Crookedneck

The difference between your pond and the creek is there is flowing water in the creek. So when it comes to freezing the creek won't freeze 100%. Your pond will freeze if not heated or kept open. Several very cold days and your 2 1/2 feet will be solid. Move your smallie indoors?? Not sure what your local laws are on that, so I would check first?

I use baitcasting rods 95% of the time for smallies. My go to rod is usually a 7' MH I use it (or them) for anything from texas rig to spinner baits. I drop shot with spinning gear and always have a spinning rod or two for my wife or kids.

Crashing, When it comes to casting and spinning rods, 90% of my builds are on MHX blanks. For the $$ they are hard to beat. I fish MXH exclusively myself. I have only had 1 issue out dozens of MHX blanks, and Mudhole stood by thier product. So you can't ask for more when it comes to quality issues. I have not used the High Modulus blanks, nor have I use the musky or saltwater blanks. If you end up using one let me know how they work. I have toyed with building a musky rod. Mike

You are welcome my friend! It is funny how small this world is. Mumpy and I live 1500 miles away from each other, but several years ago he and I chewed some of the same dirt in a far away land around the same time. Good luck fishing this summer! I hope your father out fishes every one with that rod! It was a blast too build. Thank you for your service brother! Mike

Yes this is a bird hunting theme and a University of Tennessee Color theme. The feather on the top of the rod is an Oscillated Turkey feather. The feathers on the bottom of the rod are Grizzly hackle that I form in the shape of a turkey foot print. (or least that is what I attempt for it to look like) The grip is Spalted Hackberry which is a form of wood. The super glue finish is actually super glue that I apply on my wood lathe and then polish to a clear very durable finish. The thin black rings I burn into the grip with a guitar string as the grip spins on my lathe. If you want to get into rod building on a budget. Order some wrapping thread and re-wrap a few old rods. It will give you some practice and spruce up some old rods too. If you need some help or advice feel free to ask. Thanks, Mike

Both of them look pretty good!

This is a recent rod I built up for on of this forums members. The blank is a 6'6" medium fast action rod in a Mag Bass Taper. MHX-MB782. I used a Pac Bay Minima reel seat. The split grip was turned out of Spalted Hackberry with a super glue finish on the grip. I used American Tackle guides. Alot of work went into this rod in a short amount of time. It was a fun build, with alot of little details thrown in. The checkering on this build was a first for me. Anyways, thoughts and opinions are always welcome. Mike

I used Vanish all last year and loved it. This year I bought the same thing, after 2 spools of it breaking like crazy, my 8 year old could break the 12 lbs by just pulling it. I decided to change up. I found a spool of 15# Seguar Invizx. I love it. It is extremely sensative and stands up to the rocks and zebra mussels very well. I fish almost exclusively in the rocks for smallies. I usually have to strip a few feet a couple times each time out. But that is a given in the rocks. I have been using this for 3 weeks now. I have noticed some memory setting in the last week. I haven't had a single break off, I am set up with a 7' MH with a burner baitcaster and have hauled 8 5lbs+ smallies out of 20-25 feet of water not to mention numerous smaller fish. Fishing a Texas rigged rodent on the bottom of the river. I am interested now in trying the Abrazx. But, why fix it if it isn't broke right?

The wife, 3 year old and I got up this morning. Loaded the boat and headed out for a special sight. We launched the boat with only a little bit of a wind blow issue... We went to a favorite fishing hole of mine. My wifes first cast she landed an 18" smallie and then a few minutes later she had a nice 17" With in a few minutes later the 3 year old had a nice one on (Dad helped a little) After 25 minutes of fishing and 6 legal smallies and 3 more dinks we headed up to the crash sight. Enjoy the pictures!

I just put a couple of these in my battery well this week. Well not exactly these ones. I picked some up like this at a local store. But you get my point. I used wood screws and screwed them in to 5/8' plywood. http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/product.do?part=110819&AMAZON Or you can get a battery box and screw that to the deck....

That is awesome to see!!! Good job to both Dad and Kid!

Went out this morning with a buddy. Fishing was good. We were on the water about 7:30 am. We started out deep 21 to 25 feet of water. The morning the wind was around 5-6 mph out of the south west, skies were clear and the temperature was on the rise. Fishing started out with a nice small mouth using a texas rigged strike king baby rodent 3/16 oz sinker and a 1/0 wide gap hook. 21+" 4lbs 9 oz caught by my buddy. This is his biggest small mouth to date. He was pumped up. We continued to hammer the fish in the deep water, a lot of catches came to the surface with numerous smallies following up. The water itself was pretty stained. As the day progressed the fish got smaller, so we switched to crank baits and moved to 24 to 25 feet of water and the bite picked back up. Most of the fish went between 2 to 4 pounds. We boated 26 fish and finished up around noon. My buddy now calls me the bandit of the bay, I hate sun burned lips...

His mother and I chuckle at the fact that he has that visor cranked down to the point that his ears are red and sticking out. It was windy that day though. Took the whole family tonight. The wife caught her first small mouth of the year tonight. The boys were pretty excited.

I live north of Green Bay. Below is a link of some small mouth caught on the Menominee a week or so ago. The small mouth spawn is over with here. The post spawn bite is currently going right now. Farther north of here I am not sure if the fish have spawned or not. The weather here has been wierd this year. Walleyes were in and gone 3 weeks early the smallmouth spawned early too. I think the large mouth are just about done, but I haven't really seen too many of them this year as I concentrate on the small mouth most of the time. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/102546-fishing-with-the-kid-today/ If you happen to get this way send me a P.M. I'll send you in the right direction. I know the Turtle Flambeau Flowage was hot a couple weeks ago. Good luck!

Where I don't see the pro's as supermen or untouchable. I think thier dedication to the sport is actually how they made it to where they are at. I'm sure there are several who it was handed to. But, most got there by spending hours and $$ to get where they are now. It is there dedication/passion that has pushed them to get there. They probably fish more in a month than most of us fish in a year. I would love to fish against any of them, if only to learn from them and get my butt kicked. Would I be able to boat some fish and occasionally cash a check, sure! Would I be able to fish 250 days a year? No, I wouldn't have a job if I did. I see alot of guys I fish against and with, running in $40k boats with all the top of the line gear and I see them fail time and time again at weigh in time. I see guys who fish out of 17' aluminum boats cash checks. I've seen some old timers who could cash a check standing on shore fishing. I agree with the statement that was made that if you think you can do it then do it, join a league and make a run. Giver a try! Let us know how it works out. that is how most of the pro's got there.

The easiest way to remove the old eyes, epoxy and thread is to take a hair dryer and apply a little heat to the guide area. Make sure not to heat the rod blank up. Heat and graphite don't mix. Don't use a heat gun as too much heat can be applied. Heat the epoxy up, take a razor blade and cut through the epoxy and thread on the top of the guide foot. this will ensure that you don't cut into the blank. With the epoxy being soft from the hair dryer the epoxy and thread should peel right off.

Here is a brief tutorial on how to do basic Olive Branch inlays. This is a design introduced by a rod builder by the name of Jim Trelikes from California. This is a very simple inlay to do but adds a little bit of class to a build. I have found this looks better doing the inlays with contrasting colors, such as black and white. I have not had the greatest success with metalics. But it can be done. For this tutorial I will start with a simple single thread inlay. Then I do two wraps around the blank with my main color. Here it is the black. On the start of the third wrap I start taking my trim color (here white) and start spinning it around the black as I slowly spin the rod. (The main color black is going thru my tensioning device, the white I have just a 6-8 inch piece) After I wrap the trim (white) all the way around back to the start. I drop that and do two more black wraps and then do another single thread inlay. You can finish off here or keep going, two more black wraps and on the start of the third wrap this time wrap your white thread around the black in the oppisite direction. Two more black wraps then a single thread inlay to finish it off. This is the bottom of the wrap to show the transitions and tie offs. There are tons of variations you can do with this inlay. It is a classy but simple inlay to do. Of course, you would have to pack the tread, I did not do that in this as is a scrap blank and I was just doing it as a brief tutorial. Here are a couple of different variations. Have fun, post your variations for all to see. Mike

So I went out all day yesterday dragging with treble hooks and 50 lbs mono. clams to the point I can't even begin to tell you. 8 pieces of drift wood. And a 20lb anchor with 50 feet of rope. zero rods..... I've got to scuba divers that can get out next week. Time will tell.

Graph is on hold due to stupidity..... See this link for details http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/102696-a-really-bad-day/

So I took my brothers fishing today. Been two years since I got to go with both of my brothers. Took them to a portion of the river where we could target bass and tangle with some pike. Running up the river laughing and joking around. All of a sudden.....something flew by my face my middle brother starts yelling before I could figure out what happened and stop the boat every single rod I own that was on the boat was in the river. Spread over about 100 yards in 10' of stained water. After sorting it all out, my brother told me that he had taken their rods and put them next to mine and they didn't strap them down after words. My rods blew out because I had rod socks on all of them. Talk about making me sick.....5 rods all with brand new or last years Quantum Tour PT's and one Quantum Catalyst. Every rod custom built by myself with in the last year.....The 7'3" Heavy with a Quantum Tour PT I just spooled up last night, was brand new, never even casted it yet...I don't even want to think about the $$$ sitting on the bottom of that river right now. I got my spinning rod back as it floated. We spent 2 hours trying to snag the rods. No luck..... So we decided to go fishing! Couple things to remember.... Always take the rod socks off before running.... Always double check to make sure everything is secured...... Stuff doesn't blow out of the old boat with a 6 horse Evinrude..... And most importantly have a friend who can dive in situations like this. Maybe tomorrow will end with getting my rods back....time will tell....I'm keeping my fingers crossed..... I'm going to cry now.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what graph to get. Right now I don't have a graph on the front of the boat. I'm looking to get a graph for the front. Currently, there is an older Eagle graph on the console, which does the job of finding the depth. But, Kinda hard to see standing at the front of the boat. I'm looking for a unit that I can use for vertical presentations. I fish alot in 20-25' of water and can get right over the top of my target. Most casts are 25-30 max most of the time much closer. I'm looking for a unit in the $250-350 range. Doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles. No need to be color. If I could get GPS thrown in there it would be a plus, but I know that is a stretch. I want to see what is on the bottom structure wise. I've been looking at a couple different models. Hummingbird 365i Hummingbird 581i Lowrance Mark 5x For a few bucks more there is the Hummingbird 587ci combo Any opinions or adivice would be great. Just not trying to break the bank at this point. Thanks

It looked like an old hook wound right in the joint of the mouth. He did have a dime size tumor on the oposite side inside his mouth almost like a skin tag.

I live north of Green Bay in Peshtigo. I fish the Menominee River most of the time.

Another one from this morning before we got blown off the water by a wicked storm. All these fish were taken in 20-25 feet of water. 14lb floro, Strike King baby rodent in Summer Craw (until I ran out) then Green Pumpkin. 1/4 black bullet weight with a 1/0 hook. 4 lbs 9oz

Got up this morning and decided to go fishing before the rain set in, even though I had the seats ripped out of the boat. The wind has been blowing 20-45 mph the last couple days. So the break in the wind meant I was hitting the water. So I grabbed the boy and took off. After a call from work and a quick stop in to check on things I was hitting the water. I ran up the river to let the boy see the ships being built and then headed deep. All told we caught 23 smallies. And one pike (tooth pest) Smallest one at about 2 lbs 3 pounder 4 pounder with some wax worm sawdust spinkled on for good measure. 5 pounder, biggest one for the day. We had a larger one right up to the boat, but lost him. I was laughing too hard at the kid reefing on the pig.