Way north bass guy

I’m a pretty good swimmer, have been since I was a kid. I was a typical bass guy, life jacket on while running in tournaments, off while casting, almost never on when not in a tournament. Never had any close calls or anything but then I had a kid. Once he was a couple years old, he was in the boat with us all the time and obviously he always has worn a life jacket. When he was about 4, I got the “ why do I wear a life jacket but not you dad”? It really made me think, if something ever happened, he’d be in a bad situation if he was floating around and his dad was at the bottom of the lake ( thinking the worse possibility here). I went right out and bought my first inflatable pfd, and I wear it constantly, with or without him in the boat now. Once you’ve worn them a time or two, you don’t even notice it on. I don’t know how anyone with kids onboard, good swimmer or not would go out without wearing one. And if you can’t swim, you need to seriously think about why your not using one.

This morning when I got up it was -34c outside, with the wind we’re getting right now, it’s only supposed to “warm up” to -22 with a -45 windchill. Just another day in “paradise”.

Run it in a barrel of cranberry juice for a few minutes! ?

I’ve busted through a few hundred yards of 2-3” thick honeycomb ice in the spring to get to open water to troll for lakers, it’s cool in the mornings but usually in the spring once the sun gets up higher and if the wind isn’t too bad, it can be pretty darn nice out, not to mention your likely to have the whole lake to yourself.

I’ve been fly fishing for smallies since I was about 14, mostly self taught, no pro by any means but I can get it out there fairly well and quietly. I don’t do it as often as I used to but it sure is fun when a big bronzeback slurps up a little popper and rockets skyward! The last few times I’ve used the fly rod, it’s been on a small lake near my house that’s full of largemouth. There’s definitely a bit more challenge with a fly rod in thick pads rather than the baitcaster but it is fun getting them on small weedless poppers, just have to up the leader size a bit and take your time with them.

About 4 years ago around my place we had an old fashioned true winter, I was out with my son for lakers, and with my power auger I just barely made it through the ice, it has a 48” long auger on it so I guess you could say we were pretty safe to walk there ?

Thanks guys, I did find one on my own though that is perfect for a simple guy like me ?. It’s called image resize+, does one pic at a time and you can drag your finger across a range bar to get it down to exactly the size you need ( like 1.46mb for instance ?).

I’d love to crack 6+ for a smallie this year, I catch em up to 5+ every year and I’ve hit right on 6 once. This summer I lost two right at the boat that were easily over 6, guess I’ll have to try to find them next year.

Well after a fun, successful 2017, I’ve chosen my two favourite pics from my season. The last couple of years my son has really gotten into fishing more, now that he’s 8, he can cast a lot better and is more interested in actually catching something, and he’s done fairly well too ( although he’s still just as happy to sit on the back deck and read a book for a few hours as well). With that in mind, here’s my favourite couple, hope everyone else has a great new year and is able to make some memories with their favourite fishing partner! Here’s the other one. Teaching the finer points of frogging ?

Parry Sound.

Welcome from another fairly new member from Ontario! Whereabouts do you roam in this fine province?

I’m trying to figure out the best/most simple app to shrink down photos to load on this site, I’ve been just emailing them to myself at a smaller size, but the quality isn’t always that great. I know there’s a million apps out there, and I don’t do the Facebook/Instagram stuff so I don’t need something to upload 1000s of pics a day, just want to show some decent fishing pics that don’t look like they’re 60 years old ?.

Haha, too much time! With the lakes froze up until April, and most bass seasons around here not open until June, I’ve come up with goals, forgot them, re-imagined them and forgot them again. Oh well, there’s always ice fishing to keep the mind from wandering too far, and big fat lakers once the ice leaves the lakes.

Parry Sound, I fish all over from the kawarthas up to Elliot Lake but mostly around home. I also spend quite a bit of time working and fishing on the Muskokas as well. Some pretty good bass around here and most lakes have almost no pressure to them.

Can’t say about Diawa’s, never owned one but I do have a couple Pfluegers and a trion for my wife and she abuses it pretty good, after 5 years it still works as good as day one.

You guys down south have got it made! Up here in central Ontario this morning was -35c ( -30f for southerners). And that’s not adding in the wind chill! It was so cold this morning, I could see the breath coming off the small birds at our feeder outside ?

Got one of these beauties from Santa, perfect for one of my pitchin sticks. Looked so nice I ordered another one today!

“When in doubt, set the hook!” also “ hook sets don’t cost anything”.

I had a 78 Starcraft for a workboat for a few years, it was a wonderful rig for what I needed it for, and man, ya gotta love the 70s oranges and puke brown and green colours! ?

Boat 99% canoe or shore the other 1%.

Small lakes around my place all have ice on them, medium and large are not far off. We’ve got over a foot of snow the last couple days though so that’ll slow the ice making on the already closed over lakes, although they’re calling for -29 deg.C with the wind chill for the next couple days so that might help with the lakes that are still open.

Where I am ( Parry Sound, On.), our local snow making machine ( Georgian Bay), has been pounding us with squalls for three days now. Busses have been cancelled half the week and there been lots of shoveling and snowblowing. This is typical for December and January until the bay freezes over and stops pumping moisture into the air. And as a guy that loves to bass fish, IT IS NOT FUN! But I did get the skidoo out today so I guess I’ll make the best of it, won’t be long till I’m drilling holes in the lake for a trout or two.

Man, do I ever know that feeling ?. Had an older work boat that I only used occasionally to fish out of, reached down to grab my flipping rod and “crunch”! Not a nice moment all.

Born and raised in Parry Sound, On. Hometown of the greatest hockey player to ever live, Bobby Orr. Grew up about 20 min. out of town on a 120 acre hobby farm with lots of bush around and only 20 min. to Georgian Bay and 10 min. to the Muskoka Lakes with dozens of smaller lakes all around me. An absolutely beautiful, quiet place ( except for some tourists in the summer), and a wonderful place to grow up as a young boy that was stricken very hard with the fishing bug.

Having lived my whole life about 3 hours north of Toronto, On. I can say I’ll take less snow any day! It’s fun to run the snowmobile and I like ice fishing, but it sucks for working in and I’d rather be bassin in my boat. I do love it when I see somewhere down south gets like 3” of snow and the entire place shuts down like it’s under attack from aliens or something ?. Up here it’s just another day, I’ve had to snowblow 30” out of the driveway in the morning so we can get to work, only to have to do it all over again once I get home at the end of the day.