Sterling

Anyone make it out this year? Opened last Saturday and will be closing Friday!

Haven't made it out, due to busted motor and everything, but will try to make it Friday.

To make sure that you don't get Lyme Disease do this - buy Permethrin - you spray this stuff on your clothing and it is good for around 6 weeks even if you wash the clothing - it actually kills the ticks if they get on your clothing - I spray the pants that I wear when I work on my property - I lay the pants on the ground and spray the pants until they get wet - you let them dry and there is no harm from using the stuff - during hunting season I spray all my clothing - you can buy this stuff on Amazon from Sawyer -

Permethrin (and 100% deet) aren't available in Canada. Against the law apparently. I tried ordering some from amazon, basspro, etc, nobody would ship to me.

Anyway, small-time sellers on ebay will ship it to you .

We have been getting ticks on us just walking through the cut lawn this year or picking up the mail at the side of the road. be very careful.

Your area in the worst I've ever seen. I was in Port Dover for a few days and found at least 10 ticks on my dog.

I know quite a bit about contracts and this confuses me.

The company doing the work didn't get a copy of the contract? How can they do work without a copy of the contract? Seems they just came over and did work for free? How did they know to pour 6" or whatever went in?

In your imgur photo there's fishing line in there at the bottom left

I noticed that string too after posting the picture, it was just a dog hair or something.

Update:

So I managed to get the seal replaced at the 11th hour. The tech replaced the seal and said he ran the motor for 20 minutes without issue.

Towed the boat 1100km to James Bay and blew the seal again on the first outing. Clearly something else is wrong, probably a bent shaft or something.

Luckily I had my trusty trolling motor but was confined to a bay near camp.

A 12 year old can change the lower gear oil. I know that because I can now. Get your self the hand pump from CTC or any marine dealer and do it yourself from now on. Make sure you change the "O" rings on both the drain and vent every time you change it. Depending on how many hours one puts on an engine annually it doesn't hurt to change the gear lube more than once a season. You Tube will have several videos of it being done. Once I saw it done I smacked myself upside my noggin for not doing it myself all those years. Many times marinas don't bother to change the 99 cent O rings or drop them on the ground and don't put them back in. Nor do they check the magnet on the screw plug for filings depending on who's doing the job. For a 25 it might cost you 10 bucks in oil and gasket rings, takes 10 minutes.

 

Do it in the Fall that way you won't forget when you are hot to get the boat in next spring. I even use the old gear oil to soak my needle nose in before the winter and wipe the bottom of the lawnmower shroud before putting it away for the winter.

It's the prop shaft seal that needs changing (inner and outer), that part seems quite complicated, at least for a soft-skinned office-goer like myself.

You definitely won't get seals changed unless you ask to have them changed

 

As stated you get fresh gear oil and SHOULD get new gaskets on the dram screws

I'll have to remember to ask next time, I guess.

I wouldn't expect the dealer to replace the seals when the oil is changed. If you're lucky, they may put new gaskets in the two screws in the lower end.

 

Was the oil a milky colour? That would indicate water in the oil.

Nope, not milky. I'm told that means the interior seal is keeping water out.

As I described in previous threads, I have this awesome week-long trip planned in James Bay. Leaving Wednesday.

I've been preparing for this for months. To avoid any issues mechanically, I had everything checked and professionally maintained.

The 25hp 4-stroke merc went to the marina for low gearcase and oil change, winterizing, etc.

Last week I took the boat out to make sure everything worked. Trolling motor, transducer, outboard, batteries, everything was 100% ready to go. I had tested everything in the garage but wanted to take the boat for a spin anyway.

So I'm packing a few final things today when the wife asks "why is your motor leaking oil?"

Sure enough, there's a clear leak from right under the prop. I pop the prop off, lo-and-behold there is CLEAR damage to the prop shaft seal. You can easily see it here;

http://imgur.com/a/Yhx2N

So now I'm in a HUGE scramble to get this fixed. I located a dealer with the seals in stock and purchased them 10 minutes before close. I then called every marina in the area and managed to find a guy willing to fix it before Wednesday.

So my question is HOW does this happen? There was no fishing line in the prop... and I believe the dealer puts new seals when the oil is changed???

Could it be that there was water in there, it froze and blew the seal out?

BUMPING old thread - need a charter/guide/boat this year again! No experience on Temagami needed, we'll send someone with you who knows the spots.

I doubt very much that any of those lakes that far north hold brookies. Brook trout are pretty much strictly in rivers once you get that far north. You can roll the dice, but if it were me driving that far, I wouldn't bother. You've got a million good brookie lakes much closer to home.

I think the odds are very slim to discover an unknown brook trout lake in the James Bay lowlands. It's not the right habitat. Even if it did exist, with all those logging roads around, word would have gotten out.

 

I would try and explore the fast water sections of the rivers.

Upsize and/or fish a little deeper if possible?

 

Rupert River area has plenty specks. A 1.5 hour drive really ain't that bad for a good day of getting into them.

 

Write a report, would like to hear how you do.

Yeah I've got a spot in mind that runs along the river. Might give it a shot.

But from what I've read, Rupert is no good anymore since they built the hydro dams.

Sounds like a sweet fishing trip. I hope you find them and report back.

I certainly will!

I doubt very much that any of those lakes that far north hold brookies. Brook trout are pretty much strictly in rivers once you get that far north. You can roll the dice, but if it were me driving that far, I wouldn't bother. You've got a million good brookie lakes much closer to home.

Good to know. There is, in fact, a river about 1.5 hours away that is TEEMING with brookies. Went there years ago and must have caught 500 of them. But, they're small and you need to catch lots to get a limit of decent sized fish (12in).

The area seems pretty remote? Are you flying in? staying at a camp? perhaps they can provide some info?

Driving in. Heck of a long drive on "closed" roads. I've already asked the guy who's "in charge" and he doesn't know of any speck lakes nearby. But most of these lakes are untouched.

 

Get a hold of recent stocking data, years ago I bushwacked by topo sheet and compass into a bunch of Haliburton Lakes only to find nada or smallies

 

Edit: judging by the location you could probably replace smallies with pike, big ones if you are lucky , hammerhandles if you not.

Do they even stock lakes in northern Quebec? Hopefully someone will chime in on this site and share their experience in that area..

Zero stocking in the area. Pike is what I expect, specks would be a bonus.

In fact I doubt anyone here has been in the area lately. It's within the Weh-sees-Indohoun area which has lower limits (4 walleye) and requires a right-of-way from the natives. As of last year there's also a $30 fee to anyone fishing these lakes.

Thanks everyone. Guess a trip to the local outfitter is called for .

I have a fishing trip planned for next week and can't wait. 7 days in Northern Quebec.

Problem with great walleye fishing is that you limit out quickly. So the day is generally spent chasing pike, or simply relaxing.

This year I want to put daytime to good use and go speck hunting.

Unfortunately the area I'm fishing is uncharted. The lake itself is surrounded with smaller lakes, but I'm not sure what to look for, if I'm chasing specks.

Here's the area in question (Lac Jolliet);

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Lac+Jolliet/@51.5460088,-76.9120883,10393m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4d1d14c4e884e877:0x619b39ed95a61aa1!8m2!3d51.565845!4d-76.8345822

Now, I'd rather not hike more than 1.5km off the lake. This gives me plenty of options, but I'm not sure how to prioritize them. So here are my questions anyway;

• Do smaller lakes commonly hold specks this far North?
• Should I first check lakes that have a small creek connecting them, as this means they can spawn easily? Or does a creek mean predators can get in?
• From satellite imagery it seems some of these lakes have sandy berms, should I prioritize these, or try those that seems deep and rocky?

Anyone have an idea of what I should look for????

Red in particular? Or dipsies in general? We catch more than 50 percent of our fish on dipsies.

Yeah, dipsies in general. I tend to run them when the water's too rough to mess with riggers.

How do you like them dipsies?

Title. Wondering what you guys use where minnows are banned. I have all manner of spoon available, some assorted lures, also thinking of grabbing gulp minnows.

The system Mike Holmes jr put in his house is what I think would help cut the hydro company out, big inverter/battery bank. Don't wanna see the bill for that one though haha everything they quote out on those shows seems more like double than what it should be

Was it like the Tesla systems? Those look amazing.

Tesla solar roof: https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2016/10/Unknown-1.jpeg

Plus powerwall: https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/powerwall

When I ran the calcs this system would pay for itself in 4.5 years in Northern Ontario. 1 year if you need to replace the shingles anyway.

So much for the pipe dream of "clean affordable renewable energy"

It's sad because this is a thing. We just can't get it right. The big boys like China, USA, Germany, etc etc etc are making major investments in renewable energy. And I doubt this is done in the spirit of environmental care. These countries aren't stupid.

Solar, wind, geothermal and to a certain extent hydro, are a sound ways of producing energy affordably.

It's just so sad that Canada can't execute this properly.

My only recommendation is to install your own renewable energy source; whether it be solar or geothermal. Solar is at a point now where it's a clear net gain even without adjusting for future increases in electricity costs.

Brings back some memories of trapping minnows in Kapuskasing back in the day. Paid my way through university working my ass off every summer. Minnow trapping is lucrative... but only if you work hard. We once pulled $10,000 worth of minnows out of a lake... in 3 days. Suffice to say we renewed the trapping license for that particular area for 10 years.

Little tip; try dry dog food as bait. It holds together better than bread and therefore traps longer.

Check https://webapp.navionics.comand see if the maps there are more accurate. If so, there must be some way to get more accurate data on your device.

Going through the PITA that is changing bearings for the first time. Good thing I'm doing this as preventative maintenance and not on the side of the road during black fly season or in the dead of winter.

I made the mistake of trying to eyeball the bearing size and had to make a couple unnecessary trips to CT. Funny thing is they have dozens of "open box deals" thanks to people like me. You're welcome.

I do have a question though; is the bearing race universal for 1in and 1 1/16th? I put in the new race and don't want to have to pound it out again...

I just spent a good hour on their site and the way pricing works is genius. Ended up buying 23 total after figuring out how to get them cheap (mostly going to be gifts).

This company hopes you buy singles for $25 USD.

Otherwise they have great deals on packs. You can buy 5 for $25 + shipping = $8 CAD each approximately.

Or you can buy the 12 pack and pay $5 each. Add the 12 pack to cart, then apply the SAVE80 coupon which is 80% off.

For the fleece ones, you can buy say, the 11 pack and apply the FLEECE5 coupon for 83% off.

Thing is, you can't apply both in a single order.

So I placed two separate orders and got both the 80% off and 83%. Had to pay the extra $10 in shipping but that's ok.

Edit: I just saw an ad on this site that brought me to their 5 for $15 deal https://safishing.com/?product=5-for-15-face-shields-free-decal#configuration

As most of you know, fishfinders get their information from a cone-shaped signal sent from the boat to the bottom. Near the boat, the signal is narrow, and at bottom, the signal is largest. For this reason you're more likely to mark fish on bottom than right under the boat, often giving the illusion that there are more fish at greater depths.

In reality, marking 10 fish at say, 8ft depth vs. 20 fish at 30ft means there are more fish hanging out at 8ft. It's a simple matter of trigonometry, but in this example fish density would be 3.75 times greater at 8ft!

I would love to see this as an automated feature on fishfinders. Maybe a vertical axis on the left or right of the screen showing roughly fish density.

This wouldn't be perfect because units can't always differentiate fish vs interference or junk, but it would be a start. And for trout fishing, recognizing exactly where they're hanging out in the thermocline would be dandy.

Thoughts?