Way north bass guy

It’s been a good year for me, although the number of times on the water have been far fewer than normal. Between a crazy busy work schedule, and moving to a new house in June, that ate into a lot of quality fishing time. I’ve still had some good days out through, and the way the warm weather has been continuing, there should be a bunch more yet before the boat goes to bed for the winter ??

Hit the local lake for a couple hours with the wife. No big ones but still lots on a spook, and caught a bunch on a scatter rap shallow that we’re feeding on crayfish. I’m surprised at how warm the water still was, 61 deg. Usually by now it’s cooled off more than this and they’re hunting in little wolf packs, but today it was all singles.

I’ve caught a few on a spook while picking out a bit of a backlash. Won the big fish prize in a tournament once on a jig. I had a few loose wraps on the reel so I turned around and cast it as far as I could I to open water just to get all the loose stuff out and he smoked it as I was feeling up the slack. Only fish we got that day too.

It would definitely depend on the boat. I’d have no problem doing it if the boat trolled properly, but I know my old triton you’d never be able to downrig with. At idle speed it was way too fast, and tracked all over the place just trying to go straight. It only liked trolling motor speed, or real fast ?. My Lund Pro-V and my Smokercraft on the other hand, perfect trolling rigs.

I’m 1/4 redneck from my mother’s side. Or was it my fathers side? Well, maybe a bit of both…

The view from my “office” this morning. And the second pic is two hours later. Hard to believe how quick the air changes when the sun pops up a bit.

I know. Still a long way from them. I’d have to drive for a couple days at least to find any spotted bass.

Yeah, we’re a LONG ways from any Kentucky bass up here.

Yup. Around my neck of the woods we get some lakes where they are similar in colour, sometimes also a real nice copper colour too. Seems to be mainly in darker, tea stained coloured lakes ( the water gets stained that way around here from all the white pine growing around the shoreline). Also caught this guy a couple years ago, he was an anomaly though as all the rest from that particular lake are regular coloured.

Well at least you have lots of protein handy to help build those muscles up for some more cushion on your bones ?.

14. There are 14 guys out there that could dominate in the pros. There, this thread can now be counted as solved ??

I had a small job to do today on an island, and was done a bit early so I figured I might as well make a few casts on the way back to the ramp. Hit a few spots with a drop shot and got some smallmouth, then I was playing around with a crankbait and got this nice little tiger musky. This particular lake has quite a few tigers in it, all natural fish too ( lots of pike and musky in there to make hybrids). I’ve caught around 20 or so over the years, up to 42” long in there, but it’s been a few years since I’ve got one, mostly cause I haven’t targeted muskie in a while.

Wow, that’s a real shame. A real funny guy, one of many to come from our neck of the woods.

I can count on about two fingers the number of times in recent memory that we’ve had an honest to goodness tornado warning for our immediate area. All the emergency broadcasts were going off on our phones and tv here at about 6:00 tonight, but luckily by the time the worst part of the storm hit across Georgian Bay to us, it dwindled down to just a big thunderstorm. Makes you really feel for the folks in the heartland down south where these are a common occurrence.

And where are the “ giant brown bass at sunrise” photos? Sure was a nice day here as well, wish I could’ve been drop shotting instead of working but that boat won’t pay for itself.

Got out for a few hours this morning in a slight drizzle but nice and calm. Started out with a couple dozen smallmouth on a spook, nothing over 3lbs though but still fun. After a while that bite shut down so I switched up and went for largemouth. Between a frog, and a Tokyo rig Maxscent creature hawg, I got another 20 or so largemouth. Again no monsters, but still got a good batch of bass thumb ??.

It was a day the whole world will never forget. Up here in central Ontario, it was a beautiful sunny day and I was building some stone steps on the side of a lake at a cottage by myself. No cell phones back then, and I didn't have a radio on so I had no idea what was going on. About 2:00 or so, I thought to myself, it’s amazing to have such a clear blue sky and not see a single plane in the air anywhere. Usually there’s quite a few jet streams from all the planes coming and going from Toronto. Wasn’t until about 5:30 when I got home that I realized exactly why the sky was all clear, and how the world was about to change forever.

Done it a few times, even once with a smallmouth and a largemouth. Last week I had two smallmouth on a Zara Spook, of course the big guy came off at the boat ( about 4lbs), and the 2lber stayed hooked.

Guess that’s a “pup tent” ?

Pouring rain here right now, but the sunset still wants to try and give us a show. Darn near looks like our barn is on fire ?. Been in this house since June and never get tired of the sunsets here.

I know how @12poundbass is right now. We sold our house end of March and moved into the new one June 1st. Pulled the boat out of storage in March with grand plans and then a spur of the moment decision to list the house pretty much sent the boat back into storage until the end of May. Was worth it though, as I had way too much other stuff to worry about tat the time, and we ended up with a wonderful property and much larger place. Since June I’ve been out quite a bit more, but still not as much as I’d like cause of that awful four letter word (w**k) ?

Went for a solo trip this morning for some largemouth. Started out slow with mostly light blowups and slashes at the frog, but after an hour the wind picked up a bit and the bite turned on. Got a dozen decent ones with a couple 4lbers and one right at 5. Even got two 3s on back to back casts at the same 10’ diameter patch of pads.

Got a good little winter project for my son and I. This guy was pretty much grown into the river bank at our new place. Been there for a lot of years. The old owner said it floated down the river years ago and he just flipped it over on shore and it’s been there since. gave it a good pressure wash, and in the winter I’ll drag it into the barn and we’ll put some new seats on it and give it a new coat of paint. I already have a better small tin boat so we’ll either sell it or maybe find a youngster that needs a boat to give it to.

Spent a few days at my parents place in Elliot Lake, On. chasing smallmouth. The bass in this area are for the most part completely untouched, as most people around the area fish for trout or walleye. Didn’t get as many as usual with the major cold front that showed up on the first day. But we still got quite a few and some decent ones as well.

Went for a paddle and a swim in the river behind the house today. Did some snorkelling, saw a bunch of bass and panfish tucked in the weeds. It looks mucky in the pic, but the water is actually gin clear, and has a pretty decent current, even in the heat of summer. That’s our house in the background.