T-Billy

What a fun morning!!! 34-35-38 in the net. Lost a mid 30's while trying to net it, and had a 40ish come off just a few seconds after I hooked it in the 8. Had another dozen or so follows. Water temps are down a couple degrees, with some cooler weather on the way. Fish are really starting to move back into the bays. I've found a couple of spots where they're stacked up in milfoil and coontail in 10'-13' of water. I've been burning a Llungen Lures "Chad Shad" over the tops of this stuff. My guide buddy (who designed this crank) says this pattern is just getting started and will get hotter, and hold up clear through October. My fall bass numbers are going to suffer greatly. LOL. These slimers are highly addictive, and may well drive me to the poor house. I'll be slime covered, with aching elbows, wrists and hands, and grinning from ear to ear when I get there. Chad Shad in "Tiffany" color pattern. I like it, and the fish seem to as well. It's natural looking, but with all the glitter in it, it throws a ton of flash in the sunshine.

My neighbor lady saw me in my crocs with socks and told me that officially makes me an old man. LOL.

Get some of these Berkley Fusion 19 weedless wacky hooks and throw those worms anywhere you want. I like the 1/0 size. The fluoro weedguard is very effective and durable.

Atta boy!!! Congrats on an epic day!!! What's that big purple wake bait? I'm finding a bunch of muskie super shallow at night, that looks like something they might like. Nevermind!!! Lol.

Yep. Makes a BIG difference in reducing twist and wind knots. Also, if it's a big ol tangle of a wind knot, it's toast, just cut it off. With braid, if it's just a loop that's tight at the base, grab the line on either side of the loop and pull hard. It'll often come out, and the line is still good to go. I only replace braid when it gets too low on the spool. Fading is part of the deal with most braids. It's still good to go. In my local waters it's actually less visible once it fades to a light green. Not that the fish care.

I've thought of this before Katie. Your biggest asset in accessing those big beautiful bog bass is also your biggest liabilty. That light canoe is the only way you can access those fish, but it really limits the amount of force you can put into a hookset, and also the amount of pressure you can apply to winch em out of the jungle. Kind of a catch 22. You catch a ton of quality fish, so my advice is just keep doing what you're doing.

@Big_Easy_Bassin, I didn't care for the B-Hittay for chatterbaits either. I like it ok for lipless, but even there, I prefer the 7' grinder. The B-Hit is my least favorite in the Tharp lineup, and I have most of them. The H Invoker is quite a bit stouter while still having a soft tip. I use it for all my single hook moving baits.

Well... That's a bird dog not a wabbit dog silly. What do you expect?

Ol monster. Black. Haven't found a need for any other big ribbon tail, or other color. Black works all the time.

I have the 7'4 Tatula H glass. I don't care for the weight or balance either. I went through a bunch of rods for chatterbaits, finally found what I was looking for in the Ark Invoker Pro 7'4" H MF composite. I like it so much I now have four of them.

Autographed by Bill even. I bought it from his website. I had a nice conversation with his daughter Pamela about how I'd been watching his show since I was a kid. Used to watch it after Saturday morning cartoons and before big time rastlin. LOL. She said she and her brothers used to do the same. Hat arrived a few days later with this written on it. It's my hot weather fishin hat.

Around 60 apparently. Wait, been getting into muskie fishing lately.... 60 isn't going to be enough. Sigh...........

The Rapala scissors have worked well for me also. Price is right and available at my local wally world.

Ordered two gear sets today to convert my 4601 C3's to 6 speed. I'm happy that they'll be going back into service. They were my flipping/pitching reels years ago. Soon they'll be winching muskie. ?

Couldn't find any big's but boated three today, and we had 13 more followers. Clear water and little wind have them spooky. They won't chase into the 8. They just leave when they see the boat. Unforunately the wife didn't hook up, but she raised 5. She just couldn't get the bait moving fast enough to trigger the bite. They wanted that thing MOVING. We were burning Llungen .22 shorts over submerged milfoil and coontail beds. Didn't measure the dink, the other two were 33" and 36". Also caught a highly ambitious little LM. The new RS Nets Muskie Mag is sweet, and worth every penny. Sure makes dealing with them boat side easier.

Double 8's. They ain't just for muskie anymore!!! 4.42# 4.05# Of course, they do still catch muskie. 44" Beautifully marked 36". It's fat for this time of year too. Fished 9hrs, put these four in the boat, lost a small muskie "low 30's", had a high 40's miss the bait twice in the 8 before it left, and had another four follows. Both LM absolutely smashed that bucktail. Taking the wife in the wee hours tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can get her a big slimer.

I'm thinking the same thing here. Visibility is 6-8 feet currently, and not much in the way of wind. They were in a little better mood today. Caught two, lost one, and had a high 40's miss the bait in the 8 twice before it bailed.

VERY nice @bulldog1935. Glad you chimed in. You have some sweet vintage and vintage looking gear. Exactly what I was hoping folks would add to this threead. I believe @TnRiver46 is still hauling fish with his old Ambassadeur's too. These great reels are built to last, and easy to maintain. I have a couple C3 4601's also. @bulldog1935, would converting those C3's to 6 speed be as simple as replacing the main and pinion gear, or are the idler and worm gears a different ratio also?

The old Abu and the new Okuma stick are on the board. This 37" absolutely smoked a black/nickle bucktail about 15min into this mornings outing, right off the end of a lighted dock. Then all his friends started teasing me. TEN follows between 05:00 and 10:30, and zero takers. LOL. They wouldn't even follow it into the 8. They'd just turn off and leave the scene as soon as they saw the boat. Super spooky. Gonna get an earlier start tonight. Couldn't get on the water until after 04:00 this morning because of storms. I've got a bunch of fish located, hopefully they'll be more aggressive tonight in the dark. Fingers crossed for some toothy slimy mayhem. Keep after 'em. It'll happen. Fall's just around the corner. They'll be putting the feedbags on, and they'll be FAT by November.

I've decided to start doing some muskie fishing beyond the spring and fall Bama Rig bite. I've been buying some gear and while looking at reels I was reminded of the Abu C4 5601 I had laying around collecting dust. I went and found it in a tote full of fishing stuff in the garage. Crusty, rough feeling, and just generally in a sorry state. I gave it a complete tear down and ultra sonic bath. Straight simple green did a fine job of removing that old grease and crud. Reassembled, gave it a 120mm power handle, and spooled it with 65# 832. I spent some time with it this morning, and it did a fine job of burning a 2oz bucktail with double 8's. It's smooth as new, and will outcast my new Daiwa Lexa 300 HD by a bit. Unfortunately we went 0 for 2 this morning. Had a 40"ish hit on the 8 and quickly shake free first thing this morning, then lost a giant about an hour later. That fish hit mid retrieve and came unbuttoned after wollering on the surface about 30' from the boat. High 40's for sure. That one hurt. Would've been in my top five had I netted it. The rod I had it on is rated 3/4-3oz and will throw those bucktails fine, but lacks the needed backbone to drive that 7/0 treble home. It'll get it's new home on an Okuma Guide Select H swimbait rod tomorrow. It's nice to see this fine old reel get a new lease on life.

ALMOST always. I can only recall one really big'n that was a long way from deep water. That's a bad memory, would'a been my PB had I landed it. It wrapped me in a big laydown just out of reach, and I ended up breaking it off while trying to free it. 20# Invisx. All my other big fish have come near deep water. The fish mentioned above was an early prespawn fish. It was way back in a bay on a laydown. That laydown was the prime piece of cover in the area. It's on a channel swing bank, and the creek channel comes within 10' of the tip of it. Deepest spot and heaviest cover within a few hundred yards. I've only ever caught a few fish off that tree, but they've all been good ones, all early spring.

I'm just happy to see @Pat Brown catch a dink like the rest of us mere mortals!!!

Good on you @Kirtley Howe. God bless ya!!!

I checked the results, but watched very little MLF this year. I was a big fan of the every fish counts format. Those anglers have to be very frustrated with Boyd and Co. They're constantly moving the goal post, and now this fiasco... What a mess they've made of something that was once very good.

A chatterbait comes through rock very well, and when it does get hung I can usually free it. When fishing deeper rock with it, I like to let it hit bottom, then retrieve it by making a few turns of the handle and letting it fall back to the bottom on a tight line. I prefer this method over pulling it with the rod because I'm always in position to set the hook this way. Unlike a jig without that big metal blade, they often won't hold onto a CB very long. I used to fish those short arm spinnerbaits alot at night. I missed alot of fish because they would often hit the blade instead of the hook when slow rolling it close to the bottom. Hookup ratio was very good when running it high in the water colomn though. I'm with ya about fishing a chatterbait in wood. They don't come through it nearly as well as a spinnerbait.