Muskoka Outdoors

Huntsville’s Redline Outdoors has shared some ATV maintenance tips that will help contribute to the success of your fall hunting adventure.

Basic Maintenance
Change the oil, clean the air filter, check brakes and the tire pressure and give your ATV a good bolt inspection. Put the machine on a stand and wiggle the wheels and axles to make sure the wheel and suspension linkage bearings are tight. All of Redline’s rentals are thoroughly inspected before they are taken out for a trail ride. For some more informative ATV maintenance tips – check out this link from Off Road.com.

Hunt Responsibly
Pay attention to signs, and only use the ATV in areas that are designated for ORV use. Check local regulations, and invest in proper maps (forest service, topographic and the like) that show public and private property.

Take special care to avoid trespassing on private land.

Be respectful when you run into other hunters.

Whatever the access rules, stay out of swampy, muddy marshes and meadows in which your machine will do extensive trail damage to cross. Yes, mudding is good fun, but save that for designated riding areas. When hunting, cross the land with minimal damage and focus on the hunt.

Drive into the hunting area before hunting hours open, and walk on foot during season hours. This will increase your chance of success and minimize disturbance to the area.

Keep your weapon in a scabbard or case. This will protect it from mud and dust.

Please check out Redline Outdoors for your next ATV or fishing adventure at www.redlineoutdoors.ca

An opportunity to take a group of kids fishing every day for a week came through my email this summer. Excitedly, I accepted the offer and suddenly found myself wondering where to start. Fortunately, with some time spent in some pre-fishing planning and following these suggestions, you could easily be the ‘first-time’ fishing ambassador to your own group of students.

The initial debate going through my mind was should I teach technical aspects like knots, fish biology and lure selection or allow the kids to fish with minimal discussion right from the docks? I chose to skip the technical and get the students fishing right away. It was the right choice because most of the students had never fished before.

Keep The Gear Simple
The camp provided closed-faced reels, bobbers, and several dozen worms. I added barbless hooks to the mix to ensure quick release of any fish caught and for safety when hooks are being pushed around by newcomers. To maximize fishing time with these students (I had a new group every hour until noon), I pre-tied swivels and hooks and checked drag setting on the fishing rods before the kids arrived.

Closed-faced reels may not look ‘very-cool’ to anybody who watches the pro’s, but new anglers do not usually know that there are different kinds of options available. The simplicity of the push button to release the bail will allow students to drop their bait over the dock or experiment with casting.

Teach Respect (for others, the fish, and the hook)
Space is going to be required to spread excited new anglers out. For safety and courtesy reasons, remind the anglers to stay in the space they are given. This will be tested when someone starts hooking into a school of panfish. When this happens, remind those encroaching in on the ‘lucky spot’ to wait patiently until the angler moves on or gives permission. As well, take a moment to tell the lucky angler that it is OK to move on and allow someone else to experience the joy of catching a fish. They might find they get more satisfaction from watching – at least, I do.

Show the students the difference between a barbless hook and a barbed one. Stress the importance of the presence of a barb and how it relates to increased difficulty when removing from a person’s body or a fish’s. Remind new anglers to check behind them when they cast and I asked our students to shout, “Casting”, to warn anglers walking by them. For a graphic short video on the importance of hook safety – Watch This

Enforce to the rookie anglers the importance of a quick release and to handle this fish as little as possible. Show anglers, as fish are caught, where to hold fish to reduce injuries from teeth and or fins. Initially, most of the students wanted me to release their fish, this was a perfect opportunity to point identifying marks for fish identification.

-End of Part 1-

It can be a hard to choice to make when you open up your tackle box to pick out the first lure for a fishing excursion. Colour can be a key trigger for fishing success, but do not let a topside, internal debate keep you from getting a lure down into the water quickly.

First, choose something that mimics the colour, size and shape of the natural prey your target species feasts on in the body of water you are on. When was the last time you saw chartreuse baitfish while you were freshwater fishing?

A shiner coloured minnow crank - a good start.

If fishing is slow on your first ‘natural’ pick, be sure to experiment with other colours. Let light conditions and/or water clarity dictate your next pick. If the water is murky or they sky is overcast move to a brighter colour like chartreuse or bright orange. When water conditions are clear and the sky is bright – try shades of blue, browns, or green.

These are just guidelines. It has been this blogger’s experience that the way fish react to your lures is far from predictable. When in doubt about what colour to use – experiment. Take time to try everything you got and forget the rules and systems often read about or seen on TV. My tackle box has cranks of various colours. The colour of your lure is just one of triggering mechanisms built into its construction. Vibration, flash and silhouette also play significant roles.

On day 1 of a recent sunny fishing trip on a local Muskoka lake, I started with a natural looking black-topped and silver-white bottomed minnow crank bait. My partner chose to start with a chartreuse coloured bait. Within four casts, he had landed a nice pike. Upon switching to a second bay, he pulled in another nice pike on his first cast. My natural looking lure had no hits. This all changed when I switched to a lure with similar colours (not shape) as my fishing partner’s. Colour in this case ‘trumped’ shape.

The second day of our fishing trip, I started again with a more natural coloured silver minnow crank bait. My partner, again, started with his chartreuse coloured lure. After a few minutes of fishing, I had landed two nice walleye. Things did not start to happen for the other angler UNTIL he switched to a silver coloured crank.

If you are deep water fishing, keep in mind that at greater depths, lack of light penetration makes a colour debate a mute point. Colours can not be differentiated if there is no light to reflect or absorb.

Colour can impact your fishing success, but not to the extent that it will benefit the angler to change a lure every second or third cast. Fish will not be caught if a lure is not in the water.

Cottage docks will attract fish. Docks can be a high noon refuge for sun shy bass. Just ask, Jeff, about the 2.5-lb smallmouth bass he caught this past weekend.

I watched Jeff, and a friend, fishing with some crank baits off their dock. The hot sun was high in the sky and the only source of shade, in the shallow bay, are several cottage docks of various configurations and shapes.

Jeff tempted this sweet bass to strike from his shaded roost between his dock and boat. After a quick release and photo-op with me, he moved to a second dock further down the bay and hooked a second, large bass!

The lesson:
Narrow the search for mid-day bass for shore structure that provide shaded areas for bass to hide in. Things like docks, boathouses, boats, and rocks or stumps are ideal candidates.

Now here is the rub everyone. Your casting better be better than average when you are fishing around hook-prone boats and docks. How would you like the idea of someone casting a trebled lure at your parked car and bouncing it off your investment? I ignore docks with swimmers, sunbathers or readers. Give them privacy please.

If you get snagged on bottom structure around docks (that also tend to be swimming areas), go above and beyond to retrieve your lure and fishing line.

Nice bass, Jeff! Thanks for sharing the moment!

The fourth Saturday in June marks the beginning of the 2010 bass season in Muskoka (FMZ 15) . Take somebody fishing and enjoy these exciting gamefish on your favorite muskoka lake.

For more Ontario MNR fishing regulations follow this link

According to the Ontario Fish Registry (kept by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters) the Ontario bass records are:

Largemouth Bass: Weight: 10.43 lbs. Length: 22.00 in.
Waterbody: Preston Lake
Girth: 19.50 in. Bait/Lure: Jitterbug
Date Caught: August 26, 1976

Smallmouth Bass: Weight: 9.84 lbs. Length: 24.00 in.
Waterbody: Birch Bark Lake near Kinmount
Girth: 18.25 in. Bait/Lure: N/A Date
Caught: September 26, 1954

One of Muskoka's Many Smallmouth Bass

Tigerback. A term of endearment given to a particular smallmouth bass that haunted the docks of children’s camp I use to work at. Only, myself and 6 other campers, know his name. Until now, only the 7 of us knew his secret.

I first met Tigerback while practising some swimming lengths at the camp’s waterfront. Something caught my attention in the shallow end of the waterfront while I exited via the the deep-end ladder. A large smallmouth bass was swimming very close to the surface of the water. I could clearly see the ‘tiger-like’ formations (at least they looked like that to me)on it’s back as it swam back and forth between the docks.

I named it Tigerback and it soon became legend!

After a few minutes of swimming, he disappeared into the murky depths.

Later that week, I managed to call mom to bring me fishing gear. I was going to go Tiger hunting. For three afternoons I threw everything I had in my tackle box to try to entice a return visit from ‘Tigerback’. I casted spoons, plugs, jitterbugs, and Mepps around those docks with not , so much as, a swirl from its tail. When I was not working  - I could be found at the docks casting like a mad man.

Captain Ahab would have been proud.

After several days defeat, I visited the waterfront again – without my fishing gear. I thought some swimming would get my mind off the behemoth fish. After a relaxing swim, I started to towel off my hair when I noticed Tigerback swimming some victory laps in the shallow end again.

Oh, if I only had a harpoon!

I left the waterfront in disbelief as I watched the wary bass swim back out into the river.

Two weeks later I returned with a new battle plan. Six of my campers wanted to try fishing. They had never done it before. We raided the craft cupboard and found some 20lb test line and a package of hooks.

It seems destiny favored the creative.

Then, we found some sturdy sticks that we could tie 6ft lengths of fishing line on to. The final touch consisted of some worm hunting in the camps flower beds. With a dozen, or so, worms in a coffee mug we marched down the waterfront hill and started fishing with our rustic equipment.

The kids loved it. Their eyes were wide with amazement as perch and sunfish would swarm their hooked bait. I would spend several minutes that afternoon going over the parts of fish, identification, and hook removal procedures.

I forget which kid it was, but suddenly, we had an issue. One of the kids said, “I am hooked on something!”

As we peered over the edge of the dock I saw old ‘Tigerback’ with a hook coming out of his mouth. The 6ft line did not leave room for a fun fight. I simply helped the kid pull the brute out of the water and on to the dock. The kids swarmed around the lucky angler and watched with gaping mouths as held ‘Tigerback’ by his bottom lip and unhooked him from the small hook.

One of the kids remarked that they swim with that thing and hinted that his final afternoons at camp may be spent canoeing and not swimming. With some more questions and pointing, the kids waved to ‘Tigerback’ as I released him to the dark depths.

These kids became hooked on fishing from that day forward. That was the secret of old ‘Tigerback’.

No one has seen him since.

I suspect he is still out there.

Somewhere.

If you want to catch him. Take a kid fishing.

*My reloaded blog posts are some of my favorite previous posts made current again.