Raycaster

Thanks guys for all the replies, looks like we'll have a great time! So harnesses are the way to go? Might have to go load up, been using the spinners chasing the pike for years.

Thanks! You just happen to be flying by when you saw my post?

Thank you for all the replies and pms concerning an upcoming trip 1st week of June. There were restrictions put on distance so a lot of referrals are being kept for another time. We are scheduled for the first week of June at The Woodland Echo Resorts with Ahmic and Cecebe lakes are targets I believe. Just wondering if anyone has a "head's Up" for the location and what we can look forward to. No, don't want the honey spots, just info on what to expect and tackle to pack! Thx gang.

Ah... not to sound too picky but aren't the bugs in NorthBay brutal at the start of June? Damn... doesn't matter how I write the above sentence... I sound picky!

Not sure if the guys are up to a 2 day trip hauling a boat! Truth is... not sure the wives would allow it 8)

Thx for the replies guys! Didn't know that about Buckhorn... Last fall we were up in Buckhorn with not much luck but I had what I thought was a average size pike follow my bait to the boat and then run. Your saying it was probably a muskie? Googling manitouwabing right now... BTW, I'm not afraid of suggestions of lakes with weeds like Cache Bay. Had a lot of luck there, just nothing big.

My fishing buddies are looking for a weekend location for the first week of June. We are looking for pike and have hit Cache Bay a few times plus West Arm Nippising and Brit. Had good luck at all the locations but wondering if we're missing a hot spot for early June. By hot spot I mean different lake etc.. of course. Buckhorn is mainly bass right? Too early? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guy!

As we were renting an extra boat we had to wait till 9am to get out... Water Temp 55-56... Since we had the smaller rental we actually lifted the 9.9 and rowed into some tight spots hoping the "Pro Boats" had stayed away not wanting to scratch any of their metallic paint 8). Disappointed but the area is just too perfect not to try again. Didn't get down to Deer Bay, maybe next year.

Spent Sunday on Lower Buckhorn with the brother-In-Laws trying to sneak in one last fishing day. 1st time in the area and quickly had a huge grin on my face viewing some areas with 12ft of water, abundant weeds and cover - obvious big game territory. Reminded me of Cache Bay on steroids! Can't say enough about the area, and boy it was busy with atleast 2-3 visible boats wherever we went. We hit it with everything and looked promising as we had 2 healthy fish follow the lures to the boat within minutes. Results: A single 13" small mouth for 2 boats and almost 7 hours... Not a great way to end the year but I defineatly want to get back next year early!

The family is "stealing" one last weekend by renting a cottage on Sandy Lake. This isn't really a fishing trip but the guys will get out every chance possible. We'll probably play on Sandy Lake for awhile but try to get a full day over at Lower Buckhorn. Any advice is sure welcome as it's a first time for all of us at this location. Last year we rented in Brit and out of shear luck landed a couple big pike so hopefully luck will return. Snowed on us too..

I don't want to jack the thread but in the same theme are there boat rentals available at Buckhorn. For Thanksgiving we will be renting on Sandy Lake and have been told (here) that Buckhorn is the best option for fishing the area. 6 weeks and counting...

Thanks for the replies guys, that site was great. I felt bad buying the 160 after so many people suggested others but the wallet won the decision. The 160 was easy to setup and the battery was already charged. The suction cup that I worried about is exactly like many said... impossible to get off without a good set of nails or credit card. The fishfinders fish alert sure brings optimism even after hours of not even a nibble. The depth information and bottom information is pretty sweet. If scugog does time find for a video it would probably help us newbies a ton. Being able to combine the readout with sound fishing techniques and overall fishing knowledge definitely would raise the success level. I was pretty excited when I started marking fish until I noticed them at 23 ft. I was giggling with my new toy and then sat up in the boat and said to myself "How the hell do I get a fish 23ft down?" I'm a simple 10-15ft of water fisherman looking for weeds... 23ft is a whole new story but excited to learn! Again thx guys for letting the newbies like myself post questions that have probably been asked a 1000 times already, its really appreciated.

I posted about a month ago concerning portable fishfinders and recently ended up purchasing a Humminbird 160. I really appreciated all the forum input but this unit was my wallet limit. It installed easy and seems to work great. I read the instructions a few times and googled some sites for more insight reading the display but was hoping for more. A few questions: I understand the cone of sonar but if the display is showing fish where do they correspond in relation to the boat? Are they coming from left to right, back to front, or did we just pass over them directly? Or is this a cone representation with just general cone location? If anyone can point me to some vid tutorials etc. I'd appreciate it.

Can I be total newbie and ask what you would use for the salmon and lakers? I'm a pike/bass guy with zero experience over 30ft of water.

This is a kinda after the fact question but thought I'd ask if I'm ever in the area again. Just spent a week in Penetangushine Bay in the town of Tiny. It was really a "non-fishing" week but the rental included a row boat with oars. I also just picked up a portable fishfinder Humminbird 160 (all the wallet would allow) so I thought I'd sneak out a few times to play with it. Our rental cottage faced probably 200 yards of sandbar with 3 feet of water! Then within 10 feet there is a 30 ft drop off till 90 in the middle. On very calm days I rowed out across the channel ( desperate fisher but not too smart) and tried some fishing. Problems: No idea whats down there, and when fish are marking after the drop at 28ft how do I get them? I anchored just at the drop with some vegetation showing and used everything in my tackle box. I mainly used spinners/single prop and even tried jigging with some grub/worm lures. On the last day I saw some fishing boats anchored just where I was so I suppose the area was ok. Talking with the fishermen I was told that small mouth are known in the area and it looked like they were using small spinners and minnow lures. I ventured ( I mentioned not too smart ) over the gap between the islands Gin Island and saw a boat trolling and bring up a decent pike but I was not as lucky. I think all the fish were too busy laughing at my boat and oars. Any suggestions when faced with cliff drop off and best techniques for the area?

The wife is scouting a thanksgiving location for a weekend rental for the relatives and although fishing is a low priority for her I usually have a say in how "nice" the pictures look of the cottage... Last year our family's rented a cottage for thanksgiving in Brit and we ended up catching a few big boy pikes in 30 minutes. Ready for an awesome weekend we failed to register a nimble after that but the pics of the big catch made up for it! Anyways, the wife is tilting towards this new "Sandy Lake" location and as you can imagine typing SANDY LAKE in the search option provides too much info. The cottage's website like may say "great fishing" but I thought I'd ask the guys that know... this forum.

LEW, heads up. Don't worry about the Meteor Showers, go get the lunker we missed a few weeks ago around Pine Creek! All we caught were baby pikes and a 26" but a VERY big boy came up to the boat in 4' of water...It sat beside the boat and stared at every lure and figure 8 we could show it. It got bored and went right over to our other boat to tease them too. Couldn't believe 2 separate boats saw it over 50 feet apart...

Awesome pics showing the portability of the units. Would it be a hassle or tough to constantly change the suction cup on rental boats? I could really see the extended pole get tangled up on weeds quickly.

Thats the one I had my eye on. Never owned a Fishfinder before but was always wondering how they would do in weeded areas as well. I don't mind fishing in "Cabbage Soup" like Cache Bay etc. but worry the weeds would cause havoc on the sensors. Depth and rock formation isn't really needed in Cache Bay as it's basically visible. Scugog... always wanted to visit.

thx for all the replies guys, I'm sold. Now just price/pole/suction cup decisions! There was a comment poles aren't as good? Isn't the side sonar feature worth it? Not sure how the suction cups works, possibilities of it falling off? Again thx for effort guys.

I just received a few gift cards for Pr@Bass S@ops and was wondering what to purchase. Just came back from a fishing trip and already stocked the tackle box and basically have a new rod and reel from last year. I get out 3 - 5 times a year for holidays or fishing trips with the brother-In-Laws usually hitting Nippising, Cameron Lake, etc. We end up renting an extra boat (14' - 16' alum) as the relatives boat is more leisure craft and small for fishing. He has a fish finder in the boat and was wondering about picking one up for our rentals. Anyone have experience with portable fishfinders? I see a couple on their web site that basically mount on the back and a pole telescopes down with the sensor. The prices are $129 and up and well I might as well use the GCs before I lose them! I read they are not good for speed but I'm not a trolling type of guy. I love sitting in 10-15 FOW and using the spinners looking for pike/bass. Suggestions would be welcome.

Nuke, I was wondering about Cache Bay and how its doing. Has the low water level effected the weed/marsh growth? Last year we were in Verner and really only ventured half way into Cache Bay because the boat prop was having a brutal time mowing thru. Also met a few rocks off the sister islands that also were unkind to the prop! After reading my original post I hope no one thinks I was complaining about the area specifically. In defence of the West Arm we really didn't know the area and even with the maps were kinda blind out there. I failed to mention (embarrassed) that Saturday I had a beast over 50" follow my spinner to the boat and laugh at us for awhile. That wasn't enough as it decided to head straight to our other boat 40' away to taunt them also! The West Arm was nice but probably back to Verner next year.

Our yearly trip to Nippising took us to the West Arm for the 1st time last weekend and the 3 brother-In-Laws and myself were ready for battle. Arrived Friday afternoon and fished till dark in 2 separate boats without a single nibble. The past years we have always done well reaching our limit or atleast approaching it every day. Our past trips have been spent around Cache Bay fighting the soup but it was always worth it. The West Arm area was more open and given a map with the "spots" we tackled them all. Saturday basically went the same way until we ventured over to the Pine Creek area I believe. We slowly started catching up to some pike but they were all babies under 15". A little disappointing but a start... After a lunch break we were back out in the same area with the same results but also found a healthy 25" pike and a few decent bass. Sunday was the same again and we packed up around 2pm as a vote wasn't really needed to decide to leave early. Fishing Math: 2 Boats @ 2 intermediate fisherman X 30 plus hours = 1 pike and 2 Bass A know it's never a guarantee but probably won't head back to that section although even with narrow boat channels it was a lot safer than Nippising's rocks. I'm sure lot's have had great success there but the 4 of us are still in shock from the poor results!

Not sure on the Muskie but riding the edges of the marshes with white spinners is usually successful. Pol glasses are recommended, 15ft casts in and out of weeds with a watchfull figure 8 at the end has proven very productive in the area.

Thx for the replies guys... Will be staying at the WestArm Lodge for the weekend hoping for good weather. We've been at the lake yearly for awhile now but never in the West Arm. As mentioned we made our way thru the cabbage soup in Cache Bay and had pretty good luck with the pike. Don't really know what to expect in the West Arm waters but sounds like it should be fun and a year off from Cache Bay soup might be nice. Gonna need Air Boats for Cache Bay soon as untangling the prop every 5 minutes is a little tiring but like they say "Any day fishing is better than"... If anyone wants to pass a few holes to this West Arm newbie it would be much appreciated.