Fishes in trees

In olden times, fishing from a small jon boat or canoe with a small paddle was called skulling, and the very short paddle was referred to as a skulling paddle. That plastic paddle is a high tech version of a skulling paddle

Here's the logic I'd follow. The lake has points. Points don't stop at the bank, they continue out into the lake. Somewhere, there is a place where the point intersects with the thermocline. That is where I'd concentrate most of my fishing time. Think low and slow. One of the previous suggestions of busting out the Ned rig is a good one. If that's too tedious for you, a close second would be 1/4 or 3/16 oz Brewer Slider heads on 6 or 8 lb test. ( 6 is better) This will get you a little faster drop that you'll get with the ned rig. Option B is to find the bait. If you find the bait fish, the bass won't be very far - guaranteed. In any case - it is officially summer. Get away from beating the banks - that is a fairly low percentage ploy in the middle of summer in a lake with little vegetation. Option C might be to drag football jigs or a carolina rig around the same areas, i.e. where the depth on the point intersects with the thermocline. It could be that you don't have a rig that is appropriate for fishing a Ned rig or Brewer Sliders, or football jigs or what have you. Go buy one. If you have any tournament experience at all, you should be aware of the futility of trying to "make do" at tournament time. "Making do" is in the realm of the recreational fisherman, if you're doing tournaments, get the correct gear for the specific technique and give yourself your best chance to succeed. The ONLY thing that trying to "make do" achieves in tournament situations is that it gives you a convenient excuse should you not succeed. Another idea - if the lake doesn't have convenient cover - make your own. Sink some brush piles on the various points. Try to be discreet about this.

Hook that are rated the same size are often different, depending on what company made them. Rather than spend time thinking about it, take your lure to the fishing tackle store with you and match up the hook sizes. I do this all the time at the tackle shop and they don't care.

I own many different brands, but the one that generally gets tied on is an old Berkley Frenzy rattle bait. I like its posture in the water, and how it tends to drop "horizontal" instead of nose first when I stop it. Mind you, I don't stop it a lot, primary retrieve is to tick the top of whatever vegetation is around. When you encounter more vegetation, a quick rip to shed the grass. I like to keep it moving.

DO NOT go cheap on your trolling motor battery - even for your smaller boat. ALWAYS go with the largest capacity you can afford. If you've got to save weight, save it in other areas. I'd go with a separate battery to run the depth finder. For small boats, feature for feature, I don't think that you can beat the Hummingbird Fishing Buddy series. Batteries are self contained in this model. Skimping on your primary battery power will sooner or later come back to bite you.

This reminds me of the old Zen Koan, where the impatient man goes into the pottery shop, and inquires of the potter - "I'd like to purchase your finest pottery." The potter, with a wave to the right and the left, indicating the dozens of pottery pieces lining the shelves says, "Take your pick."

The vast majority of pitching presentations that I make are done with fluorocarbon lines. Currently I Seaguar Abrazx spooled up on 4 different rigs. One has 10 lb rtest for "finesse pitching", a couple of others have 15, that's what I use the most. My Bubba drop shot rig, which doubles as my heavy pitching rig has 20 lb Abrazx on it. This season I've started throwing wacky senko's on spinning gear with a braid/fluorocarbon leader. The jury is still out on how I like this set up. I like the brightly colored braid, which works as a strike indicator while letting the bait drop. I'm having some accuracy issues with the spinning gear, which I didn't have last year on bait casting gear. The spinning gear allows me to expand my pitching range somewhat and that probably contributes to the problem.

The scissors on my Leatherman Micra work ok - with a caveat. Use a set of hemostats to lock on to the tag end of the line and get it stretched tight prior to cutting. That is what gets me the closest, cleanest cut.

If he can find some wife who is absolutely steamed at her husband, maybe he can talk her into selling a rig for that. I've seen that happen once, although it involved a car and not a boat.

Last year, I broke a 3 rods. The most I've broken in several seasons. They were all my fault. Fortunately, they were Fenwick HMG rods ( 1 was an Aetos) Lifetime guarantee - send them proof of breakage and $10 and you get a new rod. (the whole process takes a couple of weeks or so) I'm fortunate in that I have plenty of spares.

I'm not a big fan of big game line. Had some unexplained breakage issues with it in the past, so I just don't trust it. It isn't Berkley's premium brand of line. I think that there are better monos out there for similar amounts of money At this point in my life and given the limited amount of fishing time I've had so far this year and what I'm likely to have the rest of the season, I'm going to stick with more mid-range to premium lines. Seaguar Abrazx for the most part for soft bait presentations. I've got limits though. I ain't gonna pop close to $40 per spool for Tatsu, I don't care how good it is. I took the several spools of Big Game that I had left, in various weights and donated it to the local senior citizens arts & crafts classes. They use it for making mobiles. It excels in that application.

I've had very little experience "punching" and little success when I've tried it. My thought is that somewhere on that lake, there is a deep edge to the weed line. This time of year, that is where I'd spend most of my time fishing. I'd probably throw a jika rig, pretty heavy, 5/8 or 3/4 oz weight, heavier line, like 15 or 17 lb fluorocarbon.

I have a few of them. I've used them off and on over the years. I've never got on a really hot top water bite, where you might tell if using them made much of a difference or not. The few times that I did get bit using the front runner - Lucky Craft Sammy combo, it was never on the front runner. I think that they restrict the walking action of a sammy a little bit and I think that a sammy is easier to walk than a spook is. In hindsight I think that the bait might work better with a popper - I don't know. Something to try this summer if I remember. I don't think that having to tie a couple more knots is an issue - just be sure and tie good knots.

For me, going fishing is an all day thing. I'll get breakfast on the way - generally a slice or 2 of Casey's breakfast pizza and coffee. Cooler has water, ice and a few beers. I will stop and buy a sandwich for lunch somewhere, either Walmart or Caseys and put it in a zip lock bag in the cooler. Lately, a V-8 has hit the spot as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack. After I get off the water and get all loaded up, I check my blood sugar and that kind of lets me know what I can have for supper. There are great BBQ and other styles of restaurants on the way home.

Unless they left all their machines in the pit when they were finished, there has to be some sort or ramp somewhere in that pit where they got their gear out. That is your primary shallow to deep transition zone. It is most likely there somewhere, just got to find it. It is unlikely that all the walls of the pit are perfectly steep, there are some shelves here and there. Back when I fished pits often, my primary search bait was a shad rap, fished on spinning gear and 8 lb test and I would parallel the banks until I found something interesting. If there is any vegetation, that would indicate a bottom softer than rock and I'd spend time looking there.

Early spring & fall I have a set of Cabelas Guide Wear that I got in 2000 and it still works great. Late spring & summer I've found that Frog Toggs work good. I have both a bibs set and a pants set and I prefer the bibs.

Is this a good example of a first world problem, i.e. being bummed because you gut hooked a fish on an artificial lure? I'm pretty certain that Joe Meatfisherman in Bosnia, or some other similar spot on the planet, doesn't worry much about gut hooked fish as he dodges left over land mines walking down to the creek.

I have some of these hooks and I wasn't impressed with them when they came out several years ago. I bought several packages, both new at full price and then in various close out bins. I tried them on several different brands of tubes and didn't like how they worked. On further review, it occurs to me that all the tubes I tried them all were fairly thick bodied tubes. The notion of these hooks being designed expressly for thin walled tubed never occurred to me. Somewhere in my extensive collection of stored & ignored plastic baits, I'm pretty sure there are some thin walled finesse tubes. This is another thing for me to put on my test & research list, i.e. Grgsb hooks on finesse tubes. I'm pretty certain that I will get to this project before this decade is over.

When I fish a wacky rig senko, currently my hook of choice is a Falcon weighted weedless K-wacky hook. I use their 3/0 size weighted 1/16 oz. In the never ending discussion over heat shrink tubing or o-rings, I use o-rings, primarily because several years ago I bought a thousand of them at a penny a piece and I haven't run out yet.

As mentioned earlier, don't burn it - use poison ivy spray. Once you've got it, use Technu - that stuff is the best that I've found.

Don't be worried about getting that boat on plane with that motor. It ain't happening. That motor will make loading.unloading the boat off the trailer easier, compared to trying to do it with electric power alone. However, on horse power limited lakes, you've got a great, stable fishing platform with plenty of room for gear. Got no idea on the charger issue, if it were my boat, I'd just go buy some professional help, change out the charger, do whatever else you need to do.

My advice would be for you to assess the fishing situation you are confronted with and then buy something that you think will work. If your first choice doesn't work - buy again.

I know I've used this answer to similar topics in the past, but I'll repeat it. Anyway, if you are bank bound, one of the most important pieces of equipment you need is a good pair of hip waders. It will get you off the bank a little bit and make it easier for you to parallel the weed line with whatever bait you want. For mid-summer fishing, go ahead and get a belly boat, some sort of tube to float in around the pond. If you want to try to catch the biggest fish in the pond, use bait. Step A - Catch a bluegill. Step B - Get a 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook and impale it diagonally through the back of the bluegill. Get a float large enough to suspend the impaled bluegill a foot to foot and a half beneath the surface. For a rod & reel, I'd use a flipping stick and minimum 20 lb test or braid if you got it. If you don't have a flipping stick, use the stoutest tackle you have access to. Place the bluegill/float combo in open water, 1 or 2 feet past the outside edge of the weed line. Make sure you have enough float to suspend the bluegill. (if necessary, you can use a balloon, inflated and tied to the line.) No action in 15 minutes or so - pick a different section of weed line. If the bluegill dies, catch another bluegill. This is a mid-west variation of shiner fishing, like they do in Florida. If you need more information, google shiner fishing in Florida and adapt that information to your situation. A "quick strike" rig is an option to the circle hook. You can google how to make one of those. Good luck

I've got one of those small Quarrow hand held electronic scales and it is messed up. I test it with my walking weights - 3 lbs each - and it works perfectly. I put an 8 lb fish on it and it only weighs 6 something. Last month I used it on a 6 lb fish and it only weighed 4 something. It is very distressing to have your scale lie to you.

4 of the lures have lips. Hope they run straight. My thought is that you're going to get practice tuning lures so that they run straight. Not a bad price though.