AKRISONER

I’ve never been the guy with “raw talent” nor am I the guy that just seems to be able to catch ‘em. The only way I can beat the competition is by ensuring that absolutely everything else that I can control is in order when competing. that means lots of studying, lots of pre-fishing, lots of reading, tons and tons of time dialing in the boat and finally not over complicating what I’m doing when I am on the water. it’s such a contrast to my main tournament partner, he’s the type of guy that shows up and barely knows what lake he is fishing. He could fish one rod and still smack em. Together we make a pretty damn good team if I’m being honest. Haven’t finished in the bottom half of a field yet. Made enough money last year to cover my entry’s for the year. maybe I just got lucky though (far more likely) 🤣🤣

my pre tournament fishing involves a heck of a lot of time staring at navionics web app on my work computer monitor. its so fast and nice to look at the maps on a big old screen.

It’s sad to see the damage that Russian and Chinese social media misinformation campaigns have ravaged on the populous, alas, here we are with our own people halting our economy, dying preventable deaths by refusing treatment due to a misinformation campaign, fighting one another, attempting to coupe our own elected leader, some people saying “you need to be on this side or that side” Civil war isn’t a good thing no matter what “side” you fall on. Those that really don’t have our interests in mind are smiling right now. I guess nearly three years of this is enough to drive some people to or over the edge, it’s not surprising but it’s sad to watch. The world will never be the same…I think I speak for all of us when I say that we really just all need the opportunity to go fishing and drink a few beers with our buddies and family without any consideration for anything except what we feel like catching and drinking that particular day, just like we did back in the day.

i just use navionics web app

Been absolutely blown away with how much the livescope has helped with the lakers this year. For us the big difference has been seeing the fish 30 feet out and being able to react and prepare to reel once the fish makes its move. What you get that you don’t with a flasher is that typically by the time they show up on the flasher they are already at your bait. We’ve been reacting as the fish swims up from the side and seemingly the fish are reacting perfectly to it. perhaps the proof is definitely in the pudding, my father really had difficulty reacting and playing trout last year on the flasher, he ended up skunked the entire winter. Switched the panoptix and he’s caught 4 trout in two trips.

Yup, fish of a lifetime right there, replica mount worthy for sure congrats! don’t let the fact that we live close to quinte/Erie throw you off, that’s a trophy all day every day anywhere north of barrie lol

Take it easy on these guys Irish, some of them brave the Ontario cold, only to go out and sit with 1000 other city folk in a crowd on simcoe, pay $50 parking to catch some small perch 🤣

Funny story about those pants, had an old roomate/tennant that left my place in a hurry and left a bunch of crap behind. My buddy wanted to go ice fishing and all of my gear was up north. I found those teal snowboard pants in the storage room. They were wayyyyy too big for me but I made them work for the day. I specifically remember my feet being so damn cold that day because I only had a crappy pair of Walmart bush boots that I borrowed from my other roomate lol

I can assure everyone here, that having high quality electronics and knowing how to use them well, will 100% catch you more fish. Livescope making this even more eye opening because there are fish I catch that I would have never caught without it, It makes sense, but there is 100% a group of fish “type” that won’t eat if your boat is anywhere near them. That goes for all species. once again with lakers, for whatever reason they were not fond of vertical presentation but would eat jigs ripped by them. If I put the boat near them they won’t eat. bass, fish suspending way way up high in the water column most likely on bait. You can’t put a boat on it, but I’ve thrown top water out over those fish in 25 feet of water and they eat. It’s incredible

cliff, youd be blown away if you saw whats its like to fish livescope in open water for laketrout. Out of all of the different types of fishing I do, that application trumps all. The coolest things ive seen yet though was a smallmouth suspended 12 feet off of bottom in 25 feet of water eat a crankbait off of a ledge in real time, 25 feet off of the nose of the boat. They do have their application, its a matter of what extent you need to go with it/want to. If I am being honest, my favourite style of fishing is still flipping and skipping into wood for largemouth which involves precisely 0 electronics aside from a trolling motor. People also spend thousands a year on weed, cigs and liquor and drive $100,000 vehicles too, so to each their own if you got it, spend it!

This was in 2016 (Wow i cannot believe it has been that long yeeeesh) but we caught if I remember, 4 this size on island lake that day. Theres a million snot rockets too, plus a pile of perch. Any time we dead sticked a minnow head on a small jig on bottom we would catch perch.

owning the electronics, and knowing how to use them to catch fish are two entirely different things. Even fishing with a livescope, its not going to catch the fish for you if you dont know what to do when you see a fish.

yup...this thread aint going nowhere but into locked mode

Maybe I’m crazy? But if I’m keeping it 100% I’ve always done best on brighter days. if a storm is coming in it can be really good just like softwater. but I’ve found more consistent bites when it’s blue bird softwater, cloudy calm warm days are the juice

Go to island lake, there’s a billion pike in there

So with that particular unit, in order to autochart you will need a Humminbird zero lines card in order to record. Also a worthwhile investment specifically for fishing species that you like to target vertically. i really liked the little chart I made of one of my favourite crappie basins keep an eye on the bass boat central forums, the canada chart cards come up somewhat frequently (not as much recently with Americans not travelling) but lots of those guys have taken trips north and bought cards and then dump them

3500lbs? You trying to be the only guy towing a 22 foot bass boat with a minivan?

Unfortunately there is no such thing as Navionics "regions" in canada. You either buy the whole country or you dont. Speaking from personal experience, Lakemaster Canada is literally completely garbage and a waste of money. In fact its outright dangerous to attempt to navigate with. I was actually in shock with how bad it is. I personally would recommend looking at purchasing a used chip. Theres no need to neccesarily have the latest and greatest navionics chip, the ones that are 5+ years old are still super accurate for the majority of major bodies of water. Ive been using a chip thats close to 10 years old now for navigating without issue for years now.

have to laugh, the elites down there practicing have been complaining that its darn cold. Even local canadian boy Cooper Gallant was wearing a parka and touque while fishing!

+1 that a 6 incher is enough. The only time ive ever really needed the 8 incher is landing laketrout and thats moreso because they obviously are big and really dont like to give up when you get them to the hole. Landing whities, perch, walleyes etc through a 6 incher will be no issue. If you want to give yourself an excuse to buy a fancy new 20v drill, do that and get yourself a fancy drill adaptor auger. I personally say just hand drill though, I was punching 6 inch holes with a swede bore through a foot of thick black ice this weekend and it was nothing as long as your blades are sharp. Careful to never smack your blades on the ice and always travel with a cover to keep them razer sharp.

Ya simcoe is a bit of a giant beast for a newbie to take on. i really find with ice fishing, the initial overhead is pretty steep but then after then there isn’t much cost at all unless you are trying to keep a snowmobile running. it’s definitely a hell of a lot cheaper than running a boat, electronics and gear. for the most part ice rods are ice rods. You’re always fishing them the same way. Vertical. Pick your species and assign your rod power accordingly. hand augers are cheap, and sharp blades in Ontario where the ice never gets too too thick are usually good enough. Maybe a little different if you need big holes for big lakers but that’s really starting to go beyond beginner status. it doesn’t take much to go catch a few walleye, pike or Perch through the ice. No need to over complicate it.

Not to hijack the thread, but since it is being brought up…you should see the insanity around going 24v now for guys running livescope/mega live etc etc. im personally a big time believer in over gauging, looming and really clean dedicated runs to avoid line loss for your electrical installation. Garmin even shows you by displaying the unit’s voltage plain as day what kind of line loss you experiencing but I’m not a believer in the whole 24v Bull. by the way, If you wire your marine electronics into your boat’s bus fuse block, you’ve just waisted all of that money. My father is the “function” over “form” type being an old farmer…sure as turd, he’s running the exact same electronics set up as me and his looks like absolute garbage and there’s a disaster of interference all over his livescope and 2d sonar. I offered to rewire it all for him because I enjoy dc wiring and use his boat regularly, but as far as he is concerned, he did a great job because the thing turns on! Can’t ever tell your old man nothing lol

Theres math involved and Im sure a graph somewhere that will show you running a more powerful 24 system will outperform a 12v system with more AH and reserve capacity. This is the main thing here, if you are carrying two group 31's in the boat anyways you should be running them for 24v.

There’s just such better lakes to fish that typically don’t require you to pay at least nearly as much to park and deal with crowds etc etc. i guess the perch fishing is pretty damn good but I’d rather fish crappie elsewhere if that’s what I’m looking for. Otherwise, ya I’m going somewhere else to fish

this is why I will probably never fish Simcoe again TBH That and the $30 something dollar a day parking.