bassnleo

I'm really at a loss for words in trying to describe how the cold front has affected things around here. April 1 I was fishing in a t-shirt and caught 30 bass from less than 2 feet of water. The main lake I was fishing was about 49 degrees, the backs of the Northern coves and bays was 55-58 degrees. Now we have 6-8 inches of snow, temps haven't gone above 33 degrees since April 4, night time lows have been in the low to mid 20's. 10 day forecast is also not looking good, the highest temp I saw is 47, most days it's forecasted to be in the upper 30's to low 40's, lows around 30. Snow, snow and rain, almost every day is forecasted. I have a club tournament on April 15 on the body of water I fished April 1. There is talk of the event being cancelled, not so much because the fishing will be slow, but because this lake is shallow and severly affected by weather. A 15-20 mph wind turns this place into a frothing mess, combine that with low temps and wind chill, makes for a potentially dangerous day on the water. Should the event be held, my plans are to go to the areas where I previously caught fish then back out to deeper water and fish any cover or structure I can find. This lake really lacks defined structure and drop offs basically don't exist, everything is a gradual fall. The lake does have alot of visible deeper wood, and also alot of not visible deeper wood. I will most likely downsize my baits and fish really slow around deeper wood cover. A small jig, jighead worm, small crank, small worm or lizard on a carolina rig are my stragety. I'm tyring to mentally prepare myself for bites being few and far between. That's probably the hardest aspect for me since I can usually boat 20-40 keepers a day on this lake in the Spring. The first 2 events I fished there last Spring resulted in over 75 keepers boated in back to back events / days, first and second place finishes respectively. Will this Winter ever end

Mann's Baby 1 minus cranked across current, try to deflect it off of rocks.

A fiend has his aluminum boat Rhino Lined. IMHO, it's ok, it does dampen noises. My only complaint is that it is really slippery when it gets wet. As far as cost, can't help ya there, he had it done when he bought the boat new.

When I'm using a tube around cover I rig it with an internal weight and an Eagle Claw HP hook. Totally weedless and skips like a dream. The internal weight is nothing more than a drop shot weight cut down to about 1/16 oz, clip is spread open to a circle. Slide weight inside tube to top, open clip on hook and insert hook into top of tube through circle on weight. Texas rig tube then close clip on hook. The clip on the hook holds the weight in and tube in place.

CONGRATS !!!!! Our girl turns 1 April 7, man time goes by soooo fast.

I've been watching since it started. Great show but man those guys take a beating! Anyone think it was better when they could fish for the entire season and not have a quota? With the quota that Alaska Fish and Game sets for each boat, they are done when they hit their mark. It used to be that they could fish till the crab seasons deadline and bring in as much as they could catch. I know they work long, painful hours now but when they didn't have a quota they worked even more.

A little story that may give you some insight......... About 5 years ago my tournament partner had the same idea. He recruited a guy he worked with to go into business with him. The idea originally was to have an online business but this other guy talked him into a small shop and online business. They had a small shop which guy 2 already owned so rent was not an issue. They got a loan, bought a bunch of tackle, paid to have a website designed, and opened up. It didn't last 2 years. Year one they were way in the hole and just couldn't climb out. They found there was just too many other established and cheaper business (Like Bass Pro Shops) and they just couldn't compete. I tried to tell my friend that and I tried to talk him out of it before he jumped in. When they closed up they had about $9000 in unsold tackle and debt to prove it. Over the years they have sold some of the stuff but the they are still paying off the loan 5 years later and the business has been closed for over 3 years. Boxes of unsold tackle still sits in my friends garage. If you really want to have your own business and it's your dream, follow your heart if you must but carefully weigh the decision first before you jump in. Hope this helps and good luck with your decision.

The snow and cold here has REALLY screwed up my weekend, and quite possibly next weekend. I was supposed to fish 2 buddy tournaments Friday and Saturday this weekend. The body of water which these events were on was just getting really good. The tournament days were forecasted to have a high temp of 30 and high winds, anyone who has ever been on or around Lake Erie knows, those conditions are downright dangerous. Both tournaments cancelled..... Now, in anticipation of that happening, this past Monday I went to another lake to do a little pre-fishing for a tournament next weekend (Apr 15). I whacked em, water again was just getting really right, backs of coves were up to mid 50's. The highs are not forecasted to be above 50 for the next 10 days, lows on the 20's and 30's. I'm sure the water temps will drop dramatically and turn fishing into a slow mans game. I feel everyone's pain. >

Sorry Alpster, gotta disagree with ya there. Using alot of braid on spinning reels has lead me to believe the exact opposite, I use the smallest diameter I can get away with, especially if working small plastics or fishing in clear water. I found heavier braid restricted the action and sink rate of lightly weighted baits (on spinning gear). I would agree with you that heavier braid behaves better than lighter braid on casting gear.

Try looking here from time to time: http://forums.fishusa.com/default.asp There are Items for Sale boards and often has good deals on stuff. FYI, the link to the board may appear a little "slow". That site just changed discussion boards and did not transfer all the for sale items from the old boards. Keep checking often, more stuff will be added soon.

Robert E. Lee Way cool as I also love to read about the Civil War!

I own numerous Kistlers, you won't be disappointed. I also have never heard of having to tape the reel seat like mentioned above.

50's are what mine has and is close to same size as yours. Try to get the style that resets itself when it cools down a little.

8-10 lb floro and as others have said, check your line often.

I mostly fish them on the surface, jerkin like crazy to make the bait as erratic as possible. One rigged up properly will dip, dart, walk the dog, and sometimes get a little air like a fleeing shad. I'll second the pink color, great for smallies.

If fishing around cover a trailer hook can sometimes be a pain. When fishing open water or sparse cover I do use one and have had many occasions where the trailer hook saved my butt. The trailer hook will be effective when fish are short striking the bait. Are they REALLY needed, well no, but it is effective in helping you boat more fish when conditions call for it.

You guys should see the circus on Lake Erie tributaries when the steelhead start to run. I've seen more stream side battles over a friggin rainbow than I could watch on pay per view. Fly whippers vs. spinning guys, your casting over my drift wah wah wah. I go just to watch the guys yell at one another!

Unfortunately, most of the lakes in this area are congested and fairly small, being crowded is a common problem. I usually don't have an issue with someone close to me, it's when I working a strech of water and a guy comes in and cuts me off in the direction I'm fishing, say 50 yds or closer. And if I may add, I've had more problems with pleasure boaters like sail boats. On 2 or more occasions I was fishing off shore structure and had a sail boat run over my marker buoy. On one occasion my line got hung on the sail boats thingy that comes down off it's bottom, really not happy with that guy.

The one thing I found a little "off" about the whole test was that they used Trilene XL dry. I wonder if the baseline would change if they tested the Trilene wet, that would throw the whole test off. I've read many times that floro does not absord water, mono does, which would probably change the break strength etc.. of the Trilene. I wanna see a test where wet Trilene is used as the baseline. Isn't all the line we use wet???

Kistler DS rod Qutanum reel Gamma Edge 6 lb floro Pour my own DS weights Gammy DS hook

I order the heads already poured and painted then build my own. All the sites mentioned will have everything you will need.

Bedded fish will often blow a bait out quicker than you can blink which could cause the misses. If you weight was sliding back toward the hook point it could have been obstructing the point or gap and not allowing the hook to penetrate the fish's mouth. If it were me, I would go up to a meduim heavy rod with a fast tip, go up to 10 or 12 lb floroclear. Also, use a weight that stays put in the front of the tube and a 4/0 hook. For bedded fish you really need to watch the fish and let it tell you when it's ready to bite. A discussion on how to catch bedded fish is a whole different discussion in itself.

My nemesis baits are more of a catagory rather than a specific bait. A close friend owned a bait shop up till a few years ago and in that time he would order in all these cool and realistic looking baits like craws, helgermites etc.. If you were to put them on the floor and step back you would swear they were real. For some strange reason I could not get bit on any of those baits. The more unrealistic the better for me LOL.

I can potentially see a few problems causing you to miss fish but in all honesty we need more info from you before we can help. How deep were you fishing? What line size? What action and power of rod? What type pf cover or structure were you fishing? What is the size of the hook on your internal tube jig head? (also in your post you have "the one that slies on the shank of the hook", does that means lies or slides?) And what CJ already asked, what species were you targeting and did you catch?

Culling is the act of releasing a fish which you replace with a larger one when you have a tournament limit.