porkpie

I have found spot lock works best if I ease up to the location and don’t use it until I’ve slowed down, it makes the whole spot lock thing less violent. Have your batteries tested and replace the battery in your remote: I’ve occasionally had the head wrap thing but the other items you mention would cause me to be concerned. I have had intermittent performance issues with my motor if the battery is near dead in the remote. If that fails, take it to aikmans sports in Mississauga, they are a Minkota repair facility.

I know walleye guys that have 6 special mates filled with multiples of custom painted cranks. A couple boxes deeps, couple boxes mids and shad baits, couple boxes of shallows. Each box maybe a couple grand all in? I have a fair Arsenal of tackle including some custom stuff, and more tied up in rods and reels than I want to admit. But theirs no way I’m stepping over the edge into that abyss. The minute tournament is mentioned, guys go off the deep end. Mega imaging, huge screens, boxes of tackle that would make a small independent shop jealous, trolling motors worth more than a used car. They need something to spend money on, and guys are gadget crazy to begin with. I don’t mind it, your going to have some sort of hobby and may as well keep the fishing industry healthy! But anyone that thinks they need these ultra lifelike lures and all the other stuff that comes with it in order to catch fish, bass, musky, pickerel or otherwise is fooling themselves so they can really sell it to the better half! Some of it for sure makes it easier by a landslide, gps, gps trolling motors.... I’m like an addict for that stuff, I literally need it now and get pissed off if I have malfunctions lol. You can’t take it with you!

Good that your happy with it! They seem like a really nice motor! I was pretty happy with the Honda outboard I had, I don’t think you can go wrong!

It gets pretty crazy still R2. You try to get gas after a hatch and your going to be squishin shadflys by the hundreds. Go in to Tim’s for a coffee and they’ll be a ton of them inside the restaurant lol. It’s something to see. The amount of larvae on the sonar screen when out fishing is unbelievable as well.

There is usually a big hatch in north bay right about now!

I love having current electronics, and I’m a big believer in redundancy. But..... that might be taking it a touch far lol. I run twin 7’s and can see pretty much all I need to!

If he won’t, I will. They’re big bluegills, and your lucky I’ll admit to even fishing for them, but sure I’d fish them on beds, I’d fish them on reds; I’d fish them with a gaff, I’d even fish them with a staff, I love fishing bass on beds. Try it try it and you may, learn to love fishing beds the same way! I will not fish them in the rain, or if the wind blows more than 30k, but I do so love fishing beds on any other day!

When did opeongo not have smallies?

They’re bass. There are plenty of them, they’re prolific and durable creatures. I don’t really spend much time fishing for them, but I can say with some certainty that they will be just fine! If they didn’t hold tournaments for them, people would just consider them big sunfish.

Guaranteed it was the pickerel. A lot of our kawartha pics had some tapeworms this opener.

Yes fairly common. A lot of oour kawartha fish had tapeworms this year. You’ll be fine.

Tapeworms.

I've used the Helix 5, gen 1 and now gen 2 for 3 seasons on the ice. Before that I used the Humminbird 385. They've been excellent for the intended purpose, and they make a pretty good portable as well.

There is no problem for you. There may be for your friend, but that's for him and Ukrainian customs to decide.

You got that guy to be sure!!!!

I've read plenty of complaints on ice fishing boards about guys being stranded by their polaris bikes while out ice fishing due to their machines freezing up. Several on the Simcoe board. Now that's not personal experience for sure, but I've seen too many PoPo's on the hook over the years to believe they've come along at all. On the other hand, my yammie has started on the ice many many times when i've thought it might not due to the freezing temps. It's sort of like buying a tracker boat. They sound good when you look at the features and the price, but the real world negative experiences way too many people have had sours the name.

My fishing circumstances are vastly different than yours. I use my GPS constantly to mark schools of fish and structure. I wouldn’t be without it and don’t miss landmarking at all! That said a simple sonar is sometimes all people need.

If your looking for a good portable unit the helix 5 is a good deal. I have a G2 as an ice unit and portable. I don’t need much more than that. I actually bought a 7 this winter thinking I’d replace my older raymarine with it but once I took it out of the box and fired it up it the unit took up too large of a footprint for the actual screen size compared to my raymarine A78. I moved the humminbird along. I have been very happy with my 5 so much so that I replaced my gen 1 with a gen 2 on clearance from Canadian tire this winter. I’m sure the Garmin is a good unit but 5 inches of screen is the minimum I want to look at. If you don’t need the absolute latest and greatest you can get some great deals on the last generation of electronics.

I was going to buy one of those motors at one point, I’m pretty sure it was the 35hp version. The marine mechanic I was using at the time made the sign of the cross when I asked him about it, and made me promise not to buy the.... his words “POS” but he was a lot less polite about it. Your mileage may vary but I haven’t heard much good about them. That little 9.9 that you have on the other hand is one of the best motors johhnyrude ever made!

Don’t buy an arctic cat. I had one, biggest POS unit I’ve ever owned. I’ve seen a lot of Polaris being towed including one that constantly breaks down at the hunt camp. I am very satisfied with Yamaha. Mine will start no matter what so far, and no issues. I’ve also seen nothing but good from Honda. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah I don’t go on the information of others. If he knows the difference between a bass and a crappie then he is also probably aware of the MNRF. You could always provide him with the tips line. I’ve had people yell at me to stop fishing bass as I toss another crappie in the livewell. It’s true that people poach, it’s also true that witness info is often sketchy.

I had a 3.5hp 4 stroke kicker on my 16 footer. It worked very well but it was a shallower draft boat. For your rig you could bolt on a raisable kicker bracket and use a tiller extension. You could put a short shaft motor on it and it’d pull double duty on a tinny. I’d look at a 6hp four stroke. Their a bit lighter than the 9.9’s and you can still use a remote tank rather than tank on top. I’d say go with a 9.9 but I can see your dilemma with weight. The little one lungers are noisier and shake a lot more than the 2 cylinders.

My local marina carries a rack of tip adaptors for gear lube pumps. I’d be surprised if most marinas don’t.

No it applies to most dams on the system and has for many many years.

I used a piece of 3/4 thick cutting board material that I bought at some plastic shop in 2002 and useda healthy dose of 3M 5200 to affix it to the back of my new Lund SSV as a “stern saver”. 17 years later a friend of mine still owns that boat and the mounting block is still attached. I think you’ll be fine!