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Hello All, First post in a long time. I have a new Lund 1675 Impact full windshield, with a 90hp 4 stroke Mercury. Idle’s as low as 2 mph and as fast as 2.8 mph. Will adding the troll control feature get me down to the low 1.somethings? Will the 150 RPM drop make that much of a difference? Trying to avoid a kicker motor situation for a few personal reasons, and the trolling plate idea seems a bit amateur for a brand new boat. Any help or shared experience would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

I am begging for your best Splake fishing tips for big water in the spring....not your hot spots, just how to catch them...and thanks in advance.

Here’s a vid of how we made out on Quinte Dec 17, we had pretty good success up to dec 24 (open water).... has anyone been out since? How’s the launch conditions in Bath?... wouldn’t mind giving another ho from the boat if possible https://youtu.be/DzEzlxluugs

The St Catharines Game & Fish Association is proud to announce that the 43rd annual Spring Salmon will be running from Sat April 7 to Sat June 9 We are thankful for the support of our generous sponsors and all the participating anglers over the years which has allowed us to keep this event running and to offer the prize structure that we have. Back again, is the Early Bird Draw; purchase your Spring tickets by Mon March 26 and you will be eligible to win a Scotty HP 2116 Downrigger! (Cutoff is 5pm for online sales and at Peters & Grimsby Tackle) Tickets will be sold up until the time of draw at our March General Meeting, on Mon March 26 We will also be having an early bird draw for a free 2018 Lunch Ramp Pass in Port Dalhousie. Everyone who purchases a 2018 SCGFA Membership by March 26 will qualify. We have also expanded the Junior Division; there will now be 3placings, for all 4 species! While we are at it we are also pleased to announce that our Summer Derby will also be back from Sat June 16 to Sat Sept 15. Yes we have decided to combine our Summer & Fall derbies into one, and to offer the exact same prize structure as in the Spring! For all of the guides and charter boats who purchase boat tickets for our derbies, we will be adding a listing section on our website to link to your websites and/or social media pages. There is no additional charge for this and you will be added to it shortly after your purchase is complete. Please contact us if you are not listed and should be. We appreciate your support! Finally all those who purchase Spring & Summer derby tickets will again eligible to win an additional Scotty HP 2116 Downrigger, which will be drawn at our Derby Awards Night on Fri Sept 28 Our ticket Prices have not changed with the exception of a $1 surcharge added to online purchases. We do encourage participants to purchase tickets from your local outlet if possible. Tickets & Memberships can be purchased online here: https://scgfa.ca/event/spring-derby/ For online purchases please print your invoice, that will serve as your ticket. Your transaction ID # is your ticket number to enter at the time of weigh-in Please join us Mon March 26 at The Rib Crib & Smoke Shop (106 Lakeport Road, St Catharines) at 7pm for our next General meeting. We are excited to have Joscelyn Leung from Angling Outfitters as our guest speaker. He will be sharing his knowledge of marine electronics and also what’s new, as well as making sure you are getting the most out of your units. All are welcome!

I had a chance to take out a couple of friends Tony and Glen to Lake Erie for walleye recently. We hadn’t fished Lake Erie for walleye in years, so some preparations were in order. Tony headed over to my place one evening for a beer and to help rig our gear. It helped a lot, thanks Tony! After tying up 14 worm harnesses, spooling 30lb Sufix braid on 4 walleye sized Hydros and RSCII reels, making leaders and getting the dusty walleye gear out, we were all set. I ended up making up some custom Colorado blades painted and taped up, and my son helped me tie up another 6 worm harnesses the following day. We enjoy our time together doing ‘arts and crafts’ LOL. We left early so that we could get out for first light and shake off the walleye rust with our set-up. We also had a major storm a couple days earlier and a cold front. We got set up with 4 small sized 000 Dipsy Divers on a 0 setting and worm harnesses, and ran them from 90- to 220 back and clipped on in-line planer boards. It’s a good thing the walleye line counter reels hold over 1000-feet of 30lb braid, as we had almost 500-feet out after the in-line boards were deployed. We rounded out our set-up with two large sized 001 Dipsy Divers right off the boat on a 2.5 to 3 setting with worm harnesses. We started in 65-feet of water with some tips from a couple friends I spoke with and headed deeper. We didn’t get into much and had to go into search mode. We started switching up colours and trying spoons and stick baits as well, even though the eastern basin of Lake Erie is predominantly a worm harness bite. After a while we got into a few walleye and marked some waypoints. We found a good group of walleye schooled up in one tight area, and ended up working the 4 waypoints hard by late morning. The weather was great, the waves were perfect and we were catching walleye and having a great time. We had to watch the rod tips carefully, as the white bass were hitting and tougher to tell a fish was on the line. The deeper Dipsys off the in-line boards did well 225- to 250-feet back, and the big size 001 Dipsys off the boat did well 140- to 170-feet back on a 2.5 and 3 setting. It was a good thing I spent more time tying up more custom harnesses with my son, as the white/yellow/green black dot harnesses were working well. We did get some on watermelon and blue and white as well as a few others. Stick baits took a couple bites, but harnesses were best. We tied up the worm harnesses with 30lb fluorocarbon approximately 24” in length. The reason I prefer 30lb fluorocarbon is that the clevises turn on the fluorocarbon causing a weak point over time, and 30lb Sufix is a perfect solution to help prevent break-offs over lighter line. We also ran a 7-foot fluorocarbon leader in 15lb test from the Dipsy Divers to the worm harness or stick bait and spoon on all Dipsys. We found the walleye suspended in the water column from 35- to 65-feet down over 65- to 75 feet of water. Our speed seemed best at roughly 2.6mph. We got into a bunch of walleye, white bass and even a steelhead. We all got to take home some fresh walleye and had a blast out fishing! Good fishing! Aaron

We had a great evening on August 8. We didn't head out and start trolling until about 6:30pm, however we got onto the fish right away. Having several hit within 30 seconds of each other! Check out the vid. *foul language warning

Hello, It's been years since I've posted but I have remained a loyal lurker, checking the board almost daily and getting lots of valuable info. Now I have a question that I hope I can get some help with. I fish almost exclusievley on Sturgeon Lake, where I have a trailer, and I generally troll worm harnesses for walleyes. I have a 16 foot aluminum side console (older) with a 35hp Merc (also older). The motor runs great but I can't get it to troll down slow enough. I have tried drift socks and 5 gallon pails, but they don't help enough. A friend suggested a trolling plate like this one http://www.basspro.com/Happy-Troller/product/16089/ Has anyone had any experience with one of these that they could share with me? Is it worth the money? How about ease of installation and reliability? Appreciate any feedback I could get. Thanks,

Hey everyone, I thought I would put up a little bit of a report from my summer in BC so far. I am working at a fishing lodge and of course have been fishing throughout my time here as well. I have experienced some pretty great fishing and the wildlife and scenery isn't too shabby either. I will let the pics and videos do the talking. Exploring/ Beachcombing some of the nearby islands Went on a staff fishing trip one day out in the Grady White. Salmon fishing was on! Big ugly lingcod Bald Eagle that hangs around the dock some days Bald Eagles are pretty damn big. Here is a link to a video I shot on my go pro of the local bald eagles eating some carcasses we dumped on the rocks: Floating down a river near the lodge fishing for cutthroat along the way Went out fishing for Albacore tuna one day.. pretty wild. My buddy looking for signs of Tuna. The result: Here is a link to another video shot on the GoPro of a huge ocean sunfish we spotted while tuna fishing: And finally a lake that I fish that is full of small cutthroats ready to take a fly. Requires a pretty good hike in and then you have to paddle around in a little skiff that leaks. Hope you enjoyed the pics and videos. DS

I had the pleasure of having Greg Klatt and his son Mitch out on Lake Ontario yesterday. It was a beautiful day out to enjoy some trolling. Mitch had never caught a salmon before, so my goal was to get him into a nice king or two. We started in 50 fow and marked very little until we got into 75 fow, but not much to hold us there. We ended up in 150 fow quickly, as the picture on the sonar looked best. We got a lake trout right away down deep on a Coyote flasher and fly off the rigger 140 feet down. I believe Greg has that photo. We then got another hit shortly after. This time it was a king down deep on the same set-up and same depth and Greg got to tangle with it. It got slow after that as we got out a bit late for Lake Ontario kings, but we kept at it and got rewarded. We got several cohos up higher, but I don't think we got any or many photos of them. If we did, Greg has those as well. We marked a lot of hooks 40 to 80 feet down over the deeper water, but for some reason they had lock jaw. The bait balls were deep hugging bottom but very few hooks down deep. Even though the picture looked good, we moved shallower as we were not hitting kings. When we got into about 83 fow we marked some great bait balls, and not all hugging bottom. Shortly after trolling by this bait ball, the 300 copper reel starting singing as the in-line board got rocked back. This time an SD fly did the trick and Mitch boated his first ever king! Mitch was happy with this bad boy We got into some more cohos without photos, then we had to take a photo of Greg and this fish. It also hit the same set-up off 300 copper. I was so busy on the boat, I didn't notice it was such a nice bow until I saw the photo lol. The same copper set-up fired again with a crazy king cart-wheeling far behind the boat taking Mitch to task. It proved to get the better of him though as he did a long-line release lol. Unfortunately, we only got another coho after that to wrap it up off a 400 copper in over 100 fow. We called it a day late afternoon. We didn't tag a lot of kings, but we had some fun on the water with some cohos and a nice bow to keep our interest. I was a pleasure to have the guys out for something they don't normally get to do. Great company on the boat, and I'm sure Mitch was happy to boat the biggest king. It was a nice first king We found white and black green to be our best colours. All flashers and flies. Spoons and meat didn't fire once. The fish seem to be really scattered in the west end of the lake. Hopefully that changes soon and we light them up! Hopefully Greg has a few photos to add. Good fishing! Aaron

I'm a total nut for flipping and dunking jigs in the thickest weed I can find find that a variety of fish live where you can hardly get a lure