Garry2Rs

Pop or milk crates will also work.

To slow myself down even more, I once used a left over piece of plexiglas to cover about half of the bottom.

A shingle, or a scrap of plywood would work just as well.

The crates are light and strong and the handles won't pull off...grin.

garry2r's

I'm not sure what your real question is.

If you are asking if Rapala is the best brand of crankbaits, in my opinion, they're as good as any, and better than most.

If you're asking if a Rapala crankbait would be my first choice in all fishing situations, the answer is no. But if I'm using a crankbait I will probably start with some sort of a Rapala.

Here's some other thoughts...

You will often hear that something is just as good as the name brand product...When you hear those words, you might be wise to buy the original...grin.

Over the years I have bought some lures that never caught fish...I have never had a Rapala that didn't catch fish...but I have never had one that always caught fish either...that's fishing...grin.

Some lures, I've had were hard to keep in tune, they didn't run straight, or were easily knocked out of tune. I've never had that problem with a Rapala.

Model for model, Rapala's seem to be a little more expensive than other brands, but each Rapala lure is tank tested to be sure that it swims properly before it's packaged...that has to be worth something.

Most Rapalas are made of wood...I believe that wooden baits swim better than plastic ones do, but that's only my opinion, I'm sure there are many excellent plastic crankbaits too.

In the past I have returned broken Rapalas to Normark in Oshawa and received replacements free. I don't know if other manufacturers do that or not...

garry2r's

This weekend my old work buddy Larry came to my place with his brother Bob. Friday afternoon we tried hard to get out on the water. It was raining when they arrived, so we had some lunch and hoped that the sky would clear...In an hour, or so, the sun came out. We loaded the boat and headed for the lake. Twenty minutes later, as we pulled up to the launch, we saw huge black clouds forming...We sat and watched for awhile, to see if it would pass, but returned home when it started to thunder along with the rain.

Saturday was bright, with only a few high clouds. We hit the water at 9AM. The lake was too calm again and the fishing was tough. In the first hour all we caught was one Rock Bass...Things picked up when a breeze started to riffle the surface just after 10 o'clock. We caught several Bass along the docks and boats on the north shore and then moved to the shoals where Musky Bill hooked his big one last weekend.

There were no monsters biting for us today, but I did lose two good fish when my small hook pulled out. I was using a 1/32 oz jig and a 4 inch worm. After the second fish came off, I switched to a 6 inch worm and a 4/0 hook...GRIN.

We fished farther down the north shore than I usually do and had good success...I will have to try it again this week. In the past I thought that this was an unproductive area, but in those days I only fished for Musky. I need to check it out again now that I'm targeting Bass. We called it a day around 4PM. and headed home for a tall cool one.

In Summary:

We caught a dozen mid-size Bass, both SM&LM, close to shore on worms, after the wind riffled the surface.

The weeds are still healthy looking.

Lots of fish are still shallow.

Sunday would be a short day for us because my guests wanted to be on the road at noon. We left the house at 9AM, Stoney Lake was our destination. I didn't get a bite on the rock's and weeds where I had good action a couple of weeks ago. We did get two nice Bass, one Sm off some rocks in the lea of an island and one Lm over weeds in the lea of another island...Both were caught on 6 inch purple worms. There were no takers for our crankbaits today.

In Summary:

I find Stoney tougher than my favourite cottage lake but the average size is better.

The "moss" that drove me nuts the last time I was there, is clearing-up.

The water in the Kawarthas is still in the mid 60's.

garry2r's

All the major line brands now have a braided line in their roster. I suspect many of them are made by Western Filament, who makes Tuf Line XP. That company makes everything from sewing thread to rope, and used to package about three different braided lines under the Tuf Line brand. I don't know if they still do or not. Originally, Power Pro was smaller in diameter, for a given pound test, than the Tuf Line products. My understanding was it was wound under tension to more tightly compact the fibers. When Western Filament introduced XP is was the same diameter as Power Pro and in use, I couldn't find any difference between them. Tuf Line was cheaper in Canada, but the same price as Power Pro in the USA. I have used the Spiderwire Stealth and thought it was about the same as Tuf Line...I would stay away from the cheaper lines like Gorilla Braid, I didn't have good luck with it or the old Berkley Fusion.

Garry2r's

Hi Brian;

Yes it's the same old boat. I did some work on the engine this year to wake up some lazy horses...grin. Now it scoots pretty good.

Hi Johnny;

The water temperature hasn't changed and the shallow weeds are still healthy, so I'm finding Bass in all the regular Summer places.

Garry2R's

As I said elsewhere, after Curtis left us at the lake yesterday, Buck and I fished for a couple of hours.

The water was so clear and still that the fish were spooking as soon as we entered an area.

Since I could see potential hiding spots like weeds or rocks but had to stay well out from them,

I put on a Rapala DT4, which stands for "Dives to four feet."

This little bait could swim beside and over the cover without diving into it.

It produced half a dozen bass, the best one was this 16.5 inch fish.

He came from the hole in the lily pads that you can see in the lower left foreground.

Back at the launch, Buck continued his quest for votes among the minnows...

Garry2R's

Here's a tip for when it's time to disassemble the rod:

Put the rod behind your back...across your butt

Grip the rod on each side of the ferrule...with your hands/wrists as tight to your hips as possible.

To pull the ferrule apart you need to pull in a straight line...so they don't bind.

In order to do this, you only need to squat slightly.

It works like a charm!

Garry2R's

My friend Musky Bill arrived about 7:30am on Saturday morning, however, we didn't head out until after a long breakfast. In the meantime there was a brief shower, but by the time we rolled, the rain had stopped.

Buck decided to sit this one out...He's running in the local elections, and needed to campaign...GRIN

Because there was such a strong wind, Bill and I decided to return to my favourite lake, we felt we could find some sheltered areas on the smaller water.

When we approached my usual, weed-bed-in-the-last-bay starting point, there was another boat working the area. We chose to start on the north side of the lake, and fish those regular docks and boats. Along the way we landed several small fish, but nothing to write home about until we crossed into the Bay with the four islands.

Between the two sets of two islands there are several shoals...Off the end of one of the shoals, Bill connected with a huge fish. When he hauled it over the side, the Small Mouth had broken his spinnerbait in half...grin. The line was hanging on by a half curve of broken wire...

We had no scale, but on the Golden Rule, it measured 21.5 inches. What a pig!!!

I didn't get shut-out, but how can a guy follow an act like that?

I'm sure some of you guys remember Curtis who used to post here when he was about 14...

[

Well, he's 19 now and he called last Friday night. Because of work etc. he hasn't had much chance to fish, and/or post recently. We arranged to fish together on Sunday. When I got back to my place he was waiting for me. We planned to try Chandos for Pike and Bass. The fishing was fairly slow as we checked out a few shoals and bays etc.

In the morning it was dead calm...Buck found several schools of minnows to chase at the launch...

At about 11:30 the breeze picked up for the rest of the day. Curtis had a Pike come-off at boat side, and a SMBass and a very good LMBass...

I had a few Rock Bass...GRIN.

We were supposed to fish together on Monday, but the travel plans got mixed up and Curtis' ride arrived about half an hour after we hit the water.

before his Dad reached us we spooked a 40"Musky, but nothing came of it.

I opted to hang in and fish a little longer.

The lake was still and the sun was high...

I learned a great deal about the shape and location of various weedbeds, but you know the old saying, "If you can see them, they can see you"...

It was a beautiful Fall day but with the sun so high and the calm water it was tough. You had to stay well way from cover.

I threw a small Rapala DT4 crankbait and took 5 or 6 smaller Bass before heading home, at around 3PM, for supper.

Garry2R's

This is only a guess, but I think that bigger baits are easier to throw on a head shake, and that the stiffer rod is less forgiving because it doesn't shock absorb as well as your soft rod does.

Garry2R's

Another beautiful day. The lake was as very calm when we reached the launch.

Buck and I were late getting started, it was 12:30 before we reached our first spot. This was the same lake as yesterday, but we were checking out different locations. This morning I dug out a 3/8 ounce stand-up jighead that I wanted to try the craw/worm on. The bay where we started today is 1/2 way down the lake and very similar to yesterdays starting spot...It has the same sort of heavy weedbed in the center, and we worked around it with the crawworm and jig combination. Again we had lots of action from the Rockies but no keepers...

At the back of the weedbed I switched to the Curlytail on a small jig and caught a 14 inch LMBass on the first cast. This fish was just outside the west edge of the weeds. Continuing toward the rocky point at the mouth of the bay we picked up a SMBass of almost 19 inches on a 4" Wacky worm.

From here we turned the corner into an inlet that used to produce a musky every time we stopped there...well almost every time...grin.

Here's an old picture...

I have caught Bass here before, but today only dinks and panfish were active. Moving clockwise I passed between the shore and the central weedbed...Suddenly a 3 foot musky burst from cover beside the boat...he must have felt trapped in the shallow water. He charged across in front of us, toward the weedbed...this caused a major panic amongst the resident panfish as they exploded in every direction including into the air to get out of his way...hahaha.

Leaving this part of the lake we returned to the spot where we quit yesterday and spent a couple of hours trying to perfect a way of catching Perch, without catching Sunfish...It was great fun on very light tackle and crappie size tubes, but I didn't perfect a way of being species specific today...grin.

Later we got two more 12 inch SMBass before calling it a day at about 6PM.

Garry2R's

I don't want to hi-jack this thread into another discussion of fishing line. BUT, if you're breaking off all the time, you might want to consider investing in some 30 pound test PowerPro. It is the diameter of 8 pound test mono and with light wire hooks, like those on Rapala's etc. You have enough strength to pull off many snags or even straighten a hook to release a snagged bait.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago I was part of a club that but duck blinds in Binbrook every fall. There was access to a parking lot about halfway down the lake on the north side. There was also a road that crossed the west end of the lake...

At that time there were Crappie, Bass and Pike as well as Brown Bullhead and other rough fish in the lake.

Rather than continue to loose tackle, I'd get a slip float and a can of worms...You can fish any depth and worms will catch anything that's in the lake.

If you don't know what a slip float is you need to find a tackle store like Fishing World or Grimsby Tackle where there are knowledgeable people who can explain things to you.

It's been a number of years since I lived in Hammytown.

Pro Gear could be gone...too bad, I bought all my Loomis rods there.

The Barton street guy stocks StCroix, I wonder who is the Loomis dealer now?

Garry2r's

This morning, after breakfast, I put Buck in the truck and three rods in the boat. Our destination was a small cottage lake about 20 minutes from my place. This lake has both LM and SM Bass, Musky, the odd Walleye and panfish.

On the southwest corner of the lake is a huge rock, about the size of a three story apartment building. This rock forms one side of a narrow bay about 100 feet wide and 300 long. At the base of the rock, the water drops almost straight down 10 or 12 feet then humps up in the middle before dropping slightly and then rising to form the east side of the bay. In the shallower center area is a large weed bed of coontail and millfoil. As the bay opens back into the lake, there are some isolated patches of Cabbage and then a couple more large weed beds. In years past I've caught Musky at the base of the large rock, but this year the water seems to be lower and the weeds thicker.

Approaching from the northeast, I cut the motor well out and drifted toward the bay with just a little help from the trolling motor.

Yesterday I purchased some Tiki Man craw/worms and Tiki Man Wave Worms on sale at Wally World for less than $3.00 a bag. I rigged up a craw/worm with a jig head. A couple of long cast produced some interesting tugs from the Rock Bass in attendance, but no real Bass. I replaced the craw/worm with a small curlytail worm and tossed it into some of the openings in the weed bed and along the front edge...nothing doing.

The breeze had picked up a bit now and was pushing me out of the bay, toward the open water. Both motors were down, and I came to an almost complete stop in one of the thick outer weed beds. From here I could cast to the edges of the bed and to some open spots within the bed etc. Cast isn't quite the right word, it was more of a flip, being right on top of my work, I was swinging the little worm out, like a pendulum, so as not to make a big splash when the bait entered the water.

I had stared with the closest holes and edges and was now flipping to the far side of an outside edge. This would have required pin-point casting...It was easier to toss beyond the target and then tug the bait back toward the edge, before letting it sink. The worm is on a small jig, it sinks on a slack line and then you take up that slack and shake the rod tip...As I picked up slack this time, I realized the worm wasn't where I'd put it...the line came tight ...I felt weight and set the hook. This first fish was about a 1.5 lb. Large Mouth. Buck was very happy to see the fish and wanted to taste it...we had to have a discussion about seeing with your eyes not with your mouth...That settled, we continued on...grin.

Beyond the weed bed is a series of large rectangular rocks that look like they could be assembled into a first class break wall...In the spaces between the blocks, we found a couple of Small Mouth.

I returned to the weed bed in the bay and threw a Frog on top of the weeds working it out over the edges...the only action we saw was from some Rock Bass, when the frog got water logged and sank, they tugged his rubber band legs...grin.

I moved to the east side of the bay and tossed the craw/worm again. It caught a couple of small SM. Bass around the rocks where the weeds ended, but I missed a couple of better fish when they threw the small hook...I think I will save these for trailers on larger weedless jigs.

I switched to a Wacky worm and then a Shaky worm, looking for bigger fish around the weed edges where I've caught them before, but no one was home.

It was 11:30, we'd been on the water for about 90 minutes and had boated three or four Bass but only one would have been over 12 or 13 inches...

It was time to move on. I felt sure the Bass weren't in the heavy weeds today. Tthey were around rocks and cruising in weedy, but open areas. I followed the south shore around the corner and out of the bay. This was the lea side of the lake, and I was able to fish without constantly adjusting my position with the electric motor. I didn't land anything but dinks as I went down the south shore to a point where I had to move toward the centre of the lake in order to pass a series of islands rocks and shoals. As I fished my way out, I picked up another nice SM Bass on the shaky worm. Buck felt that I needed help so he dove in...I landed and released the fish then landed the dog...grin.

The wind was now pushing me fairly hard, so I let it carry us all the way to the north shore while I had a snack. On the north side of the lake are a series of docks that have always been good to me. The first couple of docks only had small Bass or Rockys, but our next stop was a goody.

This next dock faced directly into the wind. I made a wide turn in order to get the angle right. I was a little farther away than I needed to be, but with the wind behind me it was an easy cast. The dock was floating so I threw a low sidearm cast and skipped the wacky worm right up to the dock.

I was using one of my new Tiki Man Wave Worms. I have never used this brand before, but as I said before, the price was right...The worm is much larger in diameter than a Senko and quite heavy. They cast very easily. I was using a 3/0 hook, because it was already on the line, but 4/0 or 5/0 wouldn't be out of place with such a thick bodied bait.

The worm hit about 4 feet short of the dock, then skipped and dribbled the last few feet, to stop against the dock. With no weight other than the hook, I watched it slowly sinking...

These worms are sort of a marbled mix of tan and cream and are fairly visible as they sink.

I had closed the bail and picked up one turn of slack line when the worm suddenly vanished...the line took off sideways...One quick tug to set the hook started the "Airborne and Tail-Walk Show." It was about a two pounder and would be my best fish of the day.

I continued along the north shore until it opened into a large bay. There are two sets of two islands and some rocks and shoals in that large shallow bay. I found several small Bass and three more "keepers" before we called it quits. Buck and I were back in the house at 4:15 having landed 6 good fish and 6 or 7 small ones, not counting the pesky Rock Bass...grin.

In Summery;

We found the fish in there regular spots...docks and rocks, Those that were associating with weeds, were cruising well outside of the heavy weed beds.

The water was 65* in the lea and 68* on the windy side of the lake. Those stories about the wind pushing the warmer surface water to the windy shore are true!

There wasn't a cloud in the sky...don't let anyone tell you the fishing is bad on "Bluebird "days...grin.

The weeds are still green and healthy.

For those of you looking forward to the weekend...It should be a good one!

Garry2R's

Thanks for all the kind words guys...Blush...Grin.

Garry2R's

For thirty bucks you can buy 1000 feet of steel line at CTC.

Three hundred feet of twelve pound test wire will take a Shad Rap down to thirty feet.

Garry2R's

In the morning I plan to test the waters...grin.

I picked up some small jigs with longer hooks today, some new worms, and some crawdad/worm baits that I think Smallies will just eat up!

Garry2R's

In theory, on a windy day the Bass should be most active on the wind blown shoreline and on the windward side of islands and shoals.

The Zoo Plankton, eaten by minnows, is pushed to the windy shore, the baitfish follow the food and the bass follow the baitfish.

Waves hitting the shore form a rebound current that moves back toward the deeper water.

Some Bass will be in the shallows chasing prey, and others will hold slightly deeper picking off minnows etc that are caught-up in the rebound current.

That's the theory...

The problem, in my opinion, is that in deep, clear lakes, weeds grow to depths of 20 feet or more. I don't think, the wind and waves have that great an impact because wave action diminishes to nothing at about four times the wave height. So, unless your talk hurricane strength winds, any fish below about eight or ten feet aren't even going to know about the party...grin.

The Sledge is a great Musky bait.

Garry2R's

As a boater and fisherman, that waterproof Pentax sounds good to me. Water is sudden death to electronic cameras. I killed two of them by getting them wet in the boat.

The Pentax is a nice size too. I had a big Nikon, lots of features, but to bulky to take everywhere, and a tiny Canon...took it everywhere, but the zoom pack-it-in about the same time as the warranty expired.

I'm now using a small Nikon. The best thing about it is that is uses 2AA batteries. I also like the feature that tells you if an image is blurry. Personally, I find these super light, little cameras harder to hold steady than a slightly bigger model that has more to hold on to.

My daughter has a small camera with image stabilization, great feature, but it doesn't have a view finder...That might not matter to you, but I spent too many years looking through a view finder to be completely comfortable using the LCD display...

The last time I was in the market for one, I felt that the ergonomics were better on cameras built by camera makers than they were on cameras that came from business machine companies, but that may have changed by now.

Terrific report Brian!

Congratulations on a good finish under very tough conditions.

2R's

Congrat's on the PB.

Great story!

2R's

My gauge was showing 63 - 64 on Sunday

2R's

When I let my dog, Buck, out at about 6:30 on Saturday morning it was cold and rainy.

I made some breakfast, turned on the TV, and started to write a shopping list.

At 9:30 my neighbour, Mike, and his eight year old daughter, Natalie, showed up. I'm retired and Mike works from home, so during the summer, the three of us fish together 3 or 4 times a week.

They pointed out that the sky was showing some large blue patches, there was sunshine, and they claimed, the rain was finished for the day. Their truck was going "shoe shopping" with his wife and older daughter, so if I didn't want to go fishing, they had to go shoe shopping too...a fate worse than death!!!

I was a little suspicious of their weather predictions, but figured what the heck, riding in the boat is always better than riding the couch.

We decided to try Lake Chandos, 20 minutes east of my place. With the cooler weather of these past few days, we hoped that some of the big Pike might have returned to the shoals. The public launch is into a creek off #620. We hit the water around 11 o'clock and headed toward West Bay.

By one o'clock, we needed to get out of the wind for awhile. The sun was gone, we had seen a couple of sprinkles of rain and the breeze had picked up to a strong north wind that was making it feel colder. By now we had worked a couple of shoals, a point, and some docks and rocks. We had found no Pike, only a couple of Smallmouth. The docks and rocks, produced nothing...not even a Rock Bass!?!? In the open, the wind was shoving us around and it was getting pretty miserable. The little kid had stowed her rod and pulled her hands inside her sleeves, she didn't complain, but that has to be a clue than you need to find some shelter for awhile, Right? Okay, okay, my fingers were wet and pretty cold too! GRIN.

The north shore of West Bay has many small coves and inlets so we pulled into one of these, to give ourselves a break. Casting from the calmer water back to the wind blown edges of the opening produced a couple of SM. Bass, and we found two Large Mouth and some Rock Bass tucked in tight to the shoreline cover. We worked the cover over with 4 inch Wacky worms and a curly-tail Shaky worm on a Crappie jig...assuming that with the cold front the bait would have to land right on their noses to get a hit.

I might note here, that I had lost two or three bass that had gone air-born and thrown the little hook on my jig...More to the point, I had no fish in the boat and the little girl was riding me pretty good...grin.

Now that we had defrosted, we were still interested in Pike and figured we needed to fish the windy side of the lake to find them. Leaving the sheltered area we crossed West Bay. I finally broke my skunk with a 30 something Pike on a crankbait cast parallel to a wind swept point, that came off a rockpile in open water. Before the rain drove us off the water at around 3:30, we had a one more heavy bass in the boat ( three pounds?) and a couple that came off the finesse worm close to the boat.

I seemed to be suffering from what you might call "premature-release"...HAHAHA

Sunday looked like a better day. The sun was shinning and the winds were calm. Over night they had swung around to blow out of the south. Mike and Natalie came over at 8:30. Stony was today's destination and the objective was to jig the shoals for Smallies and hopefully some Walleye.

It took us 20 minutes to reach the public launch at Mt. Julian on the north shore. Once at the launch, we found the breeze had become stronger, but we were dressed warmly and with the sun shinning, the day felt quite pleasant. Although we intended to fish shoals, we started shallow, working some docks and rocks near the launch. The weeds are covered with moss, and we didn't find any fish until we tried a couple of rocks. Following that pattern, and returning to our game-plan, we moved off shore to check-out a group of rocks and the saddles between them. These mid-lake rocks were barren today.

First thing this morning I had two premature releases...again...grin.

When we moved westward, toward a big island that had a small island beside it, I replaced my Crappie jig with a slightly heavier one with a larger hook. On the edge of the saddle, between the two islands, I landed a nice Smallmouth of about two pounds. It came from between the weeds and rocks. This was on the wind-blown side, so we moved into the wind, to a location infront of the small island and dropped anchor. From this point we could cast the whole windward side effectively. We caught one more Bass and missed a couple of hits that might have been dinks.

There was another Bass boat in the area, that had come from the lea-side of the large island. Rather than circle the island, possibly fishing the waters they had just left, we opted to head toward the middle of the lake, where there was another rock pile, with a saddle to a small island with a single cottage. Again I dropped the anchor. We found four Smallies, one small LM. Bass, and a couple of good size Perch that took our baits at this location. Mike also had a premature release on a Walleye, so we stayed on that spot for quite awhile hoping he had friends...

Today it was Natalie's turn to be skunked...Aw, Sweet Revenge!...grin.

Around 2:30 we weighed anchor and let the wind push us back to the big island. On the west side, we found a sheltered area and Natalie pulled a three pounder out from beside a rock in shallow water using a watermelon/chartreuse tail Wacky worm. We caught a couple more small ones before calling it a day at 3:30. They had strict orders to be home for supper at 4PM.

Sum-up the weekend it feels like this:

The fishing was slow, but we all caught a few...so that's a positive.

The Cold Front definitely had the fish in a passive state and holding tight to cover.

Finesse techniques may have saved both days, since only two bass and the Pike hit anything else we offered.

Fall is here, some of the shallow weeds are dead...

And more Philosophically:

The moss in Stony will keep me off that lake until I hear it's gone.

It was 100 degrees in Yuma Arizona yesterday and I have a trailer there...that's still too warm, but with a 97 cent dollar and this cooler than normal weather...well, it's got me thinking...GRIN...Garry2R's

On the rocks:

Option # 1

Buy a bobber and some worms or minnows. Adjust the bobber so the bait is off the bottom...sit and wait.

Option #2

1: Go to Fishing World on Barton Street or Pro Gear on Upper Gage or Upper Ottawa (I can never remember which one it is) and buy a bag of Senko type worms...ask the guy at the store, he'll know what you want. You might like to start with 4 inch worms, but 6 inch are fine too. Try Carolina Pumpkin with a Chartreuse tail, or Watermelon with Red Flecks, or something that the store recommends. Binbrook used to be pretty muddy, if it still is, a bright colour wouldn't be out of place.

2: Buy a package of quality 3/0 wide gap hooks...If your not sure what that is, ask the guy at the store.

3: Get the guy at the store to show you how to hook the worms weedless. (AKA Tex-exposed)

4: Get him to show you how to hook them through the middle, Wacky-Worm style.

5: Cut off all swivels, split-shot etc. from your line...You don't want anything on the line except the hook and the worm.

6: Cast out and let it sink...and sink... and sink.

7: Watch your line...If it starts to move on it's own...set the hook!

8: If nothing happens, and you think you're on the bottom, lift the rod tip, twitch and crank, slowly until the bait is retrieved. Don't be afraid to stop and let the Wacky style worm sink again after a couple of twitches. On the retrieve you want the Tex-exposed worm to walk-the-dog...If your not sure what that is, ask the guy in the store to explain.

Garry2R's