Way north bass guy

That makes more sense now! I’ve caught many a fish over the years as a kid with the help of one of my dads “extra” concrete blocks. 8” blocks always worked well, 10” blocks held better, but they were always much heavier to lift as a kid so we stuck with the 8s . A half of a 6” block was just about perfect for a canoe ?

Man, with all those ropes all over the front deck, I’d be tangled up and likely on the bottom of the lake! It would drive me absolutely bonkers to have to step all around that while casting ?. Whatever works though I guess.

Nope, those ones just end up smashed to bits or at the bottom of the lake. Several hard swings with the 5lb stone hammer promptly deals with those particular “trouble makers”, and wears me out enough to cool me back down to “regular human” mode so I can continue my day ?.

Well, I’d love to add to this thread, but I’ve ran my own company for well over ten years now, with no employees at all. I got nothing. ( although maybe I am a sucky coworker and just don’t know it ?).

The view from my office today. This is looking west over Georgian Bay, from the eastern shoreline north of Parry Sound. Not too bad to have to look at while working all day.

When I said backyard lake, I meant it’s the lake right behind my house, but certainly not private. It’s a public lake, that’s about 2000 acres and has probably 50 cottages on it. Most lakes around here are public, and have lots of places on them, but almost no fishing pressure, especially this time of year.

It’s not fat smallmouth, but still nothing wrong with that at all!

Popped the boat in my backyard lake this morning, and spent the first 20 min replacing the bunks on my trailer at the ramp. Once that was done, I got on about 25 or so fat smallmouth that were smashing a deep diving jerkbait. Caught a few on a swimbait and a few on a tube as well, and one chunky little pike around 34” long or so. Was a beautiful, warm, calm day on the lake with my boat the only one out there. This guy was only about 3-1/2lbs, but you can tell by the belly that they’re feeding well right now. Smallest bass I got all day was 2-1/2lbs.

I have lots of old bricks that I tear out of chimneys I’m rebuilding. Send me your addresses and I’ll ship as many out as you need for free ( you gotta pay shipping for them though)?

First taste of it this morning. Perfect Husky weather though ?

Great news! Here’s hoping things keep improving.

Well it sounds like you guys are all sort of at peace with what’s going on. My father in law passed away from MS a few years ago, he was only 60. It’s a real crappy thing watching a person you love go downhill so fast, knowing there’s nothing much you can do to help them, but at least you still have some time to be with him and do whatever you can to make some more good memories together. When someone passes suddenly, there’s that feeling of “ well they didn’t suffer any pain for a long, dragged out amount of time”, but there’s also that feeling of not getting the chance to properly say goodby. Just keep doing what your doing, and enjoy any time you can get together.

When the sky looks like this, with a mix of rain and ice pellets all day and a high in the single digits ( Celsius for us Canuck’s), it’s time to fire up the stove for the first time this year. Nothing like that first “burnt dust” smell of the first firing of the year. Now I just have to try not to fall asleep in the chair beside the stove, that darn wood heat will wipe a fella out ?.

Hope things work out the best they can for you guys. My dad just had his first chunk carved out of the top of his head last week, he’s 73. A lifetime of working outdoors will catch up to all of us that do it, that’s why I don’t screw around anymore with the sun. Fishing or work, I’m covered up head to toe nowadays.

For some weird reason, I can’t see any pics you’ve posted for the last few days. Everyone else’s pop up right away, but yours are just a beige coloured box ?

Been doing some pretty good damage with a green pumpkin jackhammer/zako.

Well, it’s not a state, but the great province of Ontario is where I’ve been my entire life, and am certain to be for the rest of it too. Between all the Great Lakes ( can anyone say jumbo smallmouth), the many large and small rivers, southern Ontario warm water largemouth fisheries ( Kawarthas ), and the thousands of small to large natural lakes all around, we have many lifetimes worth of excellent fishing for multiple species. Granted, we have that terrible “winter” for a few months, but the fact that I can drop my boat into one of hundreds of waterbodies within 1/2hour of my house all summer, I’m not gonna complain too much.

Those pics without the fish are beautiful enough to do up a report ?. It’s days like that, that make we want to call in sick more often this time of year ( did I mention I’m self employed) ?.

Went out to chase some pike this morning on a lake that is not known for numbers, but has some big fish. It’s a very large, super deep and clear lake that’s very rocky and more suited for lake trout, but has a descent population of big pike. Third cast of the day and this guy raced out from under a laydown and sucked in a Berkley Power Swimmer right by the boat. It’s so fun to watch those huge gills flare out in gin clear water when they grab it. It was a very healthy, fat 42”er. Had one more smaller one follow to the boat and that was it for pike, so I hit a couple offshore humps with a drop shot on the way back in and caught a bunch of fat little smallmouth.

Been that way for longer than I’ve been alive up here. Bass season closes end of November, and doesn’t open for most of southern Ontario until nearly the end of June. Can’t even attempt to fish for them during those times, and if you do catch one while say pike fishing, you have to immediately release it. Sometimes it’s a pain cause I’d like to try some prespawn fishing when they get up shallow to feed well before they actually spawn, but there’s plenty of other stuff to chase in the spring so it’s not the end of the world. There’s a lot of smaller lakes up here that would be absolutely obliterated if the season was open during the spawn. These northern fish take a LONG time to grow, and the meat hunters would quickly decimate the population in the spawn if allowed. I can live with a closed season, especially when it makes for such great fishing later in the year.

Just got back from a couple day trip to my parents place in the Elliot Lake region of Ontario. It’s about 1/2 hour north of the northern most shore of Georgian Bay, about 3-1/2 hours north of where I live. This area is blessed with hundreds of lakes, many are filled with massive smallmouth that probably don’t get more than one or two boats a year on them, and many people target walleye or trout up there and think of bass as almost trash fish. That works just fine for me ?. Usually I’m up there earlier in the summer when it’s warmer, and this was a short couple day trip. Water temps on the two lakes my dad and I fished were about 55 deg. Air temps on day one were about 45 deg and rain, day two saw temps barely above freezing, with a mix of sun and snow flurries. Not enough to be miserable, but still not super comfortable with the winds blowing hard out of the north all day. Usually in the summer we can pretty much guarantee 100 fish days between the two of us, this time the numbers were much lower than that, but the average size was much better. Day one was a short one, fished about 2-1/2 hours between rainstorms, and got about a dozen bass between 3 and 4-1/2lbs. All fish came on a mid depth crankbait, spinnerbait or jackhammer. Day two was much colder, super windy, but at least mostly dry. We got about 25 bass and a bunch of small pike. Almost every fish came on a green pumpkin jackhammer in 12’ or less. We did get a few on a drop shot, but mainly stayed with the moving baits due to the heavy winds. Got some nice fat ones on day two, with the largest settling right at 5.8lbs on the Rapala digital scale, and our best five would’ve been about 24lbs. I lost two more that were every bit as big as the 5.8, and these guys hit that jackhammer like a freight train! Although I wish I could’ve stayed longer, it was still a fun couple days and I plan to get back up there next spring for some pre spawn fishing, to see if we can break 6lbs ( in most of Ontario, bass season is closed in the spring, but this far north it’s open year round). Heres a few pics, first one is the largest of the trip.

I’m in northern Ontario at my parents fishing for a couple days right now. Fall colours are at their peak right now. Looks like the shorelines are on fire in some areas.

You’re probably just all confused because you guys aren’t used to that little cm sign beside the number ? ??

Yet another wonderful sunset over the back field. Almost every night, we get such wonderful views here, and not another house to be seen. I am a very lucky guy.

There isn’t much wild game I don’t like, but I’d also say ruffed grouse are my favourite as well. Caribou is excellent, but I’ve had my share of venison and it’s also excellent, and readily available here too. I might even take the scattergun out for a wander in the bush tomorrow to see if I can find a ruffy or three!