MarkH024

You can get more use out of your Senko or stik baits if you rig them with an O-ring or Wack-O Jig. This will keep it from tearing up as easily. You should get 5+ fish with it rigged properly, perhaps more. Bass are still active. They're feeding like crazy to fatten up for the winter months (the places that actually have winter). Try using jerkbaits, flukes, lipless cranks, squarebills. Don't give up on soft plastics, they'll still work. Topwater will still have a shot until the water gets really chilly, under 50 degrees.

I'm dying to get to Chequamegon. I have yet to fish it but I will one day. For largemouth, Buffalo Lake in Marquette county was a great lake for LMB. Buffalo has a few tournys on it each year. They're repairing the dam that holds the lake together and it is getting drained down back to its original creek/river size. The repairs will have the lake unfishable for 2 years. Hopefully when it's all said and done it will be restored back to an awesome bass fishery. Here's a slob I got a couple years back from Buffalo.

Get a keel guard. i would recommend this kind. I have it on my boat and it's been intact for 4 seasons now without a problem. Apply it right, take your time and you will have a long life from it. It is well worth it especially if you fish shallow often or ever beach your boat. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_11151_10001_37207_-1?cid=chanintel_google&ci_src=14110944..#.UH1uXm_A9DQ

I use an 1/8th Superline hook from Gamakatsu. Gives you a little extra distance but it helps keep it from rotating. If you have rigged straight and you retrieve is straight you should be fine with a weightless hook. I use a 5/0 on Rage Shad and Toads.

What he said.

Enjoy your reel!

Changing diapers instead.

Falcon box user here too. Decent box, does what is needed. I have the half spinner bait, have buzzbait one. I forget the style number.

Bigger baits will produce bigger fish. Don't underestimate the size of lure when bass fishing. A 16" lmb can eat a fish 10" in length. For trailers I like using a Berkley Chigger Craw, Rage Craw, or any paddle tail swimbait/hopper. I always try to match skirt color.

Koppers Live Target or SK KVD Sexy frog, Pad Crasher good too.

Eurasion Milfoil is the devil. I have a MinnKota Powerdrive V2. The motor itself is a beast. The foot pedal that goes with the PowerDrive series is a POS. That is my only complaint about that. I have no experience with Motorguides, but I would certainly not take a peak at them.

We're practically neighbors. Sorry..i dont want to hijack the thread anymore. Apologies to the OP.

Really? Man, 3 lbers here are decent fish. I need to move South. I would like to be able to say, I'll pass on 3 lb bass. As for the topic, I'd like to catch dinks over being skunked. I don't mind being skunked but I go giant hunting when I musky fish. I don't expect to catch musky every time out. When I fish bass, I better at least catch one! lol

Thanks, I have experience on deeper lakes. Just don't frequent them very much. One I believe. About 50 min away from me. You're right about that. We are already at the 5 month mark, and it's been a handful.

Mine is a 115 Evinrude Ficht, runs great and haven't had any problems starting it. I think the max i can put on my boat is 125 or 135hp. With the 115 I can get to about 40-42mph. Being that you have a single counsel and a longer rod box you might be right on that. I'm towing with an 07 Explorer. The other thing to mention is my boat trailer is a short tongue. That can be a pain sometimes depending on the landings. But the boat front end is light enough that you can actually man handle it up or down if you're pinching your trailer at a strange angle. Rarely do I have an issue but every now and then a tricky boat launch makes it a task to get the boat back on.

I have an '01 R73. It's great for the lakes I fish. It's a really smooth ride. You can get in really shallow. I have a 70lb Thrust Powerdrive V2. I can fish off that thing for 2 days or more depending on wind and weeds. I would rather have a single counsel bass boat to be honest but I still love my boat. Perfect for you and a partner. Being that they are smaller boats they're on the lighter side. I tow mine with a Ford Explorer V6 and it tows just fine so if you got a truck or something with a bit more horse, you'll be even better off. The one downfall, is you cant store rods in my boat and assuming in the R61 would be the same. They were designed to only fit 6'6 or smaller. So all of my rods stay on the deck or on the sides by the counsels. That is a nuisance at times, but you make due.

Thanks for the congrats. It's a lot of work taking care of two babies at once. My season is pretty much done as I don't see any time for me to make it out any where again. We'll see though. I have had thoughts about building my own lures in the winter months too. This site definitely has got my brain going towards lure making too. You guys are trouble. I just don't have the extra cashola right now to dabble into that. I'd really like to get into air brushing hard baits, as I do have a BA in Fine Arts. But, that is time and money and I don't have either right now. I also want to start doing videos of my fishing, maybe a youtube. Not so much for learning but just a hobby of collecting footage and doing the video editing. Again, time and money. I don't ice fish either, so that's out for me. I'll probably just organize and change out hooks on lures like you said. I was really trying to see if you guys have a set game plan going into the next fishing season. Do you pick out a technique you consider yourself weak in, and really try to nail it down? I try do do this every season, mostly involving soft plastics. Few years back i finally convinced myself to start wacky worming, 2 years ago it was weightless flukes, the year before pitching/flipping, shaky heads were in the mix at one point too. This year past year I didn't get out enough to even think about it, all I wanted to do was catch fish so I fished the way I always do.

Slone are you shooting at the new place in Lombard? If so, how is it?

I think its double that. Curious to know how deep it went in your pocket too but completely understand if you don't share. Its a beauty. Don't drop her in the lake!

Congrats on your fish! That's a slob. 15" for me too. Caught it on a hollow body swimbait fishing for bass. Every now and then my lake produces a giant slob crappie but never can you find a whole bunch of them schooled up. I'd love to catch a half a dozen for the fryer.

What was your last presentation that you applied that too?

For home defense, find whatever round feeds the best and never jams your gun. That's the best round in my opinion. I think you should do a little experimenting at the range with a few brands. Maybe someone with the same firearm can help you narrow your selection down. At the end of the day, the guy facing your barrel doesn't know what is in it and 99.9 % of the time probably won't stick around to find out.

Or an O-line. Speaking strictly on the Bears behalf.

Being that I'm a northerner, there is a long down time for those of us who don't get to travel south to fish in the winter months. Usually I will go through my tackle a few times during winter and decide on what I want to get come spring time. The other things I think about are what presentations or techniques of fishing do I need to learn, try more, or get better at. I always try to pick something that is outside my "comfort" zone and really give it a chance to catch fish. For me this usually involves some sort of finesse style fishing. The slow, methodical presentations just aren't my favorite way to fish, but it's necessary. That I know. The other problem I have is the waters I fish most of the time are very shallow lakes, 2-8 FOW. So presentations like the drop shot, carolina rigs, jigging spoons etc..are not my first choice techniques. I consider myself as a power fisherman. I like to fish fast, and cover a lot of water so cranks, swimbaits,spinners, jerkbait, chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and other presentations like that are what I fish most of the time. I do a lot of frog and top water fishing as well. I have already begun planning on what I want to do differently next season. I know many of you are "seasoned" fisherman and have spent more time on water than land, so your options might be limited to not even possible. My plan is to fish deeper lakes (10ft - 50+ft) and really try to nail some of the finesse techniques I rarely ever get to use. I know how to fish them all, I just don't do it. I like to force myself to do this because it is very rewarding to catch fish when learning or doing something new. Also, I feel it is a great way to expand your game. This season coming to an end was pretty much a wash for me. I spent very little time on the water and not a lot of fish caught. I had identical twin boys in May, and it was the best thing ever. Almost as good as catching 50 fish in a day, jk. I can't wait to be able to take them with me and take pictures of them holding up fish. Instead of fishing I have been doing a lot of reading, and researching. I've picked up an amazing amount of information from BassResource.com as well as other sites. I'm already fired up for next season, which is a bad thing because cabin fever settles in hard around February/March and that is a long ways away yet. I can't even imagine being a Canadian...I'd go insane.

I have a 17'6 2001 Ranger R73 with a 115 Evinrude Ficht. My trolling motor is a Powerdrive V2 70lb thrust. That's a fairly close match up to you, and my trolling motor is perfect. I think you'll be just fine with that. If it's really windy you'll probably have to crank it up to keep a consistent speed so make sure you have good batteries. Good luck