Scott F

Natural springs should keep the water cool. Sounds like a perfect environment for smallies IF someone actually ever put them in there in the first place.

Contact the taxidermist who will be doing the work, give him all the data and photos you have, and let him pick a mold from the available choices.

The are some nice tripod mounts for iPhones I have one but I wouldn't use it on the water. It holds the phone tight but the risk of dunking or getting the phone wet are too high and the cost of the phone too much for me to risk it. This one is made by Square Jellyfish. It's attached to a Gorilla Pod tripod. There are several other ways to mount it including Ram mounts.

Using a 15 foot pole, you don't cast. There is no reel. The pole comes apart in sections and you swing your bait out. You pull the pole in. If you watch the video, you see how they do it. Lots of very specialized equipment. very long thin floats that go down when even the smallest fish takes the bait.

I've been in that situation more than once. The bear always ran away except for twice. One of those time, he waited for us to leave the cabin so he could get in. The bear broke into the cabin while we were fishing and trashed the place, the other time we just kept harassing him till he left.

There are many many lakes that are on state owned land. Besides, in match fishing, you don't spread out. Each angler is given a narrow spot to fish, and then they move to the next spot like the Match Fishing TV show except the areas are MUCH smaller. They are looking for EVERY fish. Minnows, carp, bluegills, whatever bites gets put in the bag. Small ponds are commonly fished.

There sure is. European match fishing is a very big sport. Most lakes in the UK don't even allow boats. Commonly, very long poles are used, they have slingshots to propel chum and contests are won by total weight of fish, regardless of species.

I know how long. If you run, you'll stop when he catches you.

There is just no way to be able to access all the same places on foot that you can with a boat. Even if you could get to some of them, the time it would take to move between spots would eat up a large chunk of my fishing time. I also find a boat to be a very comfortable platform to fish from.

It probably does look like an Atlantic Salmon. I could not argue that it was or wasn't except that there aren't any of those in Lake Michigan. That plus the anglers and guides who fish the "Big Lake" regularly say these are browns. Myself, I could not tell a Chinook from a coho from these big Browns. The only other brown trout I ever caught was much smaller and had more yellow on the belly. We here in the Great Lakes region are lucky to have this world class fishery right in our back yard. Most of the year, you have to go out far into the lake and fish pretty deep to catch fish like this. In the winter, they come up close to shore in reach of those of us with small boats and budgets that can't afford the charters. The guy we saw catching them on TV was there last month when the air temp was a balmy 8 degrees. Much nicer fishing with temps in the 40's.

Yesterday afternoon, while sitting watching TV with no other promising activities on the calendar for the weekend, I got a call from my friend Pete who asked me if I wanted to go to Milwaukee on Sunday to try and catch some brown trout. We'd both seen the John Gillespie Waters and Woods Show a couple of weeks ago where he was catching some browns in Milwaukee. Neither of us had ever fished there before but the weather looked promising and the potential for some nice fish was too good to pass up. I met up with Pete and his son Cam in the morning and drove up. We weren't on the water 5 minutes, did not even have any rods strung up, when the Coast Guard pulled us over for an inspection. Pete was needlessly nervous, the officers were professional and helpful and we were on our way in a few minutes. Because neither of us had any experience with this kind of fishing except for info we got from a TV show. We trolled for a while with no hits, saw some fish on the depthfinder, and switched to jigging. I was using a 3/4oz Kastmaster. Turns out that was the best choice. I finished the day with 3, and Pete had 2. It was a long drive for a short day but I had a blast. I doubt we'll have another day this warm before March, I'm glad I was able to get out of the Lazy Boy and have a productive Sunday. This was my best fish of the day, almost 30 inches, I did not weight it.

Define "Spring". What I'd use would depend on water temps.

When we're in the mood for something different, we find a small creek, use very tiny hooks, and tiny pieces of night crawler to catch some bait. A creek may have the minnows you might be looking for.

I bring another buddy who doesn't make stupid demands.

Flouro lines don't stretch, and they are invisible under water. Even though the "low stretch" myth was debunked long ago, I still read well known pros (KVD) saying they use it because it doesn't stretch as much as mono.

My favorite state to bass fish in is Wisconsin. It may not be the "best" because the lakes are frozen 6 months out of the year and the bass don't get to double digit weights, but there are a HUGE number of lakes, high numbers of fish and very little pressure. Plus, there are smallmouth and largemouth. If you are looking for easy pickings, Wisconsin is it.

I live close to you and would love to try Toledo Bend, but I'm not crazy about driving 1800 miles round trip to bed fish or fish for post spawners. If it was a pre-spawn bite, I'd be interested.

Start watching at around 2:50

Having it on your phone means it's not visible in bright sunlight, the screen is much smaller than you'd have on a marine unit, most phones are not to be left out in the rain, and your phone display does not stay lit up all the time. Will it do the job? Yes, but not as well as a marine GPS.

I carry the Gerber version of a multi-tool. It's a backup for emergencies if I need to do something and don't want to dig for a specific tool.

I caught this one this past spring. 19 inches long, I did not weigh it or measure the girth.

Here is an article you might find helpful. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/depthfinder_fishfinder.html

I've caught thousands of smallies and largies on braid and have never used any leaders other than steel when I fishing with a lot of pike. I'd probably quit fishing if I had to use a fluoro or mono leader. Having a knot got through my guides alone drives me crazy. I don't believe bass are line shy and even if you could prove beyond a doubt they were, I still wouldn't use a leader.

In the crowd of smallie fishermen I hang out with, NOBODY weighs fish. A quick length measurement is about all anybody does. No tournaments or competitions are held so even length measurements aren't held to exact standards. We all wade or fish from kayaks, canoes or 'toons in rivers. A "20" is everyone's goal. If it's under 14 inches, our "man laws" dictate you aren't even allowed to post a picture of it.

Case Salty Sinkin Salty Shad and Case Sinkin Salty Minnow.