Way north bass guy

When I built my lean to last fall for the boat, I purposely added an outlet for the charger. It’s about 6’ off the ground in the side of the barn, and when parked in the lean to it’s about 5’ from my onboard charger to the outlet. I have a 10’ 10g cord that is used only for the charger to the outlet, and it hangs on a hook beside it when not being used. I can sit in the boat and reach over beside me to plug it in as soon as I park it in there at the end of the day. I don’t leave mine on the charger 24/7, just plug it in when I park and unplug the next morning.

We’ll have been at our new place 2 years this June. Haven’t done a tremendous amount of what I’d call true “landscaping”, but did get quite a bit done last summer. Built a new driveway into the barn, that I’ve turned into my workshop, added another storage addition to the back of it and a closed in lean to off the side for the boat. Built a 30’x15’ raised garden bed, and a new 15’x8’ year round insulated greenhouse, and my brother brought his tractor over and brush hogged our 10 or so acres of fields that hadn’t been touched in at least 7 years or so. This years outdoor list is to screen in the porch, and the wife and kid want a small chicken coop built for a few laying hens. Here’s a few before and after pics.

Haha, thanks. We got super lucky with timing here when we bought a couple years ago. 25 acres of mostly field, with a river full of bass that runs right through the middle of it, that’s only accessible by kayak from other nearby private lands. We built the greenhouse last fall and I had a second driveway added to the barn ( which I’ve turned into a workshop), built the lean to for the boat and the raised garden beds. Dead end road with about ten other seasonal cottages on it so there’s almost no traffic all year. We really are blessed with what we have, and those sunsets remind us of it every day.

All loaded up and ready to go for the first time this year! No bass fishing here yet, gonna do some trolling for lake trout. Weather has been fantastic for the last few days and supposed to stay that way for tomorrow too so it’ll be a good start to the season. Heck of a nice sunset tonight too!

You do realize @A-Jay literally made a career out of being in the coast guard right? I’m not saying I know all the rules about this particular thing ( I don’t have a jet boat and don’t run rivers or other areas in that manner), but I’m pretty sure he knows a thing or two about the subject.

If we’re out downrigging for salmon and trout we’ll often have a Bluetooth speaker and some not too loud tunes on while trolling, and occasionally I’ll put some tunes on on my phone, just on my case on my belt, but usually when I’m casting for bass I enjoy the peace and quiet of nature as my music.

I have several different colours in crankbaits, and a few more in jerkbaits, but nowadays I pretty much stick to three different colour types. Our lakes around here are pretty much all super clear, with 10-30’ visibility, so I stay pretty natural, either Shad/smelt colours, perch, or crayfish, depending on the lake and what I think they’re feeding on at the time.

About 20 years ago I was musky fishing on Georgian Bay, about a mile from where the Canadian record was caught in 1988 (65lbs). Was casting to the shoreline, and heard a splash behind me towards the open part of the bay. I turned around to see the largest tail I’ve ever seen in my life cutting through the surface almost like a shark. I figure it was either a massive sturgeon, or most definitely a new record musky. I cast to it until my arms were sore, but never saw it again. That was by far the largest freshwater fish I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and I can still vividly see it in my memory.

Well, didn’t get fishing today, but she did see the light of day for the first time in several months. Brand new trailer bearings and seals today, and all batteries installed. All she needs now is a pile of fishing gear loaded up and she’s ready to rock, hopefully next weekend!

First flower of the year!!! Now granted, it’s only a tiny, lowly dandelion growing up against the barn, but I’ll take it. Won’t be long and there’ll be tons of flowers around here, along with a million honey bees on them ( neighbour has a huge bunch of bees and sells honey all summer).

Happy birthday Lynn. Just keep doing what your doing, and enjoy every moment to the best of your abilities.

I have a DF140 on the back of my boat, bought it new in 2015. It’s been by far the best, most reliable outboard I’ve ever owned and I’ve had most of them over the years. Sips fuel, has an amazing amount of low and mid range torque, is super quiet and very minimal maintenance. I’m quite certain there’ll be a lot more fish pics in here well into the future of me with the ole zuke in the background.

Now this just doesn’t make sense to me. Please don’t take any offence to this, but have you not purchased literally anything lately? You say that car you bought right out of high school was $4800. You have a grandson that his old enough to drive, so that right there tells me either you had kids when you were like 12, or it’s been a few years since you graduated high school. I’m 43, and I can remember as a kid buying penny candy, and chocolate bars for less than a quarter, they’re much more than that now. I’m not saying things are all rosy, my current truck was $62000 sticker price when I bought it three years ago, and currently they want over $80G for the same one today, and things have gotten a bit crazy the last couple years for sure, but overall everything on this planet has gotten more expensive when you look at the prices compared to pretty much anytime in the past, especially the further back you go.

I just found some venison in the bottom of our freezer a few weeks ago that was “of older vintage”. Still good, just not as fresh as last falls meat. It went into one of the finest venison stews I’ve had in a while.

“ But oh no, you knew!”

They’re just using that to sharpen their teeth so that can eat through the rest of the house?

Well since we’re talking about teacup critters, here’s our teacup orca?

Just when @12poundbass thought he was gonna have more time this year to actually use his boat, he gets his hands more full again! Might as well just sell it now, that way you can devote all your spare time to proper moderation duties ?. Thanks for the work @J Francho, enjoy your extra time with family ?

When I used to fish team tournaments with my cousin years ago, we usually both stood at the front, never had any issues with hooking anyone. Sometimes while prefishing, especially in the spring for a pike tournament, my uncle would come along too. He’d always stay at the back, and we’d all be throwing different coloured jerkbaits to fallen trees for big post spawn pike. Pretty much every time he came with us, he’d outfish us 2-1. We’d toss our lures to a laydown several times, then he’d throw his in there after the laydown already seeing about 6 casts, and they’d hammer his jerkbait. Guess we just had to irritate the pike enough with our baits that they finally couldn’t take it and crushed his?.

That’s definitely true in a lot of cases, especially down where your fishing. Try that up here offshore for Georgian Bay smallmouth though and you’ll get a good sun tan and that’s about it ?.

I think this is something that can definitely help you most times, and I often do just that, but sometimes it pays to get outside of your comfort zone. I’ve always loved power fishing, big, faster moving baits on casting gear, and only occasionally used lighter line presentations. I finally started to make myself go offshore more often and use more finesse type stuff, and there are many times where that’s been the best way to get numbers of big fish. Had I stuck to my shallower, larger baits many days, I’d be coming home with a big ole skunk instead of a boatload of nice offshore bass.

Just a miserable day here today. Wind is howling, blowing snow sideways and it’s right around the freezing mark, but a quick walk out to our greenhouse made things feel a bit better. Got a whole feed of fresh peas for dinner tonight, and radishes are ready to start picking!

Corn fed venison!

^Ditto

That sucks, but think if it as maybe a good thing. With the water as low as it is you can set up some dandy structure in different spots, so when it does come up you’ll have some bass magnets to hit.