Another Trout on another fine day..... May 2-4 Weekend

Photo taken by David Ely on May 2-4 Weekend:

Leaky roof fixed

A few weeks ago, Sandra and I discovered that the roof was leaking. The leak was occuring right over the electrical box! I went up to the roof the following week (we weren't planning to) and took a look, this is what I found.

I proceeded to Canadian Tire and grabbed some rubber-impregnated tar and repaired the leak. Good thing I came back to repair it because it rained quite heavily the following Sunday. Quick and easy repair job.... Unfortunately I got some tar on the front door handle, that stuff really doesn't come off.

Is this a stocked trout?

I know the Ministry stopped stocking trout in our lake a while ago. Is this a stocked trout? The pectoral, dorsal, and anal fins are all split right down the middle. Additionally, the trout is more 'silvery' in colour than any of the other trout I've caught.

Take a look:

Fishing rules on our lake....

Help protect our lake and its sport fish and follow the rules. Failure to comply could result in seizure of equipment and fines up to $100,000! Some of the old timers on the lake have indicated to me that the lake was very abundant with trout in previous years, with 8-15 lb trout being commonplace. I've caught quite a few trout and have yet to catch a really big one... Could be my lack of skill... or could be the lake really has been overfished. The rules exist to preserve our lake so we can all have great fishing in the future.

Smallmouth Bass Season opens : Last Saturday in June to November 30.
Trout Season opens : January 1 to September 30.

*** Trout between lengths of 40cm (15.7 in) and 55cm (21.7 in) MUST be released, even if its in-season. ***

Get your fishing guide here, from the Ministry of Natural Resources:
http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/pubs/pubmenu.html#fish

Our lake is in Map C.

Hooked another one......

So I just found one mouse this time, and I put 2 unlimited catch bucket traps (you can make these yourself - http://www.kountrylife.com/content/gal1017.htm) and they WORK. I caught 15 mice in one bucket trap in our crawlspace last fall. Good thing about them is that you don't have to reset them, or touch the mouse. Just dump out the carcasses when you get around to it.

My cousins, Uncle and Aunt came up this weekend. It was quite fun.. I think I got them hooked on fishing, especially Michelle. MUAHAHHAAHH. Another one gets the fishin BUG.

Mouse in a Bottle?

So I'm sleeping on May 24 weekend - and I hear footsteps. Not the ordinary kind. The rodent-kind, on the roof. All of a sudden - boom. The darned mouse fell into the WALL. This is at 2am, the rodent is trapped and taking away from my much needed sleep because it's continuously scratching. This happened last year too on May 24 weekend. I had to again, drill a hole in the wall to get the guy out. Only this time, he didn't want to come out. So I used a bottle and duct-taped it to the wall with the opening of the bottle connected to the hole in the wall. I left some juice in there to lure the mouse out. Sure enough, after 30 minutes he came out and I ripped the bottle from the wall and put the lid on it. He was cute, as are all of them. I was planning on drowning him but instead gave him something to eat (peanut butter). I then drilled some holes so he could breathe. I planned on releasing him far, far away on my way back to Toronto the next day. Patched up the hole in the wall and ahhh.. off to sleep. NOT. The mouse was making such a racket I just tossed him outside in the bottle. Unfortunately the little guy didn't make it through the night.



Throughout the winter the mice haven't really gotten inside. But recently I've been finding two in the snap traps every week inside the place. Carpenter Ants seem to like the taste of mouse, so I always see a swarm of them around the dead mouse. They like to go in through the eyes. So now I have a mouse problem, and a carpenter ant problem. So I went out and got MaxForce ant bait. This stuff apparently is a slow toxin that kills entire any colonies. Unfortunately I didn't get the kind made for carpenter ants. No problem. I just use the mice as bait. Get back to the cottage, find some dead mice.... Drop some Maxforce on the mouse, ants gobble away.....

May 2-4 2007 to June 24

More fish.. Of course, all released... Unharmed. Except one. He snapped my line and has a hook in the top of its mouth. If anyone catches him please remove and return the lure. Thanks! :-)

Bugs and Snakes and Loons

Can someone tell me what the heck those bugs are.. one of them looks like some prehistoric Dracula. The other one looks like a green kite connected to a fuzzy bunny.

April 2007 to May 2-4 Weekend

Enough back-blogging from 2006. Into 2007! Sandra and I started to go up to the cottage again in April on a weekly (rather than monthly) basis. Bass season still has yet to begin, so it's just Trout, Trout, and more.... Trout. I threw in some nature shots in there as well. Everything was budding, and the pollen was everywhere (although not as bad as last year). I try to keep the fish in the water now with the rubber net when I land a fish - a quick tug with the pliers and the hook usually comes out. Then, back into the lake without even needing to touch the fish or taking the fish out of water after a quick snapshot.



Click on the budding nature shots for a higher resolution....

Fall shots of our lake

Last Lake Trout of 2006 Caught by Accident

Another 5 lb'er. Caught by accident under a dock with a plastic worm a week after season ended for trout while I was fishing for Bass. He was quickly released.

5 lb Lake Trout

Caught this guy with my friend Phil. This fish was prompty released after this photo was taken.

WHY is there a largemouth in our lake???

I didn't think our lake had largemouth bass. I released this guy anyway as I wasn't sure, but I suspect someone threw some largemouth into the lake hoping to 'create' a new fishery by introducing another species. Beside the fact that this is ILLEGAL, it can cause serious imbalances, including hurting our smallmouth and lake trout fishery. Please do not throw fish in our lake and try to create your own sports fishing arena - leave it to the experts at the Ministry of Natural Resources.

I caught this Largemouth Bass fishing for smallmouth:

Lake trout into the end of season 2006

More pics of lakers that I caught, all released back into the lake to fight and spawn another day. They are a handsome fish aren't they? A friendly reminder that all trout caught must be released if it is between 40cm and 55cm long. I heard from Ken that they used to catch 15 lb'ers. Let's hope these fish will become that big

Smallmouth Bass on the lake and the Fish'n Ski Boat Conversion back to Ski Boat

You've probably noticed that in some pics I'm in an aluminium boat. That's because I decommissioned the fish-n-ski boat after I fixed the 50 year old leaky aluminium boat with aluminium-zinc welding material and a propylene torch. The electric motor works much better with the aluminium boat, and allows me to manuever much better. Still nowhere near as fast as the other fishing boats on the lake which use gas engines, but quieter and more environmentally friendly. Good thing the lake isn't too big.

The smallmouth bass fishing on the lake is quite good. Smallmouth bass season is open on our lake on the last Saturday in June. I noticed that as the season progressed, the smallmouth got progressively larger. I released all of these guys except 3 of them, which made fastastic BBQ dinners.




Later in the season I caught this 3-4 lb'er which i fought for nearly 5 minutes (which is a really long time for a bass):



Fishing for bass just kept getting better after that: