Jmrichardson2011

Nothing today, Darn it.

Pike love anything that moves fast, slow or not at all. To start off, just get some spinnerbaits in different colors with big Colorado Blades or Large chatterbaits, the Northerns in IL and WI can't resist that thump.

Awesome Fish. Looking to get a yak this year and hope to have similar luck while paddling in tucked away honey holes.

Nice fish Dwight. Can't wait to catch one like that. They will hit anything. I hauled in a 30" pike on a crappie tube and ultralight gear once - still not sure how I actually got the thing to the boat.

I would love to try fishing out there at some point as well as on the Madison chain of Lakes. The only real fishing I have done North of Madison area is at the Chippewa Flowage (caught everything from 10" blue gills to 34" northerns and everything in betweeen). I have fished on Lake Winnebago before but did not enjoy it at all.

Husky Jerks (In clown, ghost, and anything with blue/green) Daredevle spoon - in Red/White Inline Spinner - Anything with Red in it. And believe it or not chatterbaits - caught more pike on them than anything else

It is differentiable in both time and direction (mostly just depth, the other directions may be able to be ignored). To really get an accurate answer is just a long process and a lot of things need to be known (unless you have a lot of extra instrumentation on your boat don't know if these variables could easily be known). Basically the last paragraph you quoted is the reason bait companies say that the bait will suspend at 3-5 feet as opposed to saying at exactly 4.5 feet (remember, the type of line you use plays into this as well as it also has density and a specific volume). It's just complicated

That depends on a number of factors - How fast is the water heating up? how much has the 2 degree surface temp increased increased the temperature at 5' in the immediate vicinity surrounding your bait. It beomes a bit of a mess when dealing with transient heating (as the sun does not necessarily heat at an even rate all day). It involves partial differential equations and some magic to get the answer...if you are willing to compensate I am sure I could figure it out for you ...just kidding. It may be more fun just to set up an experiment to see how much the bait sinks as the water warms, I think some good electronics or a sonar flasher would be able to do the trick.

Typically I fish South Eastern WI, my grandparents have property on a little lake in Dousman (my favorite listed under my profile picture). Don't have boat right now so things are limited, but I love fishing anywhere in WI. When I go with my Uncle we used to go to Friess Lake until it flooded with septic systems and killed the fish. Now we we go to Lake Kessus near Merton or Pike Lake in Hartford

Agreed, 2 summers ago a pike hit my favorite spinnerbait (had caught many fish in 4 years of use) and bent it beyond repair. I could not get it to run true again no matter how hard I tried.

I have a nice M/H rod 7'2 I usually use for my jigs that has been doing double duty as my northern rod, I was thinking something maybe a little bit heaver to throw daredevle spoons (can't find these in stores hardly anymore, what happened to them?). My medium action spinning rods (I fish with these all the time) are getting beat to heck by northerns and it's gets frustrating but I guess that's the price to pay for multi-species heaven in Wisconsin.

Hey all, Looking for a good combo to target northern pike with. Would prefer something on the lower to mid cost end and am leaning towards an ugly stick since you can beat the crap out of those things and they won't break. Targeting pike is a good change for me and I like to do it if the bass fishing is slow. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

signed on the petition, not my state but love fishing with plastic lures

That's true

Now I got it. At least you are a cyclone and an alright guy to fish with. Now if only it wasn't civil engineering...

We didn't have a concrete boat program that I was aware of. I spent my nights in the Aerospace building, but the concrete canoe competitions are cool. I spent my free time building rockets.

...Must be a Hawkeye... Go ISU Cyclones

Roadwarrior, After engineering school this is how I think about everything...it's what they drill into our heads. Sometimes I think the inside of my head would be a very scary place to reside...

Pressure on the bait doesn't play into as much as density. Since pressure is a function of density the exact water pressure on the bait will not affect buoancy. The pressure at a given depth acts equally on the bait in all directions (in a static sense, after the bait has sunk and before retrieve).

Essentially, you are correct this is a function of density. To achieve neutral buoyance (i.e.the condition which causing a suspending bait to suspend), the density of the surrounding water (in a volume equal to that of the bait) must be equal to the density of the bait. Recall (from physics) that: Density = m/V (mass divided by volume) Figuring the mass of of the bait should be easy (just weigh it in grams and convert to kilograms, SI units work much better for these calculations so get water temps in Celsius). Not sure how to accurately measure volume of the bait except to submerge in a graduated cylinder in a fluid of known density, The volume of fluid it displaces (read on the cylinder) is equivalent to the volume of the bait. Not just divide your mass in kg by the volume in Liters and you have the density of the bait. Online, you should be able to find a table of water density versus temperature (most thermodynamics textbooks have them too). Measure the temperature at the depth you would like to fish, find the density of water using the table, then select the exact density bait. A long answer to a short question, but you got my engineer's brain thinking and thought experiments like this are always fun to do. ....I am a little bit weird, comes with territory of engineer....

Impressive. Would love to get into fly-fishing, but have no clue where to start (as well as start rod building which is a whole nother endeavor I am jumping way over my head into, good thing I know how to swim).

I have managed to avoid the dreaded monkey for the most part this winter - I keep feeling his eyes on me though. Finally gave in and bought the only fishing tackle I have purchased since last October at the sports show in Schaumberg, IL last week. Got a couple of custom in-line spinners mostly for northern pike but will make good bass baits too. I would love some of those Strikeback spinnerbaits I have seen on here though.... Oh crap! That's him! Get the monkey away now!

Just curious as to what everyone's ritual for spring re-organization of tackle is. Here in the North, it seems that every February about this time I start slowly going through my tack before breaking down and covering my living room floor in lures and terminal tackle to try and determine what is worthy enough to go in this year's box. Usually, I just go through and thow away used plastics, torn/bent skirts and spinners and hide the hard baits that I never find myself pulling out of the tackle box. Then I repack everything into my bag (or try too...doesn't always fit), realize what I am missing or want, then try not to get bit by the rabid bait monkey telling me I need more. What do you guys do?

I demoed a wilderness ride 135 today. Definitely loved the stability and versatility of this yak. Hopefully I will be able to get this one soon. Kayak fishing has long appealed to me and I would really love to get this one. Anyone else out there have a Wilderness ride and what's your review of it.

I would love to have an old classic ride like that one to fish out of. Something iconic that just screams freedom and passion in those older boats - can never quite put my finger on that specific tough but its there for sure.