Simp

Have fun be safe and make sure the fish measures. This time of year with females full of eggs make sure you flip the fish. I've said it here before I've seen a fish measure almost one inch longer on one side then the other. I wouldn't have believed it but I saw it with my own eyes. So if it's close flip it and make sure the officials due to. You might also want to measure a fish that's close again before you weigh in. I've heard tons of stories of fish shrinking.

What type of "Lure" do I need to catch one like that???

Well I was out again yesterday on a VERY VERY WINDY day and the bite was pretty slow. We fished until our battery finally ran out of juice but we were smiling ear to ear! The reason was because the one fish we did catch was a good one. We were on a small windy point near some deeper watter. I had one of the free Rattle Head Spinner baits tied on one of my rods. I let my dad use it while I checked to see if a jerkbait bite, might be on. When we got to that point I hear my Dad yell " THERE SHE IS!"! I see the medium action rod bending over like like a green twig would. I quickly asked my dad "You want me to get the net?". This was a question and not a statement because he's not that much of a fan of nets. On the last trip he actually took it out of the boat before we left LOL. His answer this time though was a resounding "YES!". The big girl took off for the right side of the boat only to dive under it to head for the other side. I swear the rod was almost bent tip to handle at one point. He was able to run back up the boat and around the trolling motor. Only then to see the big girl diving towards a giant tree under the water. By this time the wind had already swept us against the bank. Thank the lord it was a grassy one and not a rocky one! Soon he was able to wrestle her back to the boat and I was able to get a net on her. So here is my pops first 6 pounder (I swear my scale must be weighing light) in some years. Caught on a RattleHead Spinerbait I received at our roadtrip! Not to mention the free hat he also has on in the pick.

Paul your one great fisherman and Dad. Don't fool yourself otherwise because your sure lucky to have great fish and great kids but many don't appreciate it. I know you do and there is something special to be said for that. You keep posting these great picks of fish and family and I'm sure all of us will too. You just have to spot us three or four pounds per fish. ;D

That really dosen't mean much, you would be amazed on how 5lb fish can pick a 4" tube up by the tail, swim off with and never have the hook in his mouth. Bottom line is the fish were not commited to "EATING" your bait, sure a few might have, but most , by the sounds of it were not. Which is why, just me personaly, in the same situation would have gave them alittle something different to see what they would commit to. I had the a very similar situation this weekend, sat. I was getting them pretty good in a small bay off the main lake on a 1/2 oz trap, well that night I weak front blows through, drops water temps a few degrees, and coupled with them seeing the bigger bait on sat. sunday the same bait was not working nearly as well. I knew the fish were still there as I had a lot of short strikes, and the few fish I did catch were barely hooked, switched to a 1/4 oz bait, and it was back on. Tell me about it! Last week I had what felt like a nice bite and set the hook only to have the trailer legs gone on my jig.

Thanks for all the kind words guys and Jimzee I was just lucky to get what I did fishing behind you and pitchnkid!!

You should've seen the one Speedbead caught, er uh, hooked. He started yelling, "It's a Musky, I think it's a Musky!" It turned out to be a pretty good sized pickerel. I guess it was good sized, I've never caught one before so I'm taking his word for it. He got it right to the boat and half out of the water when it came unglued. Well that's the perfect release for those things. They're slimy and toothy critters. Btech on the EVo jigs subject I'm also really liking them. I paired mine with a flappin hog and had a really good day a couple days ago. I was out about 4 hours or so and landed four fish that had some good size.

Well I went out a couple days ago and tied on one of the evolution jigs I got from the tackle pack given to us at the road-trip. The result was some very solid fish! Here was the first fish for the day weighing in just under 5 pounds. I got lucky with the fish above because I'm still not sure when she hit. I thought I was caught between a couple limbs and so I gave it a fairly good tug but not a set the hook swing. I then saw my line dart to the left and so I set the hook in the opposite way. It put up a good fight and I think I was lucky to land it with possibly letting the fish know I was there before a proper hook set could be applied. Of course the fish may have just snapped it up comming off those limbs. I caught three more for the few hours we were out and all of them keepers. I found them pretty tight to cover even though it was a cloudy day. I took my time picking apart trees I could find and nailed this fish and another not pictured in the same area. My pops also caught his PB crappie weighing in at 1 pound 7oz and this picture doesn't do that crappie justice. The was no way I could even get close to wrapping my hands around it. So in closing to Glenn and the sponsors thanks for the jigs and the rest of the tackle!!!!

Wouldn't this work a lot better on those WV women? :running: Nah , they only like guys who catch Big Bass ;D Not pickerel!! ;D ;D

I saw the one and only Big O throw down two of them in a hurry man. So as long as he keeps posting we all good! ;D ;D ;D

I fished with Wayne (Speedbead) yesterday and let him run the front of the boat. Our initial plan was to run to Duncan bay and fish a bunch of laydown trees from the icestorm they had down here but we then heard the lake had dropped several inches overnight so we changed tactics. Speedbead pitched laydowns and logjams while I was tossing out into deep water and fishing the reliable jig dragging pattern that had been going on all week. Wayne probably nailed around 4 keepers plus smaller fish flippin and pitchin. I managed a 4 1/2, my largest of the trip by far dragging a jig up a ledge. We also got on a shallow water spinnerbait bite. Speedbead caught a PICKERAL! We didn't even know this lake had them. I believe Pitchin Kid got one as well. We later found out Jimzee and Pitchinkid ran up to Duncan and slew them pitchin those trees! They had many keepers up to 3lbs, sometimes 2 and 3 per tree top. was lucky enough to be with them that day and we killed them on Jigs all day. Each time we came across a area with rocks that had some cover or was a point produced some fish. Let me tell ya these guys sure know how to pitch a jig!

I plan on getting there sunday night or VERY early monday. Mike you still handling the boats and open seats?

Thanks for the great info Reel Mechanic.

I picked up a PT a couple weeks ago and would love to find out if I can get a spare spool for it. I have it rigged up on my rod I like to jig and worm with so it has fluro on it. I'd like to be able to have another spool for a quik swap to another line if I know I'm not wanting to use fluro rather then having to take that line off and spool something else. So does anybody know where they might sell spare spools for this reel?

I did some searches on this and thats the ACS brake and after the brake in it no longer whines.

It's very hard to tell by picks but I'm guessing that's a very big fish. I'd say at least a high five to 6.5 IMHO. The problem is background, is you friend a small guy or big guy ect. Seriously though go buy a 20$ scale and stick it in your tackle box it's worth it!

Well I was so happy to get back to some good old pond fishing with my dad and my dog. I've had three club tourneys in the past month or so and I was sure glad to get back to some sit back and relax style fishing. We had to wait until March 15th for all our Wildlife Refuge ponds to open back up and so far they've produced well. We've started learning a new small pond this spring (although I did visit it some late last fall before it closed). Mainly because they drained my honey hole of a pond at the end of last years season. So we are testing out some other ponds to see what we can find. This pond in the photos has HUGE beautiful colored bluegill that will make for some great fun with the little ones and some great eats!! The downside has been I've only caught small bass in it at around 13inch or smaller and it's had me worried about the state of the bass in the pond. That was until yesterday. Here are some pics of my little dog out there enjoying every moment. We caught some bluegill and I caught several small bass on a Red Eye Shad in a red and yellow pattern. I ended up going back the next day for a few hours braving a wind advisory. I caught several bass and finallly one that had some size that gives me hope that there might be at least some hawgs in it. Oh and here is a couple panorama shots of the Pond I took.

I might also point out to flip a fish when measuring as well. Just about a week ago I was at a Club fish off holding down the measuring board and I kid you not one fish was almost a inch longer on one side compared to the other.

Well I'm about 1000 miles away from saltwater so I guess I'm good.

I love my TD-LT.

Wow I guess she hadn't heard trans fats make you fat. NICE FISH!!

Maybe a hook sharpner as well. Changing line would be the first thing I'd do as well.

A couple months ago I bought the Quantum KVD reel and love it. I just realy prefer these brake systems over magnetic. I just had my second tourney this year with the KVD reel. I ended up coming home saying I have to go get another KVD Quantum because it casts so much further then all my other reels. It just handles light jerk baits so well. Then my dad handed me the Dicks ad with the Energy PT for 80$ and I knew I could get a 10$ off coupon to make it 70$. One other thing is that these are the E760PTs reels. The only difference is these are made to handle salt water and don't have the pretty cover. At least that's what my local Dicks sold me.

I have the Light and tough frog rod and love it so far. For a rod a little over 7ft it's VERY light and very sensitive. What I love about mine is it telescopes so it can fit in the back of my truck when I go fishing ponds.

I agree with what you said but the lighting rods are one of the best value rods ever made. I have last years model and it's a great jerbait/cranking rod for the price. I prefer my St Croix cranking rod but it's not by a HUGE margin. Although Dicks has the new St Croix mojo rods for like 80$ plus a free hoodie.