Fishin Phil

If you are fishing from the banks, I would definetly recommend soft plastics. If they don't come back, you have 9 more in the bag. So, I would spend the money on: 1. Good line. I like P-line cxx, but that is merely a preference. 2. 3/0 and 4/0 hooks. 3. Soft plastics. Experiment. Senkos and Fat Ikas are awesome, so are super flukes and frog style baits. 4. Sinkers. 5. Spinnerbaits. One white, one chartruse. 6. Rapala skitter pop. Lots of fun. Theres a start. All the other posts have awesome recomendations and it's a matter of what works for you considering where you fish and how you fish. Take RW's advice to start, and have a blast.

So I just picked up a bag of 4" single tail grubs from Dick's. I was looking at the colors and picked up a bag of white grubs thinking, grubs are white so why not. Then my buddy says they look like they should glow in the dark. I read the bag and sure enough,"luminous white". These suckers glow!! Any one have any experience with this color or any other "glowing" baits? I figure if they are not productive, at least I can bring them to Canada with me later in the year for walleye.

I heard that too about the bass boat. I would have done the same thing.

If you were going to use something like that maybe something like this would be better. You can get the 160# for 979.99!! Thats way better than buying 2 80#s seperatly or the lenco trollin tabs. Sure it would require a little fab work to mount them, but that enables you to mount them exactly how you need them. Mount them on a piece of aluminum plate and mount the plate to the boat. That would probably cost you less than $50 in materials. If you wanted to get crazy you could probably configure some sort of cable steering system for it too. Just needs a pivot and a mechanical means of movement. Something like this. Good luck with your project.

Don't worry honey, just drilling some holes in it. :-?

4 fish on the test drive? That's a keeper! Congrats, nice boat!!

Wow. Thanks Zel. Thats a lot more then I thought any local angler was willing to divulge. I'll let you know how we do. I have a funny feeling I already know what that thread is gonna look like, but we might get lucky. Thanks again.

Merrill Creek was our other choice. We may end up going there. The state has some chart with the quality of each species population in each lake in the state. Both got a 1 for smallies. Manasquan is closer but I've heard they can be very strict. Any starting points for Merrill Creek that you wouldn't mind shareing. It seems there is a lot of water you can eliminate. I like that.

Thanks Zel. Definetly gonna bring some shiners now. Have you ever fished Manasquan Reservoir? I've never been on the water there.

Thank you. This is why I love this site. We have to buy a pass to launch in this reservoir, so we are gonna make the most of it, even if it means freezing our butts off for the last couple weeks of winter. I also want to scout it out before the spawn and we really aren't expecting much this weekend. Deep water fishing is definetly something I need to work on anyway.

Alright, I'm sick of winter and I've decided to get out on the water this weekend. Going for smallies in one of the better smallie lakes in NJ. I've read all the pre-spawn articles we have on the site and others elsewhere. I think I've figured out some good starting points putting together a decent pattern and their general behavior. This is the first late winter/early spring outing for me on my boat so all the info is backed with no experience. From what I've gathered the Northern side of the lake is generally a good starting point and the crappy topo map that I found agrees. There are pretty wide flats that lead to the creek channel which runs east to west then forks in the middle heading north west and south west, so we'll probably find the channel and work our way in, looking for baitfish and structure. Is there any parts of the lake this time of year I can totally eliminate? Here is a link to the topo. I believe those are 5 ft increments. The max depth of the lake is 40 ft. As far as a pattern, I think we are gonna start with jigs and Ikas then throw some jerk baits as we get a little shallower. Water temp/clarity and the weather are gonna be the variables, and I wanna be prepared for whatever we run into. That's pretty much what I've gathered. I was wondering if you guys had any practical advice catchin smallies this time of year. I'm kinda looking for experiences and not so much just facts, although please feel free to contribute whatever you have. Especially correcting any facts I have wrong. I'm all ears. Thanks guys.

My favorite is a Raplal Skitter Walk in bluegill. My go to is GYCB 5" cut tails in smoke, t-rigged.

There's gonna be a lot of MOJO in that thing!!!! Clay, you better be careful you don't get DQed!

Charlie Moore is funny. Thats an awesome show. He's probably scared of real competition though.

Fishing is a skill that has been passed to us for many generations. Overfishing is more a concern to me then whether or not there will be tournaments or mega-stores in the future. The most important aspect of fishing for me is the time I spend with my friends, whether I'm reflecting solemnly or hystericaly laughing. I will pass this knowledge around with people here and people I encounter fishing. As long as we conserve our fisheries and share our knowledge, fishing will be just fine.

Largemouth has to be at least 6 pounds this year. Smallmouth has to be the same!!!!

On a positive note, I was fishing last summer and saw a group of hispanic dudes fishing across the lake from me. The warden was making her rounds and approached these guys, and they all had licenses. On a simialr note, I had some friends from Cali visit me (in Jersey) and were utterly shocked and in disbelief that you have to buy a beach badge to set foot on most beaches here. They ticket too. Different cultures, you know.

I gotta say I love my Jitterbugs and Rapala Skitterwalks. I got a 30 in. pike on my favorite skitterwalk and my buddy got a 36 in pike on his. Can't argue with that! This year rI'm definetly going to check out some other brands. Also wanna check out the new x-rap walk 13.

I used to have a red snakehead in a 50 gallon tank. He got pretty big then died. My buddy had a northern snakehead and the thing used to jump out of his tank. They claim they can walk all over land, but my buddies was not out of the tank more then 2 hours and it was seriously messed up. It died the next morning. :-[ I know they can breath air, but they will dry out like any other fish.

When your buddy comes to Croatia tell him to contact me on e-mail and I shall send him my phone number My e-mail is basonja@ribolov-koprivnica.com and hrvoje.kuzmic@kc.t-com.hr That is incredibly generous and I will definetly forward him your contact info. He's usually there for the month of July. He speaks a little Croation. The only Croation I know is Pivo!

Welcome aboard!!!! ;D

Check out the Daiwa Pixy for lightweight stuff. Try japantackle.com as a starting point.

It's gotta be live bait and float. To dang boring, and virtually no challenge. I don't even know if it is recognised as a serious technique. Maybe big shiners down south, but not in Jersey.

Depends on why you are fishing. Just relaxing on a weekend and a tourny are two different things. Me and my buddy have the same conflicting views. There may not be a right or wrong but there is such thing as way to fast and way to slow. It's a compromise.

Awesome. I have a buddy that goes to Croatia every summer for a month. He says it's beautiful. I gotta tell him about the pike. He'll probably bring his gear next year.