JF1

Fishing went as follows: Drove 16 hours after work straight to Garcia. Caught a 4.5 and handful of smaller fish Saturday. Wind picked up and trolling motor started to die quickly, turns out I had a bad battery, so we replaced it Saturday night. Sunday went to Stick Marsh (I found a few stumps at idle in the Southwest corner of lake idling out of the shallows, got stuck had to use the big motor to get off. Managed four fish between 3-4.5, one 5.5 and a handful of smaller fish. Monday went to Kenansville and had a banner day. Best 5 went 8.6, a 5.10, a 5 even, 4.13, 4.10 and had a handful of 3.5-4.5 fish along with a lot of small fish. Best day I've ever had in FL Tuesday went back to Kenansville....wind shifted from East and bite dried up. We did manage a handful small fish and lost two giants. Day was short because we went wheels up and had to drive 16 hours (turned out to be 19 due to weather) back home.

Coming from pa next weekend. Staying in Vero Beach, planning on hitting each of the above for at least one day. I know each one is shallow, I’ll be bringing the boat, anything specific to watch out for? any tips for each Lake appreciated. Not looking for someone’s specific area, just something to get me started in right direction.

Where we're u @?

shenango, pymy, mosquito, erie, ladu, mogadore, berlin, milton...there are a TON of great bass lakes in NE ohio! Ohiogamefishing.com Should get great responses there!

The freeze over. Most have started to freeze or are frozen now.

Welcome to the burgh! I moved about an 1.5 north of there 2 years ago. The smaller lakes will allow you to fish, but you will have to launch and unload w/ the trolling motor. I have a Gambler w/ a 225 rude and I have taken it to wilhelm (20hp) limit. Pretty good LM lake. Shenango is 1.5 hours away from cannonsburgh give or take. GREAT fishery in my opinion (my home lake so I'm biased). Unlimited HP, great campground, and a few local hotels if you wanted to make it a weekend. Erie was mentioned previously, and it honestly is better than advertised! There are even a few good lakes in Ohio that really aren't that far of a drive from you and are fantastic fisheries! Since I've moved just across the state line into ohio, I've noticed there are a ton more tournies here if thats what you are in to. What club are you looking to join? Just curious, cause I can recommend one if interested send a PM. Only bad part of being this far north is the fishing season is over until march!! Good Luck on your move!

Great smallies!! I can't wait til spring to get up to PI bay to try to get into some smallies!

Ike is def a favorite to win, but my money is on either Takahiro or dave lafebre. Also after talking to tommy biffle, he feels pretty confident about his chances too. We will see, my bet is it takes roughly 32lbs to win.

X2 Summer time smallmouth fishing is only about one thing: location. It won't matter what you are presenting as much as finding suitable forage on a good structure. Good Luck! I agreed with everything you said until this. A few weeks ago during a tournament on Erie the guy in back of boat couldn't get a smallie to save his life and I had boated 10+. Both were fishing same spot. I gave him a few of the goby's I was dropshotting, he started to catch too. So although location is important, so is the bait!

I know last week there were quite a few pros fishing those waters. A guy from my club had takahiro omori staying at his house. He made it out on the water with him for a couple days. Tomorrow is the cut-off, after that the rivers are off-limits to the pros. Alot of there were driving up through to lake champlain, thats where they are fishing now. A few guys from my club have actually spent time on the water with them......that's knowledge that would be priceless right there!!

Anyone going to the forrest wood cup in pittsburgh the last weekend in July? Anyone working it? I just got a call from a rep from flw asking me to give a hand, still have to call him back and see what he wants me to do. Just curious if anyone else on here will be there.

Fished shenango lake in pa on 6/14. There was a ton of boat traffic, and a local club tourney. I did manage to catch 4 keeper LM and 1 smallie that would have been close....didn't measure him cause we were fishing C&R. Biggest was 3.5lbs. All fish came before 11am, off water at 12:30 due to prior commitments. All told, great day on the lake!

Thanks for the info. I've done pretty well fishing the railroad bridge near the campground, but that was later in the year. Wasn't sure about spring. Anyone else have any infor/insight to offer, I'd appreciate it.

Looking for any info anyone has for fishing shenango in the early spring, specifially early to mid april for bass. I fished the lake a good bit last summer and early fall, but never early in the year. Any info or help anyone can give would be great. If you want to send pm's, thats ok too.

yepper, I just drove all the way to back of dealership and parked truck up agains the trees in the back so I wasn't blocking anything. Did it like that for many years and no one ever had a problem. If they did, they could see me fishing and could have said something. I saw alot of guys do this, shouldn't be an issue.

I've always just drove all the way to the back of wright's parking lot near where the creek mouth empites into the river and parked back there. I just paid attention to be out of the way of any vehicles. Been doing it since that was a friend pontiac dealership with no hassles. Never had any problems at all. Just walk over the hill and there u go! The creek has yield some good fish too, there used to be a nice deep hole near the tunnel under the bridge. Herford manor is prob. the most under rated bass lake in that area. alot of good bass have been caught, and its mostly knows as a trout lake.

I am from monaca too....born and raised. I've since moved away to ohio last feb. The molasis tanks are where the creek mouth of seven bridges empties into the ohio. Both the up river and down river side of the creekmouth can yield some decent fish. As for the pumphouse, I've never had any luck there. Nor under the trainbridge. Next to the Montgomery Lock and Dam can be a good place to shore fish as well. In my opinion, the BEST river fishing spots are behind wright pontiac and at the new brighton dam. If targeting all species a jig w/ a minnow can't be beat in either of these places. I've never done any good at bradys run lake, but if you can go to herford manor the lower lake has some pretty good bass in it.

Nevermind, I got it. I just needed to walk away from the project for a bit and take a brake. When I went back I figured it out in a second. The palm plate needed to be turned 1/4 turn....duh

Ok, ran into a problem. Did an old baitcaster I had laying around first to get the hand of this, it was a daiwa megaforce reel. Went back together no problem. Went outside tried it out seems to be fine. Next reel was a quantum accurist, again no major problems seems to be good. Then I tried a daiwa procaster 100h. I got the right side all tore apart no problem. Handle, gears, etc all tore down. The palm side, different story. I can't get the spool out. I can't even get to the magnetic brake. I removed the screw on the outside, but the case doesn't want to split. Do you have any experience with this reel? See this link for the schematic: http://www.mikesreelrepair.com/schematics/albums/daiwa/Daiwa_Procaster_100H%2C_100HN.pdf

Very simple.... Turn on 500 while cleaning reels. I can listen while working and if anything big happens rewind (thank god for tivo) and watch again.

Thanks. I'm going to tackle this tomorrow since I don't have any football to watch :'( I'll let u know how it turns out.

I personally prefer my magnetic braking systems, specifially my daiwa. I love my daiwa reels, and my bps extreme I like too. Especially on a windy day. I can make quick, fine tune adjustments immediately.

Where are you located? I'm guessing beavery county, based on the fact that you are fishing Bradys run. Bradys run is a good trout lake, but thats about it. If targeting bass from shore, herford manor is a very underrated lake that I've done well with. Also raccoon creek state park, and bessemer state game lake aren't too far from bradys run. Both are probably 15-20 min and seem to yield some better catches. Also there are several places along the rivers that are productive from shore. New Brighton dam, the creek mouth of bradys run (behind wright pontiac), and the molasis tanks in monaca where the creek enters the ohio have all been very productive for me in the past. Alot of white bass, sogeyes/sauger and smallies taken in all of these places.

Not doing anything wrong, just not near as accurate with a spinning rod. Could be that I was brought up with baitcasting gear and have been using it since I was about 8. I never really had a need for a spinning reel. If we are talking about extremely ultralight tackle and line, then I agree a spinning rod has its place. I don't own one of the ultralite bc combos discussed above, but I still can cast an 1/8oz bait MUCH better w/ a standard bc setup than spinning. About the only thing, other than a verticle dropshot that I need the spinning reel for is the lightest shakyhead I have in box, and thats only if the wind is blowing.

I have a bunch of baitcasters that I usually send out to have cleaned and the such before every season. This year I want to tackle this job myself. Anyone have any websights with tips, maybe some pics or a goot "how-to" for cleaning baitcast reels and lubing. I know I don't want to over grease/lube these reels. Any help will be greatly appreciated.