OhioFisherman

Old, once again the rains started here shortly after planting in my area. I imagine Toledo, a good distance west of me experienced the same thing? A lot of the problems seem to be from runoff from farmers fields. " Lake Erie BloomsA record outbreak of blooming microcystis occurred in Lake Erie 2011, in part related to the wettest spring on record, and expanded lake bottom dead zones, reduced fish populations, fouled beaches, and the local tourism industry that generates more than $10 billion in revenue annually. " Funny that they didn't directly mention farming activity?

http://www.19actionnews.com/story/29646787/toledo-residents-rush-to-stores-for-bottled-water-following-mayors-watch-announcement http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/29644881/mayor-hicks-hudson-says-toledos-water-is-now-in-a-watch-category https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcystin " Microcyctins can be produced in large quantities during algal blooms and pose a major threat to drinking and irrigation water supplies, as well as the environment at large. "

" Isn't 5lb/20" considered a trophy? " It depends on how many you have caught? a nice fish either way though.

I wonder if the bait dealers pushed for that too though, I can recall a few times going to a bait store in Ontario for minnows and getting little smallmouth and trout mixed in with them.

Didn't Ontario ban non residents that paid for a fishing license from catching their own bait?

I am guessing a real worm would require a lot less movement than a plastic one? It does have a natural scent and look to it?

I was on the French River briefly for part of one day, and just a tiny portion of it. I can only imagine the time, effort, and money it would cost to chart it accurately? A man made lake has more of a chance of having accurate charts? As do lakes that have had shipping traffic?

http://top-bass.ca/ http://www.ontariobass.com/2014-hank-gibson-qualifer-results.html Good points listed, research some of your areas bass tournament results? A pattern can probably be seen there as it does here. Some lakes here are known for numbers, rarely a fish over 4 pounds though, others are known as lakes where a 4 pounder probably won't big enough. A lake's size rarely seems to have any impact on the size of bass in it, food supply is a lot more important. Some lakes, even with a lot of fishing pressure still produce consistently larger fish.

I was just going to mention the similar names? Hmmm...

Labs are better looking dogs without the doodling?

Great! All I see is buzzards, I think they come to check up on me! Is he done yet? LOL

One of my neighbors has had two of them for around ten years now, they seem like nice well behaved dogs to me, but that is all in the training? My dog only tolerates one of them, the non alpha dog, he has some issues at times with the alpha dog entering his space. Between them and their adult kids they have around 5 dogs, all seem to get along, again the training?

I never took flowers off of our tomato plants.

We have a local gravel yard that sells sand and gravel, they have a truck scale. One in your area may have one too?

Just from what I can see on a map? The river alone looks like a pretty large area to fish? I wonder what the boundaries are? From Kingston to Montreal? Has to be 100 miles?

I can't and wouldn't disagree, always had a good time there and the people were great.

Really it's just different approaches to the same problem, flukes or senkos are probably a good choice too, a friend of mine used tubes almost exclusively, back in the day a Johnson Silver minnow and pork frog was popular. LOL. I am a geezer, and almost always used mono, 17-20 pound test for the slop. You could make it float better and longer by stripping a 100 feet or so off the reel and applying dry fly dressing to it, keeps the line from sinking into the slop.

In 2013 only the top two managed to total over 80 pounds for 4 days? Yes it could happen, but 17-20 pounds a day over 4 days on one northern body of water is a darn good total, stuff happens.

http://www.basspro.com/Stanley-Jigs-Bull-Ribbit-Frog/product/10209528/ http://www.basspro.com/Mustad-Ultra-Point-Impact-Hook/product/30055/ another setup to frog fish

A 6 inch Zoom lizard rigged weedless and weightless will get a lot more hookups.

Unless the weather is really crappy the leaders shouldn't have much trouble weighing in 17-20 pounds a day there?

Look at what happened in Ohio last year. http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/03/toxic-algae-bloom-500000-without-drinking-water-ohio/

For a long time on this side of Lake Erie? all you needed was a storm wiggle wart or hot n tot, chrome and black or gold and black.

I think my old minnow fishing ultra light is an Ugly Stick, it worked well enough for them.

Glad to hear you are OK Lew! Years ago I had an experience with them, I was cutting some high weeds in a field behind my old home with a scythe, the next thing I knew I was under attack! I went running to the back of the house and turned on the garden hose and started spraying myself and the area around me to chase them away. My two older girls were young then, and thought dad was playing and came running over to play too. I chased them in the house so they wouldn't become new targets. I must have gotten stung 20-30 times, but no problems from it, I certainly don't want it to happen again though.