cyclops2

Bankc and I fish the same. same weather never means the same time & places with the wandering schools of bait & bass. Added more confusion with trees are starting to drop some yellow leaves !!!!!!!!!! I am leaving the fish in the weed beds. They might have died in there !! I will go out to the sides of the man channel that has lots of Lake Ontario water. Might be were life is more normal.

We had a record drought during late winter & spring time. It is finally ending. River is coming up from record lows. It is like that way back Silent Spring ? I am concerned about a recovery even happening. Bad water green slime is suffocating everything again. Slime is not making enough Oxygen . No small fish in shallow water at all this spring & summer. The slime reappears strongly in water above 72 to 74 F it seems. That is most of August normally. I am old & cranky without fishing. Useless non productive fishing does not help my attitude at all.

I daydream in the house. Not on the road............ Or in my case. Walking down a very steep hill with wet grass each morning.

It is Fantastic in August !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 But just do not like doing it that way. I am not squeamish. I clean & cook some. I just like to fake them into biting a lure. I am now using a rubber worm & doing O K. 1 to 3 bass & perch per day of fishing is too depressing. I am really doing a jigging retrieve now. Side note about wildlife. I have No sunrise birds chirping. No birds looking for worms in moist green grass. NO NO flying bees , wasps, flies. only 1 flying white Cabbage butterfly. No mosquitoes or swarms of insects around me going to the boat. What disaster is going on ? Down to 2 big rabbits. No bunches of little ones. No more game animals..............Almost nothing day or night time. Add in . No crows or dead animal bones or feathers.

Bingo big handle. But part of my problem is ALL fish are FAT with food & hot surface & day light just puts some in the bottom weeds. Lures at BEST ?? just a tap / bump. A strip of raw meat & life is good. I do not catch a 6" perch & cut it up for bait. Not my style. Worms & a spinner maybe. I am doing make work jobs on the boat, motor and wiring . ☺️ A very cloudy, windy and rainy day would be fine.

Good call ironbjorn. last time out to check indexed sparkplug effects. Trolled a 6 " Rapala floater at 150'. Pull out a wall hanger PERCH. Only fish hitting lures. Looked like a small Walleye. C & R ?

A good bass competitor went out at 5:30 am and caught nothing. His boat even has the T V in it at times. Saw the bait & big fish with them. No movement for anything he tossed.

Almost forgot about that dark weather day. Windy, small white caps and NO females. All sizes of loose males only. The bilge pump was running most of the time. I have 2 working pumps for fishing in white cappy weather. I like my smallies. ?

In bigger waters. It is a assumption game. Most likely. Should be. Best guess based on similar fish echoes. I have had almost ZERO hook ups with big fish all around the school of baitfish. IF IF the bait fish are not moving at all. I can feel soft bumping. But no hook ups. Very frustrating. Go bottom or none bright daylight times. Had very dark cloudy day with random hookups everywhere. Schooling fish are disciplined. Not like the LMB alone. They are always daytime hungry.

I have seen almost every type of fish do that pull the lure away from the hooked fish. I or 2 have become a 2 fish reel in.

gimruis I have & wear a Bee Keepers netted hat. Excellent against everything.

The imported / invasive gobies of several types have made MY waters FANTASTIC year around food sources......SOO......The " I will go anywhere, anytime for a UNLIMITED supply of food. " That condition is the reason why river & local bays can be so erratic compared to the LMB & solitary life in & under .......MAN MADE structures. Boats, docks, Marina covered docks, boathouses and bridges. Natural covered areas. However N J has several reservoirs which are stream & spring fed. ONLY LMB and shad were put into it. Result is a bass that MUST form swimming schools & herd the bait into a feeding ball or cove. Result is the LMB look very much like HUGE male smallies. The exercise alters them to be like a smallie. So the land & water must & do determine the fishing patterns that produce the 5 fish limits. Without constant monitoring of fish numbers every year ? The bass eat the limited baitfish stocks up. Then the complaints start & restocking begins. Again

Yes both 1 1/2" & the larger one. All 6 of them in Perch Green pattern. All have 1 tail hook only. Some have no diving lip on them.

I use Rapalas with medium Split Shot and the lure 3 feet above it.

If you do catch & release ? Bend all the barbs down. Less pain & infection for you & the fish. I only leave the rear hook on. Or replace all the trebles with just 1 single tail hook. SOOO much easier on both of us. The bass will keep biting until it hooks itself. Bank on it. A bump or tug on the lure only means a bigger more positive 1/4 to 1/2 second later strike. I have both S S needle nose pliers and S S Surgeons long Racheting Forceps. For pike & deep swallows. It also allows you to not handle or have the fish flopping on the ground or boat bottom. Both can rub off the protective slime & cause those red & grey infection spots that look similar to a large or small Lamprey suction spot. When there are no Lampreys.

No weeds are a very slim food chain. Silt does not grow very much nutrition for the very active bass. Also very low Oxygen levels. Rapids and bubbling water are a good substitute for the weeds production of Oxygen.

Way2slow Thank you for the Indexing information !!! The engine is as good as a FI. Better at idle than a F I. WWAAAHHOOO You are the best. Many thanks. It cured ALL cold idle starts & idling. Allows the smoothest and slowest idle possible. Instant acceleration hot or cold. NO color on the plug metal or insulator. You are the best. ? ? ?

The long skinny fish can be torpedo's. Opening day of trout and I am at the mouth of a creek on the Delaware River. First cast as a whistle blows. Hooked up on a speedster in cloudy water. it races by me in seconds and continues up the creek & down a couple of times. Very fast trout. Actually a 18" male carp. Those skinny males are way different. The girls are fast tugboats. I enjoy all of them. ?

Our favorite restaurant filled me in on the loss of US perch for Friday night All you can eat.......They are forced to use African perch . Tastes almost the same. But is softer. The Basket of Shrimp has changed to a smaller and softer ones. Lots of seafood is now raised in floating pens / nets in the seas. Do not read about the problems & quality of raised fish.

Cute But about 13 of us retired guys who fish all summer and almost everyday had a get together to figure out if we all are losing it. Or are the fish classes are disappearing. We came to a unanimous conclusion. The fish sizes are very small and very few. There is a complete loss of some fish types under the docks & boats. The kids are just sitting down holding rods with worms. For a 1/4 of a mile out in spotty weed clumps. Almost nothing except a rare 3" fish of any type. The sky has fallen down on fishing in my area. The bass pros race out to Lake Ontario for 1 hour. Catch the biggest females. Then race back for a hour. Have a weigh in. Go to the next town & relocate boat loads of only the best females. Repeat the never putting back each fish from where he caught it from.............. Why not? I ant got no time for Catch weigh & release. I do this for the money. Not waste time, gas & equipment on things that reduce my profits............. They are trying to make a LIVING off of catching the biggest fish ONLY..............Fishing locations can not take that week after week by different contests.

A few does. For spinning & any non braided lines. NEVER cast into the wind. That was simple. Use VERY STIFF LINE. Not so obvious to do. AVOID well used line. It can become softer. PRE STRETCH ALL THE LINE on a HOT SUNNY DAY. Caution only the first MAXIMUM length of lines needs to be stretched. WEAR GLOVES !!.......Cut the line FREE from the spool and lay both ends on the ground !! Start winding and walking backwards to allow the spinning reel twist to keep untwisting. Then Let out the line in moving water. Wind in. Put a tiny small GOLD swivel with S S snap on the end. I can go weeks with out major twists. I fish about 4 hours 4 to 6 days a week. Gold is a definite attractor to all fish. Almost forgot.........NEVER NEVER cast any OLD or new braid. It will twist And become a larger looking white line. Into wind ? ?

As you let out over more than 100 feet of line in August. Fish are ALL sitting in the weeds. Highest clear sun angle. You are entering dehydration. Drag that lure as fast as you can run. 3 to 6 feet above the short weeds covering the bottom. BANG fish on. ? What Arthritis ? Edit............................ I have seen a school of biggies very deep. not 3 seconds later the rod is bent & shuddering as I slow down in gear . They do compete in a race up to get that big lure in perch colors. A lone perch 3 feet down is room service. If 1 is hungry.

I have found with Arthritis setting in now & weather changes. My pain level has forced a change in search & catch. Made me more efficient.

Do not buy fishing gear without a license ? Really ? I humor them. What a dull job.

They are supposed to ask while you are holding a line in the water. NOT just driving around. The license is for ACTIVLY fishing. Not possession of fishing boat or equipment. Open your car trunk !! Guilty.