L.D.

Hey Rankinbass Welcome aboard,good times to follow. You must have hard water by now in Green Bay.

Well it wasn't me but it was on my boat. Myself and a client were going around an island on the river and there was an eddy on the bottom end we wanted to fish. There was a Canada goose in the eddy and I told the client to cast at least 10ft to the left of it so the jig wouldn't hit the bird. The client did as I asked but when he cast his jig the goose took off at the same time and the darn jig spun around the base of it's wing. The bird is flying up and away, the reel drag is screaming. The Bird's about a hundred foot up in the air and winning the battle. The client yells "what do I do?". I said tighten the drag! He does that and the bird stalls in the air like a kite , the line breaks and the jig falls out of the sky. The client turns and looks at me all serious and says" where were you with the net"

Way to go Rich! Nice assortment of good fish! L.D.

To follow AUTgrPilot's style: Reels-Shimano-upper end only Rods-G Loomis Crankbaits-Cotton Cordell Plastics-Case Hooks-Gamakatsu,though I don't always use them Line-Stren

I imagine that this lure company wants to get their product out in the public and needs some start up capital hence the club money in advance, also they don't have to sell to a distributor at a lower price. I don't think that the average fisherman would want to spend more than $20.00 maximum to join a lure club before he gets a lure and this is why. I have a tackle shop and there isn't a lot of profit in lures. If I can make 40% on plastics and 30% on hard baits, I'm a happy camper(remember walmart and K mart are never far away). So on a $5.00 lure I pay $3.50($1.50 mark up). So to break even to keep under what the angler would pay the store, the average angler would have to buy about 13-15 lures to use up the $20.00 before he started to save any money because of shipping and handling need to be added also.

OK gentlemen, I was convinced enough from one of our previous discussions to try useing all red jig hooks in 2005. I just ordered 1000 each of 1/0, 2/0 and 3/0 aberdeen jig hooks from my supplier. I'll make these into tube and round lead head jigs, which I use on the river. Most of the season, my water is stained to some degree and only gets clear in Oct. and Nov. I figure a little touch of bleeding red can't hurt. Does anyone else use these, or am I going to be the only one.

A couple of years back, I had a new client on board. The fishing was tough, high muddy fast river current, we could only fish the eddies where we could find them. We only caught 11 fish in 6 hours which is bad for a guide. Half way through the trip my electric trolling motor dies and I loose my drift control for the rest of the day. It starts raining very hard, client has had enough & calls the day. I let the client off at the access and beach the boat, client leaves. The wife had my truck and it would still be another hour until she showed.When she gets there, I'm soaked through because it never stopped rainning hard and now I'm cold also. I warm up in the truck for another 15 minites then back down the dirt ramp to the river. NO BOAT! Water came up 2ft after I beached it. It was out about 50ft from shore and headed down river. I go in after the boat, hip boots fill and I'm in chest deep when I get my hand on the boat. Had a heck of a time getting in the boat with boots full of water , had to take them off before I could get in. Finally got back home and took a very long hot shower. That was a bad day!

I always liked In-Fisherman with Al Linder. Now I suppose Linders Angling Edge would be good but we don't get it here.

My season will start in March where I have a booth at a couple of the outdoor sport shows. Most of my dates are filled by then, but I also take along the next years calender for the guys who want to make sure they get the dates they want. I also will put the boat on the river if it will let me. April to Dec. I charter 5 to 6 days a week. December to March, it's pouring jigs , I seem to go through about 1800 a season, many reasons why. Clean reels and replace rod eyelets, put new hooks on the crank baits, run my fishing tackle shop, my wife needs a break.

Hi Maineiac Good to know there may be someone one this site a little older than me. I also remember the Creame worms, but not when they first came out. Sorry, can't help you out on Lake St. George since I've never been on it. My charters start on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River 1st of April and I don't get done until Dec. 1st. If the river will let me, I'll be on it any time we don't have ice or flood. Right now the river is up-fast-and muddy because of all the rain we've been having.I *** all the fishermen that can fish all year around within a couple of hours from their house. I'm sure that most tackle shops will have Uncle Josh pork items. I have them in my tackle shop and I don't use them. (Sorry, just too lazy I guess). They sell well mostly to the large mouth bass fishermen around here so I'm sure they work. I know that Cabelas and Pro Bass shops and catalogs have them. Best Regards L.D.

Swimming a jig reminds me of when Mister twister came out with their grubs. Black-White-Purple that was it.(really ageing myself now).We almost always swam them in the river and they worked great! Kind of got away from them somewhat when the tube jig came along. However Mainers suggestion of putting a worm up inside of a tube sounds like a good idea. It would have action when you swim it like a minnow, or act like a crayfish on the bottom. I will try this on the old girls next spring.

In the river that I fish it would have to be the jig. The top two for me are the tube and senko in varrious sizes and colors depending on the river.

Success to me is seeing everyone on the boat catch fish, have fun, and enjoying the day.

A very informative site. I check out the forum first to see whats going on today, then I check out the rest of the site. Have found some good info.

Well I don't do tournaments, but I fish 6 days a week, I go to bed early, get up at 5:00AM. Sleep well, and go do a very enjoyable day at (work)? Always jazzed up ready to see what and how many fish we catch and the challenge of making sure my clients catch fish no matter how much experience they have.

It would depend if he was a new pro or an old pro. Experience is what seperates the pro from the average fisherman. Knowing where to fish , with what, and proper tecnique to use it. How does he get it? Time on the water. Experience. How would they fair on our waters? Would it be an eye opener? Could we learn from them? Depends on how much more eperience they have than we do.

A stick of TNT, well maybe a half stick, going to die anyway, not there for the sport this time.

I've used them and they work, however not really any better than other plastics with some scent added. I believe the scent will make the fish hold on a second or two longer giving you more of a chance to set the hook. They don't attract any better than many others.

The North Branch of the Susquehanna River. About the first 80 miles in Pa. starting from the North of the state.

Holy Mega question Batman, I mean Badbass. That many questions could keep this site going for a month, Great! I's the off season here. I'll use the instant message as suggested by Glenn. L.D.

I don't think so. But in the off season I'll go to Cabellas and you can't leave without buying something there. If it looks like I could catch a fish with it, It'll come home with me.

I have no problem with selective harvest. My clients kept a total of 15 smallmouth this year that would be about 1/3 of one percent of the total. I personally don't eat them, they are worth more to me alive in the water. I will eat a medium sized walleye if I can keep one. If I get a legal walleye, I offer it to the client. If the client is total C&R I wouldn't look good for me to keep one and I put it back. So getting one to eat is rare and they taste great.

I personally don't use painted jigs, seem to catch the same amount of fish. However I keep some painted jigs on board for my clients that just need them for confidence.

Put your time in on the water, thats the best way. And like Marty said, take along someone that you think is a better fisherman. I'm lucky my job keeps me on the water six days a week, however I'm always looking for something new to add to the tried and true. L.D.

I only fish the river here in the Northbranch of the Susquehanna and we have very few largemouth bass. What few we do get are in the slow moveing waters,(eddies) where there are also some wood structure available. The biggest one we got this year was only 3lb. and it was caught in a creek mouth where a tree was stuck from the last flood. My client threw a surface lure (chug bug) in among the branches and it came up and whacked it. L.D.