JediAmoeba

No +1's, +2's, silents or fx versions?

Good luck - I can't imagine the lake traffic tomorrow. It was absolutely packed today!!!

Started fishing Nock today at 530 and ended at 1...threw the Vatalion, Deps 250, a Hudd and briefly threw a frog in the pads. Caught 1 tiny bass on the Vatalion, had a strike on the Deps and missed 2 frog fish. Overall I was surprised how dirty the water was...maybe a foot of visibility. Very juicy lake that was extremely busy.

Hitting nockamixon in the morning...thinking I am going to throw large baits for 8 hours.

The bigguns are still in there unless someone removed them.

Trash, especially fishing line. Livebait fishermen and the bucket militia are the biggest offenders. Beyond that the thing that bothers me, especially when I am not catching anything, is that I left the magic bait at home. If only I had brought my entire collection of tackle I would be slaying them!!!

Maybe these guys? https://www.picassooutdoors.com/Picasso_Football_Head_Jig_Dressed_p/pffj.htm

Do what you want but these are cheaply made soft plastics from molds you can buy. If you really wanted to do it you would be better off going that route. What really separates the good soft plastics is the name behind them and their plastic formulas and designs. These molds you can buy are just run of the mill baits and most people are not going to pay top dollar for cheap-o baits with unproven action, durability and reputation. If you could sell these plastics and make a profit I imagine a lot of people would be doing it...

Who wants to sell me one - Albeit at an inflated price???

What he's saying is, don't let your buddy get the truck stop sushi!

When we did things like this we would sleep in the bed of the truck at rest areas - some rest areas have showers which is cool, otherwise you can take cheap showers at truck stops. Your travels should be pretty east going across I-80/90 until you hit Chicago traffic. Make sure your boat cover is on for increased gas mileage. You will have a blast! Going to Wisconsin I sure hope yinz are taking some Muskie gear!

If you are buying from legitimate stores, that doesnt happen. I have purchased a lot of reels through ABCD Sales and the prices are pretty good and great service.

I actually like the slip ons. I like large knobs and large, heavy reels. Did they come with bearings?

I am shocked ar how much people want for custom knobs. So many people have about the Hawgtech but I am not paying 100 dollars for some knobs and handle when I only paid 125 for the whole stinking reel. Ridiculous.

Nothing is meaner than a pickerel. I used to fish for bluegill a lot as a kid because it is my dads favorite fish...he used ultralights and I would use a more stout rod. I would reel the bluegill to the surface and plane it in like a surfboard. He always hated I did that and said I was a spoil sport.

Black Bear really aren't aggressive. My dogs tree them frequently which is really funny.

I told the wife we are moving because the fishing sucks. She told me to have fun.

Lol. A set up I use for my kids. I also told them to ditch the swivels and prerigged hooks and use 6# line as heavier line kills the action of worms and especially neds. You need to know the depth but it works great over flats and ponds that have a consistent bottom. Tie your slip float on so the deepest the bait will go is about 1 foot from the bottom. At the bottom I use a heavier jig head with a TRD worm off the back. Then every 2 feet up from the TRD I place a circle hook with a thin wacky worm on it. This can be very awkward to cast but essentially you cast into the wind at an angle so it bobs up and down and floats parallel to the shore line or a bit towards you. In Pa we don't have a limit to the amount of hooks we can have on a line - Before I had a fish finder this is something I used to do to find the depth of fish back when I was a teen, I also used it for dead drifting for muskie with large dead bait. My buddy said they were mostly using live bait and treble hooks rather than circle hooks. I also showed them how to fish a ned rig and using the lightest mushroom head was key. They fished from morning to night 2 days in a row...and they bring their kids because this allows them to throw out more lines - 3 rods per person on Pa. When I saw them they had 15 rods set up, some were bottom fishing for bullheads and stuff too. That's one way to look at it. If everyone has that mentality though we wont see many fish caught. - Pa allows 6 bass per day per person.

These are the ones I am talking about.

Why not get the slip on covers for a few bucks? I know winn also has some

In all honesty I should just be happy I get to fish as often as I do, even if the fish are tiny and the fishing is tough. A lot of people don't get to go out very often.

I have had many at night while catfishing. I tend to go out by myself to remote places and one night I fell asleep on the bank. I was using chicken liver and some cut bait that I had laid on next to me... I fell asleep and woke up to a horrible stench...I was trying to get my bearings and literally touching me and slurping down my livers was a pretty big black bear. As soon as I started moving he took off like a bat put of hell knocking down one of my rods and my whole container of chicken livers gone. That was interesting.

I wish taking out small fish was the answer but we paid for a survey of the waters last year. I didn't see the report but their recommendations were to add a lot of fish, food sources and cover for fry. We added a bunch of bass and sunfish last fall and were working on the cover for fry but Covid ended that this spring. Under normal conditions this year I am catching about 1 bass for every 1.75 hours fished. Last year it was around 1 every hour.

Preface: I live in a community in Pa with 5 small bodies of water; 40 acres, 8 acres, 4 acres, 3 acres and 2 acres. So nothing huge, but they could and should hold some decent size bass if the bucket brigadier's didn't keep everything they catch. This is great, in a way because it's close to home and with 3 kids allows me to fish more often than I would otherwise be able to. The deepest lake that's ~8 acres is only a few hundred yards away. We have the usual species for Pa; LM bass, Pickerel, Sunnies and Gills, some crappie, perch, bullheads and all the stocked trout. Because the waters are so pressured it's very tough to fish - on the average day in the summer, it's usual to see 20 people or more fishing at all the lakes. I always make it a point to assist new and especially young anglers so they can catch fish. I have helped quite a few people and one of the things I preach is selective harvesting and quick catch and release when possible. You see some pretty cringy things from people. Last week I had 2 teens approach me and ask for help so I gave them a run down, showed them some of my rigs and we caught a few fish. They seemed really interested, took some pictures and said this was going to be great because they never catch much. I showed them the ned rig, and the best ways I catch fish on them, yada yada. I also showed them a more effective slip float technique, where the structure was and the depth of the overall place to effectively employ it. So yesterday I found out they were so eager because their father wanted them to get secrets from me...between their family (10 strong fishing with max lines in the water) and friends they went out and kept over 60 bass this weekend fishing over 2 days in the various lakes. I am about as upset as I have ever been and just about got in a fistfight last evening over it. It's one thing if this was a family that needed food or something but they are well-to-do and are ruining a fun resource for everyone.

2# bass are top end for me in our local watering holes. Well not exactly, but anything 2 pounds and above is a very rare occurrence unless I go anywhere else besides local.