RoLo

I'm familiar with Lake Simcoe (smallmouth bass) and Rideau Lake (largemouth bass) but have never fished Sparrow Lake. This much I can tell you, sight unseen. Between adult bass and adult pike, the northern pike is the dominant predator, hands-down. If largemouth bass is your target, I would not spend too much time on deep primary points. I would cling to shallow offside sloughs that support lush beds of milfoil or cabbage (large pike avoid shallow water). On a side note, I fished the Thousand Islands every year for many years. Though we caught countless bass and pike the deepest bigmouth I ever caught in the St Lawrence River was 15 ft deep (Eel Bay, Wellesley Island). He was not particularly large, but was particularly brave Roger

It would appear that the first baitcasting reel was designed by a southpaw, and the right-handed community just filed in line without question. The downside of course, is having to switch rod hands about 1,000 times a day? I'm right-handed, so my right hand and right arm are naturally stronger and more dexterous. Whether I’m fishing a spinning rod, conventional rod, baitcasting rod or cane pole, it's going to be held in my right hand. In this manner, my superior arm does all the casting, hook-setting and rod-pumping. Even if there’s a giant tuna on the other end, the main job of the left-hand is to crank up the slack line. Roger

Whenever we hear the name “Texas-rig”, we tend to picture a loose hook and a loose bullet sinker. But in that scenario, the fisherman maintains positive contact with the bullet sinker, but indirect contact with his lure. While the sinker may be on the bottom, the trailer could be 3 feet above bottom, but there's nothing to report their separation. As for pegging with a toothpick, that's just a primitive fix in my opinion. . Although a separate hook and weight is the most popular version of a "T-rig", it's not the version I normally use. In the natural lakes of Florida, the lure spends the bulk of its time in vegetation. For this reason, I like to rig the plastic trailer on a Z-bend jighead instead of a loose hook. This permanently joins the hook with the weight, but is nonetheless a Texas-rigged soft-plastic. The T-rig was originally referred to as a "self-weedless" rig, distinguishing it from a lure with a weedguard. Since the sinker and trailer never part company, “pegging” is never necessary, and wherever the jighead goes, so goes the lure. Roger

An interesting question Three pivot points pop into my mind: 1....About 60 years ago, I graduated from baitcasting gear and got my first spinning outfit (blue conolon rod <> Mitchell-300 cap) 2....In 1975, Al Lindner and his brother Ron launched the In-Fisherman Magazine (their first issues were a high-tech encyclopedia) 3....In 2005, I finally graduated from monofilament line to superline braid (a godsend). Roger

I’ve boated a number of mako sharks estimated between 100 & 200 lbs, but my largest fish was a bluefin tuna that weighed about 250 lbs. Every fall during the tuna season, merchants from Japan would wait on the docks of New Jersey for the boats to return Sushi merchants on the Manasquan River and Shark River, offered up to $10 per pound for giant bluefin tuna (Do the math ) Roger

I wasn't aware of Manns Floating Snake, but I do like Manns Baits. This past spring we've done really well with the Wave Worm 5” Tiki-Snake, which has a sickle-tail that never quits. Frankly though, I never try to imitate a snake, which is NOT high on the menu of largemouth bass. When I lived in Georgia, I had a small private pond on my property that I stocked with bass that we caught locally. Those bass would eat just about anything we tossed into the pond with the exception of snakes and toads. I later learned that many species of toads are poisonous and the snakes that eat those toads carry the same toxin. In the early going, the bass in my pond would seize an occasional snake, but would regurgitate it shortly afterward. Eventually though, the bass simply ignored all snakes and toads. Roger

On balance, 'NavPlanner2' displays more recent data than most hardcopies and their HD charts are in 1-foot increments. By the way, you can change any unit to your liking: <C> “Settings” menu <C> “Preferences” <C> “Feet” (In the "Altitude/Depth” dropdown menu) Roger

Several years back on my former home-lake, we began to see bass with black spots (melanosis) in random places on their body. I got conflicting reports as to the cause, some saying it was viral, others saying it was parasitic. In ether case, it’s probably due to some mild environmental stress, but most importantly it appears to be harmless and I'm not aware of any ill-effects. Roger

Yeah, I'm sure that's happened to every angler. It can be particularly deceiving when you hook a springy limb that flexes and springs back. But the dead giveaway is the identical response to every pull. I've had the reverse happen too, when a snag turns into a bass. If a bass is facing away from you during the hookup, a lunker can sometimes feel like a hooked stump. The greatest feeling in the world is when you're applying steady pressure to a snag, then feel the slow pulsation of a bass's tail Roger

Congratutions BassHunter! It makes me happy to learn that Black Lake is still a crowd-pleaser Roger

Anyone who lives life to its fullest will pass through many negative stages of life. I noticed your handle is "BassFishnMagician", it's possible your expectations are set too high Roger

I figured if anyone understood, it would be you. I"m glad you mentioned Lowrance, that's the brand I'm considering as well Roger

Terrific job fellows! Athabasca is definitely the lake Roger

Fortunately, it's only blind in one eye Albino Cyclopalis

Very similar to "fluorofilament"

I'll never understand why anglers believe that deep-water fishing is any harder than shallow-water fishing. When you're fishing in deepwater, you can fully exploit your electronics, and can pinpoint structure, cover and baitfish. When you're fishing in shallow-water, everything is scattered laterally, your electronics have limited ability, and visual interpretation is restricted to above the water line. To me at least, it's the difference between a dog rambling around a hayfield, and an eagle surveying the terrain from a lofty perch. Roger

Fish are cold-blooded creatures, so the current water temperature dictates how fast they metabolize their food. The warmer the water, the more frequently a bass must feed &/or select larger prey. Unless there's some other good reason, I don't downsize in summer. Roger

Dwight described a good example of the Long-Term effect of sustained winds. During strong winds from a sustained direction, warm surface water from the upwind side of the lake is physically blown across the lake toward the lake's downwind side. When windblown surface water reaches the downwind shore, the tapering slope of the lake's bottom acts like a wedge, rolling the surface layer underneath. This produces a warm subsurface layer of water moving in the opposite direction (against the wind). Over time, this causes a "rotary action" throughout the entire lake. In lakes that stratify however, this rotary action tends to be limited to the depth of the thermocline, which is a thin water layer of greater density. But during the fall when the thermocline begins to atrophy and eventually rupture, the entire lake is vulnerable to turning over, an event of course we call the Fall Turnover. In lakes that stratify, a strong and prolonged wind from the same direction can produce a so-called "seiche". A seiche is a "tilted" thermocline that is actually deeper on the lake's downwind side, where hydraulic build-up forces the thermocline lower (deeper). Meanwhile, surface water that was blown away from the lake's upwind side is replaced by cooler, deeper water vacuumed from below, a process that tends to pull the thermocline higher (shallower). It doesn't take much imagination to appreciate the effect this might have on fishing. If we include "tidal waters" we can expand on the influence of wind direction. Here again though, the phenomenon is not dependent on wind direction in isolation, but in this case depends on wind direction as it correlates to tidal direction. For instance, a strong wind blowing in the same direction as the incoming tide will cause abnormally high water (flood tide). In contrast, a robust wind that's blowing against the incoming tide can greatly reduce the water depth at High Tide. Both situations will have a strong influence on location, because abnormally high water increases the area of shallow flats, while abnormally low water sharply reduces available shoal area. Roger

Wind direction per se is not the culprit, but how it might affect other conditions such as lighting conditions (short-term affect) and water temperatures (long-term affect). For instance, cold-fronts are typically accompanied by a northwesterly flow which tends to be a negative event. Warm-fronts are typically accompanied by wind out of the southern hemisphere, which tends to be a positive event, but I wouldn't set my watch by either one. I doubt that wind "direction" alone could dictate our success, because not every bass carries a compass Roger

Ahabs Marine? Hmm, I'd have guessed "Barnum & Bailey"

When dealing with ElazTech soft-plastics (Strike King 3x), don't struggle with screw-coil retainers, but opt instead for "Z-shank retainers", for example 'Owner type-Z Heads' and 'Charlie Brewer Slider Heads' Roger

I know, and therein lies the humor

The wave-length of your sonar is too short to be perceived by bass. My sonar is switched 'On' when the boat is launched and is not switched 'Off' until the boat is retrieved. On the other hand, your electric motor emits a perceptible wave-length. Some hold that bass are alarmed by an electric motor, but it wouldn't surprise me if bass were attracted by the sound Roger

WOW, that is amazing Kelley! Aside from Billy’s book (Them Ole Brown Fish) I read every article he wrote for Fishing Facts. Today, the closest thing I've found to the “Hoss Fly” is the Punisher jig, but it's made of craft hair rather than bear hair. On a humorous note, during the 1970s I was at the tackle shop in Celina, looking to purchase some Pedigo Spinrites. They told me that they never heard of that lure, which left me totally confused. Then, while I was browsing through their tackle selection, I discovered the Pedigo Spinrite in their display case, As it turned out, the problem was my "northern" accent. Roger

Sounds to me like you've found yourself a little Eden. What you've described is a very healthy pond, but I don't know whether it's natural or the result of impoundment. You received good responses regarding lures and delivery, so there's no need to rehash any of that. Location is at least as important as presentation, and a great place to put your emphasis. With the exception of the bedding season, I'd be real interested in the 10 to 15 depth zone. Spend a whole day with your depth sounder, and pinpoint all areas with the best woody &/or weedy cover in 10 to 15 ft of water. Then save onsite waypoints at every spot where woody &/or weedy cover in the 10 to 15-ft depth range, adjoins a sharp drop-off into 25 ft of water, the steepest slope in the area. Roger