Scott F

I’d stay in rental cabins on the water in Northern Wisconsin

Door to door, over the last 35 years, I’d say my average trip was 3 days. For many years nearly all my fishing was done on week long trips up to 5 weeks a year. For the last 8 years since I retired, trips were from 1 day up to 2 weeks.

You’ve been scammed. That’s an ape, not a monkey.

Because braid doesn’t stretch, once you get the slack out of the line, it doesn’t take much force to set the hook. If you are having hook setting issues with braid, you’re probably setting the hook too hard. I’ve been using nothing but braid for decades and love it for how easy it is to get a good hook set with little effort. You may need some time to get a feel for lighter hooksets.

Are you using the same amount of force during hooksets with braid that you do with your hybrid line?

I used to vacation in Southern Florida during the winter. Because it was generally warm while I was there, and even though I seldom fished while I was down there, I definitely dressed like a fisherman. So much so that while I was in line waiting to order lunch, a guy behind me in line asked me if I’d caught any that day! He was a guide soliciting me to go fish with him. $800 for a guided trip during a slow part of the season wasn’t in my budget.

I don’t know what the latest version of these cameras are like, but I had one years ago. A few things I learned. Once the camera goes over the side, even in clear water, you don’t see a thing until it gets to the bottom. Once there, you’ll only see a few feet. As for direction, you can twist the cable to rotate the camera. I also tried a telescopic pole but it was hard to use while trying to watch the screen. You can’t catch anything while you’re looking at a screen. I got mine mainly for identifying what I was seeing on my depth finder. 90% of what I thought were a school of baitfish or panfish was actually big pods of leaves or other debris. Overall, it did not accomplish what I was hoping for and wound up donating it to my local DNR who didn’t have the funds to purchase one.

Do you realize that the last post in this thread was made almost 14 years ago?

Almost anytime I see carp on the river, I see smallmouth following them around. The carp stir up the bottom and the bass take advantage of a feeding opportunity.

That pretty much holds true for every state.

I always look to see the email address of the sender. That’s the giveaway if it’s a scam or not.

I cut the hook off and added a split ring before replacing the hook

In my river, the big ones like them too. That smallie in my avatar was caught on a Mepps.

Pre drill the holes in the bench seat. Put the 4 bolts through the swivel plate holes. Leaving the bolts loose, attach the swivel to the boat seat. Square up the swivel so the bolts won’t come out if you push on one. It’s a little trickier if the bolts are short, but line up the bolts with the holes in the bench. Put on the nuts and washers. You should be able to get a wrench on the bolt heads and tighten everything up. Make sure to use big thick fender washers to strengthen the bench from the torque the seat will apply.

How are you fastening the swivel to the boat?

River fish are so much stronger. A 15” river smallmouth in my experience, fights as hard or harder than an 18” lake smallmouth. A big part of that is the river fish head downstream so you are not only fighting the fish, you are fighting the current as well. Then, they’ll jump, put slack in the line and they’re gone….

Why do you need 30 amp plugs for something that draws less than 3 amps? Connecting an 18 gauge wire to a connector made for much heavier wire is not a good choice.

If you want to save money, check with your prop repair guy. They often have used, rebuilt props they sell.

The book has been sold.

Are you sure about that? Minnesota has closed seasons, catch and release seasons, bag limits and special regs for the Northeast zone and a southern zone for both large and smallmouth bass. That sounds like a management plan to me. Bass populations in northern states are pretty healthy, there isn't a lot of fishing pressure on them and most bass fishermen release most of their catch. It's pretty difficult to enforce a regulation that requires the harvest of bass so except for rare locations it isn't done very often. Walleyes on the other hand, are seldom released, get a lot of pressure and require stocking so management of them gets considerably more attention

On a river, when the water levels go up, so does the current. The bass will find slack water areas to escape that fast water. If the water is over the banks, they’ll go right up into the trees. Ive seen guys fish picnic tables and garbage cans in flooded parks. If the water is just high and fast, they’ll often hug the shoreline. It’s a good time to walk the banks with a small jig and dunk the bait right at your feet in little eddies. Stealthy approach is critical. Plodding around will alert those fish hugging the shoreline. If the water is normally clear, during high water it’s probably muddy. Fish that are used to sight feeding will often shut down until things clear up. So many guys have trouble catching bass during high water on rivers. The good news is that they are in very predictable locations. If you can get to those slack water areas, from shore, you can get some bites. One more thing. Low head dams are killing machines. Use EXTREME caution when fishing near them, especially during high water situations.

Our 100% solution to getting rid of ants in our Illinois home was to use a solution of 1.5 tablespoons of borax, .5 cup of sugar and 1.5 cups of warm water. We soak some cotton balls in the mixture, put the cotton balls in some bottle caps, and place the caps near where the ants get in. The ants pickup the solution and take it back to the nest and within a day or so, all the ants are gone. I have no idea what variety of ants we had, or whether the borax works on every type, but its a cheap and effective method that has always worked for us. Terro, by the way, uses borax. Mixing it yourself is significantly cheaper

To use your example, on a small river, 18” smallmouth are old bass. They are near the end of their life cycle and often don’t even spawn. That’s why very large bass over 18” are so rare in smaller rivers, assuming they aren’t harvested, they don’t live long enough to get much bigger. At a fish hatchery near where I used to live, they removed the largest smallmouth (18-21 inch fish) and released them in a local small river because they no longer were reproducing. Instead of allowing them to die of old age in a tank, they gave anglers a chance to catch and harvest them if they wanted. If someone only kept the biggest fish out of your river, there would still be the smaller fish that would continue to spawn and the population would not negatively affect the population. True, there wouldn’t be as many large bass for you to enjoy, but those fish weren’t going to survive for a long time anyway. There is no simple answer to cover every body of water. There are many things to consider. Science aside, the DNR has to keep the people who buy licenses happy. If regulations are too strict, and don’t allow harvest, many won’t buy a license. With no restrictions on harvest, the fisheries can get destroyed.

My nephew took his 4 month old son Andrew, to his first Cubs game on opening day and got this amazing souvenir!

Where did you find information on the full moon effects on spawning? Aside from anecdotal, I haven’t found any studies that confirm any connection.