Burning Babies

You might try an ultra-aggressive retrieve. Something like ripping a jerkbait as hard as you can in eight foot sweeps, or ripping a very heavy jig off the bottom and letting it hammer back down.

Rapalas seem to dominate the market less and less as you go south. They are good, but I definately prefer other company's baits on frequent occasions. I like Strike King and Bandit crankbaits lines in particular. Smithwick too, if you count minnowbaits. Mostly, I find certain baits that work well for me, rather than sticking to a specific company.

Not to mention the very adds they publish (for the Fat DTs anyway) very explicitly instruct you to use that technique. I normally side with manufacturers on wear-and-tear issues, but this seems exceptional. On the other hand, I see no reason to be upset about receiving your original lure back. If you're not already parting out your old baits for spare parts, you've got more money than me.

Keep in mind that "speckled trout" is not the correct common name for Salvelinus fontinalis either.

They were the best thing in my tacklebox this spring for about a two-week window. They have a little bit wider wobble than your average lipless crankbait and an attractive flutter on the fall. Definitely worth checking out. I did notice the metallic one's paint chips easily though.

I've seen many big bass missing one or both eyes. Interestingly, not as many walleye. I have also seen a fair number of fish with damaged or broken gill arches that survived. Bottom line line is, the fish probably has a chance as long as it's not doing the back stroke, and it can only help the fishery to release it. These kinds of laws are interesting. This one requires more ichthyological expertise than the casual fisherman has, and like most iterations of the "wasting fish" law, seems totally unenforceable. I suppose it's not my place to criticize it though.

There are also some largemouth bass present. In my limited experience it's certainly worth fishing, although I haven't been very far upstream of the mouth. For those more familiar with the river: Is it pretty navigable between Bay Park and the falls downstream of Spence Lake? I was looking at putting in my 14' tinney (15 hp motor + electric) at the ramp on Shaw Street and see what it has to offer.

What Roy said. If you see a few snarls forming in your line, make sure you take the time to straighten them before they develop into a real problem. That said, crane or barrel swivels like the one you have on in the pictures do virtually nothing to eliminate line twist. Try attaching an inline spinner and watching the bait in the water; both ends of the swivel will rotate right along with your bait. Besides that, the topwaters you are casting don't rotate, so they don't twist your line. Your problem is either the result of how you spooled the line, or your reel. Beautiful smallie, BTW.

Stalk the fish. Figure out her patterns (it's almost certainly a she), and approach her range stealthily. Try moving in, exploring the area with a couple baits, and then backing out. Don't let her know you're there. Don't assume she's not there just because you can't see her; if you can't, it might be because she's in ambush looking to feed. Try again at multiple point in the day over multiple days. Certainly, big baits can work, but sometimes it just takes a careful natural presentation at the right time.

I find Ugly Sticks have the sensitivity of a wet noodle. I avoid them like the plague. I'm not that familiar with the market in Canada, but $50 seems like the price point for a decent IM6 or IM7 rod around here, with $40 very dooable during a sale. The Bass Pro Shops Tourney Specials start there, and are a major step up from their graphite series.

It seems to me that coating flouro in wax would largely defeat the purpose of flouro (i.e. the wax undoubtedly would have a different refractive index than water, rendering the "invisible" flouro visible).

Fighting rainbows in open water and bass in slop are almost opposite applications. Fighting bass in slop, it all comes down to a the hook set and a couple seconds after. You are setting a big hook into a tough mouth, potentially with the line already half way round a log or pad root by the time you hit them. Then, you need to get the fish turned and coming out immediately, or a good fish will wrap around something and often get enough slack to throw the hook. You should be using an extremely stout (for bass) rod and a reel with the drag cranked down tight to do so. Heavy line is necessary to handle the shock, and in extremely heavy cover, the fish will never see the line anyway. With spinning tackle, you might consider going a little lower, because you are likely to break your rod long before the 30 lb braid, but I avoid spinning tackle for slop fishing bass when I can.

I did a fairly intensive diet study on a heavily fished bass lake in Ohio. We found one bass (out of maybe 1000) that had almost passed an undigested plastic worm, including the hook. In comparison, we saw hundreds with obvious hooking damage in the mouth. Undoubtedly, some of those fish succumbed to infection. I know what I'm more worried about.

Congrats. A word of advice; loose the snap swivel. Those baits aren't designed to work with a big piece of hardware hanging off their eye. The frog will also pick up more gunk without a direct connection. Most guys I see who fish topwater a lot don't even use split rings, just a direct knot to the eye. And for frog fishing, yup, way heavier. I use 30 lb Spiderwire. Some use 50 lb.

Yup, huge hybrid. Wow. As far as keying it out, the blue mottling on the face and orange spots on the lower flanks tell you that it's a pumpkinseed, but it lacks that red mark on the gill flap of a pure pumpkinseed. The coloration on that upper flanks is pretty typical for a bluegill, which is what they usually hybridize with.

I can't speak for the really nice ones, but I picked up a pair of Berkley optical lens glasses from Walmart, and they are a big step up from the bottom shelf stuff, at a marginal increase in price. I prefer brown lenses as a good all-round choice. They are usable in lower light than the gray ones, and less obtrusive and better in bright sun than amber.

Yes, colder water will slow growth (if it's below optimal temperature), so a large difference in growth is quite possible. Food quality and availability, stress, and reproductive activity can also affect growth.

That's true, but it's only effective for the first few years. Things like wear and calcium reabsorption can quickly bias scale readings of older fish. By the time a bass reaches 10, they are long past being reliably aged with scales. You end up with a rough guess at best. At that point, the only way to get a good reading is to section an otolith (ear stone), which is considerably more difficult and equipment intensive.

I wasn't referring to the board members posts, but rather the reviews the OP highlighted. I mean, 6 lb fireline on a baitcaster, throwing spinnerbaits? Come on.

I like them both. I've been using Fireline for over ten years on all my spinning rigs, without any issues. It can start to look frayed quickly, but the multifilament design retains waaaay more strength than mono when it wears. When I started using it and couldn't afford frequent line changes, I got a lot of mileage off frayed Fireline with virtually no break offs. Since I started using mono and flouro leaders, I get a lot less fraying. I've used Power Pro a bit for muskie fishing, and I like it fine. It doesn't seem to have the abrasion resistance of Fireline, but I'm using totally different weights of line for totally different applications, so that may be an apples to oranges thing. Lol at some of the reviews. Many of the clowns posted have no business reviewing anything.

Throwing X Raps and frogs/bass jigs are two very different jobs for very different rods. I like a 6'6", medium fast speed medium action spinning rod for jerkbaits; the first rod you mentioned you have would be fine. For the frogs / jigs, I prefer a 6'6" MH baitcaster with 20 lb test mono or 30 lb braid. I personally don't think you need to spend anything like $250 for a very serviceable combo.

I can't speak directly to the laws in Ontario, but in Ohio, the intention of specifying immediate release is to prevent someone from from putting a fish in a livewell or stringer for release later. Law enforcement here is not going to ding you for snapping a quick picture. I would suggest anyone concerned about this consulting with the MNR, rather than relying on the OFC legal department, however.

Nice post, Sharkbait22. Infisherman published a good article on esocid forage size in this year's June/July issue. Extrapolating from the hundreds of diet items they show in their muskie predator size/prey size figure, it looks like the maximum prey size even a monster (say, 57") muskie would consume is not likely to be over 25". The vast majority of diet items reflected the typical size of forage in the lake (from a couple inches to around 8"), regardless of predator size. Now, I'm sure there are rare exceptions (indeed, I've seen it), but by-in-large, these predators seem to feed on what is common. On top of that, factor in that giant fish make up a tiny proportion of the population, and I suspect their impact is minimal. Reproductive impacts aside, the economic value of large fish is enormous from a tourism point of view. In Ohio, we fine poachers thousands for every trophy buck they take, based on their economic value to the state, and most are far younger and more common than a true monster fish.

The line below the eye of a grass pickerel is much more distinctive. The line below the eye in that picture appears to be an artifact of the lighting. That fish is also larger than grass pickerel grow. It's a northern.

I own close to 20. Just over a dozen of those get used regularly. Right now I usually have nine in the boat.