ChrisAW

I feel your pain here. I've never had a chance in the past to go fishing when its this cold, and worse yet the water temps went right from mid 60's straight to mid 40's for my area. There might have been a day or two of good fall fishing but our temps dropped right off. I would have liked to try to go fishing tomorrow but with winds in the 17-20 mph range, I don't feel like fighting those kind of winds while I'm supposed to be drinking coffee on the pauses between jerks.

It depends on how much you're going to spend on the rod/reel. It will get much more knocked off the price of a high end rod/reel than you could get back selling an old combo.

Cut it open, and I bet you find a piece of plastic lodged in its digestive track.

I do. When you know what you like to use and not much new stuff coming out, I don't buy something every day. But I did come home with some lures today lol

If you get good at it, you can tie Shaw's knot with minimal line usage. 6" of doubled line or 12" overall, maybe a little less, is all I use generally without a problem.

I go there 5 times a week, and usually leave with nothing

Simple. So long as the hook point stays behind the weed gaurd, bend the hook point out a bit. I've had better hookups with the Chompers jigs that most others because of the fact that with the point bent out more, the hook has PLENTY of room to grab something. But, I've also started skipping with the Booyah "swim" jig. It is a round bend hook, but does not have an offset eye. It is a straight shank. So far, when I'm out using these, I have not missed a single fish. That doesn't happen often.

Water temps were 62 this morning and got up to 67 in some areas I fished.

It's going to be different for MANY people, but me personally, I want my leader to be just long enough that when you reel up your line to make a cast, that the connection knot does not reach the spool. I usually do my arms span of leader (Or just above 6 feet.)

Maybe upward motion casts are only 4 feet of line pickup. Sweep sets are more like 7 or 8 feet of line pickup, anf i always reel down unless its a cranking technique with rod tip down.

Devil Spear, Subwoofer, and the new Backslide are the only ones I currently keep in my regular rotation. I only T-rig the Devil Spear with a heavy weight. Thats what it was designed to do, punching. But even just hopping this thing, or "stroking" it has gotten me bit in open water. Subwoofer I run on the back of a swim jig often, and had great results. But I do more often run a Swim Senko. The Backslide, even though it has little to no action, has been getting me a LOT of bites at the docks with the very slooooow fall and the little legs vibrating.

The dropshot is LEGAL in the Great Lakes and ALL inland lakes. It is not legal in streams or rivers, or these drowned river mouths. *Drowned river mouth lakes listed by county: Allegan: Kalamazoo River and Silver Lake; Benzie: Betsie Lake; Manistee: Arcadia Lake, Manistee Lake, and Portage Lake; Mason: Pere Marquette Lake; Muskegon: Duck Lake, Mona Lake, Muskegon Lake, and White Lake; Oceana: Pentwater Lake, Silver Lake, and Stony Creek; Ottawa: Macatawa Lake and Pigeon Lake. Wrong. "Hook and Line Fishing: Fish so taken must be hooked in the mouth. Fish not hooked in the mouth must be returned to the water immediately. No more than three lines per person (including tip-ups) nor more than six hooks or lures may be used. All hooks attached to an artificial bait or "night crawler harness" are counted as one hook. Hooks must be baited or attached to an artificial bait. You may use any number of hooks on one line for taking smelt in recognized smelt waters. Tip-ups and similar devices used for ice fishing must show the angler's name and address. All lines must be under immediate control. Hook size regulations exist on certain streams (see Exceptions to General Regulations by County, p. 16-18). " The law in the past used to state no more than 2 hooks per line. But that is not how its stated anymore, and MDNR has made it clear than up to 6 lure rigs are legal to fish in MI.

Detroit and Rossford stores had a little tournament on Lake St Clair this morning. It included people from all sections of each store. 6 teams from both store paid in, basically a store vs. store, but there was still a payout for first, second, third, and big bass. We launched at 7am and had to be in for weigh-in at 2. We had a really slow day. We made our way up the center shipping channel, caught two shorts in an hour. Decided to move. Went back out the southern channel, fished just outside of it in a ~20 cut and got nothing. We started to make our way back toward 9 mile, but the water was getting rough and Rich decided we should stop and just put our heads down and fish, pretty much right in the middle of the US side, around 10 feet of water. He ended up boating a 3.8# fish, and then nothing for a while. By now, its about noon. I said we should head for deeper water, near the shipping channel that cuts through the center of the lake since thats the closest structure we could get to without making a long run. We motored over pretty slowly to avoid the bigger waves, but it was about 12:15 when we started drifting along the south side of the channel. Fished for about 20 minutes with tubes, cranks, dropshot.. I boated a small keeper on a tube. Another 10 minutes or so, and Rich finally got a hit on a DS. Netted it, and I tossed right into that spot again with my dropshot. I hooked up. In a matter of about 5 minutes, we had a limit. Along the channel, we would see spots of light blue water mixed with the sand-colored stained water. Every time we went by or through one of these color changes, we hit a school. By 1:15, we had culled about 8 times. We had caught about 15 fish in the matter of that half hour. 3#er after 3#er, some just slightly heavier than others. 1:20 came around, and Rich said we should start heading back because of the conditions. After about 3 minutes on the motor, we realized it had calmed down a lot, and the run wasn't nearly as bad as we thought. We were very early to weight in. I think if we had stayed, we may had landed a 4 or bigger within those extra 15-20 minutes, and maybe won this thing. Ohio's Store Manager and a fishing associate won first place with 17.85. Rich and I placed second with 16.75, and another Ohio team placed third with 16.65. Total weights combined between each set of six teams - Ohio had 85lbs - Michigan 78lbs. We blame our loss on one of our managers who is an Ohio native. He didn't come in with a limit

I didn't even bother hooking up the boat. I tried to go last weekend, and just because it was warm, the launch was backed up about an hour wait. I may have launched pretty quickly if I went early, but I just don't want to deal with all the morons around here that have ZERO dock etiquette. They don't know how to read the signs that say "Have your boat ready to launch before pulling forward." And decide not to undo the straps and everything until they are backing up to the water. They don't know how to launch a boat, so it takes them 20 minutes to get it on or off the trailer. Just tie their boat to the dock while they wait for their truck to pull around, while the idiot in the truck waits at the back of the line instead of just coming to get their boat out. Not only that, but last time I went fishing on the weekend, I watched a kid walking away from my boat on my way up to the ramp to pull out. When I looked in it, nothing was missing, but he had undone one of my rod straps. I told the park ranger on my way out, but not much else could be done without actually taking anything.

If you want to use it for leader, I might use AbrazX instead. It has better abrasion resistance than InvisX. But if you may end up spooling it instead of just leader, InvisX is much more supple, and easier handling. Get you some Line and Lure conditioner though, its still going to be a little harder to handle than any mono.

Filming has probably ended by now, or will be soon. I wish I could have had a chance to head up there and try to catch them, but like I mentioned, they aren't fishing one single lake. There are three or four in the area that they could be on.

Finally got a chance to get out and really give these a shot. Went to my favorite summer haunt where dock fishing can be very productive. I actually didn't think about these until about two hours into the day. I was flipping and skipping jigs and senkos under docks and not getting bit nearly as much as I felt like I should. One stretch that I know will usually produce atleast a limit only landed one 2lb'er. I watched a few fish slightly nose to the senko, but not make any move to actually eat them. Once I remember these, I threaded one on and went back down the same stretch. I ended up getting about a dozen fish on the same shoreline that a jig and senko netted me pretty much nothing. Same color bait at first, but I decided to try out the Cotton Candy color because of how sunny it was, and I could see small, translucent baitfishing swimming around. As I fished around the rest of the lake, I netted a total of 33 bass on these lures today, 14 with green pumpkin, and the rest on Cotton Candy. No monsters, but it would have put me into a decent bag for a tournament here. As soon as I would toss this up to the dock and it started its VERY slow drift backwards (The point of the dual density, instead of nail weighted which will drop MUCH faster) I would watch them come out of their little hiding spots and nose right to it. After watching it a few seconds, they would inhale it. These are definitely in my box from here on out. Very good finesse bait.

I have no issue with schooling rigs in general, but I'm ok with this. I'm tired of seeing half of the anglers on FLW Outdoors throwing it. Its very un-interesting to watch. I know it may work, and also won't a majority of the time. Its just another lure. But even watching people throw crankbaits is more interesting.

Actually, the conditions were a bit rough but not dangerously bad. Aaron Martins said it himself - Sounds like bad luck more than anything. No one else had a breakdown, and quite a few other anglers went to Erie as well. Maybe if he would have made a couple more casts, he wouldn't have happened into that "perfect storm" of waves that cause a failure with his jack plate. Not sure why you're trying to deny the fact that luck is part of fishing, whether you want to call it that, or "probability distributions." Freak things happen, good or bad, that change a persons day, things that skill or hard work cannot help you avoid or stop them.

You can't say his statement is 100% incorrect, and then say the same thing in the next sentence. He never said "It's ALL about luck." You said that. Yes, a majority of the top players are there because of SKILL. But random happenings play a roll in this game too. I would say it was LUCKY for Chris Lane that Aaron Martins had a breakdown, or he wouldn't have got he win on St. Clair. No, luck might not exist as a true phenomenon in life. We use that word to describe something out of the ordinary happening, that we may not find a cause or reason that it did happen. Good or bad, luck DOES play a roll in fishing.

http://www.majorleaguefishing.com/news_details.aspx?id=2160 Me and the guys at work all noticed this today. We were chatting about it, and we wondered what lake they were fishing. Then, we read through and noticed that they aren't just fishing ONE lake cut into zones, they are going to fish multiple lakes, one for each round. One that I've been told, judging by the pictures is probably Grand Lake. I'd be curious to see if they will fish Fletcher Pond. Its a very shallow, stump filled lake. I doubt they will considering they won't be able to get up on plane on most of it, but I'd like to see them break that lake down.

Most BPS's still carry the weight systems. Mine still has them at least.

I like Duckett's, but knowing the reputation that Dobyn's has, I wouldn't switch. I might try one and see how you like them for your next setup.

I'd have willingly given them another lure, like a 1oz tungsten weight upside the head.

If you're having trouble casting it, use a couple suspend strips or dots. Adds a little weight to help with casting, helps it get down deeper, seems to help with the rolling, but does not stop it from floating like it is supposed to. Been throwing it more often lately and it has been producing bites when I wasn't catching them on any other moving baits. Try to shy away from the usual (Black/silver) and try things like Caribbean Shad or Helsinki Shad. I originally bought mine on clearance, but considering how they've been getting hit, I will pay regular price to replace them when I loose them.