Woo-hooo fishing....finally!, and a broken reel (fish lost)

And I am so jealous of you living right next to that lake:-) I mean like me over the past two weekends with 5 trips to lakes in Muskoka and Haliburton putting on around 2,000KM on my car....

Agree 100% with xiaolu, very jealous indeed. It's amazing what anglers will do to catch a fish. Drive hundreds of kilometers, walk into the woods for miles, fly in, sleep in the car or the woods. Almost forgot the canoe trips, including portages and of course the ice fishing trips. My round trip up to the family house is just over 500kms X 3 trips so far in September. Time in the car 3.5 to 4 hours one way depending on traffic. All 60kph to 80kph roads, and quite a few slow downs for the small towns. My car is good on gas so about 40 litres round trip. I could't care less if it was 6 or 7 hours to get to the lake. Once you are there it's worth it. The reward is worth the time spent in the car, for a night out on the lake.

Hey James. Very nice to see you get lots of fish. My wife said I should have accepted your offer since you get so many. I would have if you didn't have to drive that far....didn't want to take a fish from you after such a long drive to fish here. I assume I am going to get some fish once I get into a groove of doing things (and my gear will be better). I plan to be out there tomorrow.
I am very happy and very lucky we are up here....it's been great. I can get the family to the beach and boat launch in 10 minutes or less (the shallow sandy area/beach is right beside the boat launch). And this is just one of hundreds of lakes around here with good fishing (and so far as I can see all free parking!)....I just have to find time to get out more (and it will come as the little one gets older and things get done at home). We are going on our first "fishing" trip together today - a small lake with panfish and some bass (got him a kids fishing rod/reel with a rubber fish at the end so he has been playing with it - that's how I plan to get him hooked on fishing so he can take me (and do all the work and cleaning my fish) in the future - that's the hope and dream).
Sorry to hear the long drives for you guys....I know that feeling and use to do it all the time when I lived int eh GTA....the worst part is the GTA traffic. Up here, we don't have a single traffic light until we hit the major towns, lots of wildlife to see on the roads and the leaves are change quickly now and colours are coming. Soon the snow and then ice fishing again. For sure, fishermen will drive a long way to get to fish in the quiet.