Scott F

I just replaced the trailer guide ons on my boat but I used the store bought kind. There are dozens of DIY videos of people who made their own. Look them up on YouTube.

I stand by my post. If the ones you’ve seen look that bad, they were done by second rate artists. Pictures on the web shouldn’t be used to judge the quality of a mount. You need to see the artist’s work in person to tell how it really looks.

If any replica you've seen doesn't look beautiful and realistic, it wasn't done by a real artist. Skin or replica, they both have to be painted. The skill and artistic ability of the artist/taxidermist makes all the difference in the finished mount. No one could look at the replica I have and not think it doesn't look perfect. And, it will continue to look that way long after I'm gone. The only way you could tell that it wasn't a real fish is if you look inside the mouth. Plus, the smallmouth that I caught lived to give another angler a thrill.

Though probably not an option for everyone, but the bright, warm, sunny days of summer is when I fish rivers. Just find some fast current or riffles with deep holes nearby, and you’ll find smallmouth bass shallow and willing to bite.

What did Delta tell you when you called them?

Depends on what size braid. It will hold a lot less 65lb braid than 10lb.

If the bass are spawning or in post-spawn, they will be harder to catch. Your lack of success, may just be due to timing.

It’s great that most of your fish are larger fish but does a lack of small bass concern you for the future of the fishery? Those 6 pounders are probably near the end of their lives. With no small fish, where are the replacements for those big fish coming from?

In my neighborhood, we call them white bass.

Make some phone calls to guides in your area, give them an honest assessment of your skills and tell them exactly what you expect. If you haven’t hired a guide before, be aware that some guides will fish with you and some don’t. Myself, I don’t want the guide to fish. If he wants to demonstrate a technique for you, that’s fine, but he shouldn’t fish all day on your dime.

It all depends on what’s working for where I’m at. I just came back from a trip where depending on where on the lake we were fishing, what I had on the deck changed. I had a jerkbait on the deck at all times for the entire 2 weeks of the trip. For the rest of the summer, I’ll be river fishing and I’ll probably not tie on a jerkbait the rest of the year. On days when we were fishing for largemouth, I’d have a Senko on one rod and a Whopper Plopper on another and a Ned Rig on a third. When we switched to smallies, it would be an LC Pointer, a Ned Rig and a topwater. Over a two week period, there were no other baits needed to catch tons of fish.

If I can't skip the bait under the dock, I won't use it around docks. Stuff like cranks, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs or anything else that doesn't skip isn't going to be useful for me. Senkos and Ned Rigs skip easily and are required for pulling bass out from the shade under the docks. If you only fish the outer edges of docks, you are missing out on a lot of fish especially on sunny days.

I've been using those "bazooka" style rod tubes for years. They work as they are supposed to. I always wrapped the rod tips with with a towel to keep them from bouncing around as added protection.

Keitech swim baits. I'd never used them before last summer. I read about how effective they are, but never bought any. I was out with a guide who had me tie one on and I got some smallies on them. After the outing, I stopped by a tackle store and bought a package of 6 for 8 bucks. Ouch! Got a few on them the next day and saw how fragile they were. Over the winter, I invested heavily in several different sizes and colors but I haven't had any luck with them the entire spring.

The biggest bass may be in the deepest, slowest moving water but if they are, chances are they are inactive and not feeding. If you are trying to catch the biggest bass in a stream, fish NEAR deep water, next to fast current. That's where you'll find active feeding bass.

Did you try calling Dick's to find out? I'd think they'd be the best source to give you an answer.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can see the bass, they can see you. Especially in clear water. For more success, stay back as far as you can from your target. In open water, make as long a cast as you can. Staying low, and being stealthy while bank fishing is also important to keep from spooking the fish.

That could be true. Generally, smallmouth spawn in the same places every year. For 80-90% of the bass to suddenly change spawning locations would be a drastic change.

It won't do anymore damage than holding a big fish the way you are in your picture. By hanging heavy fish in a vertical position, the weight of their internal organs can cause internal damage. You should try supporting the back of the fish to a more horizontal position.

A good estimate from a photo is very difficult at best especially without a length measurement. I'm curious. If you want to know how much your fish weigh, why don't you carry a scale?

Every year, I spend two weeks on the same Northern Wisconsin lake chasing pre-spawn, smallmouth and largemouth bass. I've been taking the last two weeks of May for this trip, but the last few years, the weather for the first week of the trip has been horrible. Last year, in addition to the cold temps, it rained 5 out of the first 7 days. In the two years prior to that, the ice had only gone out days before our arrival and we had two days with snow. To up my odds, this year, we booked our stay a week later than normal. That was a good decision as the ice left the lake around May 7th about a month later than the average date. Winter turned quickly into summer and the temps from the beginning of May were consistently in the 70's and low 80's, very warm for that area during May. Warm, sunny days with light winds followed and the fishing the first week was very good. The lake I fish isn't a trophy lake but a HUGE numbers lake which is the way I like it. The water temps rose quickly from the low 50's to the low 60's by the end of the first week. The pattern of fish movement on this lake I have witnessed over the last 20 years during the spring is that when the water temp hits 50, the smallies will move onto the many offshore rock bars and often will concentrate there in schools. At times, we can catch 50 or more bass in one spot without moving the boat. As the water warms, the fish we catch on these bars begin to get smaller as the larger bass will move to their spawning areas and spread out along the shorelines. When the water gets near 60, spawning beds will begin to appear. At first, you just see beds with no fish on them. As days pass and the water temps rise, there are more beds and the bass are closer to them. At this point they are still feeding pretty well and will readily take baits that are cast near them. In may areas, the beds are so numerous and close together, we call them "Bozo Buckets" (Remember Bozo's Circus on TV?) Once they lock onto the beds, the feeding stops and the good fishing ends. My fishing partners and I don't enjoy harassing bedding fish that aren't still feeding so we leave them alone at that time. This year, the offshore fish never really stacked up. The bigger fish seldom appeared anywhere. During the second week of my trip, the air temps which normally average 69, were near 90 every day. The water went from the low 60's to 70 very quickly. During a normal season. It takes 2 full months to go from ice to 70 degrees. This year, it did it in 3 weeks. During this past week, we expected the beds to appear and the bass to be along the shorelines but few beds were made any only one out of 5 had a fish anywhere near it. For those of you who believe bass spawn during the full moon, it came and went with nothing happening. With water temps at 70, the smallmouth bass should be done spawning but as of now, it hasn't even started. I'm always gone by the time the largemouth spawn. But even they aren't making many beds yet. I won't be up there to see what's going to happen, but for this year, it looks like the bass for the most part, won't spawn at all. It's been a very unusual year. I keep track of the number of fish I catch and the numbers were close if not better than most years, probably because the water was much warmer than usual, but the average size was down considerably. One strange thing happened. I was fishing the edge of a rock pile and hooked a big fish. As it came near the boat, I could see it was a very large walleye. I turned my head to tell my partner to get the net. When I looked back, the walleye was gone and a small smallmouth was on the line in it's place! The only thing I figure could have happened was that the walleye grabbed the smallmouth right after I hooked it. when I was bringing it in, I couldn't see the bass. The walleye must have let the bass go right next to the boat. That had me scratching my head for a while.

When I get the skunk, it is usually in the early spring when the water is still cold. Once the water gets above 50, I can’t remember the last time I got nothing. I have to say that I plan my fishing trips to give myself the best chance for success. During the warm, summer months, I only fish rivers where bass are always shallow, not hard to locate and get little fishing pressure. If I was bank fishing on random ponds, or lake fished pressured waters, I’d probably come up empty a lot more often. Planning and traveling longer distances to better waters always ups my chances of a good day.

Are you talking about a swivel, a snap, or a snap swivel? A single snap should not be much of an issue except on a suspending jerk bait.

While we’re on the subject of “you guys”, I wish wait staff in restaurants did not address my wife and I as “you guys”. My wife is clearly NOT a guy. It’s a minor point, but it bugs me.

Videos shot with a chest cam. I’m not sure why anybody thinks that watching someone’s hands cranking a reel makes a good video but don’t they have editing software to cut that stuff out?