Weekend Road Trip Report...

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JimW
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Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

Weekend Road Trip Report... well here is what I have been up to some successes and some snags along the way during this trip.

Friday, July 9th... left my place at 1:20 am to drive to Lake Ontario to meet at 5 am to fish salmon with a buddy on his boat... we started the morning with a nice double header of 15 pound Chinook salmon, but the water was quite warm and the fish not very active. We caught a few more salmon that morning, but not what we were looking for... we were on the hunt of a single big fish to weigh in for the Silver Salmon Challenge and the Great Ontario Salmon Derby... no big fish caught to weigh in but a fun morning on the water. We were running only Twinkie rigs with herring strips looking for the big bite!

Off the water before 11 am ... headed to Radio World for a bit of shopping... picked up a Fish Hawk TD temperature/depth gauge.

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After the Radio World stop decided to take a quick run up to Bass Pro Shop to look around....spent a bit of time there just picked up a few pieces of tackle.

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Left BPS and headed to Kitchener to pick up some lures from Kabby’s Custom Hair Jigs! After a little visit and getting my lures I was off to my parents’ house just West of London.

Saturday, July 10th Lake Erie meet up with my fishing buddies for the day and headed to the lake, my buddy’s boat is docked on Lake Erie so we got to skip the long lines at the boat ramp and hopped it the boat and we were off. After a 15 mile run we set up our trolling gear and got down to business.

The weather was cooperative... low winds and no rain... the fishing was steady, not not on fire.

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We fished the day running a mix of spoons, body baits and deep diving crankbaits... flatlined, off the downriggers, dipsey divers and 3 and 4 colour leadcore. Various spoons were our hot lures for the day. In the end we caught some fish, lost some fish and released some fish... bringing home 6 rainbow trout and a limit of 6 walleye for each of the 5 of us on the boat. So all in all a good day on the water.

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Unfortunately on the way back to my parents place from Lake Erie on Saturday evening a deer got a little close to the front end of my van... nobody, except the deer, was injured, but it kind of threw a wrench into Sunday’s Lake Ontario salmon fishing plans.

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Monday morning I dropped my van off at the repair shop and picked up a rental car, drove home to Eastern Ontario on Tuesday, now waiting to hear if they are going to fix the van or write it off.

Well that is the end of my adventure.. time to start planning my next one.

Tight Lines,

JimW
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Corvus Lacus
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by Corvus Lacus »

Wow…that's a lot of driving ! When do you sleep ? LoL.
Good to hear you're OK...hitting Bambie can be a lot more catastrophic.

Thanks again for the reports...always entertaining and informative. Keep 'em coming !
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JimW
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

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Corvus Lacus wrote:Wow…that's a lot of driving ! When do you sleep ? LoL.
Good to hear you're OK...hitting Bambie can be a lot more catastrophic.

Thanks again for the reports...always entertaining and informative. Keep 'em coming !

Thanks, this spring and summer leaving at 1:30 am to go fishing once or twice a week seems to be my regular routine. lol. I'll get some sleep in the Fall when I am back to work. lol
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hardfishing
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by hardfishing »

Sounds like one hell of a fun trip, those walleye really love those spoons it seems lol. Thanks for the detailed report again, going fishing myself this weekend and I hope to have 1/4 the success you had. If you dont mind me asking, what depth were you targeting your walleye?
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

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hardfishing wrote:Sounds like one hell of a fun trip, those walleye really love those spoons it seems lol. Thanks for the detailed report again, going fishing myself this weekend and I hope to have 1/4 the success you had. If you dont mind me asking, what depth were you targeting your walleye?
Sorry just saw your question, been away last 5 days fishing.

On Lake Erie the area we fish we are fishing 68 to 72 feet of water, with our baits down 25 to 50 feet.
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by moonshine »

That temp probe is worth its weight in gold. Sadly mine has a dead battery and they can't be replaced. Have to buy a new probe I guess. Lol
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

moonshine wrote:That temp probe is worth its weight in gold. Sadly mine has a dead battery and they can't be replaced. Have to buy a new probe I guess. Lol
Yeah the Fish Hawk temperature probe definitely helps, I plan to upgrade to the Fish Hawk X2 or X4 system next year.
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Chevy Champagne
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by Chevy Champagne »

Hey jim. Good fishing! As for the deer... ouch that sucks!

Quick question about the "fish hawk" probe.
Can you clip this on your line to get an idea of how deep your bait is running in the water?
Im not a very experienced troller and im always experementing with random stuff so it would be nice to know just how deep my bait is going based on how much leadcore or weight i have on before my cranks... thanks a lot!
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

Hey Chevy,

Yes you can clip it to your line and the let it out and then bring it back in and it will tell you the maximum depth the probe was running.

You cannot run the probe "inline" like with the lure attached behind the probe, so it does not give exact depths, but so far I have had decent reading. I have used it for my dipsey drivers.... I let out the lure and dipsey as normal and then clip on the probe and it then slides down to the front of the dipsey diver... troll for a few seconds and then reel it is and read depth off the probe.

For leadcore and copper using a spoon, I just clipped the probe to the swivel in front of the spoon and let it out... trolled for a bit and then reeled it in.

Since thinking how to use the probe with crankbaits, as I am sure the probe will have more of an impact on the running depth of a crankbait compared to the other set ups.

JimW

Chevy Champagne wrote:Hey jim. Good fishing! As for the deer... ouch that sucks!

Quick question about the "fish hawk" probe.
Can you clip this on your line to get an idea of how deep your bait is running in the water?
Im not a very experienced troller and im always experementing with random stuff so it would be nice to know just how deep my bait is going based on how much leadcore or weight i have on before my cranks... thanks a lot!
Jim Wilson
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Smiths Falls DCI REDHAWKS Fishing Team Coach
A big thanks to all the companies that support my fishing adventures.
https://linktr.ee/jim.wilson.fishing
https://www.facebook.com/jim.wilson.fishing
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smitty55
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by smitty55 »

moonshine wrote:That temp probe is worth its weight in gold. Sadly mine has a dead battery and they can't be replaced. Have to buy a new probe I guess. Lol
I have a hard time believing the battery can't be replaced. I'm not familiar with the unit but just about anything can be taken apart.I doesn't make sense to sell a battery powered device where the battery can't be replaced.
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

smitty55 wrote:
moonshine wrote:That temp probe is worth its weight in gold. Sadly mine has a dead battery and they can't be replaced. Have to buy a new probe I guess. Lol
I have a hard time believing the battery can't be replaced. I'm not familiar with the unit but just about anything can be taken apart.I doesn't make sense to sell a battery powered device where the battery can't be replaced.
It is a sealed unit that measures depth, based on water pressure, also measures temperature.

For the company website...

Q: Can I replace the battery in the Fish Hawk TD?
A: No. The internal lithium battery has a 20-year shelf life and will provide seven to ten years of use in normal conditions. The battery is molded in to withstand water pressures up to 130 psi.
Jim Wilson
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Smiths Falls DCI REDHAWKS Fishing Team Coach
A big thanks to all the companies that support my fishing adventures.
https://linktr.ee/jim.wilson.fishing
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Chevy Champagne
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by Chevy Champagne »

JimW wrote:Hey Chevy,

Yes you can clip it to your line and the let it out and then bring it back in and it will tell you the maximum depth the probe was running.

You cannot run the probe "inline" like with the lure attached behind the probe, so it does not give exact depths, but so far I have had decent reading. I have used it for my dipsey drivers.... I let out the lure and dipsey as normal and then clip on the probe and it then slides down to the front of the dipsey diver... troll for a few seconds and then reel it is and read depth off the probe.

For leadcore and copper using a spoon, I just clipped the probe to the swivel in front of the spoon and let it out... trolled for a bit and then reeled it in.

Since thinking how to use the probe with crankbaits, as I am sure the probe will have more of an impact on the running depth of a crankbait compared to the other set ups.

JimW


Thats awesome! I may have to look into one of these little devils! Thanks jim!

Chevy Champagne wrote:Hey jim. Good fishing! As for the deer... ouch that sucks!

Quick question about the "fish hawk" probe.
Can you clip this on your line to get an idea of how deep your bait is running in the water?
Im not a very experienced troller and im always experementing with random stuff so it would be nice to know just how deep my bait is going based on how much leadcore or weight i have on before my cranks... thanks a lot!
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JimW
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

Chevy Champagne wrote:
JimW wrote:Hey Chevy,

Yes you can clip it to your line and the let it out and then bring it back in and it will tell you the maximum depth the probe was running.

You cannot run the probe "inline" like with the lure attached behind the probe, so it does not give exact depths, but so far I have had decent reading. I have used it for my dipsey drivers.... I let out the lure and dipsey as normal and then clip on the probe and it then slides down to the front of the dipsey diver... troll for a few seconds and then reel it is and read depth off the probe.

For leadcore and copper using a spoon, I just clipped the probe to the swivel in front of the spoon and let it out... trolled for a bit and then reeled it in.

Since thinking how to use the probe with crankbaits, as I am sure the probe will have more of an impact on the running depth of a crankbait compared to the other set ups.

JimW


Thats awesome! I may have to look into one of these little devils! Thanks jim!

Chevy Champagne wrote:Hey jim. Good fishing! As for the deer... ouch that sucks!

Quick question about the "fish hawk" probe.
Can you clip this on your line to get an idea of how deep your bait is running in the water?
Im not a very experienced troller and im always experementing with random stuff so it would be nice to know just how deep my bait is going based on how much leadcore or weight i have on before my cranks... thanks a lot!

No problem.
Jim Wilson
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Smiths Falls DCI REDHAWKS Fishing Team Coach
A big thanks to all the companies that support my fishing adventures.
https://linktr.ee/jim.wilson.fishing
https://www.facebook.com/jim.wilson.fishing
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by smitty55 »

JimW wrote:
smitty55 wrote:
moonshine wrote:That temp probe is worth its weight in gold. Sadly mine has a dead battery and they can't be replaced. Have to buy a new probe I guess. Lol
I have a hard time believing the battery can't be replaced. I'm not familiar with the unit but just about anything can be taken apart.I doesn't make sense to sell a battery powered device where the battery can't be replaced.
It is a sealed unit that measures depth, based on water pressure, also measures temperature.

For the company website...

Q: Can I replace the battery in the Fish Hawk TD?
A: No. The internal lithium battery has a 20-year shelf life and will provide seven to ten years of use in normal conditions. The battery is molded in to withstand water pressures up to 130 psi.
Well that's a bugger, if it was dead I'd play around with it anyway. I guess I'll stick with my old Depth-O-Plug I bought back in the 80's, it still works. For Lakers all I ever needed to know was where the 50° temp was. Up at Kipawa I'd be checking that before even off loading the boat for our week's stay. It was fairly accurate as I checked it with a line counter set up after I got one but you can still only check one depth at a time.
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Re: Weekend Road Trip Report...

Post by JimW »

That Depth-O-Plug is awesome... lol. I still have my dad's old Lowrance "Green Box" Flasher that we use to use back in the 80's when we went on our family vacations on Lake Kipawa. You still go to Kipawa Smitty?

Ya if my Fish-Hawk temperature probe ever dies, I will be attempting to open it up to have a look anyways.

JimW
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A big thanks to all the companies that support my fishing adventures.
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