cyclops2

My perch only neighbor is wet in egg & coat with flour. Out standing when caught before lunch & eaten for lunch. No seasoning . ? I keep them on a stringer in the water. Lift them out lay in the transom water for the 4 minute ride to the dock. In the water until he shows up with the cart. 2 minutes in a wetted Plastic bag. He fillets them alive. The meat smells SWEET . Almost like sugar. A day later they do not have that sweet aroma.

Thank all the world wide tankers / freighters for that condition of our fish. We have almost every thing alive world wide now. The amount of marine reports numbers in the thousands. Very detailed. I cook everything. BUUT long hot cooking does not kill everything.

Now that we have the longest day light in play I do switch to 40 pound braid & a 4" Rapala In perch pattern or silver & blue. Both will catch bass and + 14 " jumbo perch. Floater Remove the belly hook & put a # 6 or # 8 black treble hook on the tail. It works when trolled at about 129' . The attack is at full speed carrying part of the fish slightly above the surface. Boring ? Yes. but it works in all depths to about 60 ' . I have a grayish Plankton at sunrise. Cannot see bottom in 2' of water. All the fishes are feeding actively then. My 4" Rapala has a 6 " perch or bass or largemouth hooked. Jumbo Panfish are hooked also. But Who wants to go out AND BE CASTING at 3: 30 or 4: 30 ? I am awake at those hours. But not ready. 40 years ago I did that & cam in by 2 hours after sunrise. The bite went off then. The bite was almost everywhere.

Largemouths can be very turf sensitive.with any structure. Day or night. Smalls and perch feed whenever they are hungry.. They keep moving. BUUTT they do have favorite feed places. What is at those places I do not know. Something Any fish caught there are usually fat belly from something.

Agree on killing bait with temperature shock. But my baitfish is fresh caught perch. I use either a clear float or weight with the perch 6 to 8' Higher than the weight. If a 6 to 8" perch is not swallowed ? I move to another spot If still no action. I troll 100' & the perch. Works

For decades I would go in circles during midday. Bingo a HUGE lone smallie would be slowly cruising around the weed beds edges. She was not concerned about the sun or hot 24" depth. I tossed my floater wit NO hooks on it. She bashed it at high speed. came back and raced up to it. looked at my boat. Farted And continued her patrol for a careless meal. I do not cast to a patrolling lone fish. They are not able to keep up with the faster swimming schools of fish. I let them die of old age. I can think like that being 83 1/2 years old. Live minnows or any other fish as bait WILL always out fish a lure. THe fish REALLY do know the difference between lures & their Lateral line NOT SENSING a heart beat or not darting away as they approach slowly in shallow water. If starving or in poor health ? They may bite .Most people do not know how to use live bait in August.

Your logic on live bait is perfect. Victor my 89 year neighbor Prepares any IFFY survivors I catch on lures. Yes I have had a BIG bas suck the 1.5" Rapala floater out of sight. I club the fish to death & Bring it to him for surgery. The Perch are far better eating than the best bass. As good as perch are. A local restaurant has fantastic deep fried shrimp & fries. ?? Enjoy the fish in all the ways.

As a side note about minnows. The bass can hit coming straight at you. So you do not feel them right away. Oh well. I know he swallowed the minnow & hook into his throat & out of sight. But I am going to pull out MY HOOK !! I am at the junction of Lake Ontario outlet & the start of the St. Lawrence going to the Atlantic Ocean.

You are right about my 2 hang ups. Problem is intensified By EVERY new & used boat now not in boat yards. The number of people fishing with deadly minnows is very high. So there ARE LESS fish this spring. Record low water caused new spawning areas. The weeds are the invasive ones. And they are still small patches. No cormorants or herons for the first time in 40 ? years. There are some fish BURIEDin the weeds that wintered over. But they are super smart about lures. I have had to remove ALL the trebles. Remove the clear plastic lip. Put on a # 6 or 8 black treble on a 4" floater with a heavy enough split shot to get them out of the weeds.

My area is large & full of all water conditions. The heavily fished areas do get to remove all the daytime, easy to catch fish. As I have found out this year. So I am going back to MEAT ! Alive or dead. Barbs crushed down. My spinning reel allows me to keep constant pressure on the hooks. The water conditions do / can dictate which method is more productive. What way has worked for decades does not anymore. In a rapid DECREASING weeds area The area has been converted to CITY SEWAGE SYSTEM. That has reduced loads of plants growing & supporting a great fish population. In all likelihood I will be forced to fish islands with raw sewage dumped into the river. My rule of......... No fish in some areas are very difficult to catch & release.

The crayfish come out at night. Daytime the bass are looking for anything. They are active in rock areas with lots of smaller rocks. Crayfish hide out under medium sized ones. A smaller fish in weeds is at risk with the very powerful swimming small mouth. I have seen them gang up in very shallow water & drive the fish out into open water & massacre all the fish at times. Just like a pack of wolves attack.

For many years the fish would drive perch into a cove & munch away with the setting sun at their backs. Fast . Then quiet.

My daytime way is to troll about150 ' of line.

T hank you for letting me know I am getting to old to fish like I used to. At 83 1/2 I no longer am out at before sunrise. I am lazy & start at 9. Am done by 4 or 5 PM. The fish are DEEP in the weeds. And almost on the cool bottom. I & others over the years have trained them to NOT BITE in bright sunlight. 6 am to 7 pm. We are just recovering from record low water levels in our river bay.

If you take a person who never fished & never caught some fish with other guys catching them. Then dumped him beside your lake. He will probably quit. Poor results means I quit. I fished for 45 years from shore & row boats. Did well enough. A boat, motor & fishfinder has ruined me. ? The fish are mostly converted to active night feeding. We ate all the daylight ones.

If the fish is hungry ? AND Has not been already caught previously on the same lure? Bingo

Some of my smalls have scars & tears of the skin between the top of jaw and area to their eyes, They are butting Today I had the tail hook of a Rapala hooked there. Pliers to back out the hook. I remove all other hooks to protect me & the fishes eyes. Keep forgetting to squash down the barbs, Makes removing a hook so easy. From the fish or my hand. Edit I DO KEEP 4 different lures with ALL the hooks & barbs. They are used when I go meat fishing for seniors who can not get into boats anymore.

We were not catch any of spawning fish. We were trolling in 10 feet with floating Rapalas. Every fish up here eats the different types of Gobies. But This year we have a problem. Only a few LARGE or last years class of fish.3 or 4". The pike & panfish are gone. Covid ? We did not fish up here last year. The loss of all fish is so great . That only a stray Cormorant & seagull are visible. Normally I chase dozen out of our fishing areas. Just realized that all the terns are also gone to. There were no small Gobies in the shallows. There are several different invasive weed beds. But no panfish in them. I will rig up for the 20 to 60 foot depths to see if they are empty also. Anyone else finding this to be a very off year?

the Alex Bay to Lake Ontario was excellent until a bunch of us catch and release guys sore mouthed just about everything. Some multiple times. Those red dots in the jaw do not lie. They stopped hitting everything in our boxes

You are exactly right about pricing on a OLD OLD 1996 Lowe 16' Aluminum . I refuse to buy new or pay + 10 K for my boat sitting on a lot all alone. I cleaned it up. Got the lady at NGK spark plugs to select me a FANTASTIC heat range sparkplug for the 1988 Evinrude 30 hp 2 stroke. I can now idle & troll for hours before I need to do a high speed run of about 5 minutes. WAAAHOO Plugs are cleaned off completely !! Back to idling for the afternoon. It floats, trolls and runs great. Yes I am keeping the ancient Fish finder. Life is Good Again. ?

I have a 16' by 52' wide hull and has 4 full width aluminum seats. Engine is a 19 98 Evinrude 30 hp. BUUTT the hull is a very shallow 15 " deep transom. Not good with old guys. Or kids crossing a very busy shipping channel & sudden wind changes. Plain Jane is all I need. Thank you for possible combos........ I realize their are very few boats around. But I need to have some idea of what I should be able to buy.

If you can not find a a hot wire or fuse ? Or a ground wire ? Stop wasting time & frustration !! Pull a new pair of them. Install the fuse at either end of the POSITIVE wire. Done. PLUS You will instantly know where to look in 1 second Enjoy ?

Fly rods Are NEAT !! I sin cast alot. Buutt I use big Muddler minnow patterns with the BARB of the hook CRUSHED down flat. I have hooked a ear & scalp a couple of times. I simply slide the hook out. No pain or ripped apart flesh. Same thing when I hook a fish. If I can not keep the line tight enough ? I should take up something else to do.

At 83 I notice pains from weather changes and cranking Ultra Light tackle fast enough to get lures up to speed. I still use 2 Mitchel 400 reels on 7' whippy tips. The reels have long handles that reduce rapid turning rates. I was cleaning the rod piles & found 2 more soft tipped 7 ' rods. 13 rods is enough when only casting with the wind at my back.

Well I just tested it against a NORMAL 7' medium rod. HA HA HA It is a SALT WATER surf caster. NO flex at all casting 1 1/2" Rebel floater........ Joins my other trolling rod with 60 # braided line. Buy another rod holder for the small boat.? Go buy my N Y non resident license.