During the long winter months each year I take a bit of time to do a little tackle organization. Basically, put everything back where it belongs, clean out the dirt and figure out what needs fixing, replacing or replenishing. One of my noted frustrations from last year was the storage…
As the new season approaches I’ve been putting in some time and thought on rod and reel setups. With a smaller boat and a limited budget I can only run a certain number of setups that need to be flexible enough to cover a wide range of applications and a…
A recent outing emphasized the value of paying attention to factors that indicate fish location. One of the best indicators is actually seeing where their food is. We were spotting large schools of baitfish at the surface of the water and with these schools we found our largest concentration of…
A recent video from James Holst and Jon Marshall on In Depth Outdoors TV got me thinking about general seasonal timing as it relates to ice fishing. In the video Holst talks about how walleye fishing tends to slow down mid-winter and perch seem to turn on later in the…
This summer my son, Owen, and I had the great pleasure of spending a week at Ken and Bev Byberg’s Island 10 Fishing Retreat on Lady Evelyn Lake, in northern Ontario. This boat in or fly in 10 cottage island resort has access to a large area of water including…
Great fishing trips can still be great even if the fish aren’t in a co-operative mode. This was the case this year as we hit Balsam Lake (Kawartha Lakes, Ontario) for spring walleye fishing that unfortunately happened to coincide with that inopportune post-spawn transition time. While walleye fishing was slow,…
I have been humbled. I considered myself a pretty good angler and have had some good success over the years. However, it appears I have a lot left to learn. Over the past weekend I participated in my first professional walleye tournament – the Sagamok Fall Walleye Classic on the…
On a recent trip trolling for lake trout it was interesting to observe patterns relating to lure colour effectiveness and light conditions. With all things being equal (depth of lure, lure type, line type, water clarity etc.) certain spoon colours worked better or worse depending on general light conditions. In…
We spent a day exploring the Spanish River near Massey, Ontario in preparation for the Sagomok Fall Walleye Classic Tournament happening in late September. Although early July conditions are unlikely to be similar to late September, a day familiarizing ourselves with the general river makeup was certainly helpful. It is…
On a recent trip (Balsam Lake, late May, water temperature 60 F) we found success fishing for walleye in 14 to 22 feet of water around mid-lake humps. The first evening was calm and allowed for slow back-trolling over these depths while maintaining contact with the bottom using a minnow…
