards pull the lines out a hundred yards to the left and the right of the boat where the fish haven’t scattered.
All in all, quite a set of rigging to catch fish. But, I remain optimistic and excited, since word on the interwebs is that ‘10lb fish are common this time of year’.
We had a good if cold time fishing. Caught one large pike.
We had huge walley in. Buddy reeled it in. I tried to put it in the net, it was too big for the net (it was that big). Had it mostly in the net, readjusted the net to get more of it in so I could get it in the boat, and it flipped the lure out and got away :(.
Almost ice fishing time! Lakes will be safe this weekend about 3 hours north of me. I was thinking about going on Sunday but weather is like 25 below so maybe not.
I went down a rabbit hole on ice fishing in Lapland, maybe even as a result of a post of yours. Looked like something ld love to do until I realized I can drive three hours and get the same or better.
And I was fascinated by some of the winter resorts there too…until I remembered my spouse and I went to the same type of thing a few years ago, also about three hours away. A prospector tent in the bush, sort of like a yurt.
Yes. You have acess to the same activities in Cansda really.
The American folks in Finland basically paid a lot of $$$ to do an activity (ice fishing) that they could have done in the US/Canada for cheaper.
Plus, its non-refundable so they (resort) dont cancel unless the conditions are spectacularly awful, so the tourists kind of “have to get on with it” even though its absolutely freezing (am not sure they enjoyed it much as they complained about it at the bar all evening).
We got hit a bit by this when we went “aurora hunting” late at night. Holy crap it was cold. And we had our four year old with us which was very challenging even with thermal gear.
Except it was about -25c. Too damn cold, we couldn’t hike. And the tent wasn’t exactly warm. We ate dinner, played a board game, then I loaded the stove with wood and we went to bed at 8 because the electric blanket was the only way to stay warm. Got up at 8am and booted it for home to get warm. Not a lot of fun for what was supposed to be a weekend getaway.
Not much ice fishing this year. I had set up to go every week or two…got out once then everything melted. I had a weekend trip booked with 6 students and had to cancel.
Starting to organize a may 24, 4 day camping trip way up north near Timmins Ontario. Camping.in the bush, on a lake that has good fishing. 16 people going. That’s going to be a riot. The best trips are the ones with lots of students. Most of them will have never have seen anything like this.
Very good news, my brother is coming. He’s a chef so he’ll do all the food prep which is a huge amount of work that I get to skip. I’ll do the dishes, which will be nice, the kids can take off, I’ll have a coffee with my brother while I do cleanup. And even better, he’s a certified canoe instructor so he can show the students how to canoe.
I’ve also got my son and his gf booked in the spring to go back near Ottawa catfish fishing. I’m sure a bunch of my family back home will also come, including my 83 yo uncle who can’t get out fishing anymore, but loves that I take the students out. Fishing for catfish is shore fishing so he can sit in a chair and participate. I haven’t fished like that in 45 years so I’m looking forward to that.
8 new telescoping fishing rods in from the US this morning. Very excited, perhaps more than is warranted for some fiberglass poles.
I used to fish mudpout (brown bullhead/catfish) with these long bamboo poles when I was a kid. Figured I’d do that this year again, but after spending a lot of time online I concluded they don’t use bamboo poles anymore. Instead they use these fiberglass (or sometimes carbon fibre) telescoping poles.
Going back home a couple times in the next 4-6 weeks to try my hand at mudpout fishing again with some family using these rods. Then this summer they’ll be useful for taking students shore fishing which is WAY easier for me to coordinate than getting the boat out and driving an hour and a half.
Getting ready for a five day fishing and camping trip with about 20 students, headed to crown land in northern Ontario. I figured if harvest some wild leeks/ramps as a treat on the trip. Headed to the bush with my son and started to harvest leeks…and score! Found a bunch of morel mushrooms.
