thetr20one

I think Bill and Hank could more than handle themselves on tour. They just couldn't handle the pay cut!!! Those guys have their cake and are eating it too!!!!!

ME,MYSELF and I. Lake Erie. Other peoples opinions pollute my own thoughts. I am not trying to be "THAT GUY". I want a win or victory of any kind to be self initiated and self taught. I love fishing with my dad and friends most.

Rub that braid on a rock and see just how abrasion resistant it is. Yup, that is a bad combo. I like the Trilene 100% flouro X3 Braid is terrible in rocks. When I throw cranks in rocky areas i use Ironsilk.. It is tough

Sometimes the fixer uppers can be gems . That way you can customize them to your exact likingc . Way to go!

While St. Claire and Erie flow the same water they are very different. Erie has much more rock and cobbles, St. Claire bass relate alot more to weeds. I have fished them both many, many times. Erie more but St. Claire definitely enough to have pretty good knowledge of the whole lake. Both get extremely nasty but Erie has the worst weather of the two. An 18 foot aluminum is not something to venture out on either in rough weather.

There is another thread with alot of info somewhere in here. Look for it and it should answer your question.

1. You must get fish to bite first. Braid does not help this 2. With 100 feet of line out mono will stretch 10% or more meaning 10 feet or more you cannot make this up with a rod change but you can reduce this by using a braid with a leader 3. Braid is LESS abrasion resistant in rocks than tough mono or flouro. 4. Most will use the lightest least visible line when they can. 5. You cannot throw your 2# test or 10, 20 or even heavier mono into brush all day without stopping to retie very often. This is a huge help when you need to make as many cast as possible in a tourney. 6. Braid is not a cure all for people expecting to instantly start catching every fish that bites. 7. I have had the same braid on my flippin stick for three years now and there has been little or no deterioration. 8. When ripping baits through grass braid slices through weeds like a knife. 9. It floats and some like this for certain techniques. 10. It's not cheating in anyway if that is what is being implied, you cannot will any tackle rod or line to make you catch more fish. 11.Also braid absolutely does not make fishing anymore fun, just more efficient.IMO.

X2! Awesome! My wife and daughter both refuse to lip big fish without gloves or a towel.

That is a trim angle problem. Make sure your motor is trimming all the way down or in and nothing is in the way. A guy in my old club had the same boat and it was very sensitive to trim angles. That bouncing is commonly reffered to as porpoising. Your rooster tail shouln't be any higher than your cowling on plane. The whale tail can magnify problems, take it off, until you get it right at least. If you have a ported prop plug all the holes and start there. Even with a 150 this boat should fly.

That is a nice fish!!! :exclamation Congratulations.

Problably more important than the line is the rod. What kind of rod are you using? Texas rigging you really need a high modulus MH rod with a fast to x-tra fast tip to really cross their eyes. IMO.

I use a harness with a float pulled behind a Triton tr-20. Tubing is fun and dangerous. You have to keep the speeds low. 25-30 is plenty fast for tubing. On a flat lake with no other boats I pulled my dummy 230 lb. cousin over 60 mph strait down the lake on his request. I have a 7 year old daughter that loves boating but has no want to tube, she has seen our bruises and complaints of muscle pain. What has to be remembered is turning with a tube. At 30 mph when it swings out it keeps accelerating and gets into water that hasn't been flattened by your boat, that is a real danger zone. To wakeboard and ski you would problably have to get the tower. We have tried it and the angle of the rope seems to want to drag you through the water with the harness. Also use a tow rope with a 15,000 pound+ break rating. I got one from a marina here for about $30. Just be careful PLEASE!!!!

I like EWG hooks myself but I always use 4/0 Eagle Claw autorotating hooks for worms. They can make up for a bad hookset sometimes. They are cheap and sharp. Never sharpen them, replace them and never use them twice unless you have to.

Congrats on your new pb! Smallies are the best. Love those markings!

A t-rigged ribbontail powerworm, no weight.

I believe I read a similar article RW. They also noted walleye are the fish that have had trouble adjusting to the clarity because of their supreme vision and light sensitivity . We still catch smaller smallmouth.I have a charter captain friend who books more night charters now than ever. I have read before my time Johnny Carson joked that Lake Erie was the place fish go to die. I am 33 and the first time I saw Erie it wasn't the oily chocolate milk that caught fire but, it was not beautiful. Now it is! At times I would say the most beautiful lake water I have ever seen. I have a book copyrighted 2001 that says water clarity has improved 200% lakewide and as much as 600% lakewide since 1972. WOW. Now instead of seeing 6 inches into the water I can so 600 inches. I think how far you can actually see with your eyes is only limited by light penetration and your eyes. Depth vision changes with wave height, sun height and river runoff. I will try to find or take a pic with an angle good to see the color to post. I think this lake has spoiled me in the way that unless I would have a tournament at another big fish lake in the South or West I really have no desire to travel that far to fish them. Even with the beautiful landscapes surrounding them. Erie has everything from shallow waters around the islands too the deep around Buffalo. Good fishing in every harbor and the best walleye fishing in the world. Conservative areas /Parting areas it's all here. #1 problem IMO. It freezes and gets really cold here. I will take that in trade I guess I do sometimes need motovation to hunt anymore and ice here gets me in the woods. This problably sounds like alot of hype but,all you have to do is ask around. As I sit here typing the local news is on the weather with a shot of the lake and one of its lighthouses and the weatherman says "AND HERE IS A SHOT OF OUR BEAUTIFUL LAKE". I will leave this post there

Cool! We have very public places here people won't fish because they have to walk a ways. Their loss. You may have laid the first footprints around there in awhile huh. I betcha go back soon too!

WELCOME!! I am from NEO what lake are you fishing ? Is it private?

Me and mydogdamit went to Erie today. The waves weren't very big but it was wwwwiiiinnnnnddddyyyy!!!! It was his first time up this year and he wanted to take his boat. Well that was fine with me we had a great day, caught fish and managed to get off the water before the really hard rains came. I got a little footage of him taking the brunt of the rains we had to his face at one point you hear him say man that rain hurts and I say I know I drove us through and got hit with hail. He says s--t at the very end so plug your ears for a second.

Today I was supposed to fish Erie for some smallies to post here. Well 25mph sustained wind speeds and gusts to 35 from the south set up very poor conditions for the big lake fish, so we tucked in a harbor and had a blast with the largemouth a 14" largie from Lake Erie will go 2 pounds . I choose these two for my official entry because of how rough a day it was and how purty they are. These are chunks! Went with dad and very limited time yesterday. Here was the only one that was over 5 1/2 These are from last Monday I think And these last two were from Sunday OTHER PIGGY I know thats alot of pics but thats been my last two weeks pictureworthy catches!!!

Maybe it hit some major artery or vein in there. I couldn't tell ya. I am not a biologist. It happens don't stress about it!

Nice smallies also. I just wished you had said I drag em over structure and there is something bout that hair jig that just makes em go nuts. :'(D-mm-t. Maybe I'll have to give the shiners a go when I am just fishin for fun.

In my tournament history I have had 1 smallmouth die. That 8 oz penalty took me from 7th to 14th. They were only paying twelve. Never again I hope. That was three years ago. Over 150 tourneys and the one that died cost me a $700 check. Occasionally you will get the really small guys grab a crankbait and pin their mouth shut so a little surgery is required. Not all patients make it through the procedure. Accidently killing a bass once maybe twice a season isn't great but depending on how much you fish it might be o.k. . The easiest ways to try and keep them from swallowing the hook with plastics are. 1. Buy good high modulus fast action rods for sensitivity 2. When you feel a thump SET THE HOOK, the thump was not them picking up with their fins. It is already in their mouth

Dwight those are awesome fish. That hair jig? Would you care to elaborate on the presentation? No secrets of course just in general do you drag em, cast em let em sink and work them over structure or possibly cast to suspending fish and work it through the pack?

I am with ya. I went fishing with my dad yesterday. I got up at 5 drove 60 miles, fished, drove back 60 miles, took the wife out for a Mothers day gathering, stopped at wal-mart on the way home at 12:30 a.m. Finally went to bed about 2:30. Then woke up at 4:30 this morning to go fishing with a friend and am dead tired right now. This was a liitle more than the average weekend because of Mothers day, but I fish like 2 tourneys a month plus alot of fun fishing. I sometimes ask myself why but I have no answer. As soon as you hook up on a good fish that question is forgotten. I think all uf us that do these things are crazy!!