Md

Assuming the second biggest is 10 lbs., the other three would have to average 7 lbs. a piece to equal 42 lbs.... I smell something fishy here! P.S. Is that a fillet board in the background of pic 2?

42lbs??? No comment!!!

In my mind, a great fisherman catches fish consistently no matter the season, weather, fishing pressure or any other conditions that may be involved. Some of us are lucky enough to fish with someone like this often, and be able to pick his brain and learn something on every trip.

Is anyone else around here color blind? What a pain in the rear! I have to leave most plastics with reds, greens, or browns in the original bag/box so I know the difference.

These money minnows have caught me a lot of fish the past year. Another thing I like is they slit the belly so when you place you hook it does not have to go through both the belly and the back plastic. I get a better hook up with these baits over others without the belly slit. I just started experimenting with the hollow bellies last year and had some success. Tonight I finished watching Hank Parker's show and he featured the Berkley Hollow Belly and had a great tip. On a Berkley Hank slits open the belly before he rigs it with a weighted hook. He said he missed nine fish before he figured out that the belly rubber was in the way of good hook ups, just as Baron noted.

I must admit that I'm not comfortable with the idea. In these tough times, I think it would be best to support the Elite guys and show the lake's true potential instead of possibly getting in their way. We MUST stick together as anglers. There are plenty of other weekends all year to hold a tournament on this lake. If these guys want to compete against the best, they can fish the Southern, Central, or Northern Opens either as boaters OR co-anglers. A lot of Elite guys fish the Opens. Also, all FLW events still include co-anglers, and the FLW guys are just as good IMO. A lot of Elite guys fish the FLW too. This is their livelihood...just give them the water for a few days. I wouldn't go to someones place of employment to compete with them to see if I could do a better job or try to show them up. If the tournament director thinks there is nothing wrong with it, why is the launch site a secret??? It doesn't make much sense.

Has anyone read about this? I'm sure there's going to be a lot of tension at the lake for this deal! http://www.roanoke.com/outdoors/wb/193344

NEPA representing! If I can get my boat on it, I fish it. I do most of my damage in Upstate NY though.

After experimenting over the past couple of years, I've had the best success with braid and a flouro leader. I fish water that is gin clear, as you can see the bottom in 20+ ft and I catch fish up to 60+ ft. The braid is ultra sensitive and you can feel everything in the deepest of depths. Just straight flouro can be a nightmare with twisting and can make for a long day. Some people also use a swivel a few feet above the hook but reeling it through the eyes of your rod can do damage. Braid and a six foot flouro leader is the way to go IMHO. The knot to tie them together has been debated here in different posts.

This may be a bit off topic but, a funny thing happens when fishing a series of docks from a boat. Dock owners come up with some very creative strategies so that you don't fish "their water". Besides being yelled at (I just laugh at them), I've had people run into their homes and grab their pole and cast toward me, decide to go "swimming" in full dress, throw rocks into the water and the best yet was set up a target on their dock and shoot at it with a BB gun. I'm sure I'll see some new stuff this year too...it just make me shake my head!

X3. Also this year I bought some Roboworm rebarb hooks to try to rig my dropshots weedless for different situations. I read somewhere this is what Aaron Martens uses so I'm going to give it a shot.

Hey Muddy, About ten yeard ago beavers dammed up a small stream that runs through a swamp and woods that borders our property. All said and done the dam was about 8 ft tall and 25 ft long. The pond ended up being about 25 acres when said and done. The best part was that when we were kids we used to put minnow traps in the creek to catch live bait and I knew it was full of shiners, craw fish and all kinds of chubs and other minnows. Turns out a few neighbors put some bass in it and the place absolutely took off. It was impossible to fish from shore because it was all swamp land around the edges, never mind the brush. My buddy stashed a jon boat in the woods and we used to have a blast for years. I caught some of the biggest largemouth of my life out of that place. Turns out when we had those huge storms a few summers ago the dam got washed out and all of the bass got washed down stream. The beavers rebuilt it but not very well and its only a couple of acres now. Ah, the good old days!

I started suffering from the same thing last season. Between fishing and lifting weights it became unbearable. I got a brace online from Valeo a few months ago and I wear it in the weight room or any time I do anything strenuous. The inflammation/pain is almost non-existent now but I'll probably wear it until it gets too hot out or if the pain decides to come back. There are all kinds of braces online if you do a search. I like the Valeo because it can be adjusted. It really works for me so far. We'll see how it performs on the water in a month or so!

I'm left handed and reel with my right hand on both bc and spin outfits. The most important thing is feeling comfortable with what I'm doing. This brings up the topic of "feel". I've heard Rick Clunn and others emphasize recently about how long it takes to get used to another rod/reel when you switch while on the water. It may take up to half hour to get in tune and get the "feel" of the new set up according to them-which can lead to many things including lost fish, backlashes, time lost, etc. It is so important to Clunn that he CLAIMS to only fish with only the same rod reel combos to eliminate that time of getting that feel back while on the water. He had five identical bait cast combos on the deck of his boat while he was explaining this. But this is coming from a guy that is arguably the best pattern fisherman of all time. So when he's on a pattern such as cranking ledges, he may have five very similar baits tied on different pound test on each identical rod/reel to get to different depths. I've also heard KVD mention the importance of the transition time it takes to get the feel back. It's something the average guy, myself included, doesn't usually recognize. That's why they are the best. As for me, some days I'll have one spinning rod on my front deck, and some days I'll have three identical bc combos, and others I'll have eight that are nothing alike. But that's why it's so much fun!

My life revolves around this place. 8-)

And in a t-shirt too...you're killin' me man! It was -15 here on Saturday and you're crankin' for smallies and gettin' a tan! Nice fish man!!!

I had problems with my Dual Pro Three Bank last year too. It sounds like the same thing that mine was doing. When I plugged it in the lights were acting funny. I borrowed my buddies multi-meter and found out that two of the banks weren't charging right. I e-mailed Dual Pro and they quoted me a price to fix it. When I sent it they said it would be cheaper if I just bought one of their factory rebuilds if they could keep the core. So I bought a rebuild that had a one year warranty also. It works great but I believe I paid $190 with shipping for the rebuilt one with the core. I can only suggest you test out each bank and see how many volts they are putting out. Hope this helps.

I mainly fish a river/lake which is literally thousands of acres and at least a few times a year it seems the most popular place for other people to fish is under my boat...and I'm not talking about "community holes" either. It seems that a my bass boat is a fishing jerk magnet, especially if they see you catch a fish. It is to the point now that if I hook a fish while someone is driving by I'll pretend nothing is going on so they don't stop. If they do stop and start to get too close I just grab my heaviest spook and set my "boundaries". If they don't get the hint, I just leave. There is way too much good water to fish to waste my time with some tool that can't find fish on his own.

I fished the Gulp Jerk Shad some last fall on a drop shot and did really well with it. The only problem is that they are soft and get thrown when the smallies get hooked and go nuts. This happens often with all the Gulp baits but I'm sure Berkley doesn't care because I always re-stock. I wish they'd come up with hard nosed Gulp products because in my neck of the woods they out fish most other baits on a drop shot and I'd save a ton of money.

X2

At this years BASS Champion's Choice at Onieda Lake Iaconelli was fishing the fish release area not too far from the weigh stage and word was that it peeved off a lot of the other pros. The released fish bit someones lure, rode around in someones livewell for some period of the prior day(s), were put in a weigh bag and carried to a stage, weighed on a scale without water, and then put in a release boat and taken back to the release area and put back into the water. My question is this...why were the other pros mad that he was fishing the release area since these fish would never bite with all the trauma they had just been through? He had the heaviest bag of the tourney and finished 3rd too...just a thought!

Good stuff man! All that you said is right on! Although here in the Northeast when it comes to smallies, it IS a big fish tactic. It also translates well to any water color and lots of species. Last year I caught everything from perch to trout to a few Pike over 35 inches...not that I wanted to catch any of these useless fish but what the heck! lol For anyone new to drop shotting and looking to start out, follow fourbizz's advice exactly and you will be doing it right...now all you have to do is find the fish!

It looked like it was right around Cape Vincent, in which case I have fished that area. You can still catch them shallow especially on the lake if you find the right structure.(rocks w/ weeds mixed in)

There's not much in Eastern Pa worth coming to from Delaware IMO. That's why I mainly fish Nothern NY. You may want to try the Potomac. I've never fished it but most of the pros I've fished with love it.

For the price you can't beat the BPS Nitro Shad Dancers. They have some SERIOUSLY sharp hooks and run true. Last spring during pre-spawn I caught 11 smallies on 11 casts all that were over 3 1/2 lbs. on the red craw color. I'm sold on these baits.