Kirtley Howe

I have a friend who says you should always coat the exposed bare wire with Dielectric grease before you crimp it to reduce rust/oxidation. What do you think of that idea?

I use wet lures to catch fish. Sorry...I will show myself out.

And Connie Francis (87 years old when she passed.

I admit to being prejudiced because I love crankbait fishing, but I have found that going with a larger size than normal crankbait with rattles will produce in muddy water. I work the lure along current seams, and in calmer water. Shallow flats and sheltered bays with almost no current can be especially productive for me. If I can find rock rip-rap I will cast parallel to the bank and try to get the lure to deflect off the rocks. I start very close to shore and then make casts moving deeper/farther out from shore until I find the depth they seem to be holding at. I also have some success using spinnerbaits. Color does not seem to matter much but having big blades (Colorado blades preferred) that give a lot of thump are the best. Work the spinnerbait as slowly as possible while keeping the blades turning. I have found that casting the bait downstream and cranking it back slowly against the current can be very successful. I almost never retrieve a spinnerbait against the current in clear water, but it seems to work for me in heavily stained to muddy water. I would add that if the water has come up a lot and is flowing MUCH faster than normal, than all bets are off for me.

Yeah...but he had the "trustworthy mustache" first.

The largest Jitterbug ever made was the Musky Jitterbug from around 1940 or so. It was 4 1/2 inches long and weighted 1 1/2 oz. and had 3 treble hooks (most Jitterbugs have 2) It is no longer made. The largest currently available is the Jitterbug XL which is 4 1/4 inches long and weighs 1 1/4 oz. with 2 treble hooks. There was a company that made a knock off of the Jitterbug that was almost 6 inches long and weight over 2 oz (I used to have one of them), but I cannot remember the name of the company. I lost mine while trolling it at dusk and something VERY large ate it and broke (cut) me off. I think the lure may have been designed to use in saltwater, but I am not sure. The hooks looked like saltwater hooks. I found it at a swap meet years ago and paid $5.00 for it.

I am reminded of the Yogi Berra quote......"Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical". In a weird way that applies to fishing too.

I understand your opinion on this, but it may be because Smallmouth bass are found in 48 states, with only Florida and Louisiana being without them. Whereas as far as I know your Sunshine bass exist ONLY in Florida. So, it makes sense to include Smallies in tournaments, but it may be unreasonable to include Sunshine bass in them. On the other hand, other "regional" species (spotted bass, Alabama bass, etc.) are allowed, so why not include the Sunshine bass? But again, the spotted bass and Alabama bass are found in several states.....so maybe that is why they are included when your "one state only" bass are not. And just for fun, don't forget that every species of Bass that are allowed in tournaments are not Bass at all.....they are a type of Sunfish. So why don't they allow Sunfish to be included in tournaments? Just playing Devils' Advocate here.

I know Keith Poche runs a pretty heavy duty (and fast) winch on his "off the grid" boat. I wonder what that one is and what was involved in wiring it up? His is built right into the front of the boat.....I doubt that would work for your boat, but the winch itself could. I have no idea what it cost him.

UH,,,,,just NO! But I used to dig into rotten logs for Junebug Larva. They make great bait.

I bet Seibert Outdoors (site sponsor) could make them up for you.........

I used to use an old screen in creeks to catch hellgrammites (or Dobson as they were called locally). Of course, it was easier to do with two people...one to hold the screen and one to stir up the bottom and/or lift rocks up, but I could do it alone if necessary. If I felt fancy, I would find some loose screen and build a frame that allowed the screen to bow in some, which made it easier to keep whatever you stirred up. Bonus was you would get crawfish and sometimes minnows too. Downside was sometimes you would get a snake. None of our local water snakes are venomous but they could give you a nasty bite if you were not paying attention to what was caught in the screen. Not to mention the "surprise factor" when a big old pi@@ed off snake went over the top of the screen and into your legs. When that happened, I could walk (run) on water.

You can mount a 12v battery on your trailer under the front of the boat on most trailers. Use that to power the 12v winch. You do NOT want a 120 volt winch anywhere near the water. As you said, you can also power the winch with the aux outlet in the back of a truck or SUV ...IF the load is not too much for the wiring to the outlet. If all else fails, you can have a shop run a heavy duty aux outlet to the back of your truck/SUV to get the job done. Just a thought....I wonder if you could power the winch from the trolling motor power hook up. If you are running a modern heavy duty trolling motor, the wiring could be heavy enough. You would just have to run a "pig tail" to feed the winch.

Best of luck. I think you will love the results.

They will catch fish....but ALWAYS sharpen the hooks before use.

That is a very nice river Smallmouth. I am sure that was a ton of fun. Nice job.

Sounds to me like that would work just fine and also allow you to cast to targets if you wanted to.

or a dominatrix (G)

If I lived anywhere near you I would happily pay for you to take me fishing. Just out of curiosity, does Maine require you to have a certificate or license to be a guide? In some states I know you can just "hang up a shingle" so to speak, and others have a rather complicated path to becoming a legal guide.

Why do you want a smaller frog? I fish for Smallmouth all the time, and I use standard size or even large size topwater frogs.

Depending on your local area.....some Boys and Girls Clubs would be happy to have them. But not all will take that kind of donation. Also, try to find local places that work with people with physical and mental challenges. Around here there is an organization called The Racker Center which works with disadvantaged or challenged people. I donate rods and reels to them a couple of times a year, and also donate time to take some of the residents out fishing (with a staff member) once or twice a year. Also, a local Boy and Girl Scout troop could be interested. In some areas there are high school fishing clubs that would be happy to get free tackle. You could try contacting your local United Way office to see if there are any local charity groups that could use the tackle.....but I would make sure they are going to USE the tackle not just try to sell it off, unless you are OK with that. Check with local churches to see if any of them could use them for their youth groups. In my hometown both the Congregational and Episcopalian churches had active youth groups that took the kids on different activities such as nature walks and some sports activities including occasional fishing trips.

Yes, a Bass Us a Bass no matter where you go. The same techniques will catch them in any body of water. BUT----you will have more success if you match your bait and technique to the specific area or body of water you are fishing. For example, crankbaits, spinners and tubes work very well on the river I fish most often here in central New York. And I could use those same things to catch fish in a Lake in Florida. However, my success rate would go up dramatically if I used baits more appropriate to the Florida lake. So, yes a Bass is a Bass, but they are different.

To dry baits safely, open box, and place in front of a fan. A couple of hours and they will be dry. Better yet, take them out of the box to dry them. They will dry more quickly and evenly.

Went down to the river (Susquehanna) near Owego NY early yesterday morning. Got there around 5sm. Daybreak was at around 4:30, but due to cloud cover and a heavy fog. it was still pretty low light conditions. Air temp was 70 degrees and water was 64 degrees. I started with a 110 Berkly Choppo (basically a whopper plopper). I was using a 7'2" Proficiency Heavy Fast rod with Bass Pro shops reel with 30lb Vicious braid. On my 3rd cast I had a blowup but no hook up. I continued the retrieve, and the Bass came back and got it. A nice 2lb or so Smallmouth. Several casts later I got another one that was a bit larger....maybe 2 1/4 bls. Stayed with the plopper for about another half hour but no more action on it. I switched over to a frog. That got me 2 more in the next 15 minutes. Both were about 1 1/2 lbs.. The fog burned off and the cloud cover started breaking up, and the topwater bite died. I went to a spinnerbait (white and chartreuse with silver willow leaf and colorado blades). That got me 2 more, but they were smaller...around 1 lb. I was throwing the spinnerbait on a 7 ft. Cheerywood medium power medium action with 12 lb Bass Pro Excell mono. The spinnerbait bite went away, so I switched to a medium diving crankbait Strike King Sevy Shad in color. That got me one more Smallmouth around 2 lbs, and a 18 inch Tiger Musky. It was now around 9am, and the air temp was up to 84 degrees, but at least the humidity was not very high (yet). I moved to another location on the river and tried several other baits, including but not limited to.....weightless fluke lure in white/silver....tube lure in coffee color on a 1/4 tube jig head. Switched to a green/red flake color. Then I tried a blue/black 1/2 oz swimming jig with a matching craw trailer worked around both rock and wood cover. Tried a green pumpkin sweet beaver style Carolina rigged bait. Then tried a Texas rigged worm in Tequila Sunrise color, and then in red/black Troed the frog again, and the Choppo. All that got me nothing...not even a nibble. It was now almost noon. Air temp was 90, but there was a breeze, and humidity was still not bad. I packed up and left the river and headed to a smaller stream (Catatonk Creek) in my hometown of Candor NY. The creek was very weedy. I tried pitching several different baits into openings in the weeds, but got nothing. I moved to a different area with some open water, and tried a square bill crank in citrus shad, and then in red craw. The red craw got me one small largemouth, and then I got cut off by a pickerel. I switched to a Mepps' spinner in black blade white skirted in the 1/4 oz, size on a 6' 6" light action spinning rod. That got me 2 more largemouth, both about 1 1/2 lbs. It was now 2pm, air temp was 95 degrees, and the humidity was getting very high. I was starting to feel the heat and I was having trouble breathing (missing a part of a lung and having COPD will do that to you). I called it quits and headed home. No big fish, but not a bad day at all. In hindsight, I should have used better judgement and quit earlier in the day, but it is hard to walk away when you are having a good day.

Don't know where to put this, so feel free to move it if needed. I just want to give a public shout out to jbrew73. He had commented that he had some crankbaits he was going to give away or donate. As most of you know, using a crankbait is my favorite way to fish, so I responded that if he was going to give them away. I would be interested in them. He responded that he would package them up and sent them to me. Well, they arrived today. I was hoping for 4 or 5, or maybe a few more. What I got was 22 crankbaits all in excellent shape and many looked like they were brand new. I am speechless. This group has the best members, and he is a sterling example of that.