Way north bass guy

This guy has been a great bait for me for both largemouth and smallmouth in the lakes around my place the last few years, works well for either a perch or bluegill imitation.

Went out for a troll on Georgian Bay this morning with the family, slow start, didn’t get fishing till 11:00 and only fished an hour before the heat drove us off the water, but we did alright. My son fought this one in all by himself. 10lbs even on my light rainbow gear, almost spooled him twice! Looks like we’re bbqing salmon for dinner tonight ??

I’m just waiting to see if Ovie’s gonna come to training camp weighing 300 lbs and so out of shape he can’t even skate, the way he’s been ripping it up. Maybe he’ll remember around mid August that he’s gotta start hitting the gym and ice again ?.

Just good quality deep cycle wet cells, and a good wet cell starter for the motor/electronics. Also, keep an eye on the fluid levels every now and again but that’s about it for me.

I plug mine in as soon as I unhook it from the truck, and unplug it the next morning when it’s charged up. Store the batteries in the garage in the winter and throw them on the charger once a month or so and I’ve had batteries last a good 10 years or so that way. I’m not sure it’s a great deal of help to be plugged in 24/365, seems like a waste of hydro to me and the way I do it, my batteries seem to fare quite well. I think the main thing is to not leave the batteries severely drained for any length of time, get em topped up as soon as you come off the lake and you should be fine.

I pretty much only throw spinnerbaits in open water burning fast for big smallies, so I always use a trailer hook. Sometimes I’ll even use a Mustad kvd triple grip treble on the back if they’re just swiping at it, but usually just a free swinging single hook.

I usually have about 18 rods in the box, about a 50/50 mix of spinning/casting, but usually anywhere from 2-8 rods on the deck. It all depends on the lake and species I’m after, there’s literally hundreds of lakes within an hour of my house and pretty much any type of water you could ask for, so every day is a new adventure that calls for completely different techniques from the day before.

Same here, can’t remember also but I got a couple 100 packs for a good price.

Not sure exactly where you’re from, but here in Ontario, there’s very specific rules about what you need to have onboard for safety measures. It goes by size of boat, the larger the boat is, the more things you need to carry like flares, throw rope, flashlight etc. Might want to check with your province or state to see if there’s any special rules to abide by.

Exactly one month ago I was standing on 12” of ice in a bay on a nearby lake, this weekend the water was in the high 60s to low 70s. Our bass season doesn’t start for a couple more weeks, and I’m not sure exactly what to expect on opener. I’ve caught a few incidental bass while pike fishing and they look pretty thick, and I’ve not seen any beds in the shallows yet. It’s defenitely been the weirdest spring and quickest warm up I can remember. Maybe it’ll be a super quick spawn and they’ll go right into summer mode. Either way, I’m sure I’ll be able to find some on opener.

Hit another lake for some pike today, no monsters but my son got his first of the year. On the hunt for a biggun.

Unhooking a pike today, he lost a tooth in the boat. My 8 year old said “ do you think the tooth fairy would give any money for this one”?

Took the family out to a small local lake for a few hours for pike. Caught a half dozen, lost a real nice one at the boat, but still a lovely afternoon on the lake. This little guy didn’t want to be held for a pic ?. Moved so fast my wife got 2 action pics of him before my facial expression even changed!

I have both the ninja and the G-force nut on my motor, and I wouldn’t own one without again. The ninja is absolutely awesome at clearing weeds off the motor, well worth the investment. As for the prop nut, I’m not sure if it makes a huge difference in the noise if the motor, but it is super handy to quickly remove the prop to check behind for wound up fishing line etc. ( which I check after every trip out).

A Texas rigged tube works pretty good too, especially if the docks have been pressured by guys with jigs and larger baits.

Can MLF episodes be downloaded or streamed, I have it on WFN here in Canada, but it’s only on certain times of the week and I’d like to watch it other times when I’m not busy ( which is d**n near never nowadays).

I second that. I’ve owned Yamaha’s, Mercury ( same exact motor that’s on A-Jays boat right now, and now a Suzuki on my newest boat. They’re all good, but the Zuk is the finest running, easiest on fuel engine I’ve ever owned. I’m sure the new Merc will be a great option as well, I can’t see myself ever owning another 2-stroke again.

Hardbaits- probably a tie between Strike King KVD jerkbaits and Stike King spinnerbaits, too many to count. Softbaits- again, likely a tie between 5” Senkos and Berkley Powerbait Thief’s, awesome little phlipling/pitching baits.

How about “yous guys”. Get that here all the time. Or, “welcome to Walmart, would yous like a cart?” I’m not the smartest, or perfect in any way with speech and grammar, but come on! Also, bad boat ramp etiquette is THE WORST pet peeve when it comes to fishing related activity.

Graphite reels are terrible, don’t keep any. What you need to do is send them all to me and I’ll properly dispose of them. I’ll P.M. my address to you ?.

832 for me as well.

Last few boats I’ve got easily a half dozen good years out of them. My current boat is in its fourth year and the batteries I put in there when I bought it are still going strong. Maybe your charger is buggered up and is killing them, I’ve heard of that happening before. Also could be how your storing them in the off-season. Mine get a top up charge in the boat, then I store them in my heated garage all winter and periodically throw them on my other charger for the night ( maybe once a month). Done it this way for many years and it seems to work well for me. I also make sure to plug in the onboard charger as soon as I come back from fishing, never leave them uncharged for any length of time.

I spliced it in under the front deck, right where the Helix power cables connect to the 10g wire I ran from the battery. I just twisted the 18g and the Helix neg. together and crimped them into the butt connector for a tight connection.

I used to have a Helix 5si on the bow, transducer mounted to the trolling motor. It was ok but kinda small, so this year I moved my Helix 9si up there from the console and installed a mega 10si on the console ( awesome units by the way). Both the 5 and 9 had terrible interference whenever I stepped on the pedal for the Terrova, only on the si though. I tried all the usual stuff, heavier gauge twisted pair wire to the cranking battery, all the recommended ferrite rings, moving wires around to separate graph from trolling motor wires, trolling motor choke etc. with no luck. Finally after digging around online I found and tried the method where you run an 18g wire from the Helix neg. up to the head of the Terrova, siliconed it along the channel in the shaft and attached it under the metal transducer clamp. First time out last weekend and all clear! It cleared up absolutely 100% of the interference on the side imaging. Just wanted to pass this along in case anyone else is chasing the interference demons to have maybe one more option to try. I know every boat is different, but I couldn’t be happier with this outcome for mine.

My favourite the last couple years has been a Berkley Power Bait Theif. Nice subtle action and the bass around here slurp it up. I use the standard colours, they all seem to work for me.