Family trip

I'll skip the first trip to Woods Bay, just summerize. Dark, cold, wet.

But we did go back a couple weeks later in the day, near the end of June, bass season! This was a family trip made up of cousin Ted, George and myself. Went out to Woods Bay, checked a few marinas and finally found one who had a boat available to rent for the day. One of us had his PCOC (we all know who that is, the responsible one), we got a little aluminum boat with a motor and headed out. Instead of staying in Woods Bay (having the luxury of speed and power our 12', 30hp boat gave us) we headed up to Blackstone Harbour in search of muskie...

Ok no muskie today but not a disappointment. We all caught bass that day. Ted was especially happy because he said it was the first 'real' fish he'd ever caught. We moved around on the lake a few times, George caught some perch which I had hooked up as bait for a muskie (still no luck), then headed back. Bit of a short trip as we all got up a little late. We'll go out for a whole day or two next time.

NOTE: If you really, really want to go fishing in the morning don't stay up until 4am playing video games, even if it's online Halo!

I'd prefer if you called me 'Captain' but sir will do!

This is George, the guy on the right with the arm.

That's one sexy fish Captain.



Look at that smile. Mama's gonna be so proud.

No bones about it, Ted caught the biggest fish that day. Congradulations Ted, the championship belt is yours...for now.

Break time

No, it's not some exotic island patio/cafe.

Breaks are an important part of my day. They ensure I'm always late and that adds to my sense of importance or demonstrates the high demand for my skills. Of course I tell clients I'm in a meeting or on an emergency call or got held up in negotiations or something like that. You'd be surprised how well it works if you don't push too far.
Special shout out to Steve, who I've known 24 or 25 years. He and George are with me at Mr. Greeks for lunch. Recently had a discussion with Steve and concluded that if I didn't go out for lunch or dinner with him I'd almost never go out. That's because the rest of you %^$&ers work too much or have to go home to other responsibilities or something lame like that. We usually hook up several times a week and occasionally drive to some small town for lunch, that's pretty interesting.

Only complaint is that there are no good cafes in Scarborough or Markham. Any suggestions?

Back on the Rouge

I don't recommend the Rouge for a serious fishing trip, but as it's close by it's a great spot to kill time on a nice day when you don't want to go too far. Don't think I'll eat anything that comes out of there despite what the Ministry of Environment says. Good variety of fish though. I go to the mouth of the Rouge and fish from shore or sometimes take my Voyaguer 500 into the marsh area.



Smelly fish, smelly fish... Caught this carp at night, lots of carp.



And this catfish was caught with a net.
Don't mind the hair, I was going through a monk phase.


Some dude pulled up a pike one time, yes I saw it. And there's trout in there but god knows where. A I'm sure a few more species of pan fish. Again, not too sure about the 'pan' thing.

Papers please.

Keeping it ligit means getting all the paperwork required to keep me from getting some enormous fine. So this spring I took my hunters education course and got my hunting license. I got an H2 which means no firearms. If you're goona hunt you may as well do it like a man, take your prey down with a bow, or run it down in the woods, jump on its back, and use a knife to kill it. Maybe I'll stick to bow hunting. Picked up my small games license in case I run into a fox whose just itching to become a boa, you know, the classy ones that have the mouth done up to clamp onto the tail. Pimp! Already got my fishing license.

NOTE: My instructor, Walter Bent(good guy, if you want to take your hunters education I recommend him, he's in Scarborough) advises, based on experience, not to jump out of a tree and onto the back of an antlered deer. Hmmmm!

So that done, I went to get my PCOC (Pleasure Craft Operatots Card) which you need anywhere in Ontario to operate any water craft with a motor on it. (under 10hp might not be required, but check first) Bass Pro cost a few dollars more but they always have someone on hand if you just want to write the exam and if you need they offer a course 2 or 3 times a week.

Still on my list to get this summer:

• CYA Basic Sailing
• Coastal Navigation
• First Aid (one of us will need this real bad one day!)
• Turkey Seminar (need a seperate turkey sensitvity course to get a license. really?)
• VHF Radio Operator (that's a big 10-4 buddy...over)

So if any of you slackers are thinking about getting one of these call me and we can do it together. We can be like study buddies or something.

Algonquin Park

So now that we're broken in it was time to head up to Algonquin, without Kiwi. Decided on a portage. We put in at Rock Lake and paddled the whole thing with a strong headwind. WTF! That was a workout. Portage was ok, only about 450m on hilly ground. Had to do 2 trips though. Then put in again at Pen Lake. On our way out we were told all sights but one were taken, but they couldn't say if those people had gone out or not so we should take the first empty sight we see. We paddled out a bit trying to decide if it was worth the paddle(still got headwind) to see if there was a really nice camp site. We didn't go far before turning around to set up camp at the first site. Of course, while we were sipping coffee and making lunch we saw at least 7 other groups come in behind us. Like, every site was available! But it was nice where we were anyways. So we stayed a couple of days, battled the worst deer fly attack ever, did lots of canoeing and fishing, and lots of eating. Had a good time out there, it was my first visit to Algonquin. I'm all primed up for a longer trip in the near future, maybe Massasauga Provincial Park off Georgian Bay.
No wildlife near our camp but there was evidence of moose having passed by recently. The ones we saw were off the road



Stupid moose ran away. But I got a shot of its ass!
Mmmmmm, moose ass.




Canoeing Pen Lake



Fishing Pen Lake. It's not a canary!

Speaking of birds, the day we set up camp we had the brilliant idea of bathing in the lake, in May! Can you say cold? So there we were, naked, taking a bath in what felt like an ice bucket. Didn't do much to stop the deer flies and mosquitos biting.
NOTE:Don't jump in a lake until July!




Really?! Is that the best I can do?
That's actually a trout. No, I didn't keep it.



Ohhh, coffee pot's on. Mmmmm, camp coffee.

So plans are in the works. July I'm hitting Massasauga Park. Planning maybe 4 or 5 days camping and fishing. I'm on a mission to get myself a monster muskie. Damn muskie!

My new boat

Just picked up my new boat in May. Voyaguer 500. High performance vessel for the real outdoorsman. Took it out to the Rouge for some hard core boating and fishing.




Oh yeah baby, plenty of room on board for two.

Just don't get in my way while I'm fishing!

TV Stars

Last year George and I did a short promo skit with Igor for a new show. Why not?! Done everything else. This spring we did another shoot. Jeffrey(camera guy) and Igor came by a job site to get more footage, expand on the theme and prepare a longer promo. Still in the works and being pitched to some guy somewhere in some business or another. Kinda fun. If the show gets picked up good chance we're on board. Never mind the show, he's actually a good guy.

Aaaaand CUT! OK, that's a wrap.

Still trying to get my hands on a good copy. I'll upload it the minute I do.