Wacky rigging a Senko style bait is a great technique for both largemouth and smallmouth bass. While I still have a lot to learn about the nuances of this technique the one thing I have learned is that if the fish are biting you can go though a lot of…
A recent video from James Holst and Jon Marshall on In Depth Outdoors TV got me thinking about general seasonal timing as it relates to ice fishing. In the video Holst talks about how walleye fishing tends to slow down mid-winter and perch seem to turn on later in the…
This summer my son, Owen, and I had the great pleasure of spending a week at Ken and Bev Byberg’s Island 10 Fishing Retreat on Lady Evelyn Lake, in northern Ontario. This boat in or fly in 10 cottage island resort has access to a large area of water including…
A recent tournament experience showed me that it was high time to replace my 13 year old Humminbird 400TX depth finder on my boat. This was a fairly high end unit when it was new and it has performed solidly over the years. I plan to either turn it into…
My son, an avid pike fisherman, turned me onto an interesting tidbit about information to be gained from the position of the hook in caught fish. Pike apparently prefer to ambush prey from the side and so tend have the hook embedded in the side of their mouths. When they…
I recently built a Secchi disk (see link for instructions) for water clarity measurements. A Secchi disk has four quadrants painted black and white and is 20 cm (freshwater model) in diameter. The disk is lowered into the water using a line marked in feet or meters and the point…
I recently purchased a new Shimano Spirex 2500FG. I’d still be using my old Spirex 2000FD which has served me very well for about 8-9 years now expect I had a slight mishap recently in rough water and bent the handle (full disclosure – I sat on it – bummer).…
Great fishing trips can still be great even if the fish aren’t in a co-operative mode. This was the case this year as we hit Balsam Lake (Kawartha Lakes, Ontario) for spring walleye fishing that unfortunately happened to coincide with that inopportune post-spawn transition time. While walleye fishing was slow,…
Whenever I take the short trip from my home here in London to various spots on the Thames River, Ontario, I always bring along a variety of baits and lures. Invariably I end up fishing, a least for a short period of time, for something other than what I had…
It was tough fishing this past weekend (May 3rd and 4th) on a recent trip for channel catfish on the Grand River out of Dunnville, Ontario. Recent heavy and continuing rains and a cold spring had left us with high, muddy and cold (50° F) water to deal with. On…
