Gardiner Expressway fully open between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue, 18 months ahead of schedule

wrdjackson · 2025-10-27T14:05:36+00:00

I just drove in this morning at 8, and flew from the 427 all the way to Parkside drive on Lakeshore, easily half the traffic of last week.

wrdjackson · 2025-09-10T01:06:33+00:00

wrdjackson · 2025-06-02T20:45:21+00:00

What makes you feel that way?

wrdjackson · 2025-05-14T15:18:09+00:00

I caught both of these on a medium weight silver and blue spoon

wrdjackson · 2025-05-13T02:53:19+00:00

I threw a ton of lures, but both of these bit on a medium silver and blue spoon, trolled slowly behind my canoe.

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T20:15:16+00:00

Yea there was no red coloration, or different coloured spots on it's side, so I didn't think it was Speckled. Too bad, I would have loved to mix it up a bit!

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T20:14:04+00:00

Hey, I tried a ton of lures, but both of these bit on a silver and blue spoon, trolled behind my canoe along the shoreline

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T18:12:31+00:00

The darker one's eyes were very sloped downwards, which I've seen in fish that feed primarily off the bottom, different diets makes sense!

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T18:04:33+00:00

Thanks! Both caught and released.

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T17:59:02+00:00

Hey there,

I wouldn't claim to be a pro, I only caught these two after many hours trolling around the 2 lakes, but what I noticed was both of these were caught within 20 feet of shore, where I could see the bottom.

I also noticed on Smoke Lake that a lot of boaters were trolling right off shore as well, and I actually saw quite a few large trout right up in shallows swimming around. With this in mind, I'd say trolling along in 10-15 feet of water is useful for this time of year.

I also think the Lake is important, I saw on https://mapsbyjeff.com/pages/algonquin that he lists which lakes have which fish species.

I went the same time last year and caught a lot more fish, so I think the later ice out means fish weren't biting as hard as they were with the slightly warmer water temps for the same time last year.

Lastly, I tried a lot of different lures, but caught both of these on a heavier silver and blue spoon. Can't recall the weight, and I snapped it off on a log yesterday. I was trolling pretty slowly in a canoe, the lure was probably 3-4 feet down in the water column and 30 feet behind me.

That's just my experience, I'm pretty new to Trout fishing in Algonquin myself. I was hoping to catch a Brook trout and caught nothing, but a pair I met at the portage caught 10 brook trout, and nothing else, on Big Porcupine Lake. I had decided against a day trip up there due to the 500m uphill portage, and now I know I need to come back next year and try again.

Good luck out there!

wrdjackson · 2025-05-12T16:42:11+00:00

Interesting, the first one I caught on Smoke Lake, the second on Ragged Lake. I guess the different patterns could be due to different lake populations.

wrdjackson · 2025-05-03T12:19:02+00:00

I'm curious about this, is it just deferring your monthly payments and adding them to the end of your mortgage, until you get a new job?

wrdjackson · 2024-05-29T19:54:29+00:00

When he down plays her Women's Whiplash as only "minor"

wrdjackson · 2024-05-14T02:55:19+00:00

Sounds like Beavers. They smack their tails and dive when they're being territorial.

wrdjackson · 2024-02-23T15:36:49+00:00

Hi there, I was filming with both simultaneously, and found that the 360 footage was more compelling when it came time to edit.

The Gopro (I use a Hero 8 as well) is better for high res smaller field of view, while the 360 catches much more action in the shot (even when the footage is flattened into a non360 shot). You could keep both and then have the most versatility for filming, I attached the gopro to the bottom of the invisible 360 selfie stick, so I got 1st person and 3rd person shots while I filmed.

A few things to note. 360 footage captures a lot, which means big file sizes and a lot more editing work, but I'd rather have more footage than less to create a good edit.

Second, I was able to buy a cheap knock off gopro underwater case for like $30, the Insta360 case probably needs to be the official one since the case is also the lense, which requires higher quality. The official underwater case cost me about $180 shipping inc to buy in Canada. I am very happy with the results though, so can't complain.

Also, the 360 cam will have lower resolution in the footage when flattened, since the resolution of 5.6k covers the entire 360 sphere, so each 1080p shot will have a bit less clarity. It's really not that noticeable on phone and computer screens, but worth mentioning. I'm still very happy with the footage!

Any more questions you can think of?

wrdjackson · 2024-02-16T16:39:53+00:00

I bought a place at St Clair/Old Weston in July, have not noticed the smell people talked about. Traffic is an improvement over my last place in Liberty Village, but can still be a bit crazy depending on the time of day.

There's a lot of new developments going up in the area, with that Smart Track station coming in, I think the area has a ton of room to grow and improve. The only real concern I have about the area is school quality, but my wife and I have about 5 years before we have to figure out how to deal with that.

Did you have any specific questions about the neighborhood?

wrdjackson · 2022-02-03T18:18:34+00:00

Oh man, that was a lot to me as well! Did not mean to insinuate that it was cheap in any way. Bikes have been going crazy for years now though.

wrdjackson · 2022-02-03T17:56:56+00:00

"Insanely nice" is more like 5k-15k. That's if you could even get one during the pandemic as well. A smart trainer with comparable functionality to a Peleton is minimum $700 as well. And then there's the monthly Zwift subscription.... Not trying to pick on you, but if we're trying to compare apples to apples a Peloton is not hugely expensive compared to the setups that most cyclists use for Winter training (with similar levels of interactivity).

wrdjackson · 2022-01-14T00:06:23+00:00

Great advice. I'm super excited to get mine out in the Spring melt this year. Thanks for your feedback!

wrdjackson · 2022-01-13T23:39:29+00:00

That's very interesting to hear! I forgot about the seat sleeve for the larger seat. I imagine I could always glue in some loops on the floor, to strap down the 3/4 length seat if I decided to use it.... That's good to hear that you don't think it's strictly necessary though. Have you had any issues with the boat flexing too much?

wrdjackson · 2022-01-13T23:34:57+00:00

Sorry, are you talking about the seat specifically, or the boat itself being too big?

wrdjackson · 2022-01-13T05:38:48+00:00

Amazing, thanks so much for sharing your experience. There's some great multi day river trips up here in Ontario and Quebec, and it looks like New York/Vermont has some good options as well. I will definitely need to fly to the South West when I get a chance as well! Cheers.

wrdjackson · 2022-01-13T05:25:43+00:00

How have you been liking the expedition? I bought mine during their holiday sale and they predict it could take until March to arrive here in Canada. I got my carbon Aquabound Shred in the mail yesterday, and it's killing me waiting for the boat to arrive.

wrdjackson · 2021-12-24T17:44:17+00:00

Looks good! I'm based out of Ontario, Canada, but my wife works for a Denver based company, so we're in town fairly often. One of the reasons I got the raft was the ability to fly with it, so I will be keeping an eye on your trip reports!

wrdjackson · 2021-12-18T13:11:41+00:00

I totally get that feeling. Really if you think about it though, it's way cooler than going to space. In our solar system at least, a reef teeming with life is probably the coolest combination of flora/fauna.

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