Way north bass guy

It’s very beautiful, but at -10C with a nasty windchill, and supposed to drop to -21C tonight, I’d rather see the beauty of green grass and Lilly pads about now. Time to go snowblow the driveway ?.

My biggest smallie of the year, just under 6lb came on a Berkley Gulp minnow on a drop shot, biggest largemouth, right at 5lb came on a Texas rigged Berkley maxscent creature hawg.

Finished out 2018 with a hike across the lake to see if we could find some trout ( couple hits but that’s it, still a nice day on the lake), then topped it off with some construction ( LEGO Hogwarts castle).

Heck of a lot better than what I could do right now, minimum 8” of ice all over around here. Good job!

You don’t have to cut he line, just thread the tag end through the hook eye one more time to make it “pull” the hook into the right position, works for me and it doesn’t hurt the knot as it’s only the tag end going to the sinker.

Got some cabelas gift cards for Christmas so yesterday I managed to get ahold of a new rod. Cabelas prodigy walleye series spinning, 7’6” medium. I’m a shorter guy but like longer rods so this should cast a drop shot well and work for controlling big smallies on light line. Nice light rod that fits a Pflueger president perfectly, now I just have to wait a few months to use it.

You could cry with a cheap bottle as well, just saying ?

It looks like that particular law is referring to if your at a lodge or cabins of some sort, you keep your fish whole until your back at camp, but if you were planning on transporting fillets from the camp to your house you’d need to keep the fillets whole so they could tell the species/number of fish etc. In Ontario we have a law similar, you must keep a certain amount of skin on each fillet while transporting so they can figure out what kind of fish you’ve got.

I just picked up a couple of these, and they do feel like a fantastic little reel. Fits in the hand quite nicely and feels like a very smooth reel for the price.

That’s a nice looking pile of feesh!

They’re not the best fighting fish, but anyone that tells you a laker doesn’t fight much has never caught a big one. I’m lucky to live in an area of Ontario where there’s some absolute monsters, and have caught at least a couple dozen over 20lbs all the way up to 40lbs and I can tell you they will pull like a dump truck, especially on lighter tackle. I used to guide on Georgian Bay and I’ve had fish that hit while downrigging that you can’t even move and that’s with a heavy rod and 20lb line. Had them snap downrigging rods before, they are a tough critter, especially in areas where they’ve never seen a lure before. In my area of Georgian Bay, it’s an almost untapped fishery. I was on an episode of full contact fishing with Chris King and Eric Lindros about 15 years ago, and we filmed the entire episode in 2 hours, that’s how much action there was.

That looks a heck of a lot prettier than the creeks around my place right now ❄️❄️❄️

Sounds like this A-Jay guy knows a thing or two about smallies ?. Good read gents, sounds a whole lot like what I’m often doing over on the “other side “ of the Great Lakes. Now if this darn ice would just go away...

Work on your hookset- real time though, no “simulator” like what A-Jay is using ?

When you get a good laker under the ice to hammer your jig, and he’s almost up to the surface then decides to go straight back down to bottom ( sometimes as deep as 100’ or more), and you can do nothing but hold on and wait till he stops, then start over again, the cold just disappears for a while!

When your on a lake where this is the average size ( that’s a 36” rod for reference), it can be a pretty fun day. But I’d still rather fish from my boat though ( only another 3-1/2 months or so to go).

Listen man, whatever works for you that’s fine, but I’m telling you I’ve used multiple spinning rods and reels for many years now and I don’t have line twist issues! The only time I’ve had any twist right off the bat is with a cheap reel that doesn’t have a decent roller bearing. You go anhead and spend the extra money on a “fancy spooler” if you want, but my way works fine for me and I’m gonna stick to it. In a few months I’ll be getting ready for launching the boat and will have about 15 spinning outfits in my living room and several different spools of line ON THE FLOOR ?, and like every year before that, it’ll work out great. It to each their own.

Floor works great for me, if you make sure it’s going on the reel the same way it’s coming off the spool, there’s no issues. I use a lot of spinning outfits both with braid and straight fluoro and I never have issues with twisting. Since I already own the floor, seems like a waste of money to buy the spooler for me ?.

Funny, I have that exact model on the console of my rig and I’ve never once had this issue, and I’m in central Ontario where the bottom is almost always bedrock/granite in a lot of places. I will say that for both of my units I’ve never installed any new updates, they do everything I need them to do just the way they came, and, if it ain’t broke ...

Usually this guy for baitcasters, and the floor for spinning. Works just fine for me.

I agree, get some muffs for it, it’s way easier to try to fire it up in the driveway hooked up to the garden hose with all your tools handy, rather than at the launch with others waiting to launch behind you while you work on the motor ( much less of a chance to get dirty looks at home than on the ramp ?).

I just ordered a couple of these in 2/0, for a test this summer. Over the last couple years I’ve worked on my frog fishing quite a bit and managed to vastly improve my hit to catch ratio probably close to 80-90%, but I’d like to see if maybe this’ll up it a few more points. Most of the water I fish isn’t really super thick slop so I doubt the extra hook will be much of an issue in snagging weeds, if I guess we’ll see ( in about 6 months).

Some guys just can’t help themselves ?.

My rod locker looks like a tackle store through up in it, it’s about every brand of rod and reel has been and is in there. If it works well, I don’t care what name is on the side of it. But I am definitely over the “budget” equipment, I’m not buying the most expensive rods and reels ever made but I’m also not buying any more entry level stuff, I know it works but it seems the cheaper stuff is either rougher to use ( reels), or much heavier than the more expensive stuff ( rods).

Ice where I was today.