Snakehead Whisperer

I think he meant to over winter. If so, that's more of a northern thing (like Canada.) Not sure about Indiana, but in my area they stay put for the most part and find areas with slack current, access to food, hard bottom, deeper water and easy access to shallower areas. Find good and steep vertical break lines in slow moving water and you'll probably find lethargic winter smallmouth. If you're talking in general terms, there are many studies that have been conducted with tagged fish. Smallmouth typically enjoy a wider range of movement within a body of water than largemouth, but both typically stay close to home. There are many exceptions that have been noted in tagging studies. Trout will often spend most of their lives within a very small area with the exception of the spawn. Muskies will often cruise miles of river. There's no definitive answer for any species, but there is a lot of information out there if you're interested.

I'm guessing that most readers today wouldn't be able to do a lap in either car (standard transmission.)

You must have been doing a lot of cruising that day to not notice that. I did this earlier in the year. I also left an auto-inflate PFD on the floor of the boat while parking the truck that day. Came back to the ramp and saw the boat was flooding. Hurry up and put the plug in, start bilge pump running and then I hear "pshht." Bright yellow pool toy on the floor of my boat now. Costly mistake considering I had just re-armed the life jacket a month earlier.

One other point is that your reel will have a lot to do with sensitivity. For instance if you're fishing finesse baits on your St. Croix rod with a crunchy/sticking reel, the reel will make more vibration than your bait will. The reel needs to be smooth, not necessarily expensive, but well oiled and clean.

I have a white McKee craft and it's a never ending battle to keep it clean. Sponging it down every time you pull it from the water helps tremendously.

Saltwater Gulp works fine in freshwater. There is also a freshwater Gulp product. The ones that seem to excel for me are the minnows, leeches and grubs.

I catch a bunch in the winter on blade baits. The blue catfish on the Potomac are pretty aggressive, so I catch them on pretty much all bass lures. The ones with the highest catfish ratio for me are: -drop shot -jigs -Carolina rig -bottom ticking crank baits I also second what Bluebasser86 said about Gulp... they love that stuff.

Like Tom said... it's not the car, it's the driver. With that said, the St. Croix Premier is a higher end rod; you need to know how to utilize it in order to get any benefit over and Ugly Stik (other than weight, that is.) It's on you to determine what your needs are, and then to live within your means. What I believe is more important than the brand/blank of rod, is that you use the appropriate size/power/action for the technique that you're fishing. The flea market section of this site is usually full of deals on higher end gear that will make the initial purchase less painful on your finances. You mention that you get the same results no matter if you use cheaper rods or your Premier. If that's because they feel the same to you, then perhaps you should work on your feel. There is a difference between your Premier and the cheaper rods, but until you can feel the difference it's not going to help you to have the higher end gear. The only thing I'd be afraid of is buying a bunch of low end gear and growing out of it, then buying high end gear to replace it. You're never going to grow out of that Premier. What Premier rod do you have? Maybe we can suggest the techniques you should use it for based on this.

In my experience, it seems like the deeper that I catch walleye the weaker they fight.

Memorize your debit/credit card number, expiration date and CVV code. Problem solved.

I've tried many gloves, but I've stuck with the "Glacier Glove Alaska River Flip Mitt." They're basically fingerless gloves with neoprene palms and a flip over mitten. The mitten is really useful as you can put a hand warmer in it and flip it up if your hands start getting cold, but it's out of the way while fishing. They're inexpensive too. $25 retail, or cheaper if you shop around. The pair I'm using right now is on it's 3rd season, and I fish a lot in the winter. I can drive the boat with the mittens flipped down too. http://www.basspro.com/Glacier-Glove-Alaska-River-Windproof-Flip-Mitt/product/84937/

Can't really fault him for that. I like the fastach clips, especially in colder weather.

Unfortunately I can't really argue with this. I'm still happy to be alive, nonetheless. I really want to find a way to make a difference with this type of thing, but it's a long arduous process, and things are seriously broken where our natural resources are concerned.

Fortunately the voltage regulators on my truck and the VW are external from the generators, and we both carry spares. I don't miss the high prices for filling up in the full size, but with the gas prices now I'm tempted to drive the V8 a lot more. I hear you about not wanting to know the mpg. The C-10 is all business, not a trailer queen. I love that truck, but use it sparingly when needed or for fun only. The Escape has served me well. I always assume that people with the newest stuff are either filthy rich, extremely wise with financial planning or up to their ears in bills. I own all of my boats and vehicles outright, and I'll keep them around until they're no longer useful to me. Wouldn't have it any other way. With that said I do experience boat and truck *** at times, but thankfully I can control my impulses with that and live within my means.

You have different controls than I do on my OMC. I have a 2002 Mazda Tribute (Ford Escape) with a 5 speed standard trans. It'll do both of those things and gets close to 30mpg (except when towing a boat.) I was a hard core GM guy before getting an Escape as a rental one day, then I bought one. It still seems like a new car to me, but then again it's the only vehicle I've ever owned that's made in this millennium. I am quite fond of it these days. Maybe it's time for you to move up to a "classic" tow vehicle. Might have to sacrifice some of the comfort/amenities/fuel economy you're used to, however. My '69 C-10 will tow my father-in-laws 29' cabin cruiser with ease, and looks pretty good doing it. Downside is that it gets about 6mpg doing the deed. A few years ago I drove in a caravan with a friend in a '64 beetle with a dead generator. We swapped batteries several times on the drive home when his spark would start to get weak. I lost track of how many times we swapped and ended up with a tiny wet cell battery in my truck. It started the engine, thankfully. I promptly drove to his house to get my Optima back, and ended up spending 3 hours helping him swap out the gen (need to drop the engine in a type 1 VW, unless you're a glutton for punishment.) Good times. Ah, memories.

I'd fix it, if it were me. Those old C4's are workhorses. I understand the idea that they're a little heavier than contemporary reels, but on a well balanced outfit it's hardly noticeable. Great reels for fast/shallow cranking, like squarebills or wakebaits.

How'd you guys do in the tourney?

You crack me up, Bill. Thankfully it was only the fishing today that was on fire.

I'm with you on that. Don't really care what a body of water is called, as long as there are fish to be caught there, I'm fishing.

You aren't kidding. Just looked it up and saw prices ranging from $55-110k. Ouch. Gonna take me a while to save up for that. A lot of the pics that I've found of that boat have inland state registration numbers on them.

So by that standard Okeechobee (and pretty much every other lake in Florida) is a pond then? I realize these terms are somewhat ambiguous and there is a lot of disagreement on where to draw the line, but 1400 acres seems a bit excessive to me. This is still too vague of a description of where you fish to give you a truly meaningful answer. Just knowing the state you're in would narrow it down. Details will help immensely.

Maybe you should get him a pack of fastach or speed clips, although these snaps are almost as difficult to open/close as re-tying. I'm assuming the snap swivels he uses are duolocks, which work well without the swivel; they just seem to catch more vegetation than other styles when I've used them.

Couldn't agree more. I understand and respect, however, people's concern about any non-native species on their water. But on the Potomac that would include LMB, SMB and many other prized game fish. I realize that these introductions are beneficial to the sport fishery, but not so much to the alewife/herring, shad, dace, darter, killifish, white catfish, striped bass, etc. The snakeheads seem to blend in to the river pretty well, and not pose much of a threat to the balance of the food chain. I've heard similar opinions from DNR (VA, that is) and fisheries biologists. Blues, on the other hand... Just this morning I caught a top 3 blue cat here in DC, maybe a new pb (hard to tell when they're so huge.) It bottomed out a 30lb boga grip with ease, but no idea what the weight was (BR weight calculator says 62.25lbs. 42" length x 36" girth.) It had to have been up near 50lbs. In the spring when I fish for pre-spawn smallies I catch several 10+ lb blues per trip, with the occasional beast (20lb or bigger.) These fish probably make up a majority of the biomass in this stretch of the river, and they eat anything. I've caught them on everything from a drop shot to a popper. This one was caught today on a 1/4oz. Johnson Thinfisher (blade bait.) Caught nice bass too on the same lure, as well as several small yellow and white perch. For comparison I'm 6' and 200lbs. The upside is that I didn't see or smell any jet fuel. There were some Coasties in the area of the spill, but I didn't venture over there to see what they were doing.