OhioFisherman

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!

I almost always had a can of ether around to check for starting problems, ether will fire when gas won`t, weak spark. For safety reason? blow off the plugs with an air compressor rather than a torch? An engine needs 3 things to run, fuel, air, ignition, and the proper timing of the 3. With a carb the engine is getting fuel if you spray ether or pour a little gas into the carb, and it is also sucking air if it turns over, even with low compression, so spark and timing are suspect.

The 59 Bel Aire had enough room under the hood for a 348 and a couple of guys to stand and work on it! Only mice can find shelter under the hood of a 2009 Malibu! I was like 14? on our way to Sandusky Bay one spring morning to catch some crappies. Dear old dad had spring crappie fever! He got nailed for 70mph in a 35mph zone at 6am in the morning in Huron Ohio, us and the cop were the only ones on the road there that early on a Sunday morning back then. The court in Huron at the time would wave the fine, a days pay back then and only nail you for court costs, like 10 bucks back then, if you came and saw the driving safety movies. So dad decided we would go and see movies, they were in the evening at the Huron High School so no loss of work. Basically 2 hours of auto crash horror stories, them old tanks of the day were nowhere as safe as they seemed! Lost a lot of friends back in the day that crashed them tanks, a lot at fairly low speeds.

That old coot that predicted that has more Bull than any fisherman! He made the same prediction back in 1994? Maybe he drank enough since then to forget that failure? Or was praying every one else did? Now I might have believed people seeing pink elephants at Lakeaire? Or possibly that fishing was done there?

Was it a cold day? I can`t really imagine some one greasing it up so badly that the parts would be slow to engage in the cold? Crunching sounds in a reel aren`t a good thing, if there is a tackle shop around that does repairs it might be worth having them take a look.

Most of my casting reels for the last 30+ years have been Shimano`s, some Abu Garcia reels mixed in. Common reels, parts are readily available, if a tight budget a Citica isn`t a bad reel. You can also check Ebay for a gently used old model Curado, good reels.

I have been on wood boats, steel boat, aluminum boats and fiberglass boats, some have a reputation as a good riding boat, some merely fair. Dad had two wooden Lyman`s, a much better ride than his same size Sandusky wood boat. Different hull designs and the Lyman`s were a heavier boat even though the size and motor was the same. Most of the tri hull glass boats I have been on were great in calm water, they would beat you up in rough water at the same speed. My 25 foot Searay rode better than a 25 foot Bayliner, just a better hull design and heavier construction. All the bass boats I have been on rode well, but taking one out in the Great Lakes in 4 to 6 footers usually isn`t a good plan. Buy a boat that suits your intented uses. Had a 17 foot Smokercraft for 20 years, aluminum and never a leak, and it rode well in decent waters, 3-5 foot waves weren`t what it was made for.

The water is up 1.5 meters? roughly 4.5 feet? A lot of new areas for the fish to feed and spawn, they may be scattered. There may be gaps between the old weedbeds and the new shoreline, try fishing those gaps?

Dang Brian, doesn`t sound like much fun! The beard has a middle eastern look to it? It`s hard to tell what them people are thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redear_sunfish

Also very right handed, and I don`t own a right hand retrieve bait caster, and I have more than a few. The Curado is a decent reel, just practice with it, if you can find a friend or some one to fish with that will give you some pointers even better. Learn to flip and pitch with it, and a roll cast, put some time in and get accurate making casts, it`s just a different feel than a spinning reel.

Ya like Garry say, a worm weight pegged with a round tooth pick or rubber stop will work and cheaper than drop shot weights.

Good Luck Eric, as you know any sort of physical therapy will present an additional challenge to us folks with MS.

Well your bass boats got their start in southern waters, granted that some of the lakes there are very large, but most are man made and better sheltered than most of the great lakes. Just usually not the amount of rough water you see farther north. As I recall the early Rangers were a tri-hull? an OK boat for calm waters, heck they still use a lot of jon boat style boats in the south. Casting decks on deep v`s deeper in the boat? A drier fishing experience, lower center of gravity in rough water, less chance of going swimming. A bass boat with lower sides catches less wind, will usually get into shallower water, a stable platform to fish from. The deep v`s with a lower casting deck do pose challenges in tournaments, but they can be compensated for.

What Roy said, but probably a lot more fish on a 6 inch plastic worm since the early 70`s than anything else. A lot of fish on a lot of different lures, but I almost always had a rod rigged with a worm. Favorite would be a 6 inch Zoom u tail in Junebug. Er... for smallies? tubes.

Thanks MuskyMike, like I mentioned never up there this early myself, but I seem to recall Dad mentioning they used to have a cable across the river at the mouth when it was closed for the walleye.

Dad always had great expectations when heading north for the walleye openers, he would take 500-1000 night crawlers with him for a week. He always used worm harnesses up north for walleye. If you think about it the spring run off is probably washing a lot of them into the lakes and river systems. Probably more than they see naturally any other time of the year? Dad and my uncle fished one of the Karwatha lakes, don`t remember which one, but they did real well on plastic worms on a worm harness. My uncle used to fish that lake pretty regularly.

MuskyMike, correct me if I am wrong but isn`t it just a sanctuary when walleye are not in season? I was never up there this early in the year.

You can check and see if they make shocks with coil springs over them, the used to.

Haven`t noticed a difference between the day time bite and night time bite. My ex got two, one around 15 pounds one pushing 25 in the middle of the afternoon at Pointe Au Baril. I have caught a number of them all over during the day.