Maineiac

Yup, I'm another newbie too and you have it pegged. Great info, considered judgements and folks willing to try any thing if it catches fish. I have learned a great deal on here. I know I have asked some pretty different questions and they have all been treated with respect.It is a real blast when I have found moments when I have been able to contribute in a meaningfull manner. 26 days till open water fishing and I found a spot today that one might be able to get a couple of flips into between the ice cap. GO ICE, GO ICE, GO ICE.........anyone know a dance that would make this chant more effective? Not that strip necked, paint your body blue, run outside and dive into a snowbank one from last year........that one doesn't work......besides the Finns up the road do it for sport all winter....and I think they like the ice....odd people. But I digress, great site. Still looking up stuff from a couple of the threads from earlier this winter.

Hey this is fun. You know how Senkos are forever wanting to slide back down over the eye of the hook when you are Texas rigging them on EWG hooks. I got really tired of it especially on the 7" ones when I fished them in deep weed. So now I first tie my line to a number 2 or number 3 black crosslock snap and then attach that to my hook. When I run the hook into the bait I just go enough deeper to allow the snap to be pulled into the head of the bait. Bait stays put and if I want to change out hooks no big deal. If you are out experimenting with tubes hunting for the right color or size it can be a pain if you are using regular insert jig heads. So if I know I am going to be trying a number of different tubes I tie on a 3/16 or 1/4 oz. mushroom head jig and fish the tubes of that. The good ones have larger hooks like VMC Barbarians or Gammys so you get the same good hooksets and the distribution of weight is such that you get a great glide out of the bait when you work it. If your looking for them check out Gopher Tackle or Stamina both have about the same thing. I fish grubs and worms and all sorts of plastic this way. For those of you that live near salt water have you ever noticed the buckets of cheap 5 and 6 inch shad bodies that they sell for stripers and blues? Color is often called mackerel and is a blueish green tint with black bars on it. Grab a handfull the next time you intend to go weed or slop fishing, take one and rig it flat Texas style on a 4/0 or 5/0 EWG hook. I prefer the Gammy Super Braid ones but thats just me. Remember don't try to get the bait to ride normally upright but flat. Make sure you goop the bait up good with something Like Smelly Jelly to help it slide through the weed and for the aroma. At the lake find a big ole weed flat and just start winding the super mackerel out and working it on the surface like one of those fancy paddle/flap tail worms. Work it spluttering across the surface first and then if that doesn't do it let it drop into openings and twitch swim it along to the next weed. Nothing new here but it can be cheaper than some plastic if you keep your eyes open and big fish seem to like it if they are in the weeds.

Yup good stuff but as always why does it seem that the more we learn the more we want to know? The Hope studies were indeed ground breaking and the basic information they put into the bass information base is still, as on this forum being looked at and relearned. For those of us in the Northern tier though some studies out of Ontario may be a little more usefull. In-Fisherman has published sereral of them over the years and if I can find them again I will get them on here for all to look at. I think one still needs to be carefull with any of these studies for reasons that have been mentioned on here more than once. Every lake is to some extent different. LM are indeed LM but differences in things like water temps, forage bases and even varriatons in bottom topography or seasonal varriations in cover. Another thread on here that looked at different ways to keep fishing records is nothing more than an extension of this and the more that each of us do of it on our own the more each of us will know about the nuances of fish movement on our home waters.

For years this state has distributed neat little printed log books that some of us up here have kept for the State Fish and Game biologists. Pretty much standard data as has been listed in a print format and there have even been some instances where they were looking for specific info on certain lakes where I have sent it in at the end of the year with digital pictures and even little envelopes of scale samples. But my wife found a computer program that I am getting more comfortable with. I record info on the water and she enters it in as I turn the sheets into her. It seems pretty comprehensive for the price and I suspect can do a great deal more than I want or need. Its from a little outfit called MCM Software and its called Fishing Organizer Log 2002. I figured for 15 bucks I wouldn't be out that much if it flopped and so far I have been pleased. I just didn't have the computer skills some of you apparently do and wussed out with a turnkey product. But it is interesting the stuff that can come back to you at the end of a season if you have captured some of the data and for someone like me that can't remember stuff its a must.

RW lets take your concept even one more step. I would be willing to bet the majority of state record fish game by chance. And that most of these fish were not even caught by what we would probably refer to as serious fishermen. Now as more folks get serious about chasing big fish that could change but it will take time. All of you are right about the mind set thing. I still find I can not do the big fish or bust thing to the exclusion of every thing else the way I should. I still chase a number of tourneys and that kind of makes things confusing at times. I think one of the more interesting things for me though has been trying to incorporate more big fish techniques into my tourney fishing. It does indeed take a different mindset but on the right water at the right time it is simply productive. I only fish team tourneys these days and I have found not every partner wants to take the gamble doing this can present. So I'm down to a couple guys that are willing to put in the effort to learn something new and then try and use it in tourneys. But we are having a great time and the winter has flown by to this point as we have tried to continue our learning process.

Most of our states have good colleges and universities and if any of yours have a biology or wildlife program it is an even bet they have studenst or staff that have done research on the forage base of local lakes. A contact to the local school will tell you what you have and I have found them more than willing to share such information or point you to where it is kept. After that as has been mentioned the state fish and game folks are usually great.

I guess as they say not an assignment requiring a rocket scientist at least to get started. Find our your fishing a lake on a given date and get out the lake map books. Once you have gotten comfortable with where what is and those areas that allign with what you already know about similar seasonal patterns on similar lakes then it is time to head to the lake. Once at the lake it is all about water clarity, water temp and wind up here. I suspect RW would also make a check of things like current ( a fact I was rather oblivious of until he brought it up) After that I like to cruise selected areas slowly and watch my electronics. Generally when I am doing this I run the console unit in split screen 2-D/3-D and try to start figuring out where the bait is and how fish are relating to structure. After that it is all about covering some area and letting the fish tell me where they are and what they want.

Info that also reminds one of the importance of feel in fishing a C-rig. Even after I mostly broke myself of holding the rod wrong (can a guy that fishes a jig and pig alot ever completly break themself?) and forcing myself to drag rather than lift and drop I still didn't start to have the success I should have until I went to a rod with some backbone but that still had decent sensitivity. Then I smartened up and went to a main line using Super Braid and a flurocarbon leader. First time out I was amazed at what I was feeling including fish. I find that the more I can feel of bottom with my rig the better I am at holding the rod correctly and fishing the rig right. So if your struggeling with this rig up so you can feel what you are doing and you will do better all around. Least it has helped me.

Not even sure this is a newbie question as I have seen some pretty good fishermen second guess themselves. If you only just barely put the point of the hook under the plastic and are using the new generation of hooks we have available to us I doubt you will ever have a problem setting the hook on a fish. I will some times even fish smaller worms T rigged weedless on line as light as 6 pound test and using a 1/0 or maybe 2/0 Gammy EWG I can get a good consistant hookset. It is all about how deep you burry the point. It only has to be ever so slightly under the surface and if you have it right you will occasionaly find that the point will work it self out into an exposed position simply from the pressure of being dragged accross the bottom. With heavier gear/line and thicker cover I don't even hesitate putting the point in deep enough to allow me to drag through brush piles and stumps. With the hook in that deep I want a stout rod and good line and will put some beef into the hookset but I still have little trouble getting a hookset. So don't worry rig it weedless and fish the thick stuff.

Ok RoLo but I have no idea why you would see the need to appologize to me. Nor anyone else for that matter. I look forward to getting home in the evening and checking out BR and what new gems are in the offing for that day. Becoming a better fisherman as has been so often pointed out on here takes time and effort and particularly time on the water. For those of us that live in areas that are seemingly tucked up to the next ice age that time on the water thing gets a little skewed and that is where a forum such as the ones we have access to on BR become so important to us. Trying to keep the learning process going in the winter is hard. But here I sit on a day when the outside thermometer hovers at near zero with a blizzard on its way and I have my book of marked up lake maps beside my chair and I find myself setting up for the tourney season by comparing threads on here to conditions that I know or suspect. I haven't seen anything on here that has been disrespectful to considered input. Even when folks have wandered off where their minds have taken them folks have pretty much gone with the flow and just nudged things back into forum line (something other sites can't always lay a claim to). I have days I almost *** Matt and George and the others that have a more stable fishery and have even found input from the South I have filed away for those moments up here when it actually does warm up (hey I saw water temps hit 80.5 once last year, for about 3 hours) (ok 2 days later it was 75 but that is warm water fishing? Right?) Anyway RW had it right on a 5 star rating for some of your stuff and I would say the same for much of this thread. Hats off to Matt for starting it. RW I didn't stop to think about the riverine nature of your fishing world. Had I done so it would have been obvious that the current factor would have a serious effect on any kind of thermocline factor. D U H. I think you are right on though about structure and smallies. I can count a few lakes where deep weed can mean quality smallies but for the most part it has always been drops and rocks. I have just returned to spending much time on rivers for bass and the resivoir as a fishing pond so I'll probably be a pest on that issue too. Anyway thanks for all the info and allowing a frozen out fisherman a place to muse on what he thinks he is learning.

My foster brother came home safley from Korea in 1954 and on July 4th of that summer we had a big cook out and family get together at the local pond. While there I got to fish a worm under a bobber and at the age of 6 caught my first bass. Big it wasn't but I was hookedand have been ever since. Dad and my uncle would take me meat fishing for perch and bullheads and that was a blast. Dad loved stream fishing for brookies and I never really got into it the same as he did but loved fishing with him for pickerel for chowder fish for gram. It was after marrying and meeting my first wifes uncle that I got hopelessly adicted to basfishing in the early 70's that I really headed down this slippery road to fishing perditon and have loved all of it. Now it's all about turning on the grandsons to what their great grandfather and great granduncle turned me on to. Got two hooked one to go. Hey he's over 2 now and times awasting.

Matt not sure your last post served the purpose you intended. It did seem to shut down a rather productive and informative thread. The whole point has been or seems to have been that good fish can at times be caught shallow or at other times deep depending on the lake or region. It looks like the question remains as to why one can do what they can when they can. I have really enjoyed this and have found myself hooking up my partners to this discussion. I still have some questions for the esteemed panel. RW, do you see this depth thing and smallies as I do? The LM only lads don't even suspect the depth factor and our smallies and I have days I'm not sure I do even after all these years. Do you get the thermocline issue and smalie success as we do at times? With some of our oligatrophic smallie lakes and a predominent forage of rainbow smelt in some of our lakes the chase the thermocline thing can play into this. With the LM is this driven as much by forage as anything else? Sorry Matt some of us don't live in Texas and this is helping. Want to get every last drop of info out of it.

Ok I don't know these good folks fishing lineage but if they are fishing in Scotland they either have a background in fly fishing for trout or if they are "rough" fishermen they have a background fishing live baits or dead real baits. They may be most comfortable and productive fishing live bait and you might learn some stuff too. Just a thought.

Wasn't going to tumble on this thread but now I'm curious. How many kids and their ages would help. I' not sure about the kayak thing as it is going to at least partially trap the individual you are trying to entice into this in a setting that limits other options. We got our boys into fishing with some degree of success but each in their own time and at an older age than you might be considering. With the grandkids we started earlier and with a larger boat we started the little ones off on the water with us before they could walk. As they got larger 4 or so years old we started them fishing with ice fishing jigging rods and made sure they would have fish to catch through the day. No we didn't set some artificial expectation that they could always go out and catch fish all day but that on any given day they would get a number and we set them up with rod holders as they graduated to ultralight rigs. But it was always ok to kick back and watch the world around them, read a comic book, eat, pretend to drive the boat, eat, watch the fish finders for fish, eat. And they would keep drifting back to their poles. As we taught them casting it became a game to see who could make the best cast. Rigged with T'rigged weightless Senkos they could cast easily, fish through most cover and catch fish. But it was the mix of activities that made the boys enjoy their time on the water and made it possible to start doing club tourneys and youth events with thme by the time they were 6. Now at 8 they are even more fun to take fishing but we still keep in mind that they are 8 and may want to do other things as the day progresses. Like eat. Did I mention the importance of bringing plenty of neat picnic stuff?

Really hard to legislate common sense or intelligence let alone common decency. This is coming all over as has been said. The NH state legislature (house) has just passed a 45 mph spped limit on their state waters and now it goes to the Senate for their take on it. For most states it is a factor of too many people wanting to go fast on the water and too little water for them to do it on safely. Coupled with limited education requirements, weak licensing requirements and even more limited enforcement capability and it should not be considered odd that we have a mess. I was at the training center for the CG in York town VA a couple years back and there were water craft enforcement types from all over the country there comparing notes and training. Doubt we have seen the end to this. But hey my boat will do a stately 32 mph so I should be ok. Hmmmmm kind of worried about my partners Gambler though.