Where Is The Georgian Bay Bass Hole?

Bill Dice Fishing In The Actual Georgian Bay Bass Hole

The Georgian Bay Bass Hole is Located Somewhere On One Of These Two Maps.

Map Number One         Map Number Two

Map Key River Area Georgian Bay Ontario Canada

Smallmouth Bass

Canadian Smallmouth Bass Record Is 9.84lbs. Caught In Birchbark Lake, Ontario.

9 lb. Smallmouth Bass Have Been Caught In The Key River Area Of Georgian Bay.

The Candian Largemouth Bass Record Is 10.43 lbs. Caught In Preston Lake, Ontario.

Many Largemouth Over 10 lbs. Have Been Caught In The Key River Area Of The Georgian Bay Including One Over 13 lbs. Years & Years Ago That Was Weighed & Photgraphed A Key Harbour Lodge But Never Turned In Or Claimed As A Record. The Picture Was There 35 Years Ago & It Said The Bass Was Caught On A Night Crawler Fished 3 Feet Deep On A Bobber Somewhere In The Area But I Will Not Tell You Where. But It Was Somewhere On This Map. It Was Not Caught In The Area Of This Map. But The Bass Hole Can Be Seen On One Of These Two Maps If You Know Where It Is & Where To Look.

Largemouth Bass

 

Herb Pigg With Big Largemouth Bass Caught In Georgian Bay Bass Hole

Herb likes to rig small floating Rapalas with a split ring & kick them on the surface over & over again nose down float up, nose down float up. He gets a  lot of bass using this method wherever he fishes. He used open faced spinning rods & ten pound line including the new Kevlar lines that can not be broken or cut unless you have special scissors.

I prefer the excitement & anticipation of nailing the really big ones “Walking The Dog” with Zara Spooks & Top water casting with Creek Chub Injured Minnows but Herb usually gets more than I do using small Rapalas as jerk baits.

The exact location of The Georgian Bay Bass Hole has been kept a secret for many years & only a few of us know where it is & exactly when to fish it.

“Where Is Your Sense Of Humor?”

I stumbled across this You Tube Video below of two fishermen catching one big pike after another in the area we fish in. I recognized it by the cabin in the background which is at the mouth of Sand Bay & not far from the windmill house where the nine pound smallmouth was taken on a live crawfish in 35 feet of water & released because it was caught two days before bass season opened on June 28. Bass fishing can be really good at the end of Sand Bay at times especially in the last cove on the left or where the creek runs in. Try the Zara Spooks there. You won’t be disappointed if they are there. The water is warm in this area & prime largemouth territory. Most of the fishermen that fish this area have no idea big largemouth are there as they always fish for yellow pikerel & pike for the most part & do that by towing Rapalas behind their boat all day or dropping down worms, suckers or minnows. Smallmouth bass are viewed as a nusiance fish (bait thief) by many of them. This is not where The Georgian Bay Bass Hole is but it is a good clue. The area these guys are fishing in is prime big pike territory & I have seen many big ones over 25 pounds come out of this area. I have had many wire leaders bitten in half trolling this area. I have also been there when large schools of them came in from the big water to feed & you could catch one after another at will & mostly over 12 pounds. I hooked a really big one trolling a Rapala on ten pound line & fought him for over an hour & finally lost him in deep weeds. A canoeist passing by stopped to try & help me land him but I could not get him up & hand no wire leader or big landing net. I was trolling the shoals for smallmouth when he hit. Definetly a forty pounder that looked to be five feet long down deepin the water which is pretty clear in the area I hooked him. He did not fight like a muskie so I am sure he was a pike. Or she? Who knows? Instead of a trophy he ended up being just another big fish story. Ivan the Indian Guide warned us when we were kids. He told us to always use twenty pound line because you never know when you are going to hook a really big one in Georgian Bay & he also said to always use a wire leader in Georgian Bay. He knew what he was talking about & once again I learned the hard way. I probably read in a fishing magazine I would get more hits without a leader which is not true in Georgian Bay. One year when we got to the bass hole a pike was laying in the water half dead on it’s side that was at least 60 inch long (5 feet) & would have been the Canadian Record before it got sick, lost a lot of weight & died probably of old age. It weighed forty pounds in the sickly state it was in on our scales which are very accurate. We use electronic bathroom scales & stand on them with the fish & then deduct our weight. The Gulls got it when it finally died & it’s skelton was huge. We estimated at least 60 pounds in a healthy state stuffed full of fish.

We have released hundreds of big largemouth bass & smallmouth bass unharmed & never ate or killed one.

They are all still there.

All I can tell you The Georgian Bay Bass Hole it is out past The Mouth Of The Key River where it runs into Georgian Bay & it is somewhere in between there & The Bad River but if you go out past Dead Island you will never find it.

Sometimes it’s high & sometimes it’s all weeded over but never toally dry. It is much better when high.

We found it by accident one year floating crappie jigs on bobber set 3 to 4 feet deep behind the boat & let the wind push us along.

The weather had kicked up on the big water so we went way back in to get out of high winds.

We drifted in there strictly with the wind & started hooking one six pound largemouth after another on the crappie jigs.

Then we explored & fished the whole area the rest of that week & found out it was also full of big smallmouth bass.

From that time on we camped right on area & the rest is history.

We got many off the cliffs at our campsite walking around & casting for them.

I have never seen another fishermen in this area fishing for largemouth or smallmouth bass or crappie in all the years we have gone up there.

The locals & most Canadians fish strictly for pickerel & have no interest in them but that seems to be changing now  many Canadians are bass fishermen & really know how to do that.

Mostly because of the decline of the yellow pickerel because of gill netters out where Georgian Bay meets Lake Ontario. There is a 3 to 6 mile wide channel there & they get everyhthing that tries to swim through it to the Georgian Bay.

This area of The Bass Hole is not good for pickerel most of the year so few go there for anything except sight seeing when the fish ain’t biting or the wind blows up out on the big water but the best big yellow pickerel live bait hole up there is not far away. It is considered hammer handle heaven (water to shallow) when it comes to pike & that is one of the reasons the big bass are there. To eat them. Lucky for us not many know that. We thought the same for many years & hardly ever went there ourselves. Not as smart as we thought we were.

This area is not generally affected by the water levels of the Georgian Bay but I will not tell you why but it has a lot to do with beavers, moose, snow melting, ice out, rainfall & all that including global warming which is affecting all these things now.

The very best time to fish The Bass Hole is when the bass are there & they are biting.

The only way to find out is to go there & try.

If you have a big boat you will never get to it & especially not a big bass boat with huge motor & that is a good thing for us & the fish.

The video below proves that live bait fishermen can outfish any bass pro when it comes to real trophy fish & that is true everywhere. In Florida most monster bass are caught on live shiners & in California live crawdads. The same is true for Canada or anywhere as far as that goes. Most monster pike & muskie are taken on live suckers. Live night crawlers take their share of big bass & walleye (yellow pickerel) in Georgian Bay if you know where the good live bait holes are. In Europe where pike fishing is a big sport they use live bait rigs almost exclusively & usually fish from the banks.

A 14 foot aluminum boat is about the limit & even that is to big at times but I have gotten there with a 16 foot Mirrocraft Lake Fisherman that was 75 inches wide on the transom.

Even if you find it you may not catch anything if you are not there at the right time as the fish are only there in great numbers at certain times but there is always a few around if you know where & they are all big over six pounds because they eat all the smaller ones that get anywhere near the places they lurk. Fish in Georgian Bay Love To Eat Each Other & Their Own Kind. Canabals for sure. What applies in America is a waste of time in Canada.

There are many good big largemouth holes between Key Harbour Lodge & Dead Island if you know where. The old walleye spawning grounds to the left is one of the best big largemouth & pike holes up there at certain times. You can fish it right off the banks which are flat there believe it or not. Flatfish have taken a lot of pickerel there also. That area is a whole new story & I wished I had enough time left to explore & fish that area thoroughly but I don’t so I will leave it at that but do know Ivan had a secret hole back in that area for largemouth. It is also very hard to find & get to in a boat. Also bear city at times & if you are fishing the flat rocks & Mr. Bear comes along the only place you have to go is in. Don’t be surprised if he joins you for a swim & sniffs you out just to see if he would like to have something like that to eat. Ask me about it. He was a 600 pounder with long brown shaggy hair that looked like a brown bear. He did the same thing to a couple that was camped in the area the week before & he had no fear of humans whatsoever. He hung around our camp the whole week but never bothered it or us other than scare hell out of us. He would just stare at you & turn  walk away slowly. Never saw him again after that which probably means some bear hunter offed him. Easy prey for sure.

But none of these other places will ever equal The Georgian Bay Bass Hole.

I doubt there is a better big largemouth & smallmouth bass hole anywhere in Canada.

Please have fun trying to find it.

We did & it only took us a little over twenty years & only then by accident.

Always remember the coves facing the warm south winds is where the big ones lurk. Coves that shelter weeded over shallow water from cold north or westerly winds & have deepholes in or near them somewhere. If there are no deep holes 6 feet or more in the area & it is all clear & shallow good luck except in early spring at which time it is illegal to fish for them anyway. Bass season starts usually around June 28 as Georgian Bay Bass are to easy to catch on their nest & go into these areas by the hundreds or thousands when it is time to reproduce. If they allowed fishing they would get wiped out in a hurry. Producers of the fishing shows are famous for putting their big name pros on holes like that in early spring to get the footage & viewers & do that for money & call that sport fishing? Spawning usually happens from the first of May to about June 10 depending on weather conditions & water levels. The Georgian Bay Bass Hole is full of big largemouth & smallmouth at this time of year but unfortunately it is illegal to fish for them at that time. The smallmouth come in out of the big water & spawn around cliffs & shoals & you can actually see them in the water at this time as it is very clear but again not legal until June 28 or so. Most Georgian Bay fish go up rivers when it is time to spawn & then after spawning return to The Georgian Bay & scatter out over a wide area. Pike & smallmouth & yellow pickerel also spawn on shoals near the big water. The spawning areas up rivers are usually thick with vegetation & weed beds & offers young a safer place to feed & grow & not get eaten by the large fish that prey on them. They stay in these areas until they reach safer sizes to keep from getting eaten. When large Dogfish schools come in to spawn they tear these areas up & eat everything that gets in their way. Fishing is never good when Dogfish invade the area but they do hit lures readily at times themselves & many are very large with sharp teeth & armour hard as a rock. The key to catching largemouth is knowing where they go & stay after spawning & what hole along the rocks or cliffs they call home year after year. Once you find the holes & know where they are it is just a matter of returning often & tossing your lure right back on top of their hole. If that don’t work toss a nightcrawler in there hooked through the tip of it’s head one time on a round weighted bobber with no sinker or a crawdad or live minnow & that will usually do it. Sometimes they will not take any artificial lure & it matters not what you try but the live bait usually works. Sometimes they will not hit surface lures period. No one can figure these things out so you have to know what else to try just in case. If a North Wind comes stay in your tent or cabin & sleep or tell fishing or hunting stories all day & night long as neither live or artificial will work if it is a really cold one. I have seen it snow there at the end of June. I have had shampoo freeze in May. I have seen ice all over until May 30 & if you love big pike they will be right on the banks shortly after ice out in April or early May in Georgian Bay & they are legal to fish for at this time in most places except past the mouths of rivers or streams where they spill into Georgian Bay. They move slow & like slow moving lures at this time after spawning but lay in really shallow water right around the banks or shore usually at the end of coves or bays or around shallow shoals where you can get a lure to them.

There has to be ten foot deep water close by or around somewhere or the real big largemouth will not be there or make it their permanent home after spawning. Smaller ones may be there but not the big ones.

The really really big ones that get near the record like to have even deeper water nearby but not always & a place for them to go to eat every day that has a good food supply is a must & know that largemouth do not like cold water period at any time of the year.

Just stick your hand down in the water, If it’s warm fish. If not move on. Except in September. They like to eat a lot before the water starts getting real cold at this time of year & the action can be very good if you can find them. Especially on frog imitations. The old rubber Plummer Frog was a real killer at this time of year but they quit making it. The new ones are not as good & to light for casting a long distance with casting rods & 20lb. line.

They like the big surface lures better than anything most of the time. The Zara Spook & Creek Chub Injured Minnow & twenty pound line is a must with these two lures. Or you can do like Herb & use the light stuff & get plenty of action but don’t blame me if The Canadian Record breaks your line in the weeds. Blame Herb. Ivan knew better.

If they are not there when you get there hang around as they always come in to feed sooner or later & when you least expect it & come in great numbers when the really big ones run.

Do your exercises often before you go so they won’t wear your arms out or yank your rod out of your hands & pull it the Bay or you out of your boat. And don’t be surprised if Mr. Big Pike scares the hell out of you every once in awhile. Ask me about it?

Some of the largest pike in Canada lurk in this area & I mean all over the area.

Ask me about it? I had a 30 pound pike tow my boat across the bay. It hit a live sucker minnow fished on a bobber & I thought the other guys fishing with me had somehow caught my anchor line & were towing me until I looked back at my rod which was bent double & it was a real fiberglass Fenwick broomstick stiff as a board I had custom made for pike & muskie spooled with 30 pound line with heavy wire leader on a big Swedish casting real.

Bring your bug dope to feed the bugs & the cardinal sin is no headnet just in case Mr. Black Fly is around which he will be before the middle of June.

The Georgian Bay Bass Hole is full of Bugs, Rattlesnakes, Frogs & Beaver Dams are found almost everywhere & raccoons are plentiful. The Pilated Woodpecker is a sight to see & wild orchids grace the islands along with many other wild flowers & plants that seeming grow on solid rock. The Georgian Bay Gulls will become your friend. Just tap on a pot or pan & they will come & you will hear them when they find something to eat. They will also warn you when the weather is kicking up when you see them flying low over the water & they will keep your campsite clean when you are out fishing. Some of them may even hang around & get to be your friend for the week especially if you camp alone & have no one to talk to. For some reason they know you are safe to be around if you come alone. Why? The answer to all why questions is because. They will follow you everywhere you go & tag along to watch over you. They will come & sit right by your side in a boat or your camp except when there are two or more of you along. Yes, they will hit a Rapala so be aware of that & be careful so as not to hook or injure them. If you see a bunch of them circling an area over water get there as fast as you can & start casting or trolling. You won’t be disappointed if they are diving on a school of cisco because the yellow pickerl & pike will be following them & chomping down on them to & maybe even a few smallmouth bass or if you are really lucky Mr. Muskie who will more than likely skip the cisco & go after the yellow pickerel & pike chasing the cisco. Even if you get skunked fishing the whole time you are there which does & can happen sometimes because of weather conditions beyond anyone’s control you will enjoy the experience. Maybe even get to see a big bear or moose in the wild or maybe even your campsite. That would be something you would ever forget. Ask me about it? Momma bear & three cubs? In my campsite when I got out of my tent in the morning. I can assure you I have never forgotten that. I was camping alone that year. Had no gun & the boat was tied up solid a 100 feet away. She had complete control over those cubs & me to. I did exactly what she wanted which was nothing. I just stood there & acted invisable in total shock. After they left. You guessed it. I left. I love wildlife & especially bears but not that much. I am also not that brave. Therefore I will never ever camp there again. Not alone. Do yourself a favor & camp only where the male bears are because they will run off all momma bears & even kill their cubs if they come into his territory he marks out with his urine. SInce no one knows where this is just forget it.

All of this equals good fishing in my book.

No human beings.

Just us & the bear & moose.

And just for a week or two each year.

Georgian Bay Fishing Camp

Checkout The Georgian Bay Fish Camp

Then Their Blog Page which will lead you to hundreds of websites on the best fishing camps & lodges all over Canada.

You can stay on it for hours & never get bored.

THIS IS A GREAT PLACE TO MEET & TALK WITH OTHER FISHERMEN THAT FISH THIS AREA.

THE AREA OF THE GEORGIAN BAY THAT GEORGIAN BAY FISH CAMP IS LOCATED IN IS IN MY OPINION SOME OF THE BEST BIG FISH FISHING IN CANADA INCLUDING FABULOUS PLACES WAY UP NORTH FAR AWAY FROM CIVILIZATION & LARGE NUMBERS OF FISHERMEN. BIG FISH FROM THE BIG LAKE LURK IN THESE WATERS INCLUDING THE WORLD RECORD MUSKIE THAT IS JUST WAITING TO GET  CAUGHT NOT TO MENTION THE NORTH AMERICAN RECORD PIKE OR CANADIAN RECORD WALLEYE (PICKEREL). SMALLMOUTH BASS FISHING CAN BE FABULOUS OUT AROUND THE BAYS, SHOALS & ISLANDS & THIS AREA WILL BE GOOD NO MATTER WHAT THE WATER LEVEL IS IN GEORGIAN BAY & REALLY BIG SMALLMOUTH LURK THERE UP TO NINE POUNDS. THE ONLY WAY TO GET THERE IS BY BOAT OR PLANE & IT IS AT LEAST A 20 OR MORE MILE TRIP BY BOAT. YOU CAN CAMP IN THIS AREA ON ISLANDS OR STAY AT THEIR LODGE IF YOU BOOK AHEAD OF TIME.

The Canadian Record Pike Is 42.12 lbs., Muskie 65 lbs. & Yellow Pickerel (Walleye) 22.25 lbs.

All Three Of These Records Could Be Broken Any Day In This Area Of The Georgian Bay Not To Mention The Black Crappie Record Of 3.78 lbs. or The Largemouth Bass Record Of 10.43 lbs. or The Smallmouth Bass Record Of 9.84 lbs.

Was The World Record Muskie Caught In Georgian Bay?

Georgian Bay Is The Home Of Monster Pike

Georigan Bay Walleyes (Yellow Pickerel) Get Up To 17 Lbs.

If you plan to camp out on the islands rather than stay at a lodge drive to the junction of Key River & Route 69  & you can put your boat in at Camp Dore & park your car & boat trailer for the duration of your trip for a reasonable fee. They also have gasoline & fishing licenses & good information on fishing in The Key River itself. They also have cabins if you want to fish or hunt in their area. There is no free or public parking at Key River & Rte 69 & The Key is the only way out to Georgian Bay in this area by motor boat. If you are staying at a fishing & hunting lodge & they are picking you up they will give you instructions where to unload & park your car & wait to be picked up. There is more than one fishing & hunting lodge with cabins at Rte 69 & Key River Junction & different lodges have their quest park at different places. We have used all of them at times but personally favor Camp Dore for unloading, boat launch & parking. There is a place called Key Marina at Rte 69 & Key River Junction to get something to eat & they have a gas station & marina with boat gas, boat launch, parking & a place for boat repair & parts. There are several stores in the area for groceries & fishing & hunting licenses & supplies but Parry Sound has the nearest supermarket & shopping center & fast food restaurants as far as I know. There are many good lakes full of largemouth in this area that you can fish right off the highway with a canoe or small boat. Very few ever fish these small lakes & ponds for largemouth bass. Many hunters like this area for grouse hunting & other game including bear at times. They stay at the lodges or cabins at Rte 69 & Key River.

When the river freezes over people get to cabins on Georgian Bay by snowmobile which can be extremely dangerous if you attempt it at the wrong time & fall through thin or broken ice so you may want to leave that to people who know what they are doing if you get the urge to go ice fishing or snowmobiling on The Key River or Georgian Bay.

Camp Dore Key River & Rte 69 Ontario, Canada

 

Georgian Bay Bass Hole Blog

Practicing flycasting for 2009 trip to Georgian Bay

I am getting all my tackle ready & trying out my Fenwick 3 piece 6 weight rod I bought on eBay. I love the old Fenwick fiberglass rods & prefer them by a wide margin & I am not the only one as they go high on eBay.

I got my flyrod out & went to one of our local ponds to practice getting ready for this year’s trip

The Secret

My grandson Logan has a secret carp method. He puts canned corn on a treble hook with no weight & throws it out on the bottom & then throws hand fulls of corn where it lands. The carp come to get the corn & then they pickup his bait.

He is going to The Georgian Bay Bass Hole for the first time this year 2009.

I think the fish in the bay are in big trouble.

This kid is very confident & acts just like the cocky carpers in UK.

It is that time of the year again & The Georgian Bay Fishing Trip

If you are like me the long winter months are about over & my yearly Georgian Bay fishing trip is getting close.

I love to go in early May which is by far the best time for largemouth & smallmouth but they are not legal until the end of June.

Walleyes which Canadians call yellow pickerel or just plain pickerel are also not legal in rivers that dump into the bay until a certain date after they spawn.

If you hang bass by mistake casting for pike or fishing for crappie you must release them unharmed.

Crappie can be good at this time of the year & they are legal but check that out for yourself as I have not read the current regulations.

The best thing to do is make sure you checkout all the local regulations before you start fishing just to be on the safe side.

Muskie also have seasons that may be different than pike.

Early May after ice out can be a good time to catch large pike in very cold shallow water out around the shoals & bays of the big water.

It is also the only time you will catch big Lake Trout where I fish.

They are there only in early spring as the water gets to warm for them after that.

It is also a good time to get totally skunked if the fish are not ready to hit after ice out.

Slow moving lures seem to work best at this time because the water is usually very cold at this time of the year.

All the largemouth in Georgian Bay will head for warm water coves at this time of year & most of them face the south & are sheltered from the north winds & most of these spring bass holes are shallow & weeded over for most of the year except in early spring.

You will find the big crappie in these early spring bass holes at this time of year.

You will find them in large numbers & many are 1 to 2 lbs. & a 3 lb. is always a possibility.

The best way to catch them is a marabou crappie jig fishing on a round weighted bobber set at the depth that works best.

The wieght on the bottom of the bobber makes for easy casting long distances.

White seems to work best for me & yellow next.

I take several sizes & weights that I make myself.

1/16, 1/8, 1/4 oz. seem to work best.

Just throw it out & let the wind push it along & the crappies just grab them.

Twister Grubs work well also.

For crappie I like 6 lb. test & long light action rod but any length will do.

The one I use is 10 feet long.

I have hooked many big largemouth in the bass hole fishing for crappie using this simple method & occasionally a big smallmouth.

If you get one just release him unharmed.

On 6lb. test you may not be able to land many of them if they get you down in the weeds or pads.

This is the largemouth’s time of year to start spawning & most of them will be females full of eggs.

You can also buy live minnows at the road where you put in which are excellent early spring bait for anything that swims in Georgian Bay.

The weather can be quite cold in early May so bring your winter clothes.

Black flies are always a possibility in early May also.

They hang around until the first of July when the mosquitoes start feeding on fishermen when the wind stops dead.

Probably a good idea to call before you go in early May to get reports from the lodges & fishing camp operators.

Many fishermen go around July 1 to be legal for everything & the fishing at this time of year is usually better out past Dead Island all the way to Bad River.

In early spring it seems to be better in & around islands & shoals & bays way back in before you get to Dead Island.

The rule in spring is always go up the rivers to where they drop down into the bay if legal as that is where you will find the fish most of the time.

Crappie are usually legal there at this time of year but bass, pike, muskie & walleye are not unless laws have changed recently.

I have never seen crappie out past Deal Island but other fishermen may know more about that area than me.

To find crappie fish The Key or go to the end of rivers & bays & fish the back water areas where it is shallow & warmer in early spring.

Don’t be surprised if you hook a few big pike or bass fishing for them at this time of year.

Just thinking about it gets me going.

I can not wait.

One more month.

Surfers Are Now Paddling Boards Up Rivers Like Canoe Polers

My nephew is a professional surf board paddler out in the San Francisco area.

He recently won a contest in Mexico & donated his winnings to charity to help poor people down there.

He flys all over the world as a DNA scientist & enters contest all over.

They paddle their surf boards while standing up on them with a special made paddle.

It is getting to be quite a sport now.

I told him I was a canoe poler & would stand up in a canoe & pole up stream.

He sent me this video of a surf board paddler working up & down a rapid in a stream.

They actually think this is something new they invented when in fact polers have been poling up & down rapids for hundreds of years.

I told him he should try a 12 foot aluminum pole with spike as it will catch water as well as the paddle they have on their short pole.

They are mostly from the West Coast & know nothing about canoe poling.

If they lived in the Northeast in Maine they would be more familiar as there are many canoe polers there.

They probably do not know what a pack basket is either but everyone in the Northeast does.

Below is the video of a paddle surfer working a fast rapid which is kind of interesting.

I have always wanted to strap a gasoline motor with a pusher prop on my back & use it in a canoe to get places upstream fast in a canoe or across wide flats in a hurry.

That will give you inventors something to think about.

 

Family Crisis Last Week Here In Dayton, Ohio

My mother God bless her is almost 92 years old & lived alone in her own home until last Sunday when we had to have the paramedics take her to the hospital.

She fell & hit her head on the side of her bed & it took her four hours to crawl to her telephone to call my sister who called me & we both headed for her home.

She has water on her lungs & the docs are trying to get her well enough to go into a rest home which is the last thing she would have ever wanted to do.

She has a cat & many wild animals that live in her yard & even some raccoons & ground hogs.

Morning doves nest on her front porch & she hand feeds them.

My brother who works on the space shuttle flew up & so did my sisters who live in Santa Barbara, California & Salem Oregon.

The whole family has been here with her.

My mom raised 5 kids on her own & all of them went on in life & made something of themselves & did that on their own.

None of us ever had a father for more than a short time.

Five kids by four different fathers.

She taught all of us how to get jobs, work & do things on our own & be independent.

All have a college education they paid for themselves but me who remains a high school dropout because I was always more interested in enjoying the outdoors than education or business even though I was a businessman.

When I was a kid she did not have much money to spare but she managed to buy me a fly rod because she knew how much I loved to fish & she also knew that was something that could keep me out of trouble.

I was 50 years old before I learned how to use a flyrod properly as back then I had no one to teach me & very few knew how anyway as fly fishing in this area is only done on one river which is way north of Dayton & back in those days I had no way to get that far away other than walk, ride my bike or hitch-hike.

Called the Mad River & the only one in the state with a healthy trout population.

I remember how excited I was when I got that rod & I would use it like a cane pole to catch crappie & bluegill.

I was only 6 or 7 years old & would walk over 3 or 4 miles to get to the river.

I kept that rod for many years until I broke it in my bike spokes & it could not be fixed.

I used to put a spinning reel on it so I could cast lures or fish for channel cats with worms or craws on a bobber in the currents below a big dam in Dayton.

It was actually a salmon rod & had wire guide wrappings & made by Heddon.

There were always a few older black men there fishing for carp with doughballs & I would always go & visit them & ask them if they were catching anything.

They would give me hooks, sinkers, line & doughballs & they taught me all about carp fishing & how to mix & make dough balls.

They knew I never had a dad & treated me like a son.

They taught me how to cook a bluegill in tin foil when I got hungry fishing.

That came in handy as back them money was scarce but hunger was not.

Not for a kid out fishing all day.

They always had a big smile for me when I came around.

Probably why I liked to fish so well as I could always find a father figure down at the river.

I remember hooking a huge carp one time that had to go over twenty pounds & how scared I got.

I tryed to drag him out of the water & pulled the hook out of his mouth & he flopped back down the bank & back into the water.

Many fishermen helped me out & taught me things about fishing.

They used Shysters back in those days which was a spinning lure white with black dots or yellow with red dots & the smallmouth really liked them.

They also used a jig called the Doll Fly.

The Rooster Tails & Mepps eventually replaced them along with the Mr. Twister Grubs.

One lure that is still working just as well is the maribou jig which remains the standard for crappie no matter where you go to fish for them Florida to Canada.

I remember how excited I would get catching a fish on one of these lures for the first time.

I have one painting at home that says fishing is not a matter of life or death.

“It is much more important than that”.

Fishing has always been a part of my life.

My mom helped me in that respect & I will always remember that.

I will always remember how she bought me that fly rod at such an early age & allowed my to go to the river by myself.

My mom don’t care about money or material things but she does care about God’s creatures.

No stray dog or cat had to worry about a good home that crossed my mom’s path.

She would always take them in & care for them until it was their time to go.

She had many over the years.

She also helped a lot of people others would turn their back on.

I am really proud of her.

She never took a dime from the government & always had a job & always got up & went to work 8 hours a day to take care of her children.

She raised roses & entered rose shows for years & years & always had 300 beautiful plants in & around her home.

The last few years she could no longer get to her plants to take care of them properly but they are still there & her yard has become the only unofficial wildlife refuge in Fairborn, Ohio.

Mother nature is slowly but surely reclaiming her yard, her house & everything in it.

Her back yard is like a jungle.

The birds & wildlife absolutely love it.

She is the only person giving the birds, rabbits, raccoons & ground hogs a safe place to live & reproduce & she lives right downtown among many vert attractive & expensive homes.

Ducks & geese even show up on her front porch from time to time & there is no ponds anywhere near her home.

Other people think she is a crazy old recluse but she says it is a wildlife refuge & could care less what they think.

Her shrubbs are at least 30 feet high in front of her home.

Her crippled three legged cat remains in her home & will not come out from under her bed waiting for her to come home.

 

He showed up one day a few years ago & has never left her side & kept her company.

This cat will not leave her property period & sits on her front porch.

At the hospital she kept wondering how her cat was.

They said she could never go back back home again but we did find a facility that will allow her cat to live with her.

All of us must go through this one day when our parents get to the point they can no longer take care of themselves to where they are safe.

This incident has brought back many memories of my early childhood & my mother way back then.

She got me my first paper route so I could have some money like other kids.

That taught me how to be responsible & deal with people.

I had over 240 customers & had to learn how to collect & account for money.

How to say yes sir or no sir & thank you.

I had to get up at 4 a.m. each morning to run my route before I went to school.

I learned how to do a job right at an early age & what customers expected of me & that carried through with me my whole life & helped me to be a better businessman when I had a business of my own for many years.

I also cared more about my customers than how much money I was making off them so it was very easy for me to get along with other people even the difficult ones.

When I left the hospital tonight she was talking away & bragging to all the nurses about her children & all of their accomplishments.

I was thinking to myself that me or any of her children would have or could have ever matched her accomplishments.

My mom had a very hard & difficult life to say the least.

It is a sad time to see her in this condition but all of us must live life on life’s own terms whether we like it or not.

I know my mom is very tough & she will be okay no matter what happens from this day forward.

Everyone on earth has a body, a mind & a spirit.

The body eventually goes with all of us but our mind & spirit I believe continues on.

For me I hope it is The Georgian Bay Islands.

That in my mind would be a good place for me to spend eternity & something to look forward to.

Hopefully our creator has such a place planned for my mom.

A place she can be with all the things that meant so much to her in her own way.

Her plants & animal friends she cares so much about.

Her yard sticks out like a sore thumb as compared to all the well maincured lawns & homes in her neighborhood but she has lived there for over 48 years so everyone in Fairborn has simply left her alone & tolerated her unkept property & no one knows why as that is not usually the case in these days.

By all rights they should have condemned her home ten years ago if you went by what the law says.

Someone or something has been looking over my mother for many years now.

Her house & home is falling down & her body is giving in & her time is getting near.

They allowed us to bring her cat to her room & she was tickled to see him.

I will be there for her & know it will be very difficult when it is time to tell her she can not go back to her home again to be with her animal friends.

But then again who knows?

My mom is capable of almost anything.

I have a feeling she won’t give in without kicking & screaming.

I told her I was going to put this picture of her & I on the inter-net for all my fishing friends to meet her.

She has no idea what the inter-net is so I will bring my laptop to her & show her on the screen.

When I arrived at Hospice she was sitting up in a chair & having her hair cut.

When I left I told her I was really proud of her for hanging in there so well after all she has been through.

She told me she was proud of me to.

My mom did what she could to make this world a better place.

I was very lucky to be her son.

Three feet of snow in Northern Ontario brook trout are biting

One of the friends I made through my blog just sent me some pictures of several beautiful brook trout they caught up in Northern Ontario where they have a really nice hunting cabin.

They live in Sudbury & have a cabin on Georgian Bay they reach via The Key River.

They really know how to hunt & fish.

They have sent me pictures of many big fish, bear & moose.

Talk about envy.

I wish.They said the snow was three foot deep this time of year.

All of you fly fishermen could drive up there & catch some really nice trout this time of year.

Here in Ohio it is really cold & much to cold for someone my age to go trout fishing but my son & grandson went fishing for saugeye this weekend.

A saugeye is a cross between a walleye & a sauger.

They are hybrids & don’t reproduce & the state restocks them every year.

They hit well in the cold of winter on Mr. Twister Grubs on jig heads.

There are also sauger which are native to the Ohio River basin.

If you fish below the dams on The Ohio River you can catch them all winter long.

My grandson is 8 years old & really starting to enjoy fishing & has now started to cast the twister grubs & is really coming along.

That is a good thing because his dad is a fishing fanatic.

Spring will be here soon.

I will start getting all of my gear ready  for this year & I hope to take my grandson up to The Key for the first time.

I keep telling him about how good the fishing is up there & he is all ready to go.

I am very close to my grandson & I try to get him at least one day a week & spend time with him.

He is also doing very well in school.

He is a really good kid & really nice.

My son is coming over tommorrow & we are going to sell a few things on eBay.

He wants to start doing that for a living now & he wants to specialize in tackle.

I work for one of the most successful eBay dealers in America & we have over 600 machines for sale at all times but I have never really sold anything of my own yet so we will be learning from the ground up.

I have a lot of things I am also going to sell as I no longer have use for them.

Hope everyone is doing well.

I have a lot of pictures to put up but I have to have them scanned so it will be awhile.

Becky Mason has a website now on canoeing.

Bill Mason’s daughter.

I put her link under Bill Mason if you like canoeing.

I love all of his books & videos & learned much from them.

Take care.

Bill Dice

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year From Kettering, Ohio

The Georgian Bay Bass Hole

I would like to wish everyone that visited The Georgian Bay Bass Hole Happy Holidays.

Over 10,000 people have stopped by.

Thank you so much.

Bill Dice

Kettering, Ohio

No Passports For Old Retired Americans Going Into Canada?

For the past year all we have heard or read about is politics & how this guy or that guy or this woman or that woman is going to fix all of America’s problems when they get elected to office on November 4, 2008.

One of the reasons I liked going to The Georgian Bay every year was to get away from all that & just take a break from the riggors of every day life in America.

Business, money & all that is nice but it is not as fun as going on a camping & fishing trip to Georgian Bay.

It is really nice to get away from people for a couple of weeks & getting back to nature.

Real nature.

Here where I live in Ohio if you go to one of the local lakes to camp or fish you will find hundreds of others with the same idea & soon discover your own backyard may have more nature in it than the State Camping Grounds & it would certainly be much less noisy or cluttered.

In Ohio if you do not want to get arrested for tresspassing on private property or you have no wealthy buddies or relatives that own a lot of land it is doubtful you can avoid others.

How could a politician fix that short of taking the land back from rich private property owners?

The Americans raped the land & cut down all the forest for profit many years ago & did not set enough of it aside for mother nature or her creatures that were here long before white Europeans & now there are no Georgian Bays in America. No more wild & free Indians roaming the land either as their lands are now occupied by millions of white people & various other races of people other than Native American Indians & they actually deeded it to each other & made it all perfectly legal with our government’s blessings of course.

You have to be one hell of a lawyer to come up with laws that make it legal for people to own land by deed that was taken away from Native People against their will. Native people that occupied these land thousands of years before them.

These are the same people that are jumping on the South Americans for clearing the rain forest to farm.

In other words they are in a sense telling these people they should not do what we did.

Rape the land for profit.

The pot calling the kettle black?

There are no North Woods or bush here in Ohio except for a couple of National Parks in Southern Ohio & even then you won’t find any real wilderness there. No Indians either.

I would hope people in Canada save the Georgian Bay forever.

Keep it wilderness forever.

Limit the big boys & their raping of the land just for the sake of more money in their pockets.

After all you can not take it with you & even if you could it would probably burn.

So how much do they need & when is enough going to be enough?

Save it for the ones that need or want to get away if just for a day or two each year.

Back to nature type of thing.

Allow them to do whatever they want in the big cities like Toronto but keep them away from The Bay & it’s creatures.

Now we have to have passports to get back to America after we go into Canada & we are Americans that went back & forth for 35 years twice a year for every year with the blessings of Canadians whose living depended on us coming every year. Canada was not that populated back in those days but we were. They needed us & our money & we needed them to get away from here for awhile each year & it all worked out fine for both of us.

Those were the best years of my life.

No hassle. No red tape. Just pack up & go.

Politicians like George Bush created red tape for American hunters & fishermen & used the excuse terrorist.

The truth is Americans are more of a threat to America than terrorist.

Every year they murder 17,000 of their own & shoot 60,000 more & since September 11, 2001 137,000 have been killed & 420,000 shot.

What did George Bush try to do about that? Call it a local problem?

Knowing this if I were a Canadian I would be more concerned about Americans than terrorist from the middle east.

The terrorist only killed 4,000. Americans 137,000.

The truth is there is no fence on the border & if someone wants to walk across (including terrorist from The Middle East) without going through customs they have to really be stupid not to figure out how as the border is thousands of miles long & there are no armed guards along the way except at border crossings on highways going to & from Canada.

You would have to be a real idiot to try & get across the border at these places if you were a terrorist up to no good.

Thousands of Mexicans walk across our southern borders every day as we do not have enough border patrol to stop or catch all of them or even a small percentage of them as there are no fences or fences that can not be easily cut with cheap Chinese wire cutters on most of the border which is hundreds of miles long.

Many of them actually go back across & visit their families for the holidays & then come back afterwords & do that year after year.

I can assure you a terrorist from the middle east could easily get into Mexico & so the same.

So how did George Bush or his advisors figure passports or border red tape would stop them from coming across northern borders if they were hell bent on that?

And this guy thinks he is smart enough to control or defeat terrorist in Iraq or Afghanistan?

The Soviets lost 28,000 men & billions of dollars & got the hell out of there & for good.

They have one of the strongest militaries & some of the best weapons in the world.

George Bush goes in & takes their place thinking Americans are much stronger & smarter.

Absolutely brilliant.

This mess will now be here for many more years to come & these are wars that will never be won by either side.

These people could care less about Democracy as their religion is the only thing they know or want to know.

To pay for all this red tape & qualify to go into & get back out of Canada you have to pay a hundred dollars for a passport & even more if you want it in a hurry or you have to buy a border crossing permit to get back & forth accross the border in an auto. You also have to pay for a picture & obtain a valid birth certificate all that. You have to do these things at a US Post Office which means stand in line & wait your turn. The cost to go to Canada & get back home is getting so high many people just can not afford to go & especially not retired people on limted income as you have to pay these expenses for each person going.

The high price of gasoline added on to that & inflation makes the whole thing impossible for many & especially if they have a family.

No problem for the rich or wealthy.

They will delegate it to their secretaries including all the waiting in line &  running around.

They may pose for the picture but that will be about it.

If I were a Canadian & George Bush & his war mongering buddies did that to me I would certainly raise hell by closing the borders off to Americans all together until they open it back up to American hunters & fishermen with no red tape, passports or fees. Let them come & go as they please or don’t come at all.

Put into law if you are going hunting or fishing in Canada you need nothing but the intent to do so & a valid drivers license or photo ID & a pocket full of money to spend while you are in Canada. Same way back to America. 10% of the people in America own 70% of America’s wealth & they control everything in America because of that fact. They travel to & from vacation on their own private jets. You won’t see them dragging everything to Canada in a pickup truck for a week in the woods. You won’t see any of their money at a lodge or fish camp in Georgian Bay. They go to the $6,000.00 a week places way up north that have servants, gourmet meals & guides that do everything but reel in the fish for them. When they hunt they pull the trigger & then let a guide do the dirty work after the pictures are taken. Then they hand the guy a couple of hundred dollars for kissing their asses all week long.

These are the people that put these ridculous laws into effect that are supposed to keep terrorist out of America?

If these terrorist were so dumb how did they hijack three air liners at the same time at three different airports with nothing but simple box knives & the US Government thinks they would be dumb enough to try & drive into America across a border that is secured? These people actually lived here in the states & enrolled in Universities & flight schools & went to great lengths to conceal their identity & covert plans. They did not come across the Canadian border in an auto & even if they had what would having a box knife prove? Terrorist?

Really now.

Does anyone with half a brain think they are that dumb?

If you live in Canada please tell your civic leaders George Bush made a big & stupid mistake & there are a lot of us here in America that would like to go fishing next summer or hunting this winter.

We are not terrorist as most of us are factory workers & this is the only type of vacation we can afford.

Personally I am 64 years old & could not whip my eight year old grandson’s ass let alone plot or plan a terrorist attack on The United States with a box knife & I am also a US Navy Veteran which certainly does not fit the profile.

I also would not want to be in any jet I am in control of because I am not a pilot & do not know how to fly any type of plane. You can not fly jets after age 60 in America anyway so they would not allow me to get the proper training even if I wanted it.

So how did they ever come up with that idea? 

Tell Mr. Bush enough is enough.

No passports or photos required for old people over 60 that could not whip their grandmothers ass let alone plot or plan a terrorist attack on America while coming home from a retired person’s vacation, hunting or fishing trip fishing in Canada.

Keep it simple.

What could be more harmless to America than me?

Black Bear Stories

Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner

In all the years I went to Georgian Bay one of the things I always enjoyed the most were the black bear stories & one of the things I feared the most was the black bears & especially when I went alone.

I have camped out in the wilderness all over Canada & usually in a tent.

When you go alone you try not to think about Mr. black bear showing up in your campsite because if he does there is not much you can do anyway.

No guns allowed & no bear mace allowed so you are basically in a bad situation.

Black bears in Georgian Bay swim long distances so camping on any island does not guarantee that one will not visit you in the middle of the night.

A black bear can swim many miles to get to islands in Georgian Bay & they like to do this at night.

When they have a bad berry season the bears will go into campsites for dinner & they also will go in large groups.

During normal berry seasons they are mostly loners & very seldom raid camps, cottages or lodges.

They will break into cars, rob boats, refrigerators in cabins & become a real danger when starving.

One year a woman had just been killed in Ontario by a black bear training for the olympics & we heard it on the radio over & over again on the way up.

Then you start thinking about all the stories about people mauled or killed by black bears which really is not that many over a period of many years.

I even bought a book that listed every bear attack ever recorded in The US & Canada.

I probably would have been better off not reading it.

You probably have a better chance of getting killed on the highway on the way up.

None the less it still bothers you & you do think about it & what you would do if the time came that you found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong bear that was hell bent on killing you & eating you for dinner.

It does happen & has happened in Ontario, Canada.

I have seen many bears from a distance over the years & have faced them eye to eye before in my campsite.

I camped with 2,200 black bears at Lake Missinabi way up north.

I could write a book about that as we had one bear encounter after another for 10 straight days & nights.

The bears actually lived in the primitive campground with us & that is the only place in North America you can do that.

I also know some campers were killed there where we camped a few years back.

Now that the spriing bear hunt is no longer open I have heard the area we camp in is crawling with big black bears.

I say that because Georgian Bay Black Bears get really big as the islands are full of berries.

I have seen many 350 to 600 pound black bears where I camp & I have seen many mother bears with three cubs rather than just two or one.

When I get in my tent at night I am usually really tired after fishing or canoeing all day so falling asleep is not all that hard to do.

Not in the wilderness.

We would always ask about the bears when we arrived at Camp Dore & sometimes they would have a bear encounter story to tell us.

One year we camped out on The French River at Dallas Rapids & the lodge owner said you are not camping on the rapids are you?

He said there was a real big mean one over there that had been tearing up his boats & cabins at night.

We saw coolers up in trees the bear had stashed there.

Needless to say sleeping that night was difficult.

We put a white gas lantern out in front of the tent & let it burn all night long.

The bear never did show up but we worried about that all week.

The lodge owner had hunters shoot 10 bears on his dump that week just to get rid of some of them.

When fishermen went to their cottge the bears would raid their boats & eat their worms & minnows.

Very sneaky even in broad daylight.

I have a few bear stories but I would like to hear others about black bear encounters on Georgian Bay Islands.

The last encounter I had was momma bear & three cubs 50 feet from me in my campsite when I got out of my tent at 7 A.M.

Lucky for me they headed down the shoreline away from my campsite or I would have been in a really bad situation as she was at least 350 pounds & very healthy & her cubs were also healthy & large.

I was camping alone & picked this spot because I did not think there would be any bears there.

I walked all over this area during the week & had no idea a mother with cubs was in the area.

I could have come face to face with her doing that & had no weapons of any type.

Needless to say I packed up & left after she & her cubs moved off to another area.

That was a great experience I will never forget but I would not want to go through it again.

Georgian Bay Bears are often hard to spot because they book it when they hear boat motors in their areas.

You would not believe how fast they run over the rocky terrain.

There is no way anyone could ever get away from one by running.

When I spot one on the shore ahead I always kill my motor & sit & watch them from a distance.

Pictures are diifficult unless you have a real big tele-photo lense & tri-pod which is useless in a bouncing boat.

Do you have any bear encounter stories?