Black_Blade

A couple years ago now, a buddy and I set up camp and fished for the weekend. We put in at the landing off Peninsula Road and travelled by boat north east(??)to set up camp. We didn't have any luck for walleye, but the bass fishing was pretty good. We used mostly jig worms, wacky worm rigs, drop shot and deadsticking. Few pics of some of the nice ones we got.

Would be a hoot , if he landed a lunker on one eh...lol. I use Dollarama lures without the hooks on them for the granddaughters to practice their casting and they like to watch them swim.

That would be perfect, Jedi, just have to see if can spot one in town...so far haven't seen anything like that.

Hmm, that sounds like an interesting idea

Sounds like a good outfit, you have a brand name of it? I have cruised Home Depot but haven't seen something specific for pliers. I recall seeing a fishing video and one of the guys had a sheath that held two different sizes of pliers, but even doing a google search I haven't seen anything like it, making me think it was a custom made unit.

I picked up a pair of 8" Berkley fishing pliers at walmart, but would like to keep them in a belt holster rather than searching for them amongst the rubble on the bottom of the canoe. Anyone know of a place that sells these things? Or would you need to find a person that could make you a custom sheath? Would rather one made from leather for it would last longer than them cheap fabric jobs that most knives seem to come in now, for got a perfectly good multi tool knife that sits on my dresser cuz the fabric sheath wore out!

Far as I can tell, I looked up a few lakes nearby and angler's atlas simply provides a topo map of the area, which is better than nothing I suppose, but not a water level contour map of the lakes. Adventure Maps has one of Three Mile Lake. They are pretty decent fishing maps, just need to send them a cheque or money order.

My dad had used two of those old rollers from the old wringer washers mounted on the back edge of the wooden box cap/camper he also had made. That's how it worked for him as well, since I was just a little gaffer and of no help, he just put the bow up onto them rollers and pushed it up from the stern. Might even still be able to find some of them old rollers around in a scrap metal junkyard. Could maybe slip some pipe insulation over a piece of black iron pipe or electric conduit pipe...with a rod or dowel inside that.

That's why I have a sportspal canoe at the moment, used to have a 12 foot tinny but was in the same situation you are splash...have a ford winstar and didn't have the funds for a small boat trailer, and the canoe can get into places that would be a pita even for the tinny. Still hoping to someday get a 16 footer tho for some bigger water capability and not as much cramped up leg joints...lol.

I put on of these together to wheel my 14 foot Sportspal to the water when on my own. Can't see why it wouldn't do the same for a 12 foot tinny. Once you have it placed at a good pivot point, it will roll around easy. You can use a ratchet strap to wrap all around and hold the boat tight to the cart if you will be going over a bumpy path. This cost me $40, for the two tires at CTC...had the scrap pcs of wood and 5/8" rod kicking around, so if you had to buy all the pcs...would be $60 or less. I also cobbled together a modified bike trailer, to pull my Sportspal with my bicycle. Basically just cut the regular childrens bike trailer frame in half and widened it with some sections of old bed rails to the width of the widest part of the Sportspal. I then put two pcs of 2x3 rails on the frame as bunkers (I think thats what they are called in a real trailer). I just have to fashion up a simple method to attach a section of 2x3 that I clamp to the bow of the canoe, to my seat post or parcel carrier thingy. Sorry don't have a pic of this unit yet.

Well went out this morning, had both rods set up with about two feet of the ten pound Floro leader material. My daughter was using my rod with the Crystal on it but as it turned out she didn't even get a bite. My rod had 30 pound PP on it, then the 10 pound floro leader...only had two hits and both broke off the floro leader...can't be 100 % sure it was at the knot but the second time I am pretty sure it was. Man, I sure was steaming then....put on a two foot home made wire leader then but of course no other bites. I think I am going to give up on uni knots...although they have been fine in the past, line is breaking left and right now! I wet the line before cinching it down too, so can't figger out what could be the issue other than this type of knot for some reason is just weakening the line. Didn't get out on the water till about 7 30, so sun was well up and I wasn't confident that would have much luck, so made it that much worse when the two hits you get and both snap off like that. The fish weren't monsters either...well the first one just blew up on the bait and it was gone..so not sure how big that one was, but the second, it didn't seem to be overly large by the way it fought.

Have to agree with the hype of line visibility, for really, my dad did quite well catching all kinds with the old black fishing line and early versions of mono when that came on the scene. He was no 'sportsman' either...lol, he always had at least 30 pound test on his reels which was like cable back then...all he wanted was to pull the fish into the boat, never mind giving the fish a chance!

I like using the uni knot as well, easy to do in wide range of applications. If its not the knot, then must be a poor spool of line maybe. I even peeled off a good chunk, thinking maybe might be some scuffed sections or something. Will see if using a uni uni spliced in leader line helps, was gonna grab another spool of Crystal in case its a bad batch I got, but couldn't pull the trigger on the $22 spool, when already had $30 in other 'essentials' in hand...

I will give the double loop-thru a shot, I just picked up some 10 pound floro leader material and also have a small amount of Berkley nylon coated steel leader line left, think its 20 pounds though and would defeat the low visibility of the Crystal.

I've been using a uni knot in almost every scenario...I have one spool with 10 pound Fireline Crystal and all my other spools are Power Pro (either 10 or 20 pound). All of my break offs and some have been while casting out...have been on the Fireline Crystal. Is it the uni knot that is weakening this line, for it seems to be pretty tough stuff otherwise (will slice your hand off before it will break)? I will try a length of 10 pound floro leader material on it to see if it makes any difference (use a back to back uni to join) Lost two pike that broke off at the side of the canoe this season, mind you was set up for bass, so only had a jig worm set up but last year had the same trouble where the line broke at the knot (once from a fish and twice from trying to free up from snags)

The only craft I own is a Sportspal, so I would appreciate some clarification of this above statement before going on a rant.

Of course I was on the john at the time and wondering what the heck was wrong with the plumbing....

Awesome...maybe someday you can 'pay it forward' in some fashion. WTG Davo!

After reading all the replies, I seem to gather that the main thing about the going out early is more so for the peacefulness etc. I love this also, but is the fishing any better really early? Is the angling a tad easier before the sun rises and the fish head for deeper hiding holes? I've sort of been curious about this as well over the years...

MNR has their own satellite...

I found a web site where you can order your manual...hopefully the link will work My link

Got out this morning after dropping wife off at work, about 7 30 ish, overcast, misting rain, but thought it might be good time to see if any walleye might be hanging around Delaney Bay. The wind was pretty stiff, so I drifted across in front of Average Joe's back to the loading dock area for quite some time dragging a worm harness. Got several little perch (so not skunked I guess...lol) but nothing else. Sonar was marking quite a few fish hanging around where the water dropped off from 15 to 30+ feet, but guess they didn't care for a worm breakfast. Riding into the waves to make another pass, eventually battered loose a rib in the Sportspal (need to remember to put some weight up front). I'll keep plugging away at that lake, since its in my backyard, until I get something photo-worthy

So I gather, Mike, you can use a baitcaster now...lol. Nice rods!

Really enjoyed the time on the water with you Blair and your friend Rob and look forward to heading out again sometime! We'll get 'em next time! In the meantime will be looking into some of those places you mentioned trying.

I have had a good selection of these lures for quite some time and they work really good, the company used to have a web site where you could order from. Well, it seems the web page has been taken down. Anyone hear anything about what happened to that company, last I had heard they were located in Brooklyn, Ontario...