Way north bass guy

We’re supposed to get squalls, high winds and up to 12” of snow here by the end of tomorrow, but by the end of the week it’s supposed to be back above freezing and rain so that should melt it back down. It’s weird to see so much bare ground around here for this time of year, but I sure am not complaining.

I towed a bass boat with a 2wd F-150 for quite a few years, with no issues at all. As long as your not trying to launch in a real soft sandy beach/ramp or real steep gravel/sand, it shouldn’t be a problem. Like anything else, just use your judgement for every single situation and maybe lean on the safe side if you think it’s gonna be too crappy of a ramp for your rig.

Unless your leaving a bunch of extra hanging back to make it look like a punch skirt, it seems like a bobber stop would be way faster and easier to use. That’s all I use now for holding sinkers in place, and one little stop can be used for a LONG time, as you just slide it up the line out of the way if you need to cut and retie, then slide it and the sinker back in place. I got like 800 stops on amazon for like $4.00, so I have about 200 lifetime supplies of them ?.

Lookin good ??. With workmanship like this, you could go into the “Jon boat flipping business” and make a killing ?.

This year for me was a decent year, for the amount of time I was on the water. No real big ones, but lots of fish in the 4-5lb range. Like A-Jay, I also had some days where the wind was just brutal, and sometimes it seemed to go on for days, but I still managed to get out in it and find some fish. Best day for me was the last trip out in the boat, end of Oct. I was only out for a couple hours, but once I found them, I didn’t move the boat more than 30’ for the rest of the trip, and caught a fish on literally every single drop to bottom. I left them biting, and sure wish I could’ve got back out there one more time, but I guess there’s always “just one more time” wished for everyone, that’s what makes it so special.

2019 was not a year of monsters for me. I did get several smallmouth just over 5lbs and a couple largemouth just under 5, but my 10 year old did well this year. He got new PB’s for smallmouth at least twice, one was right around 4lbs and the other just a hair under 5lbs. First fish was on a wacky rigged Berkley Powerbait Maxscent General, second one on a Maxscent flatworm on a drop shot.

I have a big night planned. Already got the dishwasher loaded up and running, wood stove and fireplace burning nicely, snows all shovelled, probably watch the rest of the Leafs game down in the den, maybe have a couple snacks and a glass of wine or a beer with the wife and likely in bed by 11:00. Yup, gonna be a big night ?.

Happy new year everyone. May the lakes thaw early ( for those of us in the great, cold north), and the bass be hungry and full of spunk for everyone.

Thanks, I’ll check them out. I’m in the same boat, don’t need a fancy fish looking head, just a plain lead head works fine for me too.

Thank you sir, that’s exactly what I was looking for ??

The last few years I’ve had pretty good success with rage swimmers in 3“and 4” sizes, and this year I’m trying a few other types of bodies. Just wondering what everyone uses for a head, I’m looking for mainly open water, non-weedless types as I’m mainly swimming them in open areas for smallies.

This might sound crazy, especially here in the land of many pike and muskies, but I don’t remember losing a single bait all season, and that includes snags. I did do much more offshore, open water fishing where there usually isn’t as many obstacles to hang up on, but still, it was a banner year for keeping baits on the end of the line. ?‍♂️

Maybe that’s supposed to be a picture of the bait? ?

Sweet! Even if you catch nothing until spring, that’s still way better than having to store it for months. I wish I could still take mine out, even just for a ride.

Looks like you’ll be able to get all those oak leaves cleaned up after all ?

For our province, and really for our entire country, probably the one best known guy that nearly everyone knows is Bob Izumi. He and his brother Wayne were a dominant team on any big tournament trail here in the 70s to 80s, I think mainly because they were so far ahead of anyone else as far as getting information on new tactics developed in the southern states. On top of tournaments, “ The Real Fishing Show with Bob Izumi ” has been one of the top outdoor shows in Canada for many years.

That’s a pretty sweet looking paint job! Can’t wait to see what the other side is gonna look like once it’s done. ??

Natural Shad was the colour, but I’ve done equally well with most of their colours. Doesn’t seem to matter what colour it is most times with the Maxscent, it’s like crack for smallies around here ?. Most of the fish were fairly tight to bottom but I could see some just off bottom, and every time I brought one up, it had several followers come with it.

I think a lot of the time, when there’s a bit of a chop on the surface it makes larger, noisier baits seem a bit more natural, and they don’t stand out too much in the environment. Seems like it makes the fish a bit less spooky, especially in real clear water. I’ve had way more days where a big spinnerbait was clobbered when there was a good wind blowing, than when it was real calm.

The view from my “office” today. It’s pretty, but I sure do wish it was a lot greener.

Berkley Powerbait Maxscent flatworm Berkley Powerbait Maxscent flatnose minnow Berkley Powerbait Maxscent The General In that order, and for me, at least with the big smallmouth, the flatworm was far and away the leader, although the other two did excellently as well.

Must be Italian.

I can’t comment on the supreme but I have a whole “fleet” of president xt’s in my boat. For the price, they are a great reel for my uses. Never had any issues at all with any of them in several years of use.

Today was our last “outdoor harvest” day before everything is covered with snow, perhaps for the winter. As you can see, the garden has a touch of frost on the top. Made for easy picking though, just lift a 2’ square section of “crust” and pop all the carrots out ?.

Hopefully that’s the first of many, many more days just like it.