billmac

My experience was like Bassman's. Inline spinners (Shysters and Mepps), Rapalas and live bait in the river behind my house. Gradually expanded to jig and spinner combos (Meeney Spin). If we were in pike territory, we were fishing red and white Dardevles.

What are those retractable straps called that I see the pros use to hold their rods in place when they want to motor to a different location? The rod locker on my old 88 Cajun Maverick is just too small. It is too hard to snake the rods in there, even with rod sleeves. It's basically scraping foam everytime I put the rods in. I think it must have been built when everyone was using 2 piece rods. I'm trying to come up with a different rod holding system.

Which park?

I've been eyeing Chippewa Bay. I'll add it to the list.

Thanks guys. Now I just have to shake loose enough time to go.

Thanks! If you are fishing for bass, do you use steel leaders or something to keep the pike from biting off?

Rich, I haven't fished the lake since I was a kid camping at Eel Weir, and then my parents basically just trolled for pike. Any tips for someone going out the first time? I'm up for bass or pike (or anything, really).

Jleebesaw, I'll have a look. I was just assuming there wasn't a Navionics card in it, and no matter what I was choosing (Navionics or Lowrance) it was defaulting to the pre-loaded maps. I've looked and I'm pretty sure there isn't an SD card in the unit but I'll look again.

It's eels with me.

I'm still more comfortable on smaller water so maybe I'll hit BL first. Both are a little over an hour away from me.

J Francho: I'm finally feeling comfortable with my boat, so I want to get out and do some serious fishing. It's only a little longer drive to Alex Bay and fish in the 1000 islands area. Would you recommend that over Black Lake? I'd love to catch some big bass but I'm happy fishing for anything.

Yeah, I saw that. Looks like it is only one spot on Black Lake so I think I'm still going to go out.

You'll have to find instructions specific to your own setup. Mine had an autoblend unit that was simple to take out. Others are more complicated.

I've been wanting to get to Black Lake NY to fish, but haven't managed it yet. My wife pointed out that harmful algal blooms have been reported in the lake and I see they are popping up everywhere and making the news. Has anyone here seen them or had your fishing affected by them? Just curious.

i bought an older Cajun. It was nice because it has aluminum decking so it doesn't have the wood rotting problem of a lot of older fiberglass boats.

Yeah, it's a little weird. I've taken the boat out on Lake George and the St. Lawrence, and the maps don't show any contour lines. And yet some relatively obscure power reservoirs near me have contour lines on the maps.

My Hook 7 seems to have come with preloaded maps. I can switch between Lowrance and Navionics and I don't really see any difference. I assume they are a little dated, but they have come in quite handy. Is there an advantage to getting a Navionics card? Better maps? More precise?

That sounds like what I need. Thanks.

So I have a few spots on my 88 Maverick where the coating is chipped and I can see the fiberglass. One of these spots is below the waterline, only about the size of a head of a q-tip. I don't think it's leaking, but I'm thinking I should patch it. What should I use? I've never owned a fiberglass boat before this March.

Absolutely filet them. But after that, I don't have much of a palate for fish. It all just kinda tastes like fish to me.

Thanks.

You may have guessed from my stories that most of my youth fishing was wading the rapids. I was wading the rapids one day with a friend and I caught a 4-5 foot eel in the rapids ( I guess I must have been using live bait). Between the size of the eel, and the current, I completely stripped out my reel. Ruined a perfectly good Pocket Fisherman (TM).

I'm trying to reduce my fluorocarbon footprint.

I'm guessing that a lot of you who don't use leaders are still using fluoro, just using a whole spool?

Once when the fishing was slow, (we were wading) a friend and I put down the rods and just sat down and let the water sweep us down a section of flat rock bottom, like a poor man's water slide. We did this repeatedly. I didn't find out until I got home that I had completely worn out the seat of my pants. My parents were not amused. Another time when wading, this same friend and I came across a semi-sunken old wooden boat, and we played around with it for ages. When we came home, we were covered in tar. We basically had to bathe in gasoline to get it off. His parents were not amused. These aren't fishing stories but: I used to trap muskrats when I was a teenager. Anyone who has done so knows that you have to scrape the fat off the hide and dry the fur before you put them on the stretcher. I got into the habit of snapping the skins like a towel to get the excess water off. I once did this in a newly sheetrocked room, and left bits of blood and fat all over the walls. In another instance, in a hurry, I dried off the pelts by throwing them in the dryer. In both cases, my parents were not amused.