Bluebasser86

Welcome!

Welcome!

I found mine. It was an old Rick Clunn 1.5 Lucky Craft. Little faded from sitting in the sun, but obviously different from other similar colors.

Stays the same

Staysee 90 or Duo 100DR

Any of the panfish sized Gulp baits should be good.

I've had way better success with the 7" but the 9" is obviously a great bait too.

I haven't figured the value, but that's probably a close estimation.

47 bags of plastics, $64.

Well this has pretty much run it's course. LOCKDOWN!!

No, these are the much smaller cousin of the striped bass, usually less than 2 pounds. It isn't the blood or "mud vein", is the issue. There's a large amount of red meat (literally exactly what it sounds like, red/pinkish colored meat attached to the white fillet in a large portion of the fish). This has to be cut out to leave just the white meat as it has an extremely strong and unappealing flavor. The problem is, it's mixed in with the white meat, so once it's cut out there is very little left. This is a picture where you can see the red meat still on the fillets. As you can tell, cutting it out is problematic and does waste a lot of the fillet.

I believe Mann's used to make a similar bait also. I had something that looked a lot like them a long time ago but can't remember the name of it.

I fish 15lb fluoro on mine, it'll hold plenty of 20 to do what you're wanting to do.

The Ugly Stick Tiger rods would probably be a good fit for you. They're popular with the catfish guys around here and I assume would do well for you in the salt also.

From a quick search, Loon.com list 49% of loon deaths in New Hampshire from 1989-2011 were a result of ingesting lead fishing lures. That sounds like a lot, except 49% is 124 birds. Spread out over 22 years of study, it breaks down to 5.6 loon deaths a year. Are the numbers similar for New York as well? I don't know what the loon population is like in the NE, and we have very few in this area (they've actually just recently began appearing on some of our lakes where they've never been before), so I'm admittedly very ignorant on the subject. I'd be curious to know what is being done about these other major issues like the mercury and habitat loss due to development? It's only going to do so much to take away the use of lead if the remaining birds have no where to lay their eggs or if all the fish they're eating contain dangerous levels of mercury that are going to eventually kill them anyways.

15lb Big Game or P line C21 unless you fish lots of weedy ponds, then I'd go with the braid.

It seems I catch some of my best colored fish out of cold water every year, but then some will be very washed out as well.

Tungsten is becoming more popular, but I think it has much more to due with it's advantages over lead (smaller size, increases sensitivity), than it does concerns over waterfowl and loon populations. We have no restrictions here, and the waterfowl populations are doing just fine. I've been fishing a long time around water birds of all varieties. It's very rare for me to see a dead one. From what I've read about the loons, it sounds like a lot of the "facts" are either opinions, or fabrications. I know we need to do a lot more to help the environment, I feel like I do more than most to minimize my impact. If it is something that is truly having a significant negative effect, then yes I agree with it. However, if it's the result of a tiny fraction of birds being injured or dying, then I don't think it's needed. @flyingmonkie Tungsten has an extremely high melting point (6,191 degrees), that requires very specialized equipment which is part of why it's so much more expensive.

Fish can get that washed out color in cold water, open water, and also in dirty water (which doesn't appear to be the case in your picture). I'm not sure the exact reason but I believe it may be due to changes in circulation in the fishes blood caused by the colder water.

Deadlifting a fish by the line is a huge no-no, especially if the fish's weight that you're lifting appears to be equal to the lb test you're using. To me, it's kind of like a catch in football. If you never had possession and control over the fish, it wasn't a catch.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Mend it, and make sure to use something to grease the bait up like Megastrike, that keeps the fish's teeth from starting tiny tears in the bait that just get worse.

As long as it loads well enough during the cast with a frog, it should have the backbone to get a fish out of cover.