Dwight Hottle

Wish you the best of luck dealing with such a complicated disease. Hopefully they can help you find some relief.

No all came from off shore weed clumps & hydrilla.

I sent you a PM.

Good eye just shy of 8.

Slow rolling means what your thinking. I think the saying started with spinner bait retrieves where the angler cast it out allowing it to sink to the bottom or near it & then slowly retrieving it so it maintains the depth without rising. You can do the same thing with a swimibait. The Hudd 68 combines the bigger tail piece from the 8" Hudd to the 6" Hudd body. They also sell a regular Hudd 6" bait with the smaller tail.

Got out on Lake Toho this week for two days of post cold front with high winds. Fishing was slow & the fish that did bite did not want to commit. We did the best we could with difficult conditions. Highlight of the trip for me was slow rolling a Hudd 68 & catching my first ever fish on a Hudd. I'll be more commited to it in the future.

Just saying because nobody is catching one doesn’t mean a DD doesn’t exist in MI waters. If a body of water has the right balance of bait to predators it can happen. Look at the recently verified 10 pound smallmouth caught out of Canadian waters in Lake Erie up at Peele Island. Just further food for thought.

Rick I use 832 as well. The 131 is a smoother weave & more round looking & feeling. I31 is also stiffer with more body than 832. It looks like an extruded line more than a woven line. I have had wind knots with 832 but not with the 131 in 10lb on spinning tackle. For me the price difference is justified but I'm not looking at the expense side as much as the increased performance side.

Yea but your bar bill could exceed your old cable bill.

@softwateronly That's the way to break in a new rod.

It's impossible to cradle a musky or pike of any size using a cradle by yourself. It's a two man operation period.

The trouble with the nuking weed control across Fl is that it ruins the fisherie for a long time . When you kill off all the aquatic vegetation you increase water turbidity in a state that already has plenty of wind events. Also the wholesale killing of vegetation causes the dead weeds to sink to the bottom & rot while depriving the water of oxygen. When the weeds are removed by mechanical harvesting they are mostly removed from the water not to rot & use up oxygen. The sprayers are paid by how much product they use & have no incentive to carefully target just invasive weeds. I know that there is a need to control vegetation for navigation purposes but there has to be a better way than the current program.

I always enjoy other species as by catches especially walleye. The only by catches I don’t enjoy are trash fish like drum & the occasional alligator here in FL.

@Pat Brown pretty well summed it up. The only thing I would add is that the HJ deep diver catches the snot out of deep & suspended fish. Very slight twitches with longer pauses & short pulls works well in colder water.

I had a lot of success with husky jerk deep divers in size HJ14 for smallmouth. The glass perch color caught a lot of 5 & 6lbers on Erie. They would get down 18-20 feet on 10lb braid with 180-220 line out.

There is a car wash on the left heading southbound before you reach the I95 exit.

If the reel foot is loose after tightening try putting a shim under the foot first. You can make one out of thin cardboard or plastic sheeting. Just trace the reel foot & cut it out with scissors or exacto knife.

I have it on two spinning reels & one baitcaster & have been impressed so far. Smooth casting, good strength & less dig in than other popular braids. The only downfall is the expense.

I don't consider myself a hammer by any means. I have made the observation that there are numerous hammers among the members on BR from north to south & east to west.

Katie my numbers reflect size class scarcity, i.e.at the ratio of fish caught to the next weight class above. For example I'm saying I catch 10 five lbers for every one 6lber. The higher the weight the more scarce that size fish is in the system. I don't know what percentage of 5lbers never grow to become 6lbers but I would surmise it's a combination of genetics & age rather than disease or trauma from spawning. Five lbers are abundant throughout the system. Six lbers must be readily available or I would not have caught as many as I have. But when you get to the 7lb class the numbers available become rather scarce even though there are even bigger classes like 8lbers, 9lbers & the magic 10lber. All of the above observations are based on the assumption that angler efficiency is the same for all size fish classes.

For smallmouth on Erie the ratio of 5lb bass caught to 6lb was at least 10 to 1 meaning you would catch 10 five pounders before you would catch one six pounder. And the ratio of 6lb bass to 7lb bass was more like 20 to 1. A 20" bass would weigh 4+ lbs while a 21" would weigh 5+lbs & a 22'" was 6lbs+. I weighed one 21" that went 7-1lbs & weighed one 23" that only went 6-12lbs so there were exceptions to the rule based on mostly girth. Two other 7lbers were 22"plus. Like @A-Jay experiences high numbers were the exception not the rule when fishing for trophys. But during the heyday on Erie you could get 50 to 100 fish days with two guys just fishing for numbers.

My time is running out. I need to scratch my itch & break 8 lbs on a smallmouth bass. It’s an itch I have lived with for a long time. My second goal is to break 12lbs or get that ever elusive teenager largemouth. I know they are both lofty goals but attainable.

I was confusing LJ Brasher with Pat Cullen. It turns out they were both extremely successful night fisherman using topwater baits & mostly fishing smaller bodies of water. LJ Brasher caught over 500 DD bass using a black musky sized jitterbug which he also modified to change the sound & action. He had a mounted stringer displaying five DD's caught in one night.

@Zcoker Was Pat Cullen using a black musky sized Jitterbug before he started using a black buzzbait or do I have him confused with someone else?

Braids only strength weakness is from impact breaks. The sudden snap when you backlash or snap casting will weaken it at the knot.