Way north bass guy

Went out to one of our favourite little local lakes this morning. Water was like glass all morning. No real monsters today, but we stopped counting at 30 bass and managed a few half decent fish. Most came on a Strike King squarebill, with a few more on a drop shot.

That’s a birthday to remember for sure. Nice fish! Happy bday to you too A-Jay.

Sorry to hear about your son. I do hope you still plan to come on here and spread your generous wealth of bass knowledge. I know it likely doesn’t help at all with your situation, but please know that you’ve helped many folk on here over the years with your wisdom, and it’s always nice to hear your side of things.

After looking at these numbers you guys are putting out for meds and hospital visits, I respectably have to disagree with this statement ??!

About 20 years ago my cousin ( about 10 or 12 at the time), was fishing off their cottage dock catching sunfish. She bent down to wash the fish slime off her hands and a pike about 30” darted out from under the dock and grabbed her hand. It let go pretty fast, but she still needed about 30 stitches to close up all the cuts in her hand.

Largemouth or smallmouth? What are the lakes like, lots of weeds/shallow or deep/rocky. This makes a big difference in what to throw and how to throw it. I will say that around here, pretty much all our lakes are super clear, and yesterday I was seeing fish hit in 25’ of water, and we got a ton of em, so it is definitely doable.

That’s the only bait I’ve used on a drop shot for a couple years now, and yes, crack is the perfect word to describe it for smallmouth. I also lucked out last week and found an entire rack of Natural Shad in our local Walmart. Guess who cleared out that whole rack ?

Nothing like a run on the tube on a hot afternoon. This was about 3 miles out in the big water of Georgian Bay, great spot for a run with hardly another boat anywhere.

Last night I was out with the family for a salmon fish on the big water, and it was way windier/rougher then I thought it was going to be. Didn’t get any salmon, but in the couple hours I was out there I saw a bunch of nice spots on the Navionics to try for bass. This morning I was back out there with my son, and we went straight back out to the big water. Complete change of wind, and it had laid down nicely. We started hopping from one shoal to another, as well as a bunch of underwater points and just “generally bassy looking structure”. We more than made up for last nights skunk, I don’t even know how many bass we caught but it was a lot. Multiple fish between 3 and 4lbs, and a few larger one’s that spit it while about 3’ out of the water. With last nights wind, there were some real fast currents ripping along some of the areas we fished, sometimes it was almost hard to hold the boat in place there was that much current, but it stacked the fish right along the edges of the structure. Every fish came on a drop shot Maxscent Flatworm, and they hammered it almost every time it got to bottom. Most of our fish came in 18-30’ of water, but it’s so clear out there you could see a lot of them hit your bait. Sure was a fun morning with no other fishing boats in sight.

Powerbait Maxscent Creature Hawg

I had a small job to do on an island fairly far out in Georgian Bay this morning, knew it wasn’t going to take all day to finish so I figured I better try for a few on the way home. Only had time to hit one shoal, in the 20 min I was there I got this fat guy, just a hair shy of 5lbs on the Rapala digital scale. About 5min before I caught him, I lost another one at the boat that was a good pound or so bigger, they were so fat they couldn’t even jump, just pulled and pulled and big old head shakes at the surface. Like all the pros have been using recently, these guys came on a drop shot Maxscent Flatworm in Natural Shad colour ( I’ve been using this bait for a couple years now and it is by far the best drop shot bait I’ve ever used).

After you guys pick up A-Jay, you might as well head on up to Georgian Bay and grab me as well, it’s a bit further run so I’ll throw in $50.

Took a solo trip out to the big water of Georgian Bay. I was going to try some shoals way out in the open part, but when I got there, there were already 6’ rollers at 6:00 am. Decided to stay around the first set of islands along the open part, there was still some pretty good sized waves but it was fishable. Managed about 30 smallmouth, about a 50-50 mix of big smallies either smashing a big double willow spinnerbait burned as fast as I could, or a drop shot Maxscent Flatworm for the rest after I got all the active fish.

Testing out his new birthday present this afternoon. Needless to say it was a hit, pretty much had a smile from ear to ear the entire time we were out.

Took the 12’ tinny out this evening for a couple hours across the road from my house. Got about 2 dozen on a frog and a few flipping a Maxscent Creature Hawg.

Hit the big number 11 today! Got a new tube to try out tomorrow behind the boat ( after we fish for a few hours first, of course).

I do feel for everyone that’s had to pinch the pennies more due to this stuff. Personally, I’m pretty darn lucky in that my business is busier than ever. Being self employed as a stonemason in one of the richest cottage areas of North America, there is absolutely no shortage of extremely wealthy people here in the summer, and a lot of them came to their cottages earlier this year, and they’re sitting around looking at their place thinking “ maybe we should finally add that extra fireplace or put some more stone facing on that wall over there”, etc. Some days it feels like I should toss my phone in the lake so I can actually get some work done, but I’m not gonna get to upset about having “too much work”, especially nowadays.

I think a lot of it depends on the type of work your doing with the saws. As a stonemason and WETT certified installer ( wood stoves, stainless steel chimneys etc.), I spend quite a bit of time up on a roof. The corded tools often have more power, but when your up on a roof cutting lumber, or cutting a hole in the roof to run a chimney through, the last thing you need is more stuff to get tangled up in (cords). If you’ve not tried some of the newer cordless tools, there are some that have an amazing amount of power and battery life. Honestly, nowadays unless I have a whole bunch of plywood to cut up, I almost never use my corded Skilsaw any more. And a good cordless sawsall is fantastic for ripping a hole in a roof, especially if your already scrunched up on a tiny attic while doing it.

Pretty much all my jerkbaits and crankbaits have Mustad KVD Elite series short shank triple grips now. They are super sharp, will catch on swiping fish quite well, and are pretty tough too. I also catch a ton of good sized pike, many on jerkbaits and these hooks hold up very well, sometimes you still have to replace the odd one but not near as often as with stock or lighter hooks. Also, for me they don’t seem to affect the weight or amount of suspending either, as like you, I’m usually ripping them pretty quick so they don’t sit there too long anyway.

I tried the vmc spinshot hooks and found that they seemed to get tangled in the dropper line way too much for my liking when battling big smallmouths. I’ve been using Gamakatsu split shot/drop shot hooks (size 2 I believe), for a while now and my hookup and land ratio has been amazing, no matter what size bass hits. Pretty much the only bait I use any more is the Maxscent Flatworm, been using them for a couple years now and I managed to grab a bunch of packs before all the latest “madness” hit and they disappeared off all shelves and online. For big northern smallmouth, they are like crack!

Well it’s good to hear your keeping busy and haven’t completely disappeared. Sometimes you see someone on here that is pretty active in the forums for quite a while, then they just seem to completely disappear. Always makes me wonder what happened and that something bad didn’t happen to them.

Nice looking trip, and good to hear from you Toxic! Haven't seen a lot of your posts on here lately and was wondering what you were up to. I figured with you retiring lately that you were just constantly fishing and didn't have time to yak with us on here ?.

Usually this has fruit in it, but this guy decided it makes a “comfortable” bed. Not much better than a hot cup of coffee and some frogging in the morning!

Spent the morning on a smaller lake by myself today. As much as I enjoy going with my 10 year old, it’s nice to have a peaceful morning to yourself every now and again ?. Caught a bunch of smallmouth on a Rapala Skitter V and a Berkley Maxscent General, a few decent largemouth and a couple pike on a frog and a Berkley Maxscent Creature Hawg.