Scott F

Don't worry too much about the color. For the most part, the fish don't care. I doubt you'd notice any difference in the amount of fish you catch if you don't paint them at all.

Isn't that called a buzzbait?

I'm not surprised. I seldom see any of the locals bass fishing. Since this is a bass fishing forum, few locals will visit this site.

This winter, at night, I dress up like a spider and fight crime.

I got a total of 6 weeks off when I was still working. Took me 25 years to get that much. I have a 20 something year old niece that just started a new job. She gets 5 weeks off a year already!

My back is OK as long as I continue to do what I've been doing for the last few months which is basically nothing. With your busy fishing schedule, when do you find time to go to work? I don't walleye fish, but I can't catch much of anything else up there until the water heats up to the upper 40s at least. I have done OK on opening weekend but haven't fished it for about 6 or 7 years. 4 more months to wait to find out what Mother Nature has in store for us.

Everything depends on the weather and ice out. I spend two weeks in that area (Minocqua) every spring generally starting the week after opening weekend. A couple of years ago, there was still ice covering all the lakes on opening weekend. Last year, the ice went out on schedule and things were warming up nicely then it got cold again and shut things down for a couple of weeks. I fish for smallies and largemouth and the last week of May has been great pretty much every year. Earlier than that has been a crap shoot. There are so many lakes within an hours drive of Rhinelander, if the weather cooperates, all of them can produce. Boom, being a part of the Wisconsin River can be great for every specie. If you can stay flexible with your timing, you can be there during great fishing. Musky season doesn't open till later in May anyway if you're into them. If you delay your trip by a week. I'd like to meet up and have a beer with you.

Seriously, how long have you really been doing this? If you honestly just picked up a knife and carved that without a lot of practice, I am truly amazed. Beautiful.

It's counterfeit.

You do realize that without sponsors, there are no fishing shows on TV, actually almost no TV at all, no BASS tournaments, no Bass Resource! and no NASCAR, There wouldn't be newspapers, magazines and very little internet. There sure are a lot of "whores" around aren't there.

I fish mainly for smallmouth and I do best during the middle part of the day.

Yes, your motor should have its own dedicated battery. Your Yamaha is 12 volts. Connecting it to one battery that is connected to another in the 24 volt system could send a strange load to the computer in your motor that could fry it. Your depth finder shouldn't be connected to the trolling motor batteries anyway.

It doesn't exactly tumble but flows with the current. I use braid that floats. Reel fast enough to keep most, but not all the slack out of the line. Watch the line, when a fish picks up the bait, the line will twitch, then set the hook. If you drift it under overhanging trees, you will get lots of bites.

If I was to quit fishing, why in the world would you think you were entitled to all my fishing gear in front of anybody else on the planet?

People have been attaching video cameras to down riggers for years to capture video of fish following and grabbing baits. The article does not state whether the drone swims free like a flying drone or tethered to a boat.

I've never used the Hornet model, but their Perch bait is one of my go to baits for musky. A few years ago, some friends were very big on Salmo baits but I don't know which ones. If I came across one, I'd certainly use it.

If you want to save more money, when your braid has faded (it's still good BTW) take it off and reverse it. so the faded part is next to the spool. Just like new after that.

Bats, like fish, eat insects. When there is a big bug hatch going on on a river, the bats and the fish will both take advantage to eat the insects. If there is no bug hatch, the bats won't be by the river.

Like my mother always told me, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything to all.

I've been keeping my plastics in Plano utility boxes for almost 30 years. I've never had any rot or dry out. They don't warp the boxes or have any other issues except for stuff like power baits, Gulp or baits of that type which I leave in the bags they come in. I rinse the salt off baits that come with heavy salt before I put them in the Planos. I don't use scents which stink up everything they get near so I can't comment about how those work with boxes.

I'll give that one a 9. Here's one I get a huge kick out of.

I never leave new baits in their original packaging. When I get something new, I take it out of the package and move it to the correct Plano utility box unless it's some bait that might dry out or stink up the rest of my gear.

If you want to cast ultra light lures, you should be looking at a light or medium light rod instead of a medium. Compare the weight of the lures you intend to throw to the specs printed on the rod. For example, the St. Croix Premier in 7'6" comes in a medium light, 1/8 oz is the lightest lure the rod is rated for. The 7'6" Medium rod is rated for a 1/4 oz lure. The 7' comes in an ultra light rated for 1/32. Determine what lures you want to throw and match the rod accordingly. Any of their rods will handle any smallmouth you hook into.

The plug and receptacle that I have on my Ranger has served me well for 29 years and has never been replaced. Cabela's still sells them.

I used to see things like that on my sonar and spent hours trying to catch the marks I saw on the screen. I got frustrated so I bought an Aqua Vu camera so I could see exactly what I was looking at. Almost every time I saw bunches of marks on the screen and dropped the camera down, what I was actually seeing was junk like leaves that were floating, suspended in the water. One thing about shallow water is that fish are often spooked by the boat and will swim off to the side away from the boat so marking fish is not very common. They could have been bass but not likely.