Arcax

Hello everyone, I am headed out to Balsam Lake this weekend and wanted to try different lures/techniques. I have an open question on trolling - I know it's basically casting your line out and driving your boat back and forth but how do ensure your lure reaches depths of 10, 20 or 30 feet? Whenever I have tried it in the past, I notice the speed of the boat will cause the lure to rise up in the water. Is it a weight thing e.g. using heavier lures? Or do you need a swivel where you connect a sinker on the bottom segment and lure on the other part? Any tips for a trolling newbie? My second question is top water lures e.g. frogs -what are good times of day to use them? I am guessing either early or late day in areas around lily pads. Thanks a bunch!

Hello everyone - I wanted to give everyone a quick report as I found the OFC reports to be a great help for a newbie like myself. We were fishing the Trent-Severn waterway upstream by Georgian Bay and it was a great day for me. We hauled 9 smallmouth bass over 3 hour period on July 4 (lots of action in the morning!). We had quite a bit of luck in the various little coves along the waterway (starting from Big Chute Marina and onwards). I'm looking forward to going back and hopefully finding some pike Good luck to all!

I purchased the Lowrance X-4 portable fish finder (same as the X-4 but it has a battery pack). Being a bit rookie, the system worked quite well for me. I just stuck the transducer on the boat and turned on the power - voila temperature, depth and etc. It seemed very straightforward and easy to use. My main purpose was to use it to find underwater structure. You can adjust things like noise filtering, fish finder program and etc as well. The X-4 is around $100 which I think is a bargain.

Yep, we will have access to a boat. Just wondering between the 2 lakes and tips on them.

Hello everyone I am going to be spending the weekend near Algonquin hiking on 1 day and wanted to do some fishing around the area. I'm still a relative newbie to fishing but I have gone out much more this year (usually its just like a 1/year get-together with friends before). So I was checking out the area and saw Lake of Bays and Kawagama. I've never been to Lake of Bays or Kawagama but both seem pretty close by. I've heard Kawagama is good for lake trout but also read that trout fishing is much more involving then bass. Any thoughts on either lake and good tips? The pics of Kawagama from various cottages and sites look pretty nice. Thanks in advance.