Ahh yes, the Quetico carp.  Kingfisher & I have adopted the Troutlane point of view toward the little "terds".  The 4 dozen crawlers I packed in (not an easy venture in July) proved to be effective for walleye, but not in the direct sense.  I finally realized their value only after discovering those bluegill sized smallies gobbled up half of my supply in about 20 minutes while at the same time, Kingfisher's jig/grub combos began catching walleyes.  To prove my theory, I decided to throw a nightcrawler out off the right hand side of the canoe and then make a cast with my crankbait out the left side.  No more terds caught until the crawler supply was exhausted.

More theories were discussed, tho not yet proven. One such method was to remove the trebles from a firetiger patterned shadrap and troll it 30 feet behind the canoe.  This bait would be a decoy.  The walleye baits (with the treble hooks attached) would be trolled 50 feet further back.  This method kept us terdless for a couple of evenings.  The decoy had been slimed numerous times, with several being bit off above the leader, which meant we stayed pike free as well.

Another discussion reflected around the time when a terd actually become a smallmouth bass.  This becomes a pure matter of opinion with my vote being 14".  In no sense should the Quetico carp ever count toward the canoe country grand slam.  It takes more effort to snag downed timber than to catch one.

One pattern we observed by accident.  Cranking in the terds at a high rate of speed causes them to "water ski" across the surface.  This was not to be disrespectful of the fish, but rather to remove it so that to quickly render the bait effective once again (kind of like removing weeds from a daredevil).  The skiing terds tended to trigger the monster pike into a attack mode.  I saw the mouth of one big boy open above the surface of the water and chop down (a near miss).  Kingfisher had another swirl right next to the boat.  Entertaining indeed.

-YB