Dwight Hottle

You can always mute your phone but still have it with you for pictures.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

As a Cavs fan I'm hoping Houston wins tonight.

Congrats on the new PB.

Welcome to the six pound club.

Sometimes timing is everything. Helps to be fishing a world class fishery too.

Sounds like your really getting into them. I knew you would get hot sooner or later.

Good luck. I heard from a friend that is there this week that fishing is improving.

I have always wanted to try Rainy Lake on the Canadian side so a small group of four guys decided to go. Three of us drove two days to get there & one guy from Atlanta flew to Duluth Minn to meet up with us. We pulled one boat up & rented a 2nd boat up there. We stayed at LaBelle's Birch Point Camp on Northwest Bay. The accommodations, food & boat rental/guide service was great. Ice out was May 5th & we arrived on the 11th. Water temps were 47-53 during our six days of fishing. The bass were confused as to where they should be location wise with the three week late ice out. We searched & searched & searched looking for them. We tried points, bays, humps & islands all over. Most days we ran 20 miles out & 20 miles back. Weather was cool & sunny and mostly dry until we left. We had three days of high wind but fishable. We found one or two fish on most spots we tried but no schools or concentration except for one day. Our best day gave us 55 smallies for our boat that day. Most other days were 20-30 fish for the boat. We caught lots of snot rocket northerns & some walleye mixed in. Walleye season didn't open until the day after we left so they were released rather than eaten. Early successful baits were tubes dragged on bottom or just off. As the water warmed my favorite bite started to shine. I only fished jerkbaits & a few flukes the rest of the week. Our biggest fish was 4.5 lbs. Five pounders are considered trophies up there. The camp owner has a 6.5 lber to his credit over 30 years of fishing Rainy. Typical good days on Rainy average 50-75 smallie per day to a boat during normal conditions. If you want to try a Canadian smallmouth trip Rainy Lake is a good choice.

After six fishing days & four days of travel to Rainy Lake Canada I decided to try my home waters. When I left Erie the surface temps were around 49-51 degrees. Ten days later the surface temps were only 51-53. There was a massive mud line from shore to 4 miles off shore when I left. When I went out yesterday the rain from two days before left the water a little turbid but not to bad. I started fishing a LC pointer 128 & a deep diving jerk bait. The 128 proved to be what the bigger fish wanted. I caught two nice eater walleye & about 9 smallies. My best five smallies went 24-25lbs. Big fish of the day hit the 6lb mark on my boga. It was a great welcome back for me.

Just heard about the problem with your son. Glad it is all working out & getting back to normal.

I was diagnosed with stage 2-3 esphogual cancer November 2015. I had six weeks of chemo followed by surgery to remove my esophagus & part of my stomach followed by 6 more weeks of chemo. I am cancer free & back fishing so modern medicine can do wonders for some people. Stay positive & let the doctors guide you. You can win this battle.

My experience is that smallmouth definitely will eat yellow perch & do. Before the arrival of gobies in the great lake system perch were more heavily predated by smallies. Smallies & walleye are often mixed in with perch schools & caught accidentally by perch fisherman. Some of my most effective baits are perch coloration.

Hang in there and have a speedy recovery.

The Toronto Raptors sure made the Cavs look good.

Captain Gary Zart. I bought my current boat from him. He & his son can teach you a lot. https://www.bluedolphinwalleye.com/walleye-fishing/

I had a 7' 3 piece travel rod built on a MHX-TR844.5-3 built as a custom for crankbaits up to 1.5oz. The rod looks good & handled strike king 10XD with no problems. The MHX blanks were well accepted by the custom rod build community. The price came in under your $240 limit. Definitely an option to consider if you have the time.

Just as a heads up I can fit two Loomis Escape rods in one container. I lash two carry on tubes together carrying four rods and the airline counts it as one carry on.

Good luck with that.

WTG Brown slime is always best.

The Cavs stole one from the Raptors.

When in doubt go straight to the horse mouth. http://fish.shimano.com/content/fish/northamerica/us/en/homepage/Shimano_Product_Page.P-CALCUTTA_CONQUEST.html

X3

Congrats on the new PB.

Shimano Bantam can be had for close to that price. They are sweet little reels.