Harrison

So next summer when my grandson turns 3 and I plan to get him hooked you will help me too . I hear GPS co-ordinates to productive waters are especially helpfull in raising a child through those difficult years

good one! And seriously, I sure will, via PM though. I have had some practice hunting down water for my 4 yr old lil gal, who is a wicked lil fisher gal that makes her Daddy very proud. She's had the nic name "Crap Master" since she was an infant, but now it's more for her ability to get the biggest slab of the day.

Well, they were last weekend. I hadn't planned on going out last night but the rain didn't materialize so I snuck out for a bit. One of the places we were pounding them last weekend netted me one mid size fish. I think finding them again is going to take some work, water temps are changing too fast right now. It is making them hard to locate.

Heya Cliffy, just move out alittle onto the flat or first break, the buggers will be schooled up just outside your areas waiting for the bait to move shallow again.

No problem Mr Blizzard, when I hear of a teenybobber that enjoys fishing, I'll do what I can to help. I know first hand how fishing can give you something more productive to lookforward too versus the "other" things when your a teenager.

Now you know what to use for them, now you got to find them.

Right now they are either staging at the mouths of canals, cuts, or bays to move in shallow or they are already in shallow(mostly in from what I found). Look for back bays with cuts or canals and/or marinas(with wood dock posts). Preferably on the northern shoreline, darker the bottom the better, out of the wind, and WOOD (docks, stumps, trees). These areas warm the fastest and the wood retains heat.

You see an old duck blind, fish it.

A school of crappie will push the bait right to the back of a canal, cut or marina where the feast. You find one crap, there is more.

Crappie eat "UP" I find, therfore if your fishing 4 ft of water use a 12-15inch lead from your float I find works best. Some may differ, but I rarely go more then a foot or two below my float- max. Usually under a foot.

Try some micro Rapala huskies too

Get into them... and lets see some pics...

Good Luck.

Ahh, title brings back some good memories of my early years.

Go ahead and turn the rod Chris, I've seen your work and would pay for a defect no worries!

Awesome again.

Anyone thinking of Perching this spring has to read the article by JP DeRose, I can verify he is an expert on the subject.

Guess I just caught the post at the right time Roy!

Just about why I recommended the flipping stick or pitch rod. When targeting bass this will absolutely be part of your aresenal at some point. I see you are in North Bay, the one T I did on Nippissing we Flipped and Pitched all day, lots of junk to fish. I am sure as a non-boater you'll be back in the swamp at some point.

Gary made a good point about backboating. A good Flipping stick, 50- 80lb braid and a frog will give you lots of water to fan cast when in the swamp and back boated.

Another place is fishnig deep weeds, "dunking" jigs etc where I use personally 80lb braid and a cinched drag, to gettem out and in the boat.

However after years of doing so, my wrists have taken a beating. Actullay used to buy the old heavy crucials and trim 6 inches off. Talk about a pool cue. Thinking this year of lightening up a bit.

I agree OHIO, finding them is key, but the right tools are needed to get them swimming in your well.

Good luck

Save your moola.

There is no one article or response that will answer everything. Unfortunatley a lot of the info you are looking for has to be learned on the water through trial and error.

For bass tournies, one rod missing is a flipping stick. Either 7ft or 7'6 heavy. Same rod can be used for topwaters (frogs) etc.. Sure, you may have to re-tie a bit. Btu until you figure out what gear fits the water you fish, your style and prefernces, don't spend a wack of cash.

And you don't have to buy a Frog rod to use frogs becasue of it name. Same as green masking tape and white, they do the same, but ones prettier.

What technique do you use to catch those when nothing else works?

Oh, the house boaters...well they are tricky.

Usually it starts with a lot of wine, which turns into the Newphie Jig somehow and what makes it worse I aint newphie, then for the finish I bust out singing one of my Dads songs "My Sweet Lord".

I hooked up once with this technique, but the wife is starting to get impatient waiting for my inheritance.

corn, but I'm trying a secret recipe tonight.

Awesome bud!!! Great to see the kids liking it!

Grab a zip lock, throw in some whole kernal corn and some vanilla extract, keep it in the frige overnight. Not really a secret but works.

Have you tried a dropshot rig on those deep-weed eyes? A heavy weight with a fluke or a leech imitation above it works well in that same situation.

Hey singingdog,

Yes, the dropshot works well sometimes for sparser weeds, however when they are thick and/or canopied(that even a word?) folded over for lack of a better term, the dropshot can be counter productive. Unless you texas rig or texpose the plastic it is easy to get hung up. Not mention harder to get a solid hookup texas style.

Distance between the weight and hook can be hard to judge as well with the varying canopy and "weed under growth" in some of these thick weedbeds. Especially in the Milfoil. The ability to utilize the weight, bulk and weedguard on the fliggin jig is key.

Of course this is all my opinion, but this is what I found works for us.

Here is a pic I found on the web showing somewhat the water I am taking about. Not so much surface cover, as it is usually a foot or two below.

Good Luck.

This is obviously a ruse, don't waste your time with this technique, it'll never work, seriously!

Haha Spiel

If it was a ruse I wouldn't include below my favourite Buckhorn weedline area for some nice bigguns.....

Awesome Mike. One day I'd love to pin out of a drift boat, never done it before!

Hey all, I don't post many fishing reports to often anymore for various reasons, however I thought I would share this.

This is a technique we use for Kawartha walleye. So with opener coming up soon I thought I would share and maybe help some boat more fish.

Early day we would target weededges dipping either grubs or ripping bucktails. Which can produce fish like the buckhorn walleye below.

But as the sun rose and/or pressure turned on the fish would move deep into the weedbeds. Where you could dip the pockets with the grups or bucktails, however we found the good fish would bury into the thickest growth where the above lures couldn't penetrate. With clients in the boat we had to figure out a way to get them.

We did, and here is how we did it. We would use a "Flippin jig" more known as a bass lure. We would trim the skirts and thin them out a bit for a leaner profile. Sometime the regualr "chunk" or pork works, if not, we use either a power worm or sassy shad/renosky to dress the jig.

Either 9/16 , 1/2 and 3/4oz are the go to's. We fished it with a 20 or 30 braid and a lighter action rod to absorb the hookset, not to rip the lure out of the softer mouthed walleye. But strong enough backbone to get them up and out of the think weeds.

Commonly known as "dunking" you vertical jig the bait into the thickest stuff and either jiggle it or rip it back. Similair to rippin a bucktail, you can do the same with the flippin jig.

We've used to the bucktail and heavier lead for grubs to try this, but have more sucess with the Flippin jig. I believe it has something to do with the profile and fall.

Anyways, below is a couple fish pics I could find on the puter with some Flippin Jig walleye. Hope it gives you something else to try when you've given everything already in your arsenal a go.

Myself with one.

A co-angler with another one.

Good Luck.

So what kind of value would this have? Somebody offered me $20 for it. I was going to hand it over right away, considering I bought the whole tackle box for $20, but I didnt want to give away something that could have brought more.

 

So should I jump on the $20...lol

You could throw it up on ebay and see what happens, worked for me once as I listed a couple crappy destroyed lures I bought in a tackle box at an auction. Got $275 bucks for the 2 lures. I contacted the guy and apparently one was from a lure company based out of from Brandon Manitoba in the 50's. I had no clue. Mind you, other lures I didn't recognize got $2 bucks.

#1 tool in a T anglers boat IMO. You can see within a second which fish is to be culled. A little tip we do is whenyou have 2 wells, or a divider, put the bigguns on one side and the smallest fish. Leave the other side for the average fish. Makes it easier to cull when need be. Happiness is having a 3lber in the larger side of the live well as the small fish. Tis a good day then!

When we used to do the perch/crappie events the beams were invaluable.

"OFC MICKEY MOUSE" ... after 10 years of trial and tribulations here, hours and hours of good work and deeds for other people... well, that just hurts my feelings.

For every comment like the above Teej, there are many many more who acknowlegde and appreciate all you and the partners have done.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I've installed the Firefox and so far it seems to be working well and has solved the problem I was having with this new board.

My Dad is a retired Firefighter like you Lew and around the same age. I wish he was as techonology savvy as you. Maybe then he wouldn't of told me to check my email becasue he sent me a "Funny Sex Joke" only to have a co-worker put an inappropriate fax on my desk.

"Well I told ya I was sending you an email through the Email Machine"...."uhhh, no you didn't Dad"

Solopaddler nailed it. I would focus more on figuring out the "fishable" conditions. Like any steelheader starting out you can rack up the kilometers travelling from one creek to the other. One might be gin clear, another chocolate milk, then one has perfect visiability. After years of doing the same milk run of creeks you will key in on what river should be fishable with the weather conditions without have to go and see. This is more of a learning curve then what "equipment to use" IMO.

Then there is what presentation to use for the conditions.... it all comes with time on the bank.

Good Luck

Ice out crappies on the Kawartha's! Man I am pumped, can't wait. Although alittle sad, I'll miss Simcoe at ice out, but not the crowds!

I used to bring the Big Brothers and Sister organizations to Rice Lake in the spring for a fun fishing day where they targeted panfish and the majority of fish caught were sunfish. I know to this day that many, after being intorduced to the sport, still venture to Rice to fish with their little brother or sister. Many use the facilities around the lake for bait, tackle and boat rentals.

I know for a fact the views of some of the RLTA on this board do not reflect the feeling of MANY of the other opertations on Rice Lake. There are some really good folks who stepped up when I was holding my events with full support. I would hate for them to lose out on business due to a select few who have posted here.

Mayor, I am disheartened reading your posts. I have refered many of these folks to your shop.

Rock, maybe a PT gig at a local/larger tackle shop would be a start. Then you can meet some of the current tackle reps and start a business relationship. Sounds like you already know, but its's a tough egg to crack. You can also contact the various distibution companies that rep certain products/companies in Canada as they are sometimes looking for sales reps. Good Luck.

I love fishing this time of year with the boards, not a huge fan of downrigging but do it when I can. However my bro loves it.

The conservatiion authority would be ones to contact. They would have to approve any construction long before it even begins with an environmental assestment on waterfront properties. If the home owner did not do so, I understand the fines can be quite heavy.

or as troutologist said!

I will be making a few trips to Balsam in April to catch some pesky pike. I would imagine fishing in two to five feet of water with spinnerbaits will not catch anything but pike in the first weeks of April. Remember to keep the big spawning momma's for your limit.

Hey bud, you'll get into some bass too. Especially when the sun's high and along the north/west shores.

Get those snot rockets outta Balsam!

Ted - Costco Kirkland Batteries!

Used them for years. Turned on to them by a fellow T angler who is some sort of engineer and researches absolutely everything to the fullest extent. Combined with a good charger I have never had issues with them.

Phil