Way north bass guy

For a real tough bite, it’s pretty hard to beat a 2-3” tube in some sort of natural colour on a light jighead. Been a fan of original Berkley power tubes for a while now, but recently got a bunch of Maxscent tubes for just such an occasion.

Just got back today from 2-1/2 days in the bush at the hunt camp for our annual guys snowmobile trip. There were 7 of us, mostly with older, smaller sleds that are great for bushwhacking. The conditions were perfect for it, with some rain early in the week followed by a quick deep freeze to stiffen up the snow, then topped off with a fresh couple inches of powder. We could literally go anywhere we wanted in the bush without getting stuck. Put on lots of miles, had some campfire lunches, some barley pops back at the camp in the evening and just general catching up with guys that haven’t been together much lately. No injuries, no break downs in the bush and only a couple slow motion rollovers, that were easily tipped back up and we kept on going. Couldn’t ask for a better weekend for up here this time of year.

Around here there’s not a ton of real good places. Walmarts around here only have small fishing sections, but sometimes you get lucky and find a whole peg full of Maxscent Flatworms there ?. Probably the best overall at least as far as having a half decent selection and many locations would be Canadian Tire. The best one locally though by far here would be Trombley’s Tacklebox in Orillia, On. When I used to fish tournaments on Lake Simcoe, and the Kawarthas , it was pretty much a given that we’d be stopping there on a Friday night to “stock up” on whatever we needed. They really do cater to serious fisherman there, with a great mix of less expensive to high end gear and baits for all species.

Ha! Your in Tennessee, you don’t know anything about cold winters? I grew up in a farmhouse that was built in 1890. We had a fireplace in the living room, a wood stove in the basement, and a wood cook stove in the kitchen. Also had an oil furnace as well. Between the lack of decent insulation, and the three wood burning stoves, that went pretty much steady from November to April, we cut, split and piled usually about 25 cord a year. I almost feel spoiled now with only one wood stove in my house.

I just ordered a couple colours in the 90 size. They look like they have a pretty darn good swimming action, and I’m gonna give them a good try on a few of the smaller lakes around here where sunfish and perch are a big food base.

I’ve done that same thing, only it was with a canoe while duck hunting. The only saving grace was the round mouth shovel I had in the truck. It actually worked pretty well as a paddle.

You have to use a good root stimulator when you plant Doritos, otherwise they’ll never get a good set of roots on them ?

Welcome to a northerners life! The boat gets put to bed in November and doesn’t see the light of day till April most years. If stored properly ( good fuel with a bit of stabilizer, oils changed etc. ), it should fire right up and be just fine. I know mine does every spring, and it’s one of the best sounds in the world.

Still pretty windy here tonight, but the power is still on and the snow has finally stopped. Took a couple pics from upstairs looking across the field and river. Looks nice, but I’ll be awful glad to see it again when it’s all green.

Yeah, we sure can produce a bunch of that crap weather from time to time?. This morning I woke up to 50mph northwest winds, snow blowing sideways and we have drifts over 3’ in our driveway. Had to help push a neighbour up his driveway before I even had breakfast. Once the wind lays down a bit I’ll go out and begin “ the cleanup” ?

Your right, in that it can be pretty unexciting to watch someone stand at the front of the boat staring at a screen, and I agree that it is not the most fun way to fish either, but when you feel that little “tick”, at the end of the line, and a 5lb football rockets out of the water, it can make all that “downtime” worth it.

Can’t hurt to try. I’m a huge fan of the creature hawg for pitching, I’ll bet it’d do just fine on the back of a chatterbait ( think I’ll give it a try this year too).

It’s not just for little ponds either. I use it all the time to check out new locations on larger lakes, even lakes I’ve fished many times before. Most of our lakes up here are extremely clear, many you can see bottom in 30’ of water. Google earth works great to see any tiny, off the beaten path spots like shoals, weed beds and laydowns. I also use it to see where drop offs are, especially on lakes that don’t have a depth map. I can check out certain bays, and see if they’re a shallow, sandy bay that likely won’t hold much life, or a mucky, weed filled bay ( with bonus docks and boathouses), that may be a killer spot.

Had a squirrel get in my boat this summer. Chewed the bilge hose in half, a small bit of transducer cable and the wire wrap for the main wiring harness. Luckily it only did real damage to the bilge hose, which I was able to easily repair. After that I sat a “pail of death” in the boat at all times while I wasn’t using it ( five gallon pail with water and the rolling log on top with a bit of peanut butter), and the pellet gun got A LOT of use around the yard for a few weeks. Needless to say, they can’t chew your stuff up anymore when they’re fox food!

Been a fan of the kvd 1.5 for sure, but the last couple years for me it’s been this guy and his shallower swimming brother in this colour. I love that “random” hunting action it does, and so do the smallmouth and largemouth around here (and some good sized pike as well). Edit: it’s a Rapala Scatter Rap

I don’t throw a ton of different brands, but have tried most of the more popular ones over the years. The last couple years I’ve pretty much stuck to the Berkley Power Swimmer, in a couple sizes and colours. They have a good action for me, usually fish them on an Owner ball head jig ( mostly in open water areas). The main thing I’ve found about them though is that they’re pretty tough. Not only do I catch a ton of bass on one, but I also hammer the pike on them in the spring and fall. I’ve caught over a dozen pike on one bait before it finally tore off the tail, and these aren’t your Midwest state “snot rockets”, but true Canadian gators.

They were laying on the rug in front for a while. I decided to give them a brush, can you guess which pic is the hair I got from our Rotti/lab mix and which is from the huskie/shepard? ?

-31 this morning. This is about the only place that’s decent enough to sit by today.

I still have an older 7’ Berkley lightning rod that I use all the time for big spinnerbaits for aggressive smallmouth. It is the perfect flex to throw them a long ways, and get a good hookset as well. A bit heavier than the newer rods but it doesn’t really matter much when throwing a big spinnerbait.

Like everyone else in the North, we’re supposed to get some pretty cool weather this weekend into next week ( highs of around -15c, lows around -25c), and today is a warm, snowy mess of a day. It does look like things are starting to warm up a bit later next week, and the average is slowly creeping upwards. Today is a “paperwork day” for me, so while it’s terrible looking outside, I can still at least watch someone enjoy a nice day on the water?.

Sorry to hear that, sucks every time it happens.

I’ve had some decent days with a buzzbait, mainly for largemouths. Something I want to give a try is to burn them in a bit of a chop for smallmouth this summer. I often do very well with big spinnerbaits burned just under the surface, but I’ll be darned if I ever remember to give a buzzbait a try. Maybe this year I’ll remember to use it one day.

I grew up on a “hobby farm” of sorts. We had just about every kind of animal at one time or another, but every year we always had anywhere from 4-6 cows and 10-14 pigs. We used to get a couple cows butchered every year, along with all the pigs, and friends and family would all buy a pig off us and most of the beef. We’d of course keep a half beef and one pig for ourselves. I’m done with all that extra work of raising them all year, but I would like to at least see about buying a side of each off a local farmer, just to get some quality meat at a half decent price again. There’s still a few farms around here that do that.

The narration was funny, but man, there are a lot of people that should not be behind the wheel of a boat! Some of those “mishaps” were scary looking, it’s a wonder you don’t hear of more people dying on the water than what’s already reported every year.

Probably the door handle off the guys beer fridge you bought it from. Must’ve fallen off and landed in the tacklebox in his garage one day.