CRFisher

If the water isn't too clear switch to braid. Once I went to 30lb suffix I have lost only a few lures. Hauled in some tree branches though.

There's Jim Quick Stop in Billerica on route 3A. It's a variety store with a decent sized tackle collection, tons of soft plastics, smaller amount of hard baits. On Mass Ave in Arlington there's Arlington bait and tackle. Small shop, some variety but not really "north". Plum Island has a tackle shop, as does Salem Ma, haven't been to either, seems to me like they'd be primarily salt water gear. Depending on how North you are it might be easier to head to the Kittery Trading Post right over the Maine border off of 95 instead of heading down to BPS. They have tons of gear and tackle.

Fishing from shore where i fish, I'd probably go with a Live Pointer, or similar, high quality hardbait. I fish some pretty gnarly waters, so I tend not to use the best bait for the situation because I can't afford to lose as many of them. Plastics I can swing as they're realitively inexpensive. The only reason I have treble baits lasting longer than a year is because I primarily use 30lb braid. Fishing mono I was losing two baits a day, it gets pricey. I'm in an urban area so not only are there branches and rocks to get snagged on, but tires, shopping carriages, bikes, etc.

Sometimes you can't reach that "where" without the casting distance.

was it this? http://mybasslasso.com/

Wave worms Tiki line smell awesome. Powerbait is just plain nasty. I haven't used Gulp, based on what i've heard about the smell.

Half the "new" plastic baits I try are ones I found on the bank. Use them until they fall apart.

I bought a 3 pack of Ribbits last year, finally wore out the first one last week, now to rig up #2.

That's pretty much the entire Wal Mart fishing section here up North.

For a floating frog I'll do eveything exept burn them. Rapid hops, long pauses, slight twitches, long pop/hops to get their attention, trying to get them to walk the dog, etc.. I've had the best luck with a few hard, fast hops, then slowing down to twitching and very slowly swimming them.

I tend to bring them across the water in short jerks, with pauses in between. Sometimes I'll give it eight to ten spurts than let it sit for a minute or two. Lightly twitching them on the surface seems to entice a strike on the pauses.

I've heard of it done with ribbits and rage toads, don't see why it couldn't be done. YOu might want to pinch off some of the toad. Only issue I see is if the amount of plastic might hurt your hookset. Give it a try and let us know.

Fishing from shore, I'm never sure if they are there. However, if I think it's likely, I'll try to move through the water column, shallow runners than to deeper baits, and will try to give them something different, from baitfish, to craws, to worms.

My experience is that you can get numbers on an inline spinner, but will mostly be two pounds or less, unless you go to the larger sizes. Moving up too bigger spinners seem to weed out the dinks but keeps up with some of their effectiveness.

I think your best (and maybe only) choice is the ramp on the Newton/Brighton line. http://www.july4th.org/images/WebSiteBoatingInformation2009.pdf

Rooster tails to me are too small for LMB, or at least ones of decent size. I'd go with a Mepps or Blue Fox, #4 blade or larger.

http://planet-va.com/lucy/index.html Are these them?

Cool, it sounds like I made out OK.

Luck has a part in it. The more time, effort, skill, and money put into fishing, luck starts having a lot less to do with it.

On a whim I ended up at BPS today and didn't have time to plan and limited funds to spend so I grabbed one each of these. Anyone have an opinion on them? I'm sure they're not the greatest, but hoping they're somewhat effective.

Never tried Nutting Lake, meaning to check it out. Walden is generally packedw with the granola crowd and you have to pay to park. They've restricted some of the shoreline so there's not a lot of openings for fishing, except for the beach area, which will be off limits in summer. I've heard good things about the small mouth and trout there. The fishing at the Charles is going way downhill, it's overfished and people are taking everythign home, regardless of size or species. Had another night of diddley tonight.

Cambridge Reservoir is off limits for fishing. They used to police it pretty heavily so I'd be careful. Charles River in Waltham, Watertown and Newton has some decent shore fishing. Concord River is good as well. Some OK shore access at the Mystic Lakes in Medford. Horn Pond in Woburn has some good access as well. For ponds and lakes mass wildlife has some pond maps with a description of them. They are all pretty old but gives some idea on what to expect. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pond_maps.htm

I was hoping for some replies. I think weightless t-rigged would be the way to go. I've seen them in the BPS catalog but no stores around me have them. Give them a shot and let me/us know how you're luck goes.

Is any hook worth over $3 per hook?

Do you retie your leaders after a certain period of time? I put about 10 feet of fluoro at the end of my braid about a week ago. Used an alberto's knot with a dab of super glue so I believe I'm fine for now, but wasn't sure how often people retied their leaders.