1st Annual Hamilton Bassmasters Conservation Raffle

Who wants a ticket?!?
Only $3.00 per ticket with 500 total tickets available....great odds!

Tickets will be available at the door of the 2nd Annual Hamilton Spring Fishing Tackle Swap, April 21st at the Sherwood Centre on Fennel from 9am - 1pm. (refer to blog post of March 24th for details)

Erie Perchin'

Hit Erie on Friday with my buddy Quinten for some early April perch fishing.
Launched out of Crystal Beach and headed for the "flotilla" of boats on the horizon.
We'd heard it was "ON" all week and hoped the blue bird sky's and fairly choppy conditions weren't going to turn them off the day we can get out.
After watching every boat around us yank up perch cast after cast and not getting anything we asked a fellow fisher what the heck we were doing wrong.
He showed us how small a minnow they were biting on and realising that 75% of the minnows we had were too big.
We decided to go about 250 yards further west to the second big flotilla of boats and start fresh.
We down sized minnows and I cut some Berkley power baits down to size to try and conserve minnows.
5 minutes in the new spot and I had the first 2 in the boat, double header on my line!

We landed about 16 including some jumbos with the biggest at 13-1/2".

Quinten had an absolute brute on and in the excitement horsed it up from 63' of water too hard and straightened out the fine wire hook on his pickerel ring losing it just deep enough that we couldn't see how big it really was....damn.
We learned quite a bit talking with other boaters in the crowded area.
-go with 6-8lb braid (we were running floruo).
-super light action rods are a must for the light bite.
-come with at least 150 minnows between 1" and 2" with some larger just in case the bite changes.

All in all a decent day, first "raccoon" tan of the year courtesy of the bright sun and SKL sunglasses.

The 16 fish actually filleted up in to a nice fish fry when we got back.

Hoping the winds stay down and we get another shot at them next weekend.

Hamilton Bassmasters 2nd annual spring fishing swap meet.

Saturday a-m going fishing!

Saw some pictures from Denis at Fishin Niagara of some fat Laker's,Rainbow's and Walleye caught today on the Upper Niagara river.

It's inspired me to shake off this flu bug I've had all week to get out fishing in the a-m!

He says the jig bite is on so I'm loading up on jig heads,grubs,slammers and swammers from Xzone with the hopes of some big Walleye or a nice Laker on the end of my line tomorrow. Fall back plan will be the ultra light for some perch.

Going to sort tackle and rig rods for an early night to hit the road and be down there before the day break.

Fingers crossed I'll have some pictures to share tomorrow from a successful outing.

Cheers
ScottyB

Getting ready for 2012 season.

Getting ready for the 2012 season. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Between Christmas,the business,the weather and some family health issues fishing has been a distant 5th on the priority list. Now some of that is behind us I can get down to prepping for '12.

I had spent a few nights sorting through my 18 or so Plano tackle trays checking what needs to be replaced, added or removed for sale at the swap meet.
I had compiled a list of "wants" and set about scouring eBay and on line retailers to shop for the best deal.

Most of you know how the "self" sponsoring can get expensive quick so I'm a cheap prick and will wait on that right deal.
I managed to find some good deals either on sale or best pricing at a couple of small on line retailers.
www.hooksettersupply.com had great deals on Owner Twist-lock hooks, Strike King baby rage craws and best price on the Owner/Cultiva Zip'n-Ziggy top water baits off my list and www.eTackle.ca had a good deal on the new Live Target brown and rainbow trout crank baits and Xzone Swammers.
I even managed to get a few packages of the new VMC Spinshot dropshot hooks at www.lebaron.ca. They didn't have the most popular size because of back orders but will stop by tomorrow on my weekly run in to Toronto to see if they are in.

EBay provided some of the best deals. Strike King Rage craws and Rodents in colours most local shops won't stock and cheaper too.
Mop jigs, spinner baits,crank baits and tungsten bullet weights were bought at 50% savings over some local shops.

You have to sit on the deals and don't get wrapped up in the bidding frenzy and you will get deals. Don't think you HAVE to win that particular auction, wait and let others over pay and wait until the right deal presents itself then pounce.
One of my biggest secrets on eBay is people can't spell! It's right there on the package but they still butcher the brand names and not many people search for stuff with mis-spellings except me...and now you.
Best deal so far is 11 Kopper's Live Target crawfish crank baits @ $2.20 cdn each with shipping included...just because they seller couldn't do a simple thing like copy the name off the package correctly. There was only me and one other guy bidding and I won with a last second (6 actually) bid they other guy couldn't respond to quick enough.

Second best deal was for 90 3/8oz Tungsten, insert free bullet weights @ $0.66 each.
I have 2 others guys buying in to the deal with each of us landing 30 each for $20.00.
Most stores sell a 3 pack anywhere from $6 to $7 bucks.
Big savings on a consumable item!

I am now down to a few small items and line to buy.

I will wait until we are closer to Bass season before dropping the big dollars on 3 new St.Croix rods for my Flip'n Pitch set ups and top water specific set up.

Thanks for taking the time to read my entry!

Hoping for a few hours out tomorrow afternoon for some pike down at the ice free harbour.
Hope to have a picture or two of some pike to post!

Cheers,
ScottyB

New BlackBerry case.

I almost forgot to post a picture of my new BlackBerry case from Fishing Forward on www.zazzle.com

My BlackBerry Curve is now disguised as a largemouth bass.

Winter is long here, hope I don't get cabin fever and start flippin' a Strike King Rodent at it mid winter!....HA!

I waited and waited until the black Friday sale and got it at 50% off and $4.00 flat rate shipping.

Ordered a few in for iPhones and Blackberry's for some friends.

They have almost every fresh water sport fish in north America for iPhone, BlackBerry and now Android phones.

Just another reason I've been diagnosed with "Fishin' Fever".

Cheers,

ScottyB

2nd Generation Spectra Baits from Northern Lights Lures.

Talking with Dan Nossey my long time friend and senior partner at Chromadic Creations, the parent company of Northern Lights Lures and their Spectra Bait brand of colour changing lures about the 2nd generation of their revolutionary baits.
The new baits not only change colour when retrieved through the different thermal zones of the water column but also react to UV light.
I hope to get my hands on some soon. The first generation baits (both hard and soft) worked well and served as an excellent test bed for this 2nd generation.
Orders have started to ship world wide through distributors established at iCast 2011.

Here's a peak at one of the baits I'm excited to fish in 2012.

With the belly activating from yellow to blood red when retrieved thru a colder thermal layer, this bait is going to provoke strikes!

2012 is going to be awesome!

Cheers,

ScottyB