Way north bass guy

I caught one about 3lbs that smashed a spinnerbait, and when I was unhooking it I noticed something odd in its throat. Turns out it was a full sized red squirrel. Guess he must’ve grabbed it when it was swimming across the channel. That was one hungry fish to eat that and hammer my spinnerbait.

I do some stuff outside under tarps, but that’s usually stone walls on houses etc. It’s the chimney repairs and flagstone patio work that’s hard to do mostly. Tough to tarp something on a roof when it’s windy all the time, and to tarp and heat an area large enough to work on an outside patio just ends up being a money losing situation, better to wait till spring when it’s warm ( and buggy ?).

As someone that’s self employed in construction, I see this all the time. I’m a stonemason and also certified wood stove and steel chimney installer, which is a bit specialized, and I can’t hardly keep up with calls this time of year. I already have over two months of outdoor stonework lined up for next spring ( can’t do masonry work outside below freezing), and the phone just keeps ringing. Even though I’m ridiculously busy, I always will call the person back by the end of the day, and most times I get a “ wow, you actually called”, and that pretty much guarantees the job alone. I get that it’s frustrating for people that can’t seem to get a call back, even if I can’t feasibly get there to help them in time, I will at least make sure they’ve heard from me. I will say that on the other side of things, it’s absolutely amazing the number of people that call for something like a wood stove to be installed, and say” it’s getting pretty cool, we sure would like it done this week”, and it’s mid October when they call me. It’s as if they figure that we’re just sitting around twiddling our fingers waiting for them to call us, when in reality it’s the busiest times of year for us and now they’re 2-3 months away from getting anything done.

Well if your luck is anything like mine, the frog rod will come in 19 random sized pieces ?.

Since this was likely one of the last decent, dry days we may get around here this year, I decided to try out some more deep, wintering areas for Georgian Bay smallmouth. The boat was covered in frost this morning, but once the sun came up it was pleasant, although a bit breezy. I spent a little bit of time graphing to find fish, and once I found them it was game on! On one very large hump about 2 acres in size that topped off at about 30’ and surrounded by over 150’ of water, I found them stacked up on the edge of a sharp drop. They were so thick that the graph was showing a false bottom at times! For 2 hours straight, I literally caught a fish on every single drop, and didn’t move more than 50’. Nothing was over 3lbs today, but it was a blast. Every fish came on a Berkley Maxscent Flatworm on a drop shot, and I caught fish as deep as 60’ today. Even the deeper fish still rocketed to the surface and jumped, although not quite as high as in the summer. I just hope I can get back out a couple more times before the boat goes to bed for the winter, cause man that’s some fun stuff!

Boat cover had heavy frost on it this morning, but once the sun came up it was a lovely day for a run with the Suzuki.

Here's my Estwing fleet. The nail hammer was my dads, it’s pushing 40 years old. It’s been used for chiseling small flagstone for so many years now, it’s pretty much a ball peen hammer now. A new electrical tape handle job every few months and it’s good to go, I use it pretty much every day at work. The bigger one is my 3lb stone hammer that I use when I’m chiseling larger rocks when building a fireplace. It also works great as a “persuader” sometimes when you need a little more umph to get something moving along.

The view from across the road is quite “yellow” today. Soon it’ll be white. I don’t like white.

The Maxscent flatworm has been my number 1 best drop shot bait this year by far. The smallies up here hit them like they haven’t eaten in a month! They especially work well on any lake that has gobies, and it doesn’t seem to make too much of a difference in colour for me, but I usually stick to the green pumpkin or natural Shad colours the most.

Had to do a small job on an island on one of central Ontario’s busiest cottage lakes. Luckily this time of year there’s absolutely nobody around. I was done work by noon so I hit a few spots on the way back to the ramp, the Rage Swimmer on a football head did well for me today. Had a huge smallie ( huge for this lake) chase and absolutely hammer it right beside the boat, was just shy of 5lbs on the digital scale, and got a fat little pike around 32” long, and lost another at the boat that was a solid 40” fish.

Sometimes, the day his so nice you just have to celebrate it ?

Spent about 4 hours this afternoon with my son, hitting some deeper humps on Georgian Bay near our home. The water was about 53 deg, and the smallmouth are starting to work deeper for the winter here. They’ll spent much of their time staying pretty close to these big underwater jumps for most of the winter, and when they get schooled up on them in the fall it can be fantastic fishing. We hit a half dozen humps that topped off at anywhere from 22’-35’ and are surrounded by deeper water. We caught fish down to as deep as 47’ today. All our fish came on Berkley Maxscent flatworms on a drop shot, and a few on Berkley power tubes. Lots of fish in the 2lb range, and quite a few up to just over 4lbs were caught, with a few real heavy ones lost during battle. As it gets cooler, it should only get better, as more fish show up on these deep spots.

Nice view from the bus stop with the kid yesterday, just wish it stopped so I could actually work outside. Oh well, good day to drive around and deliver materials I guess.

How does this even happen? I’ve had a Terrova on my boat for five years now and never once even thought about it “unlatching” and coming off, and I fish the Great Lakes a lot in big waves. Was it not bolted to the bow?

Yeah, for some reason my bass selfies are loading upside down, guess I need to hold my phone the other way next time ?. Maybe a mod can flip them for me ??

Today I had to install a wood stove and chimney in a cottage on an island on Georgian Bay, just out from where I live. I was done a bit early, so I decided to try out a hump that I‘ve had my eye on for a while and not had the chance to hit yet. Boy am I ever glad I did! It tops off at 25’ and drops to over 80’ on all sides, and I figured it’d be a good spot for smallmouth to load up on and gorge on gobies, especially this time of year. I only had about a half hour to fish before I had to go pick up the kid from school, so out came the drop shot rod and a pack of Berkley Maxscent Flatworms. In 30 minutes I got over 30 bass, over half of them were better than 3lbs, several over 4 and one right at 5lbs on the rapala digital scale. It was a fish on pretty much every drop, and man did they ever put up a good fight. I guess I’ll have to find some more “work” to do out there this fall ?.

Saw these guys enjoying the lake while I was finishing up work this afternoon. Probably not a Great Lakes worthy vessel, but it sure looked a lot better than what I was doing.

That’s one ugly critter!

Beautiful morning on the lake today, no wind and the fog was just lifting as I got there. Too bad I wasn’t in the boat though, this pic was taken from 3 sections of scaffolding up while I started my day laying stone on a chimney. Oh well, this time of year I gotta make stone while the sun shines.

There’s a real good chance that it’s a dirty fuel filter. I had the same thing happen with me this spring when I got my Suzuki out, in the water separator in mine, there’s a small filter that had some microscopic particles in it. Enough fuel flowed through to start perfect and get on plane, but after about 3000rpm, it’d start to bog down. As soon as I changed the filter, it ran perfect and has all season. It’s amazing how such a little amount of particulate can choke it off.

I love that one. Every time I see it it makes me laugh. Oh yeah, for me it’d have to be a 7’ mh rod and a big ole double willow, one gold one silver blade, white spinnerbait. I’ve probably caught more huge smallmouth on that setup then anything else out there, and man is it ever fun when they absolutely crush it!

Great video, I loved the part where your wife gives the slight eye roll when you mention the Lund Pro-V Bass for what I’m sure she’s heard about ten million times ?. I’m the same way, and I do occasionally get the same look.

With today being forecast for more of a hot July day than a late September day, we decided to head out onto the bay for a few hours before it got too hot ( Georgian Bay). Water was calm as glass most of the day, and boy did it ever get warm fast. The wife, my son and I went for a leisurely cruise way out to the big water, mostly just to enjoy the peace of the non-tourist season, then we stopped at a few shoals on the way back in to see if the bass were hungry. Mostly caught a bunch of little guys, all around a pound or so, but on one point, we got into a few larger ones. Pretty much every fish came on a drop shot with a Berkley Maxscent flat worm, this is one of my new favourite drop shot baits. They hit it and won’t let go, it’s like crack for smallies! Anyway, the boy smoked me for size today, also with his biggest smallmouth yet that he’s caught all on his own. I thought it was a pike at first because it stayed down and pulled drag, but we finally got him in the net. Didn’t weigh him but it was a fat one that I’d say was right around 4lbs or so, definitely a fun time for everyone.

We have had two Husky/Shepard mixes the last ten years or so, one is still with us. That^, is exactly what it’s like. You can literally brush until your arms hurt, and there’s still a garbage bag full of hair to be removed. It’s almost hard to believe how in the world they can actually produce hair that fast, if I could sell it for even pennies, I’d be a billionaire.

As a stonemason, and wood stove/chimney installer, I come across these buggers all the time. Often they’re either under the metal chimney flashing, or just under the roof overhang where you can’t see them until you start to pound on the roof with a hammer or stomp around. Nothing more “fun” then trying to run across a roof and dodge a swarm of angry wasps while heading for the ladder and at the same time trying not to take one step too far ?.