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Hey Guys, 2020 eh? lol when we last left off, the boat ramps had just opened up and I was on a bit of a heater as far as fishing was going, maybe it was the least the "fish gods" "god" "vishnu" "yaweh" or whatever you believe in throwing me a bone. 2020 had its rough moments, the loss of an uncle, the loss of a best friend's father, the literal close to total isolation from the people I love fishing with so much, and last on this pile was some late season boat troubles (as you may of already heard me complain about in other threads) 2020 however also did include some absolutely incredible highs which I hope to summarize in the review below so without further adieu its once again AKRISONER's (Ae-Kree-One-Ers) (or Scott's as some of you now know me by) Annual Review Thankful to once again have my own boat in the drink bass season quickly approached, but this one was a strange one. What is usually a tradition of my best friend's dad and his best friend and another one of my best friends having a small family fishing derby provided us with a complete mix in the plans. I sure missed the regular post derby drinks and barbecue next day group fish that we normally do on bass opener, but these year we shook it up. Agreed to create separate teams with no interaction, launch at a public launch and fish with one partner only for the derby and no fishing after. A small delay had us show up at the ramp on Chemong...and covid gave me the first taste of what the 2020 boating season was going to look like. 5:30 in the morning and we had an hour wait at the ramp. When we inevitably blasted off for our small derby it was already 7:30 in the morning! Sure enough almost every single spot was had planned to fish already had at least 1 boat on it. Oh boy, spot one we didnt get a sniff and I thought, oh boy here we go, move over to spot two and theres one high end bass boat out off of it, but we pull in 150 yards down the bank and start fishing when another high end bass boat comes roaring in and stops and i hear "hiiiii chrissssssss" from the original boat (chris apparently) replies...busy out here aint it? and takes off. I sit for a second wait a minute? Holy crap that was Bass Master Elite Chris Johnston fishing Buckhorn on bass opener. 10 seconds later im tossing a chatterbait and i catch a fish...a good omen Chris was, we ended up continuing to catch fish all day and beat our buddies in our derby by 6lbs. Slept in a tent that night on my buddies lawn, already missing the regular comradery that we normally would have post tournament...this year was going to be different indeed. An annual tradition, Georgian bay opener for the week followed. But instead of one of my friends joining me for the week, this time I would be spending a heck of a lot more time guiding my family and showing them why the opener is such a special time on the bay. my GF's first ever smallmouth A couple of days in and looking for someone to chat with while i fished, i convinced my 66 year old mother to get in the bass boat with me and fish some evening topwater smallies, unsure at first...i scared the hell out of her driving 50mph through the channels and put her on some fish. sharing my love for topwater smallies, she immediately fell in love with watching them strike and setting the hook as well. The smile says it all Heck even i catch a fish from time to time My brother reading our texts and seeing the photos I was sending out got jealous. He sent me a message along the lines of "if I pack up the family and come up north, do you actually 100% think you could put Owen (my 7 year old nephew) on some bass? And maybe get me to catch a big smallmouth as well?" my reply was simply "yup" Sure enough he arrived mid day just as I was taking my first dunk into the pads for some largies...he texted me "are you close by" my reply was "yes im literally 1 minute away and I just caught my PB largemouth" I put the big girl in my livewell to show the kids back at the dock and get a decent photo. My nephew then hopped in the boat with me and we boogied back to where I had just caught the big girl and released her. We then continued to fish and my job was easy...Owen at 7 years old, far too smart and wise for his age was calm cool and collected. Followed my instructions to a T and barely showed any over excitement as he reeled in his first largemouth. Im pretty certain I was more excited than he was lol The following day I took my brother out for a fish for that big smallie he was looking for. The fish as they do through that opener week were already starting to transition off of the ledge out a bit deeper, the bite was pretty off and I started thinking "oh boy am I not going to be able to deliver?" at the end of a stretch I wanted to fish I was starting to explain why it can sometimes be tough to be on the fish as they transition out into their late spring set up when Steve hooked up with his PB and first "good" smallie The nights in the spring although filled with bugs for one reason or another can provide some of my favourite fishing weather of the season, warm but not too warm and calm calm calm perfect for low light topwater. This particular evening the bugs were starting to come down and Dawn was starting to get mad at my reluctance to leave to save her some mosquito bites, but I approached a spot that I just knew that on a night exactly like this, at this exact time of year, with these water temperatures was going to have a good fish on it (man I am going to miss knowing the lake like this) but sure enough just as dawn was about to push me into the lake and drive the boat home herself I convinced her to cast up near one rock with the popper...twitch twitch twitch...I say to dawn "wait, let it sit for a second"...and as i finish saying it, a perfect full breaching topwater strike occurs. not so mad anymore...she still wasnt convinced it was worth the bug bites lol back to my squatting home in Georgetown, Dawn and I took care of my parents house over the summer while they continued to live up north. I've never been a big cat guy, but my gf's cat was now living with us and needless to say the cat has absolutely fallen in love with me. He is quite literally sleeping up against my laptop as I write this post Summer was in swing and a trip booked a year earlier finally arrived, it was my second time getting out with Taro Murata except this time it was July, we had dreams of catching an absolutely monster bag and even learning some of the finer points of largemouth fishing from a true pro. Taro self proclaimed, loves fishing largemouth...and because of him my appreciation for them has grown immensely. They are a very technical fish to catch consistently, heck the skipping lessons and clinic put on for us in the boat showed me just how far I have to go as a bass angler. Man was it absolutely stinking hot (we were on the very tail end of that ridiculous July Heat wave storms actually ended our day after 11.5 hours but taro was still willing to fish had the frequent lightning approaching not booted us off of the lake.) Sharing the front of the boat with the legend himself is an absolute riot. Taro is hilarious, and mannnnn can he catch em. Part of the deal from the get go was that we wanted to try and find some of those absolute monster simcoe smallies...easy work for taro even with them being absurdly spooky Adjusting to my new life back in the burbs countless hours were spent with my boat back in the driveway getting cleaned, tackle getting organized, I was really getting used of the idea of having the boat at home to play with even off of the water. Mid summer came and my other brother decided to bring my nephew up for a bit of fishing. The bite in august is always challenging, the fish transition so much through the the day that sometimes you begin to question your ability to catch em. In weird fashion and something I do with somewhat strange regular occurrence, the middle of the afternoon sunny hot day jerkbait produced some walleye for me and a couple of smallies for my nephew. He became really good with the ned rig. Better than a lot of adults ive tried to show. With the smallie fishing being tough, i spent a lot of time cruising open water, finding pockets of fish here and there, but I was grinding bigger water My attention decided to turn back to fishing those largies...my love for flippin em growing with every catch. Me also loving sharing my learnings on how to catch them consistently. My brother with his pb largie Flooded G bay...ya its high ...has created an absolutely awesome timber fishing...shhhh dont tell the smallies, but flippin a jig into wood for buckets might be my favourite way to fish now a couple of flips of the jig, a couple of swamp donkeys Another small covid safe derby organized by the boys, a pre derby 1 week quarantine and a pre fish with my buddy Dave I was really missing fishing with the guys and was just thankful for the opportunity to get out one time, even if it meant sleeping in a tent on their lawn. during pre fish a first for me happened, and funny enough it happened right in front of the property owner, I had never even seen this done in person, but lucky for me it happened on my rod. The owner was pretty amazed and so was I. The next two will have to be bigger. Man what a strange fight. If you can believe it, the next day Dave my tourney partner did again, except with two species lol what the heck are the odds?! September rolled in and as always my focus switched back to those bait chasing smallies. As is the rule, find the bait, find wolfpacks I took this photo and not 30 minutes later I took the second photo. In hindsight that may have been one of, if not the best day of smallmouth fishing I had ever had in my entire life. With Cooler temperatures, the fish were putting on weight, I exploring some new water very near one of my honey holes stumbled upon a spot that will go down in the legends of my mind...It was so damn good from the end of september and into Late october that I every time I went out fishing, id convince myself I was going to fish somewhere else and then would end up back fishing the exact same damn spot. Me on my way to the spot after getting skunked elsewhere lol After one weekend of absolutely cracking fish after fish after fish throwing a DT-10 my brother wanting in on the action i convinced him to come and give it a try and this PB tells the story My old man popped a couple as well Hearing about the consistency I was catching them, my other close fishing buddy jake debated making the three hour drive up with his boat for some two boat social distancing fishing. The day trip was well worth the 6 hours of driving as he also proceeded to crack his own PB as well! the pickerel were even joining in on the feedbag With my 3rd minkotta in 2 years now busted entirely, my bass season came to a somewhat of abrupt end. Things were cooling off anyways so my old man and I would take his boat out for trips for a fall favourite walleye run. A bit too early for the goods, I convinced my old man out of the river and into the basin. If the walleye weren't cooperating at least some smallmouth came to pay us a visit [ It got really hot and here I was winterizing my boat with the guns out? Man changing your lower end oil in 25 degree weather is nice lol Then the weather really turned. We fished some of the most miserable weather I have ever fished, 0 degrees and pouring rain and sleet with gail winds and really really really slow fishing. I thought to myself, this grind has got to pay off these conditions are so ridiculous that even the normal crowd of boats fishing the run was dwindled down from the usual 30+ boats down to 3! having just about had enough that old familiar thunk hit my line, i set the hook and the weight even surprised myself considering we were really struggling to get any bites at all. The next day my old man poked a beauty of his own too it was somewhat of a farewell from Pointe au Baril...through all of this my parents made a decision to make a move permanently to Carling Ontario on blind bay in Parry Sound. Ill admit I was pretty apprehensive even to the idea at first, but in some kind of universe controlled way, the timing of everything worked out perfectly and wouldn't you know it, my girlfriend and I were able to buy the house we had been squatting in over the past 7 months. The new place my parents have at the lake is absolutely incredible, my first morning at the place I woke up to this on our front lawn My house has also kept me very busy...the important stuff like the furnace and roof and windows have been done, but the decor screams 1996 in some spots still. I stay busy changing rooms from this to this but most importantly in any house...and the real reason for moving from the city is this 😏 Ive learned a lot about residential electrical the past few months too, I love the garage lighting. Ran new line to new boxes and added under overhead lighting which I recycled from the kitchen when we installed pot lights. In that photo the garage is clean, and you can see my new trolling motor sitting on the floor waiting to be installed...well like any good project shop they dont stay clean long ahaha Who would have thought that simply strapping on a new trolling motor would basically require a complete rewire, plus rewiring of my bow electronics, livewell controls and creating a new access panel for the bow. Id say I tried to make the best of 2020 even with what it threw at us collectively. Luckily there is a light at the end of the tunnel for all of us with this vaccine. news thus far has been fantastic. Maybe someday sooner than later we can create that "new normal" that is a lot along the lines of our old normal fishing with our buddies and making memories. A family imposed total home arrest lockdown for 2 weeks allowed for my brothers and the grandkids and I to see my mom on Christmas. I was so happy to see my two nephews and niece, even with this crappy ice making weather, were still soaring into 2021 with a positive outlook (this is what happens when your uncle makes the jumps) For everything that 2020 was and wasnt...it was the best year of fishing Ive ever had in my life, hopefully new water and 2021 will make it even better. Im really looking forward to exploring and catching a few new species on the regular as well. We shall see where "The Sound" takes me. Thanks for reading

Yup , you do you need more equipment

Last minute decision this AM to head on the lake proved to be a great call from Jim Lyon. We launched at 10am and were back at the dock at 330. We ran 4 lines, 2 copper rigs and 2 boards with snap weights, all with spoons. With 8 fish in the first hour we knew it was going to be a good day. We pulled lines after another triple header cleaned our spread and headed in finishing 31/38 on the day. Average was easily 11-12lbs and the biggest was 18.5. Speed seemed to matter and needed to be 1.7-1.9 on the gps. Pretty awesome to be fishing open water in January.

The pike was the first fish of the trip, 42”. The laker was 26lbs4ozs. The walleye in the other pic was one of hundreds just like it. The one afternoon we smashed them for 4 hours straight, I was actually surprised when my husky jerk made it back to the boat. I even started throwing some big pike lures and walleye were still hitting it. Lol

The only thing with a split bolt is after you ruse rubber tape to fill in the voids and then electrical tape there is no way to re-tighten without taking it all apart and it does get messy. I have used hundreds of these to connect electrical services - since then the industry has moved away from these to an in-line crimp connection. Personally - I would recommend two methods. Re-terminate the two conductors with cable lugs (with the same hole opening) and then bolt them together and use heat shrink tube over the entire connection, or my personal choice would be a multi-tap connector (two barrel) and terminate both conductors. The wire range is #14-#4AWG copper or aluminum and you can visually inspect the connection and retighten if required without any issues. https://www.panduit.com/en/products/wire-termination/lugs-splices-split-bolts-accessories/mechanical-compression-lugs-splices/pcsb4212y.html

We are back on track. Take TWO......... Art

But you are thinking of installing a bolt and covering it with rudder. Now the only way to test connection is forcing hole in cable leaving a source for moister. That you installed plug badly previously means you won't do that again. And the the hubble plug few screws and all fixed up. And it is funny you spend thousands of dollars on trolling motor and draw the line at $110.

You would know.LOL

This boat is a side console. But I'll look into the higher thrust 24v models. Thanks!

Thanks that is what I thought

I spoke directly to an OPP Officer at a local detachment today. She tried to maintain the party line ("Travel is not recommended at this time") but I boxed her in and she conceded there is no specific law against travel in Ontario at this time. I recommend anyone who is unsure or prefers to do their own due diligence call their local detachment. It is a quick call and confirms what you want to know directly from the horses mouth.

I’m gonna recommend the bigger thrust gravy. The 55’s are great for tinners and 16 foot single consoles but a full console Lund will leave you wishing you had the 80lber when the wind blows.

The fix for that are called washers. Sorry but you're over thinking this. Make tight and water resistant concoctions as best you can and forget about it for the next 4 or 5 years. After that revisit it and clean or replace connections. I don't give a rats ass what you do to insulate these connections; mother nature will get in there eventually and have her way with it. Copper wire, connector (whatever) composition, electricity and moister; there's going to be corrosion eventually; just deal with it during annual maintenance. Dan.

If you worked in Ironmaking anywhere in the world back in the day you owned 3 of everything. 3 cars, 1 for the family, 1 for the wife and 1 to drive in and out of the plant that was never washed why would you waste the time and park next to a Blast Furnace. 3 changes of clothes, 1 set for traveling to and fro for work, 1 set of work clothes and the clothes you wore inside the home. I had to change from traveling garb to home outfits in the garage. I didn't need to be told to do that, the traveling clothes stunk like rotten eggs and Coke Oven gas then the garge did. ( I forgot Men don't wear outfits. ) I am going to venture an educated guess that Dofasco was dumping hot metal AKA liquid Iron, molten Iron or pig Iron at temps between 2500 F and 2700 F. (2500 F is cosidered cold). This hot metal is dumped into Iron pits, sometimes the proceedure is refered to as banking Iron. This usually happens at Xmas, that way the Steelmaking facility can be shut down and the Blast Furnaces can run at very low wind rates, also known as "faning" a furnace. It could however be an operational error that hot metal was diverted into a slag pit that was cold and had moisture in it. More than a few operational errors have to happen to make a Boom, Boom. Dofasco had a similar "eruption" around Xmas a few years back. N.B. an eruption must be far less hazardous as an explosion. We used the same rediculous terminology, believe me if you were withing a kilometer you knew it was an explosion. Stelco Hilton Works stopped this proceedure in the early 90's. It was considered hazardous as well as environmentaly irresponsible. We paid for more than a few power washes to homes and cars in the neighbourhoods depending on the wind direction and new sets of bedding that hung on the line, even when the wind was blowing in the other direction. It could be done however with all the provincial ministries involved permission if and only if an iminent danger to a worker or workers is probable. But Dofasco still does it 25 years latter. That's enough Blast Furnace 101 for 2021. Happy New Year folks. Boom Boom!!!!

When I am casting from the front of the boat 9 out of 10 times I need the foot pedal to control exactly where I am going