Scott F

Make sure you wear a life jacket so that if it sinks, you don’t.

I wish I could help with a tip to keep it fresh, but I prefer the gel that comes in the bottle with the squeeze handles. The gel is so much easier to control. I almost never glue baits to my hands anymore!

In my opinion, rivets will not hold. The bases should be bolted down, preferably with a backing plate. You may have to cut a hole in the platform to allow access to put a wrench on the nuts.

I once shot a bear in my pajamas. What he was doing in my pajamas, I’ll never know! Credits to Groucho Marx for that 100 year old joke. ?

In addition to leeches and ticks, we also wind up bushwhacking through areas filled with poison ivy that just loves guys wearing shorts. The rivers where I live also run through agricultural areas where cows leave fecal material as well as the thousands of resident Canadian geese leave behind their calling cards that can contain E. coli. Any little scratches you got coming through the bush, give bacteria an opening to infect you. I’m sticking with waders when I enter the river.

Are you paying for the place you have to stay? If it’s not costing you anything, Lake Geneva, is more attractive. Tons of boat traffic can be a pain. You can also fish Delevan Lake which isn’t far away. If you have to pay for your lodging and it were me, I’d be driving another 4 hours north into Vilas and Oneida counties. Beautiful scenery, wildlife, few bass fishermen, lots of bass that don’t see a lot of lures. Campgrounds right on the water.

My smallmouth club currently has around 300 members. I'd say about half wade most or a lot of the time. The other half uses canoes or kayaks, but I think almost everybody does some wading for smallies. It's only a small percentage that use powered boats exclusively.

I’ve been heavily involved in the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance for 20 years. I’ve never even heard of anyone catching smallmouth in the Chicago River or even fishing for them there. That isn’t to say no one does, I’ve just never heard of it. Were you planning on launching the boat to fish in Lake Michigan? Parking is going to make the tolls look cheap. And towing a boat in downtown Chicago would be a nightmare. There are thousands of lakes and rivers in Wisconsin that have better fishing, are quiet and inexpensive to choose from. Geneva and Chicago’s lakefront are not two places I’d drive hundreds of miles to fish especially if money is an issue

There are smallmouth available from the the lakefront in Chicago, but I’d never make a special trip out of fishing there and I live less than an hour away. A state record bass was caught last fall by a shore fisherman in Chicago last fall, but your odds of even catching anything at this time of year aren’t great.

I’m not aware of how much tolls cost for cars pulling trailers in the states like Indiana, Ohio or Pennsylvania, but through the relatively short distance in Illinois, you will be shocked at how much they charge to use the toll roads. I travel to Wisconsin From Illinois pulling my boat regularly and the cost is nearly $30 for the round trip and I only pass through 2 toll booths. Depending on your route, you can expect to pay even more.

I’ve got video of a bear walking along a rocky shoreline I shot from 20 feet away from the bear while I was in my boat. Even though I was only a boat length away, he acted like I wasn’t even there.

If you are hiking in places that have bears, you should wear a bell so the bears will hear you coming and leave. Also carry pepper spray. Black bear scat may have some fur and seeds in it. Grizzly bear scat has bells and smells like pepper.

I don’t believe any chargers are 100% reliable. I had a Pro Mariner for two seasons before it crapped out. I’m on a Minn Kota now. I got it mostly because it fit in the space I have in my boat. Never found one brand that had overwhelmingly positive reviews.

That’s called a Fat Ika from Yamamoto. It’s basically a solid body tube bait. Put a jig head on it, and fishing it along the bottom is just one way to use it.

I just love this song. Junior Brown. “Highway Patrol”

I caught the same, little, northern pike 3 times, on consecutive casts. I was on a fly in trip in Canada And was doing a short portage between lakes. I stopped to fish a pool along the way and got a small pike on a floating Rapala. I let the little guy go and he stayed in the clear water at my feet. I cast back out and when the lure started to get close, I watched the pike dash out and grab the lure. I let him go and again he stayed close to where I was standing. As my third cast was coming in, he hit again. No telling how many times he might have hit but I took pity on him and left him alone.

I’m a numbers guy with a short memory. If I caught a very big fish in the first hour, by the second hour, if I haven’t caught anything else, I’d be antsy for the next bite like the first one didn’t happen. I need something tugging on my line frequently enough to keep me interested. One “bigun” doesn’t make up for a lack of action in the other 7 hours and 55 minutes of the day.

My Garmins don’t communicate with my trolling motor but I’ve never felt that to be an issue. The lakes I fish have very irregular contours so I don’t think the motor would have an easy time following them, nor do I want it too. Not having to purchase extra map chips for the Garmin was my main reason for choosing it over Humminbird or Lowrance. Other than the pre loaded maps, there isn’t much difference between them.

What lures are you going to be throwing with this reel? Heavy musky lures with lots of resistance like double 10’s put a strain on reels and you need something that will hold up. Your budget is also a big consideration.

I use a telescoping boat hook for a push pole. It’s a 2 piece aluminum, goes out to about 10 feet. The hook allows you to grab a dock, or a snagged lure. You wouldn’t use it to pole your way home, but I’ve used it hundreds of times to push off from a log or the shore.

Save yourself a lot of money. Find a scrap piece of 1x2 lumber about 18 inches to 2 feet long. Screw the transducer mounting bracket to one end of the board. Get a C clamp from the hardware store big enough to clamp the board to the transom. While the boat is on the trailer, line up the board with the transducer on the transom with the bottom of the transducer lined up with the bottom of the hull. Clamp the board in place. It’s not the prettiest install, but it’s inexpensive and portable.

I have old mono like that and I use it for backing for my braided lines

In another month, I’ll be retired for 4 years. I have all the time to fish as often as I’d like. I just find that I’m not interested in fishing as much as I could. My attitude about what I expected my retirement to be is different now than what it was when I was younger.

I’ll never own a lure so expensive that I’d dive in the water to retrieve it.

Even though I’ve seen them come a long way, more often than not, bass are not chasing and like was stated above, I want to be pulling my baits right past their nose.