NathanW

If you have the luxury stop fishing, get on the graph and find fish out on the ledge. Don't make any casts until you locate a whole bunch of fish. When I do this it seems like it takes an eternity while I am not fishing but in reality I don't think I have ever spent more than 20 minutes on the graph at one time. 20 minutes on the graph to find fish beats three hours of no bites while fishing. Its amazing how fast time feels like it is going when you are fishing and how slowly it seems to go when you are not. I fish vertically with a drop shot. I think its been two complete seasons since I have been skunked but we have lots of smallmouth in our area which can always be caught deep.

I have used the smaller Yetis. They are heavy, dense walls, great latches, will probably last forever. I was not overly impressed by their R-value when compared to cheap coolers. I have a 40 dollar Coleman XTREME (Which I hate) that holds ice longer. My biggest gripe about the Yetis (and this will sound really pathetic) is that it takes a little more effort to open close properly and can get annoying when using as a beer cooler. But really the lid is heavy enough that you don't really need to latch it every time but its most peoples second nature to do so. My favorite cooler however is the big white 150 quart Igloo cooler. About $80.00 but you have to replace the latches with the metal latches they sell which put you out another $25.00. They also sell metal hinges but I have not had any problem with the plastic hinges. Holds ice pretty good for the size and latches are simple. Versus the $650.00 price tag on the Yetis I will stick with the Igloo.

#1 is 4.5" Curly Tail Roboworm no question. It has been for the last 7 years. #2 is a moving target for me but right now the Swing Impact is starting to take the 2 spot over. The fat rigged weedless or the standard on a Lethal Weapons II Swim Jig.

This is littering!! Don't you care about our planet? Have you okayed this with the department of ecology? Don't you know this could impact the tiger salamander population! On another note. Can you provide a waypoint? Also what are you using for a base to keep it upright and secure? I cannot wait to get my spot on the lake so I can plant these puppies all over while my neighbors are sleeping.

Well, if you are ordering on line you will defenently need to order now. Otherwise plan on buying some shipping (run about $15.00) and dont forget to pick up a sales tax for 6-8 dollars.

Do you guys have any smallmouth? Fall beats Spring smallmouth fishing hands down over here. They are sometimes a little deeper in the fall but school up in dense packs and the biggest fish in the water are feeding just as aggressively as the dinks. Personally I like summer best but could live without the heat. To me nothing beats the challenge. Patterning the sun relative to where/how you fish. Finding and determining the right type of vegetation combination and depth, chasing shade, early topwater. Just wish I could sit in the heat the way I could when I was 20.

rat-L-Trap or Squarebill. I catch about 20-30 carp a year while I am cranking. They slash at them with their tails. Its fun the first couple of times but that's about the extent of it.

16' glass is a really small boat. Strada is like a Sea Doo boat with a small fishing platform upfront. The actual length is 15'6". The gun rails are really high. Rod storage is going to suck. Tackle storage is going to suck. I wouldn't even consider that boat. The wieght of that glass with a 70HP you are far better off with a 17' or 18' Tracker and a 50-60HP. That 70HP probably bogs down terribly. If those are your choices the Javelin is the only choice.

I could get by with 1 Medium Drop Shot Special Spinning - 12lbs braid 6lbs leader 2 Medium *** Blacks with 15lbs Fluoro 1 Medium Heavy *** Black with 20lbs Fluoro 1 Medium 7' cranking rod. Anyone will do. 10lbs Fluoro.

I have learned my lesson too many times with elaztech. Even when you are not mixing it one day in a hot boat and it loses its shape. Fish don't seem to think much of a worm that has a 90º kink in it. If they would clamshell everything I would consider buying again, too much money wasted on that product.

I agree the Arkies they sell at Walmart are fantastic jigs. Not too bulky, perfect weed gaurd, the skirt stays in place, decent hook. Nothing worse than the strike king jigs they sell with super stiff weedgaurd and bulky skirt that slips down the hook with every hook-set or jerk. Strike King is great but the bands they use on their jigs are just terrible. Finally picked up some Shooter Lures jigs and WOW! these things are nice.

Awesome, I have fished a couple lakes with Muskie but have not been so lucky. Still want one. Nice job!!

I have both. I cannot tell the difference between the two while I am fishing. When I am sitting at home on my couch the supreme is better but that's about the extent of its premium offering. Both are great, neither are Shimanos.

My experience with Rat-L-Traps is that most people fish them too slow or not aggressive enough. If you give them too much time to look at it that's all they will do. Not a bait I would ever fish from shore or without the ability to cover water. I would recommend a 1/4 ounce swimjig with boot tail trailer if you want to fish a horizontal moving bait. When I am fishing from shore however, outside of spring and fall I always downsize considerably to weightless worm or stickbait, roboworms on light weedless jighead, shakey head, or drop shot. You cannot cover tons of water so you need to be able to catch every fish in that area. I love fishing from shore I wish I could do it more often.

If there is timber or docks on the cutbank accross from the ramp I would start on that. Fish love sitting right under the docks and timber in deep water this time of year around here. If the water is not real clear I would look for the same type of stuff up North on the East bank where it flattens out or head back into the creek where it flattens out.

haha, yeah. I lost one memorable one trying to handland but way too many boat flipping. I only get out the net when I have friend out that doesn't fish a lot, a fish means a lot more to them and their day than it does to mine. I lost a 4lbs LM boat flipping where I over flipped right back into the water on the other side of the boat, that one actually got me sick to my stomach as I had to work so hard to figure out the largemouth bite that day.

Was short lined by last year my a small mouth that nearly jumped out of the water to grab my crankbait as I was pulling it up out of the water. This fish was a giant and I was helpless trying to land it. Never had a chance regardless of how good it was hooked. I catch a lot of big smallmouth in the 4.5lbs range but this thing had to be a 7 maybe an 8. I have never seen a smallmouth this big in my life. It haunts me all the time knowing that I never got this thing on my scale. Maybe a new PB but maybe it just looked huge.

I know that low speed is the thing to do for cranking big plugs and swimbaits. I jumped on that bandwagon and quickly learned the pitfalls of a slow reel and essentially ended up hating it. Cannot say anything about either of those reels but If I could do it all over again i would stay away from the 4.X:1 retrieves. They only time I even think about using that slow of a reel is when I am throwing a 5XD or larger and even with the 5XD size i find myself wanting more speed to get the bait down quicker. The fatigue I incur from casting those puppies far outweighs any fatigue I have ever experienced reeling them. Are you going to throw big plugs on that 7' rod? You probably aren't going to get the distance you want out of that rod so it may be better to go with a 5.X:1 or 6.X:1 speed reel to get the bait down quicker. Just take this into consideration as its always better to learn from other peoples mistakes.

Nose hook 100% of the time. For me no reason to do anything else, it just works too good. If I am dealing with brush or dense vegetation I will throw a jig or shakey head or something similar that I can get through the cover. Done the T-rig DS and I dont think it helps enough to make it worth still throwing DS. Others hopefully disagree but this is how I do things and it always works out.

No takers but after my trip here is what I've found for the record....

I have never found any need or want to spend more than $150 on a reel. Anymore I don't see any need to spend more than 150 on a rod either and probably wont do it ever again with the exception of if my dedicated drop shot rod breaks.

I have wanted to fish that lake. I know there are some videos of guys on Youtube fishing Rock Lake catching them on a jerkbait pretty good. I used to love fishing bluff walls and did it quite often for a couple of years. I figured out eventually that around here its not a great way to catch big fish but a great way to catch big numbers. I fished them with three different baits, a drop shot, a 3xd crankbait and a LC pointer jerkbait. Crankbaits will catch them in the morning basically just get next to the wall and cast parrallel to the wall trying to make contact with it during the retrieve. Jerkbaits will also work mornings but mostly work when there is chop as the fish tend to get away from the wall a bit are aren't facing the wall anymore to bite your crankbait. The easiest way to fish them however is with a drop shot. I have DS sinkers up to 5/8 ounce for really deep water. I have caught them as deep as 80 foot on bluff walls but typically the fish will live on the walls that bottom out around 15-35 foot. You flip the bait to the wall and just walk it down the wall. The weight of the sinker will be dictated by current and depth, always the lighter the better but you also want to get your bait down quickly when its really deep. If you start fishing a wall and you are not getting bit right away find another area, smallies will bite the DS right away in most cases and almost always gang up heavily on the "right" bluffwall with the depth combination they prefer.

Ebay holds their retailers to very high standards and keeps them on a short leash. Not to mention the customer feedback helps keep them accountable for shipping speed and customer service. I order from overseas all the time through eBay and never had any problems.

I love my Tatula and Type-R for heavy line apps. Can't tell the difference between the two. The Curados (D, E and G) for lighter work. These are all such great reels that I have not developed a favorite. Would probably say the Curados are more versatile but take slightly longer to tune. Need to try Lews someday.

Black Spinnerbait and Black Buzzbait are all I have ever needed fishing at night. I actually lost my last black spinnerbait over the weekend and didn't do half bad with a white one the rest of the evening. My two cents... Night fishing can be extremely frustrating if you treat like regular fishing. Don't even try unless you are doing night tournaments. I dont want to be fishing any bait that snags easily first and foremost. Clear your deck of all other rods, clear your boat of clutter and start fishing right from the launch or where your boat is moored. If your run somewhere just make sure you know the lake really well. Tie on a spinnerbiat/buzzbait with 17-20 pound fluoro or mono and beat the bank. If you aren't catching them shallow try fishing shallower. LM key in on timber the same way SM get on rock. I always thought that a black Senko would be deadly at night but I have never gotten past the black spinnerbait/buzzbait because they are both very easy to fish when you cannot see and catch em every time.