jdw174

I have a Caenan. GET THE CITICA!!!

It was one day on Lake Erie. I was cruising on idle on the main lake in about 15' when I noticed a bunch of "hooks" on the graph right on the bottom. I tossed out a marker and proceeded to land 24 smallies in two hours. Smallest was 3lb, largest over 5. That doesn't count the ones that shook off. I never moved more than 3-4' from that marker the entire time. Lure was a 1/2oz Silver Buddy. When I left, my right arm felt like wet noodle and my thumb was all tore up.

Just me, but of the two you mentioned I'd go for the Champion.

The Rebel Poppin' Frog is one of the very few new lures I've purchased, and I'm sorry I did. Very little action/pop at all. Just couldn't make it do much of anything. It looks good, but that's about it.

One of the best fishing vacations I ever had came in the mid-'80's on Kentucky Lake. It was the middle of May, and the spring weather had been so warm that the surface temp at 5AM was 80+ degrees! I threw nothing all week long but Pop-R's and a 5" Bang-O-Lure w/tailspinner, and just whooped the tar out of LM. That was morning, afternoon, and evening. Topwater definitely works all day under the right conditions.

Once I threaded the line through the tie on a jig and tossed it in the water............without tying the knot!

I tie direct............to a snap. Never had one fail, and the lures run fine.

Cordell made a suspending Spot for a time..don't know if they're still made or not. I had a couple of them and never had so much as a sniff on them. The regular Spots were a different story entirely

I carry both, but I'm partial to the football heads.

I'd like to help you out, OP, but I use either KVD or Bomber squarebills exclusively. The Bombers work well for me.

This^^^^

If you can hear thunder....you can be struck by lightning.

I don't go out with the water below 40, and prefer about 48+.

If there's any kind of a chop on the water it's one of my favorite baits. Makes a heck of a racket....

When I go fishing I'm on the water about the time the roosters are crowing, so I almost always begin with a topwater or floating jerkbait. I don't carry a lot of colors. Silver/black back is one of my favorites.

I'd also go with the Silver Buddy (or other blade bait). When I lived on Lake Erie, we caught a lot of cold water smallies using the old Garland Gitzits by tossing them around rocks and moving them VERY slowly.

I'm kinda partial to Strike King/Bandit/Bomber lures. They seem to catch fish, and don't cost the rights to your first-born to own one.

My goal is to just plain get out on the water more.

Looks like either the opening day of trout or the steelhead run in a Lake Erie tributary.

If you watch the one where he walks around the back of the truck and cracks his leg on the trailer hitch you can see the padding outline on his pantleg. Still, the bloopers are good.

Some of you may have been bored watching all the dock fishing, but on that lake if you want fish quick, docks are the way to go. I've spent a fair amount of hours on that water, and I'm sad to say that I'll probably never see it again. You can catch smallies all over, but I always found that the south end of the lake (below the bridge) was better for them . There's a rockpile in what would be zone 6 that has always given up some big smallies, and there's a couple of points at the mouth of the coves that produce well. It's a beautiful body of water with lots of grass and tons of docks.

I don't claim to have a degree in anything, but for a period of about 8 years I did rather well writing for shooting publications...and yes, even a few fishing articles thrown in, so FWIW, here are my views. 1. You will NOT get rich writing about the outdoors. The biggest check I ever received was for $450 and that was for a 3-article package. The biggest payouts will come from major publications and they are very hard to break into. 2. Begin your career by reading every publication you can find that relates to your selected field. Learn what type of articles they print and fashion your's accordingly. 3. Decide on a story idea, and then query the editor of the magazine you want to sell it to. Include a brief outline of what you intend to say, etc., then wait for a response...which you may or may not ever get. If no response from the first one, then send to another. Soon or later, you'll get a go-ahead from one of them. NOW you can go ahead and write it. 4. Get good with a camera. Take lots of photos. It's easier today than it was when I was writing. Cameras weren't digital, had to buy film, pay for processing, etc. Some magazines prefer to furnish their own shots. Others do not. 5. Most major fishing magazines prefer these days to have you quoting at least one pro fisherman. Be ready for that. 6. Magazines almost always pay on publication, whenever that may be. If you're writing a story on winter fishing, you'll probably have to submit it in mid-summer. They may hold it up to a year before printing it, so that's how long you'll wait before you see any money at all. Occasionally, you may run across one that pays on acceptance of the article, but they're few and far between. I hope this doesn't discourage you. I had a good time during the years that I wrote, but it was a lot of work and took a lot of time. Good luck to you.

Kentucky Lake = 15 minutes Lake Barkley = 30 minutes When I lived in Erie, Pa, Presque Isle Bay was 15 minutes away...couple of other good waters was 30-45 mintues. I guess I've been blessed that way.

Any chance you've got a burr in one of your rod guides?

Zara Spook, followed by a square-bill crank.