Fishing Rhino

Roof racks such as Thule or Yakima will handle that weight. You'll need a line at the bow and the stern to stabilize the load. Pehaps even triangulated at the ends to resist the tendency of the load to move sideways at speed. A jon boat loaded bow forward will have a great tendency to lift if carried right side up. If upside down, it will exert a downward force. Stern forward will reduce this, but greatly increase drag. Either way, it will create turbulence. If you've been on a plane in "rough air", then you've experienced what the boat will be doing on the roof of your vehicle. It must be secured tightly. I would never put it directly on the roof of any car or truck. It can scratch or put creases in the roof. Been there, done that. One more thing. Always use ratchet type straps to secure it. Be sure to check it after driving a few miles, and periodically thereafter.

Just a bit of speculation. No hard data to back it up. Just what seems, to me, to be a reasonable explanation. Heavy rains wash a lot of stuff into ponds, lakes, waterways, etc. Along with this "stuff" has to be a plethora of bugs, insects, worms, and so forth. It seems to me that this is a natural occurrence. As such, fish would be programmed to take advantage of this smorgasbord presented by mother nature. One of the areas I lobstered late summer and into the fall was Cox ledge, about 25 miles south of MA/RI. There was a dependable "run" of lobsters at that time. These were, for the most part, new shell lobsters. The accepted theory was that the lobsters moved onto the ledge in the late summer, since they were rarely caught there at any other time of year. Cox ledge is covered with "horse mussels". These were huge mussels, some longer than six inches. When old lines and nets got caught up in the lobster gear, they were covered with these huge mussels. There is also an area closer to shore in the area of Brown's ledge, called "The mussel ridges". The only lobsters caught in any number from them were also, primarily, new shell lobsters. The same theory held sway for that area. The lobsters moved in, then left. Funny thing was, lobsters were never caught in the waters around this area as they supposedly migrated onto these bottoms. They suddenly appeared there, as if by magic. My argument goes like this. The lobsters had a readily available source of food on Cox and the mussel ridges. But when they shed, there is a period of time they are unable to feed on the mussels because they are not capable of cracking the mussels open, and must seek other food. Baited lobster traps offer this other food source to the lobsters, so they will enter the traps at this stage of developing their new shells. One other bit of evidence, that tells me there is a resident population of lobsters in these areas. When I first started fishing on Cox, the average lobster weighed over two pounds. Over a period of ten years or more, that average size declined to a pound and a quarter, as fishing pressure increased. The average size of an inshore lobster, until they increased the gauge size, was just over a pound. The accepted scientific theory, not fishermen's speculation is that nearly all legal size lobsters are caught up in coastal waters. When they shed, the next year class attains legal size. Coastal lobsters, unlike their offshore brethren do not migrate. Studies have shown that once an inshore lobster establishes itself on the bottom, it spends its entire life within a short distance of it burrow. In areas of Buzzards Bay, tagged lobsters have been observed by divers in studies to inhabit the same home, just as we do. While considered scavengers, lobsters actively hunt food. They can detect buried shellfish, and will excavate them. They can also catch fish. In a pinch, they will become vegetarians. They only scavenge, like seagulls, as a last resort. Contrary to urban legend, fresh bait will catch more lobsters that the stuff that stinks. They will grab the easiest available meal, as will the largemouth bass. When mother nature provides a banquet, they will not strike out of hunger. Think about how we feel after gorging ourselves during the holidays. Nothing like sitting down in front of the television, or grabbing a nap, after we make pigs of ourselves.

Owner also makes a twistlock hook w/o the keel weights. Next time out, I'm going to rig the monkey, craw, and lizard both ways, and see what happens. Might be better because it will not fall as quickly through the water column. I use the weighted because I fish a lot in the pads and water hyacinth, and sans the weight, the lure will not pull the line across the top of the pads to get to the bottom. Pretty much the same for the hyacinth, which grows in the rocky shoreline. There are some pockets between or alongside the rocks which can be two to three feet deep, and I want the lure to "drop into the pocket as it passes. The keelweight helps for this. Open water, the plain hook is likely preferable. I'll make a good faith effort to find out.

I'm not writing this to be a wise guy. Baits don't catch fish. Fishermen do. Some guys slay 'em on crankbaits, jerkbaits, slashbaits, etc. I cannot buy a hit on any of them, and I've got a bunch of good ones in my arsenal. I do well with all the Rage Tail baits except for the ten inch Anaconda. I've thrown it weighted, unweighted, in the weeds, in the pads in the rocks along the edges, and not a tap. Yet I'm having a ball with the monkey, lizard, craw, toad and shad in the same places. It looks great running around in the weeds and rocks, but unlike the other RTs, it appears it can be fished wrong, and I'm doing it. I know the problem is not with the baits, it's with me. I don't know what the heck I'm doing with them, or how to use them, in spite of googling and reading a plethora of information on when, where, how and why to use them. Based on my experience, the baits suck. And they do, for me. But I'm not giving up on them. I'll keep plugging away (pun intended) until I succeed. My experience was the same with jigs until this year. Now I love 'em, and have a box full of them in all types and colors.

Uh oh! I've been doing it wrong, rigging the Mister Twister grubs on my spinnerbaits tail up. Seems to work fine, just the same. I'll try some tail down. If it's better, all the better. If it is better, thanks.

Yes, they will work. It requires more patience and attention to detail to screw them in properly without the centering pin. I have some zoom horny toad hooks with the spiral lock, and also a supply of hitchhikers, (I think they are called) which can be connected to the eye of a hook to attach the bait. I much prefer that arrangement to the hooks with a jog near the eye to hold the bait. I have some keel weighted hooks and used them for the Rage Tails. Three trips up the line when a decent bass was hooked shredded the nose of the bait. How the bait passed over the keel weight was beyond me, but at times, it did. Any hook with a spiral lock will prevent this, and make your bait last longer. Try the Owner Twistlock, and the Zoom Horny Toad hooks. You'll see how much nicer the centering pin rig is to install a bait. The Owner hooks are expensive at two bucks apiece, give or take. But, they are economical. A bait will live much longer rigged on them, compared to the standard "worm hook" arrangement.

Keeping a log is a great idea. I'll admit that I don't. When I was commercial lobstering, kept meticulous records. I fished trawls with 10 - 20 pots per trawl. In close to shore where the bottom was patchy it was 10 pot trawls. From the day I got a Loran C, I kept track of every trawl I set, with the bearings of both ends. What I used for bait, the day it was set, the day it was hauled, and how many keepers the trawl yielded. Two reasons for the bearings. The first was to show the obvious, how productive that bottom was at a given time of year. The second is that if both ends of the trawl got cut off by boat traffic, I could quickly grapple it up. That was work, and for a living. After filling several notebooks with this data, I'm not inclined to do it for recreation, although I'm sure it would produce bigger numbers, and perhaps bigger fish. Gotta quit there, or I might talk myself into the extra bookwork.

X2, and I don't know anyone who considers a pound and a half bass to be a dink. Well, maybe the guys who fish lures that large do.

Sounds great. I'll take you up on that. I only go about 220, so the little boat that can, will breathe a sigh of relief. Ditto if you come up this way.

Good color on the space monkey. The nibblers "disarm" them in a hurry, but it seems not to detract from their ability to catch fish. If you start your retrieve when it hits the water, try this in water more than a couple or three feet deep. Give it ten or fifteen seconds after it splashes down to start your retrieve. Leave the bail open, or in free spool, depending on the type if reely you're using. You might find you've got a fish on when you take up the slack. If not, give it a couple of twitches where it lies, then retrieve normally. I find I catch more on the drop and pause, than on the retrieve. Except in the shallows.

Amen brother, amen!

The Chatterfrog is one of my favorites. It has not been productive for me this year, yet. It really produced for me, late summer, and fall. My favorite spinnerbaits have yet to show me much this year. Jigs were killer, March and April. Then nothing, or next to nothing, when they started spawning. Chatterfrogs worked best for me when they were fished at a speed that allowed them to bounce off rocks from time to time. On other types of bottom, I'd expect them to produce well if it the "ticked" the bottom occasionally, stirring up a bit of sediment. They do not do well in heavy vegetation. Not bad in sparse lily pads or some types of vegetation.

Space Monkey, Rage Lizard, Rage Craw, Toad, Shad have all worked well for me. Colors, june bug, watermelon red flake, Texas craw, double header have all worked well. I like the watermelon/pearl for the toad. I have the watermelon red, and watermelon chartreuse, which I haven't tried yet. For the keel weighted hook, you cannot beat the Owner Twistlock. They cannot be beat. The difference between them and the other brands is their twistlock has a centering pin which keeps the coils aligned as you screw the bait on. You can fish it in anything, and it is as weedless as weedless gets. 5/0 for the toad, 4/0 for everything else, according to the instructions. The toad has the thickest body. To rig it, grip the hook with the keel down. Press the bait onto the centering pin with the eyes up. Three full turns will put the nose of the bait against the eye of the hook. Run the hook up through the body of the lure, making sure it enters and exits along the center line of the body. The point should be exposed to the bend. Then, slightly stretch the body toward the hook's eye. About 1/16th to 1/8th inch. Press the body against the point, and bury the point that distance just beneath the "skin". Instructions come in each pack of baits. If you want to try something different, which has worked very well for me, try fishing it like a jig. In four to five feet of water, I leave the bail open on a spinning reel, or the reel in free spool on a baitcaster. When the bait hits the water, do nothing for 15 - 20 seconds. Ten if you're impatient. Take up the slack. If you feel a weight, increase pressure. If you feel a tug or jerk, set the hook. If no weight, move the bait a foot or two, and give it a few seconds. If you don't get a strike, bring it back with a varied retrieve of different speeds, twitches and jerks. Most of my fish have been caught on the drop, or the first motion of the bait on the retrieve. In shallow water, through the weeds and over lily pads, I fish 'em like a top water, varied between gurgling on the surface, or just below, creating a wake on the surface. The only wrong way to fish a Rage Tail is to not fish it. You'll find the arms of the bait often get torn off by smaller fish. Not to worry. As long as the hind legs of the monkey, the craw and the tail of the lizard remain intact, they'll fish well. Lately, I've been favoring the craw simply because it doesn't have those tiny, easily ripped off parts. Try 'em all. See what they prefer on a given day. What works the best one day, will not necessarily be what they want the next.

Since it's your friend's pond, you might consider putting some cover in the pond, which will eventually attract them, since it will attract bait fish. There is a thread on here about making a snag proof cover to do just that. Fill a five gallon bucket with concrete, stick some pieces of pvc pipe into it at different angles so it looks like a bush. When the cement hardens, "plant" it in the pond. You can sink Christmas trees or branches, but they will snag lures.

LOL. I'm an old man too, but I find it takes more than it used to to please me. Back to the question. Regarding recreation, (keeping in mind this is a family forum), it's fishing and golf, in that order. Around here neither is really a year round activity for everyone. There are always a few die hards who fish or golf year round. I used to be one.

My favorite "bite" is one that results in a hooked fish. I don't "cross their eyes". Never found it necessary. IMO, it is done more for show or effect than because it's necessary. I always chuckle when the tv shows show hookset, after hookset with the host nearly coming out of his or her shoes.

A thought provoking question. First response would be a jig n pig. Is that two? I chose it because it has produced so well for me this year, until recently. Spinnerbait or Chatterfrog would be my next, or would it be the Rage Tail or *** stuff? It would possibly be the Senko, since it can be fished so many ways, in so many situations and throughout the year. No matter which I chose, I'd always be second guessing myself, which would make fishing a miserable experience. Truth be told, unless I needed to catch fish to feed myself, I'd probably quit fishing and play more golf. Your question is akin to the following. If you could only choose one club with which to play golf, which club would it be? All I can say is that I'm thankful I don't have to make either choice, because it would result in a frustrating experience. "Variety is the spice of life."

The most common mistake, and tendency is to set the drag too tightly. Unless you are fishing in heavy slop, and must keep a fish from getting into the rocks or brush, it's better to err on the side of too loose. Too tight and you risk breaking your rod, especially with heavy line. You also risk ripping the hook out if it's hooked in tender tissue. I suppose you could get technical, as was previously stated, and set the drag to slip at a certain percent of the line test, using a scale. But, unless you are meticulous about checking your line for nicks and frays, or changing your line on a regular basis, it will likely break at much less than its rated strength. Years ago, I fished with two and four pound test mono, and caught a 7 lb, 14 oz, largemouth, and smallies over five pounds in open water, without obstructions. Not smart, because it allowed the fish to fight to the point of total exhaustion, from which they might not recover. I fished salt water with 15 pound test mono on my spinning reel, and did not change it for a couple of years. The UV rays weakened it to where it actually tested less than six pounds breaking strength, and yet, I managed to land stripers over thirty pounds, because I fished with a loose drag. I've also lost some nice fish because I got nervous and tightened the drag in an effort to stop them. There is no, "one size fits all", when it comes to setting the drag. When I have a "heavy" fish on the line, if the drag does not slip, I loosen it a bit. That, has never "cost" me a nice fish.

Would Friday be a good day? Haven't you ever heard of Good Friday?

I only fish on days that end in "y".

Why not? When I was a kid, and we were building a new home beside a small creek, we had a cookout. Then, we tried the hot dogs for bait that evening and caught a five pound eel and a large (by Yankee standards) bullhead on hot dog chunks. Who's to say meatballs wouldn't be even better?

I say,................it's a record. So what if it is not fully digested, or even alive. Every bass grows by consuming other living entities, bugs, frogs, other fish, etc. That being the case, its weight is entirely due to the comsumption and digestive processing of other critters. The caveat would be if you stuffed the other fish into its gullet to make it heavier. If it made a meal out of the other fish on its own, it's a record.

LOL about the smell. I dropped a bottle in my garage the other day. It landed on the cap, which broke, allowing the contents to escape. I didn't think the smell was that strong. Then again, I do fiberglass work in my garage. That might have something to do with it. One thing for sure, it made some of the cured resin on the floor tacky for a couple of days.

I'm sure it's me, but when tying to a split ring, it's not uncommon for the strand of line to work its way into the coil. Fumble fingered is me. Murphy created his laws for folks like me.