OhioFisherman

LOL Lew, me too, now the left hand and brain don`t want to work together. If I pitched something with my left hand it might be the rod and reel.

Hard to get a quieter approach than a drift, electric trolling motors just made drift easier to control?

My smokercraft is a deep v even with a wheeled tongue jack on the trailer it wouldn`t drain all the way. I took some pieces of 2x8, nailed them together and took idiot saw and made hole in the top one. Before I take the trailer of the van I put this under the trailer jack for more height. Drains the boat completely.

I have had a computer since 96-97, LOL Lew learns quicker! I cruised a lot of fishing sites, it was my main interest, mostly bass sites. I was planning a trip to Ontario, like a break in trip for my kids, some place fairly close, but with some character, Moon River which I had passed over many times came to mind, started looking for info and found this site. Illness may have kept me from a Moon landing, but OFC is still number 1.

Buck tail jigs also can work very well for bass.

Have to agree with the bad crimp on the leader sleeve. Leaders are a tough call, I used them when intentionally fishing for Pike and Skis but had issues with some, bad crimps, poor quality snaps and or swivels. Started making my own and no issues with the home made ones.

http://www.tritonboats.com/aluminum.asp My neighbor has one like this, he has had it for a couple years now and was purchased from another friend that bought it new a couple of years prior to that. No issue with it, no problems, a package boat that came with a 50 hp merc and will do about 32MPH with 2 people in it and gear. I fished out of it once on a small sheltered lake (electric power only) a fairly stable casting platform( me 235lbs him 200 lbs) not a boat I would want to be on rougher water though. http://www.crestliner.com/boats/boat_model.asp?BID=43 more of an all around boat and should handle rougher bigger water better.

I have spinning rods from 5 to 7 1/2 feet 5 footer an ultra light, not much use other than catching bait, 7 1/2 footers mostly for flipping and pitching, heavier sticks. Good decent action 7 footer my first choice for all around fishing.

Congrats to you and the family Brian!

I have also used spinning rods for pike in the past, Raf nailed it, lighter rod might be ok for smaller fish but if you want to land them, not watch them swim away use a heavier action rod. For most pike fishing a medium heavy is ok. Nothing wrong with ugly stick rods, not really my first choice but serviceable. I also favor a longer rod 6'6" to 7'6". If I am was just fishing for pike or ski`s a steel leader or maybe floro would be on.

I used duo-locks, size 2 or 3 for most of my bass fishing, 1`s were to small and not strong enough, maybe ok for panfish. Never lost a bass because of snap failure using a 2 or 3, probably not the best for huge pike or skis, had issues with a number of different styles and brands of snaps fishing for them. The stringease snaps would be my choice for them. A heavy snap and swivel on a lure can alter the action, especially on smaller lures.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jO9eK94...q3L4YwD92VEBL00

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news146.html Supposedly and scientific evidence points to it that dinosaurs and most other life on Earth were eliminated by a meteor strike on earth off of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Again followed by a period of high volcanic activity, seems logical to me that an object of that size striking Earth would cause cracks in the Earth`s crust causing volcanic activity. Hmmm? would I believe a scientist or a politician?

Condolences to his family and friends also, sad news. RIP Gary.

It looks like it`s top lip had been torn off.

Just me, but you don`t take stuff that took millions of years to develop, coal, oil, and blow through it in a couple hundred years and not expect problems. Then you factor in the millions of acres of trees we have cut down and replaced with concrete and asphault? LOL a green planet? Not with humans around.

I have power worms but used Zoom u-tails more often, just a personal choice. Rigging can vary a bit more for me than probably for most anglers. Cover sort of dictates the choice, solid cover like trees,boat docks,heavy weeds make the first choice a Texas rig, even though the soft plastic baits are sort of cheap I don`t want to be snagged a lot, wastes time and spooks fish. Around lily pads and such same deal without the weight usually worm with a 3/0 - 4/0 wide gap worm hook, weight of the hook lets it slither down. Sparse weeds, light cover I will put a worm-lizard on a light jig head, ball, worm nosed, exposed hook means better chance for a good hook up. Carolina rig works, allows you to cover areas of sparse weeds and what ever faster. Just my choice at least a 2/0 hook, L/M S/M even smaller ones have no problems with them. Fishing waters that I know have bigger than average bass a 4/0 even 5/0 hook. Quality hooks may not seem important, but they are, don`t try to save a buck on hooks. I use Mustad wide gaps or Gammies for the most part and I make my own ball or worm nosed with good hooks. I was slow to jump on the Lizard bandwagon, they work and average size of the bass tends to be larger, just a bigger profile lure compared to a worm.

And still no pictures!

You don`t have to break the bank to get started, consider your ability to cover a variety of water depths with a minimum amount of lures and go from there. Plastic worms, lizards, tubes, ect. can be rigged a variety of ways to cover different water depths. Jigs, swim them or fish on the bottom. Spinnerbaits slow rolled near or on the bottom to near the top, even in line spinners can work well at times. Some type of surface lure, buzzbait, pop-r, torpedo, devils horse, frog a lot of them out there and a matter of choice. Crankbaits, you don`t have to buy a bunch of one style, just get some that will cover a few different depths to start. Ones like a rattle trap style you can adjust the depth by retrieve speed.

Garry is right about the rod, lighter action rod for lighter baits. http://www.fostersofbirmingham.co.uk/st10785 Another option, these reels, same style as the 507(500) series were much more popular in England and European match fishermen, only sold in very limited quantities here. A fixed spool reel, drag is in the winding mechanism, just helps to eliminate line twist. Ryobi I believe made a conventional spinning reel with the same sort of set up. 704 is a newer model and smaller (lighter) than the 507, closer to the 505 506 size reels. LOL they cast much better than conventional closed faced reels, line opening is much larger over all. Less friction.

Congrats Roger! Working at BPS is about as close as you can get to fishing without being on the water.

A good marine store will have the T-Nuts in stainless steel. My bow platform had an aluminum plate under the floor(3/4 inch plywood) and was bolted with 1/4- 20 stainless nuts(Nylock) and bolts.

Again thanks everyone! Hard drive died, power supply went, probably from me watching too much fish porn instead of being out fishing? LOL Maureen, still looking at the grass from the top so all is good! Stevie, boat is still in the barn so you got a bed! If you can get to it! Roy, to old and ugly to worry about!

It can be tough if you don`t have a lot of experience with baitcasters. I used old shimano 251 black magnums with 10# test mono(Stren) newer model reels like a curado should work also. Best reel far and away for it is this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/abu-507-boxed-mint_W...id=p3286.c0.m14 Old style Abu 507, 506, 506m, 505, Abu Preimer 704, 507 is the biggest and will easily handle 17 or 20 pound test mono, smaller ones good for 10 maybe 12 pound test. No line twist at all with these reels and hard to find a better night fishing reel. They are getting pricey. No problems flipping or pitching and unweighted worm or lizard, 1/16th 1/8 ounce lures.

I had 4 done, a largemouth, a smallmouth, a northern and a walleye when I was a lot younger. A couple of local taxidermists here in Ohio did them, good jobs on all of them but over the years I lost all interest in stuffed fish. When I had the northern done, like 1979 it cost me a couple bucks short of what the cabin rental was for a week in Pointe Au Baril in September. I would have enjoyed another week up there much more than the fish on the wall. Just depends on where your heads at, rather have the chance of catching the rascal again myself. To each his own.