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Some Livre action for the conquest, thanks Cheng.

I was up in Western NC visiting with my brother and I went out for a few hours on Saturday despite the call for rain. It started out with a drizzle and then poured on me, i mean i got soaked. BUT after a bite or two, seems like you forget how miserable you really are!! Air temps were at 56 and the water temp was a constant 60 all day. I've been really lucky lately with the spinnerbait and it was the same story on Saturday. All strikes and fish landed were on the spinnerbait, EXCEPT for one guy that fell victim to my new Siebert DockRocker jig! This lake had been drawn down for about a year working on it and filled up back in early August. This was my first time back up there and was very glad to see the draw down hadn't impacted the lake like i thought it would. Anyhow, good day even though i was cold and wet when it was all over with. Biggest one of the day went 18.5" A few pics:

First cast of the day& first victim of the metanium DC.

This is the part of the waterbottle I was talking about. Finished project

I fish wearing welding gloves. Problem solved.

Burn out is something we have to be careful to avoid. It can be stressful to be creative all the time. The attention to detail can be hard to maintain when your mind wanders even s little. Welcome back even though I think you were with us all along.

New combo to replace a lost rod & reel. Custom St Croix 5C74HF-B expertly done by board member Scott Hovanec and a new Shimano Exsence DC.

The best time is any time I can go!

I catch fish all day long.

My family owns a cabin on Miller Dam, a once red hot bass fishery in north central WI. The lake itself is very shallow, with average depth in the 4' range and naturally grassy. Unfortunately over the past 10-15 years the lake has seen it's share of hardships. In roughly 2000, a bone headed game warden put wild rice in each of the feeder creeks for the lake. The result has been a takeover of the rice. By mid summer, large sections of the lake look more like a field than a lake. With the lake being so shallow it has spread like wildfire inhabiting much of the productive flooded timber the lake was once known for. There was also another invasive grass that made it's way into the lake that choked out much of the native species of grass. Once lush large grass beds with well defined edges have turned into small clumps of grass spread all over. Due to it's shallow nature and the harsh Wisconsin winters, there have been a few years there have been small winter kills. Thanks to the lake association installing aerators the kill had been kept to a minimum, and the bass population hadn't taken a substantial hit. That is until 2012-2013 winter when a very late spring managed to wipe out a majority of the bass population. The club I fish with had a tournament scheduled out there that summer, and there was also another local club that had a tournament out there that day. (typical despite the lake not being huge) Between the 30 some tournament boats out there that day there were less than 15 bass weighed in that day. On a normal year, the vast majority would have brought in limits. It's sad to see such a great fishery go downhill. My dad and I had fished it a few times each year since, but nowhere near as much like we used to. Even the northern population had seemed to have stumbled a bit, but at least there is still hope for this fishery. Each year our trips have yield a few bass, with the size slowly increasing as well as the number. Not tons, but enough to have hope it will continue to get better. Also the size of the northerns has gradually increased. Not so much in the average size, but you're starting to see some larger ones. In the short amount of time I've fished there this year, I've caught 2 in the 30" range and lost 2 that were in that same class. My dad and I also almost had a limit of largemouth this past Sunday, and also caught two decent ones on Saturday. As for the weekend counts, combined we caught over 40 northerns and 7 bass. Fingers crossed that this fishery will continue to improve, and one day return to it's prominence of one of northern Wisconsin's top bass fisheries. A few quick highlights from this weekend.

You want pumpkins. For those close to Providence, I highly recommend the Roger Williams Park, Pumpkin or Jack-o-lantern Spectacular. It runs evenings for the month of October into the first few days in November. It's a half hour to forty minute walk through the meandering paths in the park.

Silver has been on fire. I held my annual "year end classic" tournament his weekend, Day 1 on Silver, day 2 on Conesus for all the casher's and winner's of my 2015 opens. On Sat. at Silver, we had two 20lb bags hit the scales, as well as another 19, and 18 lb bag. My partner Rick and I had 21.93lbs on Silver................good for 2nd place that day, as the leader brought in 23+ lbs!! Day 2 on Conesus was a little stingy, but we maintained our 2nd place position and brought home some $$ with a 15.68lb bag giving us 37.56 for the two day total, and also had lunker for the day with a 5.09 largemouth. WNYbassman and his partner (who fished day one solo and slammed the 23lb bag by himself while Noel worked) stayed ahead of us on Conesus with an 18lb bag and took the win with 41.85lbs for the two day total. I'll still fish till the snow flies, and the water is hard, but that's the end of my tournament season for 2015. Had a good year, and scratched another goal off my "to do list" which was catch a 20lb bag on Silver in a tournament. Still chasing a 20lb bag on Conesus during a tournament (I actually thought it would happen on Conesus way before Silver) and the first win on Conesus............we have finished 2nd in 5 consecutive tournaments there, we'll get it...........eventually LOL. My tournament results for 2015: Old Orchard Beach opening day tournament on Silver : Cashed in 4th place with a 3 fish limit for 10lbs My "Sunday Open" team tournaments on Silver that I put on: June: We finished 3rd, one spot out of the money with 16+ lbs July: We finshed 3rd again, this time in the money, again with 16+ lbs, plus we had tournament lunker with a 5lber August: We finished 5th place, again one spot out of the $$ with 15 lbs Sept: We finished 4th...again...one spot out of the $$ with 17+lbs My Conesus lake tournaments: July "Aluminum boat only": We finished 2nd with 15+ lbs August "SLBA friends and supporters Invite only" tournament....2nd again with 16+lbs Our 3 hour Thursday night, 3 fish limit tournaments on Silver: #1....3rd and cashed with 7+ lbs #2....2nd and cashed with 10+lbs #3....5th and one spot out of the $$ with 7+lbs #4.....Won with 12+lbs #5.....our only stinker of the year....bombed with only 2 fish for 5lbs #6....fishing with my 6 year old daughter, we finished one spot out of the $$ with 8+lbs And finally our classic... cashed with 2nd place with day one on Silver 21.93lb + Day 2 on Conesus with 15.63lbs for a total of 37.56, plus day 2 lunker of 5.09lbs I was glad the tournament season was over at 3:15 yesterday...but LOL, now I can't wait for next year.

Here's one with my nephew from last year.... Need to go buy me one and decorate this week!

This is the rigging I've heard suggested for the bait, except you go out the back to help keep it a little more weedless. I think you're on the right track switching to braid too.

Here is my suggestion; you can't fish all of any larger body of water, break it down into smaller zones. General rule; divide the moan lake basin into 3 parts, the lower 1/3 is the dam deep water zone, the middle 1/3 is the mid depth area with humps and islands, the upper 1/3 is the shallower zone. Creek arms are divided into the same zones. It's the cooler water period, the lower 1/3 or deeper steeper bank areas are the places to focus your attention now. You are looking for any structure that offers deep to shallow water like major points, under islands or humps and creek channel bends near these structure areas. A good map helps to isolate these areas. Plan to look at areas between 5' to 35' and forget deeper zones for now. Tom

If you don't need it to be weedless, you can rig it as a line-through -- thread the line in through the mouth, and out the belly, with a treble on the end.

Last evening my son-in-law ran into a different bear than the smaller one from earlier on. We're a bit anxious about running into one of them in the dark. I hate to make a bunch of noise getting to and from my stands. Kind of a conundrum, we have to consider. The up side is that the same evening, my grandson saw the biggest buck he's ever seen. Maybe things are taking an upswing. Good luck, all.

Another day on Silver; last time for me this year up in NY. Been a great year, waited till the last day to get my new PB. Not sure how much it weights exactly since I didn't have a scale, but it was the biggest for me. They were hitting good all afternoon.

Yesterday I ordered the St Croix Legend elite at the factory sale price of $252 shipped. I consider that a possibility in the $250 class. Update: received the Rod yesterday and was delighted!! Brand new Rod , perfect in every way. I put a SOL on it lasts night with 10# Sunline mono and rigged it with a VMC weighted hook and a Keitech 3.8 Swing Impact Fat and will head out to the bayous tomorrow to try it. I've had an LTB and I have an AVID now and the Legend Elite seems to surpass them both. Now I'll have to see how it performs.

Nice fish! BLASPHEMY These type of statements should no be allowed on this forum

As long as they're eating them and not breaking regulations it doesn't bother me much, around here you have to get used to it.

Why not just fill your reel with some backing. 100 yards plus 25-50 yards of backing would be perfect. You can buy a bulk spool of Berkley Big game for under $10 to use for backing.

Thanks Dwight. I appreciate that as I know you are no slouch yourself out on the lake.

Great idea. I love ideas like this that use everyday items. Thanks!!

The fish were all over the bait... they weren't really in creeks, but were close to the openings or a close distance to the opening of creeks.(I hope that made since) Once you find the bait you'll find fish

Yes he is a troller. That is what they do out here on Erie. It has been that way forever and probably always will be. Starting very soon if you were to venture down to the lake at night you will see tons of boats and little blue lights off the side slowly moving along specific shorelines. Trolling is the opposite of what most people here think or even I myself do when I think fishing. But on the Great Lakes it is a staple and what you have to do usually if you want to consistently catch them. The great lakes are well to use a word I much despise "epic" in size. There has to be literally billions of fish between them but yet so much dead water at the same time.

Sick combo! Very solid feeling!

The joys of lathe accessories. I bet i have spent 4x more on accessories than I did for my lathe!

Looking sharp!

Hey Joe. I am a dyed in the wool shimano guy but I have five different certate models. You can not buy a better spinning reel for the money. The certate is a poor mans Stella st basically half the price. Buy JDM at the current yen versus dollar prices. I own three different stradic models for the record.

Got one handle turned and had an issue with the other and had to redo. The lathe I've been using is older than me and not very accurate. So I sucked it up and went and bought a new one yesterday. And of course I get home and my Chuck won't fit the taper is to big. Ordered an adapter and on hold. Hoping to get the other handle that is done mounted on the blank this week.

Don't use either a swing jig head or a traditional C-rig. Reasons don't like 3 knots needed for a C-rig and the jig trailer dragging on the bottom with a swing jig. A stand up style jig keeps the soft plastic upright, the slip shot/finesse C-rig has 1 knot at the hook. Any craw/crawworm, single or double tail, can be used on either a jig or bullet weight T-rig or a finesse C-rig. Floating soft plastics work better when dragged, however using a light wire hook helps any soft plastic sink slower. GYCB twin tail hula grub, Berkley Chigger craw and Zoom brush hogs all work. Tom

The worm has been pulled down from a larger fish strike, your delayed hook set may have snagged the Shad or the Shad was in the basses mouth when you missed the hook set. Tom

I like the Curado I and the Tatula. The Tatula is bigger than the Curado but by no means a big,heavy reel. I feel like the weight and size of the Tatula are heavily over dramatized. They are both great casting reels.I lobe both. It seems the Curado is over-greased from the factory in most cases from what I've heard. The one I had did not have those issues you mentioned. I will be getting another for sure. I don't own any Lews but I've had some and will not go back to them for any reason. Just not my cup of tea.

I no longer have a reel with a spool shaft mounted bearing, but when I did, I took a Sharpie pen cover, glued it to a metal washer open end up, filled it with lighter fluid and placed the spool shaft with the bearing in the lighter fluid and it fit perfectly allowing me to spin the spool and clean the bearing and nothing touched the line on the spool. The Sharpie cover did not hold gallons of fluid and it did a great job.

Jig fishing. Only one of the day, slammed it no subtle jig bite! Put up a good fight.

They were 99 cents plus $39 shipping..I remember looking at them. Sellers used to avoid fees by having super low prices and jacking up the shipping fees, which ebay did not take a chunk of..now they do and thats why the price went from 99 cents to $30..the actual cost of item plus shipping is the same just the distribution has changed.

They're well made, effective baits at a reasonable price. I haven't found one of their baits I didn't like yet.

I honestly bring Pedialyte for hangovers...honest to goodness.

I outfish boaters pretty consistently especially if the day is split 4/4hrs for spots and trolling motor. Honestly best way to do good is get out ahead of time with a different buddy and pre fish so you have a absolute game plan. If you bring 30 baits with you day of tourney you'll spend more time wasting time then having your line wet. I'll typically have 3-4 setups dedicated to those 3-4 baits/techniques and focus on those. Also talk to boater ahead of tourney so if he's flipping all day you're not bringing deep diving cranks with you lol it's happened to me when I was starting out. I'm gonna just random off some pointers. Your on outside weed line and he's following it casting forward say a crank or swimbaits. Fish something you can beat the hell out of the bank with or grass hump spinner bait, spook, swim jig etc. If he's keyed in on fish in open water casting forward to one of his marks and nothing is to the left or right keep a eye on the rear screen and drop shot vertically! If sensitivity is high it'll be like playing a video game. Get the line to the arch and hold on! If he's beating the bank with trollin motor on medium throw something different. Mix and match squarebill front spinner in rear. But if he's getting them good on xyz don't be hesitant to throw the same thing. It could pay off especially if he has a few short strikes or follows you could switch to a different color than what he's using. Just some pointers from my past experiences. Hope it helps! Good luck!

Well, this is it!

Berkley Big Game is the highest abrasion resistant & shock absorption. In the real world those two qualities out weigh every thing else!

Shirt, belt, pants leg, anchor rope, sock. There's a ton of stuff in a boat that could make an improvised tourniquet.

Thanks Cliff Clavin!

For stuff like that jig you could use an airbrush with powder paint. Heat and dip in your main color, then hit it with the spray guy real quick on the side you want the addition paint. For the punch sinkers, the way I've done it is to use a paintbrush. You paint your main color, then dip a paintbrush in your powder and just shake or flick it over the top of what you're painting before it cools.

Finally got all my Popx's in. It's a good start to my collection.

My take, on the rez, find a laydown in, or close to, "deep" water = shaky head (or, whatever you like to pitch at wood targets, e.g. a brush hog). I don't care what bait you use on a shaky head, as long as it is some type of straight tail or ribbed worm. Be sneaky. Make long casts. If you spook the fish - no bites. Fish will locate not only close to the trunk of a laydown, but in front of it, i.e. the small branches at the "top" of the tree that are submerged and you cannot see. If you pitch to the trunk first, you spook any fish that might be under the branches. If I have to generalize, "branches" in, e.g., 15 fow with a trunk leading to shore should always be targeted. Points that lead into deep water are another great place to throw a shaky. A shaky presentation will work much deeper than you might think (same for a split shot). At times, none of these presentations work, that is the nature of the rez. My take is then to use your sonar and try to find bass busting schools of shad (another topic, but Wayne lays most of it all out here http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/161576-finding-active-fish-with-electronics/).