Jleebesaw

Absolutely. If there is enough water between the surface and the weeds you can idle around looking for baitfish. Where ive been, the weeds are so close to the surface that this wont do anything for you. But if you sit still long enough you should see baitfish around checking out the boat or following lures. Also, if the predator fish are active you may see baitfish breaking the surface trying to get away, or fish swirls or even jumping when bass attack something close to the surface. Often there are schools of baitfish that you can see disturbing the surface. If you cast near them or if a bird flies close they will all scramble and make a big commotion.

Most people just use a sounder for ice fishing. Vexilar is the most common one i see around. Its real time sonar. If you use the ttpical boat sonar, you arent seeing real time data. Some units have live sonar/sounder function that can be turned on though. If i were going to get a unit for both, i would make sure it had this feature before buying it.

Im not sure what everybody considers a flat but I have been fishing what i call flats for the last few weekends. Up here in ny the spawn is just winding down. Its been hot with high air press. In the shallows the beds are mostly empy. We have found some bass under docks and in heavy weeds but the points and deep humps havent had a lot of fish. I think that the fish are mostly done spawning and starting to move out deeper. They are taking their time doing so though. We've had the most luck fishing 5-10 feet deep water with weeds just a couple of feet below the surface. These flats are just the bays they spawned in but between the shallow water and the mouth of the bays where it gets deep. We use shallow cranks, floating jerkbaits, spinners, and topwater lures. Basically just floating around fancasting in these bays. I cant see much for rocks or wood because the weeds hide everything.

I also like berkely 10". I like the coloe called blue fleck. Its just blue with blue flake. And recently ive caught bunches on motor oil with red flake.

Cranberry lake has very good largemouth fishing. A coworker of mine got a 6lb LM there last summer. My biggest from there was only around 4 but again, i target smallies there. And there is always a chance of wrestling in a 25lb pike out of it too!

A super spook jr in baby bass is my favorite topwater lure. Not even a close second. I walk it fairly slow with lots of pauses most of the time. Funny thing is, a friend of mine uses one all the time and doesnt seem to have that walking down very well. Ive thought about trying to get him to walk it better, but he still catches fish, so who am i to tell him hes doing it wrong. He foesnt walk it so much as just kind of tugs it along without pointing the rod tip back at it. It gives it a very erratic movement that seems to work. Ive thought of trying to mimick it actually.

Its funny because when we were fishing that night i was saying i wish i had a black one. It had gotten to be well after dark and i dont know if green with a white belly was the ideal color. I remember having a black one at one time but lost it at some point.

Yea, those hooks have been in a plano box for decades! Probably why i got 3 hits and only hooked one. They are pretty shart though, believe it or not.

I was fishing saturday with a friend of mine and we got talking about some of the lures we used to catch fish with when we were kids. I remembered i had this old jitterbug in one of my boxes. I tied it on and got one. Anyway, it was fun to catch one on a lure that ive had since i was a kid and havent used in 25 years or more. It was a dink but it was still cool. I got 3 bites in just a few minutes though, so the old jitterbug might get wet some more soon!

I fish dropshots all the time. When a bass takes the lure you will know it. I can feel bluegills messing with it and can feel when the weight is in weeds or whatever. But when a bass takes it, in my experiance, there is no doubt. Light line, light weight, light rod, light lure. It all adds up to a 3lb bass feeling like a muskie. Even when bluegills pull on it it sometimes feels like a bigger fish. I could be wrong. Maybe when i think its bluegills its bass spitting it out, but i doubt it.

Yea. At least as cool as you are going to get. Last weekend it was 92 in the early afternoon when i was wrapping up for the day. I dont know what the humidity was, but it was raining earlier. Definitely had that swampy feeling going on. So its still uncomfortable when its that hot, you cant be totaly cool feeling in the sun when its like that, but these absolutly feel better than wearing a regular tshirt. It just relieves a lot of that intensity from the sun. And like i said before, the breeze if there is any goes right through them.

Fishing with 3 or 4 guys in a boat that can be carried in a pickup bed is probably a bad idea. When i was a kid i used to haul a 12' v bottom all over the place in my pickup. It sucks though. A few years back i bought a 14' v bottom and did the same thing for 2 trips. After dealing with that crap for 2 trips, i went to a local marine dealer and got an old trailer for $200. Just go with a trailer man. Its SOOO much easier. You will also be a lot quicker at the boat launch. I have had to wait for someone loading a boat into a truck at the ramp many times. It takes so much longer than a trailer.

Ill 2nd the suffix advance. Its what ive beenbusing for mono the last few years.

I wear those moisture wicking uv blocking shirts. The $20 wal mart ones. They work as advertised. I bought a couple long sleeved ones last year after getting sunburnt. I just got 2 more that have hoods to protect the neck and ears. The material they are made of is great. You feel so much cooler in them. They stop the heat of the sun, but you can feel any slight breeze through them. I highly recommend trying them.

Yea, its spawn related. Im in northern ny. Im 20 minutes from the border, so your conditions are similar to mine. The lakes i have been fishing have been on fire until last weekend. I didnt get out at all during the week, and man did some changes take place. After the hot weather had the surface temp up to high 70's- low 80's things really slowed down. The beds are empty, and they are hard to find right now. I was supposed to fish a small tournament sunday. Went to that lake saturday and only got 4 bass all day. Found them by just fan casting on weedy flats in 4-8ft of water. Skipped the derby because we figured we would get our butts kicked, fishing like that. Turns out that just north of 8lbs on 3 fish won it! Shouldnt have chickened out. Could have been in the running.

I have always find that around 1 or 2 in the afternoon the fishing picks up again for a couple of hours. I dont hear a lot of people talk about it, but i feel that there is a mid day bite.

I pulled up what felt like a mile of braid last weekend. It had a texas rig with a black with blue flake senko and a tungsten weight. So i got a free weight for my effort at least! Like you though, i wondered how all that line got left there. Thats like $5 worth of line!

I just got a can of please release me. Im fishing my first tournament this weekend and got it for the livewell. I didnt know it could be used for this as well.

Thats my go to t-rig bait. They last a lot longer than yamamoto's do. Around here they are cheaper than them as well. Also, they are heavier. if you are fishing weightless, they provide a different action. Not necessarily better at a given moment, but different. They fall faster than a yamamoto, but arent as wiggly. Sometimes bass prefer that.

Same thing happened to a weekly tourny near me. It was thursday nights and like $25 or so. I guess the same dude kept winning it so people quit going. It sucks because i planned on fishing some of them this year. Ive nevet fished open water tournements, only ice fishing. Ive gotten into bass fishing lately and thiught it would be fun to do some derbs. I just have a 17' tracker boat so i wanted to do some small local ones. The B.A.S.S trail around here looks a bit serious to me. They all have real nice big boats and fish all over the place. I thought a weekly tourny on a local lake would be more fun for me. Less intimidating too!

First 2 this morning. Only got 4 each. My friends were all smallies but i had 2 LM and 2 smallies. These 2 were 3#10oz and 3#11oz. These were the biggest of the day unfortunately. Hot, sunny, with bluebird sky. Not ideal weather for opening day, but at least our fingers smelled like fish. Got these on the st lawrence river.

A few others have mentioned it without really emphasizing it, but don't set the hook up on those lures. Do a sideways sweep. Maybe you already are, but thats a common mistake with treble hooked topwater lures and it will make more misses. My two cents on the lure is that i have caught a lot of fish on the 90 in bone. I still like a super spook jr better, but that plopper gets it done for smallies and large mouths here.

I just ordered a $100 worth of stuff from bps. They had everything i needed in stock online. It showed up today. Bass season opens tomorrow here.

I know they like the firetiger color. I dont ever use firetiger color while bass fishing anymore because pike and tiger muskies will not leave it alone.

I have never heard of this type of thing. I know black lake way up here in st lawrece county has some camp owners who rent them out. I think the idea is to stay at that lake though.