Dabluz

Every time that I go visit family and friends who live in other cities, I like to visit the Wall Marts and Canadian Tire stores. It's surprising at how many times I find tackle that I need and use at very low prices. Example....in the Kingston area, I find lots of stuff for brook trout because brook trout is not the main species for the fishermen in that area. Meanwhile, where I live, brook trout accounts for over 95% of the fishing. Many department managers know absolutely nothing about fishing. They often put stuff on sale or overstock on tackle that is not adapted for their particular region. I often buy lures that are 1/2 to 1/3 the cost that they normally demand. You want to buy Mepps spinners. Why? There are other spinners that are just as good or better than Mepps. There are the Blue Foxe, Panther Martin. I quit using Mepps spinners about 40 years ago when I saw how well Panther Martins worked for me.

When choosing a real deep cycle battery, I always buy those that are not sealed. Sealed batteries do not last as long as unsealed batteries. The best way to check a battery's condition is buy being able to do some verifications directly in the acid solution. You absolutely need a decent voltmeter, a good hydrometer (to check specific gravity of the acid solution) and a thermometer in order to get an accurate specific gravity reading. You also want to keep the battery temperature during charging under control because if the battery gets too hot, it can be ruined. Here is a trick to use when your battery charger refuses to charge your battery. Many battery chargers will not recharge a battery with a very low voltage (under 10 or 11 volts). To remedy this situation, add a good battery in parallel to the weak battery. This way, the charger can identify that it is connected to a battery and will proceed with a charging cycle. After a few minutes, you can then turn everything off and remove the extra battery. This is also a great way to charge 2 or more batteries. Just connect them in parallel. It does not hurt either of the batteries. The weaker battery will accept more current than the stronger battery. Better to have 2 batteries than completely draining your deep cycle battery. Yes, deep cycle batteries do suffer from being deeply discharged. Maybe this is not as drastic to the life of the battery as it is for an automotive (starting) battery but it does reduce the battery's capacity. Real deep cycle batteries....the ones that are used in hospitals or police centrals to keep important electrical componants running until the generators are fully operational are huge. They are also extremely expensive and robust. The chargers for these batteries are very expensive and are computer controlled. Canadian Tire sells deep cycle batteries for solar panel applications. The price is around 300 dollars. There are tons of information on batteries and their care and maintenance. Reading this information also directs you to which battery to buy and which charger and accessories to buy along with your battery.

Oh....I fish slow. Even very slow. I also fish light. I use 4 and 6 lb mono when fishing with a jig for walleye. I also catch mucho walleye and so do the people who come with me and fish like me. On opening day of walleye, I always go to a nearby river. Many dozens of other fishermen are there too and the only ones who catch walleye are the ones who use worms. Most of the early morning walleye are caught on worm harnesses and bottom bouncers. I prefer using jigs because I find that a 2 ounce bottom bouncer is not much fun. However, when the fishing starts to die down, I still get good results with only a 1/4 ounce black jig with the front half of a night crawler on the hook. Yes....I once caught a nice walleye on a green and gold flecked rubber jig. But I see close to a hundred fishermen around me who go home without any walleye or only a few walleye at the end of the day. Some add worm to the rubber jig but they have trouble hooking a walleye. I have tried Gulp baits many times and so have a few of my friends. Yes they do catch a few fish but not as many as when they turn to worms.

I would buy the refurb battery. I would immediately recharge it fully and then use it until the battery voltage dropped down to 11 volts (close to empty) and then recharge it to see how long it takes to recharge it. Remember that 10 lbs of thrust consumes about 10 amps. A 30 lb thrust motor at half speed is about 15 lbs of thrust or 15 amps. A battery that has 100 minutes of reserve capacity means that it can give you 25 amps of power for 100 minutes. To recharge a battery that has given you 25 amps for 2 hours will take a good 5 hours at 10 amps. Actually it will be more than 5 hours because there is loss of energy due to heat generation and other things. Also, a charger's current output decreases when the battery becomes charged. This adds to the time of charge.

The 3 bank charger is very expensive. Yes....it's nice to be able to recharge 3 batteries at the same time however...these multibank chargers work in such a way that each battery is charged for a short time one after another. This may mean that it will take 3 times longer to recharge 3 batteries than if you had 3 less expensive chargers that are each charging 1 battery.

The 15 amp model sells for 61 dollars,

Your guy at Canadian Tire is wrong. Right now, even the young girls at the customer service desk know that Eliminator chargers do not recharge "real" deep cycle batteries due to the fact that there are many many returns of those chargers. On top of that, 2 amps is way too low. Imagine trolling for 5 hours at an average of 6 amps (about 6 lbs of thrust). It would take more than 15 hours under ideal circumstances to recharge that battery.

If you are buying a veritable deep cycle battery.....your battery charger will not completely recharge your battery. I know what I'm saying because I worked at an aviation battery shop when in the military and I recently did a lot of reading on the internet and in the manuals supplied with the battery chargers. To keep a long story short....you need a charger that can recharge deep cycle batteries when you have a deep cycle battery. First of all, not all "so - called" marine batteries are actually deep cycle batteries. Most are a combination of deep cycle and starting batteries. Second of all....Canadian Tire only has 1 or 2 chargers (expensive) capable of completely recharging deep cycle batteries. I found out the hard way. I bought a brand new Eliminator Intelligent battey charger and it was not able to recharge my brand new deep cycle "Demone" battery. It even indicated that the battery should be replaced. I had an 3 year old (deep cycle???) "Nautilus" battery and the charger indicated that it had to be replaced and that's why I have a brand new "Demone" battery. Anyway, since the charger said that my new Demone battery was also no good, the seller sent it back to the manufacturer. 6 weeks later, the battery came back with a note saying that all it needed was to be recharged. I looked pretty stupid, especially after I had told the seller that I knew a lot about batteries. I now have a Schumacher charger bought at Wal Mart and it works perfectly. There are at least 3 models to choose from. I bought the "Ship and Shore" model that can recharge at a rate of 15/10/2 amps. On top of that, they are very inexpensive. The Schumacher recharged my old deep cycle battery and my new deep cycle battery.

I have never caught any fish with Gulp scent or bait. The guys that come fishing with me quickly put away their Gulp baits.

I've been fishing for 60 years and use artificials, bait and flies. All of them work but it's up to the fisherman to know the whens, whys, wheres, hows etc etc. Most of my fishing is for brook trout, walleye, landlocked salmon and pike. I did fish for bass when I was younger but there are no bass where I live now. Most lures work better without bait of any kind so don't take the route of thinking that a good lure will be better with some bait added to it. In my book, a live bait will outfish any artificial anytime....no matter what anybody thinks. Live bait also alows the fisherman to fish without moving or even without holding his fishing rod. It's a very relaxing way to fish. Artificials demand that the fisherman adds movement in order for the lure to imitate a live bait. Of course....adding movement also means that the fisherman covers more water and it's probably this reason why aritificials produce so many fish. I've had very little sucess with artificial baits like plastic baits or dough baits etc. Yes, I have tried them in various situations instead of live baits and the results have been very poor. I've caught way more brook trout while slow jigging a naked Sutton spoon through the ice than with a jig and gulp minnow. I've caught way more walleye on a plain jig baited with the front half of a dew worm than with a plastic bait of any kind. I've even caught way more walleye on a marabou jig than with a jig/plastic combination. There was a time when fishermen in my area were allowed to use live minnows while trolling for landlocked salmon. This pratice has been banned because it was too successful and hurt the fish population. Now the only live bait allowed is a worm. However, for landlocked salmon, trolling flies outfish worms or other artificial baits. Follow any walleye fisherman who is trolling with an artificial bait. You will notice that when he catches a couple of walleyes in the same spot, he will stop the boat and use a jig....most often with added bait like a worm or minnow.

From the looks of the one shown in the Le Baron's catalogue, it would be real simple to just make one.

I've got an old Chrysler 9.9 h.p. and the prop seems to be too small. My Evinrude 7.5 and my Mercury 7.5 both have 3 bladed props of the same size but the Chrysler only has a 2 bladed prop and the blades are smaller than those on the Evinrude or Mercury. Is this normal? I'm baffled.

I've had a whole bunch of Humminbird sonar units. From the LCR1000 to two 3-D units and not one worked right or worked for very long. My best sonars are two very ancient flasher units made by Lowrance. They can even tell me how deep the water is in a 5 gallon bucket. As for fish detection with any sonar unit.....you simply cannot rely on what the unit detects. On top of that, if there really is a fish under your boat....is it a sportfish? If there really is a sportfish under your boat....will it bite? When you get right down to it, sonars are way overrated in importance. When fishing for walleye, it's a hit or miss situation. Most of the time, walleye are usually caught in an area about the size of a couple of kitchen tables and these spots are almost always found by looking with your eyes.

I would immediately change the rod to a 7 foot medium strength, fast action or even a medium-heavy, fast action rod. The added length of the rod will allow you to "sweep strike" more efficiently. The 30 lb test Power Pro is ok line but I would go to 40 or even 50 lb test Power Pro because the new non-stretch lines are notorious for breaking when subjected to hard sudden shocks. Yes....such a large line will reduce cssting distance if you are using a spinning reel. So if you are using a spinning reel, continue to use the 30 lb test line and when striking the fish, make sure that there is no loose line between the rod and the fish when it comes time to strike. Use a long strong sweeping strike. Yes, pike are notorious for going into "relax mode" quite quickly after the initial strike. Here in the Saguenay, they do jump a lot and then become quite docile until the get near the boat. I don't fall for that unless it's a small pike.....I don't mind them getting unhooked near the boat. For the larger pike, I will often wave my baseball cap or do something to startle them when they come to the boat too easily. Using a wire leader is a must.....unless you don't mind losing lures. However, I like to use at least an 18 inch leader made of very fine wire. Usually 12 to 15 lb test wire. Pike will often twist the line around them....usually near the end of the battle and non protected line can find it's way into their mouth or around their muzzle. Hook quality is extremely important. Replace all the cheap hooks that are found on many lures. If the point of a hook can slip on your thumbnail.....it's not sharp enough.

I prefer a strong braid (40 to 65 lb test) for jigging cod and halibut in deep water. There is no line stretch so hook ups are easy. Ok....not as good for handlining as big mono.

Do you mean that you do not like the fact that line does not break? If you are fishing rock structure and the line does not break....does that mean that you haul up boulders or do you just give up and leave your rod and reel by the side of the lake and go home?

Wow....Ripplin' Red Fins sell for 9.99 up here where I live. Awesome bait for very rough water conditions. However, hard to tune right and definately not for high speed trolling. Lots of action at very low speeds. Luckily for fishermen, the people who work and operate these large surface retail stores know absolutely nothing about fishing.

I also recommend a heavier fly line. At least a 6 weight. As for the rod, I prefer a 2 piece rod because it will have a better action and lighter in weight. I also suggest a large arbour fly reel that will be lighter in weight than the Medalist. This new tendancy for using light lines is way overrated. I have a bunch of buddies who are very disappointed in their 5 and 6 weight fly rods because they have trouble getting any distance when casting. If they want to cast larger nymphes or streamers over size 6....they are even more disappointed. Those light rods are for fishing in creeks....out of the wind with small flies. Start out with a 7 weight rod that is 9 feet long. You will be able to use the rod for bass fishing with decent sized poppers and streamers. If you want to fish small creeks....then buy a 8 or 8 1/2 foot 4 weight rod and then use a 5 weight line. This way you will be able to make those short casts that creek fishing demands.

Spawning season is fast approaching for walleye and from what I have seen of other fish who are about to spawn, there is more slime on the fish as added protection from all the rubbing that goes one when spawning.

I also recommend doing it yourself. It's real easy to do. To finish the job, buy some 2 part epoxy type varnish that is specially made for protecting rod windings. The finished job will look exactly like the original.

I would like to use fluorocarbon lines in order to have a line that may be less visible to fish but all the ones that I have used so far (Vanish 6 lb test, Vanish leader material 15 lb test, Seaguar leader material 25 lb test) do exactly what yours did.....simply snap well under their test rating. All within the first hour of use.

For Musky baits....I would most certainly buy them from someone who makes them himself. There is one guy here in Quebec that makes about the best you can find anywhere. Extremely durable and tough with great action and top quality hardware. They cost about 40 dollars each. Shipping is free for orders over 100 dollars.

Yes....you can say that but which knot? Are you talking about knots for mono or fluorocarbon or braided lines? There have been a series of articles concerning independant tests concerning fishing lines. These tests compare stretch, abrasion resistance, overall strength and then knot strength for each type of line. You can find these tests on the internet. Sadly, some have been modified (shortened) and a lot of info has been lost over time. I had the chance to read them and I do not follow all the hype that some lines have gotten. Here is one about knot strength for braided lines. Only one knot gave 100% strength. This was the Palomar Knot (but passed 2 times through) which is not common. After that, the highest knot strength was about 80%. Some were as low as 35% First of all, we all know now that braided lines are way underated by manufacturers. Example, 20 lb Fireline Braid breaks at about 58 lbs. Original Fireline, which was the strongest 20 lb line broke at approx 48 lbs. This means that if a person uses a uni knot or a clinch knot which will break at about 60% or 70% of the line's breaking rate, the line will still be over 20 lb test. Anyway....go to this site : http://www.sportfishingmag.com/article.jsp?ID=43557