porkpie

I seldom fish from the front of my boat. The only time I’ve used a foot pedal in the last five years is when the batteries die in the remote and I’ve forgotten to buy a new spare.

Yes, very easy on the ice or in your boat. While being lost in fog or out in a storm and unable to landmark is a very good reason to have GPS mapping on the boat or the ice, and having done all of it is one major reason I have mapping, it’s not the only reason. I mark rock piles, entire weed edges, productive sand flats and other spots that I’ve been successful on. It allows me to go out and do a milk run of all my best spots and find fish. If you are into the precision trolling game, you can also marks schools the minute your on them and make multiple passes. In big water pickeral fishing I have many times marked schools on side imaging, dropped a GPS point on them, spun around and made multiple passes catching multiple fish. Combined with a GPS trolling motor its literally changed the way I fish. No more lining up 2 trees on shore and hoping you hit the right spot!

Still looking bump. Just Winchester 1200/1300 though please.

Just use that one, if it’s a ridgid it’ll do fine on a 6 inch auger I’m sure.

You may do alright for a while with a 6 inch auger. Not sure how the dewalt compare to Milwaukee but I ran a 6 inch for 2 seasons on a Milwaukee compact and it worked just fine. I do know that I have heard of a lot of dewalt compacts packing it in when used on an auger. I’m a Milwaukee guy, I have a bunch of M18 and M12 stuff around the house, and always had good results. When I saw a deal on the m18 fuel combo I snapped it up. No regrets it’s an amazing drill on the ice and I use the drill and impact driver all year long! I’m sure the beefier dewalt will work also.

I’m no tech genius and they are easy enough for me to use. I wouldn’t be without GPS in the boat.

I have a simple GPS/sonar model. While I like side and down imaging on my big boat, for ice fishing it’s useless and I can live without it on my tin boat. To me the GPS is priceless when in any kind of boat, and as I use the unit on the ice and in my tinner also, I bought a navionics combo. If you where really not interested in GPS then I’d just by the standard sonar. Down imaging is a sometimes useful setting that I can often live without. the cost of side imaging units is high and they always have GPS. I like the side imaging on my Starcraft but again I could live without it and I think a 7 inch screen is the minimum useful size with side imaging.

If you need any more help deciding on a helix 5, let me add to the reviews. I’ve used the gen 1 and now 2 on the ice. Excellent units. I can’t find a single bad thing to say!

Whatever you do, when seeking information go straight to the source. I’ve seen so much misinformation posted online on forums and facebook, both through misunderstanding, and deliberate self interested deception. It will amaze you, but if you where to call your local OPP detachment, Municipal Police service, Bylaw or Municipal enforcement outfit they will tell you exactly the truth based on the information they have in front of them at that moment in time. It’s like when people thought they would be stopped for driving with someone not from their house in the spring and the OPP had to put out a video stating it was untrue. Go to the source. Forums and facespace talking heads generally have no idea, and so they make stuff up. Or worse pass on 4th hand friend of a friend of a friend twice removed stories.

You won’t regret it. Compared to my 25 year old buoy O buoy suit that was like wearing a suit of armour, the striker is amazing.

What you mean you don't make any rods to match those beautiful and stylish handcrafted in America Coleville precision reels LOL. That handle needs more checkerboard burl!! Seriously though, nice work!

I'm pretty happy with my Suzuki. I would never buy a yamaha again, not because they make bad motors. But there is a good chance Yamaha Canada will screw you on warranty in the unlikely event you ever need it. I found this out with the motor on a duckboat. And no, it wasn't a dealer issue, I saw all the paper trails and eventually ended up dealing with Yamaha Canada myself also. Yamaha Canada wouldn't honor their warranty, it was astounding. So, while they make a ton of good products, including my ATV that is in my opinion probably bullet proof, they've lost me entirely and for good. I'd spend my money on Suzuki or Honda, both of which I've owned and they start, run and perform all the time. Many commercial fishermen regularly get 5000-6000 hours on zuke outboards. As for use, I tend to believe that it has a lot to do with the long term "reliability" of wear items. Every time I hear a guy claim he gets 8 or 9 years out of deep cycles for his minn kota, I know he either doesn't use the minn kota much, or the boat doesn't get wet much. Anyway I'm not big on Mercs as that's the only motor I've ever had to get towed in on but that's just one mans opinion and any motor can have a bad day.

Water intrusion isn’t always a milk shake. I am sending mine in this winter for seals. I began to notice it just as you did at the end of the 2018 season. By the end of last season when I changed out my oil it had gotten slightly worse. I intended to put it in this March to do seals but then corona. By the summer marinas where a gong show so I just changed oil mid summer and again before freeze up. I definitely have a water intrusion problem now. Keep an eye on it. My buddy had a marina tell him his was fine also and by the following season he had milky oil also. Especially if you just took a knock. You can run it next season no problem, just check you oil every once in a while and don’t let it go until freeze without getting the oil changed. Problematic if your a winter fisherman.

I wouldn’t buy a new model evinrude myself. That said the last 2 stroke Yamaha I sold, I had guys fighting over it on kijiji and offering more than I asked to beat out others. I ended up selling it to the first guy that offered my asking price and he EMT’d me a $500 deposit on the basis of the YouTube video I made of it running, sight unseen other than the pics, so I’d hold it for him until he could pick up that weekend. So there’s definitely a good market for 2 strokes!

Corona definitely, but market prices where already moving up on tin boats. I sold my last boat in 2017 for $3000 more than I paid for it, and the only addition was a powerdrive ipilot. Even then a good shape aluminum fishing boat was commanding good money!

I think the sled is better for a dedicated machine as well and I’ve gone both routes. To be honest we’ve done a fair bit of running around on mostly glare and even with a liquid with studs haven’t had too many problems. Just watch the temp and don’t beat on the machine. Mostly we are either sitting at a prospect location for a while fishing, or we are doing short hops looking for fish. I’ve been surprised how little trouble we’ve had. If you where going straight from Beaverton to Keswick on glare you’d have problems though! A fan cooled would be even better! I’ve run a 350cc atv a fair bit on the ice and it did just fine with chains and was very easy to get unstuck as they’re pretty light. I think the best app around machine you could go with for an atv would be a Honda 500. Have fun shopping.

I have added ipilot to 2 Terrovas. (The old pre 2016 models). Both terrovas where bought on clearance from Canadian tire. The first one went with the boat I sold Ipilot upgrade worked perfectly, the second I managed to scoop from a local CT that had one non ipilot terrova in the box stashed in the back. I sourced a head unit from another CT for $250 on clearance. It’s been on my boat since 2018 and works great. I sold the. 2010 ipilot terrova that came with my replacement boat for more than I bought the newer set for on clearance. Just last year I found one more clearance terrova head unit for $150 and bought it for a spare remote/head. So yes overwhelmingly the upgrade units work great as long as your motor is in good shape. That money is already spent and a new one will cost you $2K plus tax vs $600 or so for the upgrade. Sure you can recoup some of the cost by selling the used one, but you’ll still have to lay out some extra cash. If it where my money, and I was already mainly happy with the unit I had I’d just upgrade the head unit.

Ah I see. So yes it’s still possible to fish that area and people do all the time, but yes depending on the wave action it can be challenging, however the huge riverlike drift that was below the line in lower water is absent that’s true. But that’s a Mother Nature thing. Also, there has been a sign just above the mouth on and off for as long as I remember, and that’s a long time. Now I haven’t been down to the mouth this year as I generally fish the space between first and second bridges just above the mouth, and it could’ve been removed by an eager late season angler (wouldn’t be the first time). However I suspect nothing he changed in that respect.

What has changed around the rules regarding the mouth other than water levels?

I absolutely detested using a Mitchell 300. I must be in the minority in thinking they where one of the worst reels ever designed. Old abu’s where ok, I still have a couple. I never stopped using 700’s and 1300’s. A 700 sits on my favourite jigging rod, I have at least 2 1300’s that still see regular use. Can’t beat em!

You’ll get quotes of 4K or more for a good paint job. You want signs and wraps in Erin Ontario. Al Hales is the owner. He did my boat last fall, I’m very happy and he was very reasonable. He estimates 5 to 7 years no problem as long as you don’t treat your rig like crap. It’s only been on a year but so far no problems and my boat is trailered a lot and spent 2 weeks straight in the water this summer.

I’ve done it as long as I’ve owned a float reel, which is a long time. Never had an issue. Careful what you read, a lot of the guys giving the advice these days have only had a bobber pole for a couple years. Anyhow, whatever floats your boat brother in the end it don’t matter so long as the equipment operator is happy 😃

Just buy some cheap Walmart 20lb line for $4 and away you go.

I am with CUMiS. I have a separate rider for my home policy, and it itemizes everything including electronics, trolling motor, kicker etc. Tackle is covered with limitations to 30K under home policy.

My buddy has an 1875 pro V standard. My 18 foot Starcraft superfisherman dwarfs it. The 1875 has a fair bit of shrink when you put it in water. It’ll be plenty for solo fishing or taking kids out. I don’t however see any advantage to that layout over a standard pro v, and when you inevitably sell you’ll be marketing to bass guys that want a glass boat, or a small group of musky anglers who want a strictly casting style rig. The 1875 Pro V is a great boat, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in it, and in some snotty weather, but it’s value is as a multi species boat, even if you are a just a musky guy, when it comes time to transport the family or do other things you wouldn’t regret the standard layout.