singingdog

You don't have to be a steelhead junkie to salivate over those fish, in that location. Take me now!

One of my favorite open-water smallie techniques for roamers is a take-off on the saltwater popper technique: a popper with a senko underneath. It's a great way to get them to come up, even when they are over 100 FOW. InFisherman did a great video on the technique, but I can't find it. I use a fairly large, brightly coloured popper with the rear treble taken off. Tie on a 3-6' leader with a circle hook and put your favourite stick worm on. It will get hits when nothing else is working.

Soyers and Kash are very different lakes than Redstone: more shallows, more forage, easier fishing. Fishing shield lakes is not your typical "cast to shore cover" exercise and can be very frustrating.

On lakes like Redstone, the big smallies are roamers: keying on schools of moving baitfish more than on specific structure. You may find them suspended over 100 FOW one moment, up in the shallows the next. Watch the birds, use your electronics.

A snap and a split ring are redundant. If you are using a snap, take off the split ring.

That's a nice looking smallie.

You have to do some legwork to find the good lakes. There are 2 lakes close to my place, both almost identical in size/depth. One is a goldmine for big smallies and largemouth, the other is full of dinks. Time on the water, and getting the trust of knowledgeable locals is the key.

The smallies haven't gone deep here. We are catching them in 6-8 FOW right now.....hot fluke bite.

I think the tackle shop in Bridgenorth carries them.

The 62 series from Garmin are great units: super accurate in a wide range of conditions. I have had mixed results with touch screens on handheld GPS.

Not fun to fish out of a yak?

Where - what kind of water - will he be using it? Going out for salmon on Lake O is a very different thing than fishing small lakes for bass. I fish most of the time out of a Wilderness Systems Commander: a "hybrid" fishing yak, almost like a plastic canoe. The upside is that I can stand and fish, which has all kinds of advantages over sitting (flyfishing, pitching, chucking heavy musky lures). The downside is that it is not a good open-water boat. For that, I use a SOT (sit on top). SOTs are great in heavier water because they are self-bailing. They are also very comfortable, since you can alter your position on the boat, and have lots of room for rigging. Some of the new SOTs are good for standing as well. Downside to SOTs are the weight. The best of both worlds is the Wilderness Systems ATAK: it offers the ability to stand, with the speed and seaworthiness of a SOT. Traditional yaks (SIKs) can be used for fishing, but are not near as popular. The upside is extreme seaworthiness (if you know what you are doing) and lighter weight. Downside is the limited seating position and difficulty in rigging for fishing. I always recommend paddling before buying, to get a sense of how different boats feel/paddle.

10x50s offer very few advantages compared to the disadvantages. The 2 main issues with 10 power binos are the much smaller field of view, and the very shallow depth of field at close range. Unless you need very good detail at a considerable distance, 10 powers just don't offer much of an advantage over 8s.

GBay probably means open water fishing. I find that long casts can make the difference when fishing open water. I really like the 7' M Compre. It has a slower tip than the same power 6'6", so it throws lighter lures a bit better and helps keep them stuck when you get hit. It is also a great senko/fluke rod.

Yep, musky in a yak is a blast. In some ways, it is easier than from a bigger boat. You can fish lighter gear because the yak is so much lighter and doesn't stress equipment near as much as a larger boat. The ski in the pic hauled me around for about 10 minutes before getting tired enough to land. Landing/unhooking can sometimes be easier because you are so close to the water.

Congrats on the PB..;.nice fish!

That really depends on the target species, time of year, and type of lake. If I am going in totally blind, I will try and find maps that show depth/structure. For some species, finding green weeds is key, for others, not so much. It really is species dependent.

Beautiful fish. Congrats!

Seems I was wrong about going small. 3 of us landed 9 Musky over a day and a half of fishing, with several others lost right at boatside. Most were in the 25-30" range, with one just over 40". We weren't throwing huge lures, but much bigger than last year: #7 Mepps Marabou was my best for the weekend. Spent a fair bit of time throwing smaller inlines, topwaters, and cranks with no takers. The walleye were very shallow in one lake we fished: 4-6 FOW, and hitting in fairly bright sunlight....strange pattern.

Sorry if I hit nerve Chris....just trying to keep a conversation going.

Hmmm, I don't consider a Suick a glide bait. Dahlberg wide glide, Glidin Rap, Hellhound....I think of those as gliding baits. Suick is more of a jerkbait.

Water temps are still pretty cool here in the Highlands. Last year on opening weekend, the only fish we got were on pretty small offerings: #4 mepps, regular sized Jitterbug, 3/4 oz spinnerbaits. I'm thinking I might stick with smaller, slower presentations this weekend. What are your plans?

Kayaks; "They also put you dangerously close to the surface of the water and wildlife that lives underneath". Oooooh, very scary

Scugog is above normal levels, waaay above summer levels, Buckhorn is almost at normal seasonal level, Balsam is quite a bit above normal seasonal levels. Still believe the guys can't find their way to work?

Wow, I guess that using a whole bunch of exclamation points passes for informed debate I know some of "those guys": some of the nicest folks you could hope to know, and they take their work very seriously. Easy to sit and slag them from behind your computer screen, with virtually no understanding of the conditions that led to what is happening right now. They have "no win" jobs: if they hold water back, the folks downstream moan about the lack of water. If they let water through, the cottagers on the upper lakes moan about their lake being low. If the rivers are running high in the spring, everyone in Minden starts panicking, remembering the big flood. No matter what they do, someone wants to call an inquiry.