Mbirdsley

Probably won’t have concrete data about licenses until after the year is over

So in the next 2 weeks I’m looking at buying a trolling motor for my new boat. I’ll have about $2000 to spend. I’d like spot lock and the ipilot feature. I’m leaning towards motor guide. I like the idea of the wire less remote and foot pedal.However, a Minnekota would be ok to if I can’t find the motor guide locally. I’m assuming both are well known brands. Is there any pros or cons to each brand I’m looking in the 70-80 lbs thrust and keep it with 24v system . it’s going to be out fitted to a sea nymph that I’m going to use aluminum to cover the open bow. Do the come ready to mount and install out of the box? If I bought it online what is the normal shipping time on a item that big.

Yeah I was at Walmart yesterday for the first time in 4 months. The fishing department was wrecked. I’ve never seen It so empty. All of the rods are gone except the baitcastimg rods that are $40 bucks and up. Only real thing they had in stock Was strike king cranks and rapala’s. All the plastic was gone. Luckily I was able to pick up the max scent general and regular chigger crass at miejers (a union version of Walmart bases in Michigan) even at miejers almost all of the rod and reels were gone.

First summer using swim jigs. I’ve caught them on straight line retrieve over grass. Last night fishing the Tittabawassee River. I was catching them by throwing up into the bank 2-3 ft water than letting it glide down the drop off to 6-12 ft of water to the bottom of the river. Than once in the deep part of the river alternating between short little hops and or stop And go letting it rest on the bottom for 3 count. no real way to fish it. You just have to figure out what they want. I’ve been pouring/making my own swim jigs

Hit up the mighty Tittabawassee River Today. Early Last month a historical flood caused 2 huge dams to fail and probably wiped out this years smallie spawn. The Tittabawassee maybe wounded but, she isn’t dead yet. all things considering I’m happy with the trip. I had been reading basically dooms day reports. Glad I checked it out for my self. Seems like most the dead heads got thrown up on land. Took a nice 17.5 inch smallie on one of my swim jigs that I pour/make. Caught a smaller smallie on it also. missed a nice smallie on a black/blue chigger craw. However, landed this big ol mr whiskers on the same color chigger craw ( channel cat) . Talking to guys at the ramp and they caught a 34 inch flat head down by the confluence.

Max scent generals are $5.50 here in Michigan pretty much every where

I just discovered these last weekend. I bought them on Thursday and hit up the Saginaw bay last Saturday. I was fishing in the cat tails of wild fowl bay ( a bay shelterEd by islands on the Saginaw bay). Water was clear like you can see down 8 feet with glassss plain as day. Using a general in baby bass I caught a crap ton wacky rigged. Lost a Couple of really nice fish at the boat which, was my fault. Usually a pumpkin mag swamp crawlers is my go to on the bay either, wacky or very light tungsten like 1/16 or 1/8 t-rigged Any how I should have bought more. Like you said kinda expensive and I didn’t want to be sitting on a bunch if they didn’t work. I was able to milk my last one for 6-7 fish with an oring. Needless to say I’m buying 2-3 packs of baby bass and maybe that purplish color tommrow when I get paid.

what ever 4/0 off set hook from a reputable hook mfg. if eagle claw lazer sharps wouldn’t rust just by looking at them I would use those exclusively. I try to buy American when I can but, I can’t get my self to buy those regardless of the price due to that issue. Trokar is out of my budget untill I start tournament fishing. Unless of course they are on sale. Some where

Caught a smallie guarding a bed yesterday on the Saginaw bay. Wasn’t huge maybe 14 inches. Smallies stick out like a sore thumb compared to large mouths. any one notice that the bass seem to be really fighting this year. Seems like the couple years after the warmed up they kinda just get lethargic after being hook.

It’s starting to get very bare at the local places also. Ran into a fish counter up north while cleaning salmon a couple of weeks ago. He said fishing licenses were up 18% for the year so far for the state of Michigan. I’d believe it. Everybody and there brother is out fishing right now. I guess it’s a good thing. That’s a lot of excise taxes going back to your local DNR. Also, when more people fish it helps with legislative efforts against the anti’s and we can start pushing back. used to be in the state of Michigan if you your self did not hunt or fish you knew some one who did. The pendulum at least for the moment may be swinging back

Ever since I have switched to an actual wacky rig hook my hook up rate is dang near 100%. I’ve been Buying the owner #2 wacky rig hooks. With or with out weed guard. I can set the hook like normal. 9 times out of ten it sticks them in the roof of the mouth or upper lip. I even nailed some dinks to day. with an o ring I was able to milk my last berkly general for 6 fish. Usually the worm worse case scenario will just slide up the line. if you hook it through the worm under the oring maybe your fish arnt in a eating mood and they are just nibbling it

Hit up wild fowl bay on the east side of Saginaw bay. About a 1:45 minute drive from house. Left my place at 6:45am arrived at the fillion acess site around 8:45. decided to hit the canals on sand point. Spent about 3 hrs total on the point. Picked up my first crank bait bass since march on a bandit 300 root beer. Than took 2 more decent bass on a blue/black shadow cristy critter than I back tracked to the south and started fishing the reeds. I caught about 20 bass in a wacky rigged berkly maxx scent baby bass general worm. I found a cut out in the reeds and caught a lot of bass sight fishing. At one time I had a school of bass following me. I was able to pick each one off one by one all differnt sizes. I only bought one pack to try out but, that’s what’s they wanted. Wish I would brought more. I lost the fish of the day at the boat trying to lift him into the boat. Stupid mistake I usually net the bigger ones. Apparently the small mouth are on the beds still. I caught a legal smallie on a shakey head guarding the nest( my first bed smallie). Kinda felt bad about ripping him off his bed. I think that will be the extent of my bed fishing endeavors. Phone over heated so I didn’t get a pick of it. Pics are the high lights. Oh, I saw a nice gar go after my general worm and even put it in his mouth and set the hook of course I didn’t hook him because, of all the teeth in thier mouth

I’m trying to get into shakey head fishing. Seems every one is split. Either people fish them on a spinning rod or a bait caster. For the moment I’m using a spinning rod. My gut guy tells me spinning rod. However, I see a lot of people using bait casters on YouTube. What is the pros and cons between the two?

Stopped at Hicks Outdoors in Clio to get ready for a trip to Saginaw bay on Saturday. I’d like to start learning the shakey head so I bought some jigs 3/32 and 3/16. kvd fat baby finesse worms in dirt and black/blue flake. Wish they had the 7 inch worms but, they didn’t. I have some magnum trick worms and swamp crawlers if I have to go bigger. been wanting to try power bait max scent general worm. Finally broke down and bought a bag to try. I like that baby bass color I think it would be killer in clear water. Bought some strike king shime sticks. Summer craw color has been good all year so far. This watermelon chart laminate is preatty close. bought another Strike king crank series 4 . I don’t know why I haven't had a crank bite all year yet. They are like crack though. I’d like to try some differnt crank brands but, all anybody carries is rapala, strike king, bombers, and occasionaly a bandit.

I was using gamagatsu circle looks for a long time. They work good. The only issue is If I set the hook, the hook will be pulled out of the fishes mouth. now that I’ve trained my self to set the hook it’s been frustrating I switched to size # 1 owner wacky rig hooks. With weed guards or with out. My hook % went up for myself when wacky rigging. I think getting a hook designed for the wacky rig is optimal regardless of brand. I still have the circle hooks for back up.

They are still better than stock hooks that come on a lot of crank baits. Heck the stock hard ware on strike king XD series will rid and just looking at them. I think all the rapala’s I have most have the mustads or the st-36’s. Most of my rapala’s are in the smaller sizes. I don’t don’t run storm. I use some luhr-Jensen salmon fishing. i thought rapala had owned vmc for a long time. Apparently not

I use mustard kvd, owner at-36bc’s, vmc 1x round bend. the mustads are on 90% of my treble baits. They are expensive but, available regularly as I need them locally. Very Good hook and my hook up rate has went up. the st-36bc’s I put on my small #5-7 stream trout/small river smallie rapala’s. Another really good hook. I don’t remember what I paid. Bought them on eBay the vmc’s im trying out. Bought like 6 boxes at bass pro this winter. They are cheaper at $2.99. I havnt used cranks or jerk baits much this year so far. I don’t know how they have preformed yet. I do have them on lures at the moment

That is a good point of atleast hiding other odors

So this will be my new boat. Going to be called the blue bird. It’s a sea nymph with a tower of power 90 mercury. I won’t have it probably untill mid July. My brother started it and she fired right up and impeller seems strong. I’ll start working on it over the summer the majority of the work to turn it into a bass fishing machine. I’ll add a diamond plate deck the bow and Little maybe foot high platform to the stern area to hide tanks and batteries. I would like to use aluminum stringers for supports. The inside is preatty much gutted except carpeting and starting console. I have access to a couple junk boats to steal petalstool seats from. Also, I should be able to do near shore salmon trolling. I’ll be able to bass fish the Great Lakes no problem in this. My goal is to go out to the charity islands in the Saginaw bay Grandpas afraid I’m gonna die in the mirror craft. He got it for back storage so I’ll either trade the road runner ( mirror craft ) to him or get for little $$$. It needs some work but, not horrible. Trailer is in awesome condition just needs tires. I’ll probably do the deck and other stuff this winter. im thinking of going big and getting a bow mounted trolling motor with spot lock. When I upgrade again I can take it with me.

Berkly lighting rods are a good rod for 50 bucks untill you can afford somthing better . I dunno If they come in a 6ft 6 rod though

Generally speaking if you keep the mono out of the sun it will last a while. However, I would not use 30 year old line

fished muskrat lake yesterday after work. Learned a valuable lesson. Make sure your hooks are sticky sharp. I lost 3 giants at the boat. Took a hook file to my hook and fixed the problem. The one was actually taking line. Also, I am a real bass fishermen now I actually caught fish on an actual senko wacky rigged. I caught these two decent fish on a 6 inch black and blue flake ocho t-rigged with 1/4 oz tungsten weight. Basically, just flipping it into and around the Lilly pads the ring the lake. Th ocho is what I lost the giant bass on. I used up my ocho’s. It is so hard to find 6 inch black and blue flake ocho’s. Finally found some and bought 4 packs. I caught 5-6 smaller bass on the wacky rig. I don’t remember the senkos name but, it was black with red flake and a chartreuse tail

I need to get back to doing this more too.

I started using this color middle of August last year. Mostly with craws, arkie jigs, or creature baits. It has been one of my more consistent performers. Same. I’ve tried a couple differnt brands and styles of baits in band craw

Bandits, bombers, and shad raps