I think this question has so much nuance to it. As a FFS owner, I personally love learning more each time, perhaps more importantly being able to study fish behavior, I’m a nerd in that regard I guess. I also am very cognizant of the fact that if used to the limit and improved, which it likely will be, severe consequences to fisheries will be coming. And speaking primarily as a crappie fisherman, the species I love dearly will be significantly impacted due to their basic nature. I for the record do keep fish to eat but am very conscious of not abusing bites, and lakes when I do decide to keep with selective and smart harvesting.

I’ll be the radical and advocate for the ban and reduced bag limits, I’d be content, not necessarily happy, but content with both. And yes, I would give up my FFS for an overall improvement in the quality of WI fisheries. Losing the money would suck but if it would mean a return to the “normal” but also romanticized stories of how fishing was in our state 30 to 50 years ago, I’ll happily sacrifice my investment in the technology. That is a privileged take, and I acknowledge that, but I’d do it. I do not expect that others would do the same. I’m of the mindset that we live in a nation that preaches way to much, me, me, me, and not nearly enough we. If cooperation is what’s needed to work together in limiting the negative impacts of FFS and also reducing limits, sign me up. I’m sure that take will be an unpopular one, but I’m ok with that.

But as others have mentioned where is the line? Then do we ban houses, gps, lake maps, lake-link, ido, information sharing? Because I don’t need FFS, if a friend dials me up a text that says, “hey they are biting on lake X we always fish out by that weed edge in front of that one yellow boat house.”

As far as the regs go, I’m in favor of managing lakes in a variety of ways, have certain lakes be catch an release only maybe for a few years on a few targeted species. I know property owners wouldn’t love that but if it improves fish quality and health it may be worth it. Drop down significantly other lakes and if they lakes get too jammed with fish gradually bump the limits up.

One final thought, how does reducing FFS and technology impact the recruitment of future anglers? I know of some younger kids, as I am a teacher, who have become more interested in fishing after being shown how a livescope works. I think the basic video game nature is appealing to some who otherwise are not the outdoorsy types. As someone who has had so much joy over the years in fishing, I’d also hate for new limits on tech. to discourage younger people who might miss out on the true joy and passion that I associate with fishing.

Granted, that may be a small number of people, but I’d bet many of you would say that fishing has truly changed your life for the better. And maybe worse too on those rough days, but even then on those days that make ya want to quit, fishing teaches so many lessons and values. I think of the days of freezing cold on the ice for a few bites teaching me resilience, and patience that I probably would not have acquired doing other things kids tend to do in the world today. I know I care so much I’m willing to sacrifice on some of these things even if my experience becomes a bit less successful and more inconvenient for the sake of fisheries, but likely I’m in the minority.

Just my three cents.

Thank you for all the replies fellas, maybe getting a new tonneau with more options to customize tie downs will be the solution in the years to come.

Right now the wish list budget item if things break nicely in the next year is a snow dog that can be loaded onto a hitch mount then find a way to strap the shack on the tonneau, reason being with a snow dog, that is an extra sled that needs to be placed inside the bed, and with the big shack already being forced at a sideways angle because it is too long, that makes all the space more valuable. Ideally, I’m able to fit two sleds, the snowdog, and the shack in the bed with minimal cramming with other gear, but as many of you know things start to add up, and since I do a lot of night fishing, when you start to factor in heaters etc. the bed fills up fast outside of the normal clothing and electronics.

Why I am planning this, simple, I hate having to deal with a trailer all the time, it’s nothing but a liability and something else to pull and suck gas mileage. I want to confine everything to the truck if possible without the need to pull something behind, obviously I will on big trips if needed, but weekend warrior me would like to keep it to just the truck.

Thanks for the replies.

1.) My cover is a design so that it covers those areas where you can just slip the bull ring bolts into some of you are suggesting, and I’d prefer not to drill holes into my tonneau cover if I can help it, as I do still want to fold and unfold it.

2.) The Clam shack is large enough that it would stick out on both sides of the truck if I strapped it directly behind the windshield. Thought of it and tried it.

I may take a look into a hauler option as mentioned but was hoping for a cheaper option. The eye bolts would be intriguing, but then that would leave a hole when folding it up.

Thanks for the help fellas, will keep you posted on if I am able to have success or not.

cheers wrote:

nothing that had wings,no eggs,no bait dead or alive, fruit is ok

I have scoured the Canada regs. book and even sent an email to the ministry of natural resources. Unless I am missing it, I don’t see anything that prohibits bringing nightcrawlers in the 2023 book. Leeches and minnows are a definite no but cannot find anything about crawlers. I guess, where did you see and or read that all bait is not legal for crossing?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matthew Sandys wrote:</div>
Being a teacher myself…

Question to the teachers out there.

Do you feel that a feeling of being left behind salary-wise is a major contributor to teachers leaving?

Some fantastic discourse within this thread and I think many of you as parents who have raised children have seen more than a few things change in the system that are for the best, and some that have made education more challenging.

Mr. Grouse, in response to you question is salary a contributor to teacher’s leaving, I will offer this anecdotal conversation that occurred this year between myself and my mentor who I work along side every day, a woman I idolize and respect as a person and as an educator. She’s just about to turn 55 this year, been teaching since she was age 25, which makes 30 years of service and in WI that means she is “fully vested” in the Wisconsin Pension Fund essentially. Her direct quote to me was, “I don’t need this anymore.”

She’s seen too much change in the behaviors of students, the requirements placed on teachers, partially due to testing (she teaches 8th grade math) so she bears the brunt of the attack when standardized test scores in Math, the most critical discipline in the eyes of most districts along with English, don’t reflect the nice numbers the admin would like to show to the public. All of that DESPITE, seeing significant growth in scores of her students year to year from the previous. So student A was at a score of 750 in seventh grade in math which is “basic” and improved to 980 as an 8th grader but they are still “basic.” But because she and her students don’t have the nice sexy “ideal” amount of proficient, advanced, and basic students, she gets torn down, and forced to take on new curriculum, because she failed. But her students improved dramatically… I digress.

So she can work some factory or service job for 10 years or less until she wants to retire, make the same amount if not more money, and not have to deal with the drama and stress of teaching and to her it’s worth it. I will miss her dearly but I do not blame her one bit.

One of my students was writing a argumentative essay the other day based on a random topic selected from a list of hundreds. Their job is to formulate a response examining the multiple sides and perspectives of their topic question and argue for some sort of resolution to it. The question they were given was teacher salary. And the student did an excellent job researching, thinking, and synthesizing information while explaining the pros and cons of keeping wages the same or increasing them. In their closing, they quoted a statistic from a news source, I forget which one, but the main idea of the stat was that the average salary of a “garbage man” was on par with the salary of a teacher starting out. Not trying to throw judgement toward anyone who makes their money, by all means, you are worth what someone is willing to pay you.

When I go to colleges to help with recruitment of educators from time to time, the number one question I get asked is, “is the stress and three months off, worth not being able to have financial flexibility in your middle years of life?” And my response is simple, what is your motivation? What is your why? Why are you considering teaching in the first place? If their motivation is money, I tell them flatly, no it probably isn’t worth it (I know great recruiter right), but hey your retirement pension could be pretty nice if you stick it out. But if they say well I want to make a difference, or help people, or I’m super passionate about my subject matter, I can tell them yes it’s worth it. Because that’s why I do it. Money was never my primary motivator to be an educator, as is also true for many colleagues in the education world.
I knew going in I wasn’t going to be rich, and I still am not, I work a bit in summer, but that time is my precious fishing time, I try not to work it all away in my youth. Yes there are days I still want to quit, but what type of job can you work where at some point you don’t feel like that? I feel like being happy every day with your job regardless of sector, and hours, and pay, and admin, you will have those sorts of days.

My passion and hope for opening young minds to the world of social studies is still incredibly strong. And not having any kids of my own at this point maybe this is my way of trying to pay it forward to society for now. If I’m not going to raise my own kids, perhaps I can help some other peoples children grow to become great people. So is pay a prohibitive factor impacting people leaving? I’d say maybe to that one, especially more experienced teachers who have reached the tops of the pay scale. For those people I think other factors like: respect, societal changes, testing, curriculum, parents etc., are bigger factors. But for the young, thinking about becoming teachers, salary is definitely a heavy, heavy factor that weighs upon them. Especially since as a younger person, that’s when you tend to have your biggest costs (loans, vehicles, houses, weddings, children) many don’t want to feel restricted in their life choices by having less money during those “younger years.”

As a teacher from WI I’d like to share a few thoughts. I know WI is not MN, but I have a feeling our two states have more in common than we do apart. As others have mentioned districts have significant issues from admin down to support staff, and the pandemic has only exacerbated learning gaps emerging in children. As others have also mentioned the home life and involvement of parents is a GIGANTIC factor in success of students. We were one of only 3 districts within our region to start the year with a full staff. Recruitment within education is only increasing gaps. I’m one of two “young teacher’s” in my building of almost 50 teaching staff at an age of 30. I have not had a single student teaching applicant in 5 years despite me cooperating and being certified to host “student- teachers” with the local universities. Our district had to hire one individual, who has no state certifications or credentials other than was an accountant, to teach math. Not their fault, they have struggled to do something they haven’t been taught to do, or learned even in their life experience. Not sure on MN’s teaching stats, but nationwide, the number of people who want to and are willing to teach is decreasing rapidly. And maybe the solution is in the future AI is just going to educate our kids because it is smarter than human beings.

With regard to data and state mandated testing I’d like you to consider this anecdotal conversation this week on Tuesday. Me: “Hey everyone, just so you know we will be having our state testing in two weeks, so we will be doing prep work so that you can become familiar with the testing program over the next couple weeks. Student: “Why do we have state testing? I heard from my dad it doesn’t matter.” Me: Well the state requires it so that they have information to compare districts based on how well they are doing and how well the staff members are performing.” Student: “So it doesn’t effect my grade?” Me: “Correct, all that we are asking of you all is to give us your best effort.” Student: “So you are telling me that if I just click through the questions it doesn’t matter to me?” Me: “Well your answers do matter, they matter a lot to our district and to our staff.” Student: “Well I don’t care about you, the district, or the other teachers.” Keep in mind this was an isolated conversation between me and the student prior to the beginning of class. Before long this same student is chatting with their buddies at lunch and the same pervasive mindset has impacted not just one, but a larger group of middle school students.

As a teacher no matter how much I emphasize and try to teach the significance of learning while in school, I cannot enforce a mindset upon my students to care. I hold them accountable to the things I can assess, the things I can grade. It’s the old “lead a horse to water” thing. I lead my classroom with as much honesty and integrity as possible, teaching character, content, and life skills and I am as strict as I can be while still trying to accommodate for my students being young and making mistakes from time to time.

So what would you do if you were faced with that situation? As a teacher or as a student? Should I have lied to the student and said yea, I’m going to give you participation by trying to “judge” the effort you put forth on the testing? I could have sent the student to the office to speak with an administrator who would have no doubt sternly talked to the student about the need to put forth maximum effort, but at that point, the student going into the conversation has already made up their mind. And even though I as the teacher never get to see my students grades on these state tests, I can almost guarantee you the number one factor that determines the results for students on their state mandated tests from middle school age and above is intrinsic motivation. Those who care and try will do better, even if I have a whiz kid, who is the top of the class, if they are not motivated by their own will to succeed and do well and prove it to themselves, there is almost nothing I can do. That is not an excuse, that is reality. And I’m sure there are some of you tough, strict, fire and brimstone folks out there who will think to yourself, well I’d chew the student out and that would teach them, if I were the teacher “my students” would never not give me maximum effort, I would demand it. If you are the CEO of a company, you can fire someone for lack of effort, lack of accountability. What does any school have to enforce effort in students, if not intrinsically motivated? Should we just “fire” the student for not trying? Because no doubt they will drive down the scores that reflect upon me and our school? Nope can’t do that. I could assign a consequence for such “inappropriate conduct,” but is that truly going to change the mindset of the student about the testing, nope, they already know it isn’t going to impact them, even before they asked me the original question. Heck they will probably try even harder to deliberately do poorly to have it reflect back on me if I assign a consequence.

And you can say, their attitude reflects their leadership if you want to lump myself and other teachers all into the same group that is responsible for the downfall of “kids these days” and that it is my responsibility to motivate my students. It is my job to try and motivate my students, I am only given so many tools in the classroom to do those things. I and so many others are agonizing constantly to find new ways to help change their minds that teachers and education are not the enemy of society and that actually trying is not a bad thing.

After 7 years of teaching it has become more and more apparent to me that teaching is not the honorable profession it once was, where teachers were respected members of society. All too often after parent teacher conferences, board meetings, and endless emails all I feel like doing is leaving to work a factory job, I don’t want recognition, I don’t need anyone’s thanks, I don’t want sympathy. I want to do my job with the support of the public, I want schools to be accountable and do everything within their power to help students learn, but I also want society and parents to keep pulling their share of the load and helping us as educators pull in the same direction for the good of our students. Heck, I don’t even go out to the bar and have a few drinks with my wife locally because if I do the local facebook group rumor mill will start spreading and before I know it, I’m a drunk who doesn’t know how to teach.

In the last 7 years of my experience it’s become pretty clear that there is a lot fewer people in our world, parents, teachers, and students who are willing to pull in the same direction to achieve things today. Most people would rather just do their own thing, because they know what is best. Everyone is inherently selfish, not shaming those who have convictions in their “way” or their “process” but let’s not just gloss over the role that society at large plays in motivating, creating accountability, and cultivating pervasive mindsets that impact students views on education and their ownership in their own learning.

Congratulations James, and while I may be sad at the end of an era with the TV show, you have always been a class act of a host with a devout interest in educating the public and taking us along for some epic adventures, and for those things I’m extremely grateful to have found this IDO network. I stumbled upon your show about 15 years ago and have been watching every dang episode since, not to mention this forum has brought about a wealth of growth in my fishing knowledge over the years. I can honestly say this place and IDO has formed a huge part of my life from my teens now into my thirties. Cheers to the next in your hopefully long line of epic adventures before you finally ride off into the sunset of true retirement.

There is a pretty comprehensive link to get you started. As other have mentioned, the 73 chirp models are a no go for livescope. Also keep in mind you cannot just buy a lv32 transducer and plug it into your 73 cv, you also need the “black box” computer to network into the transducer and unit itself. Not sure if you were already aware of that or not, but I felt it was a worthy reminder. Would hate for anyone to buy the livescope ducer and expect to plug it in and work without the black box.

Edit link didn’t work: google garmin livescope compatible models, and the first option that appears to sportfishingbuddy has a nice chart to use.

I appreciate all of the thoughts J.J. And please don’t mistake my tone in this post this as me arguing with your points in the beginning here. I appreciate the wisdom you are willing to impart, and I think there is a ton of solid ideas in there, many of which I will definitely try to apply. But, my experience over 6-7 years of almost exclusively basin fishing for slabs in northern WI, most of the last 4-5 years with panoptix and/or livescope just doesn’t support the “they don’t travel long distances part.”

While I agree in principle, this makes the most sense logically and especially so when large energy sources are scarce in the cold water period, I just have not seen that play out in reality time and time again fishing basins in many lakes, dark and clear water. And perhaps this is lake dependent but having the livescope if fish in a basin area are only moving a couple hundred yards, there is no way in I am not finding them, I almost never stop drilling holes.
Like mojo mentioned in his perplexing scenario I know areas where these fish frequent in the basin and we have drilled multiple hundreds of yards in all directions and depths only to find nothing.

Perhaps with the bug/invertebrate hatch it just glues the fish to the bottom and fish I have been passing off from time to time on live imaging as walleyes or perch are actually bottom hugging crappies. It seems to me based on the majority of lakes I fish that they are skittish and prone to disturbance in the basin much much more so than in shallow weeds. But there are far fewer fish in the weeds especially during the daytime.

I grew up inspecting perch stomachs to extract softshell crawfish to later impale on my hook, to catch even more of them. Don’t think I ever considered doing the same for Crappies, that makes a lot of sense. I wonder how long the digestion period is for a crappie, from time of consumption to time of excretion? That may provide a lot of insight especially if it takes a day or two to move through their systems.

So then a natural extension to this conversation is perhaps do the crappies tend to school more or less during the low light period? Maybe in my experience the schools break apart from the daytime and vanish into hunting solo fish glued to invertebrates on the bottom at night. Agree 100% on the daily barometer, snow, and moon phase messing with the entire lake ecosystem. As an avid reader of In-Fisherman, I remember reading articles from a few years ago on how barometric pressure impacts crappies more than many other species.

I appreciate all of the feedback everyone, many thanks. I will try out some of these and hopefully some combination fixes the issue.

Thanks Ty, I’ve been scouring the internet and the AHRS is the closest I’ve come to anything that is remotely close to addressing the issue. I’ll be sure to try it out next time I’m on the ice. I just found it hard to believe that finding info about troubleshooting this issue was so tough to find in this digital age where everyone has youtube and message board threads about their electronics. Perplexingly nonetheless.

Not a stupid question, I thought the exact same thing myself when I was testing it out. But when I try to recalibrate, the unit will display a message saying something to the effect that this operation is not possible. Regardless of how, or why it knows that, I haven’t gotten past that screen that blocks the recalibration from occurring.

tim hurley wrote:

Nice Bob, that’s the exact bobber-maybe being fussy but would like it built into the rod with the one guide turned-but Gorilla glue is plan B. Might be interested in the St. Croix for me, thanks Rip.

Tim, you can attach one of these exact spring bobbers directly to any rod by sliding a shrink tube over the last eye, heating it up while aligning it with the eye. Once the shrink tube is tight, a couple drops of loctite will hold that thing on the rod for years. What I’ve found works best is using a needle nose or hemostat to stretch a tighter shrink tube slowly wider until it slides over the eye. They shrink down much better than the thicker wider shrink tubes. Only word of caution is to slowly heat up the tube as certain tip eyes will rotate or if you go way over the top you would melt the rod tip altogether. But overall its really simple and a lot less bulky than the rubber clip on options IMO.

Another thought for a spring bobber that is more sensitive and doesn’t freeze as often as the metal version you are referring to. Take the coil bobber you can find at fleet farm, unscrew the coil spring, grab a 5mm or 4mm colored bead, loctite it onto the tip of said coil spring, then take some heavy mono line (30 lb or so) and cut it into a small U-shape, slide that in the eye of the bead, add a bit more loctite and you have a perfect spring bobber complete with a tip that will not collect nearly as much ice as the metal. Affix to any rod using the shrink tube method as mentioned above a you have a sensitive panfish catching machine.

lindyrig79 wrote:

I like something with spice. Shorelunch or Andy’s as the first coating (pat dry with paper towel first). Then dip in egg wash and then toss in Panko. Make sure your oil is hot enough and fry till golden brown.

Lindy I’m curious because I have had some awful experiences with panko crumbs in the deep fryer before, do you make this recipe to pan-fry or deep-fry? I distinctly remember a college chicken strip experiment which followed this relative structure but once those strips hit the deep fryer, the panko crumbs essentially disintegrated. Perhaps it was something else I over looked in the prep/cooking process, it was college after all, but man those were terrible. Love the idea of this but just wanted to clarify before I went for it and ruined my hard caught fish. Thanks in advance.

Haha, thanks for the clarification James and Konnor. Don’t feel bad Tim, I assumed the same thing you did. I guess I fish like a 6 year old sometimes then. . .

To leave fish to find fish, the age old question that has haunted many a fisherman with could’ve beens and should’ve beens. I typically fall in the look for cooperative fish mindset as well, but sometimes, as Tim mentioned, moving just isn’t in the cards, so experiment away as I must. I am a very ardent believer in not leaving quality sized crappies, too many times, I’ve had slow periods in the day, but if you grind on them, you can always pluck a few more especially during those golden hours.

If the fish are small, I’ve got no problem running and gunning, but catching that first nice slab and then confirming a school is near with the marcum or the livescope probably keeps me chasing that school in that area more than I should. IMO there are two hidden benefits to chasing, even though it may scare fish away. One, you get a hella good work out dragging gear, augers, etc. through the snow. Number two, you cover more water, I call this “putting on the stumbling shoes.” On a few different occasions while chasing slabs with the new 3K electronics -yep, I’m one of those guys- the fish we were pursuing led us to a couple of very productive locations that we otherwise would have not discovered. And while that certainly doesn’t happen all the time, it’s happened enough to give me confidence to chase. . .for now. The trade-off obviously is I probably go home with fewer fish on those days, but gaining information isn’t an awful consequence for a few less fish.

I will say based on my purely circumstantial and non-professional hours on the hard water, especially after the early ice period, the fish start to respond more negatively to the sounding of the forward facing sonar tech. For reference I’ve had a panoptix for 4 years now and a livescope for 2. So the data points are not numerous, but the ice fishing journal doesn’t lie. I see a lot more entries during the middle to late ice period when I reflect back where I make comments like, “man we just could not catch up with them today,” or “we really struggled to corral them this trip.”

One final note, I remember in my teens reading and watching the preeminent ice fisherman of the period Bro, In-fisherman, Lindner, Genz, who all espoused the idea that crappies and basin fish in particular do not move far fast. I thought that to be true until I started with the forward facing sonar, I now firmly believe that crappies in general are much more willing to expend valuable energy roaming larger areas of the lake to find more nutritious and larger quantities of food. As a point of reference, my fishing partner and I used a fitbit one day to track how much distance we covered following a school of panfish mostly crappies in one day, it came out to a whopping two miles. Now granted it was not in a straight line, and there was some overlap from time to time. But we started the step counter in the fitbit once we found the school in the first hole and just watched the number climb through the day. From that point forward, I’ve mostly written off the lethargic winter, crappie don’t move long distances theory. Other instances have not been as extreme but there have been more than a few days I’m guessing we travel over a mile after one school of fish.

Sorry for the long winded post. Also, great tactic on the drilling in snow piles, that is one of my superstitions as well, if I have an auger in hand and have a choice, I always choose the snow, I feel like I catch more, and not to mention, it makes for much nicer padding for my old baseball catcher knees.

Hi there Tim, I’ve been doing this for years honestly, although not exactly as KK did it. Typically I run a very small slip bobber rig with the very small split shot way up the line (like 15 inches at least) and about the smallest bobber I can find set so that the faintest action submerges it. I only use this when fishing stationary for slabs or gills in a shack, and typically also at night.

The main reason I started this was through watching crappies react on the livescope one night. I had same mini slip bobber rig on in my shack with a crappie minnow. The crappies would swoop in and investigate my jig as well as the minnow but wouldn’t commit. Each time my crappie minnow would sense they were about to become dinner and dance all over the hole, tried clipping the fin to slow them down even, no luck. Finally after getting pissed off enough I swallowed my pride (I almost never use live bait anymore) and asked my partner if he had any old waxies or spikes left in his bibs from a few weeks ago. He did, they were barely alive, but I swear to you we went through his whole tin of waxies that night and that was the only thing we caught slabs on. Tried micro plastics, small spoons deadsticked with minnow head, nothing. We kept 15 crappies between us that night. Ever since, if we are fishing in a shack one of us has the waxies slip rig on unless we determine they prefer the minnows by a large margin.

Now this is a fairly small sample size as I really only use this tactic on three or four lakes, and I’ve only tried it a couple of times during the daytime. But at this point I believe in it and I’m willing to try it almost anywhere on the ice when they are super negative. Will say though, I’ve found that slightly lively waxies are better than the barely alive option.

And if you are wondering why I don’t just deadstick that same offering, the answer is I’ve tried, and on the lakes we have used it, the bite is so finesse that they drop it with even the most flimsy of noodle rods, I even tried using the ole 15 dollar ht ice blues which are essentially backboneless and that didn’t work. I have adapted this tactic a couple of times to use under tipdowns outside but with very mixed results. Seems to me like if they are willing to submerge a tipdown offering, I am typically able to catch them on the micro plastics while jigging.

It definitely warrants further discussion and experimentation, and I’d love to hear others thoughts as well.

Paging Mr. Benson,

Any insight on the Pike/Round Chain? Heading up with the fam, for a week of fishing and fun starting next weekend (July 30-Aug 6). I’ve never ventured that far West on 70 out of Minocqua. If you would like you can PM me.

Now, for once I’ve got some of my own intel to share.

Was up in the (East of) Minocqua area earlier this week and found the walleye bite up here to be absolutely on fire. Fished a Flowage and a lake system and caught a bunch of nice walleyes on both.

For the flowage, did the best damage working channel edges with some wood, wait for this tactic….big aberdeen hooks with a full crawler and as small of a split shot as I could find pinched about 8 inches from the hook-eye. Did very well using this would often just let the crawler wiggle on the bottom and when the line when slack, set the hook. My biggest eye ball there was 24.5 inches. Did not keep any walleyes but had to catch at least 15 or so, with a nice mix of could be eaters and the 20 inch class fish. Also had a bunch of smallmouth and perch in the same types of areas on slip bobbers with leeches or crawlers. Tried throwing small crankbaits over wood in shallower water with very little success, did snag one solid pike and 2 dandy crappies but there did not seem to be any sort of pattern there.

Onto the lake, outside of deep weed and rock transitions were key for walleyes, mostly around that 15 to 18 fow. Caught a few snap jigging jerk minnow jr.s but most fell victim to the slip bobber wacky rigged leeches or smaller minnows also worked. Biggest eye on this particular lake was 22.25 but most of the fish were over 17. Also took a stroll over a basin looking for some cribs for ice fishing primarily and did actually stumble onto a few of them but did not have any luck catching any sort of panfish.

Very fun two day trips, was expecting more panfish to be biting in the areas I tried but for once the walleye surprised me and kept me occupied most of the time. Spent a great deal of time staring at my electronics working to improve my side imaging prowess and think I was able to accomplish that as well this trip.

Can’t wait to return for the first week in August.

Thanks for all the wisdom, I will be keeping the alumacraft off of plane permanently then from the sounds of it. Do not want to do irreparable damage before the trip up to Lac Seul after TFF. Will post a report on how we do once I return. Again, appreciate everyone contributing to the thread.

We were thinking of landing at either Fisherman’s or Springstead, we had planned on finding a campsite in the “middle” of the system so we would be somewhat equidistant from everything. My initial thought process was to camp closer to the river portion of the flowage as the walleye are probably more likely to be in that neck of the woods making their way back from spawning grounds. However, the group said we should camp in the middle so all options are open for our 4 days up there.

That is most useful, I have a gamin with lake-vu maps as well as a lakemaster wi chip in a bird but I know those maps are certainly no infallible. Thanks for the tip.

I could be wrong but after looking at the 2022 Ontario Recreation Fishing Summary, it does not prohibit brining night crawlers in. It mentions nothing about them from what I read. It did say that no live or dead leeches/minnows are allowed. Would love to hear from someone who has crossed the border or talked to a lodge to clarify that before I bother picking a whole bunch of them for my trip up to Lac Seul near the end of June.

I show this very video to my students in the classroom each and every year, I combine this with a unit on character, service, and empathy. Repeatedly at my end of the year student evaluations, many of my students cite loving that mini unit featuring McRaven.

Absolutely loved his book as well. Probably a top 3 read in my book. Behind the likes of “The things they carried,” by Tim O’Brien and “The only way I know,” by Cal Ripken Jr. That triumvirate of books, makes me want to be a better person, teacher, husband, and American in so many ways.

Put me down for pretty much anything Daiwa, I’ve got two tatulas and have had some excellent luck as well with their “cheaper” models, the fuego lt and the exceler lt. I used to be on the pfleuger bandwagon but after buying the tatula and comparing it the the supreme xt which were within 15 bucks of each other, there was no comparison imo, daiwa for me hands down.

Appreciate the advice. Mostly targeting the big mama wall mounter types. I tend to agree with the belief that the biggest eyes are suspending during the day, my only quip with spot D is it feels deep to me (It tops out at 23/24 didn’t include that in the initial post). Especially with past experience ice fishing eyes, not particularly on this lake, but I have not done well in the peak windows dawn and dusk once I get out past say 15 to 17 feet. Maybe I might fish spot D during the day on that mid lake rock hump then as the bite window in the evening looms move to spot A.

arcticm1000 wrote:

Same here. I think my G Loomis GLX is awesome! It is hard to get myself to use anything else. I wish I had a bunch more.

Well perhaps then I didn’t spend enough money to get the full g loomis experience because the model I purchased was an E6x that retailed I believe for 275 at the time. That rod was a heavy build (but was a light action) and did not feel sensitive, I think mostly due to the weight of the blanks, cork and guides and was even paired with a pretty decent pflueger president and thin (5 lb) braid. If anyone is honestly looking for a rod like that, I’d sell it. It has been relegated to a slip boober rod for years and is honestly just a dust collector, still have multiple slip bobber rods I prefer. Even let the FW use it, because if the thing broke, I’d miss it much less than any of my others.

On a st croix note, I’ve not loved their walleye rods either, but damn if I can’t find a better panfish rod than their panfish series.

It’s too bad hearing about the recon’s I’ve had 2 aqua-vus and have had no need to ever switch. Marcum won me over with my first flasher purchase, the Showdown, but that’s probably a different thread about most unexpectedly good purchases. Bought in 2010 and that thing has not missed a beat in 11 years and still works phenomenal, only recently purchased an lx6 from a seller on here, I shed a tear when the showdown missed it’s first ice trip in 11 years.

Deuces wrote:

I’m with gimruis, very lil disappointment for outdoor items. Then again I’m a cheap a$$ and haven’t really bought anything too new, alot of my stuff is used.

I’m gonna take a whole lotta WTF looks when I say every single bfnt moxi and pulsr could dump out my tackle bag and I wouldn’t miss em a single bit. Bought so many from back when Ido was really river heavy content. Worthless for me.

This also amazes me, I also bought into the hype with the bfsn pulsr plastics and they are by far my confidence walleye plastic. It always amazes me when you get in the boat with somebody new for the first time, what tackle and tactics are “go tos” for them or “confidence baits.” Just within this post alone, already had two baits mentioned that myself and a fishing partner would place on top of our confidence list for different species.

I guess I never considered adding baits to this list in my mind, but there are plenty I wouldn’t miss either in my tackle box, I’m looking at you f-ing “hair jigs”. But saving them and so many other dusty baits as collectors someday to make a fortune for whomever inherits my fishing gear.

gim wrote:

I can’t think of anything really expensive that I own in the outdoor realm that has disappointed me.

The whopper plopper topwater lure disappoints me. I got sucked into the hype and I think it’s a well made lure. I just don’t catch any fish with it.

That is really funny, my buddy when he goes smallmouth fishing, that is the only lure he uses, and he catches tons of fish on them. Huge confidence bait for him.

As far as the girls go crappie, most of us have been there on that one. Too bad it was years wasted though as opposed to months.

As a middle school teacher I can agree with so many on here about the assessments of the situation. We were, and are all learning on the fly: administrators, parents, teachers, students, legislators and paraprofessionals. We were given a test (COVID) before any of us even knew we to expect the test. That is life unfortunately sometimes experiences (the test) is given before you get the opportunity to prepare (study). The whole chaos within the school system nationwide was due to a operating on conflicting timelines, information, and district circumstances, and we still are. In short, we have no consistency. And say what you will about the public school system but some students, not all, need consistency. Many times the relationships, heck even the food at school, is the only thing they can depend upon. An interaction with peers or adults who are trying to teach them content and character all while balancing the maelstrom of the world that keeps on spinning.

With most of standardized testing ignored the last two last years, we will really start to see the learning gaps emerge this spring and the years to follow. Speaking from frustrating personal experience, many students were moved along the line the last two years without being held accountable for the reduced work they missed. I understand situations require adaptations but I hope when school report cards come out and test scores come out the public understands that the staff in their districts would love to retain students to complete the learning experience but pressures from external sources often push them along. Hence knowledge gaps, and hence groups of children who then learn that they can get by without finishing requirements. I wish we had more time, but the “real world” is so to speak going to have to fill in the knowledge gaps at some point and teach those lessons if the parents choose not to.

The resiliency of the youth will be tested, the question remains, will they use the pandemic as an excuse to not push themselves and just shrug off life’s curveball or will we as teachers and learners be able to turn the crucible of the current experiment into something authentic and a learning experience? I hate online learning/teaching but with shortages etc. some education is better than nothing at this juncture. I try everyday with my students to rebuild and advance relationships and focus on life lessons we can take from what we experience. I know I would have struggled if in their shoes, I simply hope for patience and perseverance, lord knows we all can use that.