The Baron

One trip to Brennan’s in New Orleans for turtle soup with a glass of wine, and you’ll change your mind. ?

Well, that’s a crappy way for a working man to (late) start his year.☹️

So, my son and I spent a couple days at a friends cottage on the weekend. We’ve been there a few times this summer and done some fishing. I’m trying to figure out the lake in a 14ft. tinner with no electronics and no trolling motor, just contour maps and my best guesses. So far, it’s been hit and miss. We’ve tried frogging and other surface lures, wacky rigged senkos, Texas rigged worms for largemouth and crankbaits, surface plugs and mostly drop-shotting for smallies. Most times we go out (a couple hours at a time, usually) we catch a handful of small bass - most less than a pound. We have caught some better fish including a +/- 2.5lb. largemouth. My friend is not a fisherman at all and has gotten to teasing me with pictures of local kids catching some nice bass and an old book full of b&w photos of big bass. Every time we come back he wants to know how we did and laughs when we give about the same answer. It’s actually started to get annoying. This weekend, their nieces boyfriend (probably about in his late 20’s) was there. He enjoys fishing and his lady had bought him a Walmart spinning combo and a box of assorted hooks and carnival coloured grubs. Literally a kids fishing outfit. He was fishing off the dock so I said hey, let’s go out in the boat. Super nice guy, but he had no idea what he was doing. He routinely forgot to open his bail to cast and was fishing with a plastic grub on a hook with a couple small split shot on the line about 2” above. He could only cast about 15ft. and his line looked like probably 15# mono with lots of coils going out into the water. I caught several of my usual tiny smallmouth, he caught a couple rock bass. But a very nice guy and we had fun chatting. Anyway… my son and I left Sunday night. My buddy texted me a picture of their guest holding about a 3# smallmouth last night, laughing and saying there are big bass in the lake so next time we come up his nieces boyfriend will take me out and show me how to catch them. I know it’s hilarious. And I’m really happy for his exciting catch. But, holy cow it’s annoying! ?

Yes. The MaxScent Flat Nose minnow has met or exceeded our flat worm results on Lake Ontario and consistently out fishes similar non MaxScent stuff. I’ve not tried the hit worm.

He’s got some good girth. Probably weighs up more than you think. ?

Very nice! Super exciting on topwater, too.?

I have asked myself that question a few times. But, my curse is that when I do anything, I like to dive deep and there's a lot more information available nowadays to learn from. Learning is part of the challenge for me and, if I can get through this learning curve, is very much part of the fun. My repertoire as a youngster was extremely limited - period-correct topwater (Hula Popper, Jitterbug or a Heddon Drying Flutter Spook, usually), a Rapala F13, J11 or FatRap, the odd spoon or spinner and a Mister Twister jig or spin jig. That worked fine where/when I grew up, fishing in Lakes that would now be considered essentially zero pressure. All the "real" anglers wanted walleye or lake trout to eat. For some reason, I fell in love with catch and release smallmouth - I think because they were accessible, aggressive, great fighters... and (let's be honest here) took no real skill to find or catch in those days/places. I used to cast around the shore or troll not far off shore. I had no idea what structure fishing was, nor did we ever have electronics or look at a lake controur map. To say I was a very simple fisherman would be totally fair - but that's all it took back then/there. I would argue that the fish have indeed changed, for me at least. When I was fishing back lakes, a 4# smallmouth was a monster and you wouldn't find many smallmouth fisherman who had a PB much over that. Now I live further south and can fish Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, where a 6#+ is a very real possibility. There's also good largemouth fishing here, which is new to me and I'm learning from scratch, so why not learn to be good at it and make use of the modern ways? Heck, I never fished with any kind of rubber when I was a kid except the Mister Twisters, so never mind modern - I'm a total greenhorn at that basic stuff. That's a bit of an expansion, but the short answer to your question is... for personal satisfaction in getting better at something I enjoy - even if it does involve a lot of growing pains.

I do goober all my knots and try not to cinch them down too fast. I also visually inspect and tug test all my knots. I may just be cursed. Which is fine, but I don’t want to pass it down to my son.

I’m getting extremely tired of using the “wrong” knot and losing stuff. I’m back into fishing after a very long interruption - I pretty much got straight off a smallmouth fishing time machine from the late 80’s. lol. I came from a world of 8# Stren mono, where we tied our Hula Poppers and floating Rapala’s with an improved clinch knot. In fact, it was the only knot my father taught me and all we ever used. But, we knew enough to respool our Mitchell 300’s with fresh line every spring and to retie our snap swivel at least weekly. We never lost a lure or fish due to a newly-tied knot failing. Ever. Now I’m learning to be a modern angler, using braid and fluoro. I’ve lost lures, fish… and a good chunk of my mind learning what knots to use/not use. I’ve lost fish and cast away entire dropshot rigs learning the double uni knot to connect our leaders. I tie a solid one now, but hearing those rake through the guides and perusing YouTube, I decided I must learn the FG knot. First time I successfully tied a super sexy FG, it tested great in the house… then pulled out on a dandy smallmouth on my first cast.? So, back to the double uni and reduced casting distance I went. I was happy to read I could get away from leaders for frogging… then cast a frog away with an improved clinch knot. A young fishing friend then said yeah, that’s the wrong knot for braid.? So… I learned the palomar knot. Then my son and I both lost fish and a couple drop shot hooks in the same day. I went back to the improved clinch knot temporarily… and that failed us too. I texted my young friend and he says yeah, those knots aren’t good for fluorocarbon.☹️ So… I learned the Trilene knot. Then we lost a couple more fish and when I was pretty much ready to go jump of a bridge, my friend said we probably just had a bad roll of fluoro - apparently, that’s a thing. So I replaced our leader material and we’re doing better, although the emotional scars may be permanent. Today, I was geared up for some exciting topwater action with a 12# mono leader on 30# braid. I thought about using the old tried and true improved clinch knot from my youth, but no… I’m gonna do “better” and use the Trilene knot. About 15 beautiful casts in, I watch my brand new Yo Zuri Pencil 125 sail freely out into Lake Ontario because my knot at the lure slipped. Of course, we’re shore fishing so that’s that (I thought about swimming, but my wife would kill me if I drowned trying to retrieve a lure). Really, I feel like I’m playing whack-a-mole with knots.? There’s no question here, but I guess there is some “what didn’t work” lessons. I never knew I’d need a PhD in knots to make use of all this new fangled gear. ?

You weren't totally skunked - you got a drum. Always good to feel a fish on the line.? Sounds like a nice recovery though.?

If you’re dropshot fishing on a very rocky bottom, here’s an idea that’s helped us. After losing a lot of both round and cylinder weights fishing on the deep edge of a blasted limestone breakwater, a friend came up with the idea to use these soft lead pencil weights. Bent like a piece of macaroni, the shape gets snagged in the rocks less often and, when it does, will usually just straighten out and pull free (I’ve been tying our weights on with a double overhand knot - weaker than the knots above, but not so weak that the weights slip off with every snag).

We’re running very low (1 pack left) of the Flat Worms, so I bought a pack of the MaxScent Flatnose Minnows for dropshotting. First day out with them, we we’re getting bit right on the drop and had a great day on Lake Ontario including my son landing a 5lb. 7oz. smallie. I was right back in the store buying up 1/2 doz. bags the same day. ??

I’ve certainly never thought of a boat as an investment, but you’re right they do seem to have kept marching up in value the last few years.

I considered both spybaits and heavier jerkbaits, but we have to retrieve a good portion of the cast back to us in about 2-1ft. of water, over zebra mussel coated rocks. Any bait that runs more than about 1ft. and doesn’t float up will have us dragging our leader over that and cause a lot of need to replace the leader - or worse.

Awesome! Looks like a great place to be.

100%. I grew up fishing back lakes in central Ontario and Algonquin Park. I caught lots of smallmouth, but that was a place/time when 4-something was a monster. We’d usually catch lots of 2-3# fish and by guesstimation only my PB is 4-ish. I got distracted by hunting and then just “life” and missed out on about 25 years of fishing. Now I’m back in, learning together with my son about how much has changed and his interest only serves to fuel mine. I “found” this spot by looking at lake contour maps and to figure it out then see my son land the biggest bass I’ve ever seen in person was a very proud and happy moment. ?

Update… I found a great shore spot on Lake Ontario. After dialling it in a bit, my son absolutely smashed his PB smallmouth with a 5lb.7oz. NOW he’s a bass angler.??

Yes, pretty much. Identified about a 20yard long section where we cast out and several times got a decent bite almost right away. To the left, right or closer in… tiny fish or nothing.

I’m looking for recommendations on a spook or similar topwater bait for large smallmouth on Lake Ontario - something that will cast extremely far as I’m stuck fishing from shore. I’m after the 4lb+ class smallies, feeding in clear water off a ledge we can just reach with a good cast - the further the better to keep us out in the strike zone longer. And, keeping in mind if we get bit it will be a good distance out, what type of rod/reel/line setup would you want?

Well, the biggies do come in there. Caught a 3+ myself today, buddy missed a dandy blowup on a spook and my son crushed his PB with a 5lb7oz tank.? Cloudy, light NE wind. I think we’re onto a specific spot than produced all our big bites.

We’re shore fishing and I found a spot that I thought might have promise. It’s along the edge of a slight bay in Lake Ontario with a very long boulder shoreline/storm break. A generic lake contour map showed a moderately steep slope there, out to 15-20ft. of water so I had dreams of being able to cast to that depth. We visited it tonight and found what seems to be a limestone slab/rocky bottom out as far as we could cast a drop shot rig. I’d estimate the water depth was no more than 4-5ft. at that distance, but we got bites right away and caught 6 little smallies (6-8”) in about 15 minutes. So, worth some more investigation. Water depth is about 1ft. near shore and the slope looks a lot more gradual than I was hoping. Water temperature feels like a bath near shore - at least 80 deg, but I’m sure it gets cold pretty quickly out in the big lake. I’ve heard experienced Lake O. smallmouth anglers saying they’ll come up into very shallow water on sunny days, to hunt by sight. My Q is, how likely do you think that could happen in this spot, considering 20-30ft. of water is very close? Maybe the right idea, but wrong time of the year? Here’s the spot to give some idea what I’m talking about… (yes, I blotted out the street names. lol). Depth contours are in metres - welcome to Canada, eh.

This is my expectation/hope as well. I’m quite happy with a modest used boat… just don’t want to pay an inflated sum for it.

I was very close to buying a nice used 17ft. Bass Tracker in spring 2019, but decided to “play it safe” and save a little more. COVID pricing then hit in 2020 and used boat prices doubled, or more.? Decent boats have been selling at more than what guys paid for them 5++ years ago, and hard used older boats have been getting pulled out of back yards and barns to be sold for ridiculous prices. I’ve seen ads literally saying things like “minor leaks”, carpet and/or seats could “use replacing” (pic shows them heavily torn and split) and “motor ran fine last time it was used…”, of course selling “as is” and at prices higher than what I was looking at for a well cared for boat in 2019. New boat lots are basically the empty and new outboard motors are pretty much on back order until 2022 with no promises on deliver dates. I’m finally starting to see the market cooling off up here (I’m in Ontario, Canada), so there may be hope for next year. What have boat prices been doing in the US? I’m wondering if shopping State-side might actually be a better place to find a fair deal? Do you think used boat prices will come back to “normal” in the foreseeable future?

My son and I popped out for a quick shore fishing trip this week and he caught a 15” largemouth that I guesstimated at 2.5-ish pounds. We were both very excited about it, as this was his PB largemouth. I know they’re hyped to death, but we’re finding the Berkley MaxScent Flatworms really are producing during the “dog days”.

I’m pretty new to this, but am using a 3/0 Owner EWG J Hook that looks about prefect. A 2/0 would work too, but might me a bit tight for hook sets. A 4/0 looks too long. Here’s a pic with hooks (top to bottom) being an Eagle Claw 4/0 EWG, Owner 3/0 J Hook and Eagle Claw 2/0.