New Lakes

[Guest Kevin Green]

Was just going through my photos and tallied up the trips.

I spent over 60 days on the open water this year and tried 15 new lakes.

Found a few really good ones and was very disapointed by a few I was really looking forward to trying.

How many days did everyone else spend on the water this year and how many new lakes did you try?

Just curious if my wife is right that I fish too much LOL

Kevin

[Some Old Guy 968]

As I live on a lake the days spent fishing were lots. I didn't really try any new lakes but I was shown and located myself many new spots.

Highlites of my year was prefishing a tournament with Tom Friday and he caught a pike. That was it. When the walleye tournament started the next day my first fish was a 24 incher and Tom's was over twenty inches. We ended up placing second for the tournament.

Another highlite was fishing with Kelly Koistra in the GWC and watching him tie on a huge spinner combination that was meant for west coast salmon attached to a leader and using a big bell sinker. He then attached the smallest leech onto the hook. I rolled my eyes and asked him what the hell was he thinking/doing? Mere seconds later he said he got a bite. He set's the hook and brings in a 24 inch walleye! I learned to keep my mouth shut.

Another highlite was fishing my first bass tournament with Tom Lane. Awesome time.

Then to end the year off I went to Sebandowan for Walleye and fished bad weather with Andy and we did extremely well.

I'm now looking forward to ice fishing.

Roger

[speckmaster 114]

I spent about 30 days on the water. My days of trying a new lake each week are over. I have my favourite spots and know them quite well. Fishing is more consistent when you know a water body well.

[Bottom Bouncer 22]

Hey Kevin 45-50 day's not including Fri. nights at camp. That's with 3 kids and one on the way. Wife #1 told me I fished too much so heads up So I tuned it down a little I'm still breaking in wife #2. But I'll shoot for 60 days next year and then back to my old self..... a career high of 75 with all 4 kids at home Trying to make kids cuts into fishing time but it's time well spent

[Some Old Guy 968]

Nisswa,

*Trying to make kids cuts into fishing time but it's time well spent *

It's too dark to go fishing anyways! Ha Ha HA!

Roger

[sinker7 114]

Good idea Kevin. I haven't totalled up the number of trips for one season in years. I checked back on the calendar and I came up with 71. I can't tell the woman that as she always hears me complaining that I don't get out enough. The sad thing is I added up the gas bills that went with these fishing trips - $4300+ in fuel. I sure hope we don't see $1.40/L for gas next summer or retirement will never happen!!!!!!!!

[Trevor Zimak 171]

Does that include fuel for your vehicle? If not I might have everyone on this site beat. I kept track using an excel spread sheet. Total fuel cost for the Summer 2008, $3,045.50. May 19th - Oct 22nd. That was just the boat!!! I put $296.00 in the tank at a $1.50/L on Lake of the woods this Summer. 195 litres or something. The more than doubles the amount I spent last year of $1,357.76. Mainly because (1) I only fished for three days from July 6th to August 4th. (2) Gas was cheaper and (3) a smaller engine.

As for number of days fishing. At least 100. There was only 5 days I didnt fish in the month of August. And three of them were travel days in between tournaments.

New lakes for me this year included Kenoagamisis. (however you spell it). Atikokan Floods. Lake Lenore, Lake St.Clair and Lake Erie (Briefly).

[Guest FreshwaterFisherman]

I was lucky enough to spend at least 85-100 days on the water, and about another 30 fishing from beside it(shore). I was all over ontario working in the bush. We were always camped near lakes mainly for washing, since theres no showers in our tents lol but we took advantage and fished them all. Tried fishing about 40 new lakes this summer, two of which skunked us(3 of us). We had a canoe so we were out everyday after 5. The water bodies that took the cake this summer would be the winnipeg river system for musky, Seperation lake for monster pickerel and a great sturgeon fight, and lake of the woods for just about everything lol. There are tons of lakes I wish I could recommend but we moved every 3 or so days to a new area and did not learn the names of all the lakes we fished. Alot of the time we did not see anyone other than out 6 person crew for days on end so it's hard to ask someone, and alot of them weren't named on maps or GPS either. A few real nice speck lakes, laker lakes and one full of rainbows. It was pretty much a fishing lottery all summer since we did not know where out next campsite was going to be, or what the lakes near it held. Very exciting.

[speckmaster 114]

Wow! You guys make me feel better. I thought I was nuts, but you guys have me beat hands down.

[salmonider 1]

Are you all talking full days on the water or just days that included fishing ie. after work?

[Some Old Guy 968]

A lot of mine would be fishing before, during and after work! But full days still amount to two thirds of what I did.

Roger

[sinker7 114]

Most of my trips were full-day trips. I didn't think to count the times when I got out to camp on Friday nights after work and fished for a couple hours before dark. I did include after work salmon trips on Superior though, as they usually involved 4-5 hours of fishing time.

[Guest FreshwaterFisherman]

Most of the days were after work. I would say about 60% were full days the rest at least 4 or 5 hours. It was more so the number of new places I was able to fish that excited me.

[Guest TerryK]

I'd say I did about 40 or so full days on the rivers, and 2 days on the lakes.

[Guest Kevin Green]

Mine are all full days. Majority were for Walleye.

Some for Specks, Lakers, Bass, Salmon and Rainbow.

[Trevor Zimak 171]

Definately full days. Was a waste to go for a couple hours with the price of gas, unless I was going to my camp for the weekend then I included friday nights. Most of the days were tournament days which are anywhere from 8-10 hours long depending on what tournament it is. I had several 12-14 hour days prefishing. (could count that as two days )

[Guest BannedCore]

Looking through my books I spent $3640.00 on gas from may to october this includes my truck. I also guided 15 days on lake St.joseph in which my boss provided the boat and gas. I fished 25 days in August and 75 to 85 days for the summer. this includes 2 camping trips on Lake Nipigon and a camping trip on the Nipigon river. I fished in 2 tournaments and am now hooked on doing more. I put over 100 Brookies in my boat the biggest being a 25 incher. Other species include Northern, Walleye, Steelhead, Whitefish, Perch, Lake trout and Catfish.

When I was younger and guided up north I once fished 55 days in a row this includes doing shore lunch.

Giddy up!!!!!!!!

[Guest YQT]

It was a record year for me too, on the other extreme. A whopping 4 days out on the lake this year. Gas maybe 40 bucks. I kinda figured it was gonna be that type of year with the arrival of our little guy in early May. Hopefully ice fishing and sledding will make up for it this winter as I have most of the winter off from work and gas is conciderably cheaper now.