J Francho

I think a lot of these, "he cut me off" arguments on the water stem more from perception that reality. You might not think you are too close, but the other guy does. I try to err on the side of caution, but sometimes I screw up. Example. We were on a small lake, there were maybe 5 or six boats fishing that day. The lake is a narrow north-south lake with two main points. Wind whipping from the north that day, and fish were very shallow, on the windy side of the flats adjacent to the point. There was a boat fishing directly on the point already. We figured he was moving south over the point, using the trolling motor to slow his drift, so we pulled in about 200 yards north, and figured we'd fish after him. Nope. After about five minutes, he starts trolling over to us, where we were holding our position on the flat, since we were catching. Once he gets in about 50 feet from us, fires up the big motor, and barrels around us to fish north of us. I was like, "that guys ticked." Oh well. If he had said something, we'd have simply left. I posted a report on a local forum, and this guy replies that he was the guy that we cut off, and that if it was a TX, it would be a different story. I explained our perception in a PM, but he was adamant that we were wrong. He claimed that he was moving into and casting into the wind, to present his jerkbaits in the most natural manner. Makes sense, but didn't play out at all for us. We didn't see him catch anything. My perception was that he was fishing as I had suspected, saw us catch fish, and decided that we were muscling in on his territory. He may have had the idea to fish where we were, but didn't act until we got there. We went back and forth, but it was a useless debate. I apologized three times to him, and told him it wasn't intentional. I wasn't even the one driving that day, LOL. I told him that next time, he should have given us a friendly heads up about what he was doing, instead of deciding after the fact that we were in his way, and posting in an online forum. I also told him that come tournament season, he'll need to adjust his opinion as to what is "too close for comfort," and sent him a satellite image of that point showing 17 boats working that point, LOL. Cut to this past Sunday. I'm fish in a different lake, casting crankbaits across a main point. Angle was important to getting bit, and it didn't matter which way you threw the baits, just that it be perpendicular to the direction of the point. My read on this is that the point is adjacent to a boat outlet to a "much larger lake," and the path I was running my crankbaits was actually the same route the bait fish were using. Two men in an electric power jonboat pulled up right next to me, I mean right next to me. I felt like it was the king run on the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY! I smiled, and asked them how they were doing. They hadn't caught anything, but only started a half hour ago. They asked how I was doing, and I said "a couple of dinks," even though I had caught 9 fish already. When they started casting, I could see that they had effectively cut me off from my lane. I told them that what I was doing was casting across the point, not parallel, and that it would be hard to get in there, and I didn't want to hang up on their lines. They simply moved over a bit, and gave me room, though I would have preferred they just left, but I managed just fine. That's a case where friendly dialog went much smoother than, "Hey, your cutting me off!" or simply silently festering in your anger and frustration. Sorry for the long post, but its a tough topic to cover in a few words.

I have the direct line to Bruce Hummel, the Eastern Monroe County officer. I lost my Wayne County guy's number. The easiest thing to do is use 1 800-TIPP-DEC, and give a good description. I personally steer clear, and avoid confrontation. Most DEC officers WILL NOT put you on the spot like a normal police officer will. Almost without exception, they are all very nice guys.

Wind started SSW, <10 mph, air temp mid to high 60°s, awter temps, 52-55° I got a late start, and didn't get on the water until about 9:30 or so. With all th etalk of shallow fish, I paddled out to one of the main points, and started getting fish immediately using a super shallow crank (Duo Slaver Crank SSR55). These fish were coming from about 1-2' of water - all dinks. I decided to work my way out instead, using some mid depth and semi deep cranks, Mid Warts, DT06, DT10, Old School Fat Rap, DTFAT03. I started scoring better fish after just a few casts. I had caught about 12 fish after the first hour and a half, and then things slowed down considerably, as did the wind. I kept throwing cranks here and there, but switched to 1/8 oz. shaky head with a 4" hand poured worm. What I found was I without the wind, I had to get off the point, and cast perpendicular to it. This pattern continued through out the day, on two other points, irrespective of wind. I've run into this before, and it stumps a little. By noontime, wind had shifted dramatically to NE, about 10 mph. Not bad, but a little chilly. The wind would go goofy again toward the end of the day, settling in to steady eastern breeze. At any rate, I continued working cranks, finding the better fish were still a little deeper, in that 8-12' zone, which suited me fine. The DT10 was a good choice for snapping off deep vegetation, and started producing as well as the shaky worm. Sometime around 1:00 PM, a float plane roared over my head and landed in the lake. It taxied around, and docked near my uncle's cottage, so I paddled over to see my crazy cousin. I do have to apologize here for not taking a pic of freaking plane docked next to my uncle's 26' charter boat, LOL. We shot the bull for a few minutes, and I chucked a DTFAT03 from the dock, and caught a nice three pounder. My uncle told me to leave his fish alone, LOL. I headed out to check a strip of docks on the other side. I like to scope out small chunk of docks each time, though i really don't like fishing them. There might be a big fish or two there, but the main lake structures hold more, bigger fish, IMO. I was right, too. Caught a couple of dinks. Saw another pair in an Astro, and they said they had four small fish, 2-3 lbs. I decided to run back to my spot. on my trip back north, I got blasted with some strange arctic blast coming straight out of the north. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but WTH? Got back to my initial main point, and immediately started catching. This time on cranks. I caught about five fish. The bucket brigaders were swearing at me for releasing my bass. I called the DEC, LOL. Then it slowed down. No problem, grab that shaky head. I caught a couple, but I wasn't satisfied with the size. Went to a BIG jig with a Paca Chunk trailer. 1st pitch into 12-13' of water, fish on. A good one, too. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to exploit this jig bite for very long, as I had to be home in time for dinner. The clock truck 4:00 PM, and my big banana boat became pumpkin sinker. I fished for about 6:30 hours, and boated over 30 bass, all largemouth. 23 of them were keeper or better. Most 2-3 lbs. A couple were just over 4 lb. No monsters, but an awesome day of fishing. The pics: Same fish as above, but note the melanoma spot below the secondary dorsal fin: Sorry so many pics, but that was what the day was like - tons of hungry fish!

I made the cut over to braid on spinning gear a few years ago, starting with fall and spring steelheading. It didn't work so well in freezing conditions, so I went back to mono in winter months. I liked it so much that both my spinning rigs for bass have the braid spool on them 90% of the time. I also use braid on three of my 9 casting rigs. For reference, I have 30# Power Pro on a Daiwa 2500 series reel paired with a 7' MH team All Star rod. This is a general purpose rod. The other spinner, a Daiwa 1500 size reel, is for finesse applications, like drop shot, shaky head, mojo/split shot, and light jigworms. For that I use 15# Power Pro. I frequently use a leader due to the zebra/quagga mussle infestation we have here in the Great Lakes, usually P-Line CFX leader material. A uni to uni connection or Allbright knot makes the connection. It is a very direct battle with the fish. Hooksets are a simple matter of a snap set. I have a lot of confidence in braid once the fish is hooked.

For pitching, I use a completely free spool and no breaks. For flipping brakes and spool tension don't matter. For any other casting, I like a freer spool and a lot of breaks. Like Catt said, PRACTICE! My son likes to set up small coffee cans in the front yard as "challenges." Sometimes he uses the gardens as cover, and will even lay the can on its side, with the opening away from me. get your jig in there, and your doing very well.

I'm no albino, actually half Native American, but I don't like what long term exposure to the sun does to my skin, and I have a few friends that have actually had melanoma, and they weren't "ginger-kids" either, LOL. Here's the type of tan I'd get back when I didn't bother with sunblock, My dad and I, just before our annual deep water smallie trip, back in '97:

90% of my slip weights are black painted tungsten.

I use two Sol (right handed) reels for all my cranking, and can whole heartedly recommend them for cranking, left or right. 5.8:1 feels just right to me. I've tried the low speed Zillion, and its too low speed for me.

They work. Get the mini kit.

Hands down, the best sunblock around: http://www.crownlaboratories.com/bluelizard/

Live Sawbellies fished deep.

You won't have any issue "playing the fish" because you'll have difficulty throwing the bait at all. I use a St. Croix Avid AVC70MHM, and the Spro and TT shad baits are just a bit over matched for the MH rods capability.

Straight up nylon mono? Suffix, either Elite or Siege, as long as its pretreated with KVD L&L. Copolymer? P-Line CXX on baitcasting, treated with KVD L&L. Fluoro, that's a moving target for me lately, though I like Sunline Shooter in 10 lb. size. Early results with Berkley 100% are good, and dare say better than some other "well known" lines. I'm reverting back to using leader on braid for most of my spinning applications, and I like P-Line CFX Fluoro leader.

This is the part that gets me REAL interested, and probably why I'll be trying these this year. Some of my biggest fish have come from chucking BIG baits where where big baitfish are most vulnerable to predation - in the open. The only downside would be the 20 lb. northern pike that thinks the same way as my target species, LOL, like that would be a bad thing either.

So is the Sol. CRBB and sealed drag. A FAR better reel. :

For overhand casting, I use a right hand reel. Since I palm the reel with my left, it never moves, even for the cast. No switching necessary. For pitching and flipping, I use a left hand reel. This allows me to cast with my right hand, and never move it to engage the reel. I use Daiwa TDX103HSDL with the spool release on the top of the reel, which allows me to palm the reel with my right hand. Spinning is always a right handed reel (which means left hand crank ). When I first started using spinning (learned on casting gear) I had a hard time reeling with my left hand, and used a lefty Mitchell (right hand cranking). I got sick of switching after the cast, and simply trained my hands to do it the other way.

I love the debate over what is a paddletail, what is a clubfoot grub, and what a swimbait really is, LOL. When someone says "paddletail," I think of a worm - Speedworms in particular. Just call the lure by its name, and who cares about marketing. Some "swimbaits" don't look at all like a swimming bait, and yet, some don't consider my little Sebiles true swimbaits. Its all too funny to me. I laugh every time I unhook a a slob from Money Minnows, Sebiles, Mini-Slammers, and Big hammers

There are only two reels that I care about maximum drag resistance, and they are both for heavy cover/braid applications. I was able to pump my TDX103HSDL reels to about 24 lbs. of max drag resistance by replacing the stick felt washers with dry Carbontex washers from Smooth drags. Even in those cases, my drag is set to about 12-14 lbs., to protect the rods (rated to 25 and 30 lb. line). I am looking to minimize and slippage on the hookset, while protecting the gearing in the reel and the rod itself. On all my other reels, all I care about is smooth, and progressive slippage at a measured amount. I'm really anal about this aspect of my fishing. I like to follow "The One-Third Rule," as I call it. If I'm fishing with 6 lb. line, I'll set the drag to 2 lbs. of resistance. Now, its important to note that I factor approximate break strength, not advertised "test strengths." I also factor in the rod I'm using, and what applications I'm using that rod for. For instance, I am using 8 lb. P-line CXX on my light cranking stick - an AVC70MM. I actually only use about 2.75 lbs. of resistance on this rod to protect the trebles on the baits, and reduce tearing, despite this line of holding up to about 12 lbs before distorting, and eventually breaking. On the flip side of this, my worming and jigging rods (AVC70MHF) are set up with 12 and 15 lb. CXX, and they are both using 5 lbs. of resistance from the drag. In all cases except my two heavy cover apps, I am using Carbontex replacement washers, with some form of lubrication. I'm using both Shimano Star Drag Grease, and Cam's Grease, and don't really see any difference. Other than the heavy applications detailed above, i don't think you'd ever need more than 5 lbs. of drag. I do think that operating at the upper reaches of a reel's range inhibits exceptional drag performance. Carbontex replacement washers go a long way to improving both the maximum resistance, and smooth, consistent performance.

Cork or burl.

lol are you kidding??? why wouldnt you want to, it may seem sharp to the touch but in reality is actually dull. that could cost you the fish of a life time. Like Burley said, you do not want to even try to sharpen good hooks. I like Owners as well. Try and sharpen them, and you've ruined them. If they're dull, replace them.To the other poster asking how I sharpen a spinnerbait hook, I use the triangle method, since that is what is usually there. Sharpen the two sides at a slight angle to the barb, and the a couple of passes on the back side. It takes just a few swipes, and very little pressure. You aren't trying to cut a new point, just tighten up the point. Does it help? I actually don't know. Fish hit spinnerbaits pretty hard, and usually set the hook themselves. I also use a trailer hook. I fon't sharpen them - replace when dull.

Since you are only 16, I'll cut you some slack, though I'm certain you should have taken Earth Science by now. Maybe not... A "front" is a boundary between to masses of air that have different characteristics. A classic "frontal" complaint would be when low pressure, warm, humid air is replaced by a high pressure, cold air. Prefontal fishing in that condition can be very good, though once that cold front moves in, the bite can get tough. I personally do well when their is stability in the weather for a couple of days.

Like if it was twisted down, and pointing at the other pontoon. The link was just to show you the hay it hooks up. Sounds like you have that part straight. Mike's advice sounds reasonable, though I've never had that happen with my HB 383c. My buddy has a 525 or 535, and I've never noticed it either.

You sure you have it pointing down? Is it underwater? Sounds like you're picking up the other pontoon. http://www.humminbird.com/support/FAQ.aspx?faqid=56

These work perfect with 10" worms in 5/0:

Its heavier. 9/16 oz. fits between. Seriously, profile, skirt, and trailer have just as much, if not more to do with the fall rate of a jig.