Marty

I use the regular size and they seem to roll over less than some other brands, such as Sizmic, but they still do roll over. I don't care for it but it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference. Maybe I'll try a keel weight.

Devil's Bathtub is a glacial kettle hole and I was always under the impression that it was stagnant, but that's just an assumption. In my entire life I can't recall seeing anyone fishing there, from shore or boat. Access is difficult; get close to the water and you sink into the muck and I speak from experience in that department. I suspect that Quaker Pond has good fishing. Boating is not allowed and there are just a couple of access points for shore fishermen, so I'd guess that a lot of the fish there aren't used to lures. I've had fantasies about fishing the pond from my canoe.

The woman he mentioned in his post who he met years earlier and is getting married to is Barbara.

Rick, those are some good, intelligent observations. I don't know anything about winter kills, but I know for sure sure that my results have gone to hell the last few years to the point that I don't go there anymore, unless I want/need to go somewhere real close to home (8-9 miles). If you're talking about the connection in the SE part of the pond, the back pond is officially known as Lost Pond.

Good questions, but no easy answers. But your post is a testament to the addictive power of __________ (fill in the blank).

I feel similarly, seeing Tiki every time I see Ronde, but I force myself to remember that they're separate people.

Knowledge. Knowing what bass do in the various seasons and how they react to various weather conditions and knowing how to entice strikes under these various conditions. Also the ability to adapt when the fish aren't behaving in accordance with conventional wisdom. Obviously, other skills come into play, such as precision casting, lure selection and presentation, etc., but I think the knowledge part supersedes all these things.

I've used properly stored line that was years old. However, if what happened to you happened to me I'd get new line because of some doubts, whether logical or not.

I don't recall catching any smallies there but Deep and Round Ponds are considerably deeper than Hundred-Acre although I don't know the actual depths. Today I was talking to a kayaker just coming off Deep Pond. He got skunked but claims he does very well in the summer fishing the reeds with a hollow-bodied frog. Claims to have caught a 5 there last year.

I use buzzbaits in open water as well as semi-weedy water. If there's a fish around that's willing to hit something on the surface, I don't know why a buzzbait shouldn't work as well as treble hook lures.

I have no idea if a short tag can cause line failure. I leave a tag that I'd estimate at 1/4-3/8". It doesn't seem possible that a fractional inch of a filament can make a difference when you consider swinging trebles, split rings, rattles and the main line all visible/audible.

Great fish. You seem to do better on that lake than its reputation.

Best wishes, get well soon and keep us posted.

Last month Muddy posted on NY Bass that he was in Northern California, met a woman on Facebook who he first had met 31 years earlier in New Orleans, is getting married in June and living a life beyond his wildest dreams.

I don't agree with all your statements. Such as: I fish Sodus and Port Bay 4-5 times each per year and crankbaiting can be done without snagging weeds, especially in Sodus where I've done more crankbaiting. Other times my friend and I have done very well on both bays on topwater. Expand your horizons, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I'm sure there are many small lures that panfish will hit. I used to do well with bluegills on a small Kastmaster and Rapala Mini Fat Rap.

Definitely not. A 3# bass is a 3# bass, it doesn't know how large the body of water is. This may mean nothing more than I stink at lake fishing, but of my dozen or so largest bass all but one were from ponds of 25 acres or smaller. My personal best is from a 6-acre pond.

Wow, that's quite a fish!! First time I've ever see the word outside of a crossword puzzle.

Sometimes if it is producing right off the bat. I prefer to call it my favorite bait rather than go-to bait because of what the latter implies. But whatever you call them, favorite or go-to, they're worthless if you're not on fish.

I think all wildlife consider energy tradeoff, which is why, say, a lion will expend more energy chasing a zebra than a rabbit. As to bass, I don't know how far away they can detect a lure, but we can't really compare their chasing a lure to a terrestrial mammal. At what distance does energy expenditure become a factor for bass? I have no idea, but I doubt that it's much of a factor for short distances. So I do think they'll take small lures. Also, it is believed that bass strike lures for many reasons, such as anger, curiosity, territoriality and others and I don't know if energy comes into play when striking lures for these reasons. Lots of mysteries beneath the surface. But I'd try all sizes of lures if you're not getting the results you think you should.

Congratulations McGuirk and WNY on great fish. You're hardly alone. SMB are not as widely distributed as LMB and not as available in the shallow, weedy waters that so many bass anglers like to prowl. I do think they might be a tad easier to catch if you locate them, as they seem very pugnacious. But I haven't caught a smallie in a while, being one of those shallow water prowlers.

I don't know. I just bought a Pflueger President within the past week and the spooling instructions are for the traditional method, so I don't know anything about the line roller.

I agree with BlueBasser. I don't know about Wisconsin, but the same goes here as far as a bunch of special regulations for trout because the state spends more on them.

I don't know many spinning reels I've owned over my 40+ years, but it must be dozens and I've never seen one that deviates from your description. The method described in the video was standard for spinning reels for many, many years. I can only speak for Daiwa and Shimano, but when they introduced anti-twist line rollers their directions for spooling changed to the method you're using with those two reels.

I don't think weights necessarily weigh what they say. For me, the only way to check a scale is to weigh stuff that has already been weighed on a certified scale at your supermarket. A six-pack, bag of apples, gallon of milk and many other things will do fine. i do this check twice a year or any time I think my scale might be going bad.