Boomstick

Welcome to the forum. Moderately deep stained water can be fun to fish, throw a spinnerbait or chatterbait and you may rack of the fish in no time! Try jigs or senkos if you need to get down lower in the water.

Welcome to the forums.

Welcome! I too love power fishing as a spinnerbait and crankbait is a regular on at least one rod I carry. I think you'll find a lot of useful information and good discussion here on these forums. A lot of people have helped me out over the years, and I've been able to help a few people out as well.

Ouch! Yesterday and today hit 97 and that's bad enough. I missed last weekend too because of the rain. I thought about trying Saturday, but it was supposed to be violent thunderstorms. The plan was to go rent a canoe at a Vermont State Park, a little bit of a drive until they said likely afternoon thunderstorms, but we didn't get anything until after I went to bed and early in the morning. Turns out I had a friend's adoption party to go to today and then went swimming, so that kept me busy today. At least I didn't stay home and do nothing, I'd go insane.

I never had timeshare people hounding me at a BPS, but I am aware of the timeshare salespeople who are like sharks. Years ago, when I made around $40k/year, they'd sit there deciding if they should lose interest or not, so now I tell them I make $30k/year (which is partially true only I make a lot more than that now) and they quickly move onto the next person. Better if done while browsing boats... I was just at Cabela's yesterday and what I couldn't get over is they now charge $6 for RoboWorms. tacklewarehouse.com here I come...

I haven't lugged my AC down from the attic, and at this point I am not going up there to get it anytime soon, it's an unvented attic that is probably over 100 by now. Because of all the shade on my hill, my house is usually cooler than everywhere else. Every single thing that could go wrong this treatment has. If the heatwave could have held off until next week when I'm basically 100% functional again, it wouldn't be so bad. To add to it, my fridge just died and all the food in it just went bad.

Good and bad news. I was at Cabela's today and still can't believe the prices they charge for a Roboworm now.

So until at least next Friday according to the forecast, we have a pretty rough heatwave. Today, I packed up the car and drove 2.5 hours to Cabela's, got a couple lures and some camping gear (going in two weeks), so that kept us in the AC all day. My car was showing a temperature of 97 degrees. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. Normally, I'd just fish mornings and/or evenings, but currently I am coming off my biweekly chemo treatment and I can't even drink cold water (maybe I will be able to tomorrow, but I'm not banking on it), so it's very hard to keep hydrated which puts me at risk of heat stroke. EDIT: Sorry guys, I realize that I put this in the wrong forum.

Welcome to the hack fishing club. I just like being on the water, whether I get a fish or not. I started really getting into fishing last year, and I've definitely learned a ton in tactics and techniques, and can usually land at least a fish per trip now, which is much better than when I started where I might get skunked a few weekends in a row at times.

You might be able to get catfish on soft plastics -- as bluebasser said, add some scent and that will help your chances. Also most carp baits work rather well. Try using Magic Premo Carp bait in mulberry which are basically little boilies you can buy for a few bucks at your local Dick's. Also shrimp, pickled herring, spam and even french fries especially near restaurants can work wonders as well. Basically, the worse it smells, the more cats you're going to catch! I do use circle hooks when targeting catfish, however people catch them on EWG hooks all the time and more often than not, they don't swallow them.

In the case of the hottest days of the summer, I would have to say Hank Parker is spot on. What happens is the bass like to go deep, but eventually they run out of oxygen. There's a point where small bass will be much shallower, medium sized bass will be deeper, and the only remotely deep ones are the giants. Then there's a point that no bass will go. For this reason, 10-18 ft is considered by many to be the target bass range during the summer. Up here in the north, they may go a but further down, maybe like 20-30ft. Finding the deepest part of the water in deep lakes is never a good idea for bass. You might catch trout or catfish in the deeper sections, but generally many lakes are much deeper than bass will go.

I have my BG paired with a St. Croix Avid X. It balances nicely. I've heard some people say with the lighter reels, they feel tip heavy. The nice thing about the BG is that I was able to spend less on the reel and more on the rod and I don't feel I'm missing too much as well.

If I need a rod, I'd prefer the rod, if I need a reel, then a reel. However, it may depend on the specifics of the sale.

I have a BG 2000 and personally, I don't notice it's heavy even after 4 hours of use. My 81lb just turned 13 year old never complains about the weight of my Pflueger President 35... Personally, I really like the BG, especially for the price point and I think saving a couple ounces is greatly overrated.

I should get up early in the morning, but I'm not a morning person. So I usually end up fishing mid day and later in the evening instead. Cooler days can definitely be more productive, and I find the morning activity can run later in the day, and in some cases you might find some chasing later in the afternoon.

My top three for northern smallies.. #3) Crankbaits or jerkbaits #2) Spinnerbaits #1) Drop shot. Try a KVD dream shot or Roboworm Akive shad nose hooked.

I really got onboard with the NED rig this year as I have put a focus on finesse fishing this season. Doing most of my fishing from shore, it's a very quick to rig and effective finesse fishing tactic and it's effective in shallow water. The thin hooks allow for a very small and lightweight jighead that can be fished on 6lb test, and the flat head means the TRDs fit snug against it and as a result, a single TRD last for many fish. The flat head also helps with the action.

This refreshed my memory. Knot wars has the alberto and fg ahead of the double uni, but it wasn't knot wars I was thinking of but some other knot comparison test I read maybe a year ago that had the double uni beating out the Alberto pretty strongly, but still losing to the FG knot. I want to say that wasn't even a youtube series, but a similar article to this one I just can't recall where. Anyway, I still use a 10 turn double uni because it literally never breaks for me, although I kind of think the one I did last night may be a first as I did it near blind (chemotherapy effects my light perception, and I couldn't see the flurocarbon leader line at all and could barely see the braid). Should be fine, but it's my first time doing it blind.

I thought the Alberto and Albright were the same. My bad.

That's a modified Albright, different from the Alberto which had previously fallen short of the double uni.

I am trying to think if I ever used 15# braid on mine or not. Anyway, 15# braid should be fine on that reel, just be sure to use a fair amount of backing to not waste line you don't need. I bought 15# braid to put on it this year, just ended up putting it on another reel so I'll have to buy some more at some point. According to Pflueger's line ratings, it is rated for as low as 8# braid. That said, I would of with a smaller reel for finesse fishing. My Daiwa BG 2000 holds much less line but has a similar diameter spool for what it's worth and a 2500 sized BG should have a larger diameter spool while holding less line.

I have gravitated away from the Palomar as well. I can tie a 5-6 turn uni knot and waste little line, plus for whqtever reqson its easier for me to tie in the wind than a Palomar, plus it works on all line. One of these days I will learn the FF knot. I'd learn it much faster if I ever had an issue with the double uni knot, but it's help up for me even when I get in some nasty snags. According to knot wars, it strongly beat out the Alberto. The other thing worth noting is they only gave the double uni 4 and 5 wraps around each side. I think most people would use 10-12. I know I do, which certainly explains some of the difference here. (I believe knot wars used ten but it wasn't far behind the FG).

I always use the double uni knot and yet to have one break. Also has anyone here followed knot wars? They had very solid results with the double uni.

I would second this. You can't underestimate the power of a med. light action spinning rod for NED rigs and drop shots on those hot summer days...

I'm not familiar with those models specifically, but I always hear the Tatula heavy rods have a lot of tip to them, no idea about the Dobyns. I would wager that they're both good rods though from my experience with both companies.