Looch

never thought of just buying a teckel frog tail for making a homemade one. I tried making one last year and used mostly paddletails cut off plastics and while it caught fish, it didn't spin and have same action.

OP, How well does it rip through weeds? I really like the 130 because of how it can handle weeds. I think I get more strikes when I can make contact with the weeds. I still get lots of dinks on the 130, I dont think the fish can see the size or color that well on the 90-130. R2S need to put split rings on all of them like the 130 and 190. Anyone know what brand rings R2S uses on the front of the 130 and 190? Those things are nice and strong -doesn't sink is a giant one too.

Did it actually hit the lure? I'm a little south but longnose gar were freaking everywhere this week, must be spawning, I had about 40 on and only landed 2 and 1 of those was after tying on a hookless rope lure. they were loving the ned rig though, was pretty crazy. but most likely carp. spring is redhorse and summer common carp when you see big tails fanning

spro or home tied hair jigs/bucktails. River2Sea Lane Changer 150 topwater lure is what I think is finesse, had a good week fishing that, wasn't a big fan of that lure until this week. No wind, clear water sightfishing most of the week and other "noisier" topwater lures were spooking fish. I've never seen water in this particular river this clear and I been fishing this river for 40 years. Tiny ice fishing spoons for bluegill, gsf, rock bass is a favorite of mine, I often get a couple bass with them too. jigging rap for open water walleye(lure was designed for ice fishing)

i use it as my follow up to buzz bait or whopper plopper, if I get a blowup and miss the fish, I'll throw the topwater one more time through same spot and if that dont work, grab the goose turd rig and often get that fish to hammer it on first cast. I been using neko and weightless stickbaits too but ned is the champ for me following up on topwater. Unless I think or know it was a pike, then I follow up with a daredevle spoon or zman's bucktail chatterbait .

Shimano Tekota 500lc The brand of rod doesn't really matter as long as it ticks all the boxes you need for trolling, you really dont need anything over 8ft

lots of alligator gar

the Lane changer 150 is like a finesse topwater, caught a couple smallmouth on it and lost a nice pike but I'm not crazy about it, doesn't create enough disturbance, in real shallow calm water though it works well. Anyone use the big mistake and top notch yet? I bought the turtle with props but haven't caught anything with it yet. I just wanted a turtle lure I think lol

Does anyone know of a trailer hook that will allow this thing to continue floating? The VMC trailer hooks I'm using make it sink, really slow but it still sinks. This thing has to have a trailer hook in my opinion. I miss a lot less fish with the trailer hook, even get a few I don't see coming. Still miss the ones that attack the ploppers of course

I just kept the original box and throw them in a bucket, doesn't fit right in anything else I have for storage

that one in bottom left(cant see his head) is pretty big.

chucking big lures on light tackle will wear sharp nicks into the eyes of your rod from the weight on the line if you keep your rod tip up a lot, when retrieving heavier lures on smaller rod try to remember to keep tip down if you are throwing a lure heavier than what your rod is rated for. I actually did this to one of my st. croix rods chucking a whopper plopper 190 (also some 8" bucktails) on a heavy walleye rod(my Lake Erie trolling rod) that was a little too small last year. top eye is easy to replace, the eyes after that a little more work. Could have been avoided if I didn't always keep rod tip up to get the best action on the whopper plopper immediately after it hit the water, the weight on the line gradually wore channels into the top 2 eyes and didn't notice until my line cut on a cast and I had to go swimming to get an expensive lure back. You can also buy eye inserts that will avoid this. Just something to keep in mind, Good Luck on the muskie hunt

Unless there is literally nothing else to eat, they aren't eating many bass. They are also usually sterile and not going to take over. State is stocking either purely for anglers to enjoy catching or they have an overabundance of some sort of baitfish they are trying to control. Just trust your state biologists know what they are doing My state stocks 1,000-2,000 tiger fingerlings in my favorite river for last 15 years and I've never caught one, and only seen 1 caught and I target pike/muskie all the time. Pretty sure they get eaten by pike and standard muskie or I would of ran into one by now

all sorts of jigs and crankbaits. Seems to happen more when river is muddy or they are in their spawning period

they are fun but the problem is when they get in bass ponds. I have family in Poconos area and they had a couple nice bass and bluegill ponds they let their neighbors fish in for awhile. Well one of them must of felt like being a bucket biologist a few years back and dropped a few chain pickerel in and they have completely overrun the ponds. I know there are a few big bass left but hard to catch them, pickerel are so aggressive they get to your bait first. We were sighting the bass and dropping baits right in on top of them last fall and a pickerel would always steal it before bass would commit. Ponds need redone

they are probably triploid or whatever they call them and sterile. They keep the pond cleaner. Maybe try mulberries or deadstick a small very green topwater lure and pray.

Humpy's are pink salmon, most of the time they only run every other year. Nobody has seen any running in the Erie tribs this year that I know of. They have a hump, and are real aggressive. Elk Creek will be full of pinks(humpys) and steelbows next year. You guys see any browns or chinooks? Yeah the "Russians" are bad. I've see them do some crazy illegal stuff both in PA and NY, imagine Ohio and Michigan too. The Straw Hat Army/Navy is another group that are a problem in PA on other species. They pretty much follow the rules but no such thing as catch&release with them.

Gill em to kill em then Rope em and smoke em! Come next year and catch the humpys, and watch the humpys attack the steelbows. Biggest racket this state has. What did they charge you guys for a non-resident erie stamp and trout stamp? Are you Russian? lol

yeah Ohio, Ny, Maryland have had cases of it. I live very close to Ohio. In a couple sections of the Susquehanna and Juniata it has been almost common to catch them some years. PA Fish & Game still hasnt figured it out last time I checked(last time I caught one), heard theories but nobody has nailed it down. Whatever it is, doesn't seem to hurt them any.

weird black spots on smallmouth last 10 years. I didn't catch one this year so doubt I have a photo on this cpu. Google "Susquehanna smallmouth black spots" and you'll see what it is. They pop up everywhere in PA but Susquehanna River seems to have the most.

probably a subway, jimmy johns, or sheetz(local gas station/food mart) cold sub. Sheetz the most because they are open 24 hours and they will make an m.t.o italian sub at 4:30am when Im getting gas and headed to the highway to go to a lake. I only bring something if it's the weekend and can spend 8-12 hours fishing. I hit the rivers for an hour or two every weekday evening, I may miss 1 day total in a week during spring and summer, depends what shift Im working for which hour or two I get to fish . Gotta have my Turner's(local) Iced Tea, will settle out of court for Arizona Iced Tea. I like tea while fishing because it tastes ok warm after the ice in the cooler melts. I hate drinking warm water. There are a couple lakes I will come off the water for 60-90 minutes to eat lunch in a good homestyle restaurant I really like. But normally I pack something. Im a candy nut and keep sweetart ropes and filled twizzlers for some sugar burst of energy. I dont do energy drinks like my fishing buddies. Deer jerky during ice fishing season is a must have snack.

yeah the best fisherman on my favorite river dam is an osprey that lives and nests on the hill, man he gets his fish 75% of the time. The bald eagles that live there and often fights with the osprey probably has a 25% success rate. Many people are on the river just to watch these birds. Blue Herons give a good idea of where to cast sometimes. That fish hawk(osprey) is fun to watch though. Dive bomber. I think most of his fish are gizzard shad and small wipers

You are in same state and general area as I, the pfbc puts an advisory out on every named body of water. Ponds not so much. Dont eat any fish from the big 3 rivers(exception, the Allegheny up by NY) and a few tributaries is the general rule of thumb for me. The state says 1 walleye meal per month is safe if you cut the belly meat away but I dont eat anything from the rivers. They are getting cleaner though. Im probably a little older and was raised to never eat fish from the rivers so I probably never would even if wild trout started running in them. There are so many pcbs and other toxins in the rivers from industry back in the day I wont risk it. My neighbor eats them, she always asks me to bring her fish home so I do(eater size walleye, maybe some crappie if I run into a school). But things are getting better, when I was a kid the Beaver River really only had carp and catfish unless you were close to a dam. Now the redhorse suckers are back, you can catch smallmouth anywhere, pikes and muskies do well. Redhorse are a better indicator than frogs I think, canaries in the coal mine. They dont handle pollution well. Lakes, you should be good except Shenango and for now Pymatuming until that virus is sorted out. I take 90% of the fish that I actually eat home during ice fishing season unless we go to Erie sometime during the year(usually February). Creeks, it depends which one but the ones I fish are even dirtier than the rivers where I am, the Connequenessing is the #2 dirtiest body of water in PA behind the Philly Schuylkill. Nothing really in the Connie worth eating anyway(smallies, muskies, pike). Stocky trout are always fine to eat, they were raised in a fish tank eating pellets and rarely live more than 3 months past April stocking, fall stocking fish live longer. In general on ponds, sunfish from no-name ponds should be fine. PCBs are heavy and dont travel far, fish move pcbs in the food chain more than current does, predators and bottom feeders have the most build up of them.. I dont eat bass but they should be ok if they are contained to that 1 pond(pond isnt fed by a river or creek). Golf course pond fish are probably ok. Frogs have no bearing on whether or not I'd eat a fish. Back when I was a kid and steel mills were going 100%, there were just as many frogs as right now.

For their size, they dont put up much of a fight, couple seconds of the fish freaking out, they give up and drag them in. Actually think the dinks and saugers give up more of a fight than big walleyes. Trolling Erie we catch 6lb + fish routinely and in less than 2 minutes, fish is in the boat(100+ ft of line out) Walleye and Sauger are by far the species I catch the most of year in year out, last couple months I have only been using topwater baits and lures that stay off the bottom just so I can avoid catching sauger and walleye in the river I fish the most because there is no point, they aren't safe to eat out of the local rivers because of pcbs

snags that move!