JoshS

Yep quite the "experience" haha. That provided a good laugh at the end of it all (if I was out of pocket I'd probably not be laughing lol). My wiring to my plug is under 10ft long so 8awg should be fine. The plan was to not rewire completely and use the 8awg and if problems arise and I'm blowing my circuit, upgrade to 6. But that is all moot now until I stumble on another 24v. The dream still lives. Trying to avoid dropping 2K on a new one but I do have aspirations to upgrade from my 16ft aluminium one day so this might push that dream into reality sooner than later. The old 55lb still gets me by. The ipilot terrova was a nice thought though.. LOL

Get yourself a few HJ14 husky jerks and fish them like a jerkbait like Joey mentions above. It's by far the fail-safe technique for those fish. If it doesn't work the first time, keep trying. Get that down and catch a few then experiment with some different baits to develop the arsenal as they won't always want the jerkbait, but most of the time they will.

Some guy still got a good deal on a new terrova he wanted which is another positive aside from making a few bucks. But I look back at it all and it cracks me up. I've never heard of anyone coming home with what they thought was a 24v, buying all the hardware, batteries etc, wiring everything and setting up your boat for the new 24v, installing everything only to find out it's still a 12v! The best was me calling my fishing buddies super excited that day.. "finally got that 80lb terrova boys, see ya 55lb powerdrive!". Guess the times haven't changed quite yet ha!

Who would of thought I'd have to locate the little sticker underneath to double check lol. I'm just glad I stuck with the 8awg wire and at least saved the effort of rewiring with 6awg... and making a new boat hatch! Makes me laugh thinking about it...

Yes, turned out to be a 55lb terrova, not the 80 advertised by the store. It was to good to be true! Made a few bucks off it though so I'm not completely pissed off for the waste of time and effort lol.

I might one day but I returned the 2 new deep cycles in a huff and puff and sold the terrova. I have a 12v now and it gets me by... didn't want a $1000 new one, even if it's a terrova. I'm holding out for 24v. In any ripping wind, my 12v's like spot lock, barely pushes the boat. It's the more power I'm after. I didn't mention the part about almost converting a part of my casting deck into a new hatch to easily fit both new batteries without having to awkwardly slide them into my size one battery compartment. Even procured the hole saw and was a day away from ordering the latch and hinges for my new battery compartment. Almost cut a big hole in my floor for the new motor.. Close call lol.

Nice work and nice ski's! Wish my wife could hold a musky like that.

Here's a bit of a funny story... Thought I'd update everyone as I was the lucky guy who bought this motor! I've been in the market for awhile and this was the one I could't refuse (LOL). Brought it home super excited to install it, took off the old 55lb powerdrive, decided to upgrade my trolling motor plug and circuit breaker, bought two new deep cycles and some other stuff for the install. Mounted everything, wired it all up to my new 24v system and with great excitement popped it down for the first time to test it. Hmm.. it didn't want to turn on for some reason? I couldn't figure it out. Spent some time going through everything over and over and still couldn't get to the bottom of it! Stumped, I uninstalled it, brought it to Aikman's and with a millisecond glance at the motor he tells me... "that's a 55lb". We had a good laugh at all the work I put into almost getting my new terrova. He tested it and all worked so I sold it to some lucky guy who saved a few hundred off retail. Back to the old 12 volt system and 55lber until the time comes again! The old saying "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is" held up nicely for this deal. Makes me laugh thinking about the whole ordeal. You're a lucky guy Tizfun LOL!

Pretty cool trip. Thanks for sharing!

What baits do you plan on throwing with this combo? The curado and double 10s don't mix. All those reels aren't really ideal for large bucktails. The lexa can handle them, you probably want the larger spool. And the Toro winch can as well apparently.. but they are not the ideal if this is a large bucktail combo. If it's an all round combo, then you can go with the two latter reels on a heavy rod and it will get you by. I have a curado 300 and barely use it anymore. Kinda of a redundant reel for me. I used to use it for topwaters and small jerkbaits, small blades, plastics etc. But I end up throwing those now on a heavier calcutta combo and it feels more sturdy and easier to control fish. Ton's of info online on those reels mentioned and their capabilities with large bucktails.

That's a good looking site! Congrats, must of been a nice amount of work. All the reports in one place!!! I'll bookmark that.

I've got a few Bondy's ready to go... have yet to clip one on but have a few spots in mind this fall to try it. Nice ski!

MB2 those are some nice fish. Must be sweet living close to the river! BlueEye that's awesome!! Good looking musky too.

Simcoe is on fire right now!

If I posted online as an example "we caught 30 steelhead today on X river", it would be packed the next day and there goes your killer day fishing. How many times have the river fisherman seen that happen back when posts were plentiful (remember the beginning of the internet? LOL). Same goes for Southern ON lakes to a lesser extend. More boats at the launch the next day, less fish to catch. Especially weekends.

Thanks Lew. We were lucky to get out there on a weekend where moonrise and sunset coincided and it just so happened it was a full moon as well. Perfect storm for a good bite.

Got out to the old stomping grounds the weekend of Oct 15th. Saturday was a decent day. It was a late start for us as usual but fish were fairly active all day. Double header to start! (well, close, I set the hook just as my friend slid a net under his. Mine was safely hooked so it got hand bombed quick for the unhooking and pic) My musky was a humpback that came in at just over 43”. Would have been a few inches longer if it wasn’t crooked lol. I’ll know for sure when I catch that guy again. Look at the akward curve on this poor guy: Next up my buddy with a decent one: Pre face splash: A few small fish later and this guy ate. Pretty sure this was the one caught on the troll out deep. The pattern seems to always produce a few each fall although we don’t troll much, usually break or some lunch time. Hour later or so this 45”er ate off an edge. My buddy pulled a banana out of his bag midday, proceeded by a loud “@#$#!”. Guess he didn’t mean to bring it, him being the superstitious type. We kept silent and chose to not even talk about it to “not stir the fish gods”. It may of helped us lol. I lost a two that day that felt big, which sucked, would of been nice to snap those. I didn't see many follows either, they mostly ate, with some smaller fish mixed in with the larger ones. I think things will have cooled off for this coming weekend but tough to tell until you can get out there. The bite windows will get less and shorter now. This is by far my favourite time of year to be on the water. The next day was slow. It poured all morning and somehow I misplaced or lost my bag of raingear so we held off until mid aft to get out there. Still poured on us. A friend lost a really nice one off the bat on our second spot. End of day we encountered a flurry bite moon rise/sunset with 3 fish and a bonus tiger at the end. I bet they would have been going in the night bite but it being a Sunday we had to call it a day.

I agree southern ON spots can get really busy fast with the internet. Not everyone understands that or some don't care which blows my mind. However you can still easily post reports without naming specific spots or lakes! I appreciate all the reports I've read over the years here, it helps fuel the love for fishing when not on the water. I actually read this whole thread and should of spent my time reading something fishing related... but I guess these have to happen sometimes to clear the air. What is the age cutoff for throwing bulldogs in 4ft chop anyway? (just joking akr). Hopefully we all get a chance to get out fishing soon.

Can't help you with Kipawa but I like the thread... critiquing the plan of attack! The target daytime depth seems to make sense. Can't go wrong fishing mid lake humps with live bait and I wouldn't fish slow anywhere with a blank screen (that's a given). I bet you could find the larger fish at night up relatively shallow.

Gbay is a very tough one to crack... but you probably know that. I hear good things about both Bristrow for gbay and Columby for nippissing. I'd fish for panfish for a year to know what both those guys know. Lots of charters on st clair if you wanna take the drive.

My buddy who resides on the burnt has caught two pike this year up river. Also heard of a tiger out of cameron recently.

Good for you... it's always really rewarding dialing in on a new pattern. Thanks for putting up the report!

Nice catch with the camera! The old humber is pumping out some gems... might have to go for a drift there lol.

Funny I was looking at a map of the area this morning. Maybe try by the current areas back of Arnold bay, rock ledges off deep water and rocky shoreline areas 2-10ft of water. They'll probably use all those areas. Can't go wrong swimming the old jig n grub or slow moving swimbaits or stickbaits. The deep shadow rap's been the stickbait on my rod this year if I'm having a cast for night time walleye. If you wanna see if they're there, do some scouting with a big flashlight.

Sweet buddy. Looks like you had a good season out there! Beautiful looking lakes and pretty fish. I've never made time for back lake brookies, which is crazy. It's creeping high on my list. The allure is really getting to me!