Lures'n'Liberty

Get some beads, too. They're cheaper at the craft store than at the bait shop. If you're using braid, you don't really need the swivel and leader, I use an egg sinker, bead, about 2' of line, and tie the hook straight to it. Remember, though, with a circle hook, you simply reel to set, no need to jerk it.

Tips - Catfish rigs are like potato chips, you can't have just one. You're going to want to put a couple lines in the water, not sure of the rod limit in MI, but in PA I can have 3 lines in the water at once, therefore I have 7 catfish rigs (3 for me, 3 for GF, one for a spare). You're also gonna need a rod (or two) to catch bait, and a cast net. While the rod choice will vary (10' Cabela's King Kat are my go to for the heavy sinkers), baitrunner reels are the way to go and the most important place to spend your money. They're discontinued but the Kast King Sharky Baitfeeder is probably the best bang for your buck. A lot of people like the Okuma Avenger, although I think Cabela's Salt Striker baitfeeder and the Daiwa Regal Bite n Run are a little better choice in the same price range. If you are looking for something entry level that doesn't completely suck, Walmart has the Shakespeare Tiger combos on sale for $19.98 pretty often. The reels are junk but will get you started. I bought 3 combos for my girlfriend when she wanted to go chase flatheads with me and they are not the worst. If you're on a budget, you've got a dozen other priorities and in order, they should be 1 - get as many lines in the water as you can (in PA, 3 combos). 2 - Beer. You'll need plenty and you want to keep it cold. 3 - Hands free head lamp. My fishing hat has one built in with 4 LED's and I love it. 4 - Make sure those lines are heavy braid 5 - quality hooks (depends on your bait, I like Gamakatsu Circle Hooks for panfish, chubs, and cutbait, Gamakatsu Treble Hooks for Chicken Livers and the like) 6 - Dual Drag Baitrunner reels 7 - sturdy rodholders, especially when bank fishing 8 - Keeping the bait alive (old cooler and a baby bubbler does fine) 9 - a good knife 10 - a good net, capable of landing a 50 lb fish 11 - cast net for creek chubs 12 - a way to carry all of the aforementioned gear. Once you've got 1-12 handled, you can worry about spending your money on fancy rods. Depending on your state laws, you can catch more catfish with empty gatorade bottles than you can with the fanciest rod on the market.

If you think I'm only a bit nuts, you don't know me very well

Someone else jumped on it, I slacked and the early bird got the worm. It was registered, friend of friend had all the proper paperwork, too. Coming back on fumes would have been OK, would have also gladly carried a gas can if needed be.

It's that good of a deal, and just a trolling motor isn't going to cut it on the river, it took me 7 hours and 8 tanks of gas to go from my closest launch to lock 4, then to lock 3, then back to the launch in a 6hp Jon Boat. If I bribe my buddy into loaning me his tow truck with a case of beer, This 'ski will be about as dirt cheap as a jon boat with no trailer. Did you fish the Mon with it??? You, my friend, know where I can and cannot go like the back of your hand. Should I jump at this opportunity in the morning or not?

I probably should have added, the one I can get a really smokin' deal on is a '94 Polaris SLT 750. I know nothing much about it other than it belongs to a friend of a friend, it runs, comes with a trailer, however it was on the trailer during the flood and the whole thing floated into the woods behind a neighbors house near the shore and "it started on a trailer but it's gonna be a b#$%^ to get up out of there." Google tells me the dry weight is 500 lbs, top speed is 48mph, and the motor is probably blue. It's a 2 seater and I weigh about 180, I'm assuming I can safely add roughly 200 lbs of accessories to it. My homemade cooler livewell weighs roughly 60 lbs full of water, not a clue as to how it would plane out with that much weight on the back as I've never ridden a sit down jet ski, just a stand up model one time 15 years ago.

I've been looking at some of the options out there (I got a lot of response on my homemade kayak thread saying don't do it) and after a recent flood in my area, I've found a few great deals on Jet Skis that need a little work or have cosmetic damage that I couldn't care less about. I've seen a few folks out there who saltwater fish from their 'ski and was wondering if anyone out there has on that they use for good instead of evil, as I have a chance to pick one up for less than the price of a decent kayak. I know very little about them but I'm confident that there's a way to add a live well, tackle and rod storage, and a trolling motor. As a side note, are Polaris Jet Ski and Snowmobile engines interchangable? If I pick up a mid 90's Polaris 750 jet ski, can I look for a mid 90's Polaris 750 snowmobile with a blown engine and swap the motors back and forth twice a year, because that would be pretty sweet. I am very mechanically inclined but have little snowmobile repair experience and have never lifted the seat on a jet ski.

technically the jet skis are still here but they are now providing cover, as they have been relocated to the bottom of the river.

Fat, Drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

We didn't really get nailed with rain in the valley so much as they did south of us in West Virginia. The mighty Monongahela is a different animal than most other rivers out there, it is always muddy and it flows north. I'll definitely give that Bama Bug color a shot, and you're certainly right on the Black and Blue jugs. Green Pumpkin and Whiskey colors are also pretty effective, you really don't need to pack a rainbow of tackle to catch fish, just the dark stuff will do here. As for the California boat club, the rumor mill says it broke loose but that's not true. To give a little background, the clubhouse was built on a barge many years ago and a few months ago it sank. During this flood, the roof (and only the roof) came off and floated downstream. It made it up to Lock and Dam No 4 and sank there. My office is nearby, I've actually been watching them clean up the mess a little bit with cranes, it should be interesting to say the least. They're pulling up all kinds of stuff, a lot of debris, I've been told that a couple jet skis came up too. There have been docks found everywhere, if you like to fish under docks the options have certainly changed, although there's still way too much debris floating to take a boat out for the next couple of days at least.

You could try flooded parking lots and areas where there is little to no flowing water To be clear, The water has receded and it is no longer dangerous to fish. As for the parking lots, I'm actually headed to fish a soccer field after work, the water is about 2 feet deep in spots and will be evaporating, we will play with rods and reels for a bit but ultimately plan to throw cast nets and remove all the fish, relocating as many fish as possible to the creek that they came from.

Several of you may have seen my hometown of Monongahela, PA in the news after some pretty nasty floodwaters ripped through and made a hell of a mess. Now that the waters have receded and the water is navigable again, I thought that this may be a good topic. The water is incredibly muddy and the fish have been swept into unfamiliar territory. Cover has changed, debris is everywhere. Docks are trapped under bridge pilings, several boats and jet skis have sunk, and barge traffic has stopped as most of the locks are filled with who knows what. What do you do differently, what baits do you throw? Tips and tricks?

Surprised that no one has said this yet and it might not be the next thing but I'm sure it's coming, I forsee a Hybrid outboard in the not too distant future that would use both gasoline and electric stepper motors in some kind of scheme to save the planet. Having an electric motor as a part of the outboard would give you the ability to troll with the outboard as well, then the next thing you know your outboard will have a pedal drive, a remote control, and all of the other bells and whistles that you can get on a trolling motor. That $98,995 boat listed above will probably be a cool $148,995 with the eco friendly my package isn't big enough package.

Read some of the ones below, while a lot of that is awesome information, a few of these fine folks from around the country have shown that you need to look very closely at motor club coverage, as the boat trailer might not be covered.

Thinking maybe I should just use one gallon and the stuff I have lying around to build a prototype and practice. The above image doesn't show, btw.

PlusRV and PremierRV MembershipsPlusRV and PremierRV memberships extend your coverage to include travel trailers with sleeping accommodations as well as Motorcycles and Dual Wheel pickup trucks. - From AAA Carolina's website It does not look like your local branch covers boat trailers, definitely check it out before you buy! Check out www.goodsamroadside.com - they don't have the massive network of providers that AAA does but do come highly recommended by a lot of travelers. Should you choose not to go the motor club route, www.nationaltowlist.com is a great resource and listing of reputable service providers.

I was going to use heavy canvas

Do I really need to go 1/4" thick? I was figuring 1/8" thick, max, throughout the project, that's roughly 1 gallon for 8 sq ft, although you're right, at that thickness I'd need to double my planned resin purchase at the bare minimum, but if I get 10 gallons I'm still at $150 (really more like $120) plus stuff lying around.

Should be a bit of a combination of the two, if it's a custom design, the possibilities are endless. Definitely not sure on the registration end of it but I believe in PA it's a pretty cut and dry process to register a homemade vessel if you keep it under 16'. Right now, it's all in my head and I have a good 50 other projects that I'll need to finish first, gotta move, set up the garage, the truck needs lots of work, kids' swingset is broke, and the rest of the honey-do list is about 3 pages but I'll definitely post pics and upload videos to YouTube if I ever get around to it.

Yup, That only do you not only bust your knee off of it, you hurt yourself and ruin your pants at the same time!! AAA Plus RV and Premier RV should both cover trailers, motor homes, and motorcycles. They at least do through West Penn AAA, I know some coverages vary due to your particular branch of the motor club. At least, they did 3-4 years ago when I moved on from my career as a professional vehicle relocation specialist.

I have an anchor (the homemade concrete kind) and a paddle, I've also got quite the stash of wood to build a frame as well as a stash of foam to line it and a couple big sheets of fabric that takes resin pretty nicely, The resin that I planned to use is round about $15 a gallon, I'm figuring that 3 gallons should be more than enough. Not too sure where the other zeros will come into play and have gotten a few tips from an elderly cousin who made several kayaks 40 years ago that were also very inexpensive. I'm not looking to build the queen mary, just a light weight wooden frame partially filled with foamboard, covered with cloth, coated with resin and a couple coats of paint, although I may go extra crazy and add some additional framing on the transom for the future addition of a trolling motor, along with conduit and spaces in the hull for a battery, footpedal motor controls, and a hole in the bow that would fit an aerated 5 gal bucket livewell.

I'm estimating I'll be at around $100 in materials

Hey there!! I do most of my fishing south of you, not so much up north. The bass are coming back in the lower Tionesta but nothing like when I was a kid. Tionesta lake is good, so is the Clarion. Topwater baits are hitting hard right now all over, white-chartreuse/white spinners and buzzbaits all day long. Never fished Northmoreland lake but I did a wedding there 2 weeks ago and wished I brought a pole... http://www.screwylewylures.com - Screwy Lewy has been my go to, quality lures that catch fish in western PA

I can't swing $1000 for a nice sit on top kayak, been looking at options and considering building one, as I'm kinda handy. Have any of you built a sit on top fishing kayak? Even if you haven't, what are your favorite features on your kayaks? What would you change on the one that you have?

There are a few receiver mount solutions that would suit you pretty well. www.hitchmount-rack.com has a pretty nice one that will cost as much as your canoe did, but if you can weld...