thetr20one

Some lake here are TM only but you can have an outboard as long as you don't start it. Most with 10hp restrictions will let you use you big motor to trailer your boat but, not run it on tyhe lakeng they are above the law, until they get busted. I have heard of many a sticker or carb change but, if the offficer knows anything and I am guessing they do hp is usually on the motor tag too. Not a whole lot of guys that would risk getting their boat seized for a fish around here though. At least that is the way it seems. I will look at the bright side and say at least this ********* is running an Optimax. What would have made it a cooler story would be to have the other ********* get tossed off the front deck when they hit a stump. I don't think it's poaching but it is breaking the law!

If you are within your jurisdiction, throwing dead fish back at the very least is littering. However, that's a minor offense compared to the federal laws governing throwing refuse into governmentally controlled waters. At the very least I would contact your fishery agency to handly the matter. After that I would be looking for a different club to fish with. Nitroman. Thank you for speaking up and making a gesture but, please don't lump all tourney fisherman into one basket. In the eyes of most tourney guys I know fish are money. I quit a club because of their lack of conservation practices, and a member would take every dead fish to eat. I just didn't see how after 30+ years of existence as a club a 2 ounce penalty for a dead fish was not upped to at least 4 ounces (most trails around here have a 4 oz. penalty). When I spoke up and was not heard I fished out the season and left. Ther was more to it but that was a major point to me. My dad still fishes with them and the same ole s--t still goes on and their attendance continues to fall. Some people will never change and these things will always go on. I now more than ever am biting my lip, because my patience with these types is becoming sparse. Continued pressure on officials and tourney directors may change some but, at the club level often your calls fall on deaf ears.

Hey Tom thanks BUT, the tourney didn't exactly go as planned. What I guessed to be a 25 mile run was actually 36, the 1 to 3 foot wave forecast turned out to be 3 to 5 footers, the wind that was supposed to come from the northwest at 5 to 10 knots came out of the northeast at 10 to 20 knots, and my hat blew off before we even got out of Sandusky bay. We made the run anyway and was confident, I have won alot of money from the area and when we got there It was pleasant for about a half hour then the wind picked up and started blowing us really fast even with two drift socks. I hooked up and started crankin one in and my tube came flying out of the front of a wave, not even 30 seconds later my co-angler was taking a whizz and his rod loaded up and he had to almost go in the water after it, that ened up in a 5+ rocketing out of the water and throwing his bait. I felt really bad because he actually saw the size of that one and said it would have been his smallie pb. After that it just got worse weatherwise so we left and tried to salvage the remainder of the day with a couple back up spots around the islands I fished a couple of hours and caught some smaller fish the day before. Well if It had been a sheephead tourney I would have been o.k. but it wasn't. The bad part besides all that and me and my boat taking a real beating was, it was only 22 pounds to win and 17 for second. Many stayed in Sandusky and scratched out a largemouth or two. I thought go big or go home and unfortunataly went home beat up and fishless. I guess that was just the way it is. I was on a roll for a few tourneys and just happened to stop rolling there. Oh well on to the next one, hopefully with better results!

Yeha I have a tourney there AUGUST 2nd . I wanted to make sure smallies were there. We were actualy using tube hooks with the points and barbs cut off. I learned my lesson in stickin my tourney fish. I know they are there now lets hope the weather cooperates! I have a 25 mile run on the big lake. I know closes spots but they don't quite have the quality fish.

I went up to Erie to do a little pre-fishing and although we jumped around to different way points and tried to shake fish off. We still managed to hook a couple. A 4.9 and a 3. I am pretty confident they will be there next week and bigger. But here they are and a little video of us running in 1 to 3 footers. sorry about the video quality the software I have sucks.

That sucks! I was in a tourney Sunday and missed what was certainly the $500 big bass and only weighed in 4 average fish. What really sucks for me is I fished a different tourney on the same lake the day before and cashed an 11th place check and didn't miss a strike all day culling along the way. I still have visions of that fish. That is bass fishing though! Things happen! By the way I missed that fish on a spinnerbait with a trailer hook, I thought it had landed in a patch of weeds and give it a little snap and either he just had the blades or something maybe a mouthful of weeds. We didn't fully connect but it did clear the water and let me see what I had just missed. Then the ride home sucked too! Man I was on a roll too that would have made 4 strait tourneys with me in the money. I GUESS THAT IS BASS FISHING FOR YA!!!!! GOOD LUCK NEXT TIME !!!!!!!

I kinda developed my own style. People who fish wish me say it reminds them of a left handed KVD. I have to agree I think I am influenced by him the most!!!!

I would advise you to find a better brand, used boat and look for a better deal. Thre is alot more boat available for less money on any classified list. Go for that!!!!

I have seen it on lake St.clair with not a rock in miles. There were however weeds. Crayfish also can thrive in sandy weedy areas. Kim Stricker has a good video of this. We fished a touney thre and fished a brekline with scattered weed patches in 12 feet and weighed in a 20 lb. limit. YES smallmouth Will inhabit sandy areas of the lake.

After a dismal start to my tourneys I finally put it together for a 7th place. I do believe the mojo is back!!! I wish I could have taken some pis but it rained and was super windy. I am just happy to get out of that funk!!!

X2!!!

If I catch a fish in an area I will run a couple more baits through it.

Avoid constantly picking backlashes by only putting 50 feet or so of 65 pound braid or heavier. Practice until you can pitch without the smaller backlashes and add more line as you get better

My mission is to post a good sack of Erie smallies for Road Warrior. I would normally have been up there at least 6 times or more and had tons of pics but, due to some time issues this year I have only made one real trip. The smallies there tend to gongregate by year class. We were on the small ones but had to work about 20 GPS spots before we came across good ones. I caught that it was 5-3 scaled and my buddy had one about the same size come unbuttoned. We only had about a half hour to work that area so we kinda wanted to stay after that but time was up. Those are sunrise shots of a relatively calm Erie. Keep an eye out and In a couple of weeks I will make another trip. When they are on and I find em you can expect a page full of pics. my only real problem is I don't have a tourney there til October. But I have a break in the tourney schedule in July so I will make it a priority to go after them.

I generally use BPS magnum flippin tubes with an open hook jighead. T-rigged tubes to me have a really mushy feel. I check my line and retie or replace the rig often. Getting hung up is a given but once you get the feel of the exposed hook it reduces hang ups. I feel personally the hook up ratio is greater than with a t-rigged tube.

I have a white Triton too. Best bet is to put a good coat of wax at the end and beginning of the season. To get the stain off try a few used, wet fabric softener sheets. If that doesn't work use a good cleaner wax like the 3M marine cleaner wax.

That is me too. May not be the most fun method but it is a very productive method. I would rather catch fish the boring way than continuously cast and reel with little results. Not saying the others mentioned do not catch fish.

I really only use smaller tubes if they are not biting at all. Occasionally they will prefer them but if a larger tube is moving at the same pace you would think they would take the larger offering.

OOUUUCCCHHH!!!!! That is a bad one. But next time consider a perch hooked like that a sandwich or bait!

Hey RW I finally got up to the Big Lake sunday. After a couple hours of catching catfish,drum,walleye and 2 pound smallies I finally got one good one. The bad part was it was time to go when we figured out where they were. Oh well, I guess I will have to make a few more runs to really get back on the good ones.

Crayfish also thrive in the weeds. I think it was Kim Stricker who put together a video of the crayfish clinging to hydrilla. So tubes are a great all around bait regardless of structure/cover.

Big Tom I have also been waiting to here about your trip . I am very happy that you had a great first time at the big lake. Congrats!!!!!!!!

Nothing wrong with the video. I thought you ladies were great!!!!!!!

A rubber plug at the bottom of each livewell, plus a pumpout system for both. Triton tr-20

Nice smallie Paul!!!!! I have literally just rediscovered a local lake I have never fished from a boat and found the smallies to be shallow and in the lillies at times. I used to bank fish with my dad there when I was a kid. Now my friend has a house very near there and has taken it on as his "new home" lake. The first time we went out there on a boat I was surprised at how shallow these guys were. They were not spawning they were just feeding I guess.