OhioFisherman

Urban sprawl may factor into it bcee, I live about 25 miles south of the lake but get my water from Lake Erie. The communities around here no longer build water supply reservoirs, they don`t want to tie up land that can be taxed or used for development, or the continuing costs of maintaining a water supply reservoir, so they pipe it in from the lake. Water from Lake Erie is supplied to communities about 10 miles south of me also and the trend is growing. We don`t have sewer systems, septic tanks with a swale and runoff to nearest creek it seems, runs off thru farmers fields, back yards, mixes with animal waste washed down stream by rains out into the lake. I haven`t been up to Sandusky Bay in a few years but the water level was dropping back then, stuff I used to pitch to near shore was on shore. Ohio isn`t the only state that is sucking water out of the great lakes at an increasing pace.

Great report, nice fish guys!

supernaut, the reel is sort of adjusted to the conditions for me, I don`t use braid so a spinning reel is a light line reel for me. Usually 8-10 pound test, heavier line on the baitcasters, but I have 10 on a couple of them. More open water I go with a spinning reel and lighter line, more junk in the water heavier line. Just depends on what you are comfortable using. Tubes are great lures, I don`t go fishing without them, but a tool there are days when other lures will out fish them.

It depends entirely for the most part on the water you are fishing. In water that doesn`t have much junk in it like wood or weeds a tube jig insert or even a jig head will work, you just slide them in. For waters with junk(slop), weeds, wood, tex-posed is your best bet just far less snags,far less time clearing weeds off, the hook is covered. You can also carolina rig or drop shot them. If you have ever seen a minnow or crawfish darting around the bottom when spooked, it is the action I try to present. A lot of different things you can do with them and they will draw strikes from a lot of different species.

Wayne`s time on line seems to have gone down since he got the new boat. OFC king of the north country?

Have a good time and a safe trip!

Nice fish Brian!

Nice work Justin! I like the Junebug tail on the tubes. Golfisher Mustad makes a hook like that I use on soft plastics, it doesn`t screw in just pushes in, it holds them on pretty good. If you take a piece of an old plastic worm and slid it into the head of a tube it will give you more material to grip on. The set up with the jig head on it is a faster deal.

Happy birthday Connie! July was a good month, mine and my second oldest daughter`s was the 22nd.

Great pictures and report. LOL a good day of learning, if you fish tournaments they don`t always go the way you plan. Hope the damage wasn`t bad.

Great pictures and report, them carp got a mouth only a mother could love! LOL looks like a vacuum cleaner and works the same way. We caught them on tubes regularly.

No water coming out? It might be a spring to small to detect? Most I have seen had some sort of overflow. Look for the cleanest water, spring water is usually filtered thru sand or rocks.

Welcome back Justin, missed your reports. Nice nice, always nice to fish with dad.

When I am fishing tubes I usually have a few different colors rigged up, like Ranger mentioned I think color is more important than scent. I will go with a dark green, like green pumpkin a lighter green like watermelon blue glitter, and mix in a white with silver glitter. The ones I get are mostly garlic scent and salt impregnated. and I have hundreds. I have had days where they are busting them pretty hard and a couple fish tears them up, other days when one can last a long time. A lot of different tricks you can play with them, like mentioned the rattles, alka seltzer, a piece of foam like the ear plugs they use in some factories, slid a grub on the hook to give it a different look on the tail, cut the tenacles off and tie some maribou to a jig insert and slide it in. Seen guys put canned fish cat food in them for scent, a lot of different deals with them.

Wall-whine, drink it till you hit a wall and whine!

Dad was there about 40 years ago, lots of walleye, none huge. He seemed to think it was pricey back then and never went back. Dad did kind of look at things as cost per fish though.

Weird that only carp are dying, they are a tough fish and handle water quality that other species won`t, just me but I would think other species would have to be affected too. Huge die offs of shad here sometimes, it makes fishing tough, you wind up snagging dead rotten shad on your lures. They lay all over the shore and make the area smell. Shad are temperature sensitive and carp don`t seem to be though. Steve I got sheephead regularly on tubes, jigs, and crankbaits that run deep. They seem to eat anything a smallie would. No surface lures, never had one take one. A small hair jig and a piece of Uncle Josh rind works. Another fish that isn`t much to look at but some fun to catch if they are big enough. LOL Great Lakes Grouper!

LOL, they have some pretty good sized netting operations for carp and buffalo here also in the bays of the western basin of Lake Erie. They are also taken from here to NYC for sale. If you haven`t seen them doing it, it is sort of funny. A trap net that must be a quarter mile or so long, anchored on or near shore, a beat up old boat pulls the net around and traps the carp and buffalo. Then they load them onto a barge like boat with wooden slat sides, pack it so full the deck is awash and the water washing over the deck keeps them alive for the tow to the processing place. They get pigs, you can look thru the slats and see the hogs! I wonder if they tell the people that buy them where they were caught? Fish eating warnings? A lot of soft plastic lures sold here to imitate the look of a gobie.

Glen I don`t know if you have them down there or have seen one. They are bite size for largemouth, some are bite size for smallies, all are bite size for any decent size walleye. I don`t know how big they start out at, but just the ones I have seen it would take a pretty good perch to take one. They feel sort of odd, but I didn`t notice any sharp spines on their fins, so they are just another food supply to most species in the great lakes. Most that I have seen were like 3 to 6 inches long, I assume they get a little bigger. Fish eat fish and they are bite size for most.

http://www.oldfishingstuff.com/july05.htm something about an empire city fly spoon in this, a good price for it, don`t know if it is the same, no picture. Top one no clue, center looks like an old river runt, maybe a creek chub.

Brass or Copper blades on the spinner baits, a rattle attached to them, easy to do with a piece of surgical tubing, slip the rattle inside the tubing and connect it to the hook like a trailer hook. I use small glass rattles I bought at a tackle shop, the plastic ones will work also. They make round ones you can use on tube baits, a carolina rig with brass or ultra steel and glass will make some sound. Fish don`t have a problem finding a real small lure at night in the dark so I don`t know how much of an issue it really is. Dirty rising water can change their location,

I don`t usually, it has cost me some good fish. Walleye haven`t been a problem for me cutting off crankbaits, and I use some small ones. More of an issue with small jigs smallie fishing on Lake Erie, their mouths are bigger than the smallies and they can take the lure deep quicker. I made some 3 and 4 inch light steel leaders to solve that problems. Pike are not much of a problem here sort of rare to see one. Up north if I was getting cut off a lot bass fishing I just put a wire leader on. If I was targeting pike or skis I had one on.

Never went with out one on me.

Mad? depressed? what did you do with Wayne?(irishfield) I am not mad or depressed, crazy? maybe!

LOL, all of the above. The guy at the front of the boat on the trolling motor may not have a clue, you don`t need to be on the pedal to catch fish. Catching anything? Nope just seeing how fast worms drown! What did you catch them on? a rod and reel! People that think taking me fishing is going to increase their limit. Brian that guy in the picture used to host the midnight horror films on a local tv station here, Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson). He was a little thinner back then.