Scott F

The Minocqua area.

I've been going up there the same time every year for the last 10 years. I've never seen the bass spawn that early. On average, water temps the second week in May are just hitting 50. That last two years the ice did not go off the lakes until May 8. Historically, Memorial Day, or the last week in May is when the smallmouth are moving on the beds in Northern WI.

I'll be there for 2 weeks straight beginning May 9. From past experience and knowing what the water conditions are now, to me it looks like the smallies will be on their beds around the first of June and the largemouths maybe a week after? Of course that assumes normal temps between now and then. I should also mention that the lake I fish is big and deep and can be as much as a week behind other lakes that are smaller and shallower. I'll post about conditions and water temps while I'm up there. When exactly are you going and where are you staying?

Bleeding gills is not necessarily a kiss of death. I've caught several fish that have a piece of their gill hanging out. They must have been bleeding when the gill was torn, but they survived to be caught again.

I spend a two week vacation every year prespawn fishing everyday from 7am to 1 and then 3 to 9. We can always count on the best numbers from 9 to 1 in the morning. The morning bite gets better as the day progress' and the evening bite is never as good as the morning.

You know what you get when you cross a lawyer with the Godfather? You get an offer you can't understand.

That's why I use a pill box that has all my pills for each day of the week.

What's your GPA? To get into law school, you have to be at the top of your class no matter what courses you take. What's your guidance counselor have to say?

My sister is in human resources hires staff several hospitals. My wife was considering an online education and we asked my sister what the value of such an education was. At least with my sister and the staff needed in all positions in hospitals, someone with an online education would lose out to a person with an education from an accredited institution.

You do know that if you ad iPilot to a trolling motor that you lose the foot pedal. It will only operate with the hand operated remote control.

Every brand of motor can breakdown. Which company does not need a service department? My Mercury motor is 20 years old and has never needed service. If they are that bad, I probably would have had it in to be repaired many times by now.

Most of the prespawn fishing I do is for smallmouth and the number one bait prespawn lake smallies prefer is suspending jerkbaits by a very wide margin. Lots of baits will catch them, but I catch twice as many with a pointer as all the other baits combined.

Measure the distance from the top of the deck to the water line and add 12 inches. That's how Minn Kota tells you to choose the shaft length.

The iPilot has it's own built in GPS.

Getting old is not liking any music made in the last 20 years. It's needing "cheaters" to be able to read. It's groaning every time you get out of a chair.

You really think anybody with a top 5 draft pick would move down in the draft to get any of the 4 quarterbacks on Philly's roster?

Not mine.

Worry? I worry if my job will continue. I worry if my family is taken care of. I never worry about anything fishing related. As far as stick baits go, I only care if the stick bait slowly sinks. The only action I want is the erratic jerkbait action when I T rig. That's why I don't wacky rig.

A wind sock shows which way the wind is blowing at the airport. A drift sock slows down your boat when drifting with the wind.

Let's see some pictures of the CT lunkers!

I went from older Eagle models to the Elite 4 and was very happy with the Lowrance. The color screen is a huge improvement over the old B/W and it works very well even in shallow water where my old units always had problems. I like to see the depth, and water temp while I'm fishing from the bow so if I was getting just one right now, I'd put it up front.

If they can tell the difference between natural prey and an unnatural imitation, how is it we all catch them on imitations? Braid looks unnatural but hooks, metal blades, wires, plastic and wood are natural? Of all the unnatural stuff we throw at the fish, why is it that the line is what will turn the fish off?

A friend and I got out on my first outing of the year to LaSalle Lake, a cooling plant lake about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. I have fished there a few times and thought there might be a long line waiting to get in the gates when they open at 6. We got there about 5:20 and were the only ones there. Right at 6, another 6 or 8 cars with trailers pulled up. During my preparations, I forgot to charge up the starting battery for my motor and couldn't start the engine. After slight delay getting under way while I jump started the motor off the trolling motor battery, which were fully charged, we were off. Reports I've been getting about LaSalle were that numbers of fish have been off so far this year and our trip report was about the same. We had to work hard for bites but I did manage to get 2 hybrid stripers, a 19 incher and a 21. Those 2 fish were made the whole trip worth it. The first one just about pulled the rod spinning rod right out of my hand he hit the lipless crankbait so hard. The speed and power of those fish is incredible. The second came on a white spinner bait. I also got a nice 18 inch largemouth on a Rapala Shadow Rap jerkbait. All together, we had a dozen fish. 7 largemouth, 3 stripers, a smallmouth, and a small catfish. Water temps on the "hot" side were 80 degrees although we never got close to the actual discharge. The "cold" water side was 70 degrees. The 19 inch hybrid The 21 inch hybrid An 18 inch largemouth Today was the first trip with my new Minn Kota Terrova trolling motor. It takes a little bit getting used to the different controls than the old Power Drive motor, but the extra power, the remote control, the spot lock and auto Pilot are great features. I really like the new motor. It turns so much faster than the old motor and it stows much easier. The weather today started cold and clear with temps in the middle 30 and was in the middle 60’s when we quit just after 3. The winds were from 5 to 10 mph from the WSW.

Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz.

Except during the spawn when the females are full of eggs and the males are are squirting sperm, there is no way, short of cutting the fish open, to tell for sure. Even during the spawn, not all females have eggs so even then, sometimes it's just a guess.