Muskoka Outdoors Network

Celeste and her father Jeff ice  a couple of nice walleye yesterday. Thanks for the photos guys! - the location was not shared in their email ;) -

Last week I got an email with a photo from my cousin. He had hooked into a nice brook trout and sent me the photo to prove it. This is what it said,

"... It's a honey hole over in the east (somewhere in eastern Ontario). Got out for a lap of the lake (1hr) ended up with 3 ..."

For the love of all things fishing, cousin - take me next time! Thanks for the photo.

One of Canada's Top Turkey hunters, Adrian Hare, successfully harvested a nice Bracebridge turkey this past spring. Mr. Hare works on behalf of Realtree Outdoors (Camo patterns) and Quakerboy Game Calls (Turkey Calls). It is exciting to hear that turkey hunting opportunities in Muskoka are getting noticed.

Adrian shares, in a note that accompanies this photo, some of the details about his spring turkey hunt:

"I have hunted them (turkeys) corner to corner of North America and have to say because I spend a great deal of time in Fraserburg/Bracebridge in the summer months I decided to try the big woods Gobblers.  I had a great time here on the first few days of 2011 spring season and Dustin Taylor, a good friend, had some awesome properties to work.  In our few days we took 3 mature Gobblers and I thought the pic of the ice on the rock is one of the best that I have out on countless turkey photo's from across these lands."

Adrian has recently introduced the first learning DVD on turkey hunting in Canada. The series is titled, Learning the Ropes of Wild Turkey Hunting. He also has developed a hunting message board called, www.ontariohunter.proboards.com

Thanks for the photo Mr. Hare!

It would seem today's wet weather positively impacted the pike fishing on Lake Muskoka. For Gord, and his father-in-law, it meant landing a 6.1 lb and 5.1 lb pike respectively. The good news is that the bite was still on after these photos were submitted to Muskoka Outdoors. Great work guys and thanks for the photos!

This was a crazy hunt. Anyone in their right mind after listening to the weather report would have stayed in bed but Al and I decided to go out anyway in hopes the weather would change.

At 5 a.m. the wind was howling and we new the rain was coming. We drove out to one of Al's favourite turkey hunting grounds. This particular area is a nice mix of rolling hills, pasture, treelines and bush. We began calling right away and immediately heard gobbles from two different birds.

We made our way down to what we thought was a good ambush spot against a cedar split rail fence. This was in a tree line which bordered one of the opened fields leading to the bush where we were sure the turkeys were. We set out our decoys in the field and started calling. We managed to get some responses, however, the turkeys didn't seem like they were getting any closer. At this point the rain began to fall. We continued to call but nothing happened.

No gobbles, no sound, nothing. It was as if the rain stifled the turkeys completely.

We stayed in that spot for about an hour. Finally we decided that if the turkeys weren't going to come to us, we would go and find them. We followed the treeline to the edge of the bush. Al tried a few hen calls but still nothing. We new the turkeys were in there but where were they? Where did they go?

We made our way into the bush walking slowly and stopping, listening, giving turkey calls along the way. We completed a huge loop throughout the bush and finally ended up back out into the field.

Still nothing.

Where could the turkeys be? By this time we were getting rained on pretty good. We realized at this point that the turkeys must be hunkered down some where in that bush and they've probably been in the same spot since the rain began. We needed to come up with a strategy that was going to work.

Al decided that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if we set up as close as possible to the bush where we originally heard the gobbles. We could sit down and relax, call and maybe the birds would come to us. So, that's exactly what we did. We followed a treeline all the way to the edge of the bush. We found another cedar split rail fence which cornered off the opened field adjacent to the bush we were in. I sat with my back up against one corner of the fence and Al sat with his back up against the other corner. We were about one meter apart from one another. Al used his slate call.

We watched one hen way off in the distance for about twenty minutes. We watched her disappear into another bush and that was the last we saw of her. By this time both Al and I were getting a little drowsy.

This is where it gets a little crazy.

As Al was dozing off, his turkey call slid and fell off his lap. He opened his eyes to grab his turkey call and at the same time he caught something in the corner of his eye. The movement Al noticed was coming directly towards me.

I mean, directly, behind me just on the other side of the cedar fence.

Al sees two jakes right there. Right behind me only three feet away.

Al, as quietly as possible, says "Jeff, Jeff , two jakes," I wake up and immediately look out into the field in the direction where I think he means.

Al says, "No, behind you, right behind you. They're right behind you".

Instantly I hear 'cluck, cluck' and I can tell there's two birds basically breathing down my neck. At this point, my heart is pounding. Al is telling me not to move and I don't know what were going to do. I know in order to shoot one of these birds I'm going to have to turn 180 degrees. That's almost impossible without spooking them.

Now, it's a cat and mouse waiting game.

I'm waiting for Al to tell me when he thinks I can turn around. He finally whispers for me to turn my head slowly. So I do. I turn slowly and peak between two horizontal rails in the fence. Now, I'm really excited because I can see five turkeys standing there looking straight at us. They're clucking lightly so I know the jig is not up just yet.

At this point I can tell they're a little nervous but they still can't quite figure out what's going on.

Al is lightly hen calling and I'm guessing they can see our decoy through the fence. I see the space in the fence where I would like to put my gun barrel but it would have caused me to make to much movement.  I decided to slowly turn my whole body and slide the gun barrel in a much smaller opening down lower on the fence.

So far so good.

However, this did cause the birds to become more nervous and they began to move. I had to act fast. I was sitting on the ground. I recoiled my back down as much as I could in order to get a good bead through the fence. That was quite a challenge but I managed to do it. The turkeys were getting pretty spooked at this point and they began heading towards the bush.

One turkey, in particular, still had his neck stretched out and so I lined him up and pulled the trigger. The turkey went down and I turned to look back at Al expecting him to be sitting down. Instead, he's standing with his shot gun already shouldered, aiming and he lets one have it.

Crazy, crazy. Two old buddy's jumping up and down, high 'fiving' each other. The double header turkey slam!

*Many thanks to Jeff and Al for submitting their story and photos to Muskoka Outdoors

Those of us who spend evenings on Muskoka Lakes are often rewarded with more than fantastic sunrises or sunsets. A fishing moon stamps the end of a rewarding day and acts as a dock beacon on a return trip back. Thanks for this great Lake Muskoka photo Nigel!

Ontario turkey hunters were busy on opening day this week. In particular, this father/daughter (Jeff and Celeste) team were fortunate to bag this tom while hunting near Manilla, Ontario.

A note from dad shared that,

"Although I ended up taking the shot, Celeste was very close and we are saying that it was our first bird we shot together."

Congratulations to both of you and thanks for sending me the photo.

This Muskoka doe watches for the photographer's next move. She apparently has been 'wintering' very well. I appreciate the time Aaron took to email me this photo.

If you have an outdoor or wildlife photo you would like me to post, please email it to me at the email listed below this post.

Do not rule out the effectiveness of crank and minnow baits for spring trout.

The mention of spring trout fishing casts up visions of dry flies, silver spoons and small spinners as the standard attractors of choice.  For some reason, using anything else did not seem worthy of mention until a blog visitor and Alberta fishing guide, Mike Robertson shared details about his recent haul of 'chromed-out' rainbow trout from the Bow River in Alberta.

Mike was able to access a favourite section of the Bow River during a warming western chinook wind.  Instead of using standard issue flies, spoons or spinners he used Rapala Countdowns. The river's 'silvery rainbows' inhaled them. The Bow River blogger explains his technique like this,

"The method is a little different in the early spring. I cast out and make the Rapalas dive right down to the bottom. Then, I lift the rod tip up to make the lure swim quickly and erracticly. Then, I leave the lure on a long pause letting it drift down the river without reeling. I then, repeat this process two more times and slowly retrieve the Rapala back into shore."

A successful angler will always be flexible enough to adapt their technique to the conditions that surround the fish they are targeting. Mike's photos below prove that the newest additions to my usual trout candy showcase will now include some diving cranks. It seems brown trout go 'strike-crazy' for Mike's spring offerings as well.

The local application for these countdowns is simple. Depending on when the retreating snow opens up some river shorelines, you may be able to cast these lures into local rivers like, the Muskoka, the Big East and the Little East. Local anglers have confirmed to me that the Muskoka River has instances of rainbows but, more than likely, you could hook into some speckled trout in these three rivers. Portions of the Muskoka River closer to Bracebridge have also been stocked with brown trout.

Mayflower Lake in Arrowhead Provincial Park also has stocked rainbow trout.

*Mike Robertson is a Blogger and Fishing Guide at the Bow River Blog. All photos used with permission.

The 'proof of life' displayed on the game cam photos was as real as the racks these huge bucks were hauling around. These big buck photos were taken from a field adjacent to our hunting acreage west of Huntsville.  We knew they were out there. These photos (see end of post) confirmed we 'missed' them.

It should also be noted that the dates, of these photos, were within 2 days after the close of our 2010 Muskoka deer hunt season.  This startling reality is what makes this collection of buck photos so bitter sweet.

On one hand, I am excited they live for round 2 of the 2011 deer hunt. On the other hand, it is frustrating knowing these deer 'danced' all around us in 2010.  A couple of them showed up on our trail cam photos after legal shooting time, while the others were just 'flips' of white tails or barley detectable rustles in faded, fall leaves.

I tip my cap to the bucks in this monster reunion. You won the first round.  If you spot movement atop a tall oak - you'll miss the opening bell for round 2 in 2011...