Fred Allen

Fishing is very good here Albany NY area. Six Mile, Collins Lake, and Dunham Reservoir are all great. Must be great fishing if it makes me feel like im a pro catching big ones all day. Top water baits all 3. Sexy dog killed them at 6 mile, floating rapala twitching on Dunham and frog at collins.

I got all these small mouths in local reservoir last week on a 2 inch original floating rapala in hot steel color. All twitching the bait. They either took it on the twitch or right after I started to reel it back in he nailed it. Got it on 8 pound fluro line in spincast was so much fun to fight them like this. Also got tons of crappie, rock bass, blue gills.

Went out to a small local lake this morning on my kayak. Got there at 7am and could not believe how much weeds grew there sine a couple weeks ago. I didnt know what to do. The only places without weeds was real deep and had no fish at all probably because it was away from the shore. I got an idea and used a T rigged fluke and got a nice one. My first fluke fish and my first T rigged plastic fish. I just threw it to shore and dragged it over the weeds. I got a lot of hits but they kept coming off or missing the lure. So then I remembered I had a frog in one of my boxes. IT WAS CRAZY. Nothing in my life has ever been so much fun. 50 pound braid on bait caster throwing a frog is a RUSH. I lost many fish that were HUGE. But the ones I got were no little guys. Every fish I got was at least 3 pounds. Battery was dead in my scale so I couldn't know exactly. 2 guys in small boats with trolling motors were there but they didnt go deep into the weeds like I did. Maybe they were scared their motor would hang in the weeds? When I say weeds I mean weeds. 80% of the lake is 5 feet or less deep and every inch of it was weeds top to bottom. Watching the HUGE carp fighting or whatever they were doing was fun too. Some of them are so big I think they would tip my kayak if he wanted too. Now my new obsession is the frog. Any tips on a very good frog lure to buy? Mine is a ozark trail walmart one so im sure there are better.

Thanks! That looks like it. I never thought a fish like that was in this lake. I also saw a crazy huge gold fish in there today. Cant tell from the pictures really but this gold fish is HUGE. The goldfish would not bite anything I had.

Got this fish today I never seen one before. He bit a small rapala I was twiching on top of water by a line of muck near shore.

Im having same troubles here in NY. I was catching them like crazy a month ago when it was 60s-70s 3 days a week. But now its been 30-40s nights and 50 max in the day with rain rain rain. Went out this week and the fish were not biting at all. It sucks because the bad weather.

I want to go fishing for the striped bass but dont know how long they will be here. I heard they go back out to sea eventually. I still see a ton of boats on there fishing. If I have time it would be good but if they are leaving soon I will make sure I make time to try soon.

Mine should be like new because I only got it last fall and used it 2 trips. I saw a video for the ceramic bearings and it spun like crazy. I guess even a small improvement wont be too bad.

I read a post here saying to change the bearings to ceramics in this reel. I ordered the 3 bearings kit says it works for the Black Max. I noticed my reel says its the Black Max 3 on it. Is all Black Max the same bearings? Or do I need a bearings that says Black Max 3 specific? I enjoy the reel a lot but it says you get 75% more casting out of it with the new bearings.

I cant swim so I put my life vest on before I take the kayak off the car roof.

Thanks all. What shocked me so much was how BIG a 4 pound really is. On TV you just cant get a real idea or from a photo. When I got him out of the water I said this thing must be 5-6 pound.

Went out early today because rain in the afternoon. Had a HUGE one get off early then nothing for a long time. It started pouring!! I was way on the other side of the lake from the ramp so I just kept casting. THIS fish is my PB large mouth bass and my FIRST fish caught on a jerk bait AND my first fish caught on a bait caster (Apu Garcia Black Max). I must say the big LM bass are very well behaved in the kayak. He just stayed calm not like the SM who want to kill me every second. HE WAS 4.13 pounds on my scale!! So happy got drenched to the bone and cold but all worth it.

I got THIS pike on that same lure a couple days ago!

Its funny because I was going to make this exact topic. Im on vacation so I have to fish or I will be mad I wasted vacation. Today I could not fish which makes me mad but tomorrow I can and it will be raining but its been very warm and will be again 60-70 degree. I got a walmart rain gear for 12 bucks and gonna go out on the kayak in the morning no matter what. I can use tips too.

Found 2 nice ones in the kayak today. On a wood near where they fish from the shore.

I went back to that same lake today and got a WAY bigger Pike. Landed him with the net! Thing was huge hard to photograph myself. Only problem was my net was almost too small for him!

Lot more people on water the last year too though. Its too bad the man died. Sad for everyone.

My PB smallest bass. He bite a lure almost his size! 6 hours on the kayak battling wind and this was my only fish. Cant wait to get back out.

I see roland using his spinner bait. Its got a twisted line tie and the hook is on a swivel type jig head. How do I find these? I see roland spinners for sale but not the same like on TV show. Anyone know where to buy these?

Went out today first time with Garmin Striker. Was cool seeing water temp and how deep it was in the water. I got a ton of chained pickerels a blue gill and the big 3 pound bass. You can see the lure that got them all was that TINY crank bait like 1 inch or less big in the blue gills mouth. Water was 48-50 degree. I got the fish on the 50 degree side of the lake. That bass was fat and had a huge tail. He was too active to measure but he was at least 18 inch. I need to get a measure board because its too hard to use a tape measure on the kayak. On the scale he was 3.28 pounds

In NY I can catch bass and release them year round. Only sometimes you can keep them I think june through summer. I dont keep them anyway so I like this rule.

A bunch actually. I rigged up a bunch of stuff over the past few weeks and winter that are ready to try out soon. I never caught a fish or tried on a plastic worm, ned, plastic swim bait... Never fished a plastic craw and a few others. I really want to dedicate this whole season to learning plastics. I spent a lot of money stocking up so I hope I do learn to catch a fish on it.

I know how you feel. Tuesday I went out on kayak and bass were finally real shallow. Big huge ones in the shallow. I had 10+ hits on my dark sleeper and did not even land one. Either I couldnt set the hook or if I did I lost the fish reeling him in. I ended up getting so mad I took the dark sleeper off and threw it in the forest. Then I tied on a curl tail grub and got a huge chain pickerel. Which was the only fish I landed all day. Went out at 1pm and did not find where the fish were at till after 5 and my arms were getting tired from paddle. Stayed on that bank 2 hours. Next time im going to paddle right there and hope the fish are staying there. Its going to be really cold and SNOW tonight though so I hope fish dont go back away to winter spots.

Got my set up ready to go. Next tuedays my trip on my kayak will have the fish finder working. My question is probably stupid but after watching every video on youtube almost o one says. Now when you are sitting still why does the image still scroll on the screen? What is is scrolling if your boat is sitting still? How can you tell where the fish on your fish finder is in the water?

Mine had 2 settings one is 2 amp and one is 10 amp. Could I use the 2 amp setting?