Way north bass guy

Cool! I’m sure she’ll have a fantastic life with you guys. Let the fun begin. Man those are some good sized listeners on her ?.

I’m not sure about any special bbq recipes for this weekend, but we do have 4 boxes of Roma’s that are gonna be made into the best pasta sauce on the planet this weekend. Slow roasted with a bunch of other goodies mixed in, then blended up and frozen in large ziploc bags. Last year we made 52 bags, as of today we have 6 bags left so I guess we got the amount right for a years supply ? it’s a ton of work, but man is it ever worth it when you get that first mouthful!

I think that’s just the way it is with everything nowadays thanks to social media. Seems like everything is instantaneous and spreads like wildfire, even if it isn’t true or useful in any way. If a lure gets any success in a tournament, seems like the whole world knows about it before the guy even gets his rods back in the locker at the end of the tournament ?

I agree there are “fad” lures out there, but I will say the Maxscent flatworm and flatnose minnow have been my only drop shot baits for the last two years. They are absolutely like crack for big smallmouth up here. I’ve caught so many big fish and numbers on them, it’s hard to try anything else, at least when a drop shot is the rig to use.

Tried a new lake today. It’s only about 40 min up the highway from my place, but when you have literally hundreds of lakes within a half hour of you, it takes a while to hit them all. Anyway, it was a pretty heavy cold front today, with stiff winds and bluebird sky’s all day, but we still managed a few decent ones. Crushed a frog in shallow pads. Definitely gonna have to try this lake again under better conditions.

I had a small job to look at out on Georgian Bay today, so the kid came with me and after I checked out the job we headed for the big water and proceeded to hammer the smallmouth once again. Well over 50 bass between the two of us, and several nice sized ones as well. Largest was about two gobies shy of 5lbs on the scale.

This is our forecast for tonight/tomorrow. It still looks like summer here, and this cold front won’t stick around long, but it’s definitely coming sooner rather than later here. And for those of you stateside, that’s about 42 Fahrenheit for tonight ??.

I never get tired of this view, heading out to the big water smallimouth grounds on Georgian Bay.

They’re not the most durable, but they catch the heck out of them. I can usually get several fish from one bait, and if after a couple fish I clip off a 1/4” of the head, it’ll keep going. With the drop shot, I find the smaller bass are the worst for throwing it when they jump right at the boat. I have my net right by me so I can usually scoop up the bait before it sinks too far, unless I’m into a big fish, then I’m more concerned about the bass than the bait.

Went back out and hammered them right where I left them last weekend. Got a bunch of nice ones and got 20lbs in 5 consecutive casts. All on a drop shot Maxscent Flatworm and Flatnose minnow. First fish of the day was a fat 3lber, and it had a 40” pike chasing it like a shark. I tried like heck to catch the pike after I released the bass, but to my surprise it wouldn’t hit.

I like a longer rod when I drop shot. My absolute favourite the last couple years has been a Cabela’s walleye prodigy. It’s a 7’6” m/l, not an expensive rod by any means but I love the action and sensitivity of it. I’ve caught lots of smallmouth up to 6lbs, with no problems at all, and a super high hookup ratio. It’s got enough flex to really handle big fish on light line, and it doesn’t put you in the poorhouse buying one.

That’s at the stage where as a stonemason, especially in the winter, it’d start to dry out and crack all to hell on me. Keep er slathered in lotion, and you’ll be all right ?

When I used to fish tournaments, my partner and I used to skip docks quite a bit. We didn’t use baitcasters though, but a fairly short (6’), heavier spinning rod with braid and often a tube jig. We’d go behind guys flipping big jigs and catch fish that didn’t want that jig ( probably seen a hundred of them off the same dock by the end of the summer).

Years ago there was an article in In-Fisherman about white jigs. Was very interesting, talked about how in certain areas the crayfish go almost White when they moult, if only for a day or so, and how the bass like them at that time cause they’re softer. I used to use white flipping jigs when I fished tournaments in southern Ontario, and did pretty well with them. Even on the average day, it was as good as my partner with a brown or black/blue jig. For some reason I haven’t used one in a while, maybe I should give them another run this weekend. Thanks for the reminder Ditchpanda ??

Green fish - Texas rigged Berkley Maxscent creature hawg Brown fish - White double willow 1/2-3/4oz spinnerbait ( one silver, one gold blade).

I live about 5 min from the ramps in Parry Sound, so that’s pretty much always where I go from if I’m on the bay. Most of my time out there is between the moon and just north of Killbear Park. You could spend every day for the rest of your life out there, and never fish the same spot twice.

That’s about the only knot I use to attach lures to the line, with fluoro. Works with my casting rods up to 20lb for pitching, and on my spinning rods down to 6lb. Today I caught well over 50 smallmouth on a drop shot with 8lb fluoro, and never once had any issues with the palomar knot ( I did retie some, but that was due to zebra mussels etc.). Just make sure you don’t twist things up when you’re tying it, and use lots of lubrication (spit), so it doesn’t burn the line.

Nothing better this time of year up here than a drop shot rod and a whole lot of open water, all to yourself.

Today was a solo mission. I launched the boat while the stars were still out, and made the 20 mile run out to the open water of the bay. On my third cast I caught a 3lber on a spook, thought it was going to be a good topwater bite due to the flat calm water, but alas, that was the only hit on top. Might have been the east wind that had something to do with it. I headed further out, hitting a few spots I got them on a few weeks ago, and continuing further out into the abyss to checkout some more shoals. Today turned out to be all drop shot, all the time. They were loaded up on pretty much all the shoals I hit, most were topping off at 15-25’ deep surrounded by deep ( over 100’) water. Berkley Maxscent Flatworm and Flatnose Minnow did all the work, and in a lot of places it was a fish on every drop down, pretty much let it hit bottom, close the bail, tighten up and set the hook, and repeat ?. I also managed to find several nice pike as well, in a couple places I could see them following the boat in the gin clear water, almost looked like small sharks circling. I lost count after 50 bass, lots of small ones but got quite a few around 4lbs mixed in as well. And the best part, I didn’t see another boat the entire time I was out there.

Lookin pretty good! Usually I get to about that stage and rip it back open to start all over again, so this is the time to be careful, might I suggest some PPE for it ?.

I’m sure it’s like almost every other big company right now, between shutdowns and skeleton crews in factories and warehouses, nothing is or was being made for a while. In the construction industry, materials are quite scarce in lots of areas. I just installed a wood stove last week that I ordered in early April, usually when I order one it shows up in a week or two max. Just the way things are right now.

Just got back from about three hours of near nonstop smallmouth action. We fished a couple islands on a small lake that have a couple big underwater points off them. It was pretty much a fish on every single cast with a drop shot and a weighted wacky worm, and once it calmed down we started getting them on poppers. No giants, but sure was fun.

That sure looks like a good froggin lake to me.

Those ones always suck. I get wounds like that on my hands at work sometimes, and it always takes forever to heal. Seems like it’s sealed back up, and you hit it on something again or catch it and open it back up, and it starts all over again.

My number one bait today at least was a squarebill. Strike King 1.5 in bluegill, stopped counting at 30 bass, a mix of both smallmouth and largemouth. Many came off submerged weeds but a lot of them also came off either laydowns or rocky points and shoals. Water was 74 deg, pretty much our summer high for this particular lake.