hamer08

Fishing from a canoe is different, but you can adapt with practice. I fish almost entirely from a canoe. You can practice casting from a low sitting position to get the feel. The best thing I like about a canoe is the ability to portage it just about anywhere. Most lakes I fish require a portage of 0.25-2 miles and the lakes are 2 to 142 acres. I have a two wheel cart that make most portages a breeze. I also have a setup that allows me to pull it behind my mountain bike for longer portages. I tend to stick to smaller lakes and locations only a canoe can go, big lakes have a problem with wind and wakes. The best accessory is probably a padded seat with a back, like a stadium seat. My canoe is fiberglass.

I lived in SC for years and never had any problems with the gators. I saw alot of snakes, no problems with them. I never killed a snake that wasn't running away. They don't bother me too much now. I live in the midwest now and no real problems. We see an occassional snake. We see alot of beavers and occassionally one will get close without noticing it. It will then slap its tail on the water and startle you. That usually occurs at dusk/dawn/night. Geese can be a problem during nesting season. I like fishing at night and listening to the coyotes howl. Overall, insects have always been the biggest problem any place I've fished, north or south.

I don't think Asian carp are a direct threat to Bass. They only eat plankton and don't do well in standing water. They would compete with fry for plankton, but I don't think a most lakes/reservoirs could support a large breeding population. I think the common carp is probably a bigger threat to bass, they destroy the weeds fry need to hide from predators. In the rivers, their population is staggering, but I haven't seen any numbers that show a decrease plankton (thanks to all the fertilizer run off). They may compete with other species for reproduction habitat, but I haven't seen any specifics yet. I think the biggest fear is or should be they will become a commercial species and get their own lobby. Then they will manage the river with their interests in mind. These carp are already one of the biggest aquaculture species in the world. Their numbers are already so large, it is only a matter of time till it becomes a commercial fishery. The only positive I can see is maybe they will shrink the size of the dead zone in the gulf of mexico, since the will consume some of the plankton that causes it.

I haven't much in the past, but I plan to in the future. Almost every lake I fish is way overpopulated with LMB.

I remember seeing were officials with the Texa's Lunker program reported an 18 lb LMB that ate a dozen 9" channel cats in one setting. It was in a story about how lunkers differ greatly in their feeding aggressiveness.

The OP is targeting Asian carp (silver and Bighead) an invasive species in the Mississippi river drainage. They only eat plankton and are very different than the common carp. They can grow a pound a month and quickly out grow predators. Most states affected require you to harvest/destroy the fish if caught and have legalized snagging because of Asian carp. Its funny that snagging fish is less acceptable than using a bait to catch them. But with mammals it's the exact opposite. Its OK to trap or kill a mammal, but using a bait to lure them is unethical.

It seems like its case closed to me. Both the state and the Fed court of appeals ruled the navigatable waterway is the ordinary low water level. Both the state and fed supreme courts decline to hear the case, so there is no court left to appeal to, until other cases come along. I agree with the verdict. I think the problem would best be solved by the state or feds buying lands that routinely flood. This would prevent them from becoming developed and provide for controlled floods (along with regulated recreational activities).

Here is a picture of the big carp, it was 92 lbs. Either way its big. http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/index.php?/pso/article/big_story_on_the_bighead/

I've snagged silver and bighead carp before. We use 10/0 weighted trebles, they work alot better than the unweighted ones. If you can't find them you can always pour your own. http://www.do-itmolds.com/prodmolds.aspx?c=87 One thing I haven't seen mentioned and I think is very important is the gear ratio of your reel. You will do a lot of reeling in and a high gear ratio helps alot. You also don't want this hook hitting the bottom, so you need to reel fast. I use a 1:6.3 ratio large baitcaster, I wish I had a 1:7. I use a file to sharpen my hooks. I routinely put one or two hook points through 4" fish while snagging, its amazing to snag a wee little fish with a monster hook. We usually wait for low water and let the asian carp pile up below the levees. When the action is good its almost hard not to snag one, they are so thick. Its easy to catch several hundred pounds, with the average fish in the 20lb range. They keep getting bigger every year. I saw a 94 lb shot with an arrow in the Mississippi this year. My biggest has probably been 30 something. Although I had one break 30 lb braid after I had to tighten down the drag to keep him from spooling me.

I kind of have to laugh a little bit at this, it is about as precise as a fortune teller reading. In others words, keep fishing and varying your tactics until you find the fish, then repeat. I agree using "structure" and other transitions is a great way the focus your fishing on areas likely to be productive. The point I'm trying to make is its the fishing that makes a great fisherman. In the end, you don't know what is good and bad place to fish until you actually fish the lake multiple times, under mulitple conditions and actually catch the fish. Its easy to make up an explanation why the fish are in a certain location after you have found them. Its a lot harder to explain why the fish aren't where they are "suppose" to be. The reason I say this is seems a lot of times people are looking for the easy answers. When they should really be taking the basic guidance offered here and beating the water at a specific lake to try to understand how the fish live. Then come back here a tell us what the patterns are at your lake.

How big is this lake? From the data I've seen, fish populations and the population structures are very cyclical in nature. You have the normal ebbs and flows of the predator/prey cycle, but this is compounded when you add in fisherman. Our DNR reports Bass fishermen follow the hot lakes, especially when it comes to trophy fish (runs on about a 5-7 yr cycle). I know I have visited new lakes after seeing impressive tournament hauls. As for your hump, I would pay close attention to the weed structure on it. Bass like to relate to weeds and weeds can change. Paying close attention to the submerged aquatic weed structure has really helped me understand the bass in my lakes.

I fish a lot of small strip mine ponds like this (5-15 acres) with sharp changes in depth. These lakes are generally hard to fish from the bank without any knowledge of the layout of the lake. Get the boat/depthfinder and map out the whole lake, 5 acres is pretty small so shouldn't be too hard. While your doing that look for and note the submerged aqautic plants. Bass really relate to weeds in my experience. One thing interesting about these strip mine ponds is the aquatic plant profiles are usually very distinct from one lake to the next. This is because they don't have boats moving the plants around and limited new plants coming in. I fish a property w/ approx 30 strip mine ponds and the aquatic plants (submerged) are very distinct in each lakes, compared to large public waters which usually have the latest invasive plant. In my area strip mine ponds, find the weed covered flats 10-15' you'll find the bass in the summertime. After you map out the lake you should be able to really target the areas of interest, with different presentation at different depths. After 5 trips to the lake you should have a pretty good understanding of where the fish are at in this 5 acre lake.

I have a few suggestions: 1. What is the goal, a trout lake, a big bass lake, multispecies? You have to have one major goal in mind, you can't have everything. 2. Why your figuring out question #1 harvest as many LMB as possible, otherwise trying to stock bait fish will be very hard when the bass are eating 4% of ther body weight a day. 3. Consider ecology, does the lake have aquatic plants for the baitfish to hide and reproduce?

Whether you use the word confidence, knowledge or experience is really a matter of semantics in this context. When someone says you need to be confident when fishing, they are saying you need to trust your knowledge, experience, etc to make the right decisions for the given conditions. Then support your decision with steadfast action, rather than "doing things half-heartedly because the fishing is just slow today". We've all had days when its slow and we just kind of give up and our presentation gets sloppy. Its kind of like taking plays off in sports, your already conceding play with your lack of effort. But hitting the water with a confident can-do attitude definately increase your chances.

I've noticed blue cats are becoming stocked more often, instead of channels. In part, because they offer some different fishing. They are also more likely to be suspended and hit baits throughout the water column. This will probably increases your chances of catching a cat on a bass lure. The vast majority of fishermen I know can't tell the difference between the two. My best catfish/lure story was a 4-5lb flathead on a Jitterbug. I thought I had a monster bass.

I don't think it matters if its 42" or 50" its an awesome fish and you'll remember it the rest of your life. Based on the 2nd picture, I would have guessed in the low 40s. It looks to be from ~ mid shin to nipple high. But pictures are deceiving, every 7 lb bass I see in the paper looks like it would only weigh 4.5 on my scale.

In my lakes, this is the most consistent and easiest pattern to take advantage of. I caught my biggest bass of the summer, Saturday night at about 7:30 in 1 ft of water with a topwater (water temp in the low-mid 80s). I target areas that become shaded first. You also need to see where most of the fishing pressure is coming from and adjust your tactics with this in mind. If you limited to waters with high fishing pressure, try drop shotting the deep and suspended fish.

This summer I've spent alot of time fishing topwaters at dusk and have been trying to understand any patterns affecting the bite. I typically fish about a dozen different lakes (5-30 acres) with almost no fishing pressure (you must portage a boat). I typically fish 6-10pm, and usually switch to topwaters at about 7:30-8. I've watched the weather and can't make any connections. We can have 5 days of cookie cutter weather and each time on the water is different. Somedays the fishing becomes better with increasing darkness and other times it gets worse. But lately I've noticed even the bite itself is different even when the fish are active. The bass sometimes seem to pluck it off the top and other times they hit it very violently. For a given trip, 80% of the fish will fall into on category or the other. The only correlation I have found is the fishing technique. I usually use popper type lures and if the lake has small clumps of weeds or floating scum and I skip the lure over these 2-3 ft obstructions on the retrieve, they usually violently hit it upon landing. Its just seems odd that there are days when the fish are jumping completely out of the water when hitting it and other days they just seem to gingerly pluck it off the top. On the days they are "supercharged" they will even hit it more than once if the miss it on the first strike. Those are they days I that make it all worth while.

Based on aquaculture methods, LMB fingerlings (4") eat 2-4% of there biomass daily (feed = 40% protein). They are growing at 1-2% daily under these conditions. So, if you don't want the fish to grow you'll need to feed at about the 1-2% of biomass daily. This should at least give you an idea of the amount of food you'll need. A medium fathead minnow (2 1/4") is about 0.0075 lbs, so at 1% and 1 minnow a day, this would support a .75 lb LMB or at 2% a .375 lb LMB (with a zero growth rate). I can see the numbers and cost could quickly add up.

I never dealt with clubs and Tourneys, but that would seem to take the fun out of fishing. I fish to relax not to add more pressure to my life. When I start to get bored fishing for bass, I tend to switch species. I don't have saltwater nearby, but targeting musky, walleye, crappie, catfish all bring new challenges. Another option is to go more primative, leave the electronics loaded boat at home and try fishing out of a canoe or bellyboat. This really slows the pace of fishing down and makes you notice all the other great things out there.

I good plan would be to practice by keeping some fathead minnows. Once you conquer that you can move up to bigger fish. Then you can run two tanks, one with minnows and one with predators. I would feed them the minimum amount.

I think its doable, I would shoot for a small bass 6-8" a couple things to remember, Use a powerhead pump to keep the water moving, the more the better. Use a biofilter to control urea, I typically use sponge filters for low costs applications. Very important that you prime the system- That is start with a few small fish or minnows to get the filter working (biofilm established). If you just dump in a bunch of fish they will choke to death on urea before the bacteria/biofilm become well established. I played around with keeping my own minnows (20 Dozen 4" shiners). It was a lot of work. I think I could keep a couple small bluegills or a small bass alive.

Ventureboat, I would just discuss it with him beforehand. I think a good solution would be all the winnings go into a "gas fund" until the end of the season and anything left over is split. If your picking up the tab to begin with, you should decide which tournaments to go to.

I agree with the "you invited them to fish (not to share expenses)" group. Chances are if your the only one with a boat and/or tow vehicle, there are probably some differences in your financial ability or priorities. This will cause alot of animosity if handled poorly. Unless you specify at the time of invitation, you should not expect to be reimbursed for anything. That's not to say you can't say, "I can't afford to go fishing as much any more". Keep in mind, the cost for you to boat alone is almost the same as bringing a guest along.

In general, most predators prefer soft-rayed fish > spiny-rayed fish. They also prefer fusiform (torpedo shape) fish to compressform (flat) fish. That is why shiners and shad are so popular with bass. I'm sure bluegills will work if there is not alot of the prefered forage present. But, throwing a bluegill in a lake full of shad or shiners will be a slow day fishing.