Kevin22

I know you already found your weapon of choice, but just to clarify I do not use a fillet knife to puncture the head. I use an old 5" fixed blade hunting/survival knife.

Yes! happens a lot for walleye as well! I'll be hung on a rock and trying to pop it free then one of the times I pull it pulls back.

I fished all week last week in minnesota with a KVD 1.5 and slaughtered the fish. I caught a lot of smallies under a bridge banging the squarebill off pilings and the shallow sides of the pillars. Also caught a lot just going down the shoreline throwing it and cranking it back. Rock, weeds, mud, sand, laydowns, and docks.. fish hit it everywhere. Caught largemouth, smallies, catfish, and pike. It was easy to rip out of the weeds as well. Most productive was the 1.5 black back chartreuse. Water was slightly stained but not dirty.

Try the plumbers tape and if that does not work then you may try some BLUE loctite 242. It will hold it secure and if you ever need to take it off it should break loose with some force.

There's a whole branch of study devoted to the science of what a bullet will do. They aren't magical pieces of lead that will go wherever they want. Knowing the different factors a ballistics expert can tell you exactly what that bullet will do when it hits the dirt.

That's the mold for the worm you have. But it was likely made to duplicate the worm as that company has only been around for 2 years.

I have the elite 4 HDI and love it. Would recommend it to anyone who wants a good sonar and doesn't need the larger screen. with that being said, its a little hard to read both sonar and dsi at the same time on such a small screen... so I use 2D sonar most of the time.

The app is worth purchasing if you do not have a GPS unit on your boat. I have a holder for my phone on the console next to the sonar and just use navionics android app. Works fantastic. If you want to keep it running you'll need to wire in a 12V electronics port and then use a cig lighter adapter to keep your phone plugged in. The app drains phones fast.

The mold you linked to was not even available 5 years ago. LC just started selling them last year I believe. I used to have a mold similar to that, but the worm body was a little different.

Should work fantastic as a trailer, but you are only going to get one fish.. maybe less if a bluegill grabs the tail.

I installed the one in Rhino's link on a 115 merc that had a broken skeg. Seems to steer much better at slow idle speed.

I should have stated in my post that we did find tons of fish shallow midday. All small. 6-7" fish. Lots of guys fishing for them and keeping them though. We stayed out in 8-10' early then moved towards the 20' range (almost the middle of the lake) as the sun got high. Most people just went down the shoreline filling livewells with 7" fish and bragging at the resort of all the fish they caught.

Its better than the people who bend the jaw 90 degrees to flare the gills. Aside from holding it horizontal and supporting the belly, what you did is the next best thing.

Sorry, was thinking of the problem I recently had with my Merc while typing. Meant to say evinrude.

Also, I'm not sure where you are located but if you are up north your spawn could have been just a month ago. I know where I just was on vacation they were bringing in spawning bass (filleting them) up until late June. Down south they have been done for 4-5 months.

It means the spawn was late so instead of the fish being shallow by now they are still out deep recovering from the spawn. Bass spawn goes something like this, but its not textbook 1. male comes in and makes a bed 2. females come in and lay eggs after sitting on the bed for a bit 3. male fertilizes eggs and protects it while female goes deep 4. male protects it until the fry hatch and then protects the fry until they leave 5. male goes deep. 6. after a week or so they start to get hungry again and look for food. Either out deep or up on shore.

I spooled up an UL with 4# yo-zuri hybrid last week before a week long trip. Brand new spool, just opened it up. Gave it the yank test and it was solid. Couldn't break it by hand without cutting myself. After 4 full days of fishing with that rod it started to get real weak. I was breaking off on every snag and the bigger fish when they got in the net. So I did the yank test and it broke easily. Kept peeling line 6' at a time and breaking it with ease. Got down way past line that I used and it still broke with ease. Put the scale on the end and gave it a pull, right at 4#. So it lost over half its breaking strength in maybe 30 hours of sun contact. Is that normal? I checked the spool (stored indoors) and it breaks right at 9# like advertised. Its not my rod nor my reel, its acting just like old line that sits in the sun for weeks. Real brittle. No frays or anything that I can see or feel.

Did you check the gap on the plugs before installing? Take them back out and see what they look like, see if they are fouled bad then check the gap before installing. Also call evinrude and ask them what the recommended plug is for your motor. Sometimes on older motors they will now recommend a different plug that they have found works better than the one in the manual.

18-22" is a throw-back. Those are breeders, way too big to eat. Eat the 13-16" fish. a 22" sauger is a big fish aka angling award in most states. A trophy. But I suspect both you and capt bob are talking about saugeye which get much bigger.

I just got done fishing for a week targeting panfish. 3 man limit using a drop shot with a gulp mini earthworm wacky rigged on a #10 fly hook. Just drop the weight to the bottom and shake the slack until you feel the fish suck it in. Caught a 3 man limit of bluegill (only keeping the 8"+) and several nice crappies doing that. The best bite was first thing in the morning, just as the sun was coming up. Then they went deep mid day, out to 12-20'.

Had it happen once while carp fishing with a doughball. Ripped that sucker right out of the rod holder. After a dozen or so casts I caught the line and brought the rod in. Reeled up to find the fish still attached. A 14-15" pacu. Yes I said pacu. Those fish are STRONG. He ripped that rod out of a rig that held up to several 20-25# carp.

You're not going to pop hot plastic. I melted lures for years and never had the infamous water in oil explosion many warn about. I even took a video of myself pouring cold water into a cup of hot plastisol. Bubbled like hell but never spit or exploded. For a while I had a secret color that used a water based paste dye and scent. Made a killer bait, one that I caught my PB on actually. I had to wait 5-10 minutes for it to stop bubbling before I could pour. As for using hardener, take 1/2 cup fresh plastisol and mix your hardener in there and reheat with your used. You should always use a little bit of virgin plastisol when reheating anyways. Yes, you MUST put in hardener into cold virgin plastic or you'll end up with lumpy gravy.

In all seriousness, look for suspended fish.

These guys nailed it. You'll have to change your grip. I hold it the same way you do and have no problems, but its different for each person. You may try to think about how you are holding the rod when you set the hook. Are you loosely holding it to where the rod moves when you set the hook?

Fish