craigdritchie

If you're talking about the Nith River that flows into the Grand, then you shouldn't be targeting bass at all. The season is closed for another month.

I've caught fish on all sorts of crap while joking around with friends: cigarette butts, gummy bears, surgical tubing, a ripped plastic bag, and even a carrot (trolled 70 feet down off a downrigger on Lake Ontario, no less). No way I'm coughing up $1,100 for a designer fishing lure. That said, good luck to the guy selling it. If he can find some fool to pay that much, then why not? Kind of reminds me of the artist who duck-taped a banana to the gallery wall then sold it for $120 grand.

Easiest is to just book a charter boat. There are several operating out of downtown Vancouver. I have no idea what they charge, but expect they would be comparable to what you would pay on Lake Ontario. August/September is fine for timing, you'll definitely get pinks and probably some coho. If you were to go over to the island you would definitely have more options, there are charters in pretty well every town and village.

Here's a Boeing 737 landing on a frozen lake in NWT. It's actually pretty common, it's how they get heavy equipment that's too big for a float plane into those remote northern fly-in camps. Just wait for the lake to freeze, then load up a 737 and give 'er. That said, it's landing on five or six feet of solid ice. I don't think I would try this on Simcoe right now either. https://youtu.be/5FQp1siO41s also: https://worldairlinenews.com/2018/04/16/nolinor-aviation-boeing-737-lands-on-a-frozen-lake/

Seems like it happens every year. https://nationalpost.com/ford/f-150/auto-news/news/ice-fisher-waits-until-last-possible-day-sinks-f-150-in-lake-simcoe/wcm/c0382d16-8cbc-48c0-9906-464ac9333926

About five years ago I was at the Old Mill Dam in Toronto shooting photos of jumping salmon. A day or two later I noticed a small fish in the background of one of the photos, so I cropped in as much as I could to see what it was. To my shock, it was a brook trout. Picture quality is horrible because it's enlarged like crazy, but it's still unmistakably a brookie. No doubt about it. If they show up in Lake Ontario tributaries, then why not Georgian Bay?

I'm sure that one day electric boats will be the standard, but that day is still a long ways off. Torqeedo makes an 80 hp equivalent electric outboard which you can buy right now. It costs €39,000, or around $60,000 Canadian. Fortunately it comes with the two batteries needed to run it, which weigh approx. 300 pounds apiece. Per Torqeedo's website, maximum range on a full charge is around 12 hours, but that's based on running at 4 mph. At full throttle, it runs out of juice in 25 - 30 minutes. That's based on summer temperatures, by the way. As with all batteries, performance falls off in colder conditions. That Torqeedo motor has been on the market for six years now, so it's not like the price will drop once it gets out there. Boats are not like cars, the volumes required to drive prices down simply do not exist in the marine industry. And because pushing a boat through water takes a lot more energy than it does to roll a car on wheels, performance comparisons to automotive are just not valid. As far as marinas go, I can't see any of them eating the cost of installing charging stations until there is steady, consistent demand for it.

It's hard to see in the video, but are there no registration numbers on that boat?

Berkley Powerbait Power Rattle ... they show up on eBay fairly regularly.

Biggest issues there have been a bunch of clowns leaving trash all over the place ... worm containers, lure packages, fish guts, pop/beer cans, etc. etc. Worst of all are the coils of used line. I've personally seen dead ducks at Bronte completely wrapped up in the stuff. I mean, seriously, is anyone honestly surprised they closed it down? It was only a matter of time. It's always the same thing again and again ... a small number of idiots ruin it for everyone.

An online course can help, but the best return on your time is deciding exactly what it is you want to improve, learning how to do it with some YouTube instructional videos, then going out and practicing that new skill over and over again till you have it down pat. Just deciding "I want to take better pictures" won't get you anywhere, since that's not specific enough that you can do anything about it. It's no different than fishing ... just saying " I want to catch more fish" won't get you anywhere. But saying I want to learn to cast properly ... I want to learn to pick spots ... I want to learn how to jig ... I want to learn how to fish swimbaits .... I want to learn how to fish topwaters ..... those things are specific skills that can be learned, and produce real results. So what do you want to learn to do better with your cameras? Do you want to take better photos in dim light? Better action shots? Better scenery shots? Better close-ups? Better compositions? Get better pics without a flash? What, exactly? You need to decide what you want to improve on or learn to do, then focus on that alone until you've mastered it The GoPro, iPhone and Canon M100 especially are more than capable of producing very good images. You don't need a better camera, especially if you're looking at the end results on a screen. Seriously, lots of pro photographers have done coffee table books and National Geographic shots with older iPhones. Within reason, the equipment doesn't matter. It's all technique.

The honest truth is that among today's 50 hp to 75 hp engines there really isn't a bad choice, they're all very close in terms of fuel efficiency and overall reliability. Go to each manufacturer's website and you can read the specifics on each ... there are some minor weight and feature differences that might swing you one way or another. But the biggest difference is most likely going to come down to the dealer you buy it from ... some may offer incentives that the others don't, or be more convenient for service etc. Just for clarity, BRP did not sell Evinrude to Mercury, or to anyone else. Evinrude is discontinued, meaning BRP still owns the name and such but will no longer build the engines.

Depending on traffic it can sometimes take longer to get through the various locks than you might expect. You may want to pad yoru schedule a bit to give some leeway ... and to allow time for a few casts here and there. Seriously --> buy the PORTS cruising guide to the Trent-Severn (see https://www.portsbooks.com/trent-severn-lake-simcoe/). It's the most detailed info you can get on where to stay, where to get fuel, where to find groceries and the LCBO, marina facilities, launch ramps, locks, distance between various things, and some useful fishing info if you read between the lines. Book is loaded with high resolution aerial photos and maps. Only $30 and absolutely worth its weight in gold.

Big news this afternoon, as BRP announced they have discontinued production of all Evinrude outboards and will concentrate on building boats. They've also entered into a supply arrangement with Mercury to provide outboards for their boat brands worldwide, including Alumacraft and Manitou. More details are sure to follow. https://www.ibinews.com/brp-to-discontinue-evinrude-outboard-production/36404.article

Not sure I completely agree with that. If I had a buck for every bass fisherman I've seen who say they're "fishing for pike" or "fishing for crappies" but are actually targeting bedding bass weeks before the season opens, I'd be a pretty wealthy guy. You get clowns in all types of fishing, it's not exclusive to any one group.

I think this is the kind of scenario that Ang is referring to, and it is exactly what opening weekend of trout season will look like in many, many areas. That's the problem.

John wrote for the Toronto Sun, every Thursday if I remember correctly, for many, many years. Before him it was written by Pete Sticklee (briefly) and Tiny Bennett, author of The Art of Angling. It was John Power (another wonderful guy) who wrote the outdoor column for the Star. I often regret the fact that we no longer have outdoor columns in the papers, even the online versions. Now that it's out of the mainstream media, it's becoming more and more of a fringe pastime ... something that's painfully obvious with every MNR budget cut.

Deeply saddened to learn that former Ontario Out of Doors magazine editor John Kerr has passed away at 73 from complications related to cancer. John was not only a terrific angler and a true pioneer of many techniques that trout and salmon anglers in Ontario take for granted today, he fought countless battles with MNR on behalf of anglers and campaigned relentlessly toward getting MNR to establish the extended fall seasons and year-round seasons we all enjoy today. Beyond that, John was a true gentleman, a pillar of integrity, and one hell of a mentor to guys like me who wanted nothing more than to make a living writing about fishing. No funeral service details have been released. For more info, see https://oodmag.com/news/ood-editor-john-kerr-passes/

Wow, if only they sold beer like that.

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/hook-line-and-sinker-australian-burglar-uses-fishing-rod-to-lift-versace-necklace-from-mannequin

Nice, 250 hp x 8 = 2,000 hp. But sometimes 6 engines beats 8 engines. 6 x 450 = 2,700 ponies. Still wouldn't want to have to gas up either one.

Sad news today - Ranger Boats founder Forrest Wood passed away Saturday at the age of 87. https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Ranger-Boats-founder-Forrest-Wood-dies-at-87-567295871.html

Is it even possible to troll with something like this????

Why don't you talk to a couple of boat dealers who sell pontoon boats and ask about ordering a console? You'll have to wait for it to be shipped from the factory (most likely mixed in among a shipment of boats) but that would be the easiest way of getting something that's rotomolded. No idea on cost, but obviously the more intricate the console, the bigger the price tag. January - March is boat show season, so that might be the best way to speak to a bunch of different dealers in a short time. Or just build one from marine plywood. Cost-wise, that's going to be the cheapest way to go by far.