OhioFisherman

It`s a lot bigger than any bass I ever caught! Honest!

LOL, no problem. After 30+ years of driving a truck making 15 - 30 stops a day, and having some pretty interesting conversations at times with people here? I am surprised at what some of my fellow Americans believe. Hmmm... the light is on, but no one seems to be home?

I don`t think the problem can be fixed stateside, most of mine come from politicians that have exempted themselves from the do not call list. LOL, with the public`s approval rating of congress here at a lofty 10% or so I guess they are afraid to call in person?

Well I always tried to find what would work on a body of water quickly, some favorites? Storm wee steelie wart, a multi species crankbait, they seemed to work on most bodies on water and were not species specific. Jig and pig or jig and plastic, same deal, mostly thought of as a bass lure? but I have caught walleyes, pike, crappie, and hooked Muskies on them. 6 inch zoom lizard, junebug, watermelon blue fleck, just a lure that usually worked for me. 3 1/2 - 4 inch tube, sadly for me they also seemed quite effective for carp and sheephead in waters that had them. LOL 6 inch Zoom utail worm. Storm Texas shad, a rattletrap style lure, just better success on them than similar lures, also multi species. Original floating Rapala 3-7 inch, I have caught fish on them just doing nothing but a cast and twitch. Jig and grub, jig and shad, even 2 inch ones seemed capable of catching some decent fish. Buzzbait, although I was generally slow to throw them, just had better hookup rates casting an unweighted lizard in the same spots. Spinnerbaits, in line or other, they can be hot. Heddon sonar, Silver Buddy, go to blade baits. Jigging Rapala, even caught catfish on them. Smithwick Devil`s horse, Heddon Torpedo. Jitterbug - Hula Popper. Red Eye spoon, Johnson silver minnow, dardevle, great up north baits. 6 - 8 inch Cisco Kid crankbaits, LOL my go to lose a lure on a big fish up north. Super lines 40 years ago were anchor ropes. I caught a heck of a lot of pike on a U 20 Flatfish years ago, what`s up with that?

http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=78517&posts=3&start=1

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/fishing/2009/09/new-michigan-state-record-great-lakes-muskie-caught-torch-lake State of Michigan?

At least you missed the mosquitoes and black flies?

What Lew said, they are a good search bait for actively feeding fish because you can cover a lot of water quickly with them, but that isn`t the only way to fish them. Some times slow rolling a heavier one thru deeper weeds is they way to go. I have never used a plastic worm on one as a trailer, I use a 3-4 inch grub or plastic frog attached to a trailer hook. If you`re fishing from a boat casting to shore keep them running faster to avoid junk and slow down the retrieve as they get into deeper water, reverse if you are fishing from shore casting to deeper water.

http://www.bassresource.com/fish/plasticworms.html There are a lot of different ways to rig a plastic worm, I have even see people use them on worm harnesses.

Only if they limit it to hot chicks in string bikinis.

Not at all familiar with that lake. My dad had about 30 years of heading to Ontario to fish, and around 25 years for myself. Dad`s biggest pike came in May, in an area of the Georgian Bay where walleye and I assume other species frequently spawned. Although we made usual family trips in mid summer they never produced big pike, 8 - 12 pounds was a big mid summer fish. For serious pike fishing and when we got the majority of our 40+ inch fish? mid to late September. Just never went north after September, I could be cold enough fishing here. Funny though, the areas where we got our biggest pike in September? also seemed to hold Walleye in September, something that was absent from those areas in mid summer. I got my PB walleye up there in late September, casting a spinner bait for pike. My buddy got his PB walleye, a 31 incher fishing with a big chub for bait for pike. So were the pike, like the walleye following baitfish? Or were they following walleye? We never got a small walleye in the areas that had big pike, they all seemed to be 26 inches or over. If I was able to mid to late September or later perhaps would be my choice for big pike.

Great pictures Lew, the only birds I get circling here are the buzzards, as slow as I move they must think I am half dead? LOL A couple of years ago I was out in the yard and my neighbors had their Italian Greyhound out running loose in their yard, a hawk kept diving on it trying to get it. They are smallish, light dogs, 8-10 pounds. When I told them they took the dog inside.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en I spent 5 weeks in Largo in 2009, it seemed a nice area, I had no problems getting around. Ulmerton Road which runs off of I-75 will take you right to the gulf, it`s maybe a 20 minute drive depending on the time of day. There is a road that runs along the gulf once you pass over the inland water way, there are places to eat all along it, I didn`t have a bad meal at any of them. There are also plenty of places to eat right on Ulmerton, but more of your typical fast food places. The coastal road mentioned is the typical tourist area, restaurants, hotels, gift shops. I didn`t fish at all while I was there, no interest in Salt water fishing, and when I mentioned looking around at some of the fresh water lakes in the area I was told that any of them might have a gator. LOL since I can`t move faster than a turtle? I passed. I drove down and stayed with an ex wife, so I can`t help you on airfare or hotels, although the area is loaded with hotels.

LOL, first you have to understand how unusual it is to see one in the Cleveland area. I have never seen one except in news reports in recent years. All have been in sightings in eastern suburbs, which more or less give credence to the idea that they wander here from Pennsylvania. Ya almost a sure thing it is the same bear, reporters in the area get excited when one is spotted, and some dummy will probably get the darn thing shot trying to pet it or feed it. People here really don`t have a clue.

http://www.19actionnews.com/category/240218/video-landing-page?clipId=7693288&autostart=true Most people here have just seen them at the zoo.

What he said, I kept mine in a Plano plastic box, along with the other needed rigging gear. Open one box and everything needed is right there, no wasted time digging through bags. If you are worried about your hooks getting dull? don`t set the hook. It probably is more harmful than them in a box.

10 feet? I am really not sure, I am guessing that the severity of the winters plays a large part in it. I haven`t seen a really bad fish kill from winter effects here since the 70`s winters. Some though seemed to lose most of the quality fish in their ponds during those. I recall going with a friend to check out the ice conditions on one of our favorite ponds to fish about 3 miles from my old home early one spring after the bad winters of 77-78. The pond had been built by the state to get dirt for the Ohio Turnpike overpasses and was six or eight acres. No one was allowed to put a boat on it and I have no idea how deep it actually was, but you couldn`t find 6 feet of water on any cast from shore. The pond had a 24 inch overflow pipe, and it was late March or early April, there must have been 200-300 dead bass floating around the overflow pipe. A lot of them over 20 inches, and some bigger than any we had ever caught there, it was a sad sight! It was though one of the worst winters on record here, extreme cold and lots of snow. Not sure how things work up there, your soil and water conservation office might give you good free advice if you have them?

Stub, just curious, how deep is the pond? small bass will eat anything, bugs included. They are popular because they seem to do well in fairly small ponds. Most, if not all of Ohio`s record L/M bass since the 50`s have come from farm ponds. Most of the public waters here get far to much fishing pressure for them to attain record size. The really bad winters on the 70`s did affect a lot of the shallower ponds here, it wasn`t unusual to walk the banks after the ice melted and see massive fish kills from oxygen depletion, deeper ponds didn`t seem to have an issue. A lot of people here with shallow ponds now have some sort of electric or wind bubble system to help keep oxygen in the water.

Shad are probably too temperature sensitive for a two acre pond, they even seem to have problems here in the spring on the tributaries of Lake Erie when the water warms too quickly and can have some pretty huge die offs. Emerald shiners don`t seem to do well in ponds here, one they seem to need a high oxygen content in the water and room to roam, cooler water holds oxygen better. They never reach a size where even small bass can`t eat the biggest ones. Fathead minnows are also sold here, they are tough, but their size makes them food year round. The county I live in here has the largest amount of farm ponds, and ponds in general of any other county in the state. Tractor Supply Stores (TSC) usually has in their ads here a couple of times a year when they sell fish for stocking, including minnows. I have seem people here, and know people that buy 10 pounds of minnows a couple of times a year for their ponds. Most though make the mistake of buying fatheads, it is fun to walk the edge of a pond and see the bass following the school of fatheads, any that venture into water deep enough for the bass to get them are gone. The same with the Emerald shiners, one I don`t think they handle the temps of shallow water in the summer well, and their size means the are food for everything. I did a lot of fishing at times with live bait over the years, soft ray fish such as Golden shiners and other species of the minnow family win hands down over bluegill or even perch. I have found bass and even pike up north dying because the got a perch or bluegill tail first and the spiny fins opened. Real small bluegill or perch don`t have the spiny fins yet, they get eaten like small minnows. Using bigger ones can be a real waiting game, fish seem to look at them as a last choice? Suckers? They seem to only be found here in running water or big water, again oxygen content? They never where my favorite baitfish to use, and seemed to work better for walleye than anything else. Perhaps because they seemed to spawn around the same time as walleyes? so they were in the same areas as a food source? Big chubs? always had good luck with them, a decent size bass will take a 6-8 inch chub though, a narrow body. I have seen and caught chubs here 10 inches long, probably to big for most of the bass in this area. They might need a stream to breed though? Bait stores here don`t like to sell them, they have issues with them jumping out of the bait tanks. Just throwing out ideas, and yes the best way would to have put golden shiners in a few years before the bass. Although we have some lakes and ponds here that have a very good population of them.

LOL, just big enough to get people to buy what he is selling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_shiner One of the ponds in my area with the biggest bass? has a population of Golden Shiners swimming around. Some of them rascals are over 10 inches long, so a breeding population with some to big for most bass to eat. The problem I see with bluegill or even crappie in some pond here is they put in too many and they have a tendency to become stunted in size. They are also more likely to compete with bass, especially small ones for available food.

My buddy`s son and a friend own and run the Lunge Lodge on the French, they have had some issues too. I have no idea what the weather has been like up there, it had been a hot dry summer here. Bears are probably having more issues finding food if it is the same there.

I have caught them at all hours of the day or night, but most of my biggest ones probably came between 10 am and 3 pm. I don`t worry about the time of day when bass fishing, unless it was getting close to weigh in time.

My former son in law, one of my best friends, and I got 3 of them in one day fishing tubes for smallies in Sandusky Bay off of Lake Erie. The total weight for the 3 of them was easily 100 pounds, all were hooked legally in their mouths. Is it the best way to go about it? Probably not, but we have also caught them on other lures too. I have also caught catfish on jigs and pig, plastic worms, and jigging blade baits or jigging Rapalas.