Jigs

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a 4 stroke kicker for my boat. It's a Lund 1625 (16') and weighs about 1200lbs with the main motor. I don't really have much experience with kickers and smaller engines so I'm not quite sure what HP I should target. I am trying to go as low as possible to keep the weight/price low but without compromising performance.

Something I need to keep in mind is I fish mainly in the St. Lawrence, in current, sometimes fairly strong, and I want to be able to troll fast enough against the flow without being in the red.

Just wondering if someone has had experience with a similar setup and has some advice to share. Many thanks.

I can't believe you guys went out in that weather. Lake looked nasty!

I got this girl up there a few weeks ago. We hammered little walleyes there and got 4-5 big ones. I absolutely love that area. Wish I could go back again this summer.. Have fun!

Hey Jigs !! I was wonderin what happened to ya. I did well for Musky with Mike on Friday too.Like he says...Fish like weather!!Hopefully the bite will still be on for Saturday for walleye.

 

Good to see ya again.

 

Paul

Thanks Paul, good to see you again too. I've had a frustrating early part of the season. Let's just say I went through two outboards lol. So I've had to lay low for a while. All good now though.

I heard you guys did well on Friday. Just took a look at that post now. Wow! 4 muskies in a night is never a bad thing.

Yeah the weather was perfect, it was just windy enough (I hate the dead calm days) and not too windy. Humid, warm, full moon etc. It was beautiful out there.

Hey guys, long time no see Mike! Good job with the laker pic Skipper

Congrats on the fishing day, having had the pleasure of fishing with him a couple times I can testify that Mike definitely knows what he's doing.

I don't know if it was the full moon or blue moon or what but the fish were on this weekend for me as well. I drifted tubes on Saturday morning and we got something like 12 bass and a walleye, and went out that evening and also the night before and got 7-10 walleyes each night plus a few bonus smallies. Got bit off by a big sky right at the boat on Friday night too. No big walleyes though like I was getting last year at this time (I mean over 5) but steady action. Hopefully this keeps up!

It's about time! I've been fighting to get 2-3 fish in a day all year.

By the way, forgot to mention. I caught this thing on a drop shot. Never seen one before. Mike I sent the pic to your bro and he said you guys get them sometimes? I heard they are called Fall Fish. Anyway, thought it was kinda neat.

Hey Mike, that was fun indeed even though you outfished me 3 to 1

Always fun to discover new spots real close to home and it was great to get my first ice eye!

Nice work guys. Had a rough go with the walleyes this weekend personally. Got a few but spent a lot of fishless time out there. Glad someone did well!

Awesome report. Mike, great job man.

You guys are brave. I had waves crash 10 feet on shore at my place this weekend. Must have been lonely out on the lake!

Lake St. Francis is looking might angry too. Kept me off the water today.

I gotta say that's an amazing looking salad. Making me hungry!

Those are some of the fattest smallies I've ever seen. They're almost funny looking lol.

Awesome stuff!

Awesome fish how fast do you troll the slowest I can go is 3.5 or 4 km is that to fast.

Yeah you want to slow it down more than that at this time of year. Try shifting in and out of neutral.

Awesome fish Andre !!!Save a couple for me.I'll be heading up that with with Mike and my brother in a couple weeks.Maybe see you on the water too

 

Paul

 

 

Thanks Paul!

They're all still there I put 'em back! They'll just keep getting fatter now.

Hope you guys get nice weather (and big fish, but I'm sure you will). A lot of people put their boats away it was like vacationing up north this weekend out there. Should be even better in a few weeks. Just beautiful. See you out there!

Yeah it seemed to happen a lot. More than in the summer. It's especially frustrating when you know there's a good chance that fish is 3-4-5+.

I tried a bit of both. The jigging worked better in the middle of the day a bit deeper and when that tapered I trolled again up higher. The bigger ones were on the troll.

Really had to slow down to a crawl though. And had a lot of fish hit but not stick.

Hey guys,

I got out on Saturday and yesterday and the fishing was absolutely amazing. Not only was the weather July-esque but the fish were on both in numbers and size. We caught a number of fish and most were above 3lbs, with a few beasts in between.

A bit slower yesterday but things picked up nicely around 5pm.

Thought I'd share a few pics this morning. Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend!

All fish were released.

This was one of the smaller fish. I almost kept it for dinner but didn't feel like filleting.

And last but not least...

The big one from last night. 8.4lbs on the Rapala digital scale.

I had a couple oops too this weekend but they didn't end so well. I got bit off twice! Hey he didn't have my lures did he by any chance?

Nice fish!

Great job man...

 

That fish has a big head and thick shoulders...

Yeah it was pretty freakish looking. Kind of thin still along the tail though I hope I catch her again in November.

Interesting and often overlooked topic. I'm not going to tell anybody which fish to take pictures of and which fish not to, because a 5lbs fish for someone can mean a lot while for someone else who gets to fish more not so much. But I will always promote quick handling. And personally I like knowing how much a fish weighs it's something I enjoy keeping track of.

If you ask me the real culprits here are fishing tournaments. I can't prove this but I know in this area they've been very popular and numerous for smallmouth bass and I'm seeing fewer bass in spots where they were all over the place before. Is it related? I don't know. But my personal opinion is that tournaments kill a lot of fish.

The average guy who is careful and takes a lot of pics and vids (like myself for example) I don't think is doing nearly as much harm as tournament guys who keep fish in a livewell all day, subject them to a weigh-in and release them in 3 feet of water when they came out of much deeper.

Anyway, with that said, I'm surprised nobody mentioned using the net or other tool to weigh a fish instead of hanging it by the gills on the scale. Personally I use one of those new recyclable grocery bags, wet it and have everything handy. Here's a vid I made about weighing fish last year. Two things I do different when I'm not shooting a video. 1. I wet the inside of the bag first. 2. I release the fish straight from the bag into the water.

the fish goes in the net, straight into the running livewell. I've seen fish cut themselves thrashing around a livewell and this stops them from doing that. So the only time I actually touch the fish is when I grab it from the livewell into the bag. The water in the livewell is always running and filled before I catch a fish. I know this works because when the fish is in the running livewell for a few minutes it comes out completely energized and usually bolts back home like a bat out of hell.

Hey guys, just thought I'd share a few pics from Saturday. I haven't been able to get out too much in the last few weeks with a faulty coil for one of my cylinders on the old Optimax but it's all fixed now. I was able to get out for a few hours on Saturday afternoon here. It was pretty much dead calm, there was a frost warning just north of us on the Friday night and I was only able to get out at around 12:30 until 4pm or so. Soooo, I thought I'd be lucky to catch any fish but much to my surprise (and happiness) I was wrong. I had pretty much my best day out this year with 7 fish in the boat and one of my biggest fish ever and my best this year. The big one was 28.5 inches. Didn't weigh her but I'm guessing around 8lbs. Just a massive head on her, looked like she could swallow a 12oz perch in one gulp. Great fun. The other fish were all about the same size (about 2-3lbs) with one other bigger one probably around 4. Just goes to show those walters can surprise you sometimes.

Sorry about the overexposure in the first pic I only realized it after I let the fish go. I was alone so I had to use the timer on the camera. Rookie move. I was going to try and sell that I went for an artistic look in that pic but it just looks like crap. lol. You get the idea anyway. Enjoy!

Great stuff guys! I was out of commission there for a couple weeks with engine problems but finally got back out there. The fish were on fire Saturday! Got a hog myself. A bit thin but long. 28.5 inches. I'll get some pics up soon. I was worried about the cold nights but looks like they woke them up!

RIP Wade. Sad that depression has the stygma that it has. From what I have heard and seen, athletes will have a higher occurance of this than the general population. It has something to do with being the best at what they do (he may have not been the best hockey player...but how many of us were in the NHL) and then wake up and it is all gone.

 

I feel for his children and his wife.

Could very well be. This is a quote from Ken Dryden's book about it. Sad story and a rough summer for hockey.

"If it is true that a sports career prolongs adolescence, it is also true that when that career ends, it deposits a player into premature middle age....His illusions about himself, fuelled by a public life, sent soaring then crashing, have disappeared just as those of his contemporaries have come to full bloom."

Damn. Nice fish Mike!

Nice fish.

Really cool shots. I like the use of the extension on the very first pic. Looks awesome. It kind of looks like you're using the GoPro because of the wide angle lens but the quality is really good. Better than what you'd get with the GoPro so I kind of doubt that's the camera.

Were you pre-fishing for the Renegade Classic by any chance? That water looks mighty familiar and I saw a bunch of bass guys out yesterday.