Trackick9707

I use a cooler on my canoe. Go a find some pvc pipe and some clamps to mount it. Cut the pvc to length and drill holes into the cooler. Use carriage bolts that have a smooth rounded top and make sure to have that end inside the cooler so they wont damage whats inside. A little bit of silicone on the bolts to seal it up and you have rod/net holders on the cooler. If the cooler is large enough you could also cut some wood to fit and create separate compartments on the inside if you seal around the edges well enough. Another trick is to find a cheap plastic cutting board that is the same size as the top (or one that can be cut down to size), and bolt it to the top of the cooler for a nice cutting surface. I also had the screen for my depth finder mounted on the top of my cooler for a while and I loved the portability. Your cooler options are as limitless as your imagination.

So the main lake that I fish is completely overrun with milfoil this time of year. It's bass fishing paradise as far as western wisconsin goes. My question to everybody is what bait do you use OTHER than frogs? I've had great success with frogs but I want to see how far I can push the envelope. It seems like in certain conditions that the fish are there but they just want something different than a frog. I understand the benefits of pitchin/flippin/punchin, but its a paddle only lake and trying it from a canoe seems to be inefficient and slightly dangerous. I plan on experimenting with t-rigged 10 inch berkley power worms without a weight and just slithering it about through the jungle after work this week. I know there is no such thing as a magic bait, so I'm just trying to fish outside the box a bit. Any suggestions would be very appreciated...

I have a 17 foot aluminum canoe and I solo it alot. The extra length makes it way more comfortable if you are a gear junkie. Look at cabelas.com for the canoe rack that they sell that works with the hitch on your truck. 1 person on and off the truck, simple as can be. It's $100 and worth every cent. Also being able to tell people at the launch that you don't need their help, then they look at you like you're an idiot, then they are shocked when the rack pivots and you load it with 1 hand is priceless.

Should I have an extra tab open so the wife doesn't see me looking at this..?

I was gonna buy a C3 last year but ended up spending the extra $10 on a C4 and I couldn't be happier. The thumb bar and internal braking set up are worth the money to step up. That being said, I just bought a Lews speed spool tournament mg for 129 at a box store and the little bit that I have used it so far it seems to be money very well spent.

Up here in the great white north if the weeds are growing you can catch bass on frogs. last year the coldest i caught them in spring was 50. In the fall though they shut off on the frog bite when the water gets below 60.

My wife is loving enough to understand that when we get our tax return every year i buy a new set up. Best wife ever... My winter purchases were an Abu Garcia Orra S spinning reel for my St. Croix premiere, and a MH St. Croix Mojo Bass bait casting rod that I'm still looking for the right deal on a reel for.

So I just ordered my first set of Boca Bearings for my Abu Garcia 6601 C4. (15% off banner at the bottom of bass resource forums!) It says on the web site that they are shipped dry with no lube. I'm wondering what lube would be recommended for the orange seal ABEC 7 bearings? I don't want to pull it apart and lube the bearings after every outing, but I'm willing to pull it apart every other week during fishing season. Any recommendations?

Tape the braid to your spool...Problem solved...

I must be the only person that doesn't use a mono backing on my reels. I guess I want as few knots and as few connections as possible. I understand the expense, but by the time my gear has sat all winter I want to know that my line is fresh and in 1 continuous piece.

Over filling a spinning reel will cause loops because of line inertia. You cast, lure hits the water, momentum carries a few extra loops off of the spool, loops and wind knots galore. One thing that helped me is after closing the spool by hand, pull on the line a little bit and look for any loops that formed BEFORE beginning to reel. You'll be surprised how often you can get 1 small loop that you don't notice and on your next cast you'll feel the loop go through your guides, and then you're back to square one. It's almost like a backlash on a baitcaster, but not as dramatic. I hope that helps...

I fish from a 17 foot canoe that if you stand up you're probably gonna end up in the water. That being said I switched over to a bait caster last season and it felt a little odd at first but you can adjust to it pretty quickly. Pitching and flipping are a bit awkward, but i found foot rest that puts me at the same height as my canoe and I've been practicing all winter and it should be second nature out on the water. I agree with flipin4bass that when you see the water you can get into that big bass boats can't you'll be hooked.

Frogs. All colors and shapes and styles and sizes. Especially during the winter...

BIG pasta dinner the night before so I have energy to paddle. In the cooler the day of I'll make a sammich or grab some subway, a king size snickers, a big gatorade, a big mountain dew, a sixer of good craft beer and a pack of marlboro lights. I might try try the hot dogs in the thermos trick this year though... Except maybe I'll try some brats... d**n, now i'm hungry...

Grass and lily pads are my strongest points. After that I would say crankbaits in wood cover. So i would say my style is a cross between power fishing and junk fishing.

I'm excited for the weather to get nice. There is currently 2 feet of ice on my favorite lake and we just got 8 inches of fresh snow this past Tuesday It's supposed to rain this weekend and hit 40 for the first time this year so it won't be too much longer (hopefully). Other than that i'm looking forward to using my new flipin n pitchin setup, experimenting with zoom z hogs in heavy milfoil, and helping my 4 year old catch her first fish.

I would be happy with anything above freezing right now. It was 8 degrees with a -15 windchill today (NW Wisconsin). This is the time of year I always threaten to move to a warmer climate.

I grew up fishing pool 2 of the Mississippi and have caught all sorts of weird stuff. Pallets, toilet seats, clothes, tires, big turtles, condoms,shoes, odd bottles, a 24 inch sucker minnow,and all sorts of crazy stuff. Funniest thing was a dime bag of pot in a wrapper from a cigarette pack... all of the garbage from St. Paul would settle in that pool and i learned to appreciate braided line at a young age.

I'm the lot manager at a local ford dealership. I do most of the behind the scenes stuff that you don't see when you buy a car.

I love the Sure set treble hooks but they have become very difficult to find the last few years. I haven't used the single hooks yet but it depends on how I'm fishing.

Worst lure: Rapala DT4... i bought 3 when they first came out and had the lips break off on 2 the first time they got hit by a fish. Worst reel: Quantum Energy PTi. I lusted after this reel for 2 years and my wife bought it for me for valentines day. The gearing was messed up out of the box and had 2 spots it would almost seize up when i turned the handle. returned it 2 times and none of them were smooth at all. As far as the wife knows its my favorite but it's been sitting in my parts box for about 2 years. JUNK. Worst rod: Every 2 piece rod i've ever bought has cracked at the joint after a short period of use. Maybe i just have too much muscle

I hadn't thought of the out rigger's and it seems like a great idea. The main lake that i fish is a super heavy milfoil lake so it's gonna take some thought to make them work without causing more drag than it's worth. It sounds like a good project to figure out over the winter. Meanwhile i'll be practicing from a 5 gallon bucket in the living room. Thanks for all of the ideas. I've tried pitching with spinning reels and it feels really awkward but I've never tried with a really heavy (>1/2 oz) weight so I think that might be a part of my struggles. I also haven't been able to find info on you tube on roll skipping and it sounds like that might be my best plan of attack...Anybody have a link they can post to point me in the right direction?

Just a quick word of advise from a guy that is still paying off my wife's school loans. College's are business's... They don't really care about anything other than your money. Most of them are gonna tell you what you want to hear. Your guidance counselors know this but they don't want to kill the golden goose. This goes double for any kind of "art" major. The practical applications for an art major are few and far between. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just trying to teach you a lesson I learned the hard way. My best advise, especially if you don't like math, is to pick a tech school and find a program that really interests you. You'll save time and money. As for the writing, art is in the eye of the beholder. Read and write as much as possible and work on honing your craft. If you do good work, start freelancing, or blogging, or any other way of getting your work out there for free. If it's good, it will eventually make you money. You don't need a college professor to lecture you about how you'll never reach there level because they are perfect and you are just a lowly student. Believe in your talent and the rest will fall in place. The tech degree will make you more money faster, meaning more time on the water, and more free time to write instead of waiting tables on OT to pay off a degree with no practical application.

I agree with the spud bar. If you don't wanna spend the money on one get a long piece of re-bar and grind one end into a point. Poor mans spud bar...

I fish in a canoe and it seems like i run into a lot of situations where pitching a lure would be very helpful. The problem is that I'm not an acrobat and standing isn't really a safe option. Does anybody have any techniques or tips that might work for pitching from a sitting position?