New guy here, just learning how to do it

[Island Sailor]

Hey people,
I joined the site so I could learn a bit about fishing in Ontario.
I am a life long sailor / racer and have recently been easing back to do more cruising around the lake etc. As part of that I bought a few cheap rods at Canadian Tire for me and the kids to play with when we are cruising or out of breeze.

This weekend we were doing some sight fishing at the Toronto islands next to the boat in a Marina / private yacht club. We hauled in plenty of Gobies with some worms and eventually we snagged ourselves a 20 lb or so Carp with simple cooked corn on a hook simply resting on the bottom. Sadly we were not able to land him on the boat for lack of a proper sized net and he got away, unfortunately with a hook still in his mouth, thankfully the line parted at the knot so at least he is not carrying 50 feet of line around the lagoon with him.

We are blessed with access to some great sites because of the sailing and membership in a private club that cover 24 Acres of the Toronto islands. As such we know we get access to some cool spots that many fishermen do not. As such, we want to learn more about the sport of fishing to make sure we enjoy it and send the fish off healthy and happy at the end of each day.

---

A few weeks ago we cruised down the lake to the thousand islands, we stopped at a number of places trying our hand in each to see what lurked below the waves. We caught SM Bass, Perch of various sizes, tons of Gobies and more than a few sun fish. All of that was caught from the dock, or from off the side of the boat when we were anchored in shallow bays.

The boat is not a great set up for fishing but it does happen to have a swim deck off the back, so if you are anchored the downwind end of the boat is always just a foot above the water or so. Not much room to move back there but we have a ton of capacity to carry gear etc.

I'd like to do more shoulder season fishing around Toronto islands as I know them extremely well and I have easy access to lots of private shore line once the boats are hauled out or before they are put in during the spring.

For now me and the kids just want to keep things simple in terms of gear, bait etc, and not spend hours and hours doing it. I admit I am a bit lazy and am happy to fish by sight a fair bit. I mean when you see 20 lbs carp just hanging around next to the boat all afternoon, it seems criminal to not drop a hook overboard. I know there's Pike and other stuff out there, so we look forward to learning some more about this whole activity.

[OldTimer]

Hey IslandSailor,

What a great intro!

Welcome to OSF.

I'm sure you'll find some useable info in the many existing posts and articles - look/search about...........

Cheers,

OldTimer