cyclops2

Do not be suprised. The 2008 Great Depression is behind the falloff mainly. Guys are fishing to feed family & others out of work. Catch, clean, cook or freeze is the rule now. Others are catching & selling for money. Make no mistake about that. There are now barren fish areas where lots stayed. Another fact is Sewage treatmemnt plants cleaning the water of all sewage that kept so many weed beds for a full life cycle. We are loosing the Zebra muscles !!! Not enought sewage food for all of them. Even the Gobies are hungry. I am catching them on lures near the bottom or in dock areas. This will be the first year I will buy & go into Canada waters to catch fish. Sad Sad. 1 hour drive each way.

We seniors use a lot of floats with wind & current. Drift along. float gets nervous. Pick up rod. Set hook Even WE can understand that much all day.

If you are into " Virgin " fish ? They will bite anything that moves in the water If you are in my immediate bay where about 4 old guys in their boats catch every fish over & over ? Good luck in 8' to 20' of water. Their mouths are always lined with red dots of previous hookings. 4 pound green mono with a ocassional 2 # leader & a piece of perch is needed for just a nibbling hook up. So the answer is.........TROLL slowly, with long lines behind your boat. I go with about + 100' in 20' of water. I Never need a leader with 100' of any braid. I do use a 1/2 hitch or 1/2 of a Granny knot in the end of the line as I pull tight the Triline or improved Trilene knots. That 1/2 hitch jams tightly to prevent braid slippage.

I have caught big smallie & Pike when catching lots of perch in the same quiet place from a boat. They will grab a struggling Perch in a heartbeat. I use Shad & Perch patterned lures of course.

Never mind guys. Wife said. Buy 1 already for the small Perch fishing boat. Ordered the Garmin Echo 150 with dual beams. At $ 89 I could justify it for the kids boat.

Old Bird is dying. Use to about 100' maximum........How small of a bait fish would it echo off of ? Our smallies gang up & roam. Thanks

Well can i blame the large amounts of Zebra Mussels alone for bare rock areas ? Not really. As a result of central sewage treatment. The Zebras have peaked & are actually not noticeable like years ago. The bays, shoals & shoreline ledges are now post card clean. Our August seaweed beds are tolally gone. There is a complete change of housing status. Smaller houses being bulldozed & replaced by House & Garden beauties with full lush green lawns.Complete with lawn crews & fertilizers. Could it be that pesticedes & herbicides are killing freshwater weedbeds directly downstream. Only the immediate USA side of the St. Lawrence River is affected. The center islands & Canadians have their usual weed beds & excellent fish counts. The 70 & 80 year old fisherman & woman say the area is the worst they have ever seen. But what would a old person know about waters they have fished all their lives.

60 years ago. I was fishing a public row boat pond. Always noisy till closing. It was not fished much for that reason & only small bass & GIANT Sunfish. I bought a new plastic bodied lure that was green with reflective flecks in it. It also had 2 molded prop blades in the head area that rotated the body quite fast. It was a 1 cast lure for sundown bass. Nice to remember how good a unfair advantage feels. I never shared the lure or the abilities with anyone else. I still agree that " The best of the best, " Can do the job at hand with a tree branch, string, a safety pin & a worm. if need be. They ARE the best of the best. Their minds are LOADED computers on skill. Take away every modern gimmick. They would still beat average people easily.

The real collapse is the lack of weeds all over. They depended on the sewage from all the lake & riverfront homes all spring, summer & fall. No sewage nutrients. No weeds. Few fish. Predators have a field day picking them off in open water areas. All the Bass, Pike, Musky, Perch & walleye areas are bare. The breeders probably moved farther down river to sewage areas. It maybe poop to humans. But it is the food of great fishing areas.

I would love a $ 50 bill for every fish that had a second trebel hook past the barb in a eye. When it punctures the optic nerve, the fish swims in circles until a sea gull finishes it off. I use to do in 25 fish a year that way. All types. I now grind off 2 of the 3 barbs on each trebel. 1 or 2 a year at most. When sport fishing. I have lures with no barbs on the hooks. Oh yes. The hooks ALSO come out of my hand, ears, neck & clothing easy. Same with a fish.

I guess there is no limit on the Number of lures & hooks allowed. Oh well.

Cut a set of baffles ..walls.... with about a 1" hole 1 1/2" up from the bottom in each barrier. You want the 3 sides SEALED so all the water must go thru the holes. I will guess a wall every 10" to 16" will stop the sloshing enough. Size of the bait really is the seperation factor. Putting in some fresh green weeds REALLY calms the fish down & slows down the Oxygen the use up in a panic when the lid is lifted each time. 2 buddies did that & like it. We have a ton of small Aluminum retirees. Old mind. Make sure the pump & the out flow pipe are at opposite ends. Enjoy. Me. I just use a covered white 5 gallon pail with seaweeds in it. I am usually alone. The pail DOES MAKE a excellent porta potty in a emergency.

Well, where there are Gobies there are happy fish of ALL types. A Scuba diver friend said the reason all of my fishing spots are dropping off is because of several reasons. Daytime Cormorants have eaten up most of the fish that hunted in day light. Gene elimination. The Gobies live on the bottom. That is pretty deep in the St. Lawrence River. The meat eaters are staying down there with no sunglasses on. They simply dive into a crowd of Gobies & munch away. It is a pot luck crowd down there according to him. He has dragged different lures to see if they will strike it.. Rarely was his finding. It sort of confirms the aggressive nature of the Cormorants in the last summer. They are grouping up into hunting packs of about 4 to 6 birds. Then start fishing under the boats & docks. Our docks are attacked all day by them.The amount & size of our catch & release there for kids has dropped to almost zero. Even the Carp are disappearing from shallow water feeding around the docks. Central sewage treatment plants along the river have REALLY pushed down the shallow spawning grounds. Some areas are bare as the dirt on them. Weed beds are gone. Just some slimy thin crap weeds. A change is DEFINATELY underway. Downriggers for all fish in the daytime is almost on us, where I have fished for years. The GREEN PEOPLE are having a lot of effect on fishing. None of it is good for fishing as I knew it. They like / love, the Cormorant. As long as it does not sleep , crap, & destroy several acres of their trees Edit ...............Add in the Minks that are overrunning the areas. Green People have made them undesireable. Result. Those guys eat a HELL OF ALOT OF FISH all day. Have a good day on the water. Enjoy the warm sun like I do as I drift off to sleep. Rich

I think we should adopt the way 1 deer hunter takes his deer. 40 years ago. Climbed up a tree. Out on a sturdy branch over a deer path. Dropped down on the buck and stabbed it to death with a dagger. No reason why we can not sneak up on a bass with a snorkel mask and spear it. MACHO MACHO MAN !!

I have seen that all black thing yo call a bass boat. Is has 2 warp drive engines. No wonder you take the time.

I am with anybody on nailing tresspassers on ANY private property. I simply call the State Police. What is the difference if the land is or is not posted ? If YOU DO NOT OWN IT. YOU ARE A TRESPASSER. PERIOD!! No signs means I can walk on anybodys property and treat it like my own? BULL CA CA

Well It is simply a way to kill as many fish as fast as possible. If you are after MEAT. Every body should agree it catches more fish in a 8 hour period. No real abilities needed. Not a lot different than netting to pick out the biggest ones . Increasing your odds by at least 4 to 1 sounds very professional. The GOAL of a contest is to win by anything ....NOT BANNED.....in the rule book. I agree for PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT fishermen. You are supposed to be FAR FAR better at catching ANY FISH with a ROD, REEL, LINE & a HOOK / LURE. Barbless would not be to bad either. Considering the speeds a fish is brought in on + 40# line. Could all the boats go to catch.. weigh... measure... & release. The sponsors will not pull out. That will stop the stripping of all breeders from their prime food spots....under all structures...& dumping them anywhere it is Quickest for the angler to get out of the water. I watch a pro bass tournament guy fish the same docks I did. He caught 5 X the fish I did. I waved him in to let him make a living that day. I sure wish he could have left those fish there. The day after a big tournament. There are NO bigger fish in my area to catch.for several days to weeks.

Well the really good guys can & do clean out whole areas. They can empty streams in a hurry. That includes Eels & chubs. I used to wonder why. Thanks to this long Great Depression, I do not blame them 1 bit. Most states do not do much for maintaining fish levels or controlling undesireable speciecs or weeds. Most money goes to operating & retirement costs. Nature is doing all the restocking. I can afford to go anywhere in my areas in a boat. I do not get upset at people living off of nature to help make a living / existance..

On page 1 was a mention of the USCG A note about the USCG. I THOUGHT a few years ago. The USCG said they will NOT do NON life threatening calls anymore. Instead they will send a commerical tow boat to you. Sort of like the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Police Department actually picking up sick & old people to do things that required a car. That stopped. I carry a list of names of friends & local marinas if I need a tow. USCG is now at the bottom. It is in a tough freezer bag with tape holding it in the boat tackle box.

Well I have never used a cover on any of them. I thought the gaskets were at least as good as a car gaskets sitting in the sun year around. I fish nearly everyday May 15 to Sept 15. Anybody use, other than Lowrance & Humminbird ? Any moisture problems ? Life isn't fair Do you always cover both ? Are they in open sunlight mounts ? Anybody know why this post has such thick letters ? Can I go back to normal ?

All 3 in a row of Humminbirds have moisture inside screen. Most developed between 2 to 3 years. So no Birds anymore. Who makes ones that have a long lasting seal ? I need a simple finder for fresh water, in depths to 150' maximum. Rich

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I am losing it. Do not know what is going on in me sometimes. I will just put a locked sideways stern motor. I only need a true bow thruster. So that is locked sideways also. I use the main V8 motor for Foward & Reverse. If you guys had not got me thinking out of my over difficut box. I would still be thinking remote controls on everything. Many thanks to all of you for helping me thru this. Rich

Hi Need some trolling motors advice. At 74 my docking in 25+ mph winds is getting not too good. I need to put 2 trolling motors on my fishing / party boat. It is a Chaparral 186 SSI 5.0 L V8. Bow rider. 18.5' water line. But it is HIGH at the V bow. Like 4' up in the wind. My next slip buddy & I have 8 " between our fenders. Between wind & prop walk jumping in & out of F & R I am not happy when coming in alone. All seniors, Long walks down a steep hill.I am like 45 year old body & mind. Reflexes are old. Want a motor locked onto the stern that only does left & right thrusting. A seperate easily removable bow unit.. I can wire up both easily. I am a very good electrican. Soo, how big is the stern motor. How big is the bow motor. The stern does not drift compared to the bow. Bow needs constant power due to the big sail area. Normally 60# to 70# would do a lower sided boat ? What 2 sized motors should I use ? I really would like to put the V8 in neutral 20' from the dock & use the bow to PULL & steer it. The stern would just be used to keep it straight. Once I get in. I put BOTH motors on sideways to pin the boat against the dock while I climb out & easily tie the lines up. Rich