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Litter. I thought it was futile to expect some to dispose of their trash properly. Either take it home, or deposit it in a trash barrel, if available. Do not just toss it on the ground. One of my favorite fishing holes is also one of the most littered. Trash everywhere. Even old furniture and boat parts tossed into the woods. Futile, or not, I was going to make an attempt to clean up the ramp. I brought a plastic 55 gallon drum to the ramp, with a plastic liner. I also brought a box. I picked up all the trash at the ramp except for what had blown into the water, and left the drum against a bush to protect it from the wind. This was three weeks ago, and since then, the only trash I have seen was in the barrel. When the barrel got to about half full, I took out the liner and "installed" a new liner. Went fishing this morning and the drum was about half full. Coffee cups, McDonald containers, Dunkin Donuts, bags, and all the typical litter found at ramps had been placed in the drum. It goes to show, you never know. But, so far, so good. I'm going to replace the drum with one that has "Thank You" stenciled on it.

Weighing fish on scales tends to cause them to lose weight.

Fishing for smallies on the Susquehanna and ended up landing this Muskie

I just started bass fishing a week ago. I caught my first bass on a River2Sea spinner bait. I missed 3 on a savage rat bait. This morning a big one, at least for me, crushed it! I cant figure out how to upload a picture so click here to see the fish

Just want to give a thanks and a shout out to Mike at @Siebert Outdoors for the quality hardware! Best jigs on the market my man.

Mid/late day water here in Southwestern TN is approaching bath water temps, so I'm struggling with my usual preferred crankbaits and forced to move to Senkos. Needless to say, I'm ready for late Summer/early Fall to get these water temps back down. Caught this one Monday(plus a few others)on a watermelon Senko, and is the largest I've caught in about three weeks(previous was 3.02 on a squarebill in light rain). He was fun to bring in though, I was watching a school(3-5' in diameter) of shad/minnow moving around right in this "narrow" cut and I kept tossing the Senko all around and inside the school. Finally got that familiar bump and run and set the hook. Jumped out of the water a couple times for dramatic effect, but I had him hooked squarely in the corner of his mouth, so he had no chance of getting off. 2+, 2.5 if I'm being generous. As I alluded to earlier, I don't often fish with Senkos(or plastics in general) often, but it's been fun to catch them on my med/fast spinning setup with the drag dialed down a bit. If the size isn't there, then I might as well make it a fun fight. Thanks for reading my rambling.

Bam! New Mattlures Hammertails are in!

Yesterday I was a little annoyed, the weatherman was telling me it was supposed to be a beautiful day....until about the time I got off work and then there would be a pretty good chance of severe storms. Whatever, since when are they accurate anyway? I hooked up the boat and headed out, staying fairly close to home just in the off chance they were right. I went to a small lake known more for numbers than size and despite looking like rain on the way over, I was greeted by clear skies upon arriving at the lake. Being clear, sunny, and next to no wind, I started out fishing some docks but it didn't take me long to figure out they weren't holding on them. Next, I tried fishing some cribs out in 10-15' and again, nothing. I moved back in towards the bank and fished in the 4-6' range on the submerged grass flats and finally started running across a few that were willing to hit a lipless crankbait ripped through the grass. A shower did end up moving through a few miles away from the lake but I stayed dry. It ended up making for a beautiful evening with all sorts of crazy colors in the sky. Fishing picked up and I had pretty steady acting for the evening. A few highlights included a pair of nice walleyes. I had never caught one there before and didn't think they were present in the lake so that was a pleasant surprise! I also took my drone along and managed to catch my biggest bass of the night (just over 18") on my first cast after putting it up. I'll add the video here later since I didn't have time to edit/upload it when I got home.

Spent a week in gulfport Mississippi with my gf at her dads house. Most of the trout were caught on live shrimp and snagged a few on shrimp swimbaits. Caught the lady fish off an island in the gulf pulled so hard for its size. My gf learned how to use a cast net and caught 22 prawns. Got back to maryland and grilled all the fish and shrimp. Caught my first black drum and first redfish.

The other day, I skipped the storms and when it cleared up in the afternoon, I launched the boat for a couple of hours with my son Henry. He turns 3 in July and has never been on the boat. I more or less just wanted to take him for a ride but when we started marking good numbers of fish, we dropped down and got into one. He helped daddy reel it in and had a blast. Fun for me, fun for him! It was awesome hearing him tell mommy what happened in his broken english lol

Lunker Lure Triple Rattleback spinnerbait. Allen

Keep your spinning gear and learn plastics. T-Rig, weightless Senko, Shakey Head, etc. All of these techniques can be done on cheaper spinning gear and produce outstanding results.

Number ONE, I've never been able to look at a wire/connection and tell if it's good or not. A good DVM is a must have to isolate the problem. Number TWO. When you have a good DVM, always work from a known good point to an unknown and always make voltage checks with the circuit under a load. So, I would recommend you follow the following procedure. Connect the DVM across the two lead post on the battery, Should read 12.6VDC or greater. Then turn the switch to the cranking position, still should be 12.6 or greater unless the starter engages and tries cranking the motor. Anything below 10.6VDC is probably not going to let it crank.. If it stays at battery voltage and does not drop, start chasing it to where you loose it. The next check is to move the positive test lead to the small terminal on the starter solenoid. There are usually two, but the one nearest the battery cable is the positive. Turn key to cranking position and see if you are getting battery voltage. If you get battery voltage, the key switch is good. Now put it on the other small terminal and try it again. If you get battery voltage again, that means you are not getting a ground. One of those small terminals has to be grounded for the solenoid to work and if both have battery voltage when trying to crank it, there is no ground. If one has battery voltage and one doesn't when trying to crank it, the solenoid should be energizing. Next step, If the voltage is dropping way down during the first test, leaving the meters negative cable on the negative battery post, connect the meters positive cable to the large terminal on the solenoid stud the battery cable connects to. You should be reading battery volts. Try cranking it with the key, the voltage should still hold battery voltage if the motors does not try to crank. If the voltages drops way down, you have a bad connection between in the cable between the battery and the solenoid. If it has battery voltage when trying to crank it, we need to check the ground cable. Connect the meters positive cable back to the lead post on the battery and make sure it's reading battery voltage. Now more the meters negative cable from the negative battery post to the engines aluminum block or starter housing. You should still have battery voltage. Now trying cranking the motor with the key switch. It should still hold battery voltage unless the motor tries to crank. If it drops way down, you have a bad cable/connection between the battery and when the ground connects onto the motor. To summarize, The first test was to ensure you are getting 12VDC to and through the key switch to the starter solenoid. If you are, there is nothing with the controls that would keep it from cranking. If you are not, the next text was to check battery connections. So, next you checked the positive cable to make sure it was making good connection. Then you checked the negative cable to make sure it was making good connection. One of these three checks should identify where you problem is. Now, if the battery cable connections test good, and the starter solenoid is not getting 12VDC when you try to crank it. Then you have a problem with the 12VDC lead going from the engine to the key switch or the key switch itself. This requires access to the back of the switch and a wiring diagram of the switch. Check the voltage between the battery negative and the battery terminal on the switch for battery voltage, you should have full battery voltage there. If not, find why you are not getting it there. If you are getting B+ to the battery terminal on the switch, turn switch on an make sure it's getting ignition voltage. Then try to crank checking the starter terminal and make sure it's sending B+ to solenoid.

As an FYI that particular GLX is probably the least popular generation. I personally would opt for another deal. As others have noted in this thread the newest GLX series can be had for a bit more as can the NRX series. I would be more tempted to spend another $50-100 and do it right the first time rather than find myself selling this rod and hunting for something different.

Haven't been able to get out too much this season and last due to work related injury that has really put a damper on my life.....dealing with workmans compensation has been nothing short of a nightmare......in the few trips I have been out this year, I just try to make them count...

Great effort putting out the barrel and maintaining it. That is something that warms my heart and I commend you for it. I had a pleasant surprise in the everglades at the Holey Lands out in no mans land. I saw a large group of trucks running the levees, stopping, and getting out while I was fishing deep in the everglades. These banks are full of gators and snakes so its rare you see anyone get out, and walk the banks. One truck stopped close to me, so I asked what was going on. They were all members of the airboat club and they volunteered to clean up the banks, out in no mans land. There are 30 miles of canals these guys were cleaning up. It was heart warming to see these tough guys, spending their time, helping mother nature. There are still a lot of good people in this country.

I had a fish fry promised to a group of friends, so, i went for some Zander...

did pretty well last night. 13 eater sized fish. They're my favorite eating fish.

You may recall.....................................I used to post on here and write articles way back when. It has been a while B/R. I've been floating around, writing a couple of books, watching my kids grow up. I haven't written an article here in ages but I've been fishing a ton. When I got down to Fl. in 2006, I quickly realized I would be spending a lot of time finesse fishing because my local water was gin clear. That didn't discourage me because that is what I did on NY. Once I got used to how clear the water really was, I started catching a ton of fish. Some of my friends, who have fished this water their whole lives, didn't believe that I was catching 40, 50, 75 even 100 fish a day. They were so intimidated by the clear water they avoided it at all costs. Only when I got them out on the boat did they see that we really could catch that many fish, and some big ones at that. Finesse fishing is the name of the game, 6lb test is the heaviest I employ in the clear water, even when jig fishing. The water comes out of the springs at 72 degrees and doesn't get much past 75 degrees even when the air temp is over 100. Ned Rigs Drop shot rigs Enormous fish on light tackle Shakey head rigs Wacky rigs Neko rigs even small jig n pigs produce good fish. I fish here pretty much at least once a week In the cool weather I throw a hair jig that I tie to resemble a float n fly, on a 1/8oz jig and no float and I drag it on the bottom and just clean up with it. One without the hat.

Anything in that $150-200 range will cast just fine.

Thank you! We truly appreciate your business.

This was two weeks ago from tomorrow. Easily caught 50+ fish that day almost all on a drop shot.

Hey, figured I would upload some pics from the week out in paradise. As previously stated, most fish were on the jig, swim jig, and S-Waver. The S-Waver was a fun bite. On some of our lakes, a lot of the weeds had not come up that high and i could let the S-Waver just hover in one spot for 4-5 seconds and then they would slam it. Was a fun bite. It was interesting to see how the bite changed throughout the week. The swimjig was hot the first half of the week, but after a nasty cold front came in, that bite died and the jig and S-Waver did well. Will say that one of my favorite days on the water involved catching close to a 100 while throwing nothing but the 2.5 square bill. That bite was hot. No giants that day, but was a fun switch up from the other baits. Had one bad mishap, during a picture time, my tackle box fell on my 723 powell endurance rod and broke it. At least that's what i think happened cause on my next cast, the rod snapped at the half way point. So, i am doing the trade in. Love those powell rods. Unlike other trips, we didn't catch any 25+ pound bags. Top 3 limits throughout the week were a 24 lb 13 oz, 24 lb 9 oz, and a 24 lb 2 oz bag. By all means, nothing to complain about and every day was awesome. Here are several fish in the 4-6+ pound range. I upload photos to photobucket. I then copy the image from the "IMG code" option. It can be stubborn sometimes, but i will click the image and eventually it will let me copy the image. Then just go on your post here and copy and paste. Maybe there are other ways but this is what works for me.

I say well done. You'll never have to do laundry again.

2½ lbs Roger

I will give you a different answer than the rest. It probably wasn't the head or hook that caused the problem because you did state you have decent hook up ratios before. I've run into this problem myself, I make my own shaky heads and I use them from 1/16oz up to 3/8oz with anything from a 2/0 up to a 5/0 but my most common size is 1/8oz with a 3/0 hook. The only time I use the 3/8oz is when we fish with big worms, 10" power worms and then it is the 3/8oz with a 5/0 hook, we fish these on points in 12' to 25' of water and it produces good fish but when my buddy showed me how to do this I would lose about half the fish I was catching. I switched hooks and even dropped down in size and no change, it wasn't until my buddy landed a fish that I learned what was happening. The fish he landed was hooked in the corner of the mouth, that was odd since we normally hook them in the roof of the mouth, that is when my buddy, who is a better angler than myself, told me that the fish didn't inhale the bait, it just picked it up off the bottom. I asked how he knew this and he told me it was the way it bit, with smaller worms they can inhale the entire bait but with large worms, especially when they aren't active, they tend to pick them off the bottom with their mouth rather than inhale so you either pull the head out of their mouth, or you don't get a good hook in them and you lose it. The funny thing to me was I always envisioned that they pick it up perpendicular to the hook but my buddy told me that they don't always approach the bait from behind, if they get it from the side you end up with the hook point facing the corner of the mouth rather than the roof of the mouth and if they get it like that you may not always get them, especially if they don't have the bait deep. So what I did from that point was to pay attention to how a bite felt, and when I would land a fish I'd see how it was hooked and if the bite feels different I kind of wait an extra 2 seconds to set the hook, it has really helped but you still lose one every now and again but nothing like it was when I started using large worms on the shaky head.

Encourage them to keep practicing and they'll eventually get as good as you.

So I'm in my second summer of a business that allows me to spend two months on the lower Colorado River while my boys are out of school without the wife/mom around very much. We have the main river channel with it's man made rip rap banks that hold smallmouth. Last year my boys and I only fished the main channel and absolutely killed the smallies. This year so far I'm targeting the largemouth on the back waters. All this is still very new to me so each time I catch a fish I feel like a little kid at a toy store. The back waters look like this, I have direct access to approximately nine miles of this type of water, it's shallow from edge to edge, 6" visibility and in the middle of the CA/AZ desert so the water is warm and the air temps are 100+ all summer: So far I've caught em flipping brush hog type plastics to the reeds and have been catching a lot of small guys, nothing decent + yet. This past week the milfoil has started breaking through and creating big surface mats and I've been getting them on a frog along the edges of the thick mats. These have been my first top water bass and holy cow what a blast. So far the decent sized ones have come on the frog. When flipping the tules with the brush hogs I'm wondering if the bigger bass prefer a different type/area of cover since I've not hooked one yet in the tule edges. Is there such a thing as primary cover where the big boys hang and secondary, not as good, cover that the little ones get pushed to? I've also recently learned that if I'm in my boat solo (19' 20 yr old Ranger 396V) to only fill up the gas tank opposite of the drivers side or I feel like a there is a serous case of gangster lean going on when not on plane, or I just need to lose some weight. ha The other thing that has been fun to watch is my boys 6 & 8, learning how to use a bait caster. I got them both a Kastking reel with a price point ABU rod. Kids can't get it through their heads that distance comes with skill and me telling them to worry about properly casting before trying to zing the bait a country mile fall on deaf ears. However they seem to be having more fun fighting birds nest on their "adult" set ups vs using their spinning gear that their spinning gear has been relegated to nightcrawler rigs for catfish. It's Tuesday, we've been taking "river" baths each day and mom is showing up this Friday to resupply us with clothes so we are on tap to take a real shower and do some serious house cleaning. I'll start taking some pictures of our fish to post,. I'm not good at remembering to do that but the memories for my boys are important. Been a flyfisherman my entire life and it's nice to know there are other types of fishing that are just as fun. Also, at night the big ole catfish are prowling for bluegill, caught this 40 pounder last year and hope to get a bigger one this year: My 5yr old last summer with one of many smallies, hopefully we get into them this year like we did last because those little suckers are fun to catch.

Yesterday, Connecticut Kayak Anglers (CKA) asked on Facebook whether anyone wanted to fish Breakneck Pond early in the morning today. I had no plans, so I said, "Sure." We agreed to meet at the trailhead to Breakneck Pond at 6:30 am. For those who don't know, CKA is run by Alan and Anthony to organize kayak fishing tourneys. Unlike other groups that organize kayak fishing tourneys, CKA is not-for-profit. CKA pays out all entry fees, less only some incidental expenses. This post isn't a pitch for CKA, so we now return to our regularly scheduled program. . . . When I left my house at 5:35am, Google Maps notified me that Bigelow Hollow State Park opens at 8:00 am. Breakneck Pond is in Bigelow Hollow State Park. I worried that we might not be able to get into the park when we arrived at 6:30 am, so I sent Anthony a message. He responded, "I have to work today. It's Alan who's going to Breakneck." The gate to the park was open and I met Alan at the trailhead to Breakneck Pond at 6:30 am. We loaded our kayaks onto our carts and headed up the roughly one mile trail. Luckily, the heat of the past couple of days broke and the air was wonderfully cool. It ended up peaking at only 80 degrees in the afternoon. It didn't take long for us to make it to the pond: I launched first. Although there was a slight breeze from the north, the water was like glass at the southernmost end of the pond: While I waited for Alan to launch, I tossed a wacky-rigged five-inch Senko to the edge of a small bed of lilies along the shore and got a bite: Greaaat. . . . Alan finally launched and we headed up the pond. I told him that I wanted to paddle all the way up to the north end of the pond in Massachusetts before fishing our way back. We made it only a quarter of the way up the pond before Alan declared that he was marking fish on his finder. I told him that finders don't catch fish, so, of course, he had to stop and prove me wrong. I have to admit that it took him only one cast: We ended up fishing our way up the east shore of the pond, before fishing our way back down the west shore. During our counterclockwise circuit, I caught fish mostly with the wacky-rigged Senko, although I also caught a couple with a Z-Man chatterbait with a big Keitech paddletail swimbait trailer and one with a topwater Zoom Horny Toad: To me, that was a very strange thing. Although the surface temperature of the clear but stained water ranged from 75 to 79 degrees, the largemouth bass were strangely unwilling to hit a fast moving lure. Most of our bites came on slowly fished Senkos. I think that I hit one of my two chatterbait fish in the mouth while it was yawning. I threw the Horny Toad for at least an hour and got only the one bite. Alan threw a spinnerbait and caught only pickerel after pickerel after pickerel. Weird. In the end, we fished from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm. I think that we each caught one black crappie. Alan caught way more chain pickerel than my 1-1/2 dozen. And my 31 largemouth bass might have been more than he caught. We never did see any larger fish. I think that our lunker probably weighed only 2-1/4 pounds. Again, weird. I think that the next CKA kayak fishing tourney should be at Breakneck Pond and it should be LeMans-style; everyone has to load their kayak onto a cart, haul it up to the pond, fish, load their kayak back onto the cart and make it back to the parking area, all within eight hours. Whaddaya think?

Located in S.E. Mich, fishing western Lake Erie shore. It was windy with a front moving in just south of us this afternoon. Started out with a Super Fluke, working it over submerged grass. Caught a couple on that, with the first one going about 2.5lbs. Moved to another spot as nothing else bit after the two Fluke bass. Next spot was at the mouth of a creek. I worked a spot that was set back from the creek channel with grass and Lilly pads. The bass were chasing shad so I started with a yellow Terminator frog and hooked a nice 3.5 pounder on the second cast. Missed the next two bites as the wind was really playing havoc with my line. After a while they stopped hitting that Terminator so I switched up to a LiveTarget Field Mouse. I hooked one fish but he got off after wrapping me around some pad stems. Missed the next two on the mouse. I'm not real confident in the hooks on that bait. I usually don't miss bites with a frog. I switched to a Booyah Pad Crasher and proceeded to catch two more quality fish. I didn't get pictures of all of the fish caught but here's the ones that I got.

Your budget is a tiny bit low but there are some decent ideas out there. I would consider two options. Option 1 would be a Pflueger President reel for $60. It would be a 6930 or 6935 model. That is a reasonably priced but very reliable rwwl I use for bass. I would match it to a Berkley Lightning Shock rod which sometimes can be found on clearance at Walmart. Look at a 6'6" medium action rod. It is a bit softer for treble baits but can work for lots of baits. Another good option is to go to Dicks Sporting goods. They sell a line of rods called Quantum Escalade. There is a nice 6'6 medium and a 7 foot medium. I own the 6'6" medium but I have lots of rods so if I only had one it would likely be the 7 footer. If frogs and heavier baits were on my agenda I would consider the baitcaster version of that rod. I would consider the 7 foot Medium Heavy if you can find one. Both of the Escalade rods are regularly sell for $100 but have been on sale for a long time at $49.99. Match that with an Abu Garcia Black Max reel. That should come to around $ 100 for the combo.

Good luck. I'll be there Tuesday afternoon. There were some nice fish shallow last week if the deep bite doesn't work for you. I have a question that I don't think has ever been discussed on here. Are there mussel shell beds in Toledo?

I remember seeing a fishing report from el salto where all the anglers were struggling to catch an 8 to 9 pounder and this one group was only throwing jerkbaits that hot summer week and had an absurd amount of bass over the 10 pound mark. Apparently, this group did well year after year sticking to jerkbaits in the summer. To each their own.

Wait...there's a Bass World? Where is it? How do I get there? Much more important: Is there a Musky/Pike World? I'd bribe public officials for access to that...

1997 18ft nitro with a 150. Not my truck or tractor lol

I'm pretty much in agreement with you AJay. But I do think you're allowed one good dig after the day is done. While we are fishing though I always try to help the other guy out because In the Heat of the Moment even good friends can get really frustrated with each other. My favorite was after I had a tough day and my buddy had a pretty good one, in the car ride home he looked over at me and just said, "well, at least you figured out what the pattern wasn't." ?

Only jigs I fish with.

Always try to match the braid color with the lure color. If they don't match, a bass might suspect that something's wrong! Roger

"No, no honey.....its 'senko'."

Darn it, I wish that held true when I step on a scale

Catching smallies on jerk baits is always fun, And my wife's first fish catch ever. First time I ever tried out the ned rig. We both hooked up first cast

Usually by my graphs and where they are located. If they are hugging the bottom, normally they are C-rig fish. If they are suspended, then a drop-shot. I will throw both and see which one works.

GYCB Kut-Tail

Think of the Carolina rig as more of a search rig that covers the deeper water spectrum on ledges, etc. whereas a drop shot is more of a technique to use once a concentration of fish has been located, similar to a Texas rigged plastic that is thrown once fish are located via squarebill or spinnerbait. Hope that helps!

This happened yesterday, when 2 out of 3 of us were were having the best day of the year......when one brother yelled to his brother next to him "John, I hooked a big one, her reel it in, I'm a bit tired".......almost ticked my self. Fishing is fun, and if you don't realize this happens and have thin skin, perhaps they should get their own boat. I see my boat as a place where guys can be guys!

But it has been more competitive in the past. Between the cavs and warriors they lost 1 game leading up to the finals. That screams no competitive balance. Even in my favorite era, the celts and Lakers always had a dog fight to get to the finals, with the sixers,pistons,hawks,bucks always giving the celts a run and houston always there.

Mocking ridiculing duh. Because that's what he would do to me

Hey all, I caught what I think is a spotted gar last night... This look right? It snapped my line (fishing for bass, texas rig pitboss) right when I landed him, then flipped and flopped, snapped a pic but could not get him in time to measure and weigh. But I reckon he's close to 35inches, 8-9lbs... Also pics of a couple nice largemouth I caught in the last week, same place, with texas rigged power worm or pitboss.