Way north bass guy

Did you have to get the rear shocks beefed up on that rig??

Quite the belly on that one!

When I was a kid, my buddy went to toss a rockbass back in the lake and one of its spines from the dorsal fin ( big and nasty in a rockbass), broke off in his palm. It was caught up in a nerve bundle and he had to get a plastic surgeon to remove it.

The view fro my “office” today. This is overlooking Georgian Bay. Just a little skim of ice that was pretty much blown away by the afternoon. The way things have been going, we might not see it freeze over this year, which is just fine by me.

Everybody gets one ? ??????

Man, 4”” up here and you don’t even get the snow brush out for the truck, just hit the wipers once and off to work. Although so far this year we’ve only had about a total of 12”, that’s about a third of what we should have by now, not that I’m complaining ?

I used to lose some smallmouth on a drop shot, but I think I’ve adjusted things to my best assessment. I’m either using 8 or 6lb fluorocarbon. 95% of the time I was using a Maxscent flatworm ( pretty small, thin profile bait), and a Gamakatsu split shot/dropshot hook, size 2. Used to use some slightly stiffer rods and I’d lose fish, but I’ve settled on a Cabelas walleye prodigy rod, 7’6” in ML. With this setup, I caught close to 500 Georgian Bay smallmouth last summer, many up to over 5lbs, and I can probably count on one hand the number of fish of any real size that came off. No big hooksets, just tighten up and reel into them, the little hook is to sharp it pretty much sets itself. As long as you keep a bend in that rod, it usually stays dug in.

The other white meat!

A misguided back cast with a 1/2oz spinnerbait. I’ve never done that before, must’ve just been standing in just the wrong spot when I cast I guess. Just happened to smack it in the right spot, sounded like it was shot with a rifle. Two hours with the shop vac and I ran a “single console” boat for the last month of the year.

I’d be willing to bet that it’s a set up pic. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if that thing is sitting on a shoal that’s just below the water. I have a hard time believing that it would float that level and high up with all that weight in/on it. But ya never know, maybe he’s onto something.

I regularly store about 18 or so rods in the boat at all times with fluoro or mono on them of various lb tests. Lure goes on the hanger near the reel and the line is just tightened up enough to not get tangled with the others ( they’re all in rod socks as well), and they will get a slight kink right at the rod tip, but I’ve never once had an issue with it breaking at that point. I’d say as long as your not cranking it down super tight, it should be just fine. Hook a couple fat ones next time out and it’ll stretch out perfectly ?.

Got my brand new, shiny, and most importantly “in one piece” replacement windshield for the Smokercraft today, to the tune of $800 plus shipping. Still way better than the $3500 my dealer wanted for the entire three piece unit that they “only could get as a whole unit”. Ordered this one straight from Taylor Made. The ladies on the phone there were very helpful with getting the correct part ordered, and with getting it shipped up here to Ontario from Indiana. Now I just have to wait until April to be able to use it. It will be a much appreciated part of the boat though when I’m cruising at ice out when it’s barely above freezing. Just have to keep the flying spinnerbaits away from this one ?.

Most of my larger smallmouth last summer came on a drop shot, I didn’t count but I’m sure I got well over 200 fish in the 3-5lb range. Most of those were over 20’ deep on the Great Lakes, but I also used the exact same rig in 3’ or less for smallmouth and largemouth. It is an excellent rig to toss around docks in the summer, especially when thy fish are suspended up under floating docks. Give it a try in the shallows if you haven’t before. That’s also a great place to actually watch your bait to see if your working it too much ( which is almost always the case at first). With a drop shot, often less is more when it comes to bait movement.

I fished one of the largest team trails in Canada about 20 years ago when I was fresh out of high school. Bought a brand new Triton and my cousin and I were on the road every weekend all summer, either in a tournament or pre-fishing for one. We did alright, a few top fives and qualified for their classic every year, but after a few years I started getting burned out from all the travel ( and it’s not cheap either). We quit tournaments, and I started guiding on my more local lakes for a few years, but that got stale after a while too so I “retired” from guiding and now just do my own thing, mainly with myself or my son and occasionally a friend or two. One type of tournament that we fished a lot and did well in here were pike tournaments. They’re usually held in the spring, before bass season opens, and when the larger pike are still shallower due to the cool water. Most are just like a bass tournament, best five fish, only they were most times total length instead of weight, as it’s much easier to measure the pike than weigh them ( easier on the fish as well). We did very well in them, and even won a big one with over 100 boats one year. They often have some pretty big payouts for usually one day events, and a bunch of big gators smashing jerkbaits all day doesn’t hurt either.

I’m a big fan of these. I used the 3.8 and 4.3 quite a bit last year for bass all season and for big pike in the spring. Excellent action, Berkley Powerbait scent added in and I caught multiple pike on one bait and they held up much better than any other swimbait I’ve used in the past.

Nice looking pup. Our two knuckleheads just came in from about an hour of constant digging and wrestling in the snow here. Both are completely soaked, dead tired and couldn’t be happier.

I’d like to expand on some areas I worked on last summer on Georgian Bay for smallmouth. It was a fantastic year out there for them, with many, many days of 50-100 fish and multiple fish in the 3-5lb range. I really want to keep going out further into the open part of the bay, there’s so many shoals out there that have likely never seen a fisherman, and I want to keep looking till I find the mother lode of 5+lbers. Mainly though, like most on here, I’d just like to get out more often.

You’ll have to name them something else, cause fishing nuts would be the name of the people that would buy them ( likely everyone on this site?).

Best largemouth ( about 4lbs), came on a Spro frog in about 2’ of water in some pads. Didn’t get out a bunch for green bass this year so I didn’t find many larger ones. Best smallmouth ( a hair over 5lbs, and I got several that size in the same bait), came on a Maxscent Flatworm w/ 1/4oz drop shot in about 25’ of water. Had to throw in my best pike of the year as well, 43” and super fat, smashed a 1/2oz Strike King KVD burner spinnerbait in 6’ of water on the edge of a steep, large point that drops into the abyss of Georgian Bay.

Like most folks, I started with panfish and live bait. Got the odd smallmouth along with them. Once I got the freedom of a bicycle, I fished for anything I could. Lots of suckers and brook trout in the spring, pike, bass and whatever else bit all summer, and ice fished for lake trout and pike. In my teenage years I practically lived in my ice hut on weekends, and became a master of all things lake trout. Nowadays, it’s mostly bass, but probably 25% is for other species, mainly when bass season is closed in the spring.

Another good read A-Jay ?? I’d say that I bounce around a bit. Some days I want to just catch the heck out of em and don’t care what size they are ( usually when I’m with the kid ). Some days I only want to get the biggest fish I can find, even if it means a skunk. Some days I just want to get a fish on a certain type of bait. Often, it’s one of those deals where I just want to use a certain bait as much as I can, to see if I can figure out the finer details of how to use it properly for the situation, or it may be a bait that I haven’t used much and want to “buckle down” and get some time on the water with it to gain some more confidence, and it’s a real treat when I can put together something that really works the way I want it too. Some days I just get pigheaded and stick with a lure, even though I know there’s better options, but I just want to use what I want and that’s just the way it is. I did the whole tournament thing for about 5 years or so, then jumped into guiding for several years. I still follow the tournament scene a bit, but I’m done with actually doing them any more. Now that my son is interested in fishing, I spend way more time in stage 5, trying to teach him how to get the most out of the experience.

Got the sled out for the first run of the year today. There’s not near enough snow for the trails to be officially open yet, but enough for us to go for a quick run down the private trail behind our house. I’d still rather be in the boat, but it’s better than sitting in the house all winter.

Yeah, that’s gotta be the top one for the year. Hope to hear more just like it.

Spent the better part of today building some custom bookshelves in our living room. All that’s left to do is the crown moulding on top, build and install the doors on the front of the bottom cabinets and paint all the trim. Lots of room for more books now. As the husband of a librarian, I racked up quite a few brownie points today ?.

I don’t have pics on my phone and the boat is in storage at my shop, but I got a 12” long magnet bar off Amazon last year and mounted it just in front of and below my windshield. Works great to store all my different pliers, side cutters and jaw spreaders on. They’re always right in reach from the front deck, but out of the way at the same time and I’m not stepping on them all the time.