Way north bass guy

Haha, I’ve got an opening in my schedule about the first of May 2024 ?.

It was too wet here today to go to my job I’m working on right now, so I got a start on our new greenhouse. At 7:30 am it was nothing but grass, by 7:00 tonight I had the concrete poured. 8’ wide by 15’ long, 82 bags of concrete mix in total. After labour day I’m gonna start framing it up and we should have fresh salads by November, that’ll last all through the winter until we start next years outdoor plants like tomatoes, squash etc.

I tried the hooks with the swivel built into them, and I found I had more twist with them, especially after landing a smallmouth. Took forever to untangle the line from around the hook, and I felt it weakened it with all the kinks it had after that. I only use Tatsu in 6lb as my mainline, tie a palomar and put the weight in the tag end and I have much better performance with that. I’m not a big fan of braid for drop shots, and since I switched to Tatsu, I’ve never had any issues. It’s definitely worth the extra cost to me.

About the only thing I would change is to just go out more often, especially in the last few years as work, changing homes, and growing family has been at the forefront of things more often. There’s still been plenty of times where I sat around and waffled about going out, even for an hour or two, and then decided it wasn’t worth it. I gotta stop doing that, and just go. Who knows how many good fish I could’ve caught in those many, many couple hours sessions.

Fixed an old stone chimney in a 100 yr old cottage on an island on Georgian Bay today. Didn’t get a chance to wet a line, but the lunchroom had a pretty decent view.

I’d say I’m pretty good at figuring out a new technique. Over the years I’ve grabbed a couple of colours/sizes of the latest lure or tactic, and basically just used that and that alone ( under the conditions where it should work best), until I figure it out, and usually get pretty decent at it. Sometimes it stays in the rotation, or becomes a new favourite, other times it might only get drug out of the box once a year, or even less. It was a while before I finally got a drop shot tied onto a rod, but once I figured it out, it’s been one of my best producers for a few years, at least for smallmouths.

You probably already answered this, but I’m too lazy to go back and look ?. What do you do with them once caught? Take em far away and release em, or do you just go around the block and release them so you’ll have never ending work ?

We had a crockpot, and pretty much wore it out?. My wife bought an Instant pot a couple years ago as a replacement and it’s absolutely fantastic. You can set it to sauté, brown up your meats or whatever you want, scrape the bottom of the pot so it doesn’t stick, then just turn it to slow cook and away you go! Everything is done in one pot and turns out fantastic. The best part about them though is that you can set it as a pressure cooker if your short in time, so anything you want is cooked in no time. We often do pork roasts, chicken breasts , or beef, and they’re done in minutes instead of hours. You can cook a package of frozen chicken breasts in 20 min without any thawing, and they’re pull apart with a fork done. We’ll throw some frozen breasts in with some salsa, and by the time you get all your other ingredients ready to go, you’ve got fajita meat done and ready to eat.

Boiled or microwaved ( boiled preferred though), with some butter and a bunch of ground pepper.

Some years it’s not many outboard hours, like this year I’ve been pretty busy with my work schedule, doing things around the house, and mostly been on short trips to smaller inland lakes. Other years, especially when I’m doing a lot of fishing on Georgian Bay, it’s easily 100 hours a year. Pretty easy to put 40-50 miles total a day running around “the bay”.

Big ole thunderhead approaching. Pic doesn’t do it justice.

The view to the east this morning on “the bay”, and at the same time to the west.

Took a solo trip out to some of the farthest out shoals on Georgian Bay this morning. This is right on the edge of the main open bay, salmon country. Took a little bit to find the right shoal, but once I did it was absolute pandemonium for over an hour. Fish on every single cast, and they were all between about 3-5lbs with the largest landed right at 5. Most came on a drop shot Maxscent Flatnose minnow, with a few on a Maxscent tube and several on a Rapala Scatter Rap crankbait as well.

NI!

Maybe it’s just the type/make of bbq, but mine heats right up, even when it’s -20 outside. I have a 4 burner Kitchenaid, and it only takes a couple minutes max for it to be up to grilling temps.

Gave the truck and boat a bath today, and all hooked up and ready to go tomorrow morning for some big Georgian Bay smallies. Not that the fish will care about them being clean, but it’s been a while since I’ve given either a good scrubbing ?.

Took the canoe out on the river that runs through our property this afternoon for a couple hours. Caught 25 of these guys, from about 10” long to about 3lbs, lost a few more and probably spooked another 20 or so with the canoe. All came on a frog, or a Texas rigged Maxscent tube swam just off bottom. It’s amazing just how many fish are stacked in this 400 yd stretch of river, between a concrete lake dam and big beaver dam.

Definitely a couple times a week here, and year round. I have no issues at all going out in the deck in the winter to grill, and often have to shovel a path through 2’ of snow to get there. No big deal, especially for some good steaks or burgers.

2019 Ram 1500 4x4. It replaced the green 2012 on the left. Both are/were great trucks , this one is so much nicer as far as ride and interior features go. Hauls the boat around, and a pile of tools and often a few tons of stone for work( with a trailer of course).

Depending on how thick the weed cover is around the docks, I’ve caught some of my largest bass around them on one of several things. A big topwater frog, big double willow spinnerbait, jerkbait, or a good sized squarebill have taken some dandies for me. Obviously your not likely to skip the jerkbait or crankbait under the dock real well, but rip those guys along either side and you’ll see some big girls roll out and smash em, at least sometimes.

Pretty much a tie between the Maxscent flatworm, and Maxscent Flatnose minnow. Several different colours seem to work for me, and I’ve also had some success with a Maxscent general rigged wacky on a drop shot, but I haven’t used that as much as the other ones.

First light is often quite peaceful and beautiful on the water, but for most of the places I fish, especially for bass, I seem to do much better when the sun gets up higher to position the fish. I also seem to do way better in the evenings as the sun is going down. As I get older, I’m also finding myself getting a bit lazier when it comes to getting up real early, so I guess it helps that I can stay in bed a bit longer, then wear the bass out later in the day. About the only time I get up real early for the outdoors much anymore is when I’m going out trolling for salmon, or to chase a buck in the fall.

Probably not the craziest one I’ve had, but still kind of cool and just happened a couple weeks ago so I actually remember it ?. I had a largemouth about 2lbs hammer a buzzbait, got him to about 10’ away from the boat and he shook off. The water in this lake is gin clear, so I watched the whole thing. He immediately turned right around and hammered it again like he’d never been hooked before. I’ve never seen one do that before, especially after being hooked, and fought for about 50’.

Now that our fields are cut, the big old doe we’ve seen all year has shown us what she’s dealing with this summer. Couldn’t see them all when the grass was so long. At one point today, all three of them were trying to drink at the same time. They darn near nocked her right over. After a minute or so she gave them all a kick in the head, and they went back to eating grass. They’re fun to watch, they run all over the field like a bunch of goofy kids at recess!

I’m just here for all the “ how to fish a jackhammer” threads ?.