NateFollmer

Sayer's hasn't been as productive this year as it has in the past. I don't know if the recent drainings have effected the fish or what.

I hope you have access to a boat because if you're fishing from shore, you're going to have a hard time finding a good spot. Most of the shoreline is steep or an area where people swim. I'm sure you can find some place to fish with a little work though. The boat is a must on Raystown though, you need to get back into the coves away from all the boat traffic. I use just about everything on Raystown. Crankbaits, Slashbaits, weightless Senkos and other plastics, spinnerbaits and swimbaits: All these I use in the DEEP water. Find the cliffs and run these beside them (I normally don't go down much further than 30 feet for bass, after that, things get a little... BIG and they aren't bass...). All of the above baits will work off the shallow points too. I also throw texas rigged plastics back in the slop and coves (again, you'll need a boat to get to these areas). Raystown is a freakin' puzzle and then some. You could be on masses of fish one minute and then not get a bite for days. That's why I love it so much though! Everything is massive in that lake for some reason, I've caught bluegills that looked like large dinner plates ha. I also know a few guys that did some diving rescue training there and have seen some fish that scared the pants off them. The catfish, stripers and musky are the big ones! Stop by Jim's Anchorage, they have an awesome shop and should be able to tell you what's been catchin' fish. There are also tournaments on Raystown about every weekend so go check out the weigh ins and see how they did! Ok, I could go on for hours about this lake, so I'll stop there. Let me know if you need anymore info

Coyler Lake my friend... Come toward Lewistown on 322 and right after that Harley Davidson shop on the left (you can't miss it because it's a huge place with a ranch beside it). Right on the hard right turn look for the sign that says Colyer Lake Access. It's a good 3 or 4 miles back that road, but find directions online because some of the signs are hard to see. Coyler is in the big bass program and its half drained because the dam is cracked, so the bass are concentrated and EASY to catch. I live down in Lewistown about 30 miles south of you. I'm coming up to Penn's Creek tonight to fly fish If you live near Penn's, you'll have to start targeting trout too. Penn's has some of the best hatches on the East coast!

I think you already bought your rod because of your backlashing thread but in case someone else reads this... Quantum Bill Dance Select Combo - my first baitcaster and I still use em!

Where in Pa? Here in central Pa we have the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers, Walker Lake, Faylor Lake, Raystown Lake, Whipple Dam, Greenwood Furnace (more of a trout empoundment but it holds smallies)... those are just a few spots...

And if the water is very muddy make sure you are pitching right up next to the cover. A few inches can be the difference in getting bit when the water is muddy and the fish will hang tight to cover. I fished a very muddy lake Sunday. The only bites I had occurred when pitching and flipping to tree trunks in 8 feet of water. This means finding breaks and spaces between branches to get your lure up in there. The bass that I caught were tempted by jigs placed right up against the tree. Also, when you're pitching/flipping into cover like this (or beside docks or any vertical structure/cover, make sure you strip some line off to control the fall of the lure. If you don't do this, your lure is going to start coming back to you (pendulum back to you). If you pull some line off, or if it's a heavy enough lure just don't engage the reel, then you'll get a nice straight fall and more bites.

About the only thing I do for scent: I will take a strip of paper towel and cover it in scent and lay it in my tackle box/compartments and change it every 6 months or so (depends on the conditions). It gives all my baits the scent smell without wasting the product. Does it help at all? Don't know It isn't hurting though...

I must say, I have only used the Rage Shad and I think it performs great. I cannot speak for any of the other plastics in the Rage line, but I do know that Strike King makes great jigs and hard baits also, so I doubt they would put their name on anything THAT bad. I did have issues with the Rage Shad flipping through the water, but I went to a 5/0 hook (or if you still want to try a 4/0 get a weighted one, it will still float) and the flipping stopped. The Rage Shad has all but replaced my buzzbaits. The Smokey Shad makes the smallmouth go crazy in the summertime!

Smallmouth - Strike King Bitsy Bug Jig (usually black) with a YUM Craw Trailer. Largemouth - 10" Ribbon Tail Worm... Any brand will do

Swimbaits are something you just have to 'play' with... I can give you some guidelines that I have learned to give you a decent starting place though: - During Spawn and Post-Spawn run swimbaits shallow, sometimes even burn them across the surface like a topwater bait. Toss them around beds, docks, weeds, and any other cover. - If you find a cloud of baitfish, toss the swimbait into them and let it sink to the bottom. Sometimes bass will pick it up, if they don't, slow roll it back, just slow enough to get the tail kicking. You really have to experiment with them though. Sometimes I use them to get followers, just so I know fish are there. Then you can toss out something else and they usually take it. Here is a link to some articles that are in the article section of this site too: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/swimbaits.html http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/swimbaits_2.html The biggest producers for me have been Money Minnows, but you really need to 'match the hatch' with swimbaits. Figure out what some of the baitfish are in your fishing area and get some swims that match.

Yum makes a pretty realistic craw imitator also. I use them with a Strike King Bitsy Bug jig.

Depends how I'm fishing. If I'm fishing where I can't see my lure, I love setting the hook and feeling that first initial pull. If I can see my lure (topwater, shallow fishing), there is nothing more exciting than seeing that shadow come out of no where and destroy your lure

I just bought a "River Shirt" by Natural Gear at Sams Club for 14 dollars, I thought it was going to be cheap junk but it has been working out great. It has plenty of pockets, the pocket snaps are magnetic and it has some vertical pockets/vents. It does a great job of repelling water too. I hate paying a lot for outdoor clothes because I always get them too dirty or I rip them up from walking through forests to get to my good spots

Could have been largemouths... I've caught them before and they were completely silver (no markings or green color). This of course was because they were deep and in cold water, but ddifferent things in their environment can make em change colors.

I just started using the Spiderwire Stealth this year on my spinning rods and so far it has performed great. The only problem I have with it is that I CAN'T SEE IT . Fishing wacky style with a co-poly leader I can't see the line move/jump or whatever. Next time I'll be going with something in hi-viz. Try Camo Braid, it has hi and low vis sections. It really adds a level of depth perception when you have hi and low vis sections.

Hey any tips you want to share, I'm game I'm all for sharing my "secret spots", the only spots I WON'T share are the ones that other people have taken me too/told me about. I feel that they were given to me in confidence and I wouldn't break that trust. But, if it's a spot that I found and I know the fishing is good, by all means I will share it. Why should I steal all the fun? HA I wouldn't even bother mapping that lake. The PGC won't even listen to anyone about allowing electric motors on the lake so I'm sure their going to be a pain to deal with! I don't even understand why you need permission to map a lake. You're doing a good deed for everyone...

I'll second that. Bass fishing and fly fishing put me in the best mood, even if it completely sucks. They should use it as treatment for people that have too much rage HA.

http://www.fishingworks.com/fishing-videos/bass-fishing-videos/ Does that help? Search on MyOutdoorTV.com too, there is a pile of stuff on there.

+1 That stuff is great. It's like butter for your line

I can't believe Spiderwire isn't getting more votes! I love the Invisi-Braid and the Camo Braid. I've been using it for about 2 years now and haven't had any issues with it yet.

How much do you want to spend? I have a Shakespeare Catfish rod that I use for saltwater and Musky. I think it was like $40 dollars and the thing is still working great (just make sure you take good care of it by lubing it up once in awhile). All of my baitcasters are Quantum's and my favorite one is the Bill Dance Select model I got at BPS for $49.99. It gets mixed reviews but I freakin' love the thing. My buddy who I just got into fishing got a Quantum Tenacity combo from Dicks and I'm thinking of getting one myself. Again, keep your gear lubed and clean and you shouldn't have any issues at all! I have also used the Diawa Strikeforce combos from BPS that are around 50 to 60 dollars and they were just as good too.

Nah, I never go to Walker without the boat, it's a waste of time otherwise. Faylor is where I go when I don't feel like or can't get the boat out ha. This trip i was just too lazy to load up the boat (plus Blake didn't want to wear his life jacket so he wasn't going out!). I'll find you a big Faylor fish Mark, don't you worry... Congrats on the map! I'll have to buy one here soon before my next outing!

+2 on Francho's advice. Especially what he said about jigs with brush guards. I can't tell you how many times I pulled in a jig that was bit and the brush guard was pushed up against the hook. You really gotta rip on jigs to get the brush guard out of the way.

Thanks for the advice Francho. I knew kayaking was getting more popular, just never knew they had such tournaments out there already. Guess I needed to refine my search on google, all I was getting was junk when I was searching for small craft tournaments and such. When you add the word Kayak and Tournament, google seems to find a ton of good stuff!

They can be caught in post spawn, but it's like fishing after a nasty cold front rolls through. The fish get lazy and their strike zone gets tiny. I hit the creek bed in the lake after spawn. I like to toss out a texas rigged tube or fluke. Usually it's easier to get a reaction strike out of them, so try and annoy them As far as when 'post spawn' starts, I read somewhere when the fish leave the nest, they eat some of the fry to let them know they are on their own. As soon as that fish leaves, its post spawn time. This is obviously isn't going to happen for every fish at the same time.