FishFinder17

Any time I have ever said that fish are dumb, I end up getting skunked (or outsmarted?) on my next trip.... I think it offends the fishing Gods. Good luck your next time out OI lol

Thanks OhioFisherman, I've gone over the rules a few times to make sure I know them well. I also have live well in my boat that will hold quite a few large pike. The rule you mentioned about first boat on a spot having priority bring up a question - if there's a bay that would allow two boats to fish 50 feet apart, is that fair game? Based on the rules it seems like it is, but would I upset another boat if I entered into the same bay and fished 50ft away?

Hi OFC, I'm fishing the Muksoka Bass Masters Lake Muskoka Pike Open next weekend with a long time fishing buddy. This will be our first tournament and would love to get some general tips on tournament fishing (i.e. how to best use your time, respecting other competitors, using weigh stations, etc). Hoping to get some pointers that might help shape our plan of attack. Should also add that this wont be my first time fishing Lake Muskoka - I had a cottage there from 2002-2010 so I have a few fishing locations I'm familiar with and know the whole lake pretty well. Would also like to know if their are other members on the forum that will be participating? As always, thanks for your help. FF17

Just out of curiosity, how deep were you catching the fish? and how far off shore are you comfortable going in the toon? I've always been fascinated by how high tech they are. Nice fish

Yes it does. It's very straightforward. I have a MacBook and when I put the card in my computer, an app opened and there's a big blue button that says update maps. At that point you make the selection to include an update for sonarchart (increases file size and download time), which I highly recommend. Sonarchart includes community edits which allows users to submit their own sounded maps that are far more accurate than what you are used to seeing on navionics maps. As more users submit their maps (usually using the auto chart feature in new humminbird units) all of them become a lot more accurate - also a reason to update regularly.

Good to know, thanks. I'm new to fishing whities and I do have two anchors so I'll make sure I bring both. Will need to go and get some rope for one of them. Do whities typically hit on the plastics or the same kind of spoons as lakers (stingrays, cleos, blue fox)? or should I make a trip to the tackle aisle ....not that I mind doing that

Thanks for the tip. I looked into sibbalds and I would prefer to stay a bit more west as we are probably having lunch at a buddy's cottage on Fox island and doing most of our fishing in cooks and surrounding area. Looks like east point might work. Had someone recommend it on another forum so I called today and I can launch as early as I want and pay when I leave. Apparently it's a decent ramp too but I'm basing all of this on what others have told me... either way I'll find out saturday morning. If for any reason I should avoid east point, please let me know Thanks again for the help. Really appreciate it.

No problem and good luck. Don't drive yourself crazy over it though, I have experienced situations where the maps are just wrong. Should get better as more and more users are submitting their own maps

If you're looking for safe areas to avoid hitting rocks, try downloading the navionics app and research the area before you go. A lot of users have marked rocks/dangerous areas and this is always a good starting point. Enable the sonar chart maps when using - much more accurate. If you're looking for exact fishing locations/hot spots then you're going to have to go out and find them. If you stumble upon a honey hole while you're out there I don't think you're going to come on here when you get back and share the coordinates with the world... A fisherman is measured not by his ability to do internet research, but by his willingness to cover water and try new things. Cheers and good luck. Let us know how it goes and any spots where you catch fish Cheers, FF17

Did you try updating the maps by inserting the card in the SD slot in your computer? Reason I ask is because I recently purchased a humminbird helix 5 that came with nav card. I plugged into my laptop and updated the maps and turned "sonar chart" on. This made the mapped depths much more accurate as I believe it is user sounded/submitted via auto chart live (the same option exists on the navionics app) Hope this helps FF17

Looking for help picking a good boat launch on simcoe near snake island for saturday. I know it will likely cost me $20-$30 and I'm okay with that, just looking for a decent ramp with trailer parking. Was thinking east point but ramp looks a little sketchy on street view. Can't seem to find a good/recent answer in other posts and forums. Also, this will be my first time fishing opener on simcoe...how early should I get to the launch to avoid the big crowds? Thanks in advance and good luck to those heading out Saturday. FF17

Thanks Greg, Glad to hear you got out and found some fish too. How was everything with the new boat? My brother-in-law has been down on the detroit the past few weekends with varied success. A few meals but some slow days in between.

Went out again yesterday for some more Lake O fishing. Added another species to the boat with this 6lb brown trout caught trolling a 5/8oz Demon Dancer spoon on a dipsy in 25 FOW. Water temps warmed up a bit to just below 50F and conditions were really rough in the early morning but calmed down nicely as the day went on. Another great day on the water... Cheers, FF17

Congrats on the new boat Tjames..I know you were looking for a long time so glad you found something in time for some good fishing.

How did you guys do today?

Thanks all, it was a great feeling to try a new style of fishing and have success with species we've never landed before...the perfectly sunny day wasn't bad either. Many have said once I start trout/salmon fishing I will be addicted....I think you're all right Can't wait to get back out there and learn a little more. Cheers, FF17

The idea of taking pictures of out of season fish is debated so often here and on other fishing forums, often resulting in a 50/50 split on the issue with a lot of stone throwing involved. Some will do it and some wont, so let's leave it at that. That being said I think it's sort of an unwritten rule that you shouldn't post pictures of a fish during the closed season for that species of fish. I know your intentions were good (after reading your post) but a picture without any description or context may be misleading for others. Some may think the picture was taken yesterday and so they grab a rod and head to the river to go after out of season fish. As good ambassadors for the sport we should always help enforce the rules of fishing, and err on the side of caution when sharing our catch - had your picture description read "caught March 7th during open season" I don't think the original thread would have been started at all. Part of the problem is that we all know too well how underfunded the MNR is and we therefore take on a disproportionate level of responsibility for keeping our fisheries healthy, which often means policing those who fail to do so. As a result I think there lessons to be learned on both sides; members shouldn't be quick to assume without context, and the poster needs to provide context so others don't assume. At the end of the day the fishery wasn't harmed as we had originally thought, and that's what we should all really care about, right? Cheers, FF17

Got out on Friday with a buddy for the first fishing trip in the new boat. A few weeks ago I picked up a 17ft Princecraft with Merc 115hp from another member on this forum (Thanks G.mech!) and couldn't wait to get on the water. We launched out of LaSalle Park in Burlington around 7am and trolled along the Hamilton/Stoney Creek shore towards Grimsby. This was our first time fishing Lake Ontario so we didn't have super high expectations, but we each bought a dipsy setup, some new spoons, and I got a new Daiwa trolling combo while he used his Muskie setup (the guys at Fishingworld in Hamilton were a big help getting me setup and giving a few pointers - many thanks) Once we got out from under the skyway bridge we setup the divers and started trolling in 40-50FOW. We marked a few schools of bait fish but that was about it. Water temps early in the morning were 40F but climbed up to 44F by the afternoon. We didn't mark a single fish for the whole morning but it was a great day to be out so we weren't too discouraged. Once 1pm hit we got about 10-15km from the bridge so we turned back and decided to troll a a little closer to shore (20-30FOW) for the return trip. 20 minutes after the turnaround we start marking some good size fish near bottom..not long after that my buddy's reel starts screaming - he's on one. I grab the net and he starts bringing it in. Being new to this type of fishing we have no idea what it could be which made it that much more exciting. I get a glimpse of the fish and see it's a good size, he reels it right do the boat and in the net it goes - a 12lb Lake Ontario lake trout which was the first fish in the new boat, his first fish out of Lake O, and also his first lake trout. We snapped a couple pics and sent it back to be caught another day. We were both really happy to have turned the corner on a slow day, so we got the lines back in the water and continued on our way. Not too long after that my reel starts going so I pull it from the holder and set the hook - fish was off... That happened three more times on the way back but couldn't land another one. I guess the shallower water was they key. We pulled the boat out around 4pm and called it a day with sunburnt foreheads but feeling good about our catch. After that we may try and get out again next weekend but if not we have a trip planned for some Balsam lake pike with a few other buddies at the end of April. Cheers, FF17

I owned a 1989 16ft tracker aluminum with the original 30hp Johnson. I put down new floor/carpeting and rewired the whole thing but structurally it was a great boat. Someone who owned it before me must have hit a rock but it was repaired and never had an issue with that spot. Sold it for more than I paid+invested so I can't say anything bad about tracker boats, but that's just my experience. However staying away from Tracker does seem to be a common theme in a lot of boating/fishing forums..maybe there's something to it.

Bought and sold a few boats on Kijiji myself. When you buy something new you typically know the circumstances of the sale (i.e. a business selling a new product for a profit) When you buy something used off kijiji you rarely know the circumstances of the sale - you may have someone who is testing the market and won't take a penny below asking, or you may have someone who has already financed a new boat and is about to miss his first payment if he doesn't sell his old one. I bought an older 16ft tracker 30hp 4 years ago that was listed on Kijiji for $5000. My first offer was $3000 and we ended up settling on $3500. I would consider $3000 a lowball offer but the seller needed the boat gone so it worked out. Laws of negotiating would always tell you to open extreme so you leave yourself enough room to negotiate back to your target price. I know I hate this when I'm selling a boat but I do it when buying from Kijiji. Sellers don't like it but it takes 5 seconds to reply to an ad and even less time for the seller to ignore it...no harm done and you just might find the guy who needs it sold yesterday. Good luck with your boat search. FF17

Thanks Greg, it was great to meet you and work out a deal. I couldn't be happier with my new boat. I've picked up all of the accessories I need (for now...) including: - 80# Terrova - Humminbird Helix 5 DI GPS G2 (Helm) - Humminbird Helix 5 DI/Sonar G2 (Bow) - Promariner 2 bank on board charger - 2x Group 31 batteries I started working on it this weekend and I can't wait to get on the water. I have the GPS installed and ran the new transducer, onboard charger and batteries are in, and bow finder is mounted. I just need to install the terrova and wire the GPS to the smart craft (thanks for labeling all of the wires) and I'm ready to go. Not long until my first trip... Also wanted to say thanks to all who contributed to this thread and helped with my search. Cheers, FF17

Hoping to close a deal on one this week, just have to water test. I agree Kijiji has been difficult to deal with. More and more listings are starting to come up though, so stay patient and be ready with cash in hand in case one comes up that you like. good luck

Thanks Lape thats really good insight. I read somewhere online that the US2 isn't that great as it doesn't support side imaging, is that correct? I really like the ipilot feature but I also have a few other things I would need to purchase so will have to see what fits in the overall budget. Worst case I could always buy the add on afterwards. Thanks again FF17

Thanks porkpie, good to know. I'm sure I would do the same thing if I saw one in action...I'm now pretty set on buying one based on all of the "can't live without it" comments.

All good points, thanks guys. The whole idea behind buying a bigger boat is to have the option to fish bigger water, so the ipilot seems to make a lot of sense. The majority of the time would be spent covering weedlines, humps, drop-offs etc for pike but would be nice to be prepared for any kind of fishing. Appreciate the advice FF17