Jleebesaw

Im a little off topic here, but a young kid just broke the new york state record for rock bass at 14.5" and 2lbs. A friend of mine claims he has caught many bigger than that and has set his mind to going after a state record rock bass! Just thiught you'd get a chuckle out of that.

I see people fishing over there so i assume its ok to fish. I only fish the new york side so im not positive. Check in with Thousand islands bait and tackle. They will know. They have a website that will have the phone number. I was assuming you were asking because of the covid crap. I guess i should mention that you need an ontario fishing license also. Not sure if thats what you were asking about.

I dont know how necessary it really is. I have one in my boat, but i bought it used amd the prop was already there. I probably wouldnt buy one for a spare personally. Ive been fishing my whole life and never needed one. Not that i never will. If you think you might need it go ahead.

Fish eat every day i think. Regardless of the moon. Just like any other animal.

I dont know about the hdi, but i have a ti2 9 with active imaging. Its a big transducer. I dont know how well it would work on a trolling motor. Its too long to mount on my TM. Its 10 or 11 inches long

Ive caught them on #1 dropshot hooks and 5/0 ewg hooks with 10" worms. Anything you might use on LM will work on smallies for the most part. Super big swimbaits and stuff like that may not work, but standard bass fishing baits will be fine. They dont actually have very small mouths, really.

100% correct about the colors. Its even more apparent with smallmouths. If you put one in a livewell for 15minutes the color change is remarkable. I know guys who hold bass hostage for awhile before taking pics just for that reason. As far as the florida/northern deal, i can say that the LM ive caught in florida looked just like the ones ive caught here in new york or in michigan, maine, vermont, or new hampshire. As far as the lateral line goes, ive caught fish in the same lake on the same day and seen one with a thicker solid line and another with a mottled line. I wouldnt try to claim a fish is a florida strain based on color. I never counted the pore scales when in florida because i had never heard of florida strain bass before getting on this forum.

Thats basically how i do it too. I usually leave the house around 4 and get on the water by 5. Ive always prefered fishing mornings over evenings. I have been thinking about going out at 8pm and fishing until 11 or midnight. Ive never actually gone at night. Other than bullhead or catfish fishing that is. I think it would be safe enough at most of the places i fish.

Yup, its a smallie. They dont get those pronoubced stripes when they are small. They have that solid color.

Come to new york. Im right across the border from kingston near ogdensburg. If you want big smallmouth, its pretty hard to beat the st. Lawrence river. Also, lake ontario is right here too. Chatamount[spelling?] Bay has some great big fish. Lake ontario and the st lawrence has good largemouth fishing as well. Its known for smallies but the bays will all hold good largemouths. If you want to go after some largemouths there is black lake. Its pretty darn good for this area at least. It has good smallie as well. If you stay somewhere in the thousand islands area or near watertown, there are a ton of great fishing areas within an hr drive. Also, its very close to your normal week long getaway. The drive here from michigan will take a little longer by not taking the 401 through ontario, but coming here on I90 wont ad a ton of time to your trip.

I catch them in the spring while bullhead fishing quite often. Ive always hated dealing with them. And just 2 years ago i had a guy show me how to get them off the hook easily. Just pull it up on land and whack it in the tail with a stick close to the tip. I swear, it works. After you hit it, it will straghten right out and completely stop moving. Then you get the hook out and kick it back in the water. It will just sort of float there for 10-30 seconds and then swim off. The thought of eating one never crossed my mind until i saw a guy on tv who had a weir and sold them at his store. He smoked them and sold them for $30 per pound. When he would open them up to see if they were done, i swear, that meat looked good! He would freeze them and then thaw them out in a sink to get the slime off from them too. Before smoking them. I think the show was called "filthy riches"! There other dudes who collected and sold blood worms.

Sounds like ice fishing season to me! Theres always big crowds on hard water. Yea, here in northern new york im seeing it too though. There is definitely more people on the water than im used to seeing. Bass seasin opens on the 20th. Its going to be quite a mess. I might just set up a lawn chair by the launch and watch the show. Early season it seems like most of the anglers are experianced. The guys chasing perch, walleye, and crappies tend to be capable at the launch and on the water. When bass opens up and we start seeing the googan wannabes, thats when it gets wild.

I have used the curly tail grubs a few times for walleye and smallmouths. They are ok. They are quite common with walleye fisherman.

Glad to hear suffix 832 is good. I just bought some today in 20lb. I spooled up a baitcaster and am going to do a spinning reel up with it too. Ive never really messed with braid much either.

I just took my annual pilgrimage to bps. Closest one is 2 hrs away from me so i go once a year to load up. Anyway, they had a whole rack of abu garcia revo sx reels on bps johnny Morris carbon lite 2.0 rods for $159. Basically giving you a free $119 rod if you buy the reel. There were multiple gear ratios and rod lengths and actions. I dont know if this is at all stores or not, but its a good deal if youre lookin.

Active imaging 3 in 1 has side imaging. You want that for the console for sure. 2 in 1 does 2d and down imaging. I have that on the trolling motor for the front graph on my boat. Mid and high skimmer would be 2d that will work at higher speeds than the big 2 or 3 in one ducers will

It is a very common problem with the hook series. I had the same issues back when i had one. There are other threads here somewhere about it. I dont know if anybody resolved it or not. I replaced mine. Had to mess with it almost everytime i went fishing. Multiple times in a day oftem times. I know doing a hard reset would fix it temporarily. I dont remember how to do the reset but google knows. Try that if you havent already. Its not hard to do, i just dont remember how.

I watch mark zona on tv sometimes and he puts smallmouths in the livewell until hes done at a spot. He makes comments about not wanting them to warn the others. He says it like its a joke, but ive seen him do it enough times to think maybe he believes it. I have seen times where small mouths will follow each other right to the boat while im catching them. Release it and catch several more. They sometimes act like they are swarming and fighting for the food. Its a great thing to see! That said, the comments about releasing some sort of danger pheromones sounds logical. Could be something to that seeing as how they sometimes school up.

Ha,ha! Me too. Its always amazed me how big of a lure fish will sometimes go after. Ive seen some pretty unreal examples over the years. I wonder if sometimes they think they are just "fighting" for lack of a better word. Or are they really trying to eat it.

Must have s been hammer handle pike. Mature pike can eat bigger objects than mature bass for sure. Mature muskies will eat mature bass.

I guess 3 pounds for me too. For LM at least. Smallies too at most lakes i fish. I fish on the St. Lawrence river a lot though. When i fish there i figure not catching anything over 4 akin to getting skunked. The average size smallie in there is pribably 3.5#. Theres a ton of big smallies in there. If i dont get one over 5 on the big river i feel like it wasnt a great day. Odly enough, for as many 5 pounders are in there you rarely see any over 6. They re there but much less common. I live in a strange place where big smallies are more common than big LM.

I have 6 rods when im bass fishing. I tie on what i expect to use before going. Often i only use 1 or 2 during the trip. Sometimes i use them all. Sometimes i use them all and have tied different stuff on them!

This is one of the only forums on ANY subject that is worth reading. Seems like everything stays respectful and the catty stuff gets shut down by moderators.

Yea, me too. I have some abu reels that must be korean. I never even looked to see where they were made! They work well for me. I just always assumed most fishing equipment was asian made unless maybe it was very nice high end stuff.

Do you like the lews lfs? I just bought one and havent used it yet. Im still crappie fishing.