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I choked down about 3 sentences; that's all I could take. We live in crazy insane times.

I took up fly fishing 6 years back. Each year I've learned a little more. I've read just about everything I can get my hands on, taken some classes, and been fortunate to buddy-up with some experienced friends. Most everything I've read and heard suggests you should start with a 6 wt rod, 9' for your average height person, with a medium action. This rod will load fairly quickly, and is therefore somewhat forgiving to cast. It is also suitable for many freshwater species. Here's what I suggest. Is there a fly fishing club you can hook up with? If so, I'm sure one of their members would be happy to let you try some of their equipment and give you some pointers. While you don't need to spend a fortune on equipment, you do need the right gear, and you wll need to understand the concept behind the cast or you'll become frustrated quikly. Sign up for a casting clinic, buy some books, The Orvis Ultimate Book Of Flyfishing by Tom Rosenbauser is the best I've seen and will occupy you all winter. I'd do these things before I buy equipment. Then, when you're ready to buy, hook up with a trusted fly shop for that 1st rod. They will save you some misery. I really enjoy the sport, it is a whole new world you're about to enter, so if you enjoy learning you'll love it. Good luck.

It was 1986. I was in N. J. attending my father-in laws funeral. I took my 7 and 10 yr old nephews down to the local lake after the funeral for a swim. Three teen age boys showed up and started verbally abusing my nephews on a floating dock just off the beach. I called my nephews in. The punks followed. I asked them once to drop it and they continued. I lost my cool and ripped them good verbally. They ran home to get their Dad and I made the big mistake of staying there to clear things up. Dad came running down the trail. He's 5'8" and overweight, I'm 6', and in triathlon shape. Rather than listen to what transpired he attempted to bully me. I never touched him but everytime he tried to push me I stepped forward and he went backward. He quickly got the idea and left the scene. We walked back to my mother-in -laws house, a number of guests were still at the house. In about 5 minutes the police showed up, handcuff me, and took me away. I was charged with aggrevated assault. That carried a fine of up to $10,000 and 2 yrs in jail. I pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. I had to get a laywer. A year went by before my trial, and many a night I'd wake up wondering "If I can be arrested for aggrevated assault without touching anybody I can just as easily be convicted?". The day of the Hearing my lawyer asked for a postponement because he was completely unprepaired. It was a 620 mile round trip for me to N.J. (Eventually this guy got disbarred on a drug conviction but I never got a dime back of the $2,000.00 retainer.) In the end I hired a 2nd attorney, made another trip to NJ, and was acquitted as the liers stories didn't hold-up under questioning. What I took away from this whole mess was 1. Never do anything that could conceivably get you on the wrong side of the law, 2. While you may be innocent until proven guilty you surely aren't going to escape the pain (financially and emotionally), 3. Don't be quick to assume others are quilty when they are charged with a crime. Sorry for the length, 21 years later and it still haunts me.

I must assume you need them for distance, but on the slight chance you just want them for up close stuff, I'd recommend the LL Bean fishing glasses with reader lenses. I've found them to be really excellect and I no longer have to fumble around when rigging. So many times before I'd have to take off my sunglasses, find my reading glasses, rig, put away my reading glasses, then try to find my sunglasses again. Can't tell you (or maybe you already know) what a pain that was. A quick google search though and I see you can buy a number of brand name sunglasses with prescription lenses.

Catch a walleye in lake Erie on a stick bait and it really is like pulling in a log. Most will not trip a down rigger and sometimes it's hard to tell on a planer board. Nothing like most of the other lakes I fish....why? Last year on vacation I caught a number of large eyes that fought so hard they had to be revived at the boat. Truly harder the the Sheepsheads we'd catch on occaision. On our local lake when the fish are in shallow you'd swear you have a decent eye on and you finally get it to the boat and it's 14". The only point to all this I think they can be great fighters at times. But the real attraction is they are never the same on two consecutive days and on many days change preference/location within the same day. So you are always anticipating and always experimenting even when you know their habits and patterns. I've caught many many varieties of fish over the years but for me there is nothing like finding the right presentation for a school of eyes. There is a sense of satisfaction in knowing that for at least that one day you figured them out. The satisfaction is even greater when you're tournament fishing and you know you have the winning basket before you're even weighed.

We sure love going to Lakair for our annual 2 week fishing trip. Been going over 40 years. The first time I wake up to the smell of rotting garbage will be my last. 10K is not that far and it appears to be along the path of the prevailing wind is it not? Hope the lodges and folks living in the area can successfully fight this. We love the lake, we love going to Lakair, and we hope to continue for years to come.

Thank you for your beautifully written personal story. Are you married? Just kidding but thanks again.

Much more entertaining than arguing about what is the best brand of motor or boat. Looks like a lady I dated back in my drinking days.

Pikehunter, my condolences. You have written a beautiful tribute which in and of itself probably says a lot about your father. God Bless you and your family.

E.D. have you read many posts on the site? Generally folks try to get along. We all have our preferences, some as a result of personal experience, some from trusted friends and acquaintances, some for no reason at all other than it's what they believe, but for the most part folks express their opinion and personal bias(that means preference) without feeling the need to attack another person's opinion. It's called maturity. As for the gas my Verado uses here's the deal- I can afford it dude. And guess what, if I don't like my boat or motor I'll get rid of it because.... you guessed it, I can afford it. I have no agenda, I'm not a boat dealer, just a guy responding to a guy with a question. You on the other hand are in need of help before you can help someone else.

Corvette1, I couldn't agree more. One of the reasons I bought my Verado was a 6 year warranty. Bigcreekdad, beware of people that slam other brands. Most of the time there is an agenda.

The truth is most any choice can be the right one depending on personal preference. I've had Mercs and Hondas and I now have a Merc Verado- all have been great. I'm sure E-Tec, Yamaha, and Suzuki are also excellent choices. All this Bull on how fast one goes compared to another or fuel economy is somewhat trivial and almost always biased in my mind. Reliability is the most critical feature- period. Personally I like the 4- strokes. The comment that they haven't been around that long is untrue- my 1997 Honda 50 is a 4 stroke and it still runs great. In 10 years I had one problem. The flywheel came apart 2 years out of warranty and Honda covered it 100%. I would, however, suggest fuel injection. I've heard great things about the new Honda 90 hp. Hondas are bullet proof for sure and they are great at standing behind their products. Make sure whatever you buy you can get serviced to your satisfaction. In other words do your homework on the dealer. Last, look for some great incentives like free extended and/or transferable warranties (read the warranty details as they are not all the same).

That is a great story and I must admit you had me going. Earlier this year as my buddy and I were planning our trip to Lakair with our wives we hatched a scheme to tell them we were buying baby duckings to use as musky bait. Of course the women were totally grossed out and my wife even went so far as to say, "I thought I knew who you were..." This went on for a couple weeks and it was all I could do to not blow it by laughing each time my wife voiced her concern about my sick mind. As vacation approached we told them we had to order the duckling harnesses. They said what? We said, "You can't put the hook in the duck, you put the duckling in the harness, the hooks are attached to the harness, you drop your duck over the side in a likely musky spot and just let him swim around". We asked them, "Do you girls want want harnesses?" The women were seriously perplexed at this point, as we said this was fairly common practice amongst hard core musky fishermen and not nearly as barbaric as it sounded. We even included Kevin in the caper. The women were sure we couldn't bring ducklings across the border so we had Kevin send an e-mail that he would have the ducklings on- hand when we arrived. The girls wanted nothing to do with buying their own harness, so I said to them they could use ours if the technique proved sucessful. They started to get suspicious when I told them "just remember, you can't cast a duck more than a half dozen times before they croak, you are better off just dropping them over the side and opening the bail so they swim off". Finally, a day before we left we came clean. We all had a good laugh, the women called us jerks, and off to Canada we went.

How accurate is the Navionics chip of the west arm? Are all the reefs located correctly? I've been toying with adding a kicker motor for our annual trip, but if I could rely on the map as being fairly accurate I might invest in a large screen gps and chip.

Capt, how's the fishing been? We've been out of the boat for a couple weeks, but plan to head to Dunkirk (Lake Erie) to fish smallies (BIG smallies) next weekend. I trust all is well. Camp record eh? Well, it's really nice to see so many healthy fish in the west arm. Take care my friend.

Cliff, we have never corresponded and you surely don't know me but thanks for sharing your story. I went thru a similiar change of life 6 years ago. It has a way of putting life into perspective. Glad to here that you are doing well.

Rich, we're from Warren, PA about 60 miles east of Erie, 10 miles west of the Kinzua Reservoir, and 30 minutes from Chautaqua lake. We're blessed with a lot of fine water and to be in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest, but nothing compares to the beauty of the west arm. I've been going to Lakair for at least 45 years, not continuous, but pretty much so in the last 10 years. I was going thru some gear yesterday and came across some of our old pictures. I have one of my dad carrying fish up the old Lakair dock dated 1962, and another one of my boyhood pal and I jumping off a rock at our camp which I believe is now part of Memquisit. If you ever get up in our area give me a call. Maybe we'll see you at Lakair one of these years. God willing we'll be there the 1st two weeks of July for a few more years.

Thank you all for the words. I know, I know, I was cursed to have been born a Pirate fan, and the misery over the last 16 years of losing has been almost more than one can bear, but at least my wife supports me, as the pic indicates. And yes, we are Steeler fans as well, please don't hold either misfortune against us. As for the 2 muskies, my wife hooked-up with one on a worm harness. The fish acted like it really didn't know it was caught. It hit pretty close to the boat, on the bottom in about 15' of water and my wife thought at first she had a snag. The fish let her lift it within a foot of the surface about 10' behind the boat and I told her "Holy XXXX, you have a big musky!!" Then the fish dove but really didn't run and it occurred to me at that point that this fish could do whatever it wanted. I told her to just keep pressure on the fish, hoping that maybe it was lip hooked and we could somehow get it alongside the boat for pics. She lifted the fish to the surface a 2nd time and said, " How big is it?" That prompted me to really think about that, and as the fish was pretty close to the surface and as I got a real good look I said, "I'd have to say it's all of 4 feet" There was no way we could net this fish in our large walleye net, so I called to my buddy on the walkie talkie to bring the big net. I could see my wife actually trembling she was so nervous. The fish then dove a 2nd time, not a violent wild dive, more like a "I think I'll swim back to the bottom now thankyou" and before my friend got even close to us the fish bit off the harness. It was a very thick heavy fish. The 2nd fish actually hit a larger perch jointed Rapala one afternoon on a boat ride. We had just decided to troll. Everyone was on my boat and I was in Warren Bay. We hadn't gone 200 yds and we were in 40' of water when all of a sudden my wife screamed, which scared the crap out of me, but as I turn around I could see my trolling rod almost doubled. I was running about 2.7 mph, which is the trolling speed of my big motor, running 30lb power pro, in 40' of water and my rod is just doubled. I put the motor in neutral and grabbed the rod. I had intentionally left the drag quite a bit more loose given I had just spooled the Power Pro, but I didn't have it set loose enough by the strain on my rod, and after about 30 seconds the fish got off. We never actually saw this fish, but based on the weight and all, I'd have to say it was a musky. I routinely pull smaller fish in my home lake in the 25-30" range, this was much bigger than that. So anyhow, that is the tale of our two muskies. I don't claim to be a musky fisherman, both hook-ups were just dumb luck.

Greeting to all from Pennsylvania. I'm not a new member, and although I don't post much I do enjoy most of what I read here. My wife and I and another couple spent two glorious weeks at Lakair Lodge earlier this month and I thought I'd post some highlights. I know most target muskies and bass, but we target walleye, sorry, pickeral. This was the 3rd year my buddy and I have taken our wives, I think they love it as much as us now. For us the trip is more than just fishing. We enjoy the whole experience. Therefore, although we fished every day, we really didn't spend every minute fishing. We never fished past 4:00 PM. We found the fishing to be excellent- for our standards anyhow. We boated 369 pickeral, and hooked up with two muskies. 13 of our fish were 25" or more, somehwere around 25-30 were above the slot. We know the count as the women were sure they would outfish us so we kept tally sheets on each boat. We usually drift the weedbeds and work the rocky points, but this year we found most of our fish in deeper water, in fact 25'. We found that trolling harnesses at about .7 mph worked best. If you got too fast the pesky perch would nail your bait in an instant. Sorry I don't have the metric conversions for this data. We were using 10 lb power pro, fast tip rods, 1 oz bottom bouncers, and harnesses with floats. The fish wanted a different blade color every day. Our best day was 52 fish, and we had a couple other days with over 40. All the large fish but one, which slipped out of our hands taking pictures and didn't recover, were released. We also kept about 15 smaller ones. We fished east of RT 64 bridge for the most part, so if you know the water you pretty much know where we fished. If I can figure out how to atttach pics I will.