OhioFisherman

http://www.google.com/search?client=firefo...G=Google+Search That is certainly not going to help them.

A lot of lures will run much deeper than the box says with a lot of line out, much more than you would get on a normal cast. We used to troll with lures like Storm wiggle warts and hot-n-tots and not much trouble to get the bumping the bottom in 16 -18 feet of water. Once you get the feel of it you can troll and follow the bottom depth on the depth finder and keep them at the right depth fairly well. Never used downriggers or dipsy`s myself.

Ya Dekay`s are just little guys, can`t really picture them eating anything but bug and worms.

Cool! We find them in our yard all the time. Garter, ribbon and dekay`s snakes, still waiting to find something different. I put them in our field out of the way of the lawn mower.

Used the Gulp Gobies once dropshotting on Lake Erie with Whopper and Deg, no takers, but a slow day for fish overall. If I was able I would put more time in with them. Used to know a guy that worked for Berkley on Iowa, he made me sort of an unofficial field tester by sending me stuff. An overall good product, caught a lot of fish on powerbaits.

LOL Phil don`t think you could handle two. Didn`t have a clue what you guys had some I packed heavy, a lot of good it did us? You do look great holding them silver bass! Got a couple-3 other bags just don`t need to usually carry that much around. I knew I was going to be with 3 strong young lads?

Lew my friend, not out of line at all, still think of your families loss. Came close myself once, a hard thing to deal with. Might not always agree with my kids, but still my kids, sure my parents weren`t down with some of my deals.

Nice job do you travel?

LOL Garry. Me too! Ya they were originally meant to imitate the rainbow trout being stocked in the California lakes, seen some though bigger than 4 inch that cost a lot more than 20.

Some of the pricing on the single packs is stiff for some hooks, especially when your getting 5 in a pack. My buddy ordered jig hooks through these people after I made him a copy of the flyer they sent me some years ago. Tough to buy in 1000 quantities though unless you can get a few people that fish hard to do it. We would order the Mustad 32746BLN about 75 bucks per K with shipping and taxes, about half what it was costing us buying them buy the hundred. The Gammie 604`s here sell for 32-35 bucks a hundred? and there isn`t many places near here that stock them, usually a mail order deal too. Just a bit more than half price when you buy a thousand. Not many people use that many though. Just a thought, throwing out old stuff in the desk, found some cool rabbit hair jigs I had forgotten about, dude gave me a freebie when I placed a large order for some of his other jigs.

Salmon are expensive to raise, Ohio gave up long ago, money was better spent on other species. They closed the hatcheries dedicated to raising them and bought a cold water facility from a fishing club to raise steelhead. I have fished in New York, not for Salmon or in Lake O but they do a better job managing their stuff than Ohio. It was worth the money to me to have 4 different licenses at one point. Ohio, Pa, New York and Ontario, and I kept a fish or two a year. People think nothing of blowing a hundred bucks at a baseball or football game? For a traffic hassle and a couple- few hours? One fee and your set for the year.

http://www.shortyshooks.com/CATALOGS.html Some real good prices if your stateside and willing to buy in quantities of 1000 minimum.

Great pictures and report! Nice fish! I think I am snowblind! LOL

Pretty hard to load skids of bags in a trailer with damaged interior walls. one bump can tear the shrink wrap holding the bags on the skid(pallet) and tear the bags open. Other products can be damaged too, but nothing like torn bags of a product that is hazardous or messy like carbon black powder, that stuff will cover everything with a black dust and is hard to clean up. Most of the trailers have a thin sheet of plywood or fiberglass about half way up the inside walls to cover the rivets and bolts used to build it and such. Some of the fiberglass trailers(Fiberglass over plywood) just have a short piece maybe 2 feet from the floor for the same reason. Seen tape used on some for quick repairs, but never gave it much thought and never saw our mechanics doing it so never asked. Brian here are a couple links for tape suppliers hope it helps. http://directory.canadianmanufacturing.com...amp;cmoid=41914 http://www.sme.in/Strapping_Tape.htm http://www.electrotape.com/

Just something to consider, how long do you plan to keep a new house? Had mine built in 89, I was 38 no physical problems and never really expected any. 4 levels to my home, and I have some serious issues with stairs now. Love my location, neighbors I can deal with, but man I wish it was a ranch! Wife isn`t getting any younger either and I can tell when she is coming downstairs by her knees popping. Mother and father in law have a bungalow with a couple spare bedrooms upstairs, they are in their 70`s now and probably haven`t been upstairs more than a couple of times a year for the last 10 years. Get a reliable builder and get everything in writing.

what is Copolymer fishing line? Not sure what it is now, but back in the mid to late 1980`s Stren rolled out Prime with a big advertising campaign. Inner and out layers, and I put it on most of my reels just before a trip up north. After 17# test breaking on the hookset 3-4 times and leaving a pigtail of the inner layer I stopped fishing and drove down to Parry Sound and got enough line(original stren) to refill all my reels. Only time I was so dissatisfied with a product that I stopped fishing to change. I let them know about it, it wasn`t on the market long.

SlowPoke, are you patching trailer roofs?

I used to make an early spring run up BPS, Cabela`s, in Michigan and Jann`s Netcraft in Toledo, usually dropped 250-300 a trip, but had me pretty much set for the year. A flea market a mile from the house so lots of deals, but a forty year collection. Plus I collected and traded some older reels for a time. Looked around at the end of the season for clearance sales. Other stuff like electric trolling motors I don`t count as gear.

http://www.usangler.com/product.cfm?model=...&type=Hooks I have used these, makes it easy to be weedless. Like mentioned earlier Mustad also makes a similar hook now , 4/0-5/0 for pike don`t know if you can get them bigger. Some of the in-line spinners don`t have a split ring, I just cut the hook off and put one on.

Mike, if you look at the spoon before you buy them (many brands and styles) a wider thin spoon will run shallower on a retrieve than a thick narrow one. A standard dardevle is what I would call a normal thickness and width spoon. Lots of variations from there, dardevle also made some narrow ones. I have caught pike on a variety of them, a slower retrieve will let them run deeper. Some real thin ones are intended for downrigger use and I have seen people take the back treble off some deep running crankbaits, tie a leader on the eye and a spoon and troll them. Johnson silver minnow is a good one for snaking thru weedbeds, lilies. Caught some pike on little cleo`s, what is considered a steelhead lure here. Kind of like and other lure mix up the retrieve a bit and see what is working best, fast or slow, shallow or deeper. A hook like a Mr.Twister keeper hook or Mustad makes a similar one also can be used to replace the rear treble and makes for easy weedless attachment of grub or similar soft plastic.

RattleTrap? trout? no self respecting pond owner here wouldn`t start with anything but bass! LOL Probably the reason why all the state record bass for the last 40-50 years or so have come from ponds. Just to much pressure on public waters here to see a 10 pounder. I keep forgetting you don`t live in a pint sized state. TSC puts an ad out in the spring here, 6-8 inch bass like 10 bucks per. Most of the guys I know with ponds boosted the size with some caught fish, may not be legal there. Nice to stick in a few 18-20 inch fish at the start.

http://www.puresprings.com/

Do you have TSC -Tractor Supply Stores up there? A lot of farm ponds in my area, and some farmers supply stores have a weekend or two in the early spring where the have someone come in and sell live fish for pond stocking. Here it is probably a lot more limited to the species available Bass, Bluegill, Catfish, and a couple types of minnows, but maybe others are available? Might help? http://www.polocenter.com/health/feedcaon.htm Feed stores might have a clue?

I don`t specifically target cats, incidental catches for us so we don`t invest money in gear for them. Most of the heavier bass tackle, pike tackle has worked to land them with no issues. 17-20 pound test mono, I use stren but your choice, a stiff baitcasting rod or spinning rod. Our bigger ones up north were caught while fishing for pike walleye skis with big chubs-shiners on a heavier 3/0-4/0 heavy hook but a pre snelled one with with leader because cats weren`t the target. Powerful fish, if you hook them in an area that has wood in the water you want to be able to keep the away from it. Rod my wife used, not much of a caster, and definitely not a bait caster was a heavy 6 foot ugly stick, old style diawa spinning reel, like maybe a 2600? larger than most freshwater reels, like maybe the old mitchell 302-6 size. All I used when fishing with her was my heavier bass gear, 7'6" flipping stick, 20 pound mono, rod is rated for like 3/8 to 2 ounce lures.

Never fished for Brook Trout or Lakers, a white tube or white 3 inch grub(power grub) works for steel head and smallies, walleye here on Erie in the fall, especially if the Emerald shiners are around. If I am using a white grub only two color choices for me for the jighead, white or black.