Lund Explorer

Good job Goose! Happy to notice that the Kalins is still producing for you. Will you be posting up the tote board like you did last year? It was interesting to see what was working for you. One of these days, I hope my priorities can revolve around fishing and not around all of the other trappings that keep the boat gathering dust. I guess there is always next year.

FYI - From the number of them we caught during the limited time of the water, there is a substantial population of gobies is Burt Lake. Anyone headed up to those lakes can look forward to using gobie style baits on both lakes.

Happy to hear you got into a few of those brownies. You also got some pretty decent weather. Our annual fall trip starts this evening, and the weather isn't anywhere close to what you guys enjoyed. That isn't all that strange though as I seem to always make it up there when the combination of cold air and wind kicks up the lake effect rain/sleet/snow machine. Unfortunately, you're exactly correct in the fact that the locals up there mainly target the walleyes and perch. That's who I will be fishing with on my trip, so most of my time on the water will be spent dragging cranks for walter or drifting mud flats for perch. Not that I don't enjoy that kind of fishing when it produces a few meals of good eating fillets. I'm already planning on rigging up one rod with a trolling spoon to long line behind the boat on the chance I might run into one of those landlocked steelhead that live in those lakes. As far as bass fishing goes, I have warned the kids that the old man is going to play the "It's my Boat" card a couple of days so that I can break out the bass baits! I'd really like to see what my North Star spinnerbaits might get me, as this colder weather should be just the ticket for type of fishing.

Welcome to the site bassgrabber! That's a great fish and makes for an impressive picture to go along with your profile. I've been on here for over two years and have been wanting to catch a decent one that I could post it up. Unfortunately, I've been on a real dink-fest ever since. Here's hoping that you'll enjoy the site, and that you'll soon catch an even bigger hawg to show us.

The only thing I can think of is that water seeks its own level. But, I would go you one further. Fishing Lake Michigan, and the channels that connect to the smaller lakes inland show a consistent ebb and flow that runs in roughly a one to one and a half hour cycle. All of these smaller lakes are fed by a river system that has somewhat darker colored water than in the big lake. Where you have a narrow channel between the two bodies of water, you can actually watch the two colors move back and forth. During times right after a heavy rainfall inland, the current seems to override this natural cycle and the current runs out into the big lake constantly. Conversely, I was heading off the Pier at Pentwater MI ahead of a major storm one morning. The clearer big lake water moved all the way through the channel and almost 3/4 of mile into the smaller lake, much like a storm surge. Depending on the season (spring or fall), fishing near where the two waters meet is quite often productive for a number of species. In the spring, Fish will seek out the river's water as it is warmer. In the fall, the reverse is true. Regardless, I always try to spend extra time fishing this type of moving water. In your case, did you notice how the fish reacted to this new current? Was the fishing better or worse than the day before?

I guess I'm going to have start calling you Young Man instead of Kid after this post. Very well said Kid! Oops....

Of course everyone should tell the truth, but there are just as many times when everyone should just back off of the keyboard. There's very little use in speaking one's mind when what you have to say will do nothing to change the other person's opinion. This could hold true for many of the repeated topics that come up here, including the use of live bait, catch and release, or the subject of the greatest lure ever made.... The Senko. Despite the many times that it has been shown that live bait is legal, that eating fish is not a mortal sin, or that the best bait is the one that works at the time, they continue to come up. It becomes a wasted effort to try to inject reason into any conversation with someone who thinks that ALWAYS & NEVER fit into any of life's situations. The mere act of sitting on one's hands can often lead to getting a better reputation!

My charming spouse, A.K.A.: "The War Dept" has a saying she picked up somewhere. She repeats it quite often. Women's faults are many, Men have only two. Everything they say, and Everything they do! When asked by people how in the world I can handle talking with my wife, I explain that I use four aspirin. I swallow two of them, and stuff one in each ear!

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Here's Hoping you have a great day Ronnie!

Don't forget to check out their spinnerbaits. They're built to the same standards, and I've caught a number of fish on them this year.

Yup! As fall progresses you're going to have to do more searching to find productive water. Shallow water pads will die off just like milfoil so you're going to want to search out native cabbage that will survive in colder water. My experience has been to cover lots of water throwing topwaters, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits until I find cover holding bass. And like you, northern pike will haunt many of these same spots. When I find pike, I just move along until I get away from them. No sense in donating tackle to those toothy critters. Not sure if your lake has any, but I always look for rapid drops too. Small points or sand/rock bars that offer bass a place to lay just onto the deep water side of the drop. Also, one lure I always have tied on during fall is a Hopkins Spoon on one of my spinning rigs. I can't tell you how many times I've see bass chasing prey fish up onto the surface during this time of year. The spoon gives me the chance to make longer than normal casts to those distant fish where I'll work it back much like a fast moving jerkbait.

The only showboating rule I'd like to see enforced is where some idiotic defensive player sacks the QB, breaks into his well scripted gyrations, all while his team is down by a score of something like 45-7! The penalty should be 15 yards, automatic first down and sterilization!

GPS! I don't think I want to try to cross a fog bound lake using SI/DI. I also want to return to specific spots, troll back across previous tracks, etc..

X2 on all above. My favorites in the green, brown, white spectrum include; Motor Oil, Avacado, Sand, and Smoke w/assorted metal flake.

It could be worse. Imagine if she had to clear snow/ice off of her car every morning!

A picture would be worth a thousand words (guesses) here.

Fortunately skunks don't rear their ugly heads (or perhaps I should mention the other end) often. My biggest concern though is whether the day's catch lives up to my expectations.

Humbling to say the least. It seems that no matter how brilliant, rich, poor, or ignorant a person is, that @#$%^ C-Word takes pity on nobody. Hard to say how many innovations are lost with his passing.

Maybe they have the same payroll clerk, and he just sobered up!

Sometimes its more than inches. When mine broke at this spring's roadtrip, I ended up with a cord that was just a little over 12" long. That was rather interesting when trying to pull up the motor in rough water. I didn't have a spare then, but I've got one now.

In the shop my wife works at, texting is the way many employees spend their days rather than trying to hit production quotas! Seems most of the supervisors can only notice when a cellphone is held up to an ear, but don't find anything strange about employees staring at the floor half the day. Personally, I'm still plugging away with an old Nokia phone that can't take pictures, can't get internet, text, play music, play games, or anything besides being used as an actual phone. It does have the option to turn off the ringer though, which I find quite useful!

I've owned both brands, and have used both cable steering and power drive models. I'd look at what type of usage the motor would get first. I prefer the cable steer models for bass fishing as they are faster to respond to changing direction than a power drive. If he will be trolling more often then the power drive option is nice whether it's corded or remote controlled. You may even want to consider a hand controlled unit as long as you pair it with a foot controlled power switch. Buy as much thrust as you can afford, dollar and battery wise. You'll never regret the added power. Finally, buy an extra cable if you go with cable steering, and an extra pull rope for any model. The cost is minimal, and either repair is very easy to do.

The young man that ended up with my old Ranger (17' 335v Commanche) uses it for duck hunting! No paint job involved, but a frame made from plastic pipe placed on top of the boat with camo draped over the frame right down to the water. It works for him.

Thanks Catt! I saw this subject earlier but decided to save the time of posting a long detailed reply until you had the chance to chime in. Like many subjects, I can add very little. In this case, that would be a lesson I heard many years ago from one of the touring pros of the time. His take on how to teach a beginning worm fisherman was for the angler to learn what the bait felt like when no bite occured. Anything different from that feeling required a hookset.