Looch

Drum have been hitting like crazy here too, a guy I fish with was using live emerald shiners and the odd 2-3" gizzard shad(he was just dipnetting them out the river) under an egg bobber and he caught 40+ drum in 4 hours today, only caught 9-10 desirable fish(smallies, walleye, hybrids). Drums and catfish have been most of what I been seeing since we got rain a few days ago and watter got muddy

you could try switching baits up, maggots or waxies. Something different than the red worms or nightcrawlers you are using. Or even crickets, fake ones will last longer and are easier to hook. I live by a high pressure lake and the gills can be finicky at times but they seem to not be able to resist topwater baits. I bet fly fishing would be fun.

ha oddly enough I caught a young flathead on a jig+plastic last night. berkley havoc paddletail thing, bobby lane design, bama bug color Been catching a lot of channel cats too this year on plastics(gulps mostly). Most of them have been when the water is really muddy. Haven't got a bullhead on a lure yet, did get a brown bullhead on trout doughbait. Maybe they are spawning if you got it on topwater. Bullheads are amazing parents compared to most other fish

red dot on operculum = pumpkinseed or redear. Pumpkinseed have a war paint look on the operculum. Never see redears where I live but pretty sure those are seeds no red and has pretty color like a p-seed = longear. They also have a white line on the operculum flap around the dark spot. imo, longear and pumpkinseeds are the prettiest freshwater fish in America, popular in "native" fishtanks, no doubt the aquarium trade is how 'seeds got into the UK and are now listed as invasive. No largemouth to keep them in check. They got pike and zander(basically euroWalleye) but I doubt they harass 'seeds like bass do here during the spawns.

I fish West PA. Mainly the Beaver and Ohio Rivers. Shenango River and the Lake, Mahoning River, Connequenessing Creek, Neshannock Creek, Big Sewickley Creek, Slippery Rock Creek, Brady's Run Lake, Wilhelm, Pymatuming, Tamarack, and Cross Creek Lake are some other places I've been this year. Im mainly a river rat fishing from the bank next to dams. I have a small jonboat but I need the motor fixed so it's been mainly bank fishing this year for me. I go to some lakes with friends, this will probably be first time in 30+ years I dont fish Erie. Dont think I've fished the Kiski, but have fished the Allegheny, Clarion, Yough and Mon in the past. We are lucky, there are great places to fish from the shore here, a lot of the best spots next to dams aren't accessible with a boat. Actually even when my boat was running I would use it to get out on rocks and islands a lot. Great smallmouth fishing in the creeks too.

probably a little spinning reel since it's 3 feet 2 inches long and designed for ice. Stradic 1000.

The old chrome body blue back rat-l-trap. Really digging the Berkley warpig too not really bass fishing but Wally divers and reef runner deep divers for trolling for walleye on Erie are my 2 favorite trolling crankbaits. You do pick up bass, both smallmouth and largemouth as well as the odd muskie doing this at certain times of the year but it's a walleye technique. Wally Divers arent bad casting lures either.

nicest hybrid I caught this week. Had a great week with smallmouth, with a couple pigs. One I could only describe as a football, not long, just fat. Greediest fish in the river. Here is a decent sized one I caught on a 3/4 oz white/chartreuse bucktail hair jig that I throw to target hybrids. Walleye continue to hit right before it gets dark. Not sure where sauger have gone but I only caught 1 this week and I'm not complaining. This is a 14 or 15 inch walleye, caught on a 1/4oz jig and gulp minnow, normally use 1/8oz but needed extra weight to get my bait to where I needed it.

I've seen relatively small bluegill and green sunfish swim up to my fake berkley atomic wishbone baits(used 1/64oz jig or a #10 hook and 1 tiny ss) and just look at it and swim away after awhile. At times there were like 6-8 fish all in a circle staring at it. I dont know if they were on to me or just curious and not hungry. The only way I got some of them to nip at it was to leave it set on top of the water. High pressure lake. It was pretty interesting. Put live bait on and they couldnt resist, back to the usual dumb ole bluegill behavior which is what I was after because I had the kids out fishing, they only stay engaged if it's non-stop action

Hair Jigs and tubes is what I'd start with.

There are pellets you can buy, you dont need anything heavy duty like for hydrilla. You throw a few pounds of pellets in, come back a few weeks later and do it again. Seen it done on an old water reservoir up the road, cattails and pads were bad. Doesnt hurt the fish or turtles

My nickname based off my italian surname. I have same last name as a famous gangster, which wasnt actually his real surname

fishing was good today for about 90 minutes, then they turned off. Got 2 wipers, a nice 1 lb 13oz smallmouth, 1 nice barely legal walleye, and 3 little cigar size saugers. All released the nicer wiper tore my gulp bait up. the jig ripped down into the minnows head. 1 fish and it was basically ruined for that style, I hooked it through head only and caught the walleye and a sauger

walleye fishing is fun. If you fish a river where both smallmouth and walleye exist you can target one or the other and normally catch both. They hang out in same type of areas, depth they are holding is different usually if it's a deeper area and food spots the smallies will be there morning/afternoon and walleye in evening/night. Little 16" walleye I caught tonight and released. He hit it like a bass a few feet from me. Lake fishing is a different ballgame but it's not too difficult if you read the daily reports you can find out how many FOW they are holding and you can come up with a plan. Can be a lot of different equipment fishing on lakes, especially trolling and getting your bait dialed into the sweet spot/"thermocline" where they often are. A lot of walleye guys use live bait because they do it to fill their freezer. It's a tasty fish.

Casting to where the buffet line is pretty much what I do. Long cast/short cast, whatever it takes.

the original chrome blue back rat-l-trap is the one I've caught the most bass with. I got like 10 warpigs in march, the midnight pearl, cream pie, and chameleon pearl have done the best. Still haven't caught one on the gilly color, I dont think smallmouth eat many bluegill. Largemouth are sort of sparse in the rivers I fish, after the spawn I dont run into very many of them. Closest lake is full of stunted 8 inch largemouth, I dont fish there very often once the stocked trout are mostly gone.

Find an extra $50-100 and get a reel that will still work after you have finally mastered casting it. I did like the looks of the Lews Speed Spool combo(esp the rod) a friend of mine got recently. It's his first BCer so he was picking backlashes out but in just a few weeks he has got pretty good at casting it. So I think this would be OK for beginners. Pretty sure the reel only is under $100.

I tend to lose most of them with the larger 4-5" plastic attached, but the ones I do land are usually pretty big. I use the same 1/8oz jig head, just attach a smaller soft plastic like a crappie magnet or 2.5 inch gulp. Sometimes I use a marabou or one of my lighter hair jigs but usually I just change plastics.

Is this a spotted bass? or just a Largemouth? Lm are kind of rare in this area. I caught 6 "bass" today, 4 smallmouth, 1 rock, and this guy. His mouth is why I think it may be a spotted, more like a smallmouth's mouth

same here, I love fishing for crappie. When I know they are in the area I'm fishing(I catch one or lose one and see it) I immediately switch to smaller bait to catch as many as I can before they take off again. Some days when my jonboat motor is good, I go look for them. you live in Wiper heaven, there is a guy on YT that lives in Kansas, he catches the biggest fattest wipers I've ever seen

hookless gar lure is easiest way, especially when they are spawning. Have sharp scissors handy to cut string away from gars nose/teeth quickly so you can release fast. Gar lures are cheap and basically ruined after 1 big gar Or make your own by cutting off 4-5 inches of shoestring or paracord and flaying it out on one end, leave other end together so you can connect to a hook. Live bait like a shiner on a treble hook will get you lots of bites but you will miss most fish on the hook set, their top part of mouth is like armor, the bottom is a little softer so yanking to the side instead of straight up like most fish seems to work a little better. Being able to see the fish or at least know which way it is situated helps a lot. I've caught lots of Longnose and spotted gar at Montgomery Dam in PA

if I'm not mistaken(looks to be same fish),

A 3/4 to 1oz Spro bucktail which is basically an oversized hair jig(no lure on the planet has caught more smallmouth) with an uncle josh pork rind, if you dont have a jar stashed in bottom of your tacklebox, other companies are trying to make them. This crushes marine stripers and bluefish. Uncle Josh stopped making pork rinds, became too hard and too expensive to get hog skins old enough to make their famous rinds, I have like 11 unopened jars left so I should be good for next 25 years of annual trips to the coast. RIP Uncle Josh pork rind Locally, I have been experimenting with 1/8 to 1/4oz hair jigs and chunks of old gulp minnows and it's been working for smallies, wipers, and our landlocked stripers here in NW PA.

Find a puddle if possible. Or take an empty 5 gallon bucket.

This is from a couple months ago, lure didnt get over and hit the railing right in front of me at a dam. I got a worse one last night wading in a river, lure hit a tree next to me and I spent the next 20 minutes working it out