OhioFisherman

I have a 2009 Chevy 2500 series cargo express van. I bought it used from a dealer in July of 2009 for 17k and it had 14,750 miles on it or so. I have put about 10k miles on it, I no longer drive enough to worry about fuel prices. It pulls my 6x12 enclosed cargo trailer well, and it has 10 feet of floor space behind the seats if I need a nap.

While fishing a tournament here in Ohio at Alum creek lake. My partner and I were beating the banks in a quiet cove and kept hearing noises up in a tree. He said squirrel, I said it sounds too big to be a squirrel. After a look around to see? There was a groundhog up in a tree, maybe 10-12 feet off the ground. The only one I have ever seen off the ground.

LMAO! The last great Republican president (Eisenhower) recognized the problem long ago when he started construction of the interstate highway system. He numbered the east - west parts on it with the expected IQ levels of the portions on the country they were passing through. So with I - 90 passing through Ohio, PA, New York? We are the smart ones! LOL

I was not knocking or taking pot shots, just merely stating reported facts. Canada is a great country and in some ways preferable to my own. Our government has a tendency to over spend on everything, and then wonder why they are so deeply in debt.

It is reported that our military spends more annually on fighting corrosion on their gear than the entire annual military budget of Canada.

It is the driest year here since 1988, one of my last years of going to Ontario. That year we made a day trip to visit my buddy and his family that was staying at the Lunge Lodge on the French River. That year they had trouble with bears in camp, it had been very dry up there also, very few berries and such for the bears to eat. The black berries this year in my field are about the size of peas, a serious lack of water. We got some rain yesterday evening, last night, and this morning. It`s probably the most we have seen since late April. My buddy Joe stopped over Tuesday, his son and a friend now run the Lunge Lodge, and like 1988 they have had some issues with bears in camp. If there is no or little food in their chosen area? It will expand.

I usually fished them on a jig like a fuzzy grub, hooked from the bottom up a couple of segments up from the tail flap. I could cast them or just drop them to the bottom and reel in enough to keep them from crawling under rocks and drift over an area. It`s been a long time since I used them, at 4.75 a dozen they seemed like pretty pricy meals to feed the sheephead on lake erie.

I had them real bad in my yard about 6 years ago, I bought traps from home depot, they work! The traps which hold about a quart? were full every couple of days. If they are trapped and disposed of they can`t reproduce? Maybe you can use them for bait?

Catchy name, I wonder how big a bonus the dude that thought of it gave himself?

Yes, exactly. They work the same way as the Johnson Silver Minnow with the added attraction of a spinner, so it` kind of like a buzzbait too.

Do you have the right spark plugs installed? The wrong heat range on plugs can make an engine run funny.

Yum! Great Lakes grouper!

You can cast cranks with a spinning rod, I usually only had one or two in the boat, the rest casting rods. I was fishing a two day tournament at a lake in New York, the day prior to the tournament I had fished with a guy I had never fished with before. We were fishing about a 10 acre weed flat, the bite was slow and we were just trying to locate areas for priority for the tournament. I let him use one of my crankbaits and he lost a pig. The next day, day one of the tournament I did my usual rounds, flipping and pitching to shoreline structure, weeds, boat docks, nothing doing after a few hours. I went back and more or less parked on the flat, I took the crank that I had let him use, snapped it onto an available rod ( a spinning rod ) and caught a keeper the first cast. Over the rest of that day and the next I caught like 13-14 bass off of that flat, only 10 would measure, which was fine because I also caught the big bass of the tournament. Not the best combo for the area, a casting rod with heavier line than the 10# I had on the spinning rig might have been better, but I wasn`t changing, I seemed to have the retrieve speed, lure and action the fish were looking for dialed in with that combo. My partner never caught a fish, and I offered many times to let him use a copy of the same lure. The trick seemed to be to tick the weeds, if you hung up rip it free. A baitfish darting from cover?

Casting distance was never a primary concern for me, fishing the water effectively seemed a lot more important. Lure type, running depth, action, and color seem more important to me. Using a crankbait that runs 5 to 8 feet deep doesn`t make a lot of sense in 3 to 5 feet of water? Using a crankbait that requires a fast retrieve doesn`t make a lot of sense for neutral or sluggish fish? A slower retrieve will keep it in the strike zone longer? Sure sometimes you can get a reaction strike, but a little more time might also cause a fish to make a mistake? I have cranks from 1/8th ounce to Muskie size, they all have their intended uses. Sometimes you can use them differently with success, but some are best suited for one purpose. My favorite would be the old Storm wee steelie wart, it has bigger hooks, seems to draw strikes from a variety of species and can be fished fast, slow, or trolled. Bandit`s aren`t bad, but I feel the Storms have a better action and sound. Bomber and Cotton Cordell`s have worked, so have a lot of others.

See? Sometimes you can learn things fishing with old folks, even if they school you. LOL Mr. T wins?

It`s no different here, the county I live in here has the most farm ponds of any county in Ohio. One of the biggest reasons it is so hard to get permission to fish them is the number of lawsuits against the property owners by people trespassing and getting injured or killed in drowning accidents. It`s like wearing a sign? I`m stupid, but it`s your fault?

It`s more of an issue up there where you have more Muskie and Pike in the same waters as the bass? It is always interesting when you set the hook on something big, like a 30 pound carp or 20 plus pound pike or ski and it doesn`t move? Just runs off.

Yep, like harrison said, make them flying fish, especially the dinks.

My brother`s boats always seemed to lean to one side, but he was pushing 400 pounds.

The bass bite is best in the morning or evening? I still haven`t seen a bass with a watch.

I spent about 25 years going to Pointe Au Baril, it was very rare for us to see a small muskie, or catch one. We did lose a number of pigs over the years, our success at landing them was nil. It was enough though to keep us going back, it was never a numbers game for us and we should have been better prepared for a huge fish. Most of our big fish hook ups came after we had given up on Muskies for the day and were bass fishing. The French probably has the numbers, perhaps in limited areas? I think a lot of Muskies at Pointe Au Baril might just be deeper water fish? They don`t have to look as hard for food?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Storm-Texas-Shad-Fishing-Lure-/290565813771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a712760b

I have done it with Uncle Josh pork grubs, stuck a wide eye needle with rubber legs in the eye to give it more action. The pork grub was one of my favorite trailers.

Great! LOL I have had them hit a lure before it hit the water flipped in their zone.

They have been around a long time, Dan Gapen was a regular at the sportsman show in Cleveland. I have used them and caught fish on them, I do like a lure with a stronger hook though.