Fang

For big smallies keep an eye on Erie starting mid September. It's probably better mid October but loads of 4's and 5's are possible out of eastern end.

Ok since you put Rice lake in the post I will assume you'll be jigging weed lines and most likely be in that 8-14 ft of water that these edges occur in. For that depth I prefer a 6-3 or 6-6 rod. Mine right now are BPS Extreme and St Croix Mojo. Bucktails rule on rice followed by thin plastic minnows like Gulp and swim baits types. I also throw a lot of Power worms in 4" on rice for walleye. Black and blue and pumpkin/chart work well. I probably wouldn't be jigging though without using braid as main line. A small brass 3/16 worm weight on the 4"worm turns more walleye for me

What BB said. I tie up a 2up drop shot rig on 8lb flouro tied then to 8lb braid. One hook for each 24" above the weight and just enough weight to get it down. Been more comfortable with 3/4 oz and bigger fish are more like spongy takes that add weight to the line. Don't forget the jigging spoons when perch are a little more aggressive. Electronics are king to finding the perch schools. WP them and then go back and sit on them till they move. Minnows are best and I always go minnow on bottom and a small plastic like gulp up top

Fish307.com

Here's a link from my post about the Spring Fishing show Larson If I was buying anything I'd have a long look at this and try and go for a water test

Notice he never threw it to the right. I guess it's true they only know how to turn left

Arrived at 7 to a full parking lot. Grabbed a spot in the park just down the road. Sky opened up and it started pouring. Made it inside to a line up at cash about 50 ft long. Wandered through the fishing section, signs all over the place for 15% everything. Saw a few nice new salmon spoons/colours that I definitely will go back for. Very nice selection of salmon spoons/tackle and plastics. Like the Set the Hook stuff way too much!!! A number of "pros" on the floor helping out customers. Was really nice to see interaction. Saw Mark Kulik right helping out a several guys and was going to say hi but he was always busy. Good guy! Left the store without buying anything due to line up. It's only 10 minutes away so I'll be back. Only complaint was with a "pro" who was wearing a branded shirt from a high end rod company. What a jerk!! He had to share his knowledge with me as I looked at the Alabama rigs. I guess he figured no one knew what these were. I'd bump into him a couple more times as he continued to "educate" all the other customers. He spent most of the time at the end of the counter talking to a couple of his buddies. I was 2 aisles over and could clearly hear the swear words mixed in and noticed several other customers look too. Glad I don't own any of those rods!!!

Very nice rods mentioned so far at those prices. For a great value have a look at the BPS extreme and carbonlite series. I own several extremes and find they compare in sensitivity to much higher $ rods

When these first showed up at Costco a few years ago I bought one as a back up - same grey colour too! It's been through all the crap outside jobs and trips over the years and is still 100% waterproof. Fished a week in Manitoba a few years back and it rained every day. Not totally breathable but it's better than my Columbia which I get almost as wet inside as out when it rains.

Like this site for the bigger speciality flies. Good prices never had a problem with orders but you do have to buy by the dozen. The bass bugs are a great deal at $9.48/dozen http://www.albrightflyfish.com/flies.html

Nice one Johnny, I never left the island up there all weekend. Took a while for me figure out that trolling route but then I saw which way the North arrow was pointing. Never fished in that spot before. Did you manage a few trolls for walleye. How were the bugs??? I'm still scratching bites as they were brutal back around Spawning Bay at the place I was staying

Dave524 was the way I started to do it when I built my first mast. Fixed length of line and I attached to coat rack hooks on each side of the mast and wound the line back in around the hooks.At the end of the day put the boat into neutral and hand line the boards back in. I've seen another neat system where they used galvanized cloth line pulleys, mounted on a cross bar attached to the mast. They drilled out a hole on each pulley spool and fastened a handle to each to wind the line back in. To lock down the pulley when line is out they just put a hook and eye type system in around the pulley openings on the spool.

Nice one Lorne, I actually drove into the parking lot late (5:15 ish) in the day and saw you (recognize the hat!) Decided to check one other swim down the lake and head back if it looked empty but all parking spots were jammed solid. By the time I got back here looks like you had left. I wet a line for a bit and had a couple bumps but only had about 20 minutes before I had to leave

OK Roy wins!!!!!!!

That is a sweet boat but it's my buddies. He picked it up from the US last fall and has it running like a charm now. I still have my lady (crestliner) and she's headed for the first test run this week John. Will be out very soon for salmon and trout. My smoker is started to feel neglected

While we seem to be on the topic guys, I was at a fly-in a few years ago and the guides did up bean each day we had a shore lunch. Maybe it was the whole fly-in, fresh walleye, good company and cold beer but give this one a try In a standard pot add 1 big table spoon of real butter. Dice 1/3 onion for each can of beans and simmer onions lightly in the butter. The key here is not to reduce the onion down but keep them slightly firm in texture Squeeze 1/4 lemon per can of beans onto the onions Add 1 tea spoon per can of your fav hot sauce (I add the Thai Sweet Chili sauce and triple it up to 3x) Add your beans and heat through The guides called these BAD A** BEANS

Heck Brian I have several cans in the overhang cupboard at my desk. Nothing like eating them right out of the can while at work!!!!

They were CDN residents. We only had a couple of hours so no long distance trip across to Sturgeon Pt area. From where we launched we just had it up on plane for 2-3 minutes and then shut her down again. Hardly got the motor warmed up when the graph was showing some good schools out 50 FOW. I'd love to hit that area on the south shore next trip though. and yes Mongo likes candygram!

:clapping: Another Bush Bean lover!!!!! Always have the cupboard stocked

With the very unusual spring my usual tradition for trout opener was in serious jeopardy. Since 1988 I've spent each trout opener on a small " brookie" type stream that gets a run of steelhead. Some years the pickings are slim with low water and the run being over but this year was the worst. I was walking this stream back in Feb and saw tons of spawned out fish and earlier last week another walk in the forest showed the river extremely low and no sign of any trout hanging around. I was hoping that a few might have got caught in some pools as the water dropped but didn't look like there was anything. So a new plan was hatched this week and Saturday afternoon I headed down to Erie to hook up with a buddy and get out for some perch fishing. Nice having a dry comfy ride on the big lake now Powered out to 50 ft of water and saw a few other boats scattered around - no big cluster and lots of room between boats - nice. Took about 10 minutes of powering around to waypoint 2-3 nice looking schools. The wind was out of the west and was just a bout right to provide a controlled drift over the schools. Simple drop shot rig with live minnows and the fist first was in the boat in less than 2 minutes. Weeded through the tap-tap-tap bites and tried not to set the hook on any of the small hits. Ended up with a nice bunch of 12-13" to take home and have a feast, I guess a satisfying consolation instead of my trout opener tradition. A few 13's and the bottom one a fat 14 3/4" This morning's feast

I just checked on line and there's only a 20 minute wait to cross the border at the Peace bridge.

Good info being provided but I would not discount the spoon bite at this time of year. In the spring the typical presentation spread includes boards, flat line, riggers and dispeys. I start with a mix between body baits and spoons and always let the fish tell me what they want. One of my top go to spring baits is a Northern King C5 spoon. It's a replica of the discontinued Pirate 44 spoon which was a standard. Too me spoon colour and size is very much personal preference and you'll start to have confidence is a few spoons that will prove to produce. I've got a few lockers of spoons but usually start with a number of tested and proven ones. Dream weaver DW standards and Super slims are probably my top 2 producers. Some days they like the thin spoons (smelt and emeralds), some days it's an alewife bite. NK's, stingers and Silver streaks will all catch fish. For colours I tend to be biased to greens, blacks, silvers and chartreuses. Also make sure you mix up the spoon inside with painted whites , silvers and golds, don't forget the golds!!! I learned a ton about hot new colours and combos by following the charter reports on AT THE OAK and digging through their archives on popular spoons. Many new colours and spoons are first to hit the market with the charter guys on the south side. It was on this sight several years ago I first saw something called a spin doctor.

My cannons were new in 87. Still going strong and I'm on third set of those washers. Keep extras around and also part 75. The plastic pulleys last a while and I replace mine before there is a problem

I brought back an ikea bag full garbage today. Just frustrating that people think that Tim Horton cups are biodegradable. It was 90% of what I picked up