Sinker

I never doubted you could catch a speck there, and if that was a speck i wouldn't be surprised, but its a laker. Show me one key ID feature of a speck on that fish....?? S.

Theres a few, but not many, and most are in the high horsepower engines. Same with snowmobiles, and ATV/dirtbikes. Yamaha does lake in innovation though, unfortunately.

Ok, so all you guys saying splake, you realize splake are sterile, and don't reproduce, right? Where would this fish come from? Its clearly not very old. I don't see anything pointing to speck at all. No red spots, no blue halos, no square tail. Hence, the reasoning it is a laker. It has many laker characteristics, and came from a body of water with natural lakers. I find this stuff interesting, but to say its a splake makes no sense to me. Where did it come from? S.

Me too. I dont see any speck in there at all. Pure laker. Makes sense where it was caught too. If that was a coaster brookie, you wouldn't have to wonder what it is, you would know right away. S.

You won't regret the Yammy upgrade. You might regret the merc, or might not. Its a roll of the dice. I don't know anyone who doesn't love their yammy, but I know lots of people who hate their mercs. S.

Theres drag on a 209? LOL I've never Messed with it. I use 2 of them for leadcore. I hate them. S.

I have a good helly hanson flaoter suit now, have worn out 2 mustangs over the years, and now i don't wear one. There is just so much more comfortable, lighter, warmer gear. I just use my head and stay off sketchy ice. Its really simple. No need for a float suit if you can use your brain. At the end of the day I am more comfortable, warmer, and not as tired. S.

Theres lots of other lakes besides simcoe and nipissing that have safe ice. You are just going to have to wait a bit for simcoe. I don't know about what happened with you and the hales guys, I thought you said it was floyd hales to be honest, but I have been going out of beaverton for over 30 years, and I have nothing but good to say about those operations. I've been on both the receiving end, and the giving end of help, and they all pulled together when someone was in need. Now, if you were set up in their compound, that is on you. If you were set up on the trail they were using, that is also on you and a huge NO NO. I don't even ride my sled on their trails. They spend a lot of time and money to keep their "roads" open and accessible and marked for the safety of their clients, and all it takes is one person to wreck their day. I'm sure you could understand that they have bad days too, and people setting up in their area will do that. I know its not their lake, but they do deserve some respect out there, and I always give them a wide berth. They are just trying to pay their bills like the rest of us. I haven't had a single issue with any of them. Just because you see their huts, doesn't mean you need to set up in that area either. I always have better fishing away from the packs of huts. Stay to the outer edges, always come prepared for anything, and never count on anyone but yourself to get you out of a bad situation. Rules to live by out there. S.

With 6" of ice, I don't think Sally will be going anywhere any time soon. Slow down guys, the lake JUST froze. I plan to fish, but just me and the wife. I do my part and stay away from people, long before covid came around. S.

Great news!

Get yourself a 2x6 the length of your truck bed to slide that hut into your truck bed on. Much easier than lifting it. I used a Clam Fish trap for years. It eventually wore the sled part out, and I sold it, but it was decent. S.

Do you Ice climb as well?

Bigtime. Either shut it down or don't. There's no in between. S.

I'm going to a lot of weddings. Gatherings 24. Attending a gathering for the purpose of a wedding, a funeral or a religious service, rite or ceremony that is permitted under the Stage 1 Order or making necessary arrangements for the purpose of such a gathering. This is so stupid. Just basically do whatever you want, but try to stay home, eh? S.

The 80lb is obvioulsy better, but I have a 55lb on my deep and wide starcraft tiller and its great. No complaints. Between my main engine (40hp Yammy) and the bowmount, I can cover any trolling speed, and the spot lock works great even in a big wind. S.

Is that enough power for your boat?

I got a powerdrive with no footpedal and regret it, so I bought a foot pedal for it, but it has no ipilot functions on it, so if I use the pedal, no ipilot. It sucks. Get the terrova. S.

The plug is always the problem area. For me anyways. Anytime my bowmount didn't want to work, it was the plug. S.

I used these on my boat. Soldered the pieces to the wires, shrinkwrapped, then when I put the wires into the plugs, I shrinkwrapped those too, twice. Been that way for years and never had an issue. You can get larger sizes of these quick connects that would work on your Garmin ends as well. Any electrical supply shop will have them. My battery guy called them forklift plugs. You could also get a block similar to what Dan posted above, but way better quality from a car audio shop. They have great 12v connectors and the like that are gold plated etc....they aren't cheap, but do it once right and be done. S.

Yep, this right here is the way to do it and never have to worry about it again. S.

Another vote for the GPS. You won't regret it. I have a Helix 5, and a lowrance HDS5, both GPS and I use the GPS function every time. I would be "lost" in my boat without one too. I have a spare lowrance elite 4 with GPS that was really cheap and works fine for icefishing, has GPS and Navionics as well. Super handy little unit, and very affordable. S.

I've never used a pressure canner, and I have canned thousands of bottles of everything you can think of. I'm not saying you should, but you can safely can things without the pressure canner. Do you think our grandparents had these back in the day? NOPE! S.

I use the exact same rods for pulling boards and lead core/snap weights and they are just about perfect. I'd suggest a couple heavier for dipsies though.....and longer.....like 10 footers. S.

So the vaccine is going to do what again? I'm a sceptic. Call it what you want. There are just too many things that are sideways for me to get on board just yet. S.

Absolutely! I've used them all. I can't throw the radial in my truck though, so it has limitations too. I need one of everything....lol....kind of like guitars, fishing rods, duck decoys, boats..... S.