Crestliner2008

And be warned, if you enjoy fishing top waters, the seagulls will pester you incessantly after 8 am! Good Luck!

Are you fishing for lakers right now, at this time of the year? If so, how deep are you looking? Lakers love deeper lake basins, especially those hovering around 90' or more. We've been especially successful this summer deep jigging lakers. We use a regular medium action spinning rod/reel, 10# test PP mainline with a 5' section of 8# test fluorocarbon leader. Lures we've had success with include 3/4 oz. blade baits and 1/2 - 3/4 oz jig heads with 5" fluke style plastics. It's a real hoot to nail a 5 lb. laker that deep on this light gear!

We've been doing well drifting over the 23' main lake basin. The gills suspend about 3' down and the crappie are right there underneath them. We got 77 today between the two of us. Two dozen were large gills. Most productive, casting or drifting, was a 1 1/2" clear sparkle tube.

Are they stockers or natives? How large do they grow - weight wise. If they are the standard 12" - 16" rainbows, then you can get by nicely with an UL crappie rod and 4# test line (I use 2# myself). If they are 18" - 24" then you may want to step it up a bit, to maybe a Med-Light action spinning rod. Matched with 6# test line, you will be able to handle most larger trout with no problem - and have a good time doing it!

Well, if you can find an "easy casting kind", go for it. I've tried several brands and never found anything superior (or even equal to) to mono or braid with a leader. Right now I'm running two rigs, one 7' and one 9' with 2# test Fireline and a 4# test fluoro leader. The fine braid affords me the options of depth & speed control and invisibility of the fluoro leaders helps with abrasion resistance. No problems casting either. You just have to try different set-ups and see what works best for you.

I'm a long time Shimano fan. I have a half dozen of them now, mostly Saharas & Symetres. Great reels without a doubt. However, I've recently acquired a Pflueger President and I gotta tell ya, this is one heck of a reel! Even smoother than my Shimanos, if that's possible! Time will tell whether or not it can hold up as well as the Shimanos. But I'll just bet it will. Very cost effective as well.

I'd opt for a lighter (softer) UL action 7' - 8' rod myself. That combined with an UL reel and 2# test Trilene XL and you're good to go. You could step it up to 4# test, but I'd put an additional 5' section of fluorocarbon for a leader. Trout can be pretty persnickety at times! I've caught a lot of trout with a rig like this.

Thompson Buoyant spoon work really great. !/16 oz. Roadrunners and/or jig heads with 2" curly tails also work well. When I was really into trout fishing, there was only one lure I carried with me. A 4/0 Colorado Spinner. Here's what I'm talking about: I took my limit of trout with these bad boys many, many times. They are not easy to find in the regular retail market these days, but you make them up pretty easily with lure parts from Netcraft.com. Good luck!

I use 2# test Trilene XL on a few of my UL rigs for panfishing. And I use 25# test TripleFish mono on my swimbait/bucktail rod for pike. The only other use of it comes in with leaders on braid when I'm fishing topwaters. In this case, it floats and acts as a fine shock absorber, lessening the chances that I will tear out the hooks on the hookset.

Send it to your local DNR and I guarantee you'll find out for sure.

Great tip! To carry it a bit further, some boating anglers should take notes as well. More times than I care to think about I see these high powered bass boats roar into a cove or shoreline section and start fishing right away. Unbelievable! They could use a little stealth themselves.

Definitely a northern pike.

Looks like a tiger musky to me - a cross between the two species.

You might try a drop shot rig - IF - snags are not going to be a problem for you, fishing from shore. If the shoreline is fairly steep, then you can probably get by with the drop shot with no problem. If it's rocky and snaggy, you might be better off with a Texas split shot rig, or a 4" wacky rigged Senko with some sort of weed guard. Which ever presentation you select, make sure you have a fluorocarbon leader, as where the water is that clear, this line really pays off in most instances. Keep it light and keep your patience tuned!

I tried the SpinShot hooks on my drop shotting rigs last season. Gave up on them as I lost a much higher percentage of bass on the first jump. Not sure why this is, but after the 6th. or 7th. loss, I went back to my tried & true, the Gamakatsu Splitshot/Dropshot hook in size #2. I've caught a lot of samllies on that hook and manged to boat most of them. JMO!

Try large paddle tailed soft swimbaits. Especially the larger 5 1/2" size, like the SK Shadalicious. Rig it on a weighted swimbait hook.

I've caught a lot of trout on the B n' M 7' SHSS UL spinning rod. Casts light line beautifully with either a 750 Sierra or 6920 Pflueger President. This rod will handle anything coming your way and cost around $50.00. Remember, fish don't break rods. Fishermen do.

I'd opt for the BBZ-1 Jr. (6" slow sink, wicked perch pattern) for starters. Not terribly expensive, yet it will produce exceptionally well at times.

I've used this bait for 3 seasons now with stock hooks. No problems here.

Not sure of that particular brand, but Zoom's "Speed Worms" are close. Great on a Texas rig in thick grass.

Great looking catalog! I didn't even know you folks made MegaStrike in a pike formula. BTW, please do consider making larger sizes of your "Fat Shads". Like 5" & 6". They work wonders on early season smallies when put on a 1/2 - 3/4 oz. jig heads. The lake trout love those big paddle tails out deep (70 - 90 FOW) on 1/2 oz. heads, vertically jigged in summer too; but the plastics have to be large.

One of my finesse rods (which I use for split shotting) is filled with 6# test Fireline Crystal with a 5' section of 6# test fluorocarbon as a leader. This kind of leader just affords more abrasion resistance to the mainline. I've taken some large bass, even in cover, with this set-up. My main DS rig is 10# PP with a 6# test fluoro leader. So yes, braid can be considered a finesse line if used in proper context.

I use X-Raps year round up here in the northeast. You just need to "pick up the pace" in warmer water months, like now. Overpriced? I don't really think so. Look at it this way, unless you are fishing pike waters, the chances are that your single X-Rap will serve you for many, many seasons. And if you think that $10.00 is high for any lure, how about the Japanese versions, going for a high as $25.00 each! I have about a half dozen LC Pointers, as well as a bit more of X-Raps. Both are productive lures. Both cost money. But they last a lifetime. Just make sure you get one of the "Hot Head" colors!

From the early 70's through the early 80's I did a considerable amount of "Spoonplugging" for bass & walleye. Very successfully too I might add. At that time, it was probably the most effective system for mapping and finding active fish. Still works today I imagine, however, with the tremendous strides in technology today, there is less need for this kind of mapping. It's easier to do that with the sonar. So, you can focus on finding structure, bait & fish more efficiently today. I believe it is still imperative to study Perry's works for beginning anglers (and even more experienced ones), to get to really understand just what structure is and how to identify productive structures. And I'll bet if I pulled out my box of Spoonplugs and gave it another whirl, that I'd be equally successful today. However, blind trolling should never be considered a viable presentation, unless you are just out for a boat ride. JMO!

Very nice camera work.