Muskoka Outdoors

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-

I saw this speckled trout on Facebook and I had to ask if I could post it on my blog. Diana, has allowed me to post this picture of her 5.5 pound speck she caught…somewhere within an hour or so drive from Huntsville. Her husband has trained her well. Thanks Diana!

Diana's Big 5.5lb Speckled Trout

As a kick-off to the ‘Most Wanted’ photo contest on my blog, I would like to share 3 photos of some bucks that are still at large in my ‘neck’ of the woods for the 2010 hunting season. These photos are from last year.

Number 1 on my list: The Brow Tine Buck

Check out the brow tines (G1′s) on this guy! Last year, my cousin Kyle had a crack at this bruiser and grazed him. He still haunts the area west of Spiers’ Field.

Number 2 on my list: Craig’s Ghost Buck

I could call this brute the ‘Snow Plow Buck’ but I’d like to keep him friendly long enough for Craig to get a chance at him. Like most big bucks he comes out a night or when your bow is tucked safely in your truck. For this buck’s uncanny ability to show up when a bow is out of sight – He’s on my most wanted.

Number 3 on my list: The Shy Buck

Going through the photos Kyle provided for us last year, this buck always seemed to avoid a head on photo shoot. With another year of antler growth this buck’s rack should clearing brush with ease. Check out those G2′s! Would love to fill my tag on this buck.

Huntsville’s blue pickerel (walleye). They are out there. You can find them. A recent visitor to my blog was good enough to email these photo’s of the blue fish contrasted with a normal shaded walleye. Caught in a Huntsville lake, this blue pickerel weighed in somewhere between 2 – 3 pounds!

Blue Pickerel/Walleye Photo by Dave Chaston

Close-up of tail - photo by Dave Chaston

Nice work Dave and thanks very much for the photos! Anybody else catching these?

The Ontario Ministry of Natural resources has made some changes to the 2010 hunting regulations. These amendments are in response to efforts to ensure that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) does not impact Ontario deer herds.

According to the Ontario MNR website, the changes are as follows:

• Prohibits the use of natural attractants that contain parts or bodily fluids of a member of the deer family for the purposes of hunting in Ontario (e.g., natural deer urine/by-products)
• Restricts the possession of certain higher risk carcass parts (e.g., brain, spinal column, antlers, etc.) of moose and caribou that were killed outside the province. This regulation is the same as the existing regulation that applies to the carcasses of all other members of the deer family which came into effect in 2005.
• Restricts the transportation of live white-tailed deer, American elk, moose and woodland caribou into Ontario unless accompanied by a provincial permit  (Source: Ontario MNR website)

I am somewhat skeptical over the need to ban deer urine attractants especially since no apparent CWD case has been linked to any these products. Perhaps when more is known about the actual transmission vectors of CWD – this could be re-evaluated. The synthetic products are cheaper anyway.

At least, they were.

UPDATE: The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) has since posted a media release about the changes. To summarize their media release,

“Unfortunately, these half measures fall far short of what actions should have been taken, and not only fail to address the problem, they leave outdoors retailers on the cusp of hunting season with inventories of natural deer attractants that can be sold, but no longer be used by hunters, at least in Ontario.” Entire OFAH Press Release Here

Chronic Wasting Disease Fact Sheet

2010 Ontario Hunting Regulations Download