jwl

all my spots suck, you wouldn't want to try them anyways

hey, ya gotta admit that the first outin gin the boat for the season is pretty fun, and will only get better, I use my boat all winter for steelie fishin..but whe heading up to the trailer and putting the tinner in for the first of the season is always a blast...always good to get out and give it a good run to see how everything works. You out a couple fish in the boat...no skunks, that's a good way to start out

I see some great choices...tough one to answer really..I guess it depends on alot of factors for me..species targeted,time of year, water temps, available structure, forage base. I like fishing any big transition point in an area, but again the above factors come into play as well. For example if I am fishing winter steelies on the Niagara, in the boat I am fishing current breaks and looking to find the fish in about 15 fow for the most part in areas adjacent to about 25 fow..if I am fishing the banks I look for back eddy areas that the fish will rest and feed in with a decent drop off to deeper water.

Just got back this evening from a couple days at my trailer..Headed off Sunday night when the wife got off work to get in a couple days of R&R for something to do. We like to get as much use out of our trailer as we can for the year. Got there about 11pm Sunday, unpacked got squared away at camp..put the little one to bed,she is the only one of the kids that came up with us this time..usually the older girls have no prob missing a couple days of school to go to the trailer, but this time there was some stuff going on at school they didn't want to miss.hmm teenage girls...go figure . So, some quiet time for me and the wife to sit by the fire for a few brews. Woke up Monday morning to a bit of crap weather and some chop brewing on the lake so decided to get a couple things done, run some errands in town for a bit and see what the day brought on before gearing the tinner up to check out a couple spots on the water, and the debate on putting my dock in, I decided the water was a bit to cold still so opted just to put the dock in next time The tinner doesn't really require the dock so to speak, and we didn't have the biggerboat up there so no big deal on that for a few more days until I head up again. While just puttering around camp, I decided to have a little been of fun, and just for grins I decided to grab a Laker Light and my ultra lite and have some action lite. Fortunately just have to go off the patio, go down about 6-7 steps and fish right in the back yard (where my dock should be ) for a few casts. Took these pics just for kicks cuz these where the lightest ones I could get. Rockbass Light Pumpkinseed Light Bluegill Light It was fun just goofing around with the ultralite combo,and I was laughing at myself for actually setting out to try and get some little fish on purpose. Well that was enough of that goofing around and I decided I was putting the boat stuff together anyways...went and grabbed all the stuff out of the shed, loaded up the tinner, pushed it in the water off the little A-Frame I made up for it and off I went on the search. Found a couple spots had way too many smallies so I decided to do some travelling around, without much avail other than a snot rocket and a couple smallies, I headed back to camp, I pull close to shore with the boat, go to tilt up the motor and the cover pops off on me..I am thinking hey what the heck , after a quick look I realize that the latch part that snaps down the back of the motor cover had fallen off....hmm?? that's a big bummer, I made sure to take out the washers, the hook for the latch and the bolt so they wouldn't get lost, or wind of dang up my starter or flywheel...and now I am stuck with a little problem....where the frig do I find that part for my ole Evinrude 9.9 I use on my tinner??????. Has nothing to do with the way the motor runs or anything..but still would like to fix it for sure or at leats cover the hole up so water don't get into the top..other than I gotta change the sparkplugs next time I go up, that motor has ran like a champ..not bad for a 1976 motor..but being a 1976 motor that where I wonder if and where I can even get that piece for it...not in the market quite yet for a new motor for that boat....already got 2 boats..well 3 if ya count our old 12 footer tinner that the kids now use for a row boat..and a trailer...if I mentioned buying a new motor for the 14 footer I better have enough coin left over for a bullet proof vest cuz the wife will probbaly want to shoot me next. Yesterday got up got a couple things done at camp and ran pout to see if the bait store had any big chubs . I was in luck, grabbed a couple dozen and headed back to the lake, decided to try my luck in the back yard while BBQing soem grub...got my heavy action rod out, a big float, set it all up casted it out and left the bail open while I walked up to the patio to check out the food. I am watching my float when I can see some action..my bobber starts to jump around like my bait is getting a bit nervous about something...then sure enough it goes zinging out, I ran over and grabbed the rod...closed the bail as my line got tightened up then manged to nail this hungry little guy stopped for a quick dinner break, then headed out again to give it another shot and it worked!!!! Had I know that I was now officialy on one of the teams for the contest, I am sure this would have been a welcome addition for the team.....don't worry I am heading back there in a couple days and this time I will bring a logo with me. Not to worry about that fish for the other teams though, that one got a different kind of CPR.......Cut,Prep and Refrigerate. A few minutes after that I lost a hog, I am guessing a 20lber anyways, it took my float down in one foul swoop and left a huge swirl in it's place...I battled it for a bit and it busted me off at the hook. Quickly went and grabbed a hook and set myself up again..few minutes later my float goes down again,had this been in about a month this would have made a good go at 'er for the team as well...I am guessing this one was into the 6lber range or more conservatively. Sorry for the crap pics...wife was taking the pics every time I yelled at her from outside.." Hey!!!! can you come out here and take a picture....come on hurry up I gotta get the fish back in the water!!!...then she was complaining about running in and out of the trailer to take a pic...hmm go figure, I was having a pretty good time. I then got a few laughs with and from the wife because I set out in the boat a couple times to check out a few spots..didn't come up with much at all, and nothing all that big...I walk out the trailer door, out on the patio and down a couple steps and fish off the bank and what happens...I have a blast with the panfish on the utralite, then switch up tactics to the big stuff, get into some decent pike action, lost a monster, get the odd OOSer in the mix all like 20 feet from my door and all within casting distance of the bank. Since the little one was the only one of the kids who came up, of course we made sure she had a great time too..playing outside all day long like kids used to do when many of us where kids and we HAD to play outside all day...she had a blast with my ultralite combo catching sunnies and rockies from the shor, and took her for a bit of a goof around in the boat...this is what it's all about right there.

6 inch White Mr twister, plain 1/4 oz jig head. I have caught tonnes of fish over the years on this..everything from little rock bass to pike, a couple muskies..my go to winter laker bait, and also great for steelies.....if I could only pick one thing to bring on a fishing day and that's all yuo could bring for whatever reason...that's what I would bring

thanks for the more welcomes. and to answer your question yellowboat..I am at Crystal Beach...been going there for 11 years now..starting when my mom and stepdad got a trailer there..now my wife and i are going on our 7th season with our own trailer there,we got it pretty good with a nice lakefront site

I spend between 150-200 days out there fishing for something every year,sometimes more over the years,and yep get excited every time, as a matter of fact I been sittin here all day with ants in my pants waiting for my wife to call that she is done work so I can head up to my trailer for a couple days of fishing...and heck this my 11th season camping/fishing there

Well um let's see...all kinds of stuff works for me depending on location, time of year, water clarity, temps ect... Xraps Husky Jerks Walleyedivers spinnerbaits and of course spoons So it's hard to pick just one thing, these are just examples of a few fish I caught over the last year, as you can see....all these lures work for me

good luck on the trip...that place you will be staying is pretty nice..had to work up that way a few years ago and that's where we stayed...didn't get to go fishin though, it was almost this time of year and the lake was still frozen

thanks for all the welcomes guys and gals, I am sure you will see lots of fishing reports from me this season, I spend alot of time on the water, probably fish over 200 days a year easily, will have a good report to share from the next couple days too..headed to camp in a few hours

nice going on the fish, always great when the tactics pay off and choice of baits as well..nice mix of pike and picks by the sounds of it.

you would have to buy a prop to upgrade your 50 to a 90 for example...the 90 wouldn't come with a prop?...hmm that sounds like a croc for sure...it can be pretty pricy on the upgrades for sure, when we got our Legend package they outfit in the base package a 25 Merc..it cost almost 3 grand more to upgrade to a 40. That package you are looking at there looks like a pretty decent one for sure,nice layout, storage ect..seems to be a good package too...extras can kill ya for sure..when all was said and done we probably got about 5 grand worth of extras all together with the motor upgrade.

sounds to me you might have a leak in the boat cuz unless it pours down buckets of rain you shouldn't have any water in your boat, let alone enough that it takes 15 minutes to pump it out Even out for a whole day where ya might wind up running in some chop and get a few splashes in the boat will probably not even put enough water in the boat for it to pump out in the first place

right on, sounds like fun, and always great to catch a new species for the books

nice ride , I hear ya about taking care of a boat and the price, and average priced decent boat costs at least as much as a car. Hope everything works out good for ya at the dealership, great to see they are backing ya up on this one

good advice guys, that's what I was leaning toward is the spline/coupler for the gearshift was holding you up..try changing gears and see if the unti drops a little more to get access to a screw driver or allen nut to lossen off the spline..I also have a 40 Merc..fortunately it's only 5 years old and haven't had any problems with it ever..but have removed the lower unit on smaller motors before, only trouble I had putting back together was making sure the gears still engaged afterward(put back together my 9.9 once and discovered I only had forward and nuetral )..after taking it back aprt and some goofing around it wasn't too hard to figure out.

key is you gotta do that once in a while...then if you bug the women enough they "make" you get out of thier hair and go fishin or they don't bug you so much about going out in the boat . I was curious about the 4 stroke thing too for my smaller boat....currently I run an old 2 stroke 9.9 on it..the boat is rated for a 15 but evenm some of the new 9.9 models look like they would be too big and heavy for the boat, let alone putting a 15 on it, I asked at the dealership where my 2 boats came from and they said it would be ok as specs are rated for a 4 stroke and the weight capacity..however I am still a bit sceptical about that because the boat itself is only about 240lbs or so

good see to something like this turn out to be on the side of the boat owner..really 4 years is not that long of a time for cracks to start to appear on that part of a boat, they should back it up..and it is easy for someone to tell if you take care of a boat or beat on it even if you use it alot, my Legend is almost 5 years old and besides a bit of dock rash and fish slime on the carpet from winter steelie fishin..still looks pretty much new out of the box after a quick wipe down.

gotta love it when the 30 inchers are the small fish...better off this time of year that you didn't head out until late anyways..bite is better in the afternoon when the surface temps warm up a bit

oh the sacrifices...I don't know how you manage with tough parts of the job like that

nice fish,I think half the fun of speckie fishin is the actual mission you have to go on to get them sometimes. Nothin like being the only people around on a little backwoods lake,pond, or river. Love the scenery in the pics

always great to start off the warm weather fishing season with a nice upgrade on the toys

I was up a bit more North East of the Kawarthas on like the 11-13th kind of thing and am heading out again for few days this week. Fishing is still a bit of a post spawn pattern for the picks......water is still pretty cold..lokk for areas that have a big transstion form sand to sparse weeds that are just starting to grow..to rock edges along sandy areas..or where there is still some of the dead stuff around from winter with a bit of fresh weeds in the mix....fish really slow.....if you fish shallow like 7-9 fow water kind of deal try spinner baits, that was the ticket for me for pike and eyes 2 weeks ago...fished super slow wioth a 6 inch white twister trailer.....if the water you are fishing is "black" use yellow patterns for everything it shows up wicked in the water..you can see a yellow twister like 10 feet down on the bottm...can't see the fish cuz thier dark black backs...but ya can see your jig dissapear chartruesse jigs...suspending baits...yellows, firetigers..all good colours man, if the water is on the greener side try switching er up to white's a more natural colours on the body biats like silver/black...silver blue kinda combos. in deeper water just jig really slowly...even just straight down from the boat and deadstick at times as well as the boat drifts along.

here is another great camp tradition I love to share with the familly...my little one even asks before bed if I can get my "gintar" out and play a couple tunes before bed As you can see....music charms the savage beast

hey well, first day on the board but I will bite no prob. this is my oldest daughter whaving fun enjoying a long time camping tradition..we calle it "chirpy fishing"..and no don't worry there are no hooks on the line..the only thing she is stringing along here is the chipmunk on a peanut my little one having some fun off the dock...gottalove getting up, stepping out of the trailer, walking out on the patio, taking a couple steps down and headin out on the dock for some fishin these little buggers where hungry one from a couple years back...now before ya all go getting your panties in a bunch about the way I am holding the fish, I am well aware of how I am holding it...as a matter of fact, I kept it as my one and only trophy ever..I will never ever keep another one ever..I am a conservationist at heart,,but at the same time was legally entitled to keep my one trophy and that was my choice.....came in at 52 inches long and 30.5 lbs...and go figure since I kept that one for a mount, I have caught 2 bigger