Jleebesaw

Muskies will take a lure just as easily as a pike. I guess it's possible to have a lake with muskie and bass that doesnt have pike. I've just never seen one or heard of one until today.

Pressure can effect the fish to some degree. However, a lot of people fish community holes for a reason. Because there are fish there.

I am very doubtful about this statement. If there are muskie and bass, then there are northerns too.

I just bought simms unlined bibs this spring. They were $199 at gander outdoors. I think they are called defenders? I didn't want to spend another $199 on the matching jacket so I got a Columbia jacket. They dont have gore tex, but they are really good as far as keeping me dry. It's been a rainy spring here in new york and I haven't had any issue with the simms bibs, or the $50 columbia jacket for that matter. The temps have been in the upper 40s to upper 50s when I've used them so I can't promise that they wont be overly warm for you, but they are light and pretty thin so I'm sure they wont be bad. They also sell the same bibs with liners for colder weather if needed.

I had a hook2 5 and it was junk.i was always fighting with it. It just didn't always work. I would try to buy a different unit. Save up if you have to. I wasted a lot of money on budget units before finally buying a better one that works well. I wouldn't recommend a small screen for side imaging. It's just trying to put too much coverage area on a small screen. There just isn't enough pixels to show what the sonar returns are actually picking up. I have a 9" now and feel that even that's not ideal. The small screen isn't bad on di and is fine for 2d, but not si.

I agree that they are probably in deeper water. If there are offshore humps, that's a no brainer for smallies. I fish smallies more than LM and in my experiance they aren't picky eaters. They can be hard to find, but once you do they are normally quite aggressive and easy to catch.

In in new york too, up in St lawrence county. Gobies have helped the small mouths and walleye get big in the st lawrence river. They seem to be helped more than hurt by this invasive species. Also, the zebra mussels have been a help too. I'm no scientist, and i do like the idea of no critters from other places getting in our water, but the general consensus is that they haven't really done any harm.

Yamamoto has a lot of colors and great marketing. The fish dont care what brand they are. I have had good luck with every brand I have tried. I would agree that they may move a little better on a wacky rig. On any other presentation they are no better.

I have seen ducks and baby geese fall victim to, I assume, pike and or muskies many times over the years. I've never actually seen it happen, but 5 baby geese following mama, a big splash, and then 4 baby geese and a frantic mama. I have been scared half to death by beavers many times too. Last summer a friend of mine had a nice largemouth vomit up a half digested rat onto my boat. It was so gross.

So flat rock has an issue in Tennessee and blames people in the northeast?

The fishing is more spread out where I fish than anywhere you can fish down south, unless you are in the ocean. I figure it's just the opposite. Fishing in the south is congested. More chance to encroach on one another, get mad, and make up stories about casting lures at each other or making wakes to capsize the offending kayaker. I can't speak for the entire northern part of the country, but on lake ontario and the st lawrence river, there is no need to crowd one another. Lots of water here. That's probably why I have never had these types of encounters.

I guess I'm lucky. The worst problem I've had is to have to wait on people lollygagging at the launch. I wonder if some of us are making mountains out of molehills. There are people suggesting that anything closer than 100 yards is too close! I get the impression that some commentors on this post are a bit too sensitive.

Down to 20 ft. or so I will use 3 or 4 inch tubes. I use 3/8 tube jigs almost exclusively, regardless of depth. Berkely power bait tubes in gobie magic are great on the st lawrence river. I also dropshot like everybody else. I rarely fish deeper than 30-35 ft. Pick almost any lure for dropshotting. Smallies aren't picky eaters in my experiance. Finding them is the hard part. Once you know where they are they usually hit about anything. I like the kvd finesse worms though. Anything with a similar shape would be good I'm sure. Skinny in the middle so they wiggle in the current is the idea. Also, if they are suspended in 20 ft or less, they will sometimes get after topwater baits. Smallies treat topwater baits like they hate them. It's my favorite way to catch them. They get super aggressive. Super spook junior is my favorite topwater bait.

Being a northerner, my first thought is to use a tube when the craws are out. Typically I'm using them on rocks for smallies, but I have texas rigged them to use in weeds. You can use a wide gap hook or carefully rig a tube jig with the hook inside the tube.

Golden shiner on a slip bobber

Black lake had 57 degrees last Thursday. I thought my lowrance was wrong. 2 different units on my boat showed the same thing though. Then at the boat launch, another guy asked me what my unit showed for temp. He thought the same thing. Black lake is fed by a shallow river and the lake is mostly shallow. There is a lot of vegetation[currently mostly dead] and stained water.

Anything that can be mistaken for crawfish.

Get one of the kits they sell. Every bait shop will have them. It will have several different sized jig heads and some small spinners that can be attached to them if you want to. The crappie kits usually have curl tail grubs and tubes. They will have several different colors and sizes of each. Wal mart and bps have them for about $10. Also, the small under spin jigs work well. I like to use live minnows personally, but I have had success with plastics too.

I wish I could catch bluegills like that. They are great eating fish, but it's hard to get good sized ones around here.

It depends on the type of fishing I'm doing. I normally get at least 3 every time I go out. Smallmouth, largemouth, and northern pike. Sometimes a crappie or other panfish. Thats the norm when I'm bass fishing. Bass doesnt open until june here. This time of year I'm fishing for the freezer. Thursday night i went out for crappie. I caught some of those and then stumbled into some big perch, so i stayed on them for awhile. When it started getting dark, i put the boat on the trailer and set up for bullheads at the launch. At first I was catching small perch. Then a couple of bluegills and a rock bass. All too small for keeping. Eventually the bullhead started biting and I got a bunch of those. There was a small largemouth, a small channel cat, and a bowfin in there too. You catch all sorts of stuff when you put worms on the bottom. That's 8 in one night. I have never counted before, but that seems pretty normal for a day of targeting crappie and bullheads. Next weekend walleye opens. I'm sure I will get some eyes and smallmouth.

I use navionics so I can't really speak of the quality of lake master, but onieda is a big, popular lake. All of the programs should have good maps of it. If you only want to use it on one lake, you can buy paper maps of that lake at any bait shop in the area. Even wal marts up here will have maps of onieda and the other bigger lakes.

That's the thing to do. When you get back out make sure to pull the plug to make sure it's not taking on any water. I'm sure it's not, but you never know. I would say that's a good price for all that. It looks like a nice boat.

I live in new york too, but I have seen people in Alabama and Mississippi swimming to get catfish on tv and the internet, so I guess some people go in the water in the south. I'm sure it's not all that dangerous.

The OP picture just looks like a normal LM to me. A big one, sure, but normal proportions. I do agree about those open boundary type tourneys though. I know some guys who have a pond on a hunting camp with huge bass in it. 8 and 10 pound bass. Here in new york, that is very big. They buy feeder fish to stock in there and have aeration in it. If these guys do this, I'm sure other people do it too. It would be hard to compete against managed, private ponds on natural lakes. If I'm fishing for competition, I want everybody on the same water leaving the launch at the same time with open live wells!

Dad started me fishing. He was mostly pan fish and walleye fishing. He didn't do a lot if bass fishing. We live near an army base (fort drum) and there was a family who moved Into a house on our street who's father was in the army. We became friends with them. They would go to our hunting camp and go fishing with us. Those 2 brothers and their father got me into bass fishing. I learned a lot from them. Then over the years I have learned little things here and there from many different people I've fished with. A guy I work with got me into electronics a couple years ago. I had always had simple 2d sonar that I really didn't use on my boats. I fished with him and quickly learned how useful side imaging is. Getting turned on to electronics by him was the most game changing thing I've learned since dad taught me the palymar knot.