Junk Fisherman

Well this thread confirmed that I am keeping my 2008 Tacoma longer than I expected. Thankfully, I only have 103K miles on it.

This is the knot I use for dropshotting after breaking off to much with a Palomar. This knot makes it easy to have a long tag end and not have it impede your ability to tie it. It is the knot Aaron Martens uses for a drop shot. And there are just too many good knots out there to use a Palomar for your basic knot. I’ve been using the simple Trilene knot for 20 years and is strong and dependable.

My first reaction to this was “no” a #1 Gammy is fine. That is what I use and have no issues at all. But then I recalled watching a BassU video about Great Lakes smallies and a pro talked about changing his dropshot hook for 5-6 lb smallies. Wish I remembered the details. I remembered that I wasn’t going to run out and buy them (BassU pushes a lot of products) but I definitely remember him mentioning it. I’ve caught enough big bass on small hooks to not be that concerned but I am curious what you find out.

That’s a great idea. I’m gonna start doing this.

The water around Chicago was in the low 70s last Wednesday. We have not real hot weather down here.

A local told me he caught bedding fish last weekend in 65 degree water. He swears it was a new batch of spawners. I have fished Door Co at this time of the year quite a bit but I am fishing in Michigan. The water is much clearer in Michigan with a lot more sand and you don’t have all the reefs and islands like you do in Wisconsin.

So after my bout with pneumonia last month and losing most of my June fishing trip, I am returning for a 4-day trip this week. I am fishing ultra-clear Lake Michigan water and the fish should either be in post spawn or just getting into their summer patterns. I have never done this type of fishing even though I am very familiar with the water but I have never taken a trip past the end of June. So any suggestions as to what to look for? I plan on hitting my shallow prespawn/postspawn waters in 4' to 12' water to see if fish are there before looking for deeper fish. I suspect the water will in the high 60s to low 70s. I plan on covering a lot of water with fast moving baits until I find fish hitting lots of dropoffs and weedpatches. I spend a lot of time fishing Chicagoland for summer smallies but that is all breakwall fishing so this will be a new experience for me. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I paint my Ned jig heads brown which matches very well with green pumpkin and watermelon which is what I use 90% of the time. My wife picked up a bottle of brown, black, and red nail polish on clearance for $2 each and I still haven't used them up. You can paint a lot Ned jig head tops with a bottle of nail polish. For 4" swimbaits, I never paint the jigheads. The dull gray matches a shad colored bait just fine.

They are comparable brands in terms of performance and quality. I have mostly Daiwa but I did pick up a Curado this year it is comparable to the high-end Tatulas. Go with whichever excites you.

I agree. I have been in the market in batteries and I just couldn't justify the costs of going with an AGM starting battery. I did not even consider lithiums. My thinking was I had gotten 5 years out of my wet cell Duracell starting battery and it hadn't shown any signs of slowing down when I replaced it. My trolling batteries are also 5 years old wet cell Duracelles and are still going strong. The AGM comparable starting battery was $100 more than the wet cell. ($150 to $250). Am I really going to get 8-10 years out of the AGM compared to 5-6 from the wet cell? Maybe, maybe not. I decided to save the $100 and go with the wet cell.

This is great advice and what I actually did yesterday. In another post, I talked about getting sick on a recent fishing trip. That experience really depressed me since I lost out on my favorite trip of the year. It was prespawn smallies in northern Michigan on waters I know well. If I didn't catch several 5 lbers it would be a disappointment. Losing out on that trip really put me in a funk. Last week I was all set to go fishing twice. I had everything rigged and went to bed planning on going but when I woke up I had no motivation. When I am working and cannot fish, I am dying to get out but last week I just went back to bed. I thought about the effort of going, launching, fighting all the fishing- basically I just came up with excuses not to go. Fast forward to yesterday. I woke up before the alarm and gave serious thought to going back to bed but I forced myself to go. After getting out on the water, I was so happy with my decision. And the fish cooperated and I actually caught my PB smallie in the Chicagoland section of Lake Michigan. Had a great day overall and am pumped about getting out again. So I definitely suggest just forcing yourself to go. If you are not enjoying yourself, leave and just take a break until the motivation comes back. And it's very possible that the anniversaries of the losses you suffered are depressing you and making you lose the motivation. I think back to the times I suffered loss and I completely lost interest in fishing. When I went through a divorce I didn't fish for 2-3 months. Once I started feeling better I got back out there and have been going ever since. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Growing up and during my cottage days it was normal to fish daylight till 10-11 o'clock in the morning and then fish after dinner till dark. This was for largemouth and there was usually a good evening bite especially the last hour or so before dark. Is it the same for smallmouth? I have NEVER fished for smallmouth much after 3-4 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm strictly a daylight to afternoon fisherman. I especially interested in people's experiences on the Great Lakes or northern lakes in the summer. Thanks for any tips.

I used to do that stuff when I was in my 20s. Not anymore. Nowadays, I give a lot of thought to getting a good night sleep before a day of fishing.

When I fish travel tournaments with my club it is always interesting to see how the morning goes. I am almost always one of the first ones to get in the parking lot, uncover my boat, and leave for the launch. I've had a couple partners that slept later than me and I basically had to rush them to get them moving. I don't need any help just be ready to go when I am. I like to be sitting in the water sipping coffee and making last minute adjustments while the rest of the club is launching.

I buy high-end gear because it makes fishing more enjoyable. For bottom-contact baits the sensitivity is much, much better and I feel it results in me catching more fish which makes the overall outing more enjoyable. I also enjoy the smoothness of my high-end reels and the casting distance they provide. I know I could be just as successful with gear half the price of what I use for some presentations but the bottom line is that I like fancy reels and light, sensitive rods.

I’m always on time. I fish by myself so meeting someone at the launch is never an issue. I’ve got a buddy where I literally add 30 minutes to the start time for everything we do. We don’t fish but we mountain bike together. If we are supposed to meet at 10 AM, I don’t show up till 10:30. Same thing with meeting him at a bar for beers. I started doing this 5 years or so and only a couple times he actually arrived first to something.

If they have that battery in stock, that is a good choice. If not, Battery Plus has Duracell AGM and wet cells. My Duracell wet cells have been great. If you are looking to save some money, go with the wet cell.

A couple times I have offered to help assuming that the reason they were blocking the launch was because they were having issues. Offering to help even if they didn't need it seemed to make them a little friendlier and more apt to move quickly. I wasn't always this way. I used to get annoyed and give dirty looks and stare but that doesn't improve the situation.

1/16th is awfully light. I don't hardly use anything less than 1/4th oz. 3/8th is my most often used size.

Just looking at the Scorpion- I would max out the HP at 60 and make sure I get a spot-locking trolling motor. With a 17' you can stick with a 12 V trolling motor. I had a 55 lb thrust on my 17' semi-deep V Lowe and it was more than sufficient. If money is tight, graphs are something you can upgrade down the road. You can also save by going with 7" graphs instead of 9"-10". Another obvious add-on is getting the ratchet tie-downs on your trailer. Those should be standard since they are so much more convenient. But the main things I would splurge on are maxing the HP and upgrading the trolling motor.

I guess it comes down to what you are used to. My electric steer Motorguide Xi5 steers plenty fast for me. It moves faster and quieter than my old Powerdrive that I used for years. I find that navigation in tight quarters is made more difficult by the size of my boat and waves more so than how fast my trolling motor turns. And the jog feature can be incredibly useful. I often use it in heavy wind where I have the spot lock on and just want to move 5' to 10' as I move down a shoreline, breakwall, or weedline. I either put the motor on a very slow autopilot setting or if the wind is coming from a side direction I will use spotlock and creap along slowly with the jog feature. The motor really allows for picking apart structure in the wind much, much better than a non-spot lock motor. Being able to fish in the wind is one of the biggest improvements that has led to more fish in the boat I have made over the last 5 years.

Or join a bass club for a year as a non boater. A fella can learn a lot that way about owning and running a boat if he’s observant.

I think it really depends on what type of boat you have, whether you can do your own maintenance, and if you have mechanical issues. With my last boat, a 17' Lowe, it was pretty inexpensive. It had a 70 HP and running it at 30 mi/hr did not require much gas. My boat was 10-15 years old so I only had liability on insurance. I did all the trailer and motor maintenance which did not cost much in terms of materials. Tires and batteries ever 5 years where the only real expensive replacements I needed. But the boat/motor/trailer were reliable and I only had to take it in a couple times in the 15 years I owned it. My father had a 16.5' Alumacraft and he experienced the same thing I did. He did all his own maintenance, only had liability insurance, and only really replaced batteries and tires over the course of owning the boat. Now I will say that I have had many more issues with my 2016 boat but I wouldn't say that owning a boat is necessarily some endless money pit. Yes, there are expenses but they don't have to exorbitant. And if you can do your maintenance you can save a lot of money.

lol- The OP can figure it out.

1) Trolling motor w/spot lock. 2) 7”+ helm sonar with GPS 3) 7”+ forward facing sonar on the bow 4) shallow water anchor