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As far as saving lures from snags another method is to do everything that dave524 says except instead of the wooden plank use a red and white bobber with a bell sinker on the red end (it will hang on the spring loaded wire). Like Dave says the bobber will carry your line past the snag and a few tugs will pull your lure from the opposite direction. I fish the lower (Whirlpool, Pebbly Beach) backbouncing with pencil lead and this technique has saved me hundreds of $$$. I call it rescue 911 for lures. I was down to the Niagara after bass opener and the water at that time was incredibly high even before 8:10 am ( the time that the water comes up 40 feet or so traditionally). Signs said the path is closed and literally at some points the water was up to and covering the lower path. That's really high. I have not been down since but maybe someone can chime in as to how the water level is currently. Personally I do best when the water level is much lower with the Whirlpool going counter clockwise. When it's high the Whirlpool goes clockwise. This year virtually all of the places I fish have been ruined by high water.

Works best when you have heavy current like the upper Niagara. When snagged, clip the snap swivel on your line at the rod tip, work the stick downstream of the snag while you remain upstream , once the stick is at the snag feed some slack so when you tug it is pulling from the opposite direction and usually that will free it, if it don't and you break it off the stick is gone so carry a spare, but with Cleo's going for $5 a pop it's worth a try. No different than getting snagged when trolling from a boat, in most cases if you go back in the direction you came and pull from the opposite direction , it will easily come free.

The St. Clair river at Sarnia can get quite busy with both large lake freighters and commercial fishing boats and fishing/recreational boats. And you can add Coast Guard boats also.

No mention of the zippers being down on their '' trousers '' either !!

Thats alot of bacon Interesting the time they take to make and no nitrates,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Nick I vertical jig lakers with a 1000 series Sustain and 6lb Nanofil. Haven't been spooled yet, you'll be fine.

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/82464/shimano-stradic-fk-spinning-reels 140 yds of 4 lb. and only 7 lbs of drag, that's pretty tiny, I'd feel better with the 2500 or 3000 with 20 lbs of drag and heavier line.

I admire you going by yourself. Damn, I have to come over with my yak one day.

Nice fish indeed. I liked your crack of dawn shots at the beginning!!!

Nice fish

Any idea what the statistics are? I can't really recall the last time I heard of someone drowning and read the words "they were wearing a PFD" in the same story. The occasional "had PFD in vessel but not on body" comes up. This, unfortunately, is the safest bet in unsafe boating practices.

Nick, I always keep an eye open for used Shimano Sustain FEs.. To me you aren't going to find a better reel for the price. I've got 2 now, a 1000 and a 3000. Kijiji and Ebay

A few weeks back me and two good friends did a trip 5 years in the making. We have himmed and hawwed made excuses over the years this that and the other but we finally made it to Nipigon. Its an intimidating lake, no known charts, shoals that literaly jump out of 200 fow , not many campsites marked, water is cold as sin and a few hundred km from anywhere. But over the years seeing a few reports here and there of the monsters that lurk we couldn't resist the urge any longer. We left on a Friday night drove through the night and arrived around noon at the launch of our wildest dreams. The lake was flat we , explored a bit and found a suitable site about 10 km from the ramp. 2 trips to haul our gear and fuel for the week , a few hours to set up camp and the wind picked up. It would not let up for 48 hours along with a relentless driving rain. We managed the odd boat ride here and there but with 39 degree water temps , 10 degree air temps and white caps everywhere we were not pushing our luck. We managed a few Brookies from shore and a billion annoying pike but this was not what we signed up for. We hunkered down in our bugtent/tarp Igloo of sorts and rode out the storm. She was not going to give it up easy. 2 days later the rain lifted our beer and whiskey supply's severely depleted we had the itch to fish hard. The winds still strong for the next 2 days we were bound to the sheltered side of islands but we covered miles and miles of fishe'y looking shoreline picking up the odd Brookie here and there about a million annoying pike. Even managed the odd accidental Laker in 10 Fow on Brookie gear it wasen't till the 4th evening till we kinda figured them out. We managed a 25.5' and a 22" 10 min apart along with a few other fish that would be trophy's in any lake but this . We had been hovering around the marine radio for days on end at this point and on the 4th evening we got the news we had been watiing for. For the next two days the lake was a pancake and we could roam as we pleased. It was pure bliss putting over 150 km on the boat fishing the most ridiculous Brookie shoals / bays, / points known to man. PS.whitefish are annoying. you think you have a trophy Brookie on and its a dirty whitefish we must have caught 50 in 5-10 fow. For a First time on a rather intimidating , massive, and scary at times lake we felt like we learned allot, dealt with the cold water temps and picky fish and cant wait to get back and explore the 95%of the lake we haven't seen. You only get one ride in life, get out there , explore, and enjoy. Fish Porn in no particular order

https://www.cdc.gov/easternequineencephalitis/index.html

They are all good as long as it says "Shimano" on them. I have a Shimano 1200 that cost me less than 30 bucks USD, It's 35 years old. Looks beat up but works like new. That thing has been used ice fishing in northern Manitoba and bushwhacked into Canadian and US jungles that looks like The Mekong Delta.