manitoubass2

thanks guys, it truly was a blast! We also had a giant musky following us, which was awesome to see in the gin clear water! He was close to 50 for sure. We took a short break, and drifted just off our laker spot, in between two islands. In about 20 FOW, I could see my lure and ever twitch at bottom. Schools of smallmouth followed and bit on every cast. They were the smallest bass I've ever seen, but it sure was cool to be able to see everything in action! The musky followed my minnow pattern 5" Flat rap on a few occasions, then again on a Livetarget perch crank. Wish he woulda hit though! First spot of the day was also weird for me. Another lake, for walleye, again in super clear water. I watched walleye in 13 FOW, darting in and out of weedbeds, striking baits, or coming in to inspect. I'm just really used to dingy/dirty water, so this trip, all around was super fun for me. Next time I'll be better prepared. Fluoro leaders were a must. Just couldn't feel or react fast enough with mono. Once I switched over on advice from pops, I was doing alot better. Lakers strike hard man, and you had one chance at a hookset or it was gone till the next one. You have to be really focused too. Like I said, I just gotta figure out how to get out again once or twice before the season ends.

My pops used nothing but 2oz bucktails, orange/black/whiteand green he caught fish on. I caught fish on a 4" white tube with a 1.5oz weight tube hook, also on a white tube drop shotting, one on a bucktail and also a big white clackin rap. Ill check the size whwn i get home, and this was the funnest method for me. We caught active fish right at the 150 fow mark, all the way through the water column. We found alot of fish shallower but no takers anywhere from 40-120 fow. Seemed 150 was the key. Fish ranged from 2lbs to 12lbs Don't go to this lake, it sucks

Im officially hooked on laker fishing! Lol. We spent about 2 hours on one lake fishing walleye, then about 11 hours on lakers. Had two great shore lunches and landed a ton of fish. Only question now is can i get out 2 more times before the season closes???

Done, and thanks oldman. I fell horrible just typing that haha. If all else fails early and my ol man is putting fish in the boat, i might just have to eat me pride and use the bucktails. My stepmom jyst treaed us to a lovely meal, everything is packed and its time for a quick lollipop then bed. Best if luck to all of ya tomorrow and chat with ya soon!

Sorry the 8lb braid is pp moss green. And i have tons more baits/plastics then what i posted up. And thanks for the structure tips guys!!! Of course ill report back tomorrow night with my " you know what" between my legs. Hahahahaha

Thanks for the quick replies fellas! I wish i was a little more specific. We dont have downriggers, so thats not an option. Remember im in NW Ontario, so these lakes are tiny in comparison to some of your Southern Ontario lakes. I have white tubes, some spoons (doubt i can get em too deep unless the trout are suspended, which i think will be the case). My pops guides on this lake occasionally and swears by 1/2 oz bucktail jigs. But its a father son fish off lol, so pride is at stake here and he has a huge advantage haha. Now the next question, im also underpowered in the rod department. I brought a 6'3" walleye rod(cause were hitting a walleye lake first). I brought a 6'6" med heavy with a stradic ci4 and a 7ft med with a okuma avenger 30a. Here is my mistake, i forgot to ask about prefered line, d'oh! Im already at my pops getting geared up, so i threw a bunch of lines in my bag and 4 spare spools, lol. I have 8 and 12 lb nanofil, 8lb and 20lb suffix 832, 8lb trilene xl, 12lb trilene xt, 20lb suffix mono and some 14lb fluoro. Any advice on what to run? Or is this a case of too little to late, chalk one up for ol pops? Hahaha. Thanks again ofc

K, my pops just called and it looks like were heading out for some laker fishing first thing tomorrow. We're going to esox, and its about 100-120 FOW. I have very, I mean very limited experience fishing for lakers, so any help would be greatly appreciated! I would like to hear, in your experience, what types of baits/lures to use, possible structure and depths to fish etc. Should we drift, troll??? I'm totally at a loss here My ten year old has numerous lakers, please help me catch up!!! BWAHAHAHA We leave tomorrow at 5am so time to research is minimal. Thank you ever so kindly for any help, it's always appreciated! Rick

As a dood that spends alot of time in the bush, I've had alot of cool/close encounters. I've had bears charge at me (had a post about it here last year). I've had a pack of wolves spoil an ice fishing trip on the river last winter, where they actually attempted to cut us off/ambush us(that was unbelievably scary). We had drove the van to our spot, and parked up about 300 yards up on the hill. We just walked all our fishing gear down to the spot. We fished for a few hours, and as evening approached, I could hear one wolf howling about 200 yards west of us off the point. About 20 minutes later, there was now 2 wolves off the point. We had alot of gear to carry, so I told the kids we better not chance it. So we headed up with one load, I got the kids in the van and locked it up, gave my son the cell phone in case of an emergency and I headed down to grab the last load. It was now dark, and there was 3 wolves moving closure to the gear. The ol heart was racing pretty good at that point. I managed to get back up to the van and loaded the last of the gear. Just as I turned the lights on, about 15ft into the bush was 3 more wolves, and as I turned around, there was one more behind us. What a smart bunch of animals! I'm thoroughly convinced they had ambushed us! But for whatever reason, on that day, they didnt pounce??? I dont know, maybe it was just curiousity??? Up near Dryden ON, up on the 502 highway, me and my Dad were on our way portaging into a small lake, when all the sudden about 6-8 rabbits came cruising along in front of us. I though that was kinda odd??? About 5 seconds later a cougar came ripping through our path at what seemed like 200 km/h, haha. Thankfully it kept on its rabbit chase. Another time on the same road (Cedar Narrows), we were camping on a small pristine lake, and got caught in a tornado. Man was it scary to have trees falling all around us in the pitch lack, only getting small glimpses of what was occuring when lightning would flash. I though we were all goners, but thankfully, we all lived to tell the tale, uninjured at that. While doing a lease security a few years back, way up north on the B.C./Alberta border, I had been feeling the ground rumble for about 10 minutes. I was looking around at all the equipment, thinking something wasnt right? The rumbling was getting louder and louder, now the ground was vibrating pretty intensely. Only thing I could think to do was hop in my work truck and get a safe distance. Keep in mind, I'm in nomans land, at night after a fresh snowfall, so I was getting pretty paranoid. When I turned on the trick lights, I could see the glow of hundreds of eyes! I'm thinking what the hell is that??? They were running straight at me, hahahah. As the got close, I could tell they were elk or something of the like. They continued on their path straight at me, and only moved mere inches to avoid the truck as a whole pack ran by full steam, shaking the ground enough to give it earthquake status, hahaha. That really scared the snot outta me. I'm loving this thread! Some really good reads on here!

Awesome!!!! Congrats, that aint a bad day of fishing at all!

Breakky is always at 7am, on weekends. 5am on weekdays Thanks TJ! I'm really just gonna bump this to keep the pics of the food taunting members, lol

Thanks TJ! I'm really just gonna bump this to keep the pics of the food taunting members, lol Breakky is always at 7am, on weekends. 5am on weekdays

Hi, I'm Rick from Northwestern Ontario! The fishing is real good here, at least that's what I hear. I like walks on the beach, and nice margarita and movies like The Notebook. I'm just here cause I think fisherpeople are admirable folks with pretty pictures. In the future, can please post what kind of tea you drink? Cause thats really important to me!!! Thanks in advance lol, I have a sarcastic sense of humor, I love science, have a huge amount of passion for raising my 6 kids, and I'm an ex oil field Safety consultant, now working as a heavy equipment operator. I'm about to turn 33 this sept, and I joined this forum a little over 2 years ago.

Thats great to hear RC!!!! Always a blast where we live!!! A few bonus pics... BREAKFAST DONE PROPER, lol (no wonder I'm getting fat lately, haha) No he's not snagged on the rock behind him, lol. It took about 20 tried to get this shot of my oldest boy mid cast! An oldie redone

Nice fish RC!!!!! First cast fish always make the day so much better, at least for me

Well, summer has been awesome this year!!! We've had a blast, but it's been really busy with me and the girlfriend starting new jobs. I haven't had the just to be online much, so I'm saving much of my pics for an epic end of the year report, lol. But I thought I'd touch base with the members here with a short report. We woke up early today with plans to shore fish in the rapids. So after a quick breakky and checking the weather/water levels, we were off. Water is dropping and is really murky, maybe 6" visibility. Water temps dropped a good 8 degrees last night, and started around 71 at the begging of the morning, finishing around 74 early this afternoon. THe first thing the kids usually do at this spot is explore. They found a big garter snake, a whole wack of frogs, a turtle, and some really weird looking parasitic type worm (it looked really gross, no pic though) I started off by tossing a Berkley Jigger craw to some submerged rock cover, and that quickly landed us a few quick bites! Really, really small bass though. So I switched up and tried a few other baits, taking one or two bites on each bait. Again, no size to speak of, but withing the first hour were on the board with about 15 fish, so nobody is complaining . Next up, the kids all take some casts. They opted for a 1/4 oz black jig with a black/silver fleck salted grub. I thought to myself, "great choice, I love black in the muddy waters!" Right away, they get bit!!! Small but a good fighting bronzeback!!! Again, then again, then again! They all took turns cause this spot is pretty dangerous and I have to keep all the kids in line at all times. The kids landed about 3-4 fish each, but still all around 8-14" mark. My turn again, and I just decided to fish that black/silver grub for the next hour. It produces on almost every cast. Finally, I remember this submerged table rock right in the rapids, that has this overhang to it. I cast the bait and let it drift to the rock, and BOOM! Oh yeah baby, that's the type of bite I'm looking for!!! Three or four jumps later of what appears to be in the neighborhood of a 4-5lb smallie, it spits the hook. DARNIT! We monkeyed around with some other baits for the next few hours, and everything from cranks, sticks, plastics worked to produce bites. But everything was small... We sat around after and had a quick snack, then decided to call it a day. We'll head back out tonight and see how that works out. Oh yeah, we got one rare summer walleye too! It fell prey to a X-Rap popper right in the rapids! First time I've ever seen that!!! It was a hugemongous walleye too, at about 12", hahahahahaha. All in all we musta landed about 50-60 small bass. Had a few 20-25" pike, and missed about 7-8 bites. We had alot of fun and the action was constant!!! Anyhow, hope you enjoy . And I hope everyone is having a great summer with family, friends and fishing!!!

Pure awesomeness Johnny!!!! Thanks for sharing. Those are some really nice walters too!

Even thats just a normal day in our neck of the woods Limey! Hahaha, at southern Ontario ()

This

The Fergie spoons are deadly on big walleye grounds in the winter

Happy b-day bud!!!! I'll stay sober today in your honor. Hope you got out fishing today bud!!!!

I've bought alot of various Gulp! products and I've only had the melting issue once or twice. I've had them dry up on my occasionally but thats because I forgot to reseal one of the bags (I use the Gulp bag and a Ziplock). I really like a few baits, others I've tried and moved on. I really like the 2.5", 3" and 4" minnows, especially in black shad or emerald shiner. I also love the nightcrawlers for spinnerbaits/walleye fishing, then I choose either black or natural. It is funny how some people love them and others hate em For me, I choose to hate Trigger X plastics, more specifically the paddletail minnows

That looks friggin unbelievably tasty!!!! I'll take 8 of them please

Great to hear the family is doing well dood!!! Awesome pics of Jack and the fam The fishing ones are pretty decent too

It's been a very hot, dry year in this area. Typically that time of year the mornings will be very crisp, but hot in the afternoons. But with the lack of rain, I'd be prepared to fish wet, and wet/cold. The water temps are also the highest I remember, so you might actually be coming this way at the right time. Of course it can go either way, but I'm predicting a very active end of summer/early fall for all species. If ya come through Emo, drop me a pm for a quick coffee Oh, and Gussy is sitting in 3rd right now in the Fort Frances Bass Championship, if he has a good day tomorrow and gets a good kicker, I'd assume he'll still be partying it up in late August, lol

Me and my pops have always had fun using various peppers to make sauces etc. My Dad grows alot of varieties for sauces etc as well (dried habenaro in olives is awesome!!!!). Anyhow, over the years you really get used to the heat, and actually I really enjoy it. I'll spice up almost any food just to try. Last year I tried this pepper (it was fresh, not dried) and I ate a piece about the same size as a dime. The heat doesn't last as long as some other peppers (at least imo), but the first 5 minutes or so really induce panic, like omg I'm going to die type of panic. It's very hard to breath, cause as if its not hot enough, when you breath in it feels like what I'd imagine breathing in a flame feel like. I'd eat em again in a sauce for sure, just has to be the right proportion, thats all. That dime sized piece was probably about perfect for a large crockpot of spaghetti sauce. I lol'd at alot of the youtube videos, thats pretty cruel to give that to someone thats not used to the heat. If that was me, you'd be getting a beatdown in that situation