reo

:-?

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/05/six_fishermen_plead_guilty_for.html No punishment could be too severe!

The stripe going down the middle is the surface. On the right side you can see a big boulder and several other rocks about 50' off to the side of the boat.

I currently have 2 boats/trailers. One has individual replaceable bulbs within the red lens housing. These blow every time that they go in the water without unplugging from the tow vehicle. The other rig has sealed light assemblies within the red lens housing that contain multiple bulbs. This rig can go in and out of water without unplugging. But the entire assembly must be replaced when a bulb does go.

Imho they are not worth the $$$. I have one and rarely use it. Once you are good with your foot pedal your hands will be doing fishing things. Not useless but not worth the money to me.

Fbuds If you have a rod turner used for turning rod while finish dries you can easily (no cost) use it for an epoxy mixer that will keep the epoxy bubble free from the start. Tilt the drier back against something and stick an empty mixing cup in it. in another cup put each part of finish in (do not mix) add a 1/4-20 x 3/8 bolt with a 1/4-20 nut on it, stick cup with unmixed epoxy and nut/bolt it in the empty cup mounted in the drying motor and let it slowly spin for about 3 minutes. You will have perfectly mixed bubble free finish. reo

My best advice would be not to over think the drop shot. IF you are putting the bait in front of bass they will hit it. Sometimes they want it jiggled and sometime just sitting there. Remember the key to the ds is that it should stay in front of the fish for as long as possible until they can stand it no longer. The down side is that if you do not have in front of fish it will stay that way because it is not a technique that you cover a lot of water with. Hope this made sense. Sounds like you are using baits that should get a few, to add some that I have had succes with, robo worms, trick sticks, goby immitaters, jack all cross tail. Again, imho the most important thing is making as sure as you can that it is in the face of what you are trying to catch. Electronics are key. reo

As a Lake Erie guy I am not in water less than 10' very often and would rarely use the power pole. Finding small piles of rocks or rock/sand/mud transitions in 10'-35'? Now that is something that could be most useful!

Welcome. Waiting for soft water here too!

Lake Erie 2009

Same here

I may have to reconsider 8-)

I'm thinking it will be a little too crazy there on that weekend for me.

Thanks fellas

Not what I meant, sorry. I meant I have an older (about 4 years old) lowrance on the boat now. It is fully functional. I was going to replace it with a 798 SI. To avoid the two xducer buy would there be any issue with just adding the hbird for low speed si work and keeping the lowrance too. Sorry for the confusion :-?

Thank you, good info. I could also keep my current lowrance and just add the si. Any downfall with this besides for making sure there is room on the dash?

Got a question: Not withstanding what some reps may claim it is my undersatanding that the si works best at slower speeds, Does it operate like non-si sonars when at speed when the si is turned off?

I am interested for sure if I am available on the date that is set. Should have any bugs worked out of the new (to me) boat by then.

Nearest I can tell is that the gobies just are not active or feeding in cold water. In the western end of the lake there is a great jig bite for walleye in the early spring (ice out). Jigs tipped with minnows, gulp, worms and plain are used and gobies are not a problem. If one were to use the same baits in May or June (warm water) I am sure that the gobies would drive you nuts.

A warm welcome from just to your east!

Having done much smallie fishing before gobies and when a bass boat was hard to find around the islands, I have never heard of or witnessed offshore (open water) bass in Erie until zebra mussels and even now it is pretty rare for a walleye guy targeting big marks in open water in and around bait to catch smallies even when pulling baits that bass would eat. Near shore on structure different story. Erie bass, IMHO were just as structure orientated before gobies as crayfish were the dominate food source then. Again just my experience and opinion. reo

Couple of things: I fish Great Lakes water exclusively and have done so since my teens. Mostly Lake Erie. I am now 48. The last 3 years Ohio waters of Erie have produced more juvenile smb, for me, than I have seen in many years. It seems that a few factors are in play, CNR only in the spring and maybe some balance in the goby population along with possible adaptation of SMB habits. My fingers are crossed for continued catches of juvenile smallies. Ha, that sounds weird. There is NO stocking of walleye in Lake Erie. http://www.ohiooutdoornews.com/articles/2009/10/22/top_news/news02.txt reo

For spinning rods this has worked best for me: http://www.rodbuilding.org/library/spinningNGC.pdf

You gotta kill them before they do major damage (carpet and wiring). Corpse disposal would be the least of my worries at this point and as was stated they will most likely just dry up. I tried drier sheets under the hood of my riding mower where they like to build for the winter.....They used the drier sheets as part of their winter home. I have found poison and moth balls the best option.

WELCOME!!