OhioFisherman

Anything a smallie will eat with the exception of surface lures, never got one on a surface lure and their mouths don`t have a good location for surface feeding. Tubes work, jig and pigs, crankbaits, just about any live bait. Ball head jig with a piece of worm, just about anything. They also love crawfish. Don`t know if they actually school, but I have caught more than I wanted in certain areas. They seem to prefer the same types of bottom as smallies, rocky bottoms, rip rap along causeways and bridges, current doesn`t bother them too much but an eddy or any current break is a better spot to try. They get pretty good size, up to around 20 pounds, sort of a bull dog fighter, down and deep.

Real hard t o beat a minnow and a bobber fishing for them, waters here they love emerald shiners. Small tubes, small jig and grubs, road runners, small crank baits. I have caught them on a lot of my regular bass tackle by accident, not the best way for numbers. They will spawn in a lot of the same areas a bass will and like cover, weeds, docks, wood in the water.

LOL Fish, 35 hp merc and it was rare for me to use a 6 gallon tank of fuel in a day, had the foot on the electric most of the time. One benefit of having smaller bodies of water to fish, 3000 acre inland lake here is pretty big. Glen, for the most part unions try to maintain the standard of living for their members, not unreasonable to expect slow steady improvement in wages and working conditions. Yes some abuses and heavily publicized in the past, abuses by executives just recently started getting equal time. Corporate pay goes up to 300 times their pay of 30 years ago and they complain when the worker asks for more? and wages aren`t up 4 times of 30 years ago? No increase in the minimum wage for like 10 years, but congress increases it`s pay 10 or 20 times, and wonders why the country is in trouble? LOL and still spends money like a sailor on a night out? Bear Stearns? typical, millions pad to executives that broke the bank? By the taxpayer? The smartest minds in the country know how to abuse or spin it to the rest.

The knob on the handle side adjusts side play, side to side motion puts tension on the spool shaft to adjust it, older Abu`s had two.The one opposite was the cast control, both needed to be set properly for best effect. Also little brake things, not sure of the name but most came with 3 sets of two, two were need, centrifugal brakes. On the old abus you have to take the side cover and possible the spool out to change them.(60`s and 70`s models) Haven`t used a Curado much, a few casts off and on with a buddies to try out(older model, Green). seems I heard mention of 3 for a setting on them but don`t know about it for sure. Or what the 3 meant. All my shimano reels are also older models.

Tools, like Ben says better a well rounded inventory than heavy on one unless it is a proven winner for you. When my dad was young flatfish were the lure of choice for Lake Erie walleye and blue pike, when I fished for them back in the late 70`s early 80`s on Erie a wiggle wart or hot n tot was hard to beat. Key is probably more to depth control, stick a lure in their face = more bites.

The US has lost millions of jobs, and deeper in debt. 20 dollar an hour jobs lost 12 dollar an hour job replacing it, not only hurts people but not a comparable revenue stream into the tax coffers, eg. more borrowing more debt, coupled with rampant spending by our government? Basic rule, you spend more than you take in, your in debt, if people can`t afford to buy your products because they don`t have jobs? Your gone? Do I keep a roof over my head or buy your outboard? A lot of manufactures have priced themselves out of business expecting double digit growth and profit rates, for them and their 7 and 8 digit executives.

Losing one over the side cost one guy a classic win some years ago, like a 1 pounder? They show it as a low light film pretty often. Never done that! The only time I have been in the water for a fish was wading.

A few run ins with them at a couple camps at Pointe Au Baril, one like 2 feet from my leg when I came down the steps out of the cabin. Also some dead ones on the road going into the camp area by the Shell station. LOL I have never seen one here in Ohio except in zoos and such, no hurry to do so either. Not afraid of snakes and such, just places me and my family should be and places they should be. Kids don`t look? Last one was like 88 or 89, last or second last time up there, didn`t stop going there because of them, just too much else going on. Kind of cool to see though, don`t remember any over 2 feet or so. Think me and one of my brothers and my buddy saw one dead on the road going into the camp when we were walking up to Kennedy`s store, thought it was a plant, someone put it there to scare people. That was like 1964, we asked the camp owner and he told us to stay out of the woods. Good Plan! I never wandered much, especially were I couldn`t clearly see the ground. There were also bears there, moose, and other big animals crashing through the bush. Just a lot of woods and bush in the area up there, lots of places for animals to be, expect the unexpected.

intellectual jobs? with that goes the assumption they can`t learn? The Chinese don`t seem as interested in protecting intellectual property rights as well as we do. A big push here to allow more people from foreign countries to enter because they are as smart, and work cheaper. Microsoft may be leading that charge. Mercury I believe has used the same power heads for mid range outboards as Yamaha for a number of years? Us older guys may remember when Japanese products hit the market, most were cheap, and junk, that has changed, so will the Chinese products, more of a matter of who is specifying what goes into and how they are made, when in doubt copy other peoples designs. Price of metals here is sky rocketing, scrap metals being sold and shipped to China, Aluminum cans now like 70 cents a pound over like 16 cents 10 years ago, food prices up like 23 percent in five years, 12. 5 percent in the last year. It has become a complex world, the US may wind up like England, a player but not number 1. The Chinese have a 3 or 4 to one advantage.

I drove 28.5 miles one way to one job and when they closed 25 miles one way to another, only 10 for my wife each way. I was a truck driver, the drive didn`t bother me, and being out of the city and close in burbs was worth it. Took me about 45 minutes to get to work, the wife 15, we knew what we were getting into with the driving before we moved out here to the country. To get most items besides the bare necessities we have to go into town 10 miles away. The only thing I regret is building a multi-level home instead of a one level like a ranch, I wasn`t sick at the time and never thought I would live long enough to worry about climbing stairs. They are an issue now.

Some news I saw mentioned a flu outbreak, I believe in Oklahoma that is nearing epidemic status. The flu shots here this year not to effective in preventing this strain. Don`t know anyone directly here in Ohio that has it, flu is dangerous take it easy see a doctor.

China doesn`t give their people much voice on things, news reports here the average Chinese worker makes 4 bucks a day, I do wonder how the people would feel if they knew and or could speak out about it with out repercussions? Tibet`s voice is being heard, at a price. American car companies created their own problems, a faulty product, poor design at times, not responsive to the public, so they looked at options, the companies seemed to blame labor costs, except for the corporate decision makers that made the problems. Divide and conquer, most Americans can`t understand they have been beaten down and more is coming, flood the labor force with cheaper immigrant labor to hold down costs and raise executives pay, if that`s not enough move the work to a cheap labor country with out a voice for the people. Just my opinion though, American wages have been stagnant or falling corporate pay has risen to 300 times the difference of the 50`s and 60`s. The voice that screams we are worth it the loudest? You do have to wonder if the benevolent rulers in China have billions stashed away in their homes and other places like Saddam Hussian did? Maybe their newspapers will check? I step down from the soap box, gotta buy chinese! my pension fund is probably deeply in debt to them.

Cheap labor is an American tradition! http://encarta.msn.com/media_461557942/afr...ing_cotton.html And yes they continue to spin cheap labor as a good thing, it is, for the business owner.

RangerGuy, I thought that too at first, the areas I fished for smallies on Lake Erie had a lot of rock, then a lot of zebra mussels. I checked my line for nicks all the time though, just couldn`t find nicks or cuts to be the reason and it only seemed to happen when using short baits like a jig, a 3 or 4 inch steel leader solved the problem. We could tell when we got into feeding walleye because we would start losing jigs. I don`t know why but a lot of the worm harnesses I used to see being sold here were made out of steel leader material. I use heavier line than some of my friends 10# is usually a minimum for me even in open waters of lake erie, we all have had issues with it. Just seemed like the walleyes because of their bigger mouths were getting the bait farther in than the smallies. Have the same problems in waters with pike and skis, not matter how quick you stick em it`s not quick enough to avoid teeth. In waters that are bass only here I don`t lose fish often, not afraid to cut off and retie and went thru a lot of line in a season, just cheaper to reline than lose fish in tournaments because I got lazy. Fished on Erie before Zebras became an issue, pike are an early spring thing in some areas, just to me pretty easy to tell a pike bite from a bass even though they run small here.

richyb is right on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Peeper

I have a gmail account which I prefer and one with my ISP Verizon. Gmail just seems a lot easier to use and a lot more storage space.

Walleye? Bait? LOL Lew! The Pickeral gods will hate you! See number 10 on the link http://www.stormlures.com/products/luresPo...name=soft_lures Cone shaped teeth or not I have been bitten off a bit fishing for bass and getting walleye, I start using a short steel leader and no more bite offs.

To tell you the truth Clamp-It I don`t know for sure if they are tree frogs, I don`t think so. We have tree frogs here and they are a lot bigger than the peepers. They seem to be little guys, about as big as a thumb nail and when they are making noise the area below their mouth seems to swell to as big as they are. Early yet, they will disappear with the next cold weather then be back again when it warms up again. They seem to disappear completely after the mating season. I get a few bullfrogs and leopard frogs in the yard also no big numbers of them though. Seen some areas here were there seemed to be thousands of leopard frogs, some in bad places for them to hang out.

Spring peepers out today here, along with the birds music in the air!

Just my experience with the nylock nuts is they make them in different heights, you might have to go to a specialty bolt place to find them though. Also some sizes of the nuts, metric and inch are pretty close but the threads can be damaged by trying to force one type on another. They should run on pretty easily until they hit the nylon insert in the nut. Thanks for the thoughts, 4 kids, it`s always something, even with the adult ones.

Virgin brand? I am guessing virgins use less energy?

I have pulled some zippers, first time at Lake Chautaqua in New York, 4 days of fishing 2 practice days 2 tournament days and didn`t land a bass, 2 muskies on and lost them both just to keep the string going. Next time there not a bit better, did cut the practice days, didn`t make sense to fish where they weren`t and I couldn`t locate them. 3rd time there like 5th or 6th place, dang fish must have found me. I have shot blanks even on waters I knew well, but usually one day at a time, I hate patterns like that! It can happen to anyone, fished in tournaments that no one caught a fish, 150 boats fields where 10 boats had fish, still beats sitting home!

I use a variety of reels, baitcaster, spinning reels, and some semi closed face reels, for the most part original stren on all of them. I do at times mix in some vanish or berkley line, but 90 percent of the time just plain old stren. One thing that can add line twist is to reel when the fish is taking out line, another is in-line spinner baits, best to use a quality ball bearing swivel with them. Some brands of ball bearing swivels aren`t worth the money even if you get them for free. Not enough experience with the braided lines to comment, have some on a couple baitcasters, just haven`t seen enough use or a fish.

City of Lorain here has one of the best launches on Lake Erie, like 4 or 6 ramps and police to direct traffic and break up the fights. Some of the things you see at the ramps? Morons!

LOL Jason, my son(19) has his leg in a brace now and is on crutches, bowling alley accident, told him to stop playing around and start fishing!