msp

awesome fish Bill ! Congrats

Its amazing how hard they smash the hardware. well done !

did crappy. my spot got poached all week. walked a couple other home tribs and got some fish here and there. nothin special. may be my last year fishing opener.

To the OP …... sorry for your loss.to bad you didn't get a chance to fish more with your old man. Love reading everyone's stories. My story is similar to everyone else's. Started very young with my dad. cut my teeth a child on Pigeon Lake family friends cottage fishing walleye, smallmouth and the odd incidental musky and a rental cottage on BOQ in the early 80's fishing pike and eyes. I also vividly remember cottage rentals on the French river. The old man soon bought a large boat and docked it on Simcoe for a few years trolling Lakers and live bait fishing crawfish for smallmouth. I still remember the looks on the tournament guys faces when we put a beating on them at Duclos point. One of them may have been Dave Chong lol The big boat got moved to Port Whitby for a few years and the old man got hit with the Salmon bug. I still remember going to Gagnon sports when they were on Simcoe street south to pick up our first set of downriggers.Trolling was fun for a few years but when I turned 15 it was getting harder and harder for my dad to wake me up in the morning. Chasing girls and partying took front stage for a number of years and the old man sold the boat and downsized. This ended up being a blessing. The riggers came with us and the smaller boat opened up so many opportunities for us to explore all kinds of water.My dad was always cool with lending me the boat and truck and it was pretty much every weekend exploring the Kawarthas and beyond. Figuring out new bites, new lakes is what always kept things interesting for me. soon after I bought my own boat and had been fishing steady for almost all my life. passing on the passion to my son now is the agenda as he is looking forward to trout and bass opener every year. I hope I am creating fond memories for him and someday he can tell his story on here about how his old man was the best fisherman ever lol about 43 years and still learning !

This can be a slippery slope. all the extras that you need/want can become very expensive. as some have mentioned here in the thread, you would need at a minimum a battery pack and decent memory card. Some of the newer versions are only compatible with good quality memory cards. Not a big deal but an additional $100 on top of the purchase price. I just got one last year and still havnt figured it out yet. a bit of a pain in the a$$ actually

Plus the wide angle lens makes fish look HUGE !

Apparently all the launches are closed on BOQ.You may want to consider this before driving out. I don't target Crappie on BOQ however I have caught HUGE slabs on full size jerkbaits there in the past.

I agree about fishing for fish on beds.( not cool ) most fish have spawned long before opener and are in dropback mode.

Fishing for steelhead is probably the least sporting type of fishing in general no matter how deep the water is. I mean heck, they return to the same creek every year.

What's the difference ?

So now all other rivers are going to get hammered pretty hard. The Ganaraska River is the only river out east that can support that quantity of fishermen. say good bye to fish stocks on the other tribs in the area. I walk my dogs almost everyday along the banks of Duffins creek in Ajax and speak with fishermen all the time. word on the street is that a $ 100 trespassing fine is well worth it vs a "social distancing fine " I went last week to check on my opener spots and there was clearly evidence of poaching. 20 pound test all over the place, footprints and garbage. people don't have ethics anymore. Its quite sad that fisherman are disgusting pigs and ruin it for the majority.

How does one " retire" from fishing .......I don't understand

Very interesting. Can the MNRF make the regulations any more confusing ....... im not sure how I feel about this one. If anything the early season Jan 1'to may 10 should definitely be catch and release only I am a bit bias because I don't fish for smallmouth but the US regs bass is open all season and it doesn't seem to affect the fishery. Do they stock more ? Idk ?

Thanks guys. Lots hours on the water last year. Lots crappy days as well. Looking forward to see how 2020 goes

Used only one season. No transducer as it was hooked up to my Minn Kota v2 All mounting hardware included PRICE DROP $75

I prefer a 6 ft 6 to 7 ft MH rod for senkos. Here is a great tip to save on senkos if your budget allows. Have two rods on deck. One rod is used for texas rigged senkos and one rod rigged with a wacky hook. Once your texas rigged senkos are spent, you can transfer them to the wacky rod. double the life of your expensive senkos

I ran into this problem with my new axle. Went to a trailer place and they re positioned the spring seats for $ 100. easy fix and the new axle fit perfect

till that one breaks down. went through 3 in ten years.

Sorry. Just to clarify...…. The axle weight rating was low for the boat with gear ,fuel, ect….. I was getting very uneven wear on the insides of the trailer tires. Spoke to a couple of trailer guys and they said that typically these trailers are for cottagers that put their boats in the water at the beginning of the season and take out at the end of the season. I am averaging 15 000 km per year on questionable roads. A new axle took care of all my problems.

You may want to consider replacing the entire axle. After going through trailer tires almost every season, I soon realized that the trailer axle was under rated for the amount of driving that I am doing. Replaced with a 3000 lb axle from PA. about $ 400.00. easy job. Now I have no more uneven wear on my tires. This all started with a simple bearing replacement. lol

Well said ! We need to start making better choices for the environment. If eating a little less meat and being more conscious about single use plastics such as water bottles, plastic bags, straws ect..... our future generations will be thankful for our choices. A tough sell as meat tastes sooooooo good. A little bit at a time will go a long way. BTW..... Im not a vegetarian !

The flipping jig is very versatile. you can fish it deep, shallow, fast , slow. experimenting with weight and rate of fall is more important than colour. 5/16 oz 1/2 oz and 9/16 oz are all standard weights. switching out your chunk/trailer makes a huge difference with the rate of fall. For example, a 5/16 oz jig with a large trailer with flapping craw type trailer will have a very slow fall rate. This was key for me last weekend to getting bites. Sometimes it the exact opposite. a 9/16 oz jig with a small chunk with little action could be what the fish want. ( more of a reaction bite ) as the fish don't have time to inspect and just react to the fast fall. Sketty55- PM sent

Nice. How did the new rod work out for you ?

The number one big bass bait of all time is a flipping jig with trailer. Try a 1/2 oz flipping jig in brown or black and blue with a zoom chunk. Stick with it and be confident. I guarantee you will catch the big ones with it.