I’m very interested. Can I pay you $100.00 to ship it to me by USPS? My address is Michael Bennett 502-3575 Bathurst St Toronto Ontario M6A 2C8. I could email you the money or send you a check depending on your preference. Thanks again.

Thank you for your kind offer. Is it attached i.e. mounted to the dashboard or is it freestanding? Thanks again. Michael

All of you have been very helpful. Thanks so much for your help!

“Hooked bad” – understood. That’s why we carry special hook cutters and other release gear. It’s also part of the reason I’m going barbless.

Thanks

Cooler smells only of Lysol now. I can live with that.

I have only kept the first musky I caught 40 years ago.

I’m going to rinse the Lysol out and if it’s still fishy I will use bleach. Thanks everyone ☺️

Thanks for your suggestions. I’m going to spray it really well with Lysol and let it sit overnight.

This is from the book Tony Rizzo wrote, “Secrets of a Muskie Guide” pg 102. “I was working around the resort one day when I didn’t have a guiding job. It didn’t look like a good day for muskies anyway. It was bright and there wasn’t a ripple on the water. After supper, I decided to try some night fishing and asked one of my resort guests if he wanted to come along. We were on the water about 7:00 pm …Just when complete darkness fell over the lake, my guest had a strike…I’m sure that the bright, calm day had slowed the daytime fishing and put the muskies on a night feed. We were back to the resort by 10pm with our limit of two keeper muskies. ” At the end of the book he says “The muskie is one fish that is hard to catch, whether you are rich or poor. It makes fools out of professional muskie fishermen as well as novices. It treats us all the same and with little respect” (pg 167, Tony Rizzo).

Hope it ends with a good rainstorm!!

Sorry James, I meant the muskies you caught in the dog days of July. I want to learn about musky fishing. I learned a great deal about structure fishing and used to write a column in Ontario Out of Doors magazine about that subject, and I learned to read a map well enough to find fish from it. However, the lake I am fishing now, the rules don’t seem to apply. The only explanation I can find for my lack of success is that I am fishing when the fish are not active. I am always on the water at the same time because of marina operating hours and it’s just been my luck that I have never been fishing during a change of weather i.e. falling barometer and incoming storm. Thanks for your patience.

What kind of structure were the fish close to?

I can’t get on the water that early. The marina is closed until 8 o’clock and by the time the boat is gassed up and ready it’s at least 8 thirty. Add in time to get to the fishing ground and it’s past 9 o’clock.
I am changing marinas. Next one is right at the spot I want to explore and I will wait for a rainy forecast to book my boat.

If I had a flasher with or without gps I’d be a happy camper. I have caught two walleye 30 inches long by scouting out locations on a contour map. There are two areas on Scugog that have deeper water and I have been fishing in and around one of them not to mention the weedbeds all over the lake. I’m thinking of trying the second deeper area next trip. I have already contacted a guide for Scugog we’ll see what he has to say. Thanks guys.

Sorry I missed that you already told me he was fishing in the .morning. how early?

Famous guide Tony Rizzo wrote that hot sunny calm days are great for swimming boating and waterskiing, everyone who is not a musky fisherman. This was from “Secrets of a Muskie Guide”. What time of day were the fish caught in please? Thanks for your input. BTW I’m fishing in south central Ontario Canada.

Thanks Dutchboy, I really appreciate that you got back to me! I use to speed troll a Flatfish with a one ounce sinker for pike and did pretty well, lots of pike up to and including 30 inches. Never saw one a smidgin past that size unless I was drifting a leopard frog with a slipsinker in the morning at the edge of an underwater point’s side. Then I raised and lost a forty incher because I was expecting walleye and bass not pike and wasn’t using a leader on 6 pound test. I will re-read your comments and take them to heart. God bless. Michael
p.s. if I had to do it over again, needing a steel leader for six pound test, I have discovered that the G string from a mandolin, sold in a music supply shop, tests at about ten pounds with a haywire twist and is single strand nearly invisible. I looked forward to hearing from you since I posted. Thanks for keeping me going. Michael

Thank you very much for your comments. Unfortunately the only marina I know of opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. so I know I’m out of the zone. One day years ago I had been getting skunked so I got up at 4 a.m. and went out to fish Helin Swimmerspoons in 16 feet of water, out on an underwater point. Caught two thirty inch pike and went back to bed when the sun came out. Thanks again. I’ll have to work something out with the new manager to get out on the water early or else find another marina, OR try to plan for that weather change.

An addendum, I am used to using a flasher depth finder and don’t have a depth finder at the moment and find that a huge problem. Difficult to mount a depth finder transducer on a rental boat, they won’t let you drill any holes. I spent $269 on a Striker 4 Portable kit but can’t figure out how to put it together, it’s like an Ikea puzzle and the diagrams don’t go with the parts. Michael

Dutchboy, I am at a loss. Recently I spent two six-hour periods on the water, the only explanation I can find for my almost complete lack of success (I caught and released a 14 inch largemouth) is that every time I am out on the water, it is hot, sunny, and cloudless. l am praying for rain the next time I go out. I found and fished a long, deep hole, including over the edges of the hole all day yesterday with no success. I was fishing a Mepps Musky Marabou, a Creek Chub Pikie Minnow, a Rapala deep diver and a twin spin (not inline) weighing about an ounce or so with willowleaf blades. Am I just being taught patience or am I doing something wrong? The marina where I rent from only rents out pontoon boats now so I can’t troll because of the canopy. I would have loved to troll some of the larger areas where the weeds meet the deeper waters. I varied my retrieve from slow to fast and bulged the spinner under the surface many times. I wore polaroid sunlgasses and saw no follows or short strikes. I have only caught five muskies in my life. This marina is only open from eight a.m. (too late for the early shift) to six p.m. (too early for the evening feed). I am very frustrated. Cheers, Michael.

Thank you for the compliment, and thanks for the advice re keeping the fish in the net. I wrote a column for Ontario Out of Doors Magazine back when they were called Ontario Fisherman and Hunter, and I was with them when they changed the name and went to glossy color paper. That was a long time ago though. I am returning to fishing after a 30 year absence. I’m finding it difficult not least because I am going to be 67 years old this August. Thanks for the kind words and advice. Michael

That’s the thing. Amazon Canada and Cabelas have confusing descriptions of the glove. I want a left hand glove but the system keeps getting me right hand side. I own a right hand glove already
Bought a Bubbas fish handling glove instead at least it’s available in my size! Thank you for taking the time to help me out.

Simple but brilliant!

I can’t close the big treble barbs without using visegrips. Smaller hooks are easy. BTW what do you do with a spinnerbait that has a single large trailer hook? If you flatten the barb on the first hook the second one is going to come off.

Hi there, I can’t find Lindy Snagproof gloves. Are they still available under that name? Thanks again

Thanks for your replies and experience.

I am convinced that barbless hooks are the way to go. It only takes one accident to put you in the emergency ward. Or worse: what if you’re hooked past the barb to your big fish which gets out of the net?

I really liked your analogy of nights spent in the bar. So true.

Amen to that.