Garry2Rs

This would be the tomorrow part of my post...

It was 48F in the morning and I needed a jacket, but the day had warmed-up to 68F by lunch time when this picture was taken.

The water was 50F derees.

You can see it was another Bluebird Day, and fishing was slow again. This little guy was behind a sunken tree, he hit a white spinnerbait about two feet from shore. The black specks on the water behind me are small ducks called Cootes or "Mud Hens". They're very noisy and always fighting with each other.

This is a backwater of the Colorado River, called Martinez Lake. We were about a mile from where the other pictures were taken.

Garry2rs

Ice Walker, were your pictures taken in Brooks Bay? In the summer I live about 14K from there and fish Jack's a lot.

Before I got the place down south, I spent a couple of winters in Apsley and recall seeing a line of huts out and to the right of the puplic boat launch.

Garry2rs

Yesterday the weather was cool, low 40's overnight and only 61 degrees at noon. I managed to get down to a tee shirt for a couple of hours in a sheltered area during the heat of the day. Not to bad for the last week of December...

Buck and I wanted to take the new boat cover off and put it back on again to see how it worked. If we were going to do that, we might as well put the boat in the water for a couple of hours...Right?!?!...GRIN. I needed gas and air for one tire so it was nearly 2pm by the time we headed out. I haven't been to the Colorado River for a while so that's where we headed.

The boat cover came off easily, but going back on, that first time, it took awhile to get everything right. The twist locks make it simple enough, it was just a matter of closing the Velcro slits at the trolling motor so that it looked neat that slowed me down. The cover is very tight, so I wound up taking the bow off again, closing the Velcro at the trolling motor flap, then tugging the bow back into place. I'm sure that I will get faster as time goes on. The best thing is that on the highway nothing slaps or flaps, it's as tight as a drum!

There was no one else in the boat parking lot when we reached the river. There was a family was having a picnic on one of the tables close to the car parking lot and a Father and Son were still fishing from the jetty but the boat ramp was ours alone.

Before Xmas it was overcast but we had heavy winds on Xmas Day that moved the low front out and blew in a high...Since the 26th we have had beautiful bright days with clear skies and gently breezes...lousy fishing conditions...HAHAHA.

I have wanted to explore a canal that runs in the opposite direction from where we usually go, toward open water, for sometime. Since I didn't have anyone else to please yesterday, I decided to check it out. Buck and I motored up the canal for about half a mile before running into a buoy with a sign that said the area beyond was closed as a bird sanctuary until Feb.15th. We turned around and fished our way back toward the boat launch.

I started with a curlytail swimbait, then tried a baby Bass crankbait. That was followed by a Rattle -Trap type lipless crank and finally a Lucky Craft 2.5, the same chartreuse one that recently caught my biggest ever Bass. The Lucky Craft was lucky again...

This is the spot that gave us our only fish of the day.

 

The fish was just off the over hanging canes between the two highlighted spots near the middle of the picture.

He was only 14 inches long, but he was quite game...GRIN.

 

 

I ran into another Bass Club member and we shot the breeze for a few minutes. He said that on the 24th he had a very good day, but as I told you the wind on the 25th had moved the low out and on that day he was struggling too. He had caught two fish on a purple jig & pig for five hours of fishing. He took off to fish another small backwater lake, a mile or so away. I had one fish for two hours fishing and figured I was ahead of the game Buck and I were thinking about dinner, and wondering what challenges we might face putting the cover on for the first time, so we turned for home.

Today Buck and I were out again for a couple of hours. But it was a bust.

I only have one day left on my old licence, so tomorrow we will be back at it again.

Garry2r's

Buck and I turned our boat over to a local canvas shop a few days ago to have a cover made.

This was our Xmas gift to ourselves...the only fool proof way of getting what we really wanted...GRIN.

Today we picked the boat up and were very pleased with the new cover.

It's fitted with a boot to go over the windshield and has a cut out for the trolling motor to come through.

The prop on the trolling motor is inside a heavy vinyl bag, to protect the outer matterial.

There is a separate boot that covers the trolling motor and control cables.

Velcro around the openings in the main cover make for a snug fit.

The whole thing is held on with metal twist loops, like the edges of a convertible top.

On my cross country trips I have destroyed two CTC/Wal-Mart type covers and two or three tarps.

I decided to bite the bullet for a custom made cover and see how it stands up to the long drive.

Garry2rs

Great report, and pictures.

Congrats on the 15 inch Crappie. What a hog!

Garry2rs

Hi Lew;

Flashers also read through weeds and show the hard bottom. So if your in some weed choked you can read the actual depth, not just the depth to the top of the weeds.

Garry2rs

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the pad,

Not a hipster was swinging, not even old Dad;

The chimney was hung in the stocking routine,

In hopes that “The Fat Man” would soon make the scene;

The moon and the snow were, like, faking together,

Which made the scene rock in the Day People weather,

When, what to these peepers should come on real queer,

But a real crazy sleigh, and eight swinging reindeer,

As sidemen in combos pick up as they stomp,

When they swing with the beat of a Dixieland romp,

So up to the top of my bandstand they flew,

With the sleigh full of loot, and St. Nicholas, too.

His lids-Man, they sizzled! His dimples were smiles!

His cheeks were like “Dizzy’s,” his break was like “Miles!”

His puckered-up mouth was, like, blowing flat E,

And his chin hid behind a real crazy goatee!

He blew not a sound, but skipped right to his gig,

And stashed all the stockings, then came on real big,

And flashing a sign, like that old “Schnozzle” bit,

And playing it hip, up the chimney he split;

And then, in a quick riff, I dug on the roof,

The jumpin’ and jivin’ of each swinging hoof.

As I pulled in my noggin, and turned around fast,

Down the chimney came Nick like a hot trumpet blast.

The tip of a butt he had snagged in his choppers,

And he took a few drags just like all cool be-boppers;

He had a weird face, and a solid reet middle

That bounced when he cracked, like a gutbucket fiddle!

He was wrapped up to kill, Man, a real kookie dresser!

And his rags were, like, way out! Pops! He was a gasser!

A sack full of goodies hung down to his tail,

And he looked like a postman with “Basie’s” fan mail.

He was shaking with meat, meaning he was no square,

And I flipped, ‘cause I’d always thought he was “longhair!”

But the glint in his eye and the beat in his touch

Soon gave me the message this cat was “too much!”

He flew to his skids, to his group blew a lick,

And they cut out real cool, on a wild frenzied kick.

But I heard him sound off, with a razz-a-ma-tazz:

“A cool Christmas to all, and , like all of that jazz!”

Thanks Guys.

Great news Gary.

All the best in the New Year.

For the rest of you young guys, remember what George Burns once said,

"If I knew I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself."

I'm not sure how that first got started, perhaps a bite of some sort, but Buck has been worrying that spot on and off since last year. When he licks it, his saliva turns the fur reddish-brown. There's nothing there, but every now and then he start licking there and can't seem to stop. These time seem to coincide with periods of low activity, so when he gets going I take him for a long walk to burn off the extra energy. That photo was taken on December 18th, we had several days of high wind, followed by a visit from relatives...in other words several days at home preparing for and entertaining guests. Since then we have been out most days, today that spot is invisible.

As to the first part:

I don't see any reason why you can't lengthen the charger cables.

But, if you're going to be pulling and hiding wire anyway, could you relocate the trolling battery to the stern and run the new cables to the trolling motor? Most boats have the extra room aft and you will gain some storage space in the front, plus the stern doesn't usually bounce around as much as the bow does, which will be better for the battery.

About the second part:

It might not hurt your batteries to leave them on this charger, but Deep Cycles shouldn't be recharged until they are discharged at least 20%.

You don't have to worry about fully charged batteries freezing.

The best thing to do is disconnect them so there is no trickle down and leave them alone.

Garry2rs

For me, the 2006 season ended on a fairly low note.

That September, I had a mild heart attack and although we told everyone we were was fine, it took the rest of the year to recover.

I did do some fishing while in Arizona, but it was mostly short trips to a stocked pond. We just didn't have a lot of energy and generally quit after about 3 hours...

As 2007 began, I was starting to feel more like my old self...Buck and I returned home in April and spent a month wasting time before hooking up with my neighbour Mike and his daughter Natalie for some Crappie fishing.

 

When Pike season opened on the third Saturday in May, we change our focus to target Esox.

Natalie led the way.

This is her first of the season, she caught it opening day, on a Storm swimbait that she was casting in front of emerging weeds and docks and retrieving out over the first break line, in a small bay.

After an epic struggle, with lots of encouragement from the peanut gallery, she brought it to boat side without assistance.

Daddy handled the net and gave her a power assist to hold it level...knocking her hat over her eyes...grin.

 

Here's one of me on a different day...

 

And this is the face that the Pike make when you try to take their picture...

 

We chased Pike throughout June. Natalie was waiting for school to end, so we could fish everyday...I was waiting for Bass season to open.

 

Okay so here's a short story...

One rainy morning, at the beginning of July, Natalie came over to see if I wanted to go shore fishing, just up the road, at Eel's Lake.

My motor was out of service awaiting a replacement part for a cracked float bowl.

She said I could fish for Bass if I wanted to, but she and her Dad had some worms and were just looking to have some fun with the Rock Bass that could be caught easily from shore.

"Okay" said I, and off we went.

I took a bag of Senko worms, some EWG hooks and a spinnerbait.

In short order I had caught and released a couple of what I refer to as average size fish, about a pound and a half, Largemouth on the spinner bait.

I called Natalie to come and try her luck from the high rocky point where I was standing. As she was running over to me, her line twisted around her rod tip.

After a minute or so of struggling on her own, she asked, "Could you untangle this for me?" I said "Sure." "Here, take my rod and reel in my spinnerbait while I unloop your line."

After one or two cranks of my reel, she hollered "fish-on!"

Once again, she had big fish of the day!...Did I mention again? Grin.

You have got to love fishing with kids!

 

As the weather got warmer we tried some leisurely Lake Trout trolling with steel line...

Yah, the kid led the way...Again! Here we are on Jack's

Mike did his part too, here are father and daughter with a seven pounder.

One of three he caught one day...on a small nearby lake.

 

Don't be looking for me...I just steer the boat and take the pictures...hahaha.

 

July stretched into August...Natalie had a birthday...now she was 8 and learning to baitcast. It must be hard to thumb the spool with such little hands.

I was bored with steel line and Buck and I went back to playing with the Bass. My friends soon joined me, I regret that there are no pictures from this period. Buck and I were fishing four or five days a week, about half of the time with the neighbours, we were catching lots of small and average size fish.

They all looked the same...It just didn't seem important to get pictures, at the time.

 

I found a few nice ones here and there...Of coarse I had help.

 

There weren't many rainy days this summer, with the clear skies and bright sun, we could see bottom where I've never seen it before.

The weed beds were getting thicker...and the fish were spooky.

 

I was experimenting with smaller baits and making long casts with weightless three and four inch Senko type worms

and with skinny curly tail worms on small jigs...I had good luck on suspending Smallmouth using those skinny worms.

One calm sunny day, on a gin clear cottage lake, I watched this 19 inch Small Mouth leave cover and hammer my weightless 5 inch worm as it slowly sank beside a water loged tree limb.

 

I was fairly proud of that fish...until Musky Bill came up and showed me a real fish from the same lake...GRIN.

 

Autumn sort of eased in so you didn't notice it at first...Then one day...Surprise!

The leaves are turning and it's taking longer each morning to warm up.

 

This is my favourite time of the year in the North Kawarthas, where I live.

There are no bugs, the summer people have packing up and even on weekends we have thing pretty much to ourselves...

School was in, but Natalie, Mike and I continued to go fishing every chance we got.

There was still some Tee shirt weather on most afternoons.

We started revisiting our Pike lake to see if the big ones were returning from the summer depths...

we found some small ones, but I guess it was still too warm for trophies.

By October it was cooling down, my furnace was kicking on at night and I was thinking about my trailer in Arizona and a return to summer-like-weather.

The three of us went out one last time, at the end of the first week of October.

 

That was the end of the regular season, but just like the NHL in March, Buck and I were just entering our second season...grin.

 

We locked up the house and headed south on Friday morning, the 12th of October.

Forty eight hours later, on I-40, just before the turn-off for Flagstaff Arizona, the right side leaf spring on the trailer snapped...

Boat, motor and trailer fell, first onto the tire, then onto the road at about 60 mph. We had a very exciting 30 or 40 seconds while we got the rig stopped...

The prop and skeg hit the road, both were bent.

The right side wheel was bent around behind the boat, causing damage to the right rear corner of my old Skeeter, before stopping against the outboard.

Pieces of the broken spring and other hardware, damaged the underside of the hull.

 

Buck and I were thrown into a series of left/right/left skids, but we didn't hit anything and were not injured.

The Highway Patrol wrote up a report, called a tow truck for the boat, and in about an hour we were able to continue on our way.

The boat was a write off, but it would take a month for the insurance company to decide that...

In the meantime we were shore fishermen again. Still, it was fishing, the weather was warm and the living was easy...

We caught a few Catfish and some strangely coloured Sunfish...Possibly Long Eared Sunfish???

As soon as the insurance indicated that they intended to pay us off we went boat shopping...we found several choices in our price range.

This Ranger was the one we chose. We had a friend remodel the interior to give us a larger casting deck with a step-up, creating more room to fish and storage space.

Through November, Yuma was very warm, temp's were in the 80's and even some days in the 90's.

Just like mid-summer at home, but without the humidity. Fishing was tough, but we caught a few small fish.

 

As usual, Buck enjoyed the water.

And kept a sharp eye on things like rowdy ducks and jumping fish.

 

Through December it has become progressively cooler. This week it is in the 40's overnight and only 60-65 at noon.

The fishing is still slow, perhaps because of the sudden change in water temperature, but the average size is better.

I have been told that it takes about a month for the fish to acclimatize to the cooler water.

There's still a week of fishing left this year, but tomorrow my boat is going to a local canvas shop to have a custom cover fitted and installed.

With lost shop-time over Xmas, it will be tied up for the whole week.

 

Looking back I can say I had fun, and learned some new stuff. I was also able to pass some knowledge on to another generation.

All in all, that's what I call a pretty good year!

Garry2rs

Your Daiwa Alpha is a very nice looking baitcaster.

If I were looking for an all around baitcasting rod I would buy a 6'6" Med Heavy rod rated for 3/4 to 1 ounce baits. Shimano Compre or Crucial rods give you a lot of rod for the money and they're in Peterbough if you ever need a new line guide etc. I used a G.Loomis 6'6" MBR783 to land many Kawartha Musky on Bass size spinnerbaits. I also recommend that rod, which can be serviced in Hamilton, but the Shimano's are cheaper.

The 6'6" is a better all around rod than the 7 foot because it gives you more accurate casts around docks, boats and weed beds etc. In the future you might want to add a seven footer, for a little bit longer range in open water, but start with the 6' 6" because most of the time a short accurate cast will catch you more fish.

Garry2Rs

Hi Guys;

A few days ago I caught my PB LM Bass so it was with high hopes and great expectations that Buck and I returned to the lake today.

We had spent most of the last few days reviewing strategy, on DVD's we made last summer, from the BPS show "The Bass Pro's" which airs on the Versus Network in the USA.

That Bass fishing God-Among-Men, Kevin Van Dam spoke to us about the proper technique for fishing Rattle Trap type, lipless cranks...We studied hard, and hit the water today, with new confidence and resolve.

What we learned was that to be most effective, lipless cranks need to contact the bottom!

KVD basically said that if your not hitting weedtops, and/or the bottom, your wasting your time (or as Buck put it, "humping a leg.")

This afternoon we hit the water with a new plan...

Cast and let our lipless lures sink to the bottom, then work them back with slow tugs, until we feel the resistance of weeds etc...then we'll rip them free, and expect a strike!

All was fine for the first few casts. Then there was a major set back.

Here we were casting and ripping when all of a sudden we had something on!

That was the good news...

The bad news was it didn't feel right...

It was heavy, but not like a fish...more like a stick, or a big wad of weeds.

BUT, it was swimming away from us, in a strange sort of way...

With great interest we brought the line in and swung our prize over the side...

Buck was disgusted. He wouldn't even look me in the eye!

We had foul hooked a Carp!

Buck pointed out that perhaps this ripping thing was a hazard to other species...

I retorted that this was only what is called "collateral damage."

My friend quickly picked up the interloper and dropped it over the side.

We agreed that this was a set back...but that we would never mention the unfortunate incident again.

Stone's Bait on Hwy #28 near Alpsey might be an option. Hwy. #28 crosses #62 in Bancroft and there's also the 620 out of Apsley if you aren't going as far north as Bancroft.

Hi Guys;

December has been an interesting month to be fishing for Bass.

When I arrived in mid-October, and right through last month, it was all 80's and 90's.

However, the days are much cooler now.

Day time highs are about 65F with overnight lows in the 40's.

Naturally, this has also cooled the water...it has gone from the high 70's to the low 50's.

In a nut shell this means that the Bass are everywhere and anywhere.

So, it's hide-and-go-seek every time you hit the water.

 

This is a desert, so there are basically only two places to fish for Bass in Yuma Arizona.

One is in the Colorado River and it's back waters.

This is how it looks...

My fishing friend from BC. Dick Sayers and I have been to the river twice this month.

Both times it was quite windy and the fishing was tough.

This is Dick...

This is me...

The fish were small, in the one to one and a half pound range.

As you can see in the pictures they hit small, shallow running, crankbaits.

 

The other fishing spot is a reservoir called Mittry Lake.

The fish in Mittry are a better average size, but the lake is often called Misery by the locals, because it is always tough.

Buck and I have been to Mittry several times on our own this month and caught a single fish each time.

This is Buck...

This one hit a blue and silver Bill Lewis Rattle Trap...

This one a blue and silver Rapala Rattlin'Rap

And this one a Spro Blue Shiner (Japanese copy of a Rattle-Trap)

Okay a blind man could see that pattern, but today was the first time that I was there with my friend Dick.

We had the lipless cranks, but our game plan was to try crankbaits that featured chartreuse and resembled Sunfish, which we have been told are the main forage fish in this reservoir.

Dick had a Rapala DT10 and I had a Lucky Craft 2.5, so we were covering both deep and shallow at the same time...

It the first hour Dick had one on that came off beside the boat. Twenty minutes later I had a solid hit and knew it was a dandy.

For those of you that know him, Dick held onto Buck, while I swung the lunker over the side...GRIN.

The fish weighed about 7 pounds on an old spring scale, but whatever it's true weight, it was a heavy fish and a new personal best for me.

Tee shirt fishing days in December, cheap beer and big fish...You have got to love this country!

Garry2R's

I also started with a hand-held GPS and a fish finder. I agree that this is not the way to go.

I think that as large a screen as you can afford and colour are important for GPS in a boat. It's not like on the road where you will have a 3D view and a voice calling out the turns etc. Size makes it easier to follow contours and read the details on your navigation maps.

I bought a combo unit in colour with an external GPS dome receiver in 2003.

The GPS receiver has broken down twice in 4 years...My next unit will be the built-in receiver type.

As a side note I just put a cheap GPS in my truck and love it.

Garry2rs

The spinning reel your talking about is one above the Stradic...so the price is truly excellent. They have been discounted down because Shimano just brought out a new model. BUT you should go to a dealer and have a look at the size before you order...

In my opinion, the 5000 is a very BIG reel.

It was overcast, with light rain in Yuma today.

It only reached about 19, and will dip to 5 or 6 tonight...

But the fish were biting...grin.

 

There are several islands on Lower Buckhorn that you can use. There's several camping spots at Lovesick and there are also several island spots on Stoney. There's no pike, in this area, but I'll bet Musky will do...grin.

If you want a more wilderness type experience, the North Kawarthas Park is about 20k north of Burliegh Falls, near Apsley. You will need a canoe, to reach the camping spots and it's all Bass fishing.

Garry2rs

Congratulations!!!

Garry2rs

Premier Bill Davis did away with the fishing licences in Ontario back in the early 70's for just those reasons.

They are telling me that the northeast US has snow now and expects more before the weekend...

If this includes you Southern Ontario guys, I'm sorry to hear about your weather.

It has cooled down a lot here in Yuma AZ. too, it was only about 75 here this afternoon.

I finally got out fishing with my friend from Dick, from BC. We went to Martineze Lake, which is a flooded backwater of the Colorado River.

Bass Club guys down here have been telling me that shallow running crankbaits are the thing to throw right now, so I picked up a few the other day.

We caught a few fish, 6 or 7 nothing over a pound and a half...and had a very good day on the water.

 

A stiff breeze in the morning turned into a heavy wind by noon, We tried to stay in the lea of islands etc, but we called it a day around 3PM.

I checked my new boat's speed with a GPS...I hit 55mph on the one open place that I knew was safe, and we were still gaining speed when I shut it down...I can't wait to get a nice long run on Jack's or Chandos where I can really wind it out...grin.

Garry2rs

 

Mike -

This boat is an 18ft too, I took the picture with a wide angle lens, that stretched it a bit...the motor is a 150, Black Max XR2, with a 6" jack plate. I'm amazed at the hole shot compared to the 120 Evinrude I had on the Skeeter. I'm not sure if it's the jack plate or just the extra ponies...

With Buck and I on board, and both tanks full, I'm getting about 5800 RPM at full throttle, the red line on the XR2 is 6000 RPM. There's no water around here that's big enough to really wind it out and see what subtle adjustments to the trim might do.

 

Roy -

I love tiller boats too, but the bass club rules say you must have "remote steering."

Garry2R's

Hi Guys;

Last month I mentioned that my boat and trailer were wrecked when a leaf spring snapped at 60mph, on our way to the winter place in Yuma Arizona. The insurance company decided that they would write-off my boat, motor and trailer, so I went Bass boat shopping. After picking the brains of some friends, (Thanks again Brian) I bought a used Ranger.

I'm very pleased with this boat, it rides nicely and goes like stink...grin.

So...after a month of being shore bound we were finally on the water.

 

The guys at the Yuma Bass Masters and the Desert Bass Club, were all saying that at this time of year, the fish should be moving away from cover and chasing schools of Shad...But the hot weather was delaying the game.

Until the last few days it's been very hot...in the 90's almost everyday. On Tuesday a front moved in and over night it dropped the day-time highs into the mid-seventies. With the cold front I had high hopes, that we would finally see some "Fall" fishing. I also assumed that the fish would be sulking for a few days after the cold front moved through. I gave it until this afternoon for the fish to adjust to the cooler water etc.

Buck and I drove to Mitry Lake, which is a reed and palm lined man-made lake about ten miles out of town. The water comes from the Colorado River but the lake isn't connected to the river, it's fed from a series of canals that originate at the Imperial Dam about twenty mile upstream from Yuma. This is a good big fish lake and has produced Bass of up to 14 pounds! We didn't see anything like that today, but we did hook a few in the 1.5 - 2 pound range, and it's aways nice to know that a new personal best might only be a cast away...GRIN.

Today we fished a Rattle-Trap and a DT-6 out from the cover in open water, where we could see submerged weed beds. We fished the lip less cranks like jerk baits, ripping them through when we felt them touch anything. The club guys said most of the strikes come after you rip...Sure enough our hits came after we had ripped the lure free of weeds.

Here's the bait we were using...

Garry2r's