Rizzo

beauty. For me April is just a dead month. The one month of the year where I do next to no fishing. Glad to see others catching!

hahaha...whoops. Wondered how still having 2 feet of ice led to a short season. My bad.

you think you had a short season.... here we are using our boats already!

sounds like with enough speed and some ingenuity...maybe

14 hours ago, Looduale said:

a small world cup

Have you tried yet? What were the results?

Yes I used it in the garage. When the winch broke we didn't quite have the boat as snug to the front as we would have liked. Just hauled it forward the last couple inches no problem.

20 hours ago, smitty55 said:

I'm still curious as to what actually failed on your old winch, if it was a stripped gear it should still have turned.

It did still turn, just had no power move anything

arrived today and installed in minutes! Holes line up perfectly. Need to get the boat launched again to put the winch to the test! 

3 hours ago, misfish said:

Have not had to use a winch in about 8+ years now. Just pull the float boat up,deflate,roll and well,Bob,maybe Jay or Bill,is your uncle.

 

You could of asked,and I would of bought and shipped,,,,,,,,,

kind of you to offer but looks like I have it figured out!

Thanks guys. I have been looking on line and found a "Camco 50000" winch on Amazon which has good reviews. Some of the pictures seem to show the same bolt pattern that I had on last winch...a bolt sized hole in one spot, and then a bit of a slot where the other bolt goes (allowing for a bit of flexibility of spacing). That is probably what I will do since I don't have  a Princess Auto nearby. Had a look at some at Cdn Tire but they had poor reviews. The dirt cheap price didn't instill confidence either. 

Took the boat out for the first time of the season yesterday...good news and bad. Boat worked great as it always has since I owned it,  but when winching it up the last few feet on the trailer the winch stopped working. It was like the gears got stripped or something. Today I pulled the winch mount off...it was secured with 2 bolts. Do replacement winches usually have a universal bolt pattern? 

between those two options I would have to go Kawarthas. 

Not exactly a good year to get back into ice fishing either!

On 2/6/2024 at 10:06 PM, BillM said:

Yeah, we've had a few days of winter and that's about it.  I'm sure we're going to pay for it come late March/April when mother nature will show us the winter we were supposed to have.

I agree. It feels to me the past few years winters have stretched well into April. This winter has been pretty gentle, wouldn't be surprised one bit if April is colder than normal

cute snook! No offence but I have never seen one that small before

Even though I rarely eat fish (maybe once a year? or once in 2 years?) i would always pick up a copy. Pre-internet days it was a good resource to know what kind of fish were in each lake.

On 2/12/2024 at 10:13 AM, BillM said:

I'm not complaining, however water levels are going to take a beating due to the lack of snow pack.   Spring spawning spots are going to be high and dry no doubt in Gbay.

I plan to go ice fishing Monday around Hanover. just looked at the forecast and they are supposed to get a foot of snow or more between now and then so all is  not lost. Still time for a few good dumpings.

staged or not i did watch the whole thing! Hope to never find myself in that predicament. I did go to youtube to read the comments...they say not staged. Claim ice was good in the morning and got worse as the day progressed. Not sure I believe that , that ice was really bad. Not convinced "good ice" can turn to that in the course of a day.

3 hours ago, Terry said:

This had to be staged , I could see exactly where is was going to fall in 

I am wondering the same. Maybe he had someone nearby to rescue him if he started to fail?? Its not like he fell through in some unique weak spot. None of that ice could support him. There is no way you could go on that ice and not expect to fall in. It's either staged or that guy is suicidal but then changed his mind.

That sounds like fun! I could never get my kids to fish more than about 4 hours at a time so don't see anything like this in my future. Hope you find a spot and create some amazing memories with your kids

 fishing trips sometimes aren't about fishing and thats ok

...ain't that the truth. I remember Roy at Lakair not even putting his boat in the water!

that's a real mixed bag! Nice job

been there done that

Doesn't sound anything like that "What does the fox say" song but sure looks like a (healthy) fox to me

impressive! And what a way to get there too. Dedication.

3 hours ago, limeyangler said:

Agree with looking for numbers, freezing your spheres off for one or two fish doesn’t tickle my turtle either.

It funny. I will endure sleet and winds and pure nastiness in December to get a shot at a musky. Call it a success if I get one fishing from first light to darkness. Two weeks later and I will only ice fish on nice days, from 10 am to 2 pm and in a spot that will produces constant action. We fisherman can be odd.