OhioFisherman

There was a similar but different style, the weight looked about the same but just a single wire. A lot of people used them on the great lakes for trolling over rocky areas, just a method of reducing snags. Might have been 12-16 inches high, with a good sized chunk of lead molded on to it. I believe they used to troll worm harnesses behind them. Dad used to make them out of coat hanger wire.

LOL Billy, trying to hog the glory? Buffalo fish? Cleveland carp!

Some states here allow record fish from private ponds, Ohio is one of them. Years ago my brother pulled one from a pond not far from where I live that was easily 7. As he held it up to show me it flipped right out of his hand down the bank back into the water, LOL a grown man cry? That particular pond had golden shiners in it up to 3/4 of a pound or so. I have only lost two L/M in 40-50 years of fishing that I was sure were over 7, one may have been way over, both from farm ponds. Long ago the beer or liquor store in Pointe Au Baril had a pig on the wall caught at a near by lake, as I recall it was 8ish and huge. It doesn`t take a big lake to produce big fish, just the right mix. Look at the pigs they pull out of some small California lakes. Of course they have the advantage of a year round growing season.

Lake Erie silver bass!

LOL my shirts logo is carhart, and no I don`t know him!

"No one mentioned musky either" LOL Norm, Sheep head! That`s brain food!

Not much, my kids call my barn the tackle store. I have tackle to catch any thing from minnows to muskie. I use to collect Abu reels, and have around 40 rods and reels I used. LOL I didn`t spend money on bassboats, booze, or harley`s so I had more for tackle, and to actually go fish.

I kept a 5 or 6 pound walleye or steel head some years for the wife and kids to eat. I got my fish sandwich at McDonald`s on the way home. Just way to much fun catching them for me to kill them off. I stopped mounting fish in the very early 80`s, it just seemed pointless, the memories were enough.

LMAO, Harrison that one looks like it never moved away from the feeding spot! Great fish guys! I caught a lot of them, but never one over 22 inches, the real pigs had a habit of swimming away early. I have seem sixes and sevens, the nice thing about weigh ins, you don`t have to guess. No they weren`t mine!

On Lake Erie summer time I usually started looking in water 15-20 feet deep. some times they could be shallower or deeper but not often enough to justify looking until I check the 15-20 range first. I really don`t like to fish for them deeper, but have caught them 30+ feet, and as Cudz mentioned if you don`t fizz them they will have a problem. Other waters I have caught them in a foot or two of water, but only at night in the summer. If I know a lake has smallies, I start looking in rocky areas with at least 6-8 feet of water and move deeper.

"It's like there's some kind of growth limiter on those waters" Probably the two biggest growth limiters are food supply and fishing pressure. Here in Ohio a new state record L/M only seems to be possible in private farm ponds. Just too much fishing pressure on public waters. The last state record L/M out of a public lake? 40-50 years ago. The state record smallie? I believe Lake Erie? A tremendous food supply for them, miles of habitat, and millions of fishing hours involved. They are special because they are rare! Nature`s works of art! As much as catch and release is practiced? some still keep big bass. Some lakes have the food supply and habitat to produce nice fish fairly often, but limited by fishing pressure. You rarely catch the biggest fish in the lake, but you keep going back searching for it!

Fishing with frogs or other surface lures in the slop can be frustrating at times. Wait until you feel the weight of the fish on the line to set the hook. Gar pike also will hang out in the slop, the shape of them is similar to a pike, and they will slap at lures mistaking them for prey, they are even harder to get a hook set in.

Much older, but I was young once also. One particular area of the place we went to regularly in Ontario always seem to have some big fish hanging around. 25 years of going there and it was a spot we would hit 4-5 times a day just to see what was lurking around. One time I was using my dads tinny, trolling down the channel using a transom mount electric and felt a bump on the motor. Hmmm? 12-14 feet of water, lowed back and there was a muskie that had swam past my lure and hit the prop on the electric motor. I had put reflective tape on the blades. Same area a couple years later, trolled past a boathouse, and it looked like some one fired a torpedo at my lure, from right out of the boat house. Another big ski, grabbed the lure and 4-6 feet of line as it blew past me, set the hook but cut. Same area, buddy trolling a custom painted Magnum Rapala on a rod with the action of a broomstick and 40 pound mono, fish on! and it just took off, never did see it, and broke the line. 3 pike or 40 inches from the same cove 3 years straight, a 31 & 28 inch walleye, and all the fish that I didn`t get to the boat or near it on bass tackle. One of the strangest things? fishing here in Ohio in a quiet cove with a friend, something kept making noise in a shore line tree. We finally got a chance to see it, not a squirrel, a ground hog, about 15 feet up a tree. Buddy hooked a snake while fishing off of Middle Bass Island on Lake Erie, a 3 foot or so water snake, and mad as hell, we cut the line on that one. Fishing in Virginia in a water supply lake, kept getting hits of large shiners, no hook sets, reel in and the bait is cut in half, hmmm? then I hooked one! a big eel, also mad as hell, no clue so cut the line. 46 inch or so gar pike on the G/B, rattlesnakes on the G/B, in the fading light with my uncle on the G/B there is a beaver! noooo! way to big to be a beaver, a bear cub swimming across a shallow channel we were going through. Let`s get closer! nope, 3-4 feet of water, mama is close by. In a hurry to release a fish caught in a bass tournament, a small muskie, lipped him, a very bad move! Just lucky though, 4-5 pounds so it still had it`s baby teeth. But my thumb was sore for a long time. LOL way too many fishing tales, none really ended too badly though. Some interesting things can happen if you fish enough!

I went through the same thing here stateside. They are suppose to be your medical records? but the doctor has the right to give them to the doctor he sells his practice to? Once I was told of the costs? I decide against it, a lot of the information in the files are just the doctor`s diagnosis`s and observations. In my case a series of improper conclusions, I should pay for miss-information? Things may be different up there, here in Ohio you have a legal right to obtain copies of x-rays, mri`s and such from the facility that took them, and any associated reports from the physician that examined them for a cheap copy fee only. Again opinions, my first neurologist took the small dots on my brain mri to be small strokes, even though it was noted by the expert than examined the mris " given the location a de-myelinating process isn`t entirely excluded". Second neuro was equally lame in his diagnosis, couldn`t answer relevant questions on it, refused to consider my diagnosis, and stated that "no further testing was needed or necessary" which lead me to ask him for a referral to a real doctor. This expert, at the Cleveland Clinic`s Mellen MS center felt more testing was in order, and confirmed my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. LOL patent medicine? I still go to doctors , do I accept their word? at times, if the facts add up! Note I also had to diagnose my daughter`s appendicitis, the hospital said no and were sending her home, until I forced the issue, then after a cat scan the surgical team was called. You are your own best advocate! LOL I am not a doctor, and I won`t play one on TV!

Just so you new carp fishermen know, they taste better than Walleye or Perch! Keep them and eat them!

LOL, good work guys! I thought Harrison was as big as Roy.

LOL Johnny, ya gas can be an issue. My SeaRay had a 75 gallon tank, docked at a marina and the fuel prices for on the water fill ups average a bit higher. It wasn`t too hard to push the limits of the fuel tank in a busy weekend, of fishing or just cruising around. If I used a 6 gallon tank of gas on my 35hp and smaller boat I considered it a run and gun day on smaller inland lakes. A lot of the lakes and rivers here have expansive no wake zones, one river we fished often is 6mph until you get out into Lake Erie, and you could catch good fish in the river. So on rough lake days or after work open tournaments it was a favorite. You could weigh in 10-15 pounds of bass and never put the gas motor down. It is nice to have the speed, you don`t always have to use it? Bass boats just make a nice stable fishing platform under most condition.

Like everyone has mentioned with the different approaches, any could work. Time of day, or night could also be a factor, the fish can move on and off of areas like this to feed. They usually have easy and quick access to much deeper water and may attract bait fish and have a resident craw fish population. Walleyes will also feed on craw fish. Another option, a spin off on singing dogs is to troll a crank bait across it to locate fish. Again it is nice to have the crank make bottom contact at some point, but it`s not always needed, a craw fish, bait fish, or even perch pattern may work. A black jig can be very good, a white one in areas with a lot of bait fish present can be also. A common method for us on Lake Erie was to tip a fuzzy grub or foxee jig with a golden shiner 3-5 inches long, the bait was bigger than the jig and the minnow struggled non-stop a distressed action that attracted fish. Some reef - shoal areas turn on at night. One camp owner on the Georgian Bay took us to a couple areas at night to walleye fish, either trolling worm harnesses or casting floating Rapalas through the rocks areas, it worked. We couldn`t seem to catch them in the same area during the day. Always use caution though in un-familiar waters at night.

you haven`t lived yet, get a day with a nice steady rain at blast off time, then you will understand the need for a motorcycle helmet. Rain in the car behind the windshield is a lot more comfortable than at 60-70 mph on the water.

Tubes or grubs can be effective for smallies or walleye, you don`t really have to jig them, just drift and keep bottom contact, or establish bottom contact a keep the lure a little off the bottom to reduce snags, it should make contact with higher rocks in the drift.

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Some of the best days I have had fishing for bass has been in the rain. Not sure what it is doing there, but a slow steady rain here most of the day, and after a 4 day or so dry spell. My view a perfect day to hit the water, no thunder or lightning here, mild winds. Rain knocks or washes bugs into the water, food for bait fish and small fish, they start feeding and get careless and the predators start feeding on them. It can cool things down and puts oxygen in the water, a win - win deal. One trip to Ontario we had about 6 hours of dry weather in a week, still caught fish, and some good ones. A day like today is a lot more comfortable than when it is 45-50 degrees out and raining. Yes bass can find a plastic worm in the water even with rain beating on the surface, day or night.

More like the movie running man? stay home watch tv don`t complain, big brother will tell you what is good? based on the deals the politicians running big brother make.

" Hey it works in America. They don't call them the prozac nation for nothing.lol " LMAO Johnny ! They do? Probably because because some here worry about some of our leaders are selling Turnpikes ( toll roads ), prisons, they want to privatize Social Security, don`t allow competitive bidding on drugs supplied to patients and paid for under medicare and medicaid. We seem to have trouble dealing with disasters, Katrina, oil spills. LOL the military and industrial complex may pick our wars? because we have made friends with the communists and it would be foolish to attack some country you are deeply in debt to? When our crooks get voted out of office or face term limits? They then switch sides and the favors are returned! They go to work for the companies they supported! Things have changed, a good war now has to last 8 or 10 years so the companies can maximize their profits! LMAO, Prozac please, make it a double!

Just my view, an Abu 4600 series reel is fine for bass, walleye. A situation where most of the fish you are going to be catching are under 10 pounds. Same could be said of the Curado 100 series reels, just smaller reels and although they can handle an occasional bigger fish if your intended targets are bigger fish? equip yourself accordingly? Monster pike? a Shimano 300 series reel or similar, a flipping stick intended for 3/8 to 2 ounce lures would be as light as I would go.