Way north bass guy

I have a 80lb terrova and absolutely love it. The foot pedal is super low to the floor, there’s two sets of buttons to turn it, two are right at the bottom at the back and all you need is a toe to use them. It’s nice at the end of the day when you’ve stood on two level feet instead of one higher than the other. As for turning speed, I’ve owned both kinds over the years and don’t see that much of a difference, it’s not like your usually moving the thing too much either way anyway.

My son and I went out with my cousin and his two girls today. Caught a bunch of small lake trout, had about 14” of ice where we were. No monster fish today but the kids absolutely wore themselves out all day trying to climb the “ice falls”. Luckily for us dads, they couldn’t get to an unsafe height, but they sure did try ?

12’ “tinny” with a carpeted, removable front casting deck, minnkota 40lb bowmount, a clamped on rear rudder made of plywood to keep the back end from swaying and an eight year old for ballast ?

Best smallie in the boat was just over 5, on a drop shot Berkley gulp 4” minnow, smelt colour Best largemouth also just above 5, green pumpkin Berkley power thief flipped into a small cabbage bed.

Got the first of many “winter goodies” to show up in the mail today, no bass fishing for me for quite a while yet so I guess I’ll just buy more stuff?

For in the boat I really like the Berkley soft bait binders, I can sort binders by type of plastic and keep them in closed bags or the original bags to keep the scent fresh. I use a lot of powerbaits and I’ve tried them in boxes in the past and they seem to lose some of their “stank” over time. I have several different binders and can grab whichever one I need for a certain lake or if in the smaller boat just grab whatever I need for that outing.

When Berkley came out with the power craw years ago, I caught hundreds of bass, both species with them either Texas rigged or on a jighead. If I wanted a smaller profile, just bit some of the worm end off a bit. I’ve probably caught twice as many fish on craw type baits than on jigs over the years, but it’s mostly because I’ve used craws more ( confidence thing).

Thanks Glenn for the info and clearing up the whole *** thing for me as well, I’m sure I read all the faq’s before I started doing much on here but my tiny brain does tend to miss some things from time to time ?

I never even thought about that, I’m fairly new to this site and don’t want to stir up any trouble ?. Thanks for the responses so far though, I’ll check some of them out ( don’t tell my wife though ?).

Being at least an hour from any decent tackle stores, I’m starting to order more stuff online. Even if the shipping is a bit more, it’s still better than a tank of gas. Aside from the usuals, TW, Amazon, eBay, BPS, Cabelas etc. is there any other good places to find tackle/gear. What’s everyone’s favourites?

It’s a 12’. I’ve owned three different “nice” fishing boats over the years, a Triton bass boat, a Lund pro v and this one and they’ve all been pretty much the same colour combination . Something about a big, shiny, black rig that just turns heads!

I have the same one on my Smokercraft 18.5’, just don’t have the tilt bracket, don’t even notice it on there weight wise. I’ll never own another boat without one on it.

I’m also not brand loyal. I have just about every brand out there, although I’ve owned more quantums over the years than anything else. Still have a few that are over 20 years old and still going strong.

I thing being a “good angler” is different in everyone’s mind. Personally I would say your into the “good” category when you can find and catch fish on any body of water, and lately for me, it’s been a personal quest to try as many new lakes as I can. I really enjoy running around a new lake, checking out the shoreline and offshore stuff, then trying to dissect the lake to figure out where the best number and size of bass are given the season. Anyone can hit their home lake and usually find fish, but not everyone can launch on a new lake and figure it out easily. When you find the mother load, that’s when it gets really satisfying.

Ice shifts with temp changes, when the sun hits it, and when weight shifts on it. When it’s only 4” thick, it’ll move in the holes from someone walking by it. I’ve seen it move around on 12-20” of ice when a truck or snowmachine goes by the holes. And it’ll make some god awful noise when it’s real cold and making ice, especially in a big lake. Not usually an issue.

Shouldn’t be a problem, I use quite a few different plastics for lake trout through the ice, sometimes the air temps are -20-30c on the way out. Never had a problem with them and some have seen many trips out onto the ice and back.

I’ve had great success with both sizes of Strike King KVD jerkbaits ( shallow runners). They’ll go deeper than what your looking for but I often run them over shallow weedbeds and lay downs, just gotta keep the rod tip up. Lots of action on them too.

I’ve had good success with the live target frog and their bluegill. I find sometimes the bluegill gets a few more bites when they’re “off” a bit, as it’s got a smaller profile than the frog ( at least the larger one anyway).

I love it. Had it on my 19’ Smokercraft the last 3 years and absolutely no problems at all, lots of power in the wind and nice and quiet. I always use the foot pedal, never been much of a “remote” guy. I mostly use the smaller buttons at the lower end of the pedal, all you need is a little tap from one toe and you hardly have to lift your foot or look at the motor.

I have the same charger from BPS( I’m assuming), and it works great for my 24v terrova. Even after a hard days use it’s good to go the next early morning.

Works for me too. I’ve also used BPS xps fluoro the last couple of years and it seems to work well for me, everything from 12 lb up to 20.

I got my 8 year old a daisy red Ryder this Christmas, I had one at his age and that was my entire life in the summer back then, well that and fishing ?

All Smokercrafts have something similar, not only are they great for a swim in the middle of the lake with the kids, but they can save lives. Far as I’m concerned, all boats should have something like this on them.

Only about 20% of my rods have braid on them, but they’re all 832. I’ve never had an issue with it and a couple rods have had the same line on for about 3 years now. Can’t go wrong with it.

Warmed up to a balmy -20c this afternoon so the kid and I went out for a bit of shovelling and “fresh air”. We have over 2’ of snow now ( normal for here), so we made a sweet fort! Definitely not bass fishing weather!