Garry2Rs

Ginger Kids are no problem... Unless you're fishing behind them!!!

Smally21; you would have a Pickerel and a Pike...not a Northern Pike, but a Pike all the same! No one would mistake that smelly slimy toothy critter for a Pickerel!

The 407 stops at Brock Road, in Pickering, you turn right for about 10 Km to reach the 401 then go east on the 401 to exit 436...Hwys. #35/115. Follow the 115 into Peterborough. If you are traveling early, taking the 401 all the way is shorter. You can PM me if you need directions to a specific location in Peterborough, or the best way to reach a certain lake/boat ramp etc. Garry2R's

I can remember when Canadians were forced to except the name Walleye, which is crude slang for a cataract condition, so that American tourists would understand that the "Lodge" wasn't advertising "good fishing" for Chain Pickerel...a small type of Pike. If we had to change the name, why couldn't we change it to the French Canadian name, Dore? At least that name isn't disrespectful of a fine fish...and it's 100% Canadian!

Niether jig will fish well in heavy weeds. Shaky is normally fished over rock, sand or gravel, perhaps with a few sparse weeds. You use thin finesse type worms, like on a drop shot rig. The the jig is designed to hold the bait up, off the bottom...so that you can shake the rod tip and make the worm quiver. If fish are inactive you can tease a strike... Football jigs are used in the same type of water. Usually you use a Crayfish type plastic or a Senko. The idea is to drag the bait along the bottom...The jig rolls over rocks and the worm looks like it's feeding or the Crayfish like it's crawling along. The football shape is supposed to be less likely to snag between rocks than a round head jig.

I remember reading the spec's and thinking there were a lot of carbon parts for the price... Anyway you probably wouldn't like it...it was made for Bass fishing...HAHAHA

I Bass fish for over 9 months of the year, but the three and a half months that I fish in the North Kawathas are the highlight of my year. There is something about cruising along a Shield type lake throwing casts toward the shoreline, that soothes my soul. The action is fast and the fish are willing...If there is anything that a man can do by himself that is better than that, it must be illegal!

I had two young clients for the opener and was a little nervous about whether the fish would still be scattered after the spawn. No worry, the fish were on the usual spots and we had a great time using Senko type worms and Flukes. The big fish bite wasn't on, but what we lacked in size we made up in numbers...grin. Here are a couple of pictures. Garry2R's

In 2002 both the late GaryV and I were invited to a small gathering of OFC members at Lakeair. TJ was in a big prospectors tent marking the names on a white board, as people arrived. He asked "Who are you?" I said Garry, he wrote Gary, I said "NO! I'm Garry with 2R's" He erased Gary and wrote "2R's"

Congratulations on the new ride. It sounds like a terrific deal! I hope you have many great days on the water with it.

I apologies to those who are really north of #17, for referring to the Kawarthas as being "up north." It was just a figure if speech. I was aiming at those peculiar people from the City, who think we country folks want their city-litter. Interesting irony with Zebra Mussels and Gobies... Whenever Zebra Mussels arrived in the Great Lakes they had no natural enemies and found an abundant food supply in our dirty water. They bred out of control and soon did harm by plugging water inlet pipes etc. At the same time as a fringe benefit they did good by making the water LOOK cleaner...but did bad for some waters by allowing deeper weed growth, but did good for other waters by allowing more food carrying weed growth. The mussels, who had now filtered our toxins out of the water, became, themselves, highly toxic. Goby are considered an important prey fish in many waters. When they arrived, in our waters, it was considered bad because they competed with native prey fish... But the Goby eat the Zebra mussels, which was good. Since there were tons of Zebra Mussels, it was the Gobies turn to breed out of control... They concentrated the poisons from the mussels further, so they themselves become very toxic. When they are in turn eaten by Bass and Walleye, they pass the poison up stream. The obvious result of an expanding supply of Goby was that SMBass and Walleye have experienced an explosion in size and population. Where there are Trout and Salmon, more fish, means more food for them too. In the long run, more and bigger game fish further Sport fishing... The net results, you ask? Well as the Zebra population is reduced the Goby population will decrease as well. The classic case of eating ones self out of house and home...grin. Bass populations will fall back toward more normal levels as will the Walleye. There will still be more and better fishing than we had before, because the Zebra Mussels found a new unutilized food source, and in turn through the Gobies, passed this new food source up to the game fish. Whether those fish are fit to eat doesn't concern me. The lowly Zebra Mussels have increased the carrying capacity of the water! As the idiom suggests, "It's an ill wind that blows no good." Which means, that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems at the time, it always benefits someone! Hahaha.

The two fibers, Spectra and Dyneema, won't hold dyes. Most companies use a powder ink type of colouring. Powerpro uses wax. Whatever the colouring agent, it will come off with use. This has no effect on the strength of the line. The old Fireline, that was fused, got hairy looking as ends of fibers split off and became loose from the herd. Whatever loss of strength these loose ends represented, it was negligible, although it looked bad. I believe that all of the "Pure Fishing" braided lines, Fireline, Spidercast, Stren Microfuse etc. are made by the same third party company. The reason I think this is because all of these labels came out with new lines made of Dyneema, with slightly different but very similar features, at the same time.

I live in Apsley, there can be two or three different weather patterns between here and Peterborough. Peter seems to be in the Lake Ontario sphere of influence. To the north of that weather seems to be controlled by the Kawartha Lakes, but after Burleigh Falls, you are going up hill fast and you find a different set of conditions. On High pressure days, the whole area can be under sunny skies, but with lower pressure, you can have rain wind and hail in one area and just an overcast day in another.

Fireline has two distinctly different products. One is fused and the other is a braid. The fused line is quite flat, the braid is made with eight strands and is round. Both lines are made from a fiber called Dyneema, a Dutch company called DSM is the source. Chemically it is the same or very simpler to Spectra, the fiber used for Powerpro. Spectra is a Honeywell product. Spectra fans believe that it is a superior fiber...I agree, but what do I know? Spectra lines have generally been made to a smaller diameter per pound test than Dyneema lines. The way I heard it, the line making process was stolen and the thief only had first generation product knowledge. Anyway the information was sold to the Japanese and they are the source of the non-Spectra lines. There are several basic problems with Spectra/Dyneema lines. 1: Although the braids are super strong on a straight pull, the fiber is soft and will abrade easily. 2: The fiber is very slick, so it is hard to knot. 3: It is not anything like mono, so there is a learning curve. 4: Ten years ago, the major line companies spread lies about the new line because they were scared to death of it when it was coming to market. The cure for #1 is to forget about pound test and use a line of the similar diameter to what you would have used in mono, until you figure out what works best for you. Problem #2 requires learning a couple of good knots. Problem #3 requires a little common sence... Ten pound braid (or fused Fireline) is between 2 and 4 pound test mono diameter. This means that it will cut off just as easily as two or four pound mono...see cure #1. Braids are also very limp, so they handle differently than mono, which has a natural springiness. Problen Four, the lies, is tough. You still hear them all the time. Braid will cut the line guides...false Braid will dig into the spool...Not if the line is properly spool, and that means tightly spooled. Braid will slip on the arbour...False. Leave a long tag end on your arbour knot. The first row of wraps will anchor everything...and the list goes on. The new Fireline braid is a very nice product. But I have found a west coast source for multi-strand braid...I'm talking 12 to 16 strand braid...And it is cheaper than Fireline or Powerpro, plus it is made of Spectra fiber. I like this new line better than either Powerpro or Fireline. The only disadvantage is I have to buy it in 600 yard spools.

I thought you were going to be talking about "City Guys" coming up north! Tossing there Timmies cups and their McD's wrappers, out the window into my ditch... The beer cans and bottle aren't so bad, I get a dime a piece for them when I clean up.

For weightless 4" and 5" Yum Dinger's /Senko's etc. I generally use a St.Croix Avid ML spinning rod with an extra fast tip. This rod shouldn't be confused with Chinese and Korean rods. It does have a soft tip, that let's me finesse the baits, but there's lots of grunt in the butt and mid-section when I need to put a lunker out of the weeds. Senko's are quite heavy, 3'8 ounce, so they and seven inch Dinger's cast well on my level-wind outfits, as do frogs and toads. What rod weight to use is a good question. There is no standard, so every company 's ratings are a little different. Recently I saw Rick Clunn, who has won four Bass Master's Classics, on TV. He commented that the Asian rod makers seemed to rate their rods about one level stiffer than US companies do. In other words an imported Med.Heavy would be called a Medium by an American company. I don't know if you come up my way to fish, ... Jack's Lake area, Hwy#28, just north of Stoney Lake, ... but I have lots of different weight rods that you can try out if that would help you.

Don't carry the stocking in your pocket when you go to town. Stocking masks qualify as burglary tools!

A lot of choking can foal the plugs but that's about all... Here's another thought I had when I reread your post. If it will run for 30 minutes, but to restart you need to pump the ball, that spells air leak. Check all the fuel lines and the clamps from the tank to the injectors.

Buick14; I think you are spot on. You see this quite often when the motor was set-up with no load using muffs etc. My guess is that if you open the cowl you will find an adjustment collar on the throttle linkage...give it a couple of twists and see if that cures your problem.

If you are talking about using a bullet sinker ahead of the worm...Texas rigging I have always felt that this was a punching-through-the-floating-slop, or a get-me-to-the bottom-fast deep water technique. Either way this is a bottom dragging technique. For fishing in and around pads I prefer Senkos and Flukes that will stay at the surface and slide over the pads...not something that's going to drag in the mud and fight it's way passed the roots and stems. For these semi-surface baits I use 10 to 20 pound braid. For true Texas rigging I want a casting rod and stout line maybe 30 to 40 pound braid. Since you plan to fish this in the weeds, you might want to invest in a package of tooth picks and use them to peg the sinker to the worm. The rig slides through weeds better when the sinker and worm stay together. As you guessed, the presentation is drag, hop and glide.

In a couple of resent threads the idea that new techniques, new baits and especially shiny new equipment is primarily meant to catch anglers. Fellow gear-hog JohnF. pointed out that you can't "buy a game," and I learned a new description for my condition...G.A.S...WINK. This all goes hand in hand with the old saw about the guy, in the back of the boat with his old tackle, out-fishing the newbie with all the latest whiz-bang toys. I won't dispute that experience and knowledge coupled with an ability to actually use the equipment are paramount, so there might be a grain of truth in those opinions. However I am skeptical about the opinions of those who denounces high-end toys, but indicates they have never tried them...How do they know that their Timex is as good as a Rolex? Who said a Porsche 911 is nothing more than a souped up, stomped-on, over priced VW Beetle? Have they taken one for a spin? Anyway, this whole idea of new and improved VS. tried and true got my off the couch to do a little research into conditioning...like Pavlov's dogs and all that jazz...but as it pertains to fish. Articles by professional anglers seem to discuss “conditioning” all the time, typically focusing on how Bass can learn to avoid the lure types used by the majority of anglers on any given body of water. We can probably all recall some new bait, or colour, that was really hot one year, but faded to mediocrity the next. What Happened? I found a story that said that in the laboratory scientists have determined that Bass can distinguish between identical targets, learning quickly to strike the one that releases food and learning just as quickly to avoid the one that gives them an electric shock. Okay that was in the lab, but what about in in nature? Looking at the big picture, some fish will be harvested, some will be released, some will escape and some will be too cautious to bite at all. This would suggest that the most aggressive specimens will be taken out of the lake, and the survivors might become more and more cautious. Therefore I think that conditioning occurs, in nature just like in the lab. Bass learn to avoid things that led them to bad experiences in the past. Therefore, brother gear-hogs rejoice! the newest and latest baits just might catch more fish after all. One last thought: I read one time about somebody discovering that their Dad's tackle box of 40 year old lures worked great on his home lake. These old style baits probably hadn't been seen by today's crop of fish. And, that my gear-hog friends is our excuse to never throw anything away! In time, everything "old" is "new " again...grin.

I don't see a problem. Other than the actual lead, it's just a thick braided cotton, nylon or dacron line. If you are thinking the lead will break...Forget it!

A spool of Leadcore is traditionally 10 colours. Each colour is 10 yards. There used to be double spools, at CTC which were two spools that weren't cut apart, so 16 colours is no big deal. I don't see why fishing less the the full length of line would hurt anything. The lead is soft and wrapped inside the cloth braid. It used to be said that leadcore would go down 10 feet for each colour you had out. I always thought that was too optimistic, but maybe those people were trolling very slowly. On Lake Erie I have seen guys using short pieces of leadcore, 3 or 4 colours, and letting out a lot of backing.

In the owners manual or on-line you will find the max RPM's for your motor. If you are reaching that engine speed at less than full throttle you might want to try a longer prop...21 inches in stead of 19 etc. Prop length is a compromise taking into account the boat and the load it carries etc. Ideally you want a prop that gives you a decent hole shot, and will let you get within a couple of hundred RPM of the red line flat out. Any battery shop can load test your batteries for you.

I paid $500 for a skeg welding job at Bayveiw Marine on Stoney Lake...The weld broke the first time out...The weld was full of bubbles like an Aero candy bar! The guy there told me "Tough luck" when I complained...I would suggest that you stay away from that place. Some places charge as much as 50% of the replacement value of the SS prop on a big job...Shop around!