Janderson45

yes, that's the minimum age. Just need a drivers license I believe.. They list 16 as the minimum age though.

yeesh not was I was hoping to hear. I knew Costa was fishing there but hadn't seen the results. I'm there end of July for a club tournament... So hopefully some more weeds will be up, and maybe it'll have a bit of time to clear up by then? Wishful thinking I suppose. We'll just have to make the most of it. I do love frog fishing though... so not the end of the world!

I was with you until the "no sonar" part, that might as well be suicide out there if you ask me. Conditions were good on Sunday, I stared off the morning on fire boating 12 fish in the first hour.. then my partner was sick to his stomach, had to run him back to the car so he could rest for a while, definetly threw the mojo off as I struggled to catch much for the next few hours, methodically working a drop shot in my typical locations.. produce a few bites but not what I was expecting or hoping for. My partner rallied and then we fished for a few more hours and caught a few more each. I ended the day with around 20 smallies, mostly in the 2lb range, nothing of real size. Biggest I landed was 3.5, lost one that looked bigger when I didn't have a partner to net it. Caught them all around 12-20 feet, on various techniques... my post productive was dragging a jig. Water temps were 74-76. Heres a picture of the 3.5

I'm headed out to the quabbin on a solo mission tomorrow, so I'll let you guys know how I do.. thinking it should be pretty good fishing for smallies here on out for a while, I guess we will see!

I've never been out there, but I'm going for a few days in July. I've fished out of St. Albans before but I'm assuming it's a whole different beast down by Ticonderoga.. could anyone be so so kind as to just give me the general lay of the land out there? Milfoil lining both sides of the bank until you get into the middle where average depth is what, 20 feet? Water clarity? I've fished the St. Lawrence before... are they similar in characteristics? Does the milfoil really mat up to where all you can really do is throw frogs or punch a bait into it, or is it not that dense? Definitive weed lines or is it more like clumps? Hard bottom composition or more like muck? just trying to get a general idea as to the type of fishing I'll be doing out there.. I'm assuming jigs, frogs, chatterbait/spinnerbait, perhaps paddletails.. can you drag tubes and jigs in the deeper sections or is it too locked in with grass? any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

How's your water clarity? And where are you located? Are you fishing for Pike/Muskie as well? As was just said above me I'd advise against braid unless you wanted to use it with a shock leader or "top shot" as the saltwater surf casters call it. I'd throw baits like that on something like my St Croix 7'10 Heavy Fast action rated for 1-4oz lures. If those 2oz spinners have blades as big as I'm thinking they do then braid will really turn your rod into a vibration/thump machine which isn't what I personally want to feel all day.. I'd throw baits like this on 17 or 20lb test Pline CXX - It's a very strong and tough copolymer line, but it does have quite a bit of memory associated with it as well. 20lb or 25lb Suffix Siege Monofilament would be my second choice.

I usually throw the "double fluke rig". Wonder how it would work with this... might be interesting to try. The only time I nose hook a fluke typically is bed fishing, the double fluke rig that I love to throw around post spawn is usually two Tex-posed hooks which keeps it out of most snags but definitely miss fish on occasion.

Very much so, thank you! So basically the screw lock just acts as a mechanism to help hold the circle hook in place when nose hooking a fluke... nice little trick!

I have not, but I would certainly be interested... I've heard of "blemished" rods being sold for steep discounts, or like you suggest a rep sample, but I'm unsure of how I would go about finding one of these. Could the 893c handle up to 3/4 oz or would I need an 894? Will be primarily fishing 3/8 & 1/2 oz jigs and Trigs but I'd like to be able to throw 3/4's with this rod in a pinch if I had to.

I'm having trouble visualizing what you're talking about here... got any pictures of this rigged up by any chance? Are you talking about a circle hook or a round bend>?

Thanks for the reply and nice largie! I own all of those reels, so I'm glad to hear you like how the rod balances with all of them... I'd probably be leaning towards the 7'1 MHXF over the 7'MHF .. but those are the two LE's that are under consideration. I've yet to hear a bad thing about the new LE's, so that's not surprising that you love yours.. everyone I've talked to loves theirs as well... I'm just curious how the two compare! If all else is equal I'd probably get the St. Croix just because I LOVE st Croix and their customer service/warranty claims... but if the loomis is noticeably more sensitive or lighter it could get the nod..

I believe it's more about just breaking up the color of the line than it is about black being less visible. Try it out by coloring in 12" of the braid black at the terminal knot, then leaving the next 12" green, and the following 12" after that black. Just by simply breaking up the single color it becomes harder to see. There's a term for this that is eluding me right now... For what it's worth to the original poster... I use green most of the time as I feel it blends in the best and fish can't see it very well.. I often fish it with a leader as well if the water I'm fishing has visibility greater than say 2-3' and I'm not fishing thick grass... I also occasionally will use yellow with a fluorocarbon leader when I'm fishing deep, I can watch the line move easier which is nice when fishing deep for smallmouth... often they'll grab my tube on the initial cast/fall and I would never know it if I wasn't watching my line.

So I've always been a St. Croix fan... my whole lineup is pretty much a mix of different St. Croix lines.. until I recently bought a Dobyns Champion HP 784ML Jig rod... I bought it for football jigs and I really wanted the extra length and XF taper, which wasn't available in St. Croixs lineup. I'm sure I could've found something fairly close in St. Croixs lineup, but their rods that are designed for similar "finesse jig" techniques are more like 7'1 not 7'8. Anyways, I LOVE that new dobyns rod... great blank for a whole variety of baits... Now I'm looking for another Medium Heavy Fast or Extra Fast jig rod in more like a 7'-7'5 length... pretty much want the most sensitive rod I can reasonably afford... like to keep it under 400 so I'm taking the NRX out of the equation.. As much as I like the Dobyns 784 I've read that both St. Croix and Loomis offer blanks that are noticeably more sensitive.. So that's got me comparing a Legend Elite and a GLX JWR ... anyone have both or fished with both and care to weigh in on which they like more and why? I also want it to have a full cork grip.. I don't mind split grips but really prefer full cork on my jig rods. Final question is whether or not the upgrade to SCV or GLX from an SCIII (7' St. Croix Avid) is worth doubling the price for? I realize that's a personal question.. but I'm asking for your opinions I suppose. I fish a lot of Avid series rods and certainly don't have too many complaints.. my biggest complaint would be the lack of lengths/technique specific tapers in the rod lineup.. I'd be stuck with a 7' MHF avid whereas if I upgraded to a Legend Elite or GLX JWR I'd have more options for lengths and different rod tapers. Any insight is appreciated... Thanks guys!

Spawn is definitely still going on, depends a on the lake you're fishing of course but most of the larger deeper lakes definitely still have some level of spawning activity occurring. I wouldn't necessarily agree that sunny days produce better than cloudy days, however I will say that I much prefer to fish for smallmouth when the sun is at least shining a little bit... Probably just a confidence thing though.

I used to be the same way... there's so many different blade combinations and sizes and colors and styles... it can all be a bit overwhelming. I've really started to throw them a lot over the past two seasons, and now I have quite a bit of confidence in them; I always have one rigged up now. There's a lot of different ways to fish them and I don't pretend to be an expert, but what has worked for me is just keeping it simple. I only really throw a couple of different colors.. usually white and chartreuse/white is all you need.. I like to fish a tandem willow/Colorado blade with silver blades for sunny days and clear water, gold or bronze blades for overcast/low light/ and stained to muddy water conditions. Throw them right along weed lines and right over the top of weed beds. I always have a soft plastic trailer on them (usually a small paddle-tail style swimbait) and fish them with monofilament to help with buoyancy and keeping them above the weeds. I also use a medium speed 6:1 gear ratio reel (around 26-28" per turn) to help keep it just above the weeds. You pretty much always want to keep the bait above the depth the fish are holding, they will come up and strike it and sometimes travel great distances to do so... seems like they'll very rarely go after a spinnerbait running underneath them in the water column, I think it probably looks less natural to them. I'll ditch the soft plastic trailer and add a trailer hook if I'm getting short strikes and missing a lot of bites. Spinnerbaits excel in overcast or windy conditions, as after all it's not a terribly natural looking bait so generally the idea is to not let the fish get too good of a look at it. If you're fishing for smallmouth in clear water (like at the quabbin for instance) I change to a double willow leaf spinnerbait with smaller sized blades. I like a more compact spinnerbait with a trailer hook or even a treble hook, usually some combination of white/chart or gold and or blue colored skirt. Make long casts and burn it back to the boat so it's either just below the surface or waking the surface... those smallies will come a long way to smash that fast moving bait right near the surface... they have no problem rocketing up from 20-30 feet to hit the bait. Usually when doing this I have the most success on sunny to partly cloudy days with at least 10mph winds. If it's dead calm throw something else like a spook. Final thought- Spinnerbaits absolutely kill it in the fall; the bass are almost entirely bait fish oriented at this point so they're looking to eat minnows, sunfish, etc. swimming through the water column, they're always looking up for something to eat and chasing it down from longer distances than the spring or summer when they have more crawfish and worms etc. to look down for to feed on. I caught my personal best 6.36lb Largemouth on a spinnerbait last year.

Chatterbaits are a lot of fun to throw... throw them in similar conditions as you would a spinnerbait, but they can be fished more effectively in higher winds as they cast better and put off more of a thump than most spinnerbaits.. They seem to work better in grass than spinnerbaits where as spinnerbaits seem to work better around wood/brush ... the wire on the spinnerbait helps to keep them from getting caught in tree branches and on stumps... chatterbaits with the open hook love to get snagged in brush... a fun thing to experiment with chatter baits are taking the skirt off and putting a paddletail or fluke style swimbait trailer on it... a bit more natural presentation that seems to work a bit better in clearer water. I do the same with buzzbaits in clear water.. Unlike spinnerbaits where I get most of my bites on a constant retrieve with an occasional pause or twitch of the rod tip.. most of my bites on chatterbaits come with a lift and drop retrieve while reeling in steadily... also "yo-yoing" them off the bottom seems to trigger lots of vicious strikes as well.

That's a river herring- Either a Blueback or an Alewife.. probably an Alewife but they're pretty tough to tell apart. They're like candy to both Striper and Largemouth... they run up the river from the sea in the spring (i.e. anadromous) to spawn when the water's between 51-57 degrees, they then return to the sea after spawning, which does not kill them like other species of anadromous fish, like the salmon. Their fry hatch in about a week and number in the millions.. where they begin to feed heavily on the various types of algae and phytoplankton available to them in the freshwater ecosystems along the cost of New England.. they grow quickly and are very protein rich... predator fish like bass gorge themselves on young of the year herring, which helps them reach much larger sizes than they would in environments where they are not available... The ponds down the Cape see a large herring run in the spring, and it's evident with some of the bass that fisherman catch in these ponds/lakes containing herring... This year one guy caught a largemouth that I believe was right around 9Lbs from Glen Charlie Pond- A pond that receives a strong and plentiful herring run. Just thought I'd give you some general info on them, as they have a large bearing on the fish around here... We don't have much in the way of Shad around here, but a lot of ecosystems do contain either sea run or landlocked herring. I'm with JE1946 as well- Those stripers look like hybrids.. Cool! I fished a tournament on Webster Lake (Chaubabgaghagalol) Saturday from 7-3. Caught probably 20 bass, mix of LMB and SMB- as well as a bunch of pickerel and some feisty yellow perch. Small mouth were post spawn and cooperating a lot more; schooling up on rocky shoal areas. Mainly in 4-8 feet of water. Largemouth came in some weedier areas in about the same depth. Nothing of ANY size though- My largest was 1.75 lbs . My partner's largest was 2.25 lbs - mostly everyone had this same problem, the average weight for a 5 fish limit was between 6-8lbs. The few guys that caught good fish were the guys who placed in the top 3 or 4 finishers. A 15lb bag took the tournament; aided by two 4+ Lb Largemouth, one guy also caught a 5.3lb Largemouth, the lunker for the day. We kept on trying to find "the spot" where big prespawn largemouth were holding, searching mainly in areas that were 8-12 feet deep with scattered vegetation... they either weren't there or they weren't biting. I spotted one good largemouth, probably around 4 lbs, in about 5' of water hanging between a few clumps of milfoil... got it to take my bait but unfortunately it spit the bait super quick before I could get a hook set on it... It wasn't even a texas rigged bait either, open hook jig head and it still didn't connect- bummer. Beautiful spot out there.. I can't wait to fish it again. Water temp was 64-65, bluegill were on beds, Smallmouth were all spawned out, Largemouth were somewhere in-between, there were a few on beds but I don't think the majority of them have moved all the way up yet... probably any day now. All the big largemouth that were caught (there were only 4 or 5 fish caught over 3lbs) were very clearly prespawn - fat and healthy! I know I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know, but further proof that fishing is truly a sport and you CAN be much better at it than other people... the same 2 or 3 guys win almost EVERY tournament- they catch them when others don't and when other's are catching they find the biggest bites.. every time! Pretty humbling.. if you think you're a pretty good fisherman go sign up for some tournaments and see how you fare- you might learn that there's a lot of room for improvement! I caught fish on a swimjig, wacky rig, dropshot, spinnerbait and ned rig. My partner caught bass on Wacky rig, tube jig, dropshot, and spider grub... the lunker of the tournament was taken on a chatterbait late in the afternoon. I got the idea that the schools of smallmouth we were fishing would've hit just about anything I could've thrown at them. Not sure how everyone else was catching them, but my baits HAD to have at least a bit of chartreuse on them, if they didn't they weren't getting bit nearly as often. I used Spike-It markers and JJ's dipping dye to put some chartreuse on the mostly green pumpkin/watermelon colored plastics I was throwing. The Ned Rig was my top producer, however it was catching wayyyy to many small fish, including a bunch of yellow perch and pickerel... the two "good fish" that I caught were on the swimjig and dropshot. Planning on fishing Long Pond Lakeville this weekend; that's were the next tournament is and I've never been there... Need to get a lay of the land. If anyone would like to join me that would be awesome... Especially if they have any experience at Long Pond Lakeville, or if they'd be willing to fish out of their bass boat with me so I don't have to Kayak all 1,800 acres! Of course if I do kayak anyone else with a yak is welcome to join me...

haha yup, definitely saw you! That's too funny. Good to know I can sneak out of work and hit a few nearby places for some bass!

Where/what time were you there? I think I might've drove by.. haha! Saw someone with a few rods by the Galen street bridge, noticed they had a few baitcasters which isn't as common to see.. usually just see people giving it a go with cheap spinning gear. Also- Nice smallmouth! Had no idea they were even in there... that's encouraging to see.

Small world, my first tourney is on Saturday and I'm feeling the same way... excited/nervous/anxious and want to be as prepared as possible.. Sounds like mine might be a bit more competitive than yours with some money on the line and they definitely don't weigh pickerel... haha . Of course I'd love to win it, I'm very competitive by nature, but I don't think it's a reasonable expectation for me yet. Some of these guys look like pretty good fisherman. I'm just hoping I can catch a limit... have a respectable showing my first time out so I look and feel like I belong. I'm sure you were disappointed like me when you looked at the weather outlook... 90 degrees for a 3 days in a row and then BAM back down to 60 with bluebird skies and North East winds just in time for the weekend tournaments... Everyone has to fish the same lake and the same conditions though, so I'm trying to not psych myself out too much with the cold front. What lake is it by the way? I'm struggling to come up with a lake around here with a good herring run, clear water and 10' deep... I thought maybe Snipatuit but I don't remember the water being very clear there. Do you have an opportunity to prefish the lake? I'm fishing Mashpee and haven't been there since last summer, so that's not quite ideal... I may try to get down there for a few hours tomorrow and do some scouting.. this is a little foreign to me too though, I don't usually meander around a lake looking for good spots to fish for too long, usually I just start fishing the first decent spot I come across! For me one of the biggest things I'm struggling with is what gear to bring and what gear to leave at home... How many set-ups is appropriate, and where do you make the sacrifices in your line-up for better versatility? I think I'll bring 5 or 6 rods but I really want 8 lol... I'm also curious to see how it works being a Co-Angler, typically when I fish I'm the one making all of my own decisions and calling the shots.. but I suppose as a co-angler in a tournament you're a little bit at the mercy of the boater you're paired with... they might have an entirely different plan as to how they want to fish than you do, and you are stuck adjusting and fishing off the back of their boat wherever they decide to position it.

Had an opportunity to get out and chase some Stripers on Saturday and given the initial forecast I opted to do that instead of battling the wind for a third straight weekend in my kayak. We launched from Truro and headed to race point with information in hand that the first wave of good striped bass had shown up... well if they were there one day they were gone the next. Nothing but Mackerel, humpback whales and lots of birds kicking around out there... there weren't many boats fishing bass and the ones that were didn't hook up while we were out there. Called an audible and headed back to Barnstable where we played with some schoolies and small keepers for the rest of the day. I guess we were probably a couple of weeks early but it was nice to be out there, as it always is. Hopefully I can swing an invite and get out there again soon once the water and bite heat up a little bit more! Race point is absolutely fascinating if you've never been out there... water that's 50 yards from the shore drops from 20' in depth to 180' in some places, the sheer size of the ledge and prominence of the point drives all sorts of bait and nutrient rich water up towards the shore and the big fish follow (theoretically, anyways ) . I think I may try to get out there in my kayak this season, but boat traffic, current, and frequent humpback whales have me a bit apprehensive. The thought of hooking into a 30+lb bass out there in a kayak also has me intrigued ... Warming up drastically this week... finally. Naturally Wednesday thru Friday it's going to get real hot and then Saturday it cools back down into the 60's... hopefully we're late enough in the season that a 20-30 degree drop in daytime temperatures wont screw up the bite too much... But I don't have a great feeling about it either. I'd imagine by this weekend the spawn will be in full effect most places.. with some places even moving to an early post-spawn period... smallies still spawning on the cape as we speak? Looking like I could be facing recently post-spawned smallmouth and a cold-front with bluebird skies for my first tournament on Saturday ... . Thoughts, advice??

When you guys are fishing blade baits out there are you using them vertically over structure or casting/retrieving keeping it close to the bottom? I need to start fishing some blade baits out there as I bought a bunch of them and I know the smallies and trout both love em equally

I work in Watertown by the Charles... been trying to figure out a good spot to shore fish before/after office hours or during my lunch break.. where are you guys fishing or launching from? The public park/launch from Nonantum road perhaps? As far as A1 goes... well I love that place. For some reason in my head I always think I'm going to do better there than I actually end up doing though... it's just tough to really know where you should be fishing. To be honest I've NEVER fished by the dam or even the deeper portion where the original pond was at all... I always paddle out either to the left or right of the island, most of my success has come when I go to the right of the island... but once you're out there in the stump field it's hard to know where to fish since it's all so similar. I know the original river bed snakes it's way around out there to the right of the island, I've done well targeting the old river bed and it's easy to find if you electronics with you, it runs 6-9 feet deep and most of the water out there is 3-4 feet or less. Last time out I tried to target the riverbed the same way I had this past fall and done well, but I didn't get a single bite out there on the wacky rig which is the same lure/location I caught em pretty good out there last fall. I was fishing 10lb braid to 12lb FC leader on the wacky there in the fall and didn't have any bite/offs or issues losing fish due to the light line, so it works OK as long as you're staying out of the thicker stuff... but tossing it in heavy cover you've got to get pretty lucky to pull a good fish out.

Last weekend was tough on me as well, got out and battled the high winds last Sunday at the A1 in westboro. Caught 2 dink pickerels in my 5 or so hours out there... had 1 good bass annihilate my wacky rig in a patch of lily pads... 10lb test braid wasn't going to cut it, the fish slammed it on the fall and buried itself in the pads... I tried to keep tension on it but I couldn't make up any ground, had to pull my anchor and try to work my way to the fish and get a better angle... while doing this I felt it pop loose, stole the senko and was gone. Quite frustrating considering it was my only good hit of the day.. I know they say the big ones don't necessarily hit the hardest but this was the hardest hit I've had all season, would've at least liked to get a look at the fish :/ . Lesson learned I guess (not the first time this has happened to me though so perhaps not)... The two pickerel came on a topwater wake bait that seems to always save me from a skunking.. pickerel love it for some strange reason. I threw a wacky rig and a keitech fat impact all over the place with no results, just a few fish that bumped the swimbait... unfortunately I left my spinnerbaits at the house.. was kicking myself all day as it was going to be my bait of choice for the day. Also didn't bother setting up the Lowrance so I can't report on water temps, but I didn't see any fish up shallow or on beds there whatsoever. I guess they could've been out of sight with the wind/low light conditions but I think if they were bedding I would've spotted a few. Planning to get out on Saturday somewhere, perhaps prefishing Mashpee/Wakeby with my tournament partner (Fishing my first ever tournament in two weeks!) but I'm unsure at this point if it'll happen. Weather looks crappy for fishing again this weekend.. really missing my far more flexible work schedule from last year when I could actually get out on a nice weekday. Oh well- here's to hoping I can put something together this weekend... the Largemouth bite has been brutally tough on me so far this year, not a lot of bites and certainly no good ones to speak about.. If only I could translate some of my Quabbin success to the largemouth waters throughout the state...

Long pond harwich is tough Dogbone, don't get too discouraged. Weather looks a bit all over the place this weekend, I'm thinking of fishing somewhere central mass this weekend where winds should be a bit more mild than on the coast... thinking of getting out in the kayak on Whitehall or A1 or possibly Webster. Fishing Mashpee the next two weekends after that