Black_Blade

Wife is a picky fish eater and also likes bass.

all I've ever been able to catch have been bass, with the odd pike here and there, and have never minded the taste of either species of bass. Fish Crisp is darn good stuff!

thanks Irish, will try there tomorrow morning...worm harness should be good bet eh?

The rain finally slowed enough to venture over to the bridge but other than few nibblers stealing my worms, had no luck. Kids playing around and pitching in stones probably didn't help either...lol.

Nice post, now thats the kind of fishing I'd like to get into...getting back into those seldom fished lakes. Nice fish too!

ahh ok, no surprise then it was quiet fishing from shore then. Yeah took a pic of lake with my phone, always on the lookout for a new desktop pic If had the money, that location (Scandia Inn) has so much potential, with all the traffic hwy 11 sees...

On the way back from working in Timmins, my helper and I pulled off at a few likely looking spots to throw a line in. One of the stops was at James Lake. We had picked up a dozen worms and had a few hooks, pretty basic just to see if we could get a bite. We pulled into the old Scandia Inn and walked down the the lake. Sure looked good with lots of minnows swimming around...good sized ones too. Didn't get any bites with our hook and worm under a bobber tho. Does anyone know what kind of fish swims in this lake by the highway?

Sorry to hear about your grandpa, Blair, but wow lived a good long life eh. Reminds me of my dad and what he passed on to me. That idea of putting graphics on your boat is a good one!

Some of our best camping trips with the kids was at Silver Lake, nice little PP, a lake with some good fishing and decent swimming area too. My profile pic is taken there! My sons friend, Mike The Bass Fisherman on the board here can tell you there are some decent sized bass in the lake. Well there were until he got there that is.. Caught a few pike trolling the weed edges out from the point of land at the park.

So far I have had 2 Humminbird PiranhaMax 20's and have had no troubles other than those of my own making. I mounted the transducer on a piece of wood that I could then clamp on to the canoe or whatever I needed. I had a 12 volt gell cell originally meant for a kids riding toy, but is small and the main unit and battery fits perfect into an old insulated lunch bag I have. I have broken the tranducer mount a few times but managed to mcgyver it back together and work ok. They show basic info but really the essential info really. Going to be snagging a nicer unit shortly with some more bells and whistles, but again these basic units get the job done.

I am trying to locate some online source for some owners manuals that feature these various features, so to get an idea of what they do...like what all the difference is there between auto pilot and i-pilot for instance. Found a pdf for an i-pilot manual, but no luck finding auto pilot as yet. With auto pilot, do you set a certain depth and the motor then follows the contour of the bottom that corresponds to this setting? Definitely going with the built in transducer, pretty sure there is an adapter to be able to attach it to my old Piranha Max 20.

Been looking at trolling motors and thinking I like the Minn Kota Powerdrive v2, my question is with all the various options for them, which to get? Is that i-pilot feature any good as opposed to the auto pilot? I have a spare Humminbird Piranha unit, so was thinking to get the universal sonar feature and plug it in to that unit. Any thoughts and/or suggestions welcome!

yes, that is a good point, but does the fact that you can't get cellular coverage affect whether it can connect to the gps signals? I have the option to turn on gps reception...

I recently upgraded to the Xperia Arc and noticed there is a Navionics app for it. Lots of lakes, but just wondered if anyone has tried this app and if so how good is it. It is $13 for the app, so its not a major investment lost if its not any good, but thought I'd throw it out there and see if there is any feedback about it.

I got the pontoon plans from pontoon plans , don't see why plywood would be all that bad..many boats are made from it. I'd also be totally encasing it with fiberglass as well. Now as far as the technical stuff of figuring out how much weight a set of toons can support...not really clear on that.

I found some basic plans online to make your own pontoons using 3/8" plywood and building them on a jig. It don't look all that difficult and wife has been wanting a 'toon. If I made one though it would be the type that is enclosed, so can spent the night on the water. A camper on pontoons kind of thing. Has anyone ever tried their hand at a project like this? I was thinking to use metal stud framing for the cabin etc to lessen the weight. Can make them from scraps and off cuts from the sheets of metal at work.

Oh I know all about the home made pea soup with the ham bones, home made baked beans...my dad didn't like the saucy kind, it was all layers of beans with layers of salt pork strips, more beans and top layer was thick sliced bacon...then baked up. Haven't had a decent piece of home made bread for long time...lost art in our family now, sure wish would have paid more attention to when mom used to do it.

Not knowing what a jigs dinner was, google came to the rescue again...lol. It reminds me the boiled dinners my mom used to make as a kid (not quite the same tho), it was always made on the big washing days when sheets and stuff were done. Bunch of different vegetables thrown into pot with either pork hocks or a smoked pork shoulder. Still recall belly aching about it as a kid, but as grew older we then used to beg mom to make one....lol.

I am an avid google user...lol, just thought it might be cool to have our own section where members can post up there own recipes and maybe some pics. Our own community kitchen per se...Heck, I don't even know if it is easy or difficult to modify a forum to do that. Was just throwing the idea out there.

Thought I would try out making a poll, after reading some posts of suggested recipes from a recent thread. Having a separate section where we can contribute recipes and maybe even some action photos of the cooking (shore lunches or bbqing etc)

Do you have an electric on her as well? Sportspals are great but I find it tough to manuever them by paddle while juggling fishing rods.

Now if they made an app for those smartphones that everybody seems to be getting these days, that might be an idea. Or I could build a cabin midships on the sportspal

Being bored I googled turning laptop into a fishfinder or some such phrase and found this awesome little outfit. Fishfinder for pc Now I can really pimp out the Sportspal

I have a 1974 4 hp Johnson Seahorse on the back of my 14' Sportspal and it really is a great combination. I used to have the larger gas can (from Canadian Tire) but have since downsized to half that size, for I found it took too long to go through gas. (Yeah I know...not fishing enough ) Have never used a motor on a side mount configuration, but as far as stability, Sportspals are the most stable of canoes, so at least you have that in your favour. I was actually considering an electric attached to the bow to creep along shorelines more quietly than the gas outboard, controlling it from the stern with the foot control. (I can't paddle the sportspal worth a heck, especially on my own)

Sounds like something you would experience if Canadian Tire opened up a marine service bay...