Way north bass guy

Here’s mine on my Smokercraft. I did the same as @slonezp, but I didn’t need to use the spacer on mine, I think I basically just flipped it around. Works perfectly for me. Sorry for the sideways pics, guess I had my phone the wrong way for those ones.

It’s just a wee bunny. But oh no, you knew! ?

This does not include the wind chills this morning. And for everyone “down south”, here’s what that means?

Got the vehicles block heaters plugged in tonight. First thing tomorrow morning here it’s supposed to be -30 with a wind chill of -39. Pretty sure it’s gonna be a quick trip outside to pee for the hounds in the morning.

Took this pic on Sunday while shovelling snow off the house roof. It’s overlooking our barn and the river behind it that runs through our property. When I took this pic at 10 am, it had “warmed up” to about -20F. Sure was a pretty view, but I’ll be very happy to see it again when it’s all green and much warmer out.

I can’t believe that someone that’s based in Texas has any problem with finding fish right now. I can’t even launch a boat for another 2 months minimum, but that still doesn’t stop us from catching fish. Plenty of ice fishing to be had up here, surely you can catch something “way down there” right now?

My experiences over all the years I’ve been fishing, for many different species, tells me that scent definitely makes a difference. I don’t think it matters much with faster moving baits like a spinnerbait or a jerkbait, but with plastics, I’m certain it helps, even if it’s just to make the fish hold on that extra little bit so I can hook it. At this stage of the game, I’m pretty much 100% switched over to all Berkley products as far as slow moving soft plastics. I’ve also experimented with spray on scents, and can tell you that if I’m downrigging for lake trout or salmon, I can run two exact spoons at the exact speed and depth, and the one sprayed with Berkley gulp minnow scent gets hit easily twice as much as the other one. Also, whenever I catch a pike on a hard bait while bass fishing, the first thing I’ll do ( after checking my line of course), is give it a couple sprays. It might not do anything, but if it covers up a bit of the pikes scent so the bass doesn’t react negatively, I’m all for it.

Woke up this morning to -35C outside. Sure glad the wind wasn’t blowing or it would’ve felt a lot worse on the face. The old truck sure did growl and complain when I fired it up for work!

Just buy a handful of these guys and remove the middle hook ?‍♂️?.

That’s a fantastic colour up here on the lakes where smallmouth are feeding on smelt and herring. Also a great colour for spring pike.

The original Berkley Power Craw, in pumpkinseed with chartreuse claws, of course at the original price ?. There’s many newer versions I use that work as well or maybe even better, but man did I ever catch a ton of fish on those guys either Texas rigged or on a ballhead jig in more open water.

Here in Ontario, there’s tons of pike tournaments, and even a few full season circuits ( mainly in the spring though when the water temps are cooler). Most of them are by total length of five fish instead of weight, as it’s easier to measure them that way. Our bass season doesn’t start till June in most places here, so a lot of guys fish pike tournaments until then. I used to fish several back when I fished tournaments, did quite well and won some pretty decent money too. As for different species, I’ll fish for just about anything throughout the year, but if I had to choose one, it’d probably be pike. There’s lots of them around here, they’re aggressive and put up a good fight on the right tackle, and most of the ways we target them are very similar to bass fishing. Oh yeah, we get some good sized ones around here too, not just the little “hammer handles” that many places only get.

Up here, right after ice out in the spring, we often troll jerkbaits with an in line planer board for lake trout. Depending on the lake we’re on, there’s often a large number of super fat, prespawn smallmouth that are mixed in the same areas as the trout. Dragging a KVD 300 jerkbait along at 1-2mph, we often have to move from an area if we’re catching too many bass instead of trout ( bass season is closed then so we’re not supposed to target them at that time).

Heck, that’s just a heavy frost around here! Just crank on the defrost for a minute and off to work you go.

Nah, all that work of beating him to death would probably just give you a heart attack ?. Most of the time around here, it’s cold enough that it’s fairly fluffy and it throws a long ways. Sometimes we get that heavy wet stuff though. A trick I learned a while ago was to spray the inside of the chute with Pam cooking spray at the start of the season. It makes the chute a bit slicker, and helps throw the snow further. Also, the cooking spray doesn’t hurt the environment being mixed with the snow, like any automotive oils would.

Gonna be a little while before I’m catching any bass in my river again.

Having pretty much the same weather all weekend as @A-Jay, it was mostly an inside weekend. It did warm up to a tolerable level this afternoon though, so the kid and I got the sleds out on the lake. As a newly licensed driver ( at 12 here you can get your snowmobile licence), this was his first solo run on a lake, and the conditions were perfect for practising turns, leaning and some more speedier runs than in the fields. Only about 4 more months till we can be out on this same lake in the boat ( 4 very, very long months ?).

Nothing that I’d say exactly “new” planned for the year just yet, but I did just order a few new deep diving jerkbaits. I use shallow ones all the time, and do quite well with them, but haven’t really given the deeper ones a fair shake. Same with blades jigs. I’ve used a few a bit in the past, but finally broke down and ordered a selection of jackhammers to give a try this season. Also have a new fly rod on order. Haven’t used my fly gear in about ten years, and my old rod was a cheap beginner model. I’m especially excited to give this one a try, as I now live about 30 seconds from some fantastic bass fishing, where I used to catch tons on topwater flys when I was younger. Also, now that we’re moved in and settled in our new place, I’m just gonna try to get out in the boat more than last year.

Guess who cleared out the local Walmart completely of all Flatworms? This guy ?. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been in there the last couple years, but I had to pop in for something that only they have and figured I’d take a quick stroll down the measly fishing isle that they have there. Guess it was worth the trip, now I’m stocked back up for next season with what I already had hoarded at home.

It’s not truly a “new” tactic for me, but I did just buy a new fly rod and some new line with some gift cards I got for Christmas. I used to fly fish a lot when I was younger, mainly for bass but also a bit for pike, and a bit of stream trout as well. Haven’t really touched a fly rod in over 10 years, and the one I had was a cheap beginner outfit. I’m kind of excited to get out again this year with a much better outfit, especially now that I own property on a nice river full of largemouth and smallmouth.

I’ve been on holidays the last week and a half. Been working on this the last three days. Shelves are all 3/4” good both sides plywood that I ripped to 12” wide, and what felt like a half mile of pine that I ripped for the trim. All that’s left to do is paint all the trim, install the six doors along the bottom half under the tv and put some crown moulding along the tops and it’s ready for all the wife’s books that have been in boxes since we moved 6 months ago.

Same here. I’ve owned my boat since brand new 5 years ago and it’s only drank non ethanol, and will as long as I own it, same with my snowmobiles and all other small engines I own.

I didn’t know you could get a t-bone roast.

Man, just think of all the old outboard fuel lines that would wreck in a year ?