Way north bass guy

Earlier this summer I changed mine, not because of the date on the bobbin but because I had to. Somehow, while “adjusting” a small backlash, the wind managed to wrap a loop of line around the “pull here” tag, and when I grabbed the line to pull out the backlash, I got a fairly rude awakening. The 10 year old thought it was absolutely hilarious. After letting out the air, and grabbing a spare out of the front box we were good to go, and I got a new cylinder and bobbin for it later that week.

And to accompany all that fantastic tomato sauce, today we picked a bunch of crabapples for my mother-in-law to put down.

It’s that time of year around our house, when the maters are ripening, and when you have the day off and it’s another 40mph wind blowing all day ?, so instead of bouncing in 4’ rollers on the lake, we make about 6 big batches of the finest slow roasted tomato sauce on the planet! And after 2-1/2 hours, it’s ready to blend up. ?

I use fluorocarbon all the time, from 6lb up to 20lb on multiple different hooks, and have never once had this happen. I mostly use a Palomar knot, and it doesn’t seem to move much for me. The only time my line ever breaks, is either from rubbing on rocks/zebra mussels or if a pike or muskie snips me off.

This whole thing just seems crazy to me. I’ve never once had an issue with the hook eye “gap”. Just tie your knot properly and it shouldn’t move around enough to ever get anywhere near the sides of the hook, only time might be with a loop knot but even with those I’ve never had an issue.

I just got home from spending time at my parents place in Elliot Lake, Ontario. My son and I go up every year for a few days before he starts school, we have a good visit with my folks and take advantage of the tremendous smallmouth fishery they have. This was the fifth year we’ve been up since my folks moved up there, I live in Parry Sound, about 3-1/2 hours south on Georgian Bay. We have our own special bass paradise around my house, but that small drive up the highway is like going back in time about 200 years or so. The city of Elliot Lake’s population is about 10000 or so, but as soon as you leave the town limits, there is virtually nobody around. In three and a half days, we fished on four different lakes and only saw one other boat anywhere, and that was a guy downrigging for lake trout. It’s pretty nice to launch the boat and know that you’re about to have a 10-15 mile long lake all to yourself, with only some eagles, a bunch of beavers and monster smallmouth. This year was a bit “off”, for the fishing though. Much like @A-Jay has been dealing with just across the pond from us, there has been an unruly bit of wind for the last couple weeks. From Sunday afternoon when we first showed up until this evening as I type this, it’s been a steady, nasty blow that’s been coming from several different directions at different times, almost like there’s a giant game of hot potato going on with the pressure systems, and it’s seemed to put the bass in a bit of a funk. Day one started out with only about 25 bass caught in 3 hours, and nothing over 3-1/2 lbs. Still a decent afternoon, but usually on this particular lake in the same time we can get up to 60-80 bass and many up to 5 lbs. Day two was a morning of downrigging for lakers on a beautiful, deep, gin clear lake ( I put a few pics of the area on the post a photo thread a couple days ago). Same thing with the lakers, only managed a couple small guys, usually we hammer on them pretty well too. In the afternoon we switched gears and started hunting the massive bass here, I’ve broke off a couple fish in years past here that were every bit of 7+ lbs. This time it was a literal roller coaster ride, as we drifted shoals and flats off islands in 3’ rollers, trying our best to keep a drop shot near bottom, as well as covering water with big spinnerbaits and jerkbaits ( their usual delicacy here). We did get a bunch of fish up to about 3lbs but no big ones. Day three was the best, on another lake that’s more shallow and predominantly a perch forage based lake. Even though the wind was still howling, this lake is fairly narrow and has lots of connected bays, so we found some calm areas in the morning that we absolutely hammered them on a Rapala Skitter-V and a Berkley Chopo, easily catching 30 bass up to 4lbs in an area the size of a house. In the afternoon, the wind kicked up a notch again, but we found them on several big 10-12’ deep flats that had massive cabbage beds spread across them. My old man doesn’t fish that often, so he’s always a good candidate for a 1/2oz Strike King burner spinnerbait, it casts a mile and he can burn it over the weeds to call up the big ones. I was mainly throwing a Strike King Rage Swimmer on a 1/2oz football head, I can swim it fast across the top of the cabbage or slow it down in the openings and across the rocks, and together we hammered another 40 or so bass up to about 4-1/2 lbs and I lost 2 that were easily in the 5 lb range that jumped like a rocket ship and threw the bait right back at me. These fish have almost zero pressure, and when they hit a fast moving bait, you have to be holding that rod tight or it’ll be tore out of you hands. I’ve caught a lot of big smallmouth in my life, but these guys seem to have about five more gears in them, and go like mad and just don’t stop fighting, even the little guys that barely weigh a pound. Day four was a quick trip to a lake close to town for a couple hours before the rain started and we had to leave. Usually we get a bunch of nice ones here too but today it was about 30 bass and not one was over a pound. All in all it was a good trip, the fish still cooperated a bit for us, was nice to visit the family and the scenery was outstanding as always. Maybe I’ll sneak up there again this fall when they start to school up more and hopefully the weather is more settled in. If not, there’s always next year though.

Tough day at the lake today, fished a 10 mile long system, and we were the only boat anywhere to be seen. View from the ramp. Running the “busy” main channel. Gotta love summers in the north ?

Hammered them pretty well today finally, after a couple days of them being “off”. Caught over 50, landed multiple 3-4lbers and lost several up to 5lbs. Found a calm spot where we crushed them on topwaters then in the wind hammered them on spinnerbaits and a strike king rage swimmer.

Three generations of smallmouth hunters, the youngest got this one on a drop shot while drifting along and reading a book at the same time.

Fishing at my parents place in Elliot Lake, Ontario this week. This is locally known as rooster rock. The second pic shows a 20’ boat at the base, makes it easier to really appreciate the height of it. We’re sitting in 350’ of water in these pics.

I’m not sure what the big “issue” is with it. I’ve had side imaging on my trolling motor for several years now, and use it probably more than any other imaging style, including 2d. Sure, if your cranking the motor all over the place all the time, or when using spot lock, it won’t work too well, but if your cruising along fairly straight, and have the graph set up properly, you can see just as clearly as if it was mounted on the console/transom. I use it all the time to find boulders, fallen trees, grass etc off to the side of the boat, not to mention bass. Last year I was cruising a big flat and could easily see a big school of smallmouth off to the left about 30’ away, flipped a drop shot over there and continued to hammer them for a half hour. It also works quite well to see under docks or overhanging banks.

I’ve been using Berkley Gulp scent in the spray bottle for a couple years now. I especially like to give a bait a hit of it right after catching a pike or muskie, not sure if it helps a ton but I figured it can’t hurt to hide any scent of a big predator from a bass.

Do you not get rain in Ohio? I’m quite sure that any rain suit you would use there will be just as acceptable for our “northern rains” ?. I’m just pulling your chain a bit, any decent suit will work, if your gonna be here in the spring or fall and it’s cooler, you might want to get a slightly larger suit so you can add an extra layer underneath for warmth.

Went old school today for a half hour or so. Ultra light rod, small slip float and a bunch of freshly caught worms and we had a pile of these little guys on, just across the road from our place.

Someone’s got a good appetite!

Took the kid out for a paddle this afternoon. No rods, just “exploring nature”. Went as far as these falls, about 2 miles from the truck, could’ve portaged and gone further but it was threatening rain and we didn’t have any suits so we just flipped rocks and chased crayfish for a while then paddled back into civilization.

Leave a couple in there, maybe you’ll get some jig trees started and you won’t have to buy any more again, just go out and pick your own fresh ones whenever you need to ?.

Of all the many rods I own, probably only about three or four are two piece rods ( not including my trolling/downrigging rods), and they get just as much use as my one piece rods do. A little bit of string wax from my crossbow on the male end of the ferrule, and they essentially become a one piece rod that I don’t even notice the joint on them any more. And if someone try's to tell they’re junk and have no sensitivity, they don’t know what they’re talking about. I have several, mid range priced two piece rods that I can feel every little tap and spinnerbait blade vibration on just fine.

I’ve been using the surflon for a couple seasons now. Caught quite a few big pike and never once had any issues with breaking or knots. I use an Alberto knot for the leader to line connection and a clinch knot to the lure ( shows it on the back of the package), and it works great.

When I saw the title, I thought this is what was being talked about. Btw, these are a wonderful addition to the boat if your often in the salad looking for bass.

^ This is pretty much the exact way I feel. ??

This whole thread ( along with the new pedal storage box), just seems kind of not needed at all. I have a Terrova on my boat, and have never, ever had an issue with it “flying off the boat”. Now granted, my rig will only do about 50mph, but, I also am often on Georgian Bay, otherwise known as the sixth Great Lake, so I know quite well about rough water ?. If your having real problems with the pedal jumping around, get yourself some heavy duty Velcro strips from the hardware store, you can put a few on the pedal bottom and in several locations on the deck if you want ( or just one area if you don’t move the pedal around), and it’ll stay right where you want it in the roughest, fastest ride. Not to mention, you don’t have to lift a lid and remove it every time you get to the next spot or put it back in before you run again.

Excellent write up! As I looked at each photo, I was seeing all the fish holding spots, and sure enough, you pointed out pretty much exactly what I was thinking for every one. This is the type of read that a lot of new fisherman should really pay attention to, for either small ponds or even larger bodies of water.

Maybe someone was trying a new version of the a-rig, where you just throw whatever plastics you have lying around on and give er a shot, then somehow magically this guy comes along and engulfs every last one in one gulp and breaks the line. Now that A-Jay has freed him from his plastic trap, he can get back to his pre- a-rig weight of 13lbs ( cause that’s how big it’d have to be to engulf all those baits at once?).

My wife likes going out in the boat more than actually fishing, and if I’m bass fishing, most times she stays home and enjoys the “peace and quiet” while I take my 10 year old with me ?. She does enjoy a good downrigging session though, or when we get the boat out for the first time in spring to flat line troll for lake trout. When we were first dating, I was doing charters at the time, and we went out for a troll for rainbows with my 9’ light action rods. She proceeded to get the largest fish to date in my boat, a lake trout that easily bottomed out my 40lb scale. After about 20 min of battling it, I asked her if she wanted me to take the rod for a while to let her aching arms rest, and NO WAY! was the reply ?. It was so big, I had to hold it for the photo because her arms are too sore.