porkpie

Owned 2 Rapala rods, one spinning and one casting. Both snapped. Not r types, one was a mid range line and one was a north coast series. I do have a wire dipsy rod by rapala that's taken many savage hits and made out ok so far. Only other rods I've had break for no apparent reason are fenwicks. I'm reluctant to buy either brand of rod for the most part. Again, not rtypes but a couple of my friends have had similar results with rapala rods. IMO, they should stick to lures.

Don't bother with the sensors, just drive with the light on.

Chinook salmon hooked in the mouth in a river aren't much fun. Hooked in the side or tail they are nothing but a pain in the can. My advice is to buy cheap hooks and break off snagged fish. It's easy enough to line em in the mouth in those shallow troughs at port hope if that's your thing, no reason to snag em, and your back and arms will thank you at the end of the day!

PEatA garbage.

I would like to carry a second rod around, because I love getting them on quickfish in the winter at the ganny/trench. I'm just too lazy to carry a second rod around, so unless my truck is right there, it ain't happening. Lots of fun though!

If the motor is a 4 stroke then 180 hours is peanuts. Heck I hear even the opti-pops make it to 1000 hours sometimes. A 4 stroke that is well maintained with good compression should run for 1000's of hours. I have a zuke with 450 hours on the dial. I've read reports of many commercial suzukis, yamahas and Hondas in excess of 6000 hours plus. Most guys won't mind taking a boat to a marine mechanic if you are paying as that tells them your not just a tire kicker. The exception is the spring. I sold my last boat in the spring, and had way too many guys interested and calling/emailing me to mess around. It sold same day to the first guy that showed up. You will have better negotiability in the fall.

I have had a mastercrap generator since the ice storm of 2013. We have also run off brand generators at the hunt camp for thousands of hours. Are they as good as Honda or yamaha, no they are not. Will they work for the average user if properly maintained and run regularily, they sure will! If you fill it with gas, jam it in a corner and forget it then you'll have problems when you need it. If you set a reminder on your phone to run it once a month for a half hour, and only keep the tank half full so that you actually run your fuel down and add fresh from time to time the you'll be fine. I only run ethanol free fuel in any boat or small engine application. I also rotate my spare gas and dump it into the truck every six months and buy fresh. YMMV.

You can do a passable job with a BBQ using a smoke box. Use one burner, on low and place the stainless steel smoke box over it. Put the fish on the off heat side. Only dampen some of the wood chips not all, or it will take forever to smoke. For best results, take your drill and punch a bunch more holes in the smoke box. It won't be the same as the stuff that comes out of the smoker, but it's not bad!

Everything is cyclical on the lake. When I was a kid, ashbridges was littered with dead baitfish in the spring from die offs. We don't see that anymore. Water clarity is vastly different from my first downrigging experiences in my early 20's to now. There was a time when salmon fishermen seldom fished deeper than 60 down. Now I often run a ball at 120-140. The cormorants are a contributing factor as well. That said, last season was one of the best I, or many of my friends have seen on the north shore in a long time. You almost couldn't miss. I marked plenty of big bait balls last year also. This year, Erie was so good that I spent almost all of my time walleye fishing, and Ontario north shore reports where pretty crappy from most that I talked to that I didn't bother much until mid August and mainly fished stagers. I still marked bait, but not a ton, and the window was to short to form an opinion. I did make a couple of trips to the 200 plus foot of water range in the latter half of August and had a pretty steady bite on 10/12 pound fish and some decent bows also, so I think everyone's experiences may differ depending on where they are fishing. The south shore guys sure seemed to have creamed them this season. Could be the bait is sitting on that side, could be the population is in trouble, I don't know, but I know that I've seen worse fishing, so I'm optimistic at this point. Lake Erie on the other hand is some of the best fishing I've ever seen. Many days we caught walleye one after the other until we where sick of it. Limit where guaranteed and 50 plus plus fish days where common. I've seen some of the best opportunities for trollers in the last few seasons that it's hard not to feel like these ARE the good old days. I'm hopeful it keeps up.

I buy fingerless gloves at the dollar shop. They work great for steelhead and I'll fish all winter long if the water is open, and it's not outrageously cold. Cheap and effective!

There was a time this bothered me, now it doesn't bother me. Large fish are accessible a few times a year to people that don't have boats. Some bad things will happen. Unless I hear of a run of coho, all of my fall salmon fishing happens in the boat in the 40-80fow range before they head upstream. It doesn't interest me to chase a 20lb fish in 2 feet of water. That said, I think back to all the fun I had salmon fishing as a kid, and into my teens and I wouldn't take that away from anyone. "Flossed" or not, let them eat cake as far as I'm concerned. I fell off my moral high horse when it comes to tributary fishing a long time ago. As for the facebook sites, well people will be people.

Met big Dave from long point at the side of the 400. Bought a used walker downrigger out of the back of his big rig. That was a long time ago.

I have a manual inflate I wear for fishing. Check your cylinder when you take it out of the package. I wore mine for a year before I discovered that some dummy at Canadian tire had obviously inflated it for kicks, then stuck it back in the package. It wouldn't of done me much good. I also inflate mine manually once every six months and hang it in the garage overnight to see if it still holds air. In my boat I carry real life jackets in adult size with huge collars like a kids life jacket. Canadian tire was selling them a few years ago, they don't seem to have em anymore. Anyway, I wear the inflateable because it's better than nothing, it's comfortable to wear and at least I'll have something if I fall out. Really easy to manually inflate with the air tube also. That wouldn't help you with an accident at speed though. If I was really concerned I'd maybe wear a kayak vest as they are comfortable and have real flotation. Won't help you at all if your unconscious though.

Big lake trollers routinely run the kicker and use the ipilot for autopilot. I do it every time I fish pretty well. It makes for hands free fishing. A PFD is a must, but if I fall in the water and my TM is still running and I can't shut it off, that boats going to take off on me even if the kicker has shut down, it'll just disappear slower. Maybe Minnkota will take your suggestion seriously, its a good o

That's a really good idea! If you fall out in colder water on your own, your hooped without your boat unless someone gets to you quickly.

I don't have a link unit, just standard ipilot remote. It sometimes fails to work through the windshield. I am doubtful that it would work at all from water level, with the boat trolling away from you and the motor at the opposite end. My buddy has the same issue with his terrova and the windshield so I don't think it's just my unit. Range could also be a big problem.

Great YouTube channel, and seems to be a really pleasant guy with a serious passion for fishing. A real shame to have something like this happen.

I've read it before, but it's good to read it again. A couple of years ago another empty boat was found in the spring on lake O. I kind of took that one to heart and started wearing my PFD or floatation suit any time I am out alone. I also extended my kill switch. Given this recent terrible situation with Kevin from BFSC, I may not run the ipilot when out alone either. I'm not sure the remote would work from water level. Thanks for posting, hopefully it spurrs a couple more of the big water guys to take precautions!

Sounds to me like you'd do alright with a 3000 series reel with 30lb power pro depth hunter line and a 9 foot medium heavy spinning rod. The metered line will let you troll precisely with plugs and mini dipsys no problem. It'll be pretty versatile for casting cleos etc. You can always just black out the last 10 feet of line with a sharpie and tie on a 15 pound fluoro leader and your all set. Line counters are great for most trolling but if I wanted one reel for casting and trolling river mouths for under $200 it'd be a spinning combo. You will have a lot more success if you start before the sun rises in those depths though.

How much do you want to spend?

Nice pics! It sure was another ridiculously good season on Nip.

Bluff bar is almost 10 miles from turkey point and you can fish for pike and smallies around there smallies might be harder to come by at this time of year. If you have leadcore and downriggers you should do pretty well fishing the lighthouse area of long point bay. I did very well the last time I fished lighthouse. That is another 6 miles or so out so a pretty long run. Erie walleye fishing has been off the hook this year!! You'll want to watch the weather though and if you have a small boat then disregard all that, as you can also go into long point bay and fish for largemouth etc. Lots of fishing opportunity in the area!

Great deal with 2 5ah batteries!

Not me pal. I've camped everywhere, including some really remote spots. Unless my kids specifically ask to camp, no way I'm sleeping in a tent again lol.

I've patched a lot of waders with shoe goo.