RoLo

I've lived in New Jersey for most of my life (Hillside - Elizabeth - Sayreville - New Brunswick - East Brunswick). What I have found is that the bedding season in southern Jersey tends to peak around early May, while the spawn in northern Jersey generally peaks in late May. This will vary of course, from lake-to-lake. By the way, the bass that you mentioned are brutes by Jersey standards! Roger

That looks deadly Brent! A secure keeper and a nice up-angle for the worm tail. Roger

Reel Mech, I never owned a Kistler blank but am seriously thinking of giving one a shot. After sifting through all the posts, I feel a little a pushed-and-pulled without any solid direction. I'd really like to hear your professional opinion of the Kistler LTX, any Pros or Cons that you might want to share. Roger

Hmm, but would you still feel like they were 'your' fish? To my mind, finding your own fish is the only "real challenge" of our sport, and also the most fascinating part. If the day ever came when I had to forfeit the challenge of locating my own fish, I'd feel pretty useless just cranking fish to the boat (but that's me). Roger

> Your Worst Fishing Injury Losing the biggest pike of my life after the third acrobatic leap! You can't imagine the pain, and it lasted for days > :'( Roger

Find yourself a safety-pin with wire-diameter just a little less than the hole in your bullet sinker. To remove the toothpick segment, run the safety-pin through the bullet sinker, then close the pin and store it in your tackle box. Roger

That's exactly right. To get maximum quiver and shake, a spherical head is needed because the curvature is unbiased (equidistant from head center). Any head with a distinctive shape (arkie, standup, bullet-nose, banana-head, football, etc) is going to suppress certain movements or vibrations because the distance varies between the head center and the exterior. Anyway, for shaky worming I really like Iaconelli's Tru-Tungsten Weed Wacker (in 1/8 oz). Only the forward half is spherical but only the forward hemisphere ever touches the bottom. Roger

About a year ago, when chatterbaits were all the rage, I caught hell in here for saying that I believe the chatterbait will be a passing fancy. Although it's still alive and well, the hoopla has reeeeeally subsided and the trend seems to be down. Roger

I will say, it has been interesting. Color is the bottom rung of importance, so every angler enjoys free reign with color (confidence tool). As you mentioned George, under changing light levels we'd need to have self-changing lures (probably in the wings). In the interest of "visibility" (not edibility), I try to incorporate both a light and dark hue within the same lure. I'd be interested in your opinion of mixed tones within the same lure, or do you prefer lures with a single hue? Roger

I fail to see how that would eliminate guesswork. > You are fishing in a lightly-stained lake. After the cast, your lure settles to the bottom in 15-ft of water (that's DARK) > About midway through your retrieve the lure has mounted a sunken hump and is now in 3-1/2-ft of water (that's BRIGHT) > On your very next cast, you skip the lure waaaay back under a large dock (that's DARK) > As the lure emerges from under the dock it's riding in full sunlight in 3 ft of water (that's BRIGHT) > Your next cast targets maidencane and the lure is running about 3 feet deep in full sunlight (that's BRIGHT) > About midway through your retrieve the sun is eclipsed by a large dark cloud HHmmm Roger

Type ll PFD Type l are uncomfortable to wear, and Type lll limit your pivoting ability. Roger

Let's take a look at your personal stats, and compare them to a bigger picture. Here in Florida for instance, the mean statewide catch-rate for largemouth bass is 0.02 bass per hour, and that equates to 1 bass every 5 hours. Due to our intense sun, the average daytrip in Florida is 5.4 hours. That translates roughly to 1 bass per outing. So in the "real world", (not the world of "50-bass per day") if you can scratch out one more bass per outing, you'll be roughly in line with the average bass angler. Also in the real world, our fishing success is largely determined by the health of the bass population in the lake we're fishing. Most states catergorize their lakes in order of species abundance, just for example: Abundant - Good - Fair - Poor - Absent Whenever we fish in a lake rated "fair" to "poor" for largemouth bass, we should expect our fishing success to be "fair" to "poor", Nothing improves my fishing more than moving from a large heavily-pressured public reservoir to a small private pond Roger

Power Pro was the only line I ever put on a spinning reel that completely killed my interest in all other lines. A better line I'm not looking for. Roger

Ain't that the truth. I wonder how many remember Nick Creme. Roger

No slice, that's a broken neck. Roger

Exactly That's the "shortcut". Roger

Date 03/20/2007 Qty Item Number Description Additional Charge Amount 1 38-529-086-00 Plano® 1812/1412 Waterproof Marine Box Combo $ 19.88 1 38-530-252-00 Minn Kota® PowerDrive V2 Bow-Mount Trolling Motor - 55 PD V2/AP - 48'' Shaft $ 12.00 $ 679.99 1 38-530-320-00 Minn Kota® CoPilot Wireless Remote Trolling Motor Steering System for PowerDrive V2 $ 149.99 1 38-527-278-00 Minn Kota® Composite Quick-Release Trolling Motor Mounting Bracket - Model MKA-21 $ 69.99 1 38-520-324-00 Minn Kota® Portable Charger - Model MK110P $ 69.99 1 38-523-768-00 Minn Kota® Replacement Prop - Weedless Wedge 2 - MKP-32 $ 30.99 1 38-422-001-00 Lowrance X135 Power-Pro Sonar $ 399.99 1 38-528-176-00 Garmin® GPSMAP® 76Cx $ 399.99 1 38-526-284-00 Garmin® Preprogrammed MicroSD Card - Inland Lakes - Southeast $ 99.99 1 38-525-976-00 Garmin GPS Marine Mounting Bracket for GPS 72/76 Series $ 29.99 1 38-569-765-03 Quest Compass - Gray/Blue $ 25.99 2 38-249-714-78 Gambler Cane Toad - White $ 5.98 2 38-283-580-94 Zoom® Soft Plastic Baits - Super Fluke - White Ice $ 5.98 2 38-283-580-39 Zoom® Soft Plastic Baits - Super Fluke - Bubblegum $ 5.98 3 38-200-100-16 Gambler Floating Worm - Bumblebee $ 9.57 1 38-498-972-00 Tournament Buoy - Orange $ 5.99 1 38-300-692-00 Shimano® Symetre® Spinning Reels - Front Drag - SY2500FI $ 79.99 Subtotal $ 2,090.27 Standard Shipping $ 13.95 Additional Charges $ 12.00 * Tax $ 0.00 Total $ 2,116.22 :-[ :'( :-[ By no means the most expensive bill, but the highest in the recent past Roger

Or maybe you've been paying attention to the right people, because you're doing the right thing. As it happens I've read the need for a slack-line in more than one place, but soon learned that it's just a form of self-gratification : That's why I put "pros" in double-quotes Roger

Partnered: 95% Alone: 5% Boat: 16-ft Key Largo (glass center-console) 75-hp E-Tec Roger

I used to do a LOT of ultralight fishing, and at one time (tell no one) I was a flyrod purist (that's a whole other jargon). Using ultra-light tackle for fish that are worthy of much heavier tackle is fun for sure...but to a fault. I can't tell you how many times I've felt under-tackled, overwhelmed and darn right foolish. When living in NJ, mama and I used to enjoy catching harbor blues on light tackle. Lois would hook-up, then about 4 or 5 minutes into the battle, a little fleet of boats would begin to form. I'm standing ready at the gaff, and fishermen in other boats are hollering at me, "Gaff That Fish!". They don't realize we're using freshwater spinning tackle, so they're expecting to see an 18-lb slammer dangling from the gaff. Then after about 8 minutes has elapsed I finally stick a 6-lb harbor bluefish. We could hear the grumblings of disgust, as the fleet disperses ;D Roger

The Sizmic Toad is a "true" topwater lure, it not only supports its own weight, but floats with a Gamakatsu 4/0 hook. A larger toad, the Sizmic Popping Toad will float a small gaff without sinking. On the flipside of the frog/toad equation is the Boze ZZ walker, which is a hollow frog. The ZZ Walker will float for a few casts, then take on water and soon becomes a subsurface lure. I'd say that the only honorable distinction between toads and frogs is that Frogs are "Hollow", whereas Toads are "solid". Oh yeah, there is one other distinction. The bass in a pond I once owned would eat any frog that I tossed into the pond. Oddly, whenever I tossed a toad into the pond, they'd inhale the toad, then spit it out about 15 seconds later, they did the same thing with snakes :-/ Roger

As described by several "pros", the correct technique for shaky worming is to jiggle slack-line with your rod-tip. Let me ask you fellows something. How many of you have actually tested this technique in clear water where the lure can be seen say...15 feet away? I'm fortunate in living on a clear lake with a 100-yd long pier. Using spinning tackle and a 1/8 oz ballhead jig, I've tested a Strike King 3x finesse worm whose tail floats vertically upright. When I jiggle slack-line with the rod-tip the lure does not budge! The water between the point where the line enters the water and the lure lying on the bottom absorbs all line movement. The lure just sits there looking up at me as if to say, "Exactly what are you trying to do?". But, as soon as I twitch the worm delicately on a "tight line", the worm-tail comes alive, while the lure remains basically in place. Roger

This discussion is beginning to get interesting Vorlin, correct me if I'm wrong. Frequency alone (nanometers) does not determine light penetration, because it varies according to the medium involved. For instance, it's my understanding that ultraviolet light is essentially blocked by glass (silicone), yet glass is easily penetrated by white light (visible spectrum). On the other hand, ultraviolet light penetrates water very well. Okay, my question is this, are you saying that "blue" is the first color to disappear underwater, and that "red" is the last color to be scattered underwater? Roger

Welcome to the forum Buckey I've done quite a bit of smallie fishing in Lake Huron, from Moon River north to Henvy Harbor. We've done best I would say with plastic grubs on lightweight jigs. To be more specific, 1/16 and 1/8oz ballhead jigs, dressed with 3" or 4" chartreuse Mister Twister curly-tail grubs or 3 or 4" Charley Brewer Slider grubs and perhaps best of all, a half live nightcrawler threaded over the spur-keeper of a 1/8 oz jig. I got into tube lures later on, and though we didn't use them much in Lake Huron, they're another excellent bronzeback lure. We found delivery to be most important, and strived for a "Natural Glide". A tight line glide is fine, if you don't add any action. I *** you because I'm in love with Lake Huron. Good Luck and don't forget those gator pike (my avatar was shot on Huron). Roger

http://store.tackleandrods.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=FLT&Product_Code=Y14DWW&Category_Code= Roger