mattm

Thanks dumbdog. I lucked out and got a good picture. Especially since we took it so fast. I just knew that it was going to look like a three lber since I didn't get a weight. However, I really believe the fish was a 5.3 or 5.6 something like that. It would of gone in the high fours before it would of gone 6 much less 7.

Congratulations. You deserve it.

Thanks guys. I sure hope she is ok. After I dunked her while the guide was getting the camera ready she had stopped bleeding when I first pulled her out of the water. After the pic the guide said shes bleeding again. I just put her back right off. The guide looked at me kind of suprised and said you don't want to weigh her. I told him not if shes bleeding. He was suprised, but thought it was pretty cool. He offered to take us out the next morning on a half day trip for free, but we both had to get back to work. Normally that would be a bad choice, but we ended up getting 4" of snow today.

Ok, who wants it? First one to PM with an adress gets it.

We rented a boat Tuesday after a big front and a bunch of rain. We should of saved our money. The combination of big winds, small boat and two guys who had never been on the lake without a guide didn't let us do much fishing. After lunch the winds layed a little and we found a couple of spots that got us out of the wind. We only managed one fat 2lber. On top of that i had to spend 2 hours on the phone after lunch selling a house so I didn't fish much. Wednesday was a little different story. After a cold slow morning we took lunch early with only two fish in the boat. A 2lber by my buddy and the guide caught a fat one that was just short of 7lbs. In calmer waters, after lunch, with yet another approaching front we got on a real nice crankbait bite. The guide managed another 4 or 5 fish all but one pretty decent, my buddy added another small fish and I got 8. Not any monsters, but I did get one pretty good one. I didn't get to weigh her because she had the whole crankbait deep in her mouth sideways. She didn't get it in her gullet but one of the trebles did get into one of her gills a little where they met the bottom of the mouth. So we dunked the fish in the water while we got the camera ready and released after a quick picture. Everyone guessed the fish would of gone in the low 5's. Also caught the fattest fish I had ever caught. She only went 3lbs 6oz, but had a huge belly and qarter sized black spots all the way through her body and tail. Very cool looking fish. All fish were caught on a chartruse square billed crankbait. If you weren't knocking into trees you weren't catching fish. Not a horrible day and not a great day, but all in all I think it was my most enjoyable day on the water. On a side note I really want to thank Matt Fly for taking a lot of his time to gather info and suggest locations for the trip. Heres my biggest.

Dang it. I read this post for the first time b/c I saw Long Mike had replied. I was really pulling t see Old Spice or Musk. I'm a fan of Polo black.

Crazy. Poor little girl.

Welcome . Let us hear from you every now and then too.

Welcome!

Leaving for Fork early in the morning and i'm pretty bummed out today. The last week has had highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. Its rainy and the 30's right now. Tommorow is supposed to be sunny with snow tonight and only warm to the high 40's. Have a guide booked for Wed., but that doesn't help me tommorow. Anyways, I kinda have a gameplan from a lot of good stuff provided by Matt Fly, but I usually avoid this kind of weather. However, this trip is planned and the show must go on. Thought I would throw the conditions out there and see if I could get any new ideas. Info doesn't have to be Fork specific, necessarily, just how you would approach and baits to consider when weather goes from ideal to far less from ideal.

Pretty much anything i've ever bought. I don't sweat it though its going to happen. In fact, I probably just break it off before I should. I've never lost a Sammy yet.

If you fish crankbaits a lot you need something with a slower action. The rods you have will work fine for all the baits you want to learn/use more. I personally personally prefer med. power rod for searchbait type baits(crankbait) for two reasons. 1)You can make longer cast with a med power rod than a MH. Allowing you to cover more water and have more time to get the deep divers down. 2)This one may be all in my head, but i'll throw it out there anyways. The give in a med. power rod also gives the fish a little longer to take the bait. So I prefer the med, mod b/c i have a nice crankbait stick that I can also use for other things. However, if you throw anything that dive below 10-12ft. disregard my med. suggestion and go with the MH. To me the first point is the real advantage, but a MH mod would help diversify your arsenal as well. I don't think any of the rods you listed are rated very high as far as lure weight so watch out on the bigger swimbaits.

Captain Kirk. I'm not into sci-fi and thought for sure I was getting someone I had never heard of. I can live with this though. I get to be Denny Krane when i'm older. Denny Krane.

You might be right. To me though it sounds like the hook is dull or he's ripping a big hole on the second hookset. I would lean towards hook b/c I assume he wasn't setting twice b4 he started losing them. A trailer hook couldn't hurt anything, probably, but its effectiveness will be limited if the hookset is bad or the hook is dull. Just my .02.

Muddy, You should wait a while save up another 100.00 bucks and buy a Shimano Curado and St. Croix Legend Tournament series. Much better than anything in the 100.00 class. Your blood is boiling right. I'm just messing with you, muddy. I know how much you love post like that. ;D ;D. I'll go with All-Stars and a Citica, barely over at $119.00, under after 30.00 rebate. Sorry if the rebate breaks the on sale rule you set up.

You are going to get a lot of answers from people that know a bunch more than me, but i'll see if I can get you started. You need something without a fast action. My suggestion would be a rod you like in your price range that is med. power, mod. action. This will be your treble hook and topwater rod. Your avid will make a good rod for weightless plastics, light t-rigs and small spinnerbaits. The MH will work for jigs, bigger t-rigs and spinnerbaits. I don't throw moving baits a lot so I would probably start every trip with one rigged for weightless and the other a weighted t-rig. Then if I wanted to throw a moving bait I would swap the one that is getting bit the least.

I don't know if a trailer hook will solve your problem. You are hooking the fish so it sounds like a hook problem to me. Make sure your hook is razor sharp, wait a second or so to set it and then do it only once.

Wow....nice fish. Very cool pic.

I think you have gifts that you are unaware of sir.

This may all be in my head, but I find it really helps when the line comes of the top of the spool. The spool should be turning clockwise. It also Must go on tight. I have a lot better luck with it when I have it done on the machine at Bass Pro or Academy or have someone help me. I've only tried to do it once by myself and had problems. Anytime I have my wife help me or take it to a store no problems. If you don't want to take off what you have I would tie it to a tree or something, and walk backward until you have more out than you can cast. Then put pressure on it for a minute or so. Should help straighten it out a little.

So can you only get points on one fish or is it combined on all the fish you catch?

I'm in if its not to late. Only have one pic on this computer though. So this is the best I can do. A real crappy picture of an almost 5.

Lol........we keep our laptop on the kitchen counter usually. Not long ago my wife came over during a commercial right as I was googling LBH's screen name. I had some explaining to do.

Not since I was about 16. Oh, wait absinthe, not abstinence.

Pssssshhhhhh..........only 83. You are amazing sir.