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| Hey,
The last week of June is my first Canadian adventure. I have heard stories about swarms of flies that carry the boat onto an island and devour the passengers. What should I expect - in respect to bugs.
Gordo |
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Posts: 466
Location: Pittsburgh, PA | millions of mosquitos and worst of all...black flies...they draw blood |
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Posts: 3907
| Hey Gordo - here's my suggestion...
Be ready for the worst.
full rainsuit, playtex rubber gloves, rubber or leather boots, hat, headnet and plenty of good bug dope. Electric tape to close off pant legs and sleeves.
Also, take one can of YardGuard for your camp cabin. 2-3 hours before you go to bed, after covering your pillow and clothes, shoot a blast into your bedroom and slam the door. Poof, no skeeters when you go to bed. |
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Posts: 51
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | It depends on where you go and what the weather is like. I've been up for the first week in July on years where the morning frost made sure there weren't any skeeters. I've also been up there that same week (different year) when I thought a float plain was coming until I realized the sound was everywhere. I had to put on my sunglasses inthe dark just to be able to navigate back to the lodge. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | DEET ! |
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Posts: 544
Location: Alsip, Il | My tip is get yourself a bug suit it is worth the money, especially if you fish some at night. Al |
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Posts: 32922
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I am usually up in the Dryden area that time of the year. The bugs aren't a big problem on the water until dusk, unless the black flies are really thick. If they are, just don't wear anything red or black, and wear long pants and socks with cuffs that cover the ankles, that area seems to be a favorite target. I wouldn't go out on the water after dark for anything. The air gets so thick with mosquitos they can and do drive a person goofy just from the buzzing. I usually have the boat on the dock by dark, making the run for it to the cabin. A mosquito coil placed on the table after dinner and burned for about 20 minutes will dust all the skeeters inside. |
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Posts: 3907
| My one trip to LOTW near Kanora was skeetered. At dusk we fished, but had to wear ALL the gear mentioned earlier. The bazillions of skeeters made it sound like there were distant trains all round us. You could slowly close your hand in front of your face and squish 30 of them. No exposed skin was safe, DEET lasted about 15 minutes, and the skeeters bit through canvas tennis shoes.
bug stories:
The year before, one of the guys in camp was caught lost out on the lake after dark and had to spend the night on an island. He said he spent most of the night suberged in the water, with only his head/face sticking out.
One time a fellow told me his boat came across another floating loose with a single dead guy in it. All bloated and such. The guy died from exposure to the skeeters and flies, an alergic reaction to a couple thousand bites. |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | Wow, never been over that way, but I fish the kawarthas every year and can honestly say it's not that bad. It get's buggy if you fish after dark, but other than that it really didn't bother us. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | Skin-So-Soft, Avon Product is the best I have found.
You can find this stuff at regular stores, it is pretty much a oily spray. Works well on flies and all other bugs.
Mike Hulbert
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Posts: 69
| Hiya,
Yeah, the bugs can get nasty, but I've never had to resort to head nets and all that nonsense except in Alaska or the NW Territories.
Get some of 3M's Marathon bug repellent (it's great stuff) and for the cabin at night, get some Coleman mosquito coils. When everyone's done going in and out of the cabin for the night, burn a 2" piece of the coil (it's sort of like incense) and the mosquitoes will be dead as charity in about 5 minutes.
RK |
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Posts: 5874
| Last time up to LOTW for the Muskie opener was 2000. Not a problem with bugs at all. If you do run into bugs, and spray DEET, be aware that it will eat your plastics. Like your depth finder/GPS screen, eye/sunglasses, and boat gauges. Don't let the overspray get on these, or you'll have problems. |
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Posts: 33
| Research has shown that some bugs are actually attracted to color and contrast in your clothes. Less bugs bit when experimentors wore all white outfits. No kidding on this. For PM bugs, they're worse in the first hour after sunset, but then not as bad, but I wear my gortex pants and jacket with the hood tightly sealed, and first apply a good repellant to my face, arms, and legs, and then spray my jacket and pants as well. If I fish at that bad time, which is usually the case, I pick a spot out of traffic so I can keep all my boat lights off. Just before going to bed, we always leave one small light on several minutes to attract any renegade skeeters, and do a complete search and destroy before retiring. If you get a bunch of bites, an antihistamine like Benedryl will decrease your reaction. Good luck. |
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Posts: 1430
Location: Eastern Ontario | Well I can't remember when the last US fisherman was reported to be eaten by Canadian bugs. LMAO Just go out there and fish man you might feel the first couple of bites but you should not require painkillers. Some of us just wing it, it ain't all that bad. I don't see the need to put that smelly stuff all over myself and then having my hands smelly to get it on my lures and even worse my mouth or eyes. Man did I have fun last summer when we had a lenght of time where the deerflys went wild. I was fishing away and my pard was swingning at them making them mad and attracting them away from me. ;) We lost count some days but we would kill 20 to 30 an hour while trolling. I wonder if deet would work on deer and horse flys. |
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| -Bounce Dryer Sheets, rub on exposed areas...
-B-1 vitamins, 1 per day, 100mgs...
-Skin So Soft Bath Oil/alcohol mixed 50/50
***Forgot to add the "bath oil" to the Skin So soft...these are squito methods, don't know about flies...
Edited by Sponge 5/23/2003 8:49 AM
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Posts: 51
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | One more tip for those who don't know. Keep a small bottle of ammonia at home and also at camp. When you do have skeeter bites you dip a q-tip in the ammonia and then rub it on the bite. It will instantly take away the itching and reduce the bump. It's a chemical thing, I'm not going into detail but it is basically a acid/alkaline reaction. If you look at those bite sticks that stop the itch, you will see that you are paying $4.00 for 5 cents worth of ammonia. |
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Posts: 3907
| One must consider carefully before disagreeing with a Mighty Hulbert Brother in public, but....
Skin So Soft is not effective against the swarms of skeeters that you may encounter. Even decent strength DEET solutions don't last long. |
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