bassnleo

My best days have also come on big wave days, it just un-nerves me too much anymore to be out in those 5-7's. I stick to the bay when it gets that bad.....

Flippin stick, braided line, texas rig your favorite soft plastic craw or creature bait using a 3/8 or heavier weight. Flip or pitch to ANY hole you see and allow the bait to fall on a slack line. I like the areas of deeper grass, say 8-10 feet.

Beat me to it, I was kinda thinking the same thing

My guess would because of all the schemes going around where people are printing up bogus money orders. I've investigated several here, they look really good and it can be really hard to track down the culprits.

My mold has 1/8 to 1/2 ounce sizes. It's the cylinder finesse style not a rounded or tear drop shape. I have used them all and the finesse style works best for me. You will be able to pour hundreds in no time, I can do like 100 an hour. Good luck!

I'm using 4 and 6 lb Gamma Edge floro. Still using same line I spooled up in April. It does twist some as all floro seems to but I have yet to break off a fish, even fishing Lake Erie often around all the zebra mussels. About every 20 casts or so I'll take the bait off and throw out about 30-40 feet of line and reel it back (do this twice). That seems to get rid of most of the twist. I'll sacrafice a little PITA for the strength of the line....

The very reason I pour my own. They are EASY to pour..........I got tired of going through so many at the high prices. Now I pour them for 7 cents each.

Second one....

Lake Erie is a relatively easy place to find fish. It's just sooo big...... Like was already mentioned, get out to depths of 20 feet or greater and fish ANY change in bottom you see. This time of year the best depths seem to be right handy to 25 feet and when you get on a spot you will load the boat. When you wear those fish out, stay at the same depth, find another structure change and go at it. You will only need 2 rigs... A tube rigged on a 1/4 oz to 1/2 ounce internal (exposed hook) head and a drop shot. For colors it's hard to beat good old green pumpkin. Stick with 4 inch tubes and similar sized drop shot baits like a straight tail worm or goby style bait. My tournament partner just fished as a co-angler in the Elite Series event out of Buffalo. He pre-fished in his own boat and went just out from Buffalo Harbor and caught the fire out of them in the ways I described above. Your biggest enemy on Erie will be the wind. The higher the wind, the bigger the waves, go heavier in your weights. One thing about the wind though, when it blows the fish really bite. A perfect day IMHO is about a 1-2 foot chop. I prefer to use the trolling motor and hold on a piece of structure and fish it. If the wind is too much to hold you can always do the "Erie drift and drag" which can also be really good. Feel free to PM me if you want more info..... I'll leave you with these 2 pics of Erie smallies.....

EEEEEAZY on the cop jokes guys, there's a few of use around here Just kidding, I get a laugh out of them too, even heard a few of them My 2 favorite bumper stickers are "Bad cop..no doughnut" and "Support the Police..Beat yourself up"

Very cool! I can't wait till my daughter is old enough to go along

I would also say that it sounds like your transducer or it's cable may be bad. I don't think the whole unit is bad but who knows. I to would call Lowrance and get their opinion.

I'll never forget my first paycheck. I ran out and bought my first compound bow, a Hoyt Buck, then later that year shot my first deer with a bow. Ahhh memories.... I agree with the other comments, definately start putting a little away each time, you'll really thank yourself later.

I recent acquired a new "ding" > on my glass boat, I don't have any clue how, but it's a doosy. Only thing I can figure is that one of the times I had to tie off to a dock then run and get my truck someone ran into it and didn't have the courtesy to tell me. Anywhoo, I would like to have it repaired. The ding is about the size of a half dollar and about 1/16 of an inch deep. Is there any way to repair this myself, and how and where do I read about doing it? OR Am I better off having it repaired comercially? Thanks

Baby Paca Craw texas rigged with 3/8 to 7/16 oz weight. Aim your casts for any hole you can see and let the bait fall on a slack line. Strikes may come on the fall, if not try jigging it up and down a few times, if no bite then reel in and start all over agin aiming at another hole. Also, think outside the box, alot of anglers aim for large holes in the weeds and that works but try casting to holes the size of a coffee can or smaller.

I to would agree with trying a heavier weight and punching a bait down through the weeds, it's a great way to caych em in the summer when the sun is high.

Kistlers Graphite Series drop shot special is a nice rod for the money. I've been using mine for 2 years with no complaints.

I had the pleasure today of fishing a tournament where and adult is paired up with a youngster, what a great time! I have a friend who has 3 sons age 11, 9, and 7. I arranged boats for all 3, me taking 1 and the 2 others going with fishing friends of mine. Back on Monday I took a spinning rod to their house and taught them how to cast it, they practiced with it all week and were quite good with it by today! Now, bear in mind that these brothers have been fishing before but never in a bass boat nor had they ever fished for bass like we did today. 6:30 AM we take off on Lake Erie, you should have seen my riders eyes when I hammered the throttle and put the boat on plane, he was giggling the whole way across the bay while we bounced over other boats wakes at 50 mph. I hadn't been on this fishery since late June but had a good idea of where to find some nice keepers. We pull in to a vast weedbed in 9 foot of water and on my second cast I boat a nice chunky keeper on a Sammy, "WOW, that's the biggest bass I've ever seen! said my rider" My young friend ended up catching 2 bass, he did GREAT. He hung in there for the entire 6 hours and we had a great time. We saw alot of big boats, turtles, waterfowl, and other species of fish. It really made me remember to stop once in awhile and look around and enjoy the day, basically see the world through a kids eyes. We ended up in second place for the tourney with a 13.86 lb limit of bass, plus I caught 2 huge Northern Pike, 1 of which I caught with 1/2 hour to go, I put it in the livewell and weighed it in since there was also a catagory for other fish species, that's kind of a cool thing with this kids tourney. We also won the biggest Pike catagory, it weighed over 8 pounds and was probably around 35 inches. I had like 3 other tourney boats in sight all yelling for me to "keep that one!" when I caught it so what the heck! All fish were released in good shape after weigh in. On a down note, I snapped my flipping stick in half setting the hook on a bass in heavy weeds :'( This rod was a Quantum Gary Klein flippin stick actually given to me by Gary himself 2 years ago at a Bassmaster University. I loved that rod.....Ordering another Monday As always, TAKE A KID FISHING! I can't wait till my daughter is old enough to go!

Next time I'm thinking I'm having a bad day I will read your story again, WOW. There's always tomorrow...

I kinda like the blue one ;D

I had an Evinurde TM a few years ago, if I remember correctly they were Minn Kota motors. What info are you looking for ?

Trust me, the leeches won't catch a 5 + pounder Not that I have or anything already....... Oh hey Squid, you get your hands on any 4 lb Gamma Edge yet? I just got 2 spools and it is AWESOME. Switched my drop shot over to 4 lb and still have yet to break off a fish, even around zebra's on Lake Erie.

Definately a tough and disgusting situation. Your state dosen't have the money to maintain the launch facility, turns it over to the local municpality, they in turn place some frivilous restriction on it based on the lake's "homeowners association" whining. The sad part is that it is perfectly legal. Once the lauch facility and surrounding property is given to the local municipality, they can can enact whatever restriction they want on it. By the state turning it over to a municipality, that municipality governs what can and cannot be done there. I would contact your local bass federation clubs and see if anything is in the works to fight this growing problem. I'm sure that the federations have contacts within your state government that would hear the comments.

Good to have the forums back, thanks for all your hard work Glenn!

Squid, don't try the Gulp leeches, they don't work