Scott F

Does the white appear to be under the epoxy? If it is, just let them dry out, they'll be fine.

Before you plant, you should use a roto tiller to loosen up the soil. It will hold on to the water better and the roots will grow deeper.

Attach a transducer to a 1x2 board and clamp the board to the transom with a c-clamp. Get a small rechargeable battery and you're all set.

Do you have any friends that are good fishermen? Friends that can catch fish on baits that aren't soft plastics? Take them out or go with them and see what they do and where they do it. If you don't know anyone like that, join a fishing club. That's what being in a club can do for you.

Rig them like any other plastic. They work well. Live leeches are often used for smallmouth fishing. Bass really don't care if your bait looks like something they normally feed on. Plastic worms are probably the number one largemouth bait but bass seldom find real worms in lakes.

Go the the web site TinyPic.com. Follow their directions. Upload your picture, copy the line that says "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards" and paste it into your post.

Just about everything Led Zeppelin recorded was a remake of somebody else's song although they almost never gave credit to the original artist. So, if you like Led Zep, you like their remakes.

These things are tough to master. LOL! Throw it out, and crank it back. If there are weeds below the surface, slow down the retrieve until the bait comes back just over the tops. That #3 will catch just about anything that swims. I like the #4 to cut down (only slightly) on the number of smaller fish that will hit it. They may not be the best choice if the fish are holding deep, but I use them A LOT in shallow rivers.

There are forums for smallmouth and other species here. So it must be OK.

Very hard to tell just by looking. First thing I'd do would be to jack up the trailer to get a wheel off the ground. Turn the wheel by hand. Does it feel smooth or rough? Is the wheel loose? Can you move it back and forth? If it's smooth with no play, the bearings are still OK. Is there any grease on the back of the wheel? If not, the seal is probably OK too. To be safe, it might be time to replace the grease.

Are they good?? You bet they are!! Fresh lake perch are the best eating fish there is.

Pike like that are not common. You have a real treasure of a lake that gives up fish like that!

Great songs, but they aren't remakes.

I hope he appreciates the time he gets to spend with you. Happy Father's Day!!

Clinch knots have never been the recommended knot for braided line because.....it slips. Most guys use a palomar knot with braid. There are others that will work, but I've always use it and never had a problem so it's all that I use. You find wrapping the line 8 or 9 times with a clinch knot easier than tying a palomar?

I fish rivers in the summer. Great places to catch good numbers of smallies all summer long except after a good rain. We had a good rain this past week and my local rivers are all high, fast and muddy, the worst times for catching smallies. Too fast to safely wade or even float. Tough times. And, the weather service is predicting up to 7 more inches of rain in the next 2 weeks. It will be quite a while before prime conditions are back. In the meantime, I'll sleep in on weekends, and get some time to relax. Besides, I just got back from 2 weeks of non-stop fishing, I can wait to get back out.

Every Father's Day, I remember my dad who passed away 32 years ago, but introduced me to smallmouth fishing when I was only 10. My dad did not take many vacations when we were kids, but he did take a few days off in early summer to go fishing and a few days in the fall to duck hunt. Dad grew up in the Thousand Islands area of upstate New York and he never missed opening day of bass fishing which was always Father's Day weekend. In 1965, when I was 10, he took me with him for my first fishing trip. We drove all night from Northwest Indiana, through Canada and back into the US at Alexandria Bay NY. I remember the morning when we arrived just after daybreak. The skies were clear, and the sun was bright when I had my first boat ride from the dock in Chippewa Bay out to Oak Island where my Uncle Bill was the caretaker of an estate on the island. Right after we pulled up to the dock, uncle Bill gave me my first rod, a Zebco 202 and a short time later, I caught my first smallie. Dad wasn't a great fisherman, but he knew the spots around the islands where we could find em'. As I recall, about the only artificial lures we used were Abu Reflex spinners. Dad also had a fiberglass fly rod with an automatic fly reel he used to throw poppers with. The upper half of that rod weighed more than an entire graphite rod weighs today. He taught me to row the jon boat my uncle loaned us to keep him in position while he cast the popper along the rocky shorelines. On Sunday at lunch time, we pulled up onto a small island where dad would cook up a shore lunch of smallmouth fried in bacon grease, a can of beans and new potatoes. While he got the fire going, cleaned the fish and cooked, I cast that Abu from shore to add to our catch. I joined dad for several Father's Day opening days after that until my job kept me from getting the time off. Right around the time I was able to get vacation days, dad got sick and passed away. Those 4 or 5 days back in 1965 have had more influence on my life than any other in my 59 years. I fell in love with the water, the woods, road trips and smallmouth bass during that short trip. Today, I spend a lot of time working for the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance, my home is decorated with items that remind me of the St Lawrence River and the Northwoods, and I am always planning my next smallmouth fishing road trip. I will never as long as I live forget that trip. Thanks for the memories dad, I miss you.

Being on shore, you have no way of knowing what kind of structure the boats are fishing. You cannot assume that the water keeps getting deeper, the farther from shore you get. I've never found that you must drag the bottom when fishing current. Heavier weights will get you snagged a lot more and you may not get any more bites than you are getting now. It sounds like you are already doing it right. You'll probably get more bites on the edges of the fast water, near the shoreline breaks, than you can get in the main flow anyway.

My favorite lake has a number of submerged islands that top off at about 4 feet deep. While the guys who were beating the banks were coming up empty recently, we were out in the middle of the lake catching them on every cast. These offshore rock bars were where the bass were schooled up. If you saw us, you might have thought we were fishing deep but this is why you need good maps, depth finders and GPS to find and return to these spots.

Be careful looking for heat. If there is a bad connection, it could get VERY hot. A severe burn is a very real possibility especially if you go to tighten the wing nut on the battery post with your fingers. Use gloves!!!

My fishing partner and I found a very new X-Rap in the hot steel color hanging from a tree one day. He started using it on a spot that has a small un-named island with a rock reef next to it. He caught a bunch of smallies, nearly one on every cast, with that bait. We now call that spot, Hot Steel Island.

How many fish are in a bunch?

Be careful when you tighten the straps to hold your kayak down. If you tighten them too much, you can distort the shape of the hull, possibly permanently.

There is a particular Lucky Craft model in a size that nobody else offers. Many times, this bait will out fish EVERYTHING else by a wide margin. During those times, I'd pay double what they charge now. Cabelas online has LC Pointers on sale right now for $9 to $10. As far as durability and quality, the hooks are good but a little brittle, the paint will wear off where the hooks rub and they suspend perfectly every time for me. I also like the oval split ring on the nose.

Hard to say if you'll like the grips on an Avid or Eyecon. What did you hate about the grips on the Premier? They are similar to the Avids. The Eyecon rods use the same blanks as the Premier, SCII, but have split grips with a different style fore grip. Very different from the Avids. If you are that sensitive to the grip design, I suggest you try them out in person. I personally like the grips on Premiers so my opinion would not be valuable to you.