Way north bass guy

Awesome news! It’s great to hear things like this, hope she keeps improving??.

Took a buddy and his son out on Georgian Bay today. Kid is totally eaten up with all things fishing right now, so I tried to get him into some big smallies. In total we got around 30 or so, mostly smaller ones, but his dad got this beauty right near the end of the trip, 6.04lbs on the digital scale. Needless to say, he’s ready to go back out on the boat with me any time!

I doubt it’d ever happen, but I’d love to see them do a tournament on this side of the border one day. We have so many fantastic fisheries, and some real monster sized lakes so there’d be no issue with space for anglers. It’d be pretty cool to see them on my home water of Georgian Bay, or maybe Simcoe, or even go further north to Gussies turf and hit Lake of the Woods.

I’ve had 20lb days, and 100 bass days quite a few times over the years, but not this year, at least yet anyway. Hardly even been out fishing the last few months, between work, and projects around the house. But there’s still time to get into some bigguns, and numbers, especially around here, as the fall is one of the best times here for both of those to happen.

Today I was able to pay off my loan in full. I now own my boat outright, no more payments ( except for gas, insurance, maintenance, gear etc?). I’ve owned several nice fishing boats from brand new over the years, but always had payments on them until I sold them to change boats. This one is gonna be staying with me for some time, as I both love it for what I need currently, and I also don’t want to pay the ridiculous prices out there for a brand new one. She’s only 6 years old, and still just as shiny as the day I brought it home, so I’m gonna enjoy my first “free” fishing trip out of it this weekend, and hopefully many more to come, with family and friends, or all by myself!

Usually that’s probably true, but I’m just on the other side of Huron from him, and we’re getting the blast furnace here too for a few days. Yesterday I fixed a stone patio in what felt like 39C (103f) with the humidity. Needless to say, there was some sweat!

Wouldn’t be Labour Day weekend around here without a bunch of fresh pasta sauce being roasted. Got some dandy fat Roma's from the garden this year, and we always roast them with a bunch of other good stuff, then blend it all up and freeze them. Best sauce I’ve ever had!

Good stuff! Hope things continue to improve??

Tried to hit a lake nearby that I haven’t fished in probably 15 years or so. It’s fairly shallow and has some nice largemouth in it. Should’ve known in the middle of the largest cold front we’ve had so far this summer that they’d be shut right down. Got this one fat little guy off a laydown, and that was it. Still a nice day to be out though.

Our old place was like that, right on the highway, so anything that was still half descent that we didn’t want got drug to the end of the driveway and never lasted the day. I once took a pretty much completely rotten wood swingset/slide that we had for our son to the end of the drive, just to see if there’d be any takers before I hauled it to the dump, it was gone before I even walked all the way around our house, and the thing was like 12’ long! Now we’re on a dead end road with almost zero traffic, so we have to haul everything away, but I’d rather have it like this anyway.

Haha, I’m actually not a real big guy. Just barely stretch the tape up to 5’9” and about 185lbs, but I’m sure I do have a pretty good grip compared to many people.

As a lot of you know, I’m a stonemason. Talked about it a few times over the years on here. I’m currently in the middle of a fairly large job, at least for a self employed guy that works all on his own. It’s approx 700 sq ft of 2” thick granite flagstone, that was “dry laid” in gravel about 20 years ago. The stones have settled some, and the joints are constantly full of weeds that the owners have to pay to get pulled, so they’ve hired me to lift the entire patio, re-grade the level to slope away from the house, and then re-lay all the stone in approx 3” of concrete, and point the joints with mortar. This is something that I’ve done literally tens of thousands of sq ft of over my career, just another day at the office. Today I did some quick calculations, there’s 10 tons of flagstone in this patio, and I’ve moved every single piece minimum 3 times by the time I lift, set back down and lift to re-lay in concrete. On this one job, over 5-1/2 days, between the stone and 3 skids of concrete, I’ve moved over 80,000lbs of material all by myself! And I wonder why I’m a bit tired at the end of the day sometimes?. @A-Jay has his awesome home gym, I have other peoples dirty old stones ?. Here’s a pic of the patio with most of the stones re-laid and ready to point.

Even the most mediocre of fisherman like myself can have the odd off day?. In all seriousness, I just haven’t had near the time on the water this year, and haven’t been able to get a good feel for what they’re doing as the season progresses. When I was guiding and fishing tournaments, I was on the water constantly and found it much easier to keep pace with the movements of whatever I was chasing during that particular season. It’s all good though, still beats the heck out of going to work!

@12poundbass, it was equally as tough on this side of the great lakes today too, at least for me. Spent a couple hours on a lake I used to fish constantly when I was younger, tried a bunch of spots and all I got was this one guy on a ned, and a small pike on a spinnerbait. At least the temps were decent, and I managed to shake the skunk out of the boat for the trip (although just by the skin of my teeth)!

Quick google search found this. Granted, it’s for all of Canada, but I’ll bet my province (Ontario), is the leader by a far margin.

Got out early this morning again with another buddy to try for some salmon. Managed to get 4, all about 3-4lbs, and one laker about 6lbs. We also stopped at some shoals on the way back in from the deep water and hammered on a bunch of smallmouth, but nothing over about 3.5lbs. Was a pretty nice day to be on the water.

I also fall in the camp of “ can’t stand it especially at night”. My truck has a factory tint on the side windows, and it’s hardly any at all, and I still hate it when trying to use the mirrors when it’s darker out. I’d rather have clear glass and wear sunglasses when needed than to have a window that you can’t see out of. I want to be able to see all the other idiots coming at me as much as I can?.

Finally got out for a salmon fish today. Took a buddy and his wife and daughter out, got three nice eater size salmon and three lake trout. I also finally got to burn last years gas out of the boat, now I’m working on burning up some fresh stuff?.

Good to hear you got back out there. I haven’t had near enough time to get on the water this year myself, between work and projects around the house ( I’m still on the same tank of gas as last fall and that has NEVER happened before?), but I’m fixin to change that right quick starting this weekend!

Best to wait till after dark when all the wasps are in the nest for the night, then spray the heck out of em. Doing it in the daylight will only get the ones in there, and not the ones out flying around.

Sky always looks “big” out our windows when we get clouds like this.

Someone hasn’t had a brushing in a few days. He’s about 10lbs lighter now! #huskylife

Much like @Jar11591, I too spent a few hours this morning on a small river. Floated the canoe downstream from my house for about 5 miles or so. Caught a couple dozen this size on a frog, saw a bunch of wildlife and birds, and best of all not another human to be found!

What line are you using? For the last few years I’ve used pretty much only two different lines, Berkley 100%fluoro and Tatsu. Berkley has been for the heavier lines, anywhere from 12 - 20lb test, and Tatsu is pretty much just 6lb for spinning gear. I’ve pretty much only ever used a palomar, for tying everything on, and I honestly don’t ever remember breaking off at the knot. About the only time I ever break off is on a snag or if a big pike or muskie cuts me off.

It doesn’t look very tough. Kind of reminds me of our extremely elderly, skeletal cat that we have that pretty much sleeps all day and weighs about 2 lbs now?. Maybe it’s designed mainly for smaller tin boats that don’t weigh too much ?‍♂️.