OhioFisherman

Cold front moving east after a couple days of record heat here, it showed on the other side and north of Chicago Il. 100 degrees at Cedar Point, with a heat index of 105, what a day to wait in line for a ride?

Ohio I believe was paying farmers to leave a wider area along rivers and streams natural, un tilled un planted, natural growth to help filter some of the run off from their fields into the waterways. With the increase in the price of crops it wasn`t compensating them for the loss of available acreage to plant. There was talk of stopping the program, cash strapped. Like the posts before a lot of issues contributing to it.

Heck Johnny I made it east of Buffalo and the peace bridge for the first time last year on the way to Providence RI to rescue my daughter, Eastern New York State and even parts of western New York are very nice! Always want to head up to Lake Champlain, but I could catch 5-6 pound bass here, and for the scenery? Ontario had it beat.

Dang! a very pretty province!

One of my leading objections to the Bassmaster tour and them seemingly glorifying sight fishing. If they were actually so concerned about protecting the species? Or is too much money involved?

They hand out fishing regulations or have then for free for those that need them on the counter of most places I have bought a license some people never take one or open it up. Fishing at an area pond I had a dude walk up to me and show me the Rainbow trout he had caught, they were sunfish. On vacation at the Georgian Bay one time and a couple guys show me and my buddy the huge Largemouth bass they had caught and asked if it was good to eat, Ya go for it! It was a bowfin. At local lakes here I have seen people fishing from shore put what ever they catch in their bucket, " if it`s big enough to bite? it`s big enough to eat? " and species was no concern to them. A former friend of my dad`s tried to come back here one time with 27 northern pike between him and his friend, he got busted and whined about it, we laughed at him. With the increase in population in a lot of areas the fishery becomes more fragile, some one needs to do something to protect it? Perhaps warning signs? " a fishing rod is not a license to be stupid ".

Fishingbill, that pvc pipe comes in 10 foot lengths and is easily cut and glued.

It`s all about judgment, some days even a big boat isn`t the safest place to be on rough water. I ran into a guy one time at South Bass Island with a pontoon boat, like a 24-28 footer? He was on his way to Florida, through the Great Lakes, and inter coastal waterway, an interesting trip. He had sense enough to seek safe harbor at South Bass due to weather conditions!

Cool Smoke, any wandering I did when I was up in Ontario was never far from the water, so sandy soil. I remember one camp owners garden, it looked pretty anemic to me compared to here. Heck it started raining here as soon as the snow melted and never seemed to stop for more than a day. we are on a roll now though! 3 days and only 5 minutes of rain! Usually fields of corn and soybeans all over my area, and planted by now, not this year, yet?

A strange spring here too, the second wettest on record, and living in farm country here it is weird to see the farmers fields haven`t been plowed of planted yet. My yard has basically been like walking on a wet sponge all spring, former farm field. With the flooding along the Mississippi river here in the states they are saying some farm fields may not dry out in time to plant crops this year.

Walmart here sells new ones, like 500gph for around 20 bucks? I made the mistake of replacing mine once with a 750gph one, it would pump in faster than the water would drain out and overflow the livewell. It was an old boat, they may have made allowances for upgrades now.

Walleye and ski`s count? Nice going guys!

Corey, that is part of the problem, that isn`t always the best way to tell. Usually when fishing with one of my friends, a partner in a tournament when I fished them? We would agree to use different lures or colors of lures, just to see what might work faster. Fishing a bay off of Lake Erie with my buddy that both of had had fished often. The same conditions weather wise as we had fished a week or two earlier. Both of us pitching 6 inch zoom utail worms to boat docks, just a color difference, me a junebug, him watermelon blue fleck. He had 3-4 fish in the boat in 5 minutes, I didn`t have a hit pitching to the same spots. Changed colors to his and bam! But junebug has always done the job there. A club tournament in another bay a couple miles down the road, 15 boats 30 guys, all good fisherman and a self imposed club rule of a 3 fish limit per boat. My partner and I beat the water all day, not a hit, and we had fished there many times before. 15 minutes before we headed back to the ramp? I changed lures and went back the other way down a bank we just covered, 3 casts 3 fish, like 10-11 pounds, good enough for 3rd place. and absolutely no clue why that choice worked, my parnter still didn`t get a hit. Just another style of soft plastic lure, a different shape, color, fished the same way. We fished the same bay in the fall for another tournament about the same number of boats and guys, none had a hit all day. The only time I have seen that happen. I have beat up spots on Lake Erie for smallies, fish all day with very poor results, then all at once they either move in or turn on and for a half hour or so non stop action. Then it`s like some one flipped the switch off again, no hits. You just have to make every hit count and don`t give up. Some days a hero? some a zero? I like to limit the zeros.

A great topic, but I really don`t know what to add that can be counted on except to stay flexible on your lure colors and selection of lures. Although the water is generally clearer here than 20-30 years ago? I still wouldn`t call it as clear as the waters of say the Georgian Bay during the same time period. Chrome and black, gold and black lures have always been a standard here, on sunny days the flash factor may have been the reason, but the dang fish also hit them on cloudy days and also after a rain when our waters tend to pick up some color pretty quickly. Given that was it the lure color or lure action? Or simply that the fish were feeding more aggressively on a particular day? Or a particular time of day? I didn`t go on the water with a preconceived notion that the lure I was using was the lure that would work, or it was the right color, only that those choices had worked well in the past. I stayed flexible enough to mix up the choices if the choices weren`t working.

Cool Craig, I had my Smokercraft from 1987 until 2009, no complaints.

Personal best = PB

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/31421.html Nice fish! New York has some very good bass fishing, didn`t fish many lakes there but enjoyed the ones I did.

A bit of a misspent youth Wayne, ya that happened, more than once. I picked some great places to do it also. Euclid ave. in downtown Cleveland, nice to have a guy along side of you and the cops chasing you both? Had the cops chase me down my street one time, dad and grandma sitting on the porch watching us go by. It just seemed silly at the time to stop for a cop in a Rambler wagon. There were a couple of industrial streets near me in Cleveland, on Friday and Saturday night mostly deserted, except for the street racers and crowds watching them. From 1964 to 1971, the glory days of Detroit iron, some bad rides! Heck I saw guys trailer dragsters to the streets, race, load them up and leave. Wild times back then, drive 50-60 miles to a drag strip? Closer places, with a little risk. I don`t advise anyone to do it now.

Sounds like a bad ground to me also, it can cause all kinds of strange problems, and even happens on tractor trailers where you have the 5th wheel plate for a ground. Clean off any rust, spray some wd 40 on the ball and trailer connection.

No clue, the only time I usually lost fish was when a pike or ski ate my bass lure, no steel leader, too light of line for a big fish around cover. Could it be they are short striking it? For the most part I stuck them no matter what line or rod I was using.

1964 GTO, 1965 Nova, 1968 Camero.

Ya, a former street racer here, the cops frowned on it.

I am fairly certain things would probably be handled differently here too today. It`s sort of funny thinking about it now, we I was a kid most of the freeway system here now wasn`t here then. A lot of two lane highway driving to get anywhere, driving to Cincinnati Ohio from Cleveland could take the better part of 8 hours. The speed limit on most of the two lane highways was 60mph, but you had a small town every 8-10 miles and a lot of them didn`t post the speed limit changes real well ( speed traps ). The 8-10 mile spacing of small towns? Established during the horse and buggy days, it took folks the better part of a day to get into town, get what they needed and back home before dark. LOL but they were spreading fertilizer all the way? Different times, we probably had half our present population, and unless you were a jerk the cops would cut you a lot of slack.

Be careful! giving Americans beer is like giving indians whiskey!

I am always thrilled to beat a lady too!