Jleebesaw

Its funny. Im a guitar player too. I was just reading another post about abu and lews reels being made in korea by the same company and guys figuring that they were junk because of that. My first thought was of guitars. I almost commented about how that corrolates to them! The best guitars for under $1500 are usually from korea and the best reels for under $200 seem to be as well.

Yea, definitely check with some dealers. You shouldny have trouble finding something like that at all. Dont be hung up on for sale by owner only.

Live action

Oh man. Super spook jr is my favorite topwater lure. Ive had a lot of luck with it. I have a bone colored, baby bass, a black one, amd one that is chrome and blue. They have all worked. I use the bone and baby bass most of the time. You should try one, i think you will like it.

When my family has a fish fry, we use crappie, bluegill, pumkinseeds, and largemouths. We dont seperate the meat by species. We cut all the fillets up into bite sized chunks and fry it up. I ve never had anybody say any of it tastes different or say that one piece tasted funny. If cut up and fried, all sunfish taste the same as far as i can tell. We have had these fish frys 3 times a year for longer than ive been alive. Im 40. There is normally 20-30 people at them. I have never had a single person notice the difference. We just tell them its "pan fish". These parties are a long running tradition in my family. My brothers, brother in law, and i catch most of the fish now. It used to be my grandfather, father, and uncles. I always get a chuckle out of people claiming bass doesnt taste good but crappie does. I strongly feel that yellow perch is the best tasting freshwater fish. Walleye is good too. They are basically just a giant perch. Pike are good eating too but i dont keep them. They smell terrible and get that slime all over everything. I try to release pike without taking them out of the water and with minimal touching. Nasty suckers. Ive never had catfish that i liked other than small bullheads. Ive tried it many times, cooked by many people from here in NY to Tennessee, florida, and Louisiana. It always tastes like a swamp smells.

Im up here an hr north of watertown and have the same stuff going on still! I have been out for perch and bullheads. I got 10 crappies last friday, but battling that wind is brutal. This weekend looks good and the crappies are going to start spawning soon, so ill be out there.

I'll second that. I also bought a "budget" unit. A year later I replaced it. It was a waste of money. Save up and buy good units the first time.

That's it. I always say I hate buzzbaits. I never catch bass on them. But, I had several times years ago where I wasnt getting bits on a buzz bait, switched to a different topwater and got hit. From then on I always chose the other lure first. Next thing you know, I haven't used a buzzbait in several years. Well I'll tell ya, if you never throw a buzzbait, you'll never catch fish on it. Same thing happens with all types of lures and baits. I'm sure we all have stuff we say doesnt work well, but we never use. If a guy throws live bait 80% of the time, hes going to have better luck with it. Walleye fishing is having a bit of a change of guard right now. A lot of guys are getting away from live bait there too. Some guys say live bait is better, some disagree. All I know is that I have caught too many bass on minnows or worm harnesses while walleye fishing or on shiners through the the ice to believe that live bait isn't just as good as artificial. But when I go bass fishing, I never use live bait. I just think of bass fishing as being a lure deal, not live bait.

I dont know much about either of them, but if you are good enough to fish at that level, you probably dont need advice from here. I went up to massena ny for the weigh in at a Costa event this weekend. The winner got 83k plus a ranger 518. Pretty serious tournaments.

I have a tracker 170 mod v and really like it. It's on the small side, but it's a great little boat for 2 people bass fishing. 3 adults would be cramped for fishing. It handles rough water fairly well within reason. It's a wet ride though. Any wind and that sucker sprays you when you are moving at speed. I have been saying my next boat will be a glass bass boat, but I'm looking more and more at deep v boats. I'm a multi species guy, and the tracker is not ideal when fishing perch or walleyes when its 40 degrees outside.

There was two tournaments the weekend before. Nothing last week though. I would assume any fish that died from those 2 tourneys would be on the bottom and or eaten by last sunday. I fished there Sunday as well. I was there from 6am to 1pm or so. It was a little slow. I caught 6 bass. Take that with a grain of salt though, I know that lake very, very well, so i have a bit of an advantage I guess. I caught most on a bluegill colored square bill on the edge of weeds around islands. 2 or maybe 3 I got on a t-rigged 10" power worm in motor oil with red flake.(good color on black lake btw). Used that in the same areas, just in the thicker spots. The couple guys I talked to at the launch didnt have much luck either. The weather wasnt great for fishing. Seems like any major change in weather like we had over the weekend slows the fishing down. I dont know if it interests you guys, but the fall crappie bite is in its infancy now. A good friend of mine got 60 keepers there Saturday with his dad and nephew.

North shore at the weedy area you mentioned, for sure. Dont try to get away from the wind. Going to protected areas will usually mean really slow action in my experiance. Wind pushes the little organisms that can't swim but just float to the wind beaten shore. The small minnows follow them, the baitfish follow them, the predators follow them, the anglers follow them. Hopefully nothing follows us.

I've got them at 75' on the st lawrence several times while walleye fishing. It's pretty common to get them that deep while dragging bottom for walleyes. I'm sure they will go deeper, but that's about as deep as I ever get.

I have both. There is no way anybody who says they would rather fish from a kayak than a bass boat is being honest. They have either never done both or are just trying to maintain the kayak elitist mentality that has overtaken that community! The yak has its uses. It has its moments, but it is very obvious that it's not as good as a bass boat. I mean c'mon guys.

Something that I've done is to just find one spot on a bigger lake. Once I have a spot that will normally hold a fish or two, I am more likely to head to that lake. My "home lake" is about 7500-8000 acres. My whole life I've heard how great the fishing was there. When I first got a boat, it was one of the first places i went. I got skunked 3 or 4 times there, so i quit going. I went to smaller lakes that I knew better and caught more fish. Eventually I met a guy who told me about a community hole on the bigger lake. I tried it out and caught some fish. So, I went back the next weekend, caught a couple on the community hole and then tried a couple spots nearby. Next thing you know, I have several good spots. A couple years in and I know that lake very well. I've taken this same approach on several lakes now, even lake ontario. Obviously, I'll never know lake Ontario like the back of my hand, but I can catch some fish every time I go there. Basically, catch a few fish and then do some exploring every time you go. Dedicate some time to learning the lake. If your just fishing for fun like me, there is no reason not to. Just break the lake up in smaller pieces, and explore a new area every time you go.

I use 4 rods most of the time. One is a t-rig, always. One is for moving baits. Cranks, swim baits etc. One is always a dropshot. The last one is the wild card. I tie on something that seems like it would work in the given circumstances. I'll try new things if something I haven't used in a long time. It seems to work for me. This way I have my confidence baits at hand but also have the ability to change up quickly to something else. I have to think that most of us do something similar.

I dont love muskie. I catch a few small ones a year in the 30"-40" range while bass fishing. I dont dislike them, but I dont try to catch them either. I had the first legal sized one in the boat this year but it managed to thrash around enough to escape! Not that I would have kept it, but I would have liked to get a pic with it. I think it would have been the biggest fish I've ever caught. Certainly the longest.

I fish for channel cats a couple of times every spring on lake ontario. We use live bluegills or bullheads as bait. Both seem to work well, but bullheads get the nod most of the time. I think the swarms of bullhead in the shallows make for easy meals for big cats that time of year. That's for big cats of course. If you want eating sized cats, you may want smaller bait, I'm not very well versed in cat fishing.

I use swim baits similar to the one in fishwizzards pic all the time. They work well for smallies and LM. They work for walleye, pike, and muskie too.

Wheeler has a you tube video that explains it. Basically there is 2 series in mlf. Almost like nascar has xfinity series and monster energy cup series. The lower series is the one where they dont know where they will be fishing and have to use the provided boats with everybody having the same electronics. The upper series is the bass pro tour. This means there are individual event champs, mlf cup series champ, bpt champ, and redcrest champ. The red rest is a stand alone event. Calling individual even winners the champion causes the confusion. It's a matter of semantics.

Not surprising at all. After ice out here, everybody goes bullhead fishing. Lots of people go bull heading and dont wet a line again until next years ice out.

I know for a fact that serious walleye anglers are every bit as devoted and obsessed as serious bass fisherman. Maybe more so. There are more walleye guys than bass guys around where I live. Those guys are out at night in rough waters with high winds picking ice off the rod guides. They are hardcore. I can spend hours talking about crappie and bluegill techniques, biology, and bahavior. I've met guys who will fish for days to catch 1 mature muskie. People wade rivers in april here in new york for trout and salmon when there is still snow on the banks. Bass fishing is not unique in having people spend a lot of time, spend a lot of money, and maybe even suffer to do well at it. Fishing any species can bring this out in us.

I dont know. I've never seen a bass do that. I've seen bullheads and carp do it though.

I'm anothe one who uses mono for just about everything. Suffix or trilene. I hear a lot of people saying you need braid with floro leaders for stuff. I have no problem catching smallies in 30-40ft with mono. I dont know why people think it doesnt work.

My drop shot rod is a 7' ML fenwick. I dont remember the model. It's a $80 rod, nothing crazy. I have an abu garcia revo sx(sp?), something like that on it. It's a 2000 size. I use 6lb mono most of the time. I've brought in a lot of 4-6lb smallies and walleyes on that set up. It's the rod I use the most. Except maybe the rod i use for t rigs and stuff. I also have a 7'6" L in the boat most of the time. that is one of my crappie sticks. I'll tie ned rigs or tubes on it sometimes when I'm bass fishing. It's a fenwick also. I have a lews 2000 size reel on it also.