Way north bass guy

I won a big pike tournament with those exact ones (red) years ago. Out fished 100 other boats by a big margin. Great lures!

That’s pretty much exactly the way it’s been for me, never ruined a transducer yet, but it’d be interesting to know for sure if there’s anything to this at all.

Just curious, is there a particular reason you turn off the bow one when it’s out?

Or just use a length of chain and a hook. That’s what’s come standard on my last 4 boats I’ve owned.

After fishing a pike tournament, my hands usually look like they’ve been in a blender. The gill rakers on them are deadly, never ind the teeth. Usually have to repack the first aid kit after those tournaments.

When you go out to the garage to get something for work and see the boat sitting there all shiny and ready to go, but there’s still 2’ of ice on the lakes and you just want to start bawling! ( this is me right about now). I have done this several times after a day of good catching. Nothing like a “dream hookset” to jolt everyone out of sleep ?

This lake still has 2’ of ice, no bass fishing for me so we’ll make the best of it. But I’d much rather be on the front deck of the boat.

Went for a skate on the lake behind our place this morning. Windy, but darn near perfect conditions for a hockey game.

Rode bikes to fishing spots as a kid for years, used my dads steel workboat when allowed from about 12-17. Bought a brand new Triton TR17 ( 12th one ever sold in Canada, first year they sold em here), before I even had my own truck! Used moms Ford Explorer to tow it to tournaments for the first summer, then bought my own truck and never looked back. Four boats and several trucks later, luanching every chance I get now, and I’m sure my 8 year old will soon be ready to start biking to his “honeyholes”.

It’s starting to get nice and sunny around here now, but still well below freezing at night. Went for a walk with the kid to the lake beside our place today, this is the closest to open water I’m gonna see for a while yet.

So this is what happens when you purposely jacknife your trailer to unload the sled from the truck, and forgot you tied two 2x6s to that side of the trailer. Not the best start to a work day! But I did some “redneck body shop work” when I got home, took off the taillight and pried her back open with my ice chisel ?. Not perfect, but good enough for a 2012 work truck.

I currently use the my wedge on my boat, it has a 140 Suzuki on it and the trailer end is too far under the boat hull for a standard one to work properly. I’ve had the my wedge for three years now and it holds the motor perfectly. No complaints from me, and it’s way faster to use and I just toss it in the rear compartment of the boat when I launch.

I’m following this thread with great interest! I have a new boat, have had three different ones bought brand new over the years but have owned older ones in the past as well, and I did enjoy working on the older ones ( from time to time, not always?). It’s going to be fun riding along with you on this adventure, so to speak, and maybe we’ll all learn a thing or two about something for our own rigs that we may have to deal with in the future. By the way, nice job on the bilge cleanup. You’re off to a good start, keep up the posts, they’re fun to watch ??

Probably the best thing to do would be to buy a new house at the same time, a nice place where you can keep your boat nice and close ?

And makes the people that fish for them go absolutely bananas for several months! Here in central Ontario we still have 20-24” or more on most of the lakes. I was out on one yesterday and the shorelines are starting to rot pretty quick, as well as any pressure cracks are opening up. Great conditions for skating right now. I almost thought about trolling along a pressure crack with my skidoo but changed my mind ?. If the weather keeps going the way it is up here, we might be boating fairly early this year, which is just fine by me.

I do it like this as well when there’s no dock. Super easy, and takes almost no time to pull it up to shore and drop the talon so it doesn’t move anywhere when I’m parking. And usually at a launch where there’s no dock, there’s no one else launching anyway so I’ve got lots of time to unload and park.

I’m about 2-1/2 hours north of you so I can’t recommend too many places close to you but have you tried around the Toronto islands? I know some guys that get some nice pike there in the spring and good bass in the summer. Not sure about shore access but with a kayak or canoe you’d be able to get some fish I’m sure.

I’ve done well with red up here (Ontario), in the past. A red skirt/red double willow 1/2 oz spinnerbait screaming along just under the surface can be deadly for big, mean northern smallies. My partner and I won a pike tournament years ago ( big tournament, 100 boats), throwing large, red rattle traps over cabbage beds. We were right in the middle of about 20 other boats in one bay and would reel right up to the rod, lift it up as fast as we could and in one motion cast it back out so no one else could see what we were throwing. I culled pike almost nonstop for about an hour while my partner hauled em in one after another while almost no one else hooked up around us. Sometimes, they get on a certain colour and it can be lights out.

What are you running for a bowmount, 85000 volt? ?

I’ve had really good success with both the live target frog and sunfish. Seems like when they’re a little lockjawed the smaller sunfish will get a few more bites than the larger frog.

I was bitten pretty hard today, but it’s a nice upgrade. Sold the Helix 5 off the bow, moving the 9 up there and this guys going on the console.

Cute! Looks like me the last few months waiting for the ice to melt.

I’m fishing 24/7 ( in my head) ?. I’d say I’m similar to what A-Jay said for season length but not as many times a week due to that terrible four letter word - work! I do get out several times a month in winter for an ice fish, but lately I’ve been more lazy when it comes to drilling holes and freezing my butt off. If I never saw snow again, that’d be ok with me.

I’m in central Ontario and pretty much all the different colours work fine. The shad coloured ones are very similar to any natural lake shiners we have here and if there’s any smelt in the lake your fishing, they’re a pretty close match to them as well.

Not sure if it exactly fits the “squarebill” category, but I’ve had great success the last year or so with the Rapala scatter rap crank. Tight wobble, fairly quiet, and it has that weird “kick out” that seems to turn followers into eaters.