billmac

Have you ever had something happen during fishing that is so incredible it is hard to believe? I can think of 3: Once, while a friend and I were wading for smallmouth, a big smallie broke one of us off (I can't remember if it was me or him). A few minutes later, the bass broke water a foot or so to my right and threw the lure. All I had to do was reach out and pick up the lure (topwater). Once while in a canoe with that same friend on the same river, we pulled into a small bay, and I told my friend to cast to a certain spot and he would catch a muskie, and he did! It wasn't quite legal size, but I was kind proud of my Nostradamus moment. I think the most unbelievable thing that happened to me was once when I was again wading rapids. I was throwing a mister twister meeny spin, and I had one of those times when you cast, but the spool doesn't disengage. So the lure snaps off and goes flying downriver. So I tie on a new meeny spin, cast out the first time, and drag in my lost lure. I had hooked it through the eye. What have you got?

I think I would focus on asking the guide what makes a particular spot a "spot". I think if you focus on spots, even if your guide doesn't care, you are limiting yourself. Better to learn why a particular place has fish, then you can find these places on your own. One of the things that was impressed upon me when I first started following the BASS tournament trail, was that locals seldom won these tournaments. They simply weren't knowledgeable or flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions. To be fair, you did say spots and patterns. If a guide won't instruct you on the patterns, I would find another guide. That will be the difference between catching fish, and learning to catch fish.

Nothing controversial. Just a little bit of nostalgia from my childhood. I miss wading the rivers for fish. I practically grew up waist deep in fast moving water. Throwing inline spinners while wading rapids for smallmouth. I usually started in May, as soon as I could safely tolerate the temperature of the water (New York). Tons of smallmouth, with lots of shiners thrown in. Occasionally a rock bass, walleye, or even a muskie! I could do it now of course, but with work, family, a boat, and arthritis in the hips and knees I probably won't be doing much of it anymore. Those were the days.

Most of my pike have come from shallow, weedy areas, so I prefer a buzzbait. It's nice because a leader is not required, although I usually throw on a trailer hook with a curly tail grub.

I want to know the catch phrases! I think you could have a 5 largest system without the ridiculous boat flopping and fish hugging that kind of turned me off BASS tournaments.

I have the same problem with Rapala Minnows. I hardly ever use them, but I just love the look of them. I should probably start fishing with them.

Location: Can't catch them if they aren't there. Bait presentation / Bait type: I don't think these can really be separated. Timing (not seasonality): I'm not sure this can be separated from location, unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean. Bait color: Frankly I think color is far more important to fishermen than it is to fish.

Most of my float fishing has been from a canoe. I recently bought a 32 year old Cajun bass boat. I love it even though the motor has proved troublesome. I have 5 young grandchildren. I would like to get a Pelican style boat to take them fishing on smaller waters that I can't take the bass boat on. A little too hard in a canoe.

There is a yellow sriracha that I pick up in Bangkok. I put it on practically everything.

Yes, but I just saw the reel-only option on the Abu-Garcia site as out of stock, and it looks like the options on Amazon are mostly left-handed and only available "from other sellers". Maybe they're just having some supply chain problems.

It looks like the Abu Garcia Black Max is hard to find. Has it been discontinued?

I feel the same way about dropshot. I've used it since I was a kid, but with nightcrawlers. I never really thought there were lures that would catch fish in one region that wouldn't catch fish in another. I was more thinking about lures or techniques that just haven't caught on in certain regions.

The answers may basically fall along smallmouth vs largemouth lines.

I understand that technically any lure can work anywhere, but are there lures / techniques that are particularly suited to the North or South, or perhaps not necessarily suited, but perhaps better accepted in the North or South?

Pike are excellent table fare. Filleting them is a little tricky, but worth it.

Not sure if I've ever had LMB. Had plenty of SMB. I don't have any problem harvesting and eating any species as long as it is done legally, but I honestly don't love eating fish, so I don't do it often. I've seen too many grubs in bass I've cleaned, so I would stick to walleye, pike, or panfish.

Will do. Thanks.

And the problem definitely progressed. After I did the carb work, it worked fine for a few outings. Then for a few outings, when throttling up, it would just pause for 5-10 seconds, not throttling up or bogging down, just chugging away at less than full power, and then it would take off and be fine. Then, the next few outings (until now) it starting doing what I described above.

Gotcha. This might seem like a silly question, but should all three carb jets be set the same? I believe I set all 3 to 1 and 3/4 turns out when I replaced the needles and seats, so perhaps I caused problem 3 when I was trying to fix problem 2.

I'm looking at a schematic of the carb but the jets aren't labeled.

I've put the boat away for the winter, but I just thought I'd throw out what's happening for some ideas. It's a 1988 motor I've had since March of last year. 1st problem: At WOT, the boat would go, but not get up on plane until it had run about 10-15 minutes. Found out cylinders 3 and 4 weren't firing until it warmed up. Once it picked up, it was fine the rest of the trip. Replaced the trigger to no avail. Screwed around with switching coils, and the problem resolved. Probably a bad ground. 2nd problem: Motor would start and idle fine, but would dog down as I throttled up, but usually wouldn't stall. Frantically squeezing the primer bulb would usually pick it up enough to get to WOT and plane. But once I idled down the motor or shut it off, it would do the same thing again. Rebuilt fuel pump, replaced primer bulb and fuel lines to no avail. Finally replaced needles, seats, and floats in all three carbs, and that took care of the problem. 3rd and current problem: Motor starts and idles fine, but will dog down as I throttle up. If I don't throttle down to a crawl, it will stall. Squeezing primer (like problem 2) does nothing. If I go through the process of throttling up and down 5 or 6 times, shutting it off in between, it will take off and be fine the rest of the trip. All cylinders are firing. Plugs were new last year. I use only ethanol free gas and pre-mix with oil. Any thoughts on my latest problem?

It's hard to say. Where I live has many more smallmouth than largemouth, so I mostly catch them by default. On smaller bodies of water, I basically fish where it looks fishy. I'm really just targeting fish, so either largemouth or smallmouth (or walleye or pike) are welcome. Over my life, I've caught thousands of smallmouth, so catching a largemouth is a bit of a treat. On the St. Lawrence, I would normally target smallmouth, because I have as much of a chance to catch a trophy smallmouth as a mediocre largemouth.

I'm not much of a topwater fisherman, but using the shorter rod for that makes sense.

Yeah, it's crazy. I remember being very "discerning". I looked for graphite, and I wanted them as stiff as possible. And 1 piece. I hate 2 piece rods. I think longer rods only became a thing when flipping became popular.

Believe it or not, I've got a 5'5" Zebco Boron rod, when boron was going to be the next step after graphite.