kms399

a little more info on the lake, water clarity 5 feet acres 161 max depth 45 feet average depth 17 feet

I went fishing last night and noticed all the weeds are still brown wilted matts lying on the bottom. ice out here was around april 15. it got me wondering how long usually until the new growth starts comming in. the water temp was 58-60 depending on where I was and I kind of expected fish to begin moving shallow but after 3 hours fishing from 1 to 10 feet and not catching anything i got to thinking, live vegitation produces oxygen so the fish should be deeper where the weeds weren't affected by the ice right. I have always struggled with fishing from ice out till about the end of may.

switch to braid

I am trying to find a reel for my brother so looking under $100. I love shimano reels but most of mine are curado's and citicas. anyone use the Shimano Caenan yet.

I'm about a 5 i use mine constantly mostly for finding deeper weed edges and keeping my depth. I have an eagle fishmark 320 that works great for that purpose and at $160 I cant complain.

thanks for the replies and thanks Sam ill give him a call.

verified 5.8- manns baby 1- guessing close to 6# rapala x-walk 13

when you get the most perfect cast you could have hoped for right between the dock and that dead tree laying in the water and your lure is messed up. that guy that takes his half out of the middle of the boat ramp the guy that has his wife back up the trailer so he can drive the boat on, only she has no idea how to back up a trailer and he is yelling instructions to her from out on the lake that she obviously cant hear. when the line goes through the split ring on your crank bait. when people invite themselves to go fishing then cancel when people you have invited invite their friends to join you, this drives me nuts cause then I am the ******* since I cant stand fishing 3 people in my 16' lund.

remember battery weight and cost. most every thing over 55# thrust is 24 volt. and bigger thrust doesn't mean faster just that you will be able to move a heavier boat through more weeds with more thrust. I have a 16' vhull and for years the guy I got it from had a 15# trolling motor, it worked fine till you got into weeds. I now have an 80# and I can go through a bed of lily pads no sweat. as far as transom or bow mount. your boat will track better with a bow mount and you will be hands free which is a big plus but transom mount is cheaper. usually.

watch your drag too. when I worked at gander so many of the people I talked to about this had their drags set way too tight.

So I have a 80# minnekota Vector 3X transom mount trolling motor which has been giving me some problems lately. whats happening is when I turn it on the prop wont move till about the 2 setting and then it is jerky, when I get to higher settings it vibrates quite a bit. I took the prop off and watched the shaft, there is no bend that I can see. It also seems to be killing my battery faster than normal plus a drop in power. any suggestions is this something I would be able to fix myself?

that is sound wisdom! I have been so focused on trying new techniques and methods that even my little brother catches more fish than me. I am going stick with what works and get better at it than everyone else. HA!

manns baby1- senko 3/8 oz spinnerbait

I make it a point to pick up just one or two lures every week that keeps me from buying large amounts at a time plus my wife cant complain.

welcome you are gonna love this site! make sure you check out the fishing article section there is a lot of great info to be found there. if you have any questions on fishing west metro area shoot me a pm I'd be glad to help out if I can.

4.6

megastrike

rapala XR 10's for me.

I use black/blue and watermelon most times if that isn't working I switch over to crank baits usually in a more natural color, black/silver or black/gold until I find them then I go back to the plastics.

I find that a lot of people don't even realize they are doing something wrong. many people have no problem if another guy gets close to them they just don't care. it is the hard core fisherman who gets upset, I think we look at a spot as virgin and we are trying to dissect it and really work it and when someone moves in, it ruins what we were trying to do. I think most people just aimlessly cast then move on.

as long as it stays dry and out of the sun i don't think it would be a problem. my stuff sits in my shed here in MN and has no problems.

I absolutely love braid for crankbaits! I use a 7' med/hvy mod fast st.croix avid and 30# suffix braid. i fish this set up quite a bit and it works for me. that said the shallow running baby -1's and bandit footloose work great in shallow water. one thing to remember is don't just cast and reel in, vary your retrieve I fish them pretty erratic with lots of stops and fast tugs almost like I would fish a jerk bait. this works really well for me.

I have a buddy who is really into musky fishing and he has a couple inline buzz baits that work really well. I have caught a couple muskie on them and more importantly many 4+ lb bass which for MN is pretty good. But I cant find any, Cabelas didn't have any, I couldn't find them at tackle warehouse either. so does any one know where to get some?

I use mega strike on every thing, I see fish follow baits all the time and I feel like leaving a scent trail can turn followers into biters. BTW since using mega strike like this I went from catching one musky a year to catching around 10 a year all while bass fishing the same lake.

I love braid for crank baits. I use an avid 7' med/hvy moderate and 20 lb braid and love the set up. when I use mono all i feel is pressure when I use braid I feel every wobble of the bait and it is easy to tell if I have even the smallest bit of grass on the lure and can either shake it off or just crank it in.