BassMan11

I've been to Marshall and Wayner with 7 lakes. Brad is great to deal with and the overall outfitter experience is good. Marshall was great, Wayner was not. 2 very different bodies of water your looking at here: Kag would be a less numbers bigger fish lake with lake trout available. Lots and lots of water to explore there but also other outfitters on the lake so you could see boats. Dusey you could break down water quickly and get into a mess of walleyes although the potential for a really big pike or walleye is less. The cabins I have stayed at at 7 lakes kind of feel like an ice shack. Dusey looks a bit better. Cheers, BM

Onboard charger is a Victron 24v charger Plug in all around charger is a NOCO Genius 10 I run 2 100ah power queens for the trolling motor and 100ah for a house battery on the boat. 0 issues. I also have a 50ah which is the one I killed up north on a fly-in that they replaced. Currently the basic 100ah battery is $248. Which is a crazy deal.

Sounds like the battery is now bad and you are a bit out of luck. I would contact the seller and see what they can do for you. I had another budget brand send me a new battery after some troubleshooting to determine it was wrecked after a year or so. DC House also makes Ecoworthy. Both are on the more suspect end of budget batteries. BMS's can be a little touch and go on them and let the battery go below 10Volts. If that happens its tough to come back from. Li-Time, Power Queen, Wattcycle are all batteries that have been reviewed that have good performance. Check out Will Prowse on Youtube and his tear downs. Good info there on budget batteries BM

Great tribute to your friend Iggy. Sounds like a good time. How was the road in? Too bad about the tough fishing.... weather all over the place certainly doesn't help. Cheers, BM

Batteries are something you can't neglect if you expect it last. You can easily kill a flooded battery in 6 months if not maintained properly or abused or froze etc... especially a cheap one. This will go for your Lithium as well. Need to charge with with a proper charger in a timely manner. If they sit to long dead they go bad. I would say this is probably your issue. Good luck, BM

Trip one in the books. I caught a couple big Eye's this week on the French river. A 30.5" and a 27.5" respectively. Also picked up a 20.5" spawned out Largemouth. All in all another great week. Minus the blackflies. Cheers, BM

Yikes... That Yam will be great though!

Yes. Right in the town of Round Lake Centre pretty much. We stayed that the same cottage last year. A beautiful beach and swimming area for the kids and some close fishing spots for pike and bass. Didn't fish lake trout too much, so many smelts.

Burris makes a rifle scope that calculates shot angle, wind direction, and hold over to put you perfectly right on target when hunting. Modern rifles and scopes put your "ethical shooting range" out way further than the old 270 with a 4 power on it. Thermal monocular optics can be used to see animals better in dense forest or low light conditions. Trail cameras send pictures directly to your phone to pattern the exact animal you want to shoot without you even having to get off the couch. A lot of technology is there when you think about it. Also I would be in favor of using drones to retrieve wounded or lost animals.... less waste the better.

So is this just a Musky thing where we get upset about "sharpshooting" ? I really don't get this hate for FFS. It's like being mad at a guide or a pro angler because you only have a 14' tinny with a 15. Why aren't more people mad at side scan. Coming through the water scanning 250-300' across picking up every single fish and piece of structure in that radius. I guess only guides, and people who have fished eagle lake for 20-30 years are allowed to catch the Muskies on a consistent basis.

Hey Weeds, Fish-Online is your best tool for this stuff. Chandos is closed but there are some places around to wet a line. https://www.lioapplications.lrc.gov.on.ca/fishonline/Index.html?viewer=FishONLine.FishONLine&locale=en-CA&extent=-8689671.910911974%2C5582567.083956182%2C-8671690.10000791%2C5598370.439554121&waterbody=17-7351-49679 Have a great cottage weekend regardless. BM

SI is way more useful than DI. If you can swing it I would make sure to get a unit with SI and the biggest screen you can afford.

As most of us sit around in the "transition" time of the year, I get excited for the the adventures I have booked (and random trips) for the 2025 soft water season. I would say right now is when I do 90% of my fish gear buying. Big trips are: 1. June - French river for a week 2. Aug - 10 Mile Loge QC (thanks Iggy) 3. Aug - Round Lake (family vacation) Mix in some trips for lake trout in QC and Big Rideau as well as some local lakes for bass pike ad walleye I plan to fish as much as possible this year. Anyone else doing anything special for the 2025 fishing season? Cheers, BM

What a beauty! That's a big lake trout for around these parts. Great story as well. Cheers BM

Great report. Always nice to see a fishing report. Thanks for taking the time. BM

Depends on the set up I guess. For just the 95sv UHD set up (no livescope and not 2nd gen) it only draws 1amp at 100% backlight. So as a dedicated battery for just this set up you could get away with a 15-18ah if you really wanted. 20 or 30ah would be more than enough. If you plan on acquiring a livescope eventually get a 24ah battery minimum. If you decide it will be a "house battery" and run all the systems in your boat (livewell, bilge, music, fish finders etc.) get a 100ah. Also if you start to go bigger (20-52ah) be careful to not mistake Lithium phosphate and NMC Lithium ION batteries. 2 different type of batteries and charging profiles/voltages.

Don't get started. Its all down hill from there Bill. But if your looking for a new unit and has the capability for the best FFS, The Garmin Ultra 106sv right now is $1400 at Cabelas right now... which is a screaming deal.

I'd say Garmin is still king and everyone else is still trying to catch up. If every pro had to "buy their own" FFS. They would all be Garmin. I am glad Lowrance and Humminbird are stepping up their game... competition is good. Mega 2 is all beta testing version at the moment, and doesn't look any better than the LVS34. Plus you most likely have to buy a new unit..... tough sell.

I have been off of the classic "TV" fishing shows for a while now. Just giant ad commercials at fly in fishing destinations where you could use a shoelace to catch fish. Not many good ones anymore but growing up.. man: Hank Parker Bill Dance In-Fishermen Those were the days - at least they seemed that way at the time YouTube has so much content you would never need to watch TV for a "fishing show" again. Uncut, Jay Siemens, CSO, Tom Boley, Bend it fishing, all create excellent content. Between those videos and Moosebunk's written reports, thats all the fishing entertainment I need.

Also.... In case of an emergency. You could pull the batteries out of your boat and run them with an inverter to power all sorts of things. Fridge, Freezer, even furnace for a short period of time. When moving into Lithium I went it with a "what else can I use these things for". Still 98% of the time they will just be for the trolling motor... but in a pinch.... I could have power anywhere.

Pros - Space and a little weight are some of the saving you would get with running a 24V battery. Another plus is the batteries not getting out of sync which can happen when you run 2 12 volts in series. That won't happen with a 24V. There is only 1 BMS to deal with as well. Charging connectivity is very simple for whichever onboard charger you use. Cons - No other use for the battery... just dedicated trolling motor. Chargers are a bit more expensive and you have less brand options types. You will need 2 chargers for the boat 1 for trolling motor and a 12 volt for cranking or house battery. I am sure there are more on both sides... but just a couple off the top of my head. BM

17 years?! That things owes you nothing lol. Better off getting another unit... hopefully to last another 17. Parts might be tough to source for this one.

We did drag around some large spoons in the areas we saw the Big Pike... I had something large on at one point but it came off. Most of the focus was on eye's though.

Disappointing from the perspective as you see a lot of successful trips and good camps.... we have had propane leaks, roof leaks, lackluster fishing, terrible weather, outfitter issues, equipment issues, etc. I wouldn't go back to the first 2 places if you paid me... especially after this last trip. The trips were still memorable.... but only from the company perspective.

After 2 more or less disappointing fly-in trips over the 10 years or so I decided to reach out to Mike. B to see what he would recommend for our 3rd Walleye and Pike Trip. Well we returned yesterday from White Owl Lake Outpost out of Hornepayne and I can safely say Mike knows what he is talking about. The Road Trip - Nothing notable from Southern and Eastern Ontario. Stayed in White River the night before which is only a short 1 hour drive to Hornepayne the next day which was great. HWY 631 to Hornepayne had lots of wildlife... we saw 7 bears and 4 moose on the combined drive in and out on a 80km road Very neat but also have an eye when driving. Flight - Short 10-15 minute flight from Forde Air base in Hornepayne into the Outpost. They use a Beaver which is a much smaller airplane than the usual Turbo Otter. One thing that was interesting is that even though we had a 100lb weight limit per person ,they flew in all of our overage for no cost. I assume this is due to consistent flights back and forth to the Lodge... so hopping over to the outpost at White Owl isn't out of the way. Very nice perk! Camp - Rustic but functional. It had running cold water at the sink and also a cold water shower behind the camp. These are fed by a gravity system and topped up with a pump down the dock. 3 bedrooms that can sleep 6... but 4 would be the perfect size. Wood stove (no wood processed). Standard Outhouse. Electric fridge, so the 2200 watt generator needs to be running about half the day to keep things cold. They provide lots of gas for this though. Propane stove and lots of pots, pans, plates, cups, etc. New BBQ and fish cooker in good working order. Boats were standard 14" Nadens with nice seats and no leaks. The camp itself to me needs some work and it could be really good. I think the focus is more or the Buck lake lodge portion of the operation... which makes sense because its most of the business. You also get a Garmin in reach for emergency purposes... but it is not much use... more on that later. The Weather - I feel like with its proximity to Lake Superior... the weather on the lake changes quickly. We had mostly overcast skies all week with a 15km west-ish wind. It rained in the afternoon almost everyday for an hour or 2 before usually clearing out by 5-6pm. All in all pretty good fishing weather for the most part. Also being June... the days were very long which was great. We ate dinner almost every night at 10pm.... felt like 7pm! White Owl Lake - The lake itself its a fairly structureless marshy bowl. Not your typical Canadian shield Walleye Lake. About 5km long and narrow, we were able to find high percentage spots fairly quickly and key in on them. I brought a larger side scan fish finder which cut the learning curve down drastically. Water is stained and dark. Also we couldn't find 1 shore lunch spot. Bummer! Little White Owl Lake - Can be navigated to via boat down a narrow channel. This lake sets up very different with more Rocky shoreline and depths down to 140'. Didn't stay in there very long as the bigger lake was producing more fish. Starr Lake - You can portage into Starr where there is a very nice 14' Lund Boat to use. The water is much clearer and the walleye were a different lighter colour which was very neat. We only fished it a short time as weather blew us off the lake. We caught fish... but nothing that set it apart from the big lake. The fishing - This was by far the best fly in fishing trip I have been on for numbers. Myself and 3 other non walleye fishermen boated 727 fish in 6.5 days on the water. Both Pike and Walleye were shallow and aggressive post spawn. 95% of fish were caught in 5-10 feet of water. Water temps were a consistent 60-65 degrees all week. Hot baits were bright paddle tail minnows (casted or trolled) and slow death spinner rigs, but a large variety of baits caught fish.... from wacky worms to mepps and a worm. We brought a flat of worms which was overkill in my opinion. I think I used 6 worms all week personally. Largest Walleye - 25" x 3 with the average fish being 16-18" Largest Pike - 38.5" (but saw larger chasing hooked walleye) Lots of prior visitors at the camp wrote their trip report on the walls of the cabin. One 5 man group said they had caught 1518 fish in 7 days. I do not doubt this. White Owl is teeming with fish. Constructive criticism - The communication with the outfitter is limited at best. We had a weather delay coming out but had no idea of flight status' or expected flight out times. We used the in reach but had no response until 4pm that day saying... "we are trying to get you out" All understandable but a heads up in the morning or throughout the day would have been appreciated. Plane arrived at 630pm and got us out eventually. All in all it was a fantastic trip. I'd like to thank Mike. B for his insight and recommendation on the outfitter and lake. It was everything we were looking for and more. Tight Lines, BM