OntarioBigBait

Have the opportunity at one for a reasonable cost, anyone throw big baits on them? Off the top of my head they are a UBR rod rated like 3-8, I was thinking it would make a really good glide bait stick.. Interested to hear what everyone has to say!

Ive heard pinesol works pretty good if you leave it in there for like a day, just loosens it up enough to brush away with a tooth brush and some mineral water

Congrats Craig! A beautiful fish for sure! I hope to participate at an international level as soon as bass season opens here in a few weeks

Thanks buddy, looking forward to a couple weeks to see if I can get some smallies to crash it! Unfortunately no pictures, we never seem to get any anymore... But Im making an effort to get better at taking some!

May long weekend up here in Canada has just passed, affectionately named the 24 which may play a part in this story. Every year for the past 8; a group of 5 of us have ventured to the cottages (two of us have places on the same chain of lakes) to fish for some ice out Laketrout, speckles and splake. Traditionally we have thrown smaller jig head style swimbaits, your standard kytech ribbed body boottails around rocky flats and shoreline in no more then 10 FoW. However with the very mild winter we had, and overall lack of snow/ice the lack had opened up back at the beginning of April meaning warmer water temperatures and deep lake trout. But being the young, stubborn and beer drinking bunch that we are, we decided to hit the normal spots anyways. This is where the story takes different tone, after fishing most of the day saturday in the areas that have produced in the past and finding no fish we decided to call it a day. Talk around the fire was of days past when schools of lake trout could be seen crashing bait in water no more then 3 feet deep- the past pods of brook trout that we could find in the creek mouths that lead into the lake. Not one to give up that easily I had a thought, all of this talk about draw power from swimbaits... maybe we can throw some big baits and just find some fish? Who knows, worth a shot... We headed out sunday morning thinking that we were wasting our time, and the thought of spending 8 hours in the sun for no reward with cold beers on the dock was hard to pass up. But we decided to give it a go anyways. I roll up to the first spot, drop the minnkota and slowly creep up to the shoal. Topping out at 6 feet with our current water conditions and dropping to 35 on both sides running about 150 yards through the center of the lake this is the spot... I tied on a negotiator glide (perch), while my one swimbait buddy tied on a shine glide (the other 3 continued with the smaller swimbaits). After cruising the one side of the shoal I made a sweeping turn and thought in my head "days over theres no way...." then my head went to thoughts of the deps 250 I picked up off a board member through the winter... Blue back, not a colour I would normally buy but with the extreme clear water I fish I thought hell why not... This was my first 250, hearing nothing but good things I felt the need to tie it on and give it a swim.... F**k this thing is heavy... Lobbed out 10 feet to the open water side of the shoal... 1...2...3...4...5...6...7, turn the handle... giving the bait the occasional reel pop as suggested but mostly sticking to a steady slow retrieve.. I could feel the bait making its seductive left/right/left turns.... at about 40 feet from the boat I saw the bait for the first time... Damn... wait... Whats that behind it? Shadows? Fish!? There were half a dozen lake trout following in the bait like it was their mother duck, amazing. We ended up catching a fish or two each over the next couple of hours, we had found the fish that we thought previously weren't there. Just a cool little encounter, appreciate those of you that made it to the end! Matt

I love my d series calcuttas, in my opinion the 300d is the reel to beat when it comes to swimbaits. I am currently fishing 1 200d for my topwater/wakebaits and 2 300d's one for soft baits (hudds mostly) and one for glide baits like the 250. I feel the 300 has enough line cap for me fishing 22lb sniper and 17lb shooter... 150 yards and 175 yards respectively. Very smooth drags, and the amount of power on a handle turn is indescribably, there is 0 resistance even with the most drag heavy baits.

Ive always bought baits based off of appeal to me, and definitely pick them out of my trays. That doesn't necessarily mean Im not taking into consideration other factors but thats definitely my first consideration. Up here in Ontario you very rarely run into dirty water so I follow light day light colour/dark day dark colour... Ive found more so with swimbaits then any other style of bait that colour rarely matters, they have such drawing power that sometimes I even go with a completely odd ball colour (think sissy, chartreuse) just to provoke more of an aggressive strike. just my 2c