Way north bass guy

Still at least a couple weeks away from boating for me, but today I did put the skidoo to bed for the year, and it’s gonna be a while yet before I need one but push mowers were on sale and my old one was falling right apart, so we have a new, shiny sign of spring in the garage now ??

At least your garage didn’t blister ?

Last game of the regular season on a Saturday night on HNIC. Also the final game ever called by Bob Cole, at 85 years young. For almost 40 years now I’ve heard his iconic voice on Saturday night games, doubt there’s many people in Canada that wouldn’t recognize his voice. Congrats Bob, and thanks for the memories ?.

Dug some 200 year old, hand cut square nails out of a floor yesterday so I could cut a hole in it to run a stainless steel chimney through. Darn floor was 16” thick too, they sure made things to last back then.

Yeah me too. Gonna be a few more weeks here at least.

As long as you lower the motor once it’s on the trailer for a minute to drain out the majority of the water, then once you get home, store it with the motor vertical, all the water will drain out and you’ll be fine. The real problem is if the motor is stored trimmed up so water can be caught in the lower end, if it’s vertical they’re designed to drain completely. I deal with this every spring and late fall, and I’ve never had an issue.

I did something similar about 8 years ago, and the very next day I went out and bought a cage. Used a cage for years as a kid, and after a couple games it was fine and I didn’t even notice it back on my helmet. And honestly, with the cage on, I find I’m a little less “afraid” to get down and dirty in the corners a bit more. I’ve also taken a few nasty stick slashes directly on the centre of the cage, that would’ve cut me real bad! For me it wasn't so much the teeth, as it was the eyes. You only get two of them, and they can’t grow new ones for ya ( yet anyway).

Started building a fireplace today in an old building that used to be the town courthouse in the 1800s/early 1900s and was the local legion branch for years. Had to cut a hole out the wall to run the fresh air intake, you know your working on an OLD building when the insulation is sawdust!

Bottom pic, smaller hole on the left looks like for the stern light pole, larger one maybe old gps puck? You can see the lighter coloured gelcoat in the shape of the plastic or rubber covers that used to be installed there.

I have a couple spots on some local lakes that aren’t exactly deep, but still offshore. These are northern, rocky lakes with some shallow weedy areas in some bays, but there’s about three or four cabbage beds that are a few hundred yards offshore, and only the size of about two boats. I’m pretty sure they hardly ever get fished, and from June right up to freeze up in late November, I can guarantee I’ll get fish off each one. It’s amazing how little pressure the fish around here see when they’re on the other side of the boat than where everyone usually casts ( not that there’s a ton of pressure in most lakes around here anyway).

Man, I’m not even close yet! The coast guard had for whatever reason a U.S. icebreaker trying to get into Midland harbour on Georgian Bay, which is about 45 min south of where I am, and they had to call off the attempt due to TOO MUCH ICE! For an icebreaker! Now they've called in a larger Canadian one to get the job done, not sure why they didn’t send in the big one first, especially since right here in Parry Sound is one of the largest coast guard bases around, unless it was away working maybe and the American one was close by. Apparently there’s over 3’ of solid ice out there in spots, that’s a lot of ice for the bay, especially for this time of year. And all our inland lakes still have minimum 30” of ice on them. Guess I’ll leave the boat in my storage shed for a while yet before it comes down to the house to get loaded up ?

Man what a thread! It just took me 15 min to read all of this and it’s some darn good reading ?. My opinion of rod balance is that it doesn’t seem to matter much ( at least for me). Seems like a very slight difference one way or the other isn’t going to make or break whether or not I use a rod, and like someone mentioned earlier, if I’m running tip down while spinnerbaiting etc, or tip way up while working a worm, it changes a lot. Even with the same rod I can be doing different casts/retrieves back to back so it doesn’t matter much to me. Maybe this is just coming from a guy that has a 3lb stone hammer in his hands for most of the work week, makes a fishing rod feel like a feather, no matter what the balance point is ?.

If you have a lot of algae on the bottom, try a drop shot. If it’s fairly shallow, you don’t need a big lead from bait to sinker, just enough to keep the bait above the algae and clear so the fish can home in on it. I’ve caught a ton of bass off docks on a drop shot, but like everyone else said, a weightless senko is pretty hard to beat as well.

This is the closest thing to open water I have around my place right now, gonna be several weeks yet before the boat gets splashed. The honking geese in the background just showed up a couple days ago, it sounds like they’re laughing at me standing over here on about 3’ of ice ?

Took a walk along the lake by our house today. The hillside has melted/flooded and now refroze to create an icy forest. Pics don’t really do it justice, it’s a pretty cool looking thing. In this part of the world, we have some pretty cool looking exposed rock. There’s so much of the Canadian Shield around here, and you drive by it all the time but never seem to take the time to have a good look at it. My profession is a stonemason, so I tend to notice the more abnormal and colourful rocks more than a lot of folks.

I’m amazed they still have their headgear on, usually they lose them well before the whitetails do which around here is usually right around Christmas.

The thing that gets me is why in the hell does he immediately jump as fast as he can to the back of the boat every time he hooks a fish? I’ve very successfully hooked and landed a ton of fish of every species and size all while standing on the front deck, and bending over the front gunwhale to land them. The only time I’ve ever had to go to the rear is if a big pike, musky, or trout decides he wants to run towards the outboard, and even then it’s often simply a matter of hitting the front trim button with my foot and the problem is solved. Seems like there’s ample opportunity to lose a fish if your running all over the place like a jackrabbit on crack!

I’ve been out in some pretty crazy winds over the years. Living and fishing on the east side of Georgian Bay, you get pretty used to big waves and wind, I’ve trolled for salmon in 12’ rollers and done well, it just takes a bit longer to get out there ( this is in a 20’ deep-v Lund). Now saying that, if it’s going to be super windy, and I’m chasing bass, I’m usually going to look for a smaller inland lake to fish or if I’m on the bay, I’m staying in behind the islands. There’s always a calm spot somewhere on the lake, just have to maybe launch at the other side so you don’t have to drive through the rough stuff to get to it.

I like it way more when the wind blows the other way, tough to flip around that laydown for bass unless the water goes WAY up.

But that way out hookset and fight is where it gets fun too. Don’t get me wrong, I like a big old largemouth on a flippin stick and short line too, but there’s something about a big smallie absolutely hammering a big spinnerbait right when it touches down on a super long cast, then the fun of trying to stop all those big jumps while your heart is in your throat ?

Yup, I’ve had these smooth moves suspensions in my boat for a couple years now, and I’ll never own a boat without them again. For big rollers, and especially those boat wakes that sneak up on you, they are an absolute back saver!

That’s pretty cool. Only problem is next winter you might have to play a bit of bumper boats while on the water, but I guess that’s still better than up here where we play “hibernating boats” for the winter.

You bring the trucks and I’ll be ready here with the snowblower and shovels! Bring LOTS of trucks.

Man you got that right! I have about 8 president XT’s, they are absolutely a fantastic reel for the price. In a lot of cases you get what you pay for, but sometimes once you get to a certain dollar value, it seems like the “advantages” do not match the increase in price.

I ordered a couple MB’s last fall and although I’ve not had a chance to use them much yet, I loved the feel of them so much I just ordered a couple more the other day. Any reviews I’ve seen for them have been amazing, and they’re just such a nice fit in my hands and feel very smooth. They’ll get a bunch of use here pretty soon I hope, if this winter ever goes away.