Neil McCauley

I've never found yellow perch to be much of a fighter. They shake their heads a lot but never make runs, jump, or much. Pumpkinseed and bluegills or other sunfish are better fighters.

(January, 2016) Absolutely refuse to put it up at all!

Almost had a worst case scenario last week... When I have a well hooked fish in my canoe I sometimes hold them between my thighs (you might see where this is going...) while taking it out. Was doing this with a large crankbait from a bass last week and it somehow thrashed free and hooked a big treble into my inner thigh. Let me tell you there is no adrenaline rush in the outdoors quite like having a p$$ed off bass directly connected to a set of hooks perilously dangling around your nads. Thank God the fish fell off the hook. The hook in my thigh I had to just back out.

2-4 ft is good water clarity? Try 35. Both of the lakes I fish regularly are ultra clear and deep, I don't really even bother with top water except when flyfishing for panfish.

How deep are you fishing? And what kind of weight egg sinker? Thanks for the help! Curious to try this, I may try live minnows for the heck of it, wonder if they can survive that far down?

My new carp fishing rig

It's that time of year again and Lakers are 150+ feet down. Wondering if it's still possible to catch them with light tackle- spinning gear with 10lb fluoro/mono and a heavy jig, or drop shotting with a 2-3 oz weight? Any success with these, or other ideas? somewhat inspired by this vid

Nothing like fishing LG in June. July's not bad either. Which basin were you in? I have fished South basin for the last 20 years, never the North end and I'm curious. The 5 times I was out this month and bite was always on. Sometimes I look down at my fish finder and just shake my head there is so much activity. Challenge is targeting the big fish because the many 10-14" range fish are very aggressive and seem to be everywhere.

Random question but is it legal to tag bass yourself? It'd be interesting to re-catch old fish.

The shelves are lined with row after row of garbage and any lure or tackle item that's worth buying is always out of stock. The hottest color of every productive lure, always gone. But 47 other colors and sizes. It never fails. I remember a documentary about retail beer marketing and the tactic stores use of using the shelves themselves as advertisements by lining up 20 different types of basically the same crappy beer. You look at the shelves and it's a never ending wall of bud, but light, bud light lime, bud ultra, bud premium, bud, bud, bud..... Same stupidity goes on at Dick's with fishing gear. /rant

I can stand up and cast/retrieve in my canoe....while moving with the TM running. I could never give up being able to stand and fish. The advantage of being able to see your line and the water clearly. Just makes no sense to me to limit yourself to a vessel where you're stuck eye level 18inches from the waterline.

I have the Humminbird PiranhaMax 197 and Iike it a lot. I decided on it last year after going through reviews of $100-150 range FFs, it seemed to be the best liked. The ones with a 83 kHz frequency wide cone setting seemed to have complaints about accuracy and display detail. I think you have to be realistic with these budget fish finders and expect to really only use the 200kHz frequency more narrow cone. The Piranhamax has a 28 degree wide cone at this frequency but the Elite 3x has a 20 deg. Seems like a good compromise to me. Fish just about every size show up well. I can't really say how close size on the FF correlates with actual fish size. I tend to ID species by where they are, if they're moving and if they're in a school. Below are definitely lake trout and probably around 24" Then these are likely bass half that size I completely agree with CenCal about the $100 197c vs $140 197di version. The down imaging is kind of useless on basic little FF like this, I just use the sonar.

I'll be out too. It's looking great. Some clouds, light wind, approaching front.

Great write up. I couldn't believe this part though: Must vary by lake. Complete opposite here. During the twilight hours around sunset the fish act like the water is caffeinated. A few hours later and they're gone.

Nope, cool 55-65 all the time. They did get warm in the sun last time I used them though. Then recharged them when I got home. Maybe that was it.

Hm, well I've never opened or filled them. Positive neither has frozen.

You can do better than that on Craigslist. I got my Old Town essentially new for $400...plus foam feet, ratchet tie-down straps, and new paddles! Transport is actually very easy for a small car. The 4 foam feet and 2 tie-down straps are all you need, though extras as backup are smart. Just make sure you have 2 tow-hook points under the front end and another one in the rear to attach the tie-downs. On some newer cars, like my wife's Chrysler 200, they may not be very accessible. Trucks and SUVs seem more difficult because of their height and getting the canoe off and on. With my little civic by myself I just basically powerclean the canoe overhead sideways and walk it on the foam feet across the roof.

Found two of my group 31 batteries in the garage each in a small puddle of fluid today. They were fully charged at the time. One is almost brand new, the other less than 20 discharges. Thought I'd been careful with them. They seem to still have fluid inside. What could this be from? A major issue or does it just happen sometimes?

Have a process to keep refining your knowledge/skills: 1) Gather info 2) Process info and make a plan 3) Execute the plan 4) Review how it went Do this generally each season and every trip out with books/forecasts/fish reports/logs/ etc. But also do it on a micro level while actually fishing- observing conditions, drawing on what you know, making sort of mini-plans in real time for each lure selection, cast, presentation, etc. Try to make your decisions as informed and purposeful as possible and always think about the results. The more you do this the better your decisions and plans will get. It can take a long time but will happen if you stick with it.

I use a couple 3-4 lb irregular shaped rocks tied to 40# bankline as an anchor. Really don't need much for a canoe. If the wind is that bad you have bigger problems.

I also fish the same areas, this time of year- weedbeds 12-15 fow. Usually use bigger, darker, louder lures with more splash/vibration, and I use a steadier slightly slower retrieve than the day. I prefer to go with a full moon, because of the extra light it gives me not any effect on the fishing per se. I don't think it matters to them much. My experience night fishing, at least for bass, has been that it slows way down right around full darkness when astronomical twilight ends- about 11PM until 3AM this time of year where I am. I have caught some fish during that time before but nothing like the couple hours before and after sunset and sunrise. For that reason I only really night fish for bass in mid-late June when the nights are shortest.

Long Lake, NY a few yrs ago. Had 3 perfect days of warm sunny weather first weekend in May, and convinced my then-gf/now-wife to spend it camping. No bugs, boaters, wind, heat. Still the nicest conditions I've ever seen.

Another Old Town + TM here. I have a Guide 147 and MK 55lb tm that works well for me.. The OT Saranac is similar but 2" narrower, flatter bottomed, 9 lb heavier, a little less stable in rougher water. It would probably still work great with a tm. The important thing with these canoes is, like Goose52 said, having a strong and secure motor mount. The motor puts a lot of torque on whatever attaches it to the boat and any flex/motion there is lost forward thrust. So the mount should be built rock solid. Also wiring the battery correctly is important. You will likely need 6-8ga wire long enough to put the battery in the bow of the boat for balance if you are ever alone. I used 15' jumper cables for a long time. Anything that long in 10ga or smaller will heat up and could melt your hull or start a fire. Other than those 2 things though canoe/TMs are very convenient and actually awesome fishing systems. No other type of boat can cruise around so easily with just a silent electric motor, yet still be stable enough to stand up and fish from. I've covered up to 20 mi in 1 day of fishing in mine. And if you get the hang of it you can still use the TM the way most boats do...slowly move parallel along a shoreline or contour lines while you stand and make casts. The main limitations to me are winds >10mph and rough waves, the weight of having a 2nd person PLUS 2 deep cycle batteries, and having to buy at least 1 new battery every year.

Solution: I don't think it's really a "privacy" issue, more about the limits of property and ownership of airspace. Not sure your drone has any more right to the space it occupies than does the rock I throw at it.

Keeping track of dinks and sometimes even avg fish is a waste of time imo. It's annoying to spend even the 2 secs landing and unhooking them. For big fish though I thought about adding a little bass decal to my canoe for each bass caught >20", kind of like nose art on warplanes. Can't find a decal I like though..