Scott F

Not exactly across the street from you, but there has been a fishing flea market at Rolling Meadows High School every year for the last 16 years. It's held around the first Saturday in March.

The pontoons are 9 feet long but they are inflatable. Once you let the air out and take the frame apart, they fold up pretty small.

So what is it that you didn't like about the boats you fished out of? Too much room for you and your stuff? Too easy to get from spot to spot? I'm not a fan of kayaks. I float rivers in a personal pontoon. I can stop and hold myself just by putting my feet down, I can spin around on a dime, there is nothing more stable, I can transport it in the trunk of a car, and it is very comfortable. I don't want a "challenge" when I'm fishing. I get enough challenges at work. I'm looking for fun, a nice day on the water and a chance to catch some fish. Some days, lakes give me my best chance to do well. That's when I take the boat. I can cover a lot of water without a lot of energy in comfort. On days when the river is my best shot, I float in the pontoon.

NOT a smallmouth. Spotted bass probably

We don't have DST in the wintertime. DST ends tonight.

In just 2 neighboring counties in Wisconsin, Vilas and Oneida, there are over 1,800 lakes covering over 280 square miles of water. Many of them have largemouth bass, a lot have smallies and there are also walleyes, northerns, muskies and pan fish. The bass are seldom targeted by the locals. One big reason I plan on living there during the open water season, May through October when I retire in a couple of years.

Watch out using the straps. Pull them too tight and you will deform the hull of your kayak. Too loose, and you'll be picking it up off the road. You may be trying to save some money, who doesn't, but a kayak roof rack will protect your 'yak, and the roof of your car. They are a good investment.

If my boat partner starts nodding off or daydreaming, I screw with them. We used to troll for walleyes and pike on fly-in trips. If the guy in the front stopped paying attention and his line got near me, I'd give it a good tug which woke them up real fast and gave me a good laugh. From the back of a canoe, I'd slap the water with the flat side of the paddle which sounds like a gunshot. You gotta be careful with that one. They could tip the canoe over if you startle them too badly.

These are absolutely great places that hold fish. If there is current and you are floating, it can be tough to fully cover the downed trees but it is worth the effort. Most of my bigger smallies come off the downed wood in a river.

Why would you rip hooks out of a fishes mouth? The soft flex of an ultra light rod will soften the hook sets. No need to use a huge hook set with braid. Just a short, firm set will do the trick. No stretch will be a nice improvement over the stretchy light mono.

I'm a big fan of St Croix rods but I'm not a fan of the extra fast versions. You might have liked the fast version better.

Be careful what you wish for. Management these days is all about increasing profits. It isn't about creating the best product or taking care of the customer, it's about obtaining ever increasing quotas. If you made 20% profit this quarter, next month your quota will be 25%. The pressure never lets off. They let you know if your numbers slip, your pay or your job is on the line. If you can accept that and can thrive under that kind of pressure, you will succeed. If living with constant pressure makes you uncomfortable, maybe being the best production worker is the best thing for you and your happiness.

I use inline spinners a lot and I never use a swivel. If your lure is causing line twist, your lure is defective. In a properly working spinner, the blade spins, not the lure.

What is "unjust" about it? Invasive species can and do cause havoc within an ecosystem. I agree that killing your catch will have little if any effect on the bass population but maybe, the point of the proposal would be that the invasive species are unwanted and don't belong there. Here in the Midwest, we are fighting our own invasive species that are destroying our rivers and threatening the Great Lakes, the Asian carp. It is illegal to throw back any bighead or silver carp caught. Nobody here thinks that law is unjust. Maybe because we don't fish for the carp. People from Asia who like the carp and eat them probably wouldn't want the fish wasted. In many places, there are gamefish like musky that have been released illegally and have caused problems with local ecosystems. The musky fishermen don't like it that they can't have muskies in every body of water they can fish but they don't belong everywhere either. Maybe those that wrote the law are just from PETA and want all fishing stopped or someone is trying to restore what was once a good trout fishery. Getting rid of invasive species is a tough thing to do once the become established. It doesn't matter if the invasive is a fish that sportsman like to catch. If it doesn't belong there, some attempts should be made to correct the problem. This law probably is like taking a leak on a forest fire but what other plan that would cost next to nothing to implement is there?

If you've been only been married once, don't introduce your spouse as your "first" wife.

I have such a hard time seeing the screen on my iPad in direct sunlight I don't think it would be the best choice for a depth finder. That, plus you'd have to get a case that was 100% waterproof for those days when it rains or the water gets a little rough.

They are indeed drum. I've caught quite a few and never caught one on live bait. I've gotten them on blade baits, crankbaits, hollow body swim baits, jerkbaits and lipless cranks. I don't know what they taste like, I've never eaten one.

With an electric motor you don't use the water usage stamp, you go through the same registration as a full size boat. $28 initial registration fee for boats less than 16 feet, canoes, kayaks and other craft with motors, good for 3 years. $18 for 3 years after that which is the same fee at the water usage stamp.

In Illinois, ALL watercraft have to be registered. Canoes, kayaks and personal pontoons need an annual water usage stamp which costs $6 a year.

I use and like Fireline. The coating may be coming off. It should loosen up and get less sticky with use.

The big ones though, are not good eats.

I buy my spinner baits from a custom lure maker who offers baits with a closed loop.

Several years ago when I first started using Senkos, we were having a good day. Fish were hitting on every cast. As it happens with Senkos, they were getting pretty tore up and I did not have a lot of them and I was running out., down to bits and pieces. We did have some Gulp worms that were very similar in size, shape and color. No hits on those at all. We could see fish nose up to them, then turn away. We put Senkos back on and the action resumed instantly. It obviously doesn't happen like that all the time, but it sure did that day.

The quality of the replica vs a skin mount has almost nothing to do with the process. It is almost solely depends on the skill of the artist who crafts it. Both skin mounts and replicas are painted. If the person who makes the mount is not a good artist, your mount will show it.

Were all the fish removed or killed when the lake was drained? If they started over by stocking fry or fingerlings, there would not be any larger fish in there yet.