HOIST-N-HAWGS

Hump behind the Big Island (left side) before you go into the Indian ranch cove. Drop of in front of the big island (also left side) @ 18'. Good luck

Yes it is. It's the top hook/weighted version. Banged them pretty good w/it over the past 3 months, as well as losing a giant on it in the -8-10lb range during a night trip :'( Can't wait to p/u the new Freestyle! Should be out within the next week or so.

Thanks buddy! How ya been? Yeah, I've been somewhat blessed this year. Got into them good on Sunday as well, We got 25+ LM all on 7" Slammers and Rago Rats. A busy busy day for sure. Not a ton of giants, most in the 2-3lb range with my big fish of the day only going 3.8lbs. But my friend John got one of the biggest 4.9lb LM's I've ever seen. I thought for sure she'd weigh more than that. With the predicted cloud cover and rain for this coming weekend, we'll be hawg hunting once again.

Small Popper's can fill the live-well quick this time of year. C-rigged lizards and Manum trick worms from there

Thank you sir!

Any chance there's largemouth fishing in the Fla. Keys? ;D Specifically the Marathon area. I'm guessing not, and that Snook and Redfish would be replacing my largemouth obsession. If not, how far of a drive would it be for some Largemouth on the mainland? Your input is greatly appreciated!

OUTSTANDING RI HAWG! The artist/taxidermist you seek is...... Richard Benedict from Kendall, NY. http://www.freewebs.com/anglingartisan/

I'm about to check out your post/PB. The PB and 4+'s were caught on different bodies of water

PM sent One looks like a 4-Corners grassline fish... ;D Nice job Mr. Walnuts... 7.4 MA river system. 4+'s You are correct sir Last two pic's are from the lake you drop shotted w/me :-X Which I also lost a fish i'm guessing was over 8lbs :-[

PM sent

Thanks guys Here's a couple from yesterday going 4.2 and 4.4lbs. Not as much fun catching 4+'s after that hawg PB from Sunday. ;D And a few more pigs from my last two trips

The pond we fished today has been beconing us for weeks now. John (rippin lips) and myslef answered the call for what we hoped would be an amazing outing, from 5:30 until 2pm. Water temps started out @ 62* and rose to 67* by the end of the trip. Up until about noon time we had only caught a half a dozen fish, that we worked extremely hard for. The largest fish went about 2 1/2 lbs. We ran into Stratos and Canalrat while there and they weren't having much luck either and desided to pullout and try another body of water. I'm guessing it was about an hour later I make a blind cast to open water. John is preoccupied doing his own thing. I'm hung up on a stump and decide to bust Johns butt and make out like I'm hooked up with a moster. For the first 5 or 10 seconds or so I think john's convinced I got a good one HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!! I am hooked up with a pig! I'm am completely flabbergasted and stunnned. John's now trying to do his best to lip her for me, after a few breif moments of severe anxiety from the both of us, he hauls her a board with an amazed look on his face and then makes sure I'm aware of her size "THAT"S A BEAST" :metal: She hits the scale at 7.4lbs of happiness! Gotta love getting the new Legend and then landing a hawg/new PB with it two days later! I've been extremely lucky/blessed this year, and can only hope it never ends. Always enjoy fishing with you John, you're good people! Thanks for pulling her aboard and I look forward to the next trip! Thanks for letting me checkout the war club Richie, it's definately a must have. It was also great to finally meet the both of you in person.

Hit a small Cape Pond w/a few boats last Wednesday night, still trying to get Matt his 1st lunker board fish(LM 6lbs or better, or a Smallmouth 4.8lbs or better) I had planned on throwing just 3:16 Rising Son all night long. Got two fish in the 3lb range right off the bat. Unfortunately, Pickerel seem to like 3:16 as well 1 hour in I was tailless on the only sinking version I had. Continued on with the unweighted version, and picked up a few more. Switched over to the Buzzjet for the remainder of the night and hooked up with a few more, all off of wood/laydowns. Slow night for sure, but not bad for a short trip, having to settle for an optional pond and getting on the water late. We'll do it again soon Matt, but I'm not fishing again until the new 3:16 order arrives! Oh yeah, I got one LM that had all the characteristics and colors of a Smallmouth. Bronze back, goldish in color with a smaller sized mouth, yet definately a LM. Anyone else ever come across this? Though I didn't find the monsters I'd hoped for , My buddy Matt and his friend Steve got a few very nice fish which included Matt's new PB LM which went 5.8lbs Matt's new PB 5.8lbs

Heading back tomorrow night w/fingers crossed!

Heck yeah! The Rising Son weighted top hook.

In the process of trying to put Matt Z on his first lunker board fish of the year, I lost a fish of a lifetime. About 3 hours in I get absolutely crushed!!!! I'm now trembling, while trying to do everything right, and land this beast. I put everything I have into it, but I can't budge her an inch, and I'm using a 7'11" Nitro w/20lb Fluoro. I'm in complete awe by the strength of this monster. She then makes an amazing dive under the boat and the line rubs against the side of the of the boat, inches from the trolling motor. At the exact moment I reach down to kill the motor, I realize she's now making an upward run, I then feel this tremendous head shake. My worst nightmare comes true, and the fish of a lifetime has come unbuttoned! I sit down to kick myself and I'm nano seconds from sobbing like a little girl! My PB is a 7.2LM and this fish made that one feel like a guppy! After fighting back the tears and gathering myself, I move us back on the spot, and make another cast, BLAM!!!!!!!!! Instantly I think "Aaaaaaah, redemption!" Well, not really, this one only ended up being a 4lb LM. Which I might add, I skipped across the top of the water all the way to the boat, so the one I lost, I'm guesing was over 8lbs. I wasn't able to get Matt his lunker board fish but, he did get a beauty of a SM going 4lbs. Our best five went around 16+. There was this one SM that made an amazing 5 foot jump above the water, very cool to witness! I'll be heading back out to find her again next week, in an attempt to turn this nightmare into a dream! As always Matt, a ton of fun fishing with you, and my appologies for not being able to get you a lunker board fish. I'm ussually thrilled to land a 4lber, but as you can tell by the look on my face, I was still quite shaken from loosing the beast.

Life is to short! :-[ Be safe out there people! http://www.heraldnews.com/news/local_news/x1307076377/Boater-drowns-on-Stafford-Pond

Dump the worms and try shiners

Hey Todd, that link provided is correct. I truly thought they were made by Persuader baits, and threw them in as extras because I thought Persueder stopped making them, and didn't want to rely on a lure that was no longer made. As you stated, they are definately a fish catching lure. A huge thank you to the person that provided the link. I can now go back to throwing the one spinner I had a ton of confidence in!

Awesome fish! ...but boat fish don't count. 8-) Thanks Matt.....I'd fish more from shore,but I wouldnt look as good as you wearing a pair of tights ..Here are a few more that don't count.Great year for both fresh and saltwater fishing.Must be all the rain :-X These 2 were released.....Right into the cooler. Outstanding fish Kevin!

Double report........ 7-26-09 It was a very tough day on the water yesterday. Working on 2 hours sleep once again, I almost fell out of the boat 3 times. It seems continuous lack of sleep may deprive the brain of oxygen, hmmmmmm? who would have thought! LOL By 11:30am the thunder rolled in and I hadn't put a fish in the boat other than 3 catfish. Contimplated pulling out and heading back home to bed. I threw everything I used to put a decent bag together while preifishing the prior Sunday to no avail. There was actually only one lure left in my arsenal I had never used before and figured it couldn't hurt. Banged out 2 decent Smallmouth back to back withn the 1st few casts. Continued to throw a C-rig for the last two hours and with 20 minutes to go I landed my 5th keeper. I worked extremely hard for these fish and it the other 8 fisherman I spoke to only had 2 or 3 fish. Of course the one team I hadn't seen all day ended up putting together an outstanding weight for a very tough day. Being off kilter and sleep walking, I deside to remove my fish from the livewell from the side of my boat while standing in the water,NEVER EVER DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!LOL My biggest fish makes a running charge and jumps completely out of the livewell over the side of the boat and back to were he belonged, SWIMMING IN THE LAKE! WTH??? I walk away in total depression! About 5 seconds later I hear my fellow competitors yelling" Get him, throw him on the beach" I turn to see what all the comotion is about and low and behold, it's my jail breaking LM swimming in 6 inches of water in front of the ramp, DUMB FISH! LOL They actually corralled him and tossed him on land, WAHOOOOO!!!!!! Unfriggin real, did I mention I love these guys! I weigh in my five fish as do the other teams, but they only have 2 or 3 fish per boat, other than the one boat I never saw all day and they come to the scale with a whopping 14.80lbs on five fish and a lunker Smallmouth @ 5.05. That's two wins in a row for the local team, in addition to bringing another lunker Smallmouth over 5lbs! I ended up w/10.25 for 2nd place. 7-29-09 Worked both day and night on my birthday so I took yesterday off to prefish a lake for the 1st time for an up coming tourney on the 16th. Maaaaaan, we absolutely slaughtered-em! 28 total fish,mostly largemouth weighing 40+ lbs. Gotta love fishing a new lake and everything you do works! My friend Matt had his best outing ever with his best 5 fish weighing 12+lbs. It's always fun watching a non-tourny guy load the boat. Matt caught about 10 fish himself and I eneded up w/18 total with my best 5 fish weighing 15.9lbs. Our combined best 5 fish went 21.12 lbs! This outing was an oddity for sure. Smallmouth being caught in the shallows on everthing form craws to swimbaits, and Largemouth being caught evrywhere from 18 to 33 ft of water. Caught a few 5lbers, 3 in the 4lb range and a boat load of 3lbers,as well as landing a few trout, 1 Rainbow and 1 Brookie. ;D Had a great time and lots of laughs.

ll appologize now just incase the story isn't percise, I'm a walking zombie at this point working on 6 hours sleep since awakening @ 3am on Friday morning. Hit Singeltary pond in Sutton MA Friday night w/Mattzzz from 5pm until 3am, should have left at 1am. Couldn't tell ya what the water temps were like due to a downed fishfinder. Wanted to put Matt on some decent SM and LM somewhat close to home. Feaky weather the intire night, everything from rain thunder lightning with bats a million fireflies, an extremeley cold wind which at one point left me shivering. Matt picked up a nice 4lb LM early which was immediately followed by a solid 3lber which were both caught on a watermelon candy chigger craws. Unfotunatley, If I recall that was it for him the rest of the evening. I threw the trout pattern Buzzjet 99% of the time and believe I had arounf 13 LM and SM with the biggest being a LM going 3.3/4 lbs. The bite died off around 1am but we stuck around hoping to increase our best 5 from that I think was around 12lbs. I only picked up one more LM in the last 2 hours. In those two hours the white perch/crappie activity was unbelievable, 1000's of them breaking the surface caoralling bait fish like the hole lake was on e big boiliung pot of H2o. As always, a ton a laughs and I had a great time fishing w/ya Matt Mat has a few pics he'll post up from the trip. We'll do it again soon Matt! BTW..... We missed you at the T today, hope you'll be at the next one. The near Cape T today didn't go as planned but, worked out very nice in the end. Had Tanner aboard with me today, and figured we kill-em, wroong! I spent most of the morning punching pads and by 10am we were already culling with a 5lb beauty I hoisted to boot. Oooooooooooh what a day this was going to be Not the case! Sad to say the rest of the day we struggled culling 1.4's though 1.8's and with 2 hours left my batt's were hurtin, I made one last attempt ot go back up stream, 30 minutes in I pick up one going 1.12lbs for a decent cull from 1.8. Dave and Jeff were nice enough to offer us their extra Batt which really helped us out. Without their generousity we would have had to stay in front of the ramp for the next hour or so. My hats off to them We only hooked into one more fish in that hour but, wasn't even woth the effort. Got off my game plan a bit for the day, but in the long run it really didn't hurt us. We weighed in 11.35 lbs with 5lber for lunker, there was only one boat left to weigh in and as they're transfering we all see what we think is the winning bag that also has a LM in the 6lb range. They hit the scale.........................11.35, SOB%@$$@#!%!!! Their lunker 4.75lbs We break the tie w/lunker lunker by 1/4lb to cap off a very tough day. Had fun fishing with ya today Tanner and thanks for joinigng me. We'll see ya at the next one. Crappy cell pics of Friday night, then my lunker from today.... Another Buzzjet hawg from Fiday night Todays lunker

Haven't been on the water in over a week and I was jones-in. So I took the day off and hit Onley pond. Water temps steady @ 67*, water level very high and stained due to all the rain. Flipped a jig up tight and behind everything I could get into for the 1st 3 hours w/o a tap. Switched over to the flat sided slammer I painted in shad pattern for the next hour twiching it like a jerkbait, only to have a 2lb rainbow take a swipe. Went to the Buzzjet converted to a Trout pattern and got 5 quick ones best around 3-3.5lbs. Decided I'd try the pads w/the Black Bronze eye and got another 5 w/ the biggest going about the same 3-3.5lbs, and missed about 5 more in the pads. Best five went around 11+. Very slow and tough bite yesterday, but still better than working.

Had plans to fish with Matt S for the 1st time to do some Cape fishing yesterday, but becuase he's got an upcoming T on Oldham pond in Pemproke MA we figured we check it out. Niether one of us had ever been there before so off we went. On the water around 6am, clouds with rain which was pretty heavy at times, with a light wind, water temps between 68-72. Intersesting pond, and glad we left the gas motor at home. This place has some very decieving obstructions, with sand bars boulders and pillons popping up when you least expect it. Whatched one boat find that out the hard way while blasting by the largest island :-? Couple of fish around 3lbs and the rest were pretty much cookie cutters around 2lbs. Had a monster nearly rip the rod right out my hands, and while I turned to Matt saying "Holy carp" he came back for a second time, but snapped the line right at the knot. At that point it became a huge pickerel ;D Ended up with about a donzen fish and the best five going 13lbs. Great fishing with ya Matt and good luck this weekend!

Gheees, almost to nice looking to throw! Though, I would definately encase them in glass and frame-em! Outstanding work!