Scott F

I think preservatives are a good thing. They reduce food borne illness, I don't have to shop as often, I don't throw away as much food, and it reduces the amount of money I have to spend buying food. There are a lot risks from eating food that spoiled. The health risks from eating the preservative I believe is minimal.

I’ve found the Z-Man weedless jig heads are very effective. My hooking percentage is very good, and they come through branches without hanging up. I use straight braid and the line does get wrapped around the twisted wire strands of the weed guard. Those jig heads in the original post would get tossed by smallie on the first head shake. Those stand up jig heads pictured above are much heavier than I like to use.

In Northern lakes that have pike, small pike will stay shallow and relate to weedy areas all summer long. If a place looks like it will hold largemouth it will hold pike. There and almost anyplace else on the lake, but weed beds are the first place to look. If you throw nothing but a #5 Mepps and pike are around, they'll find it. Pike are good eating and few people throw decent sized ones back so small fish are are pretty common. As far as choosing a lake, I'd purchase an atlas called The Sportsman's Connection, All Outdoors Atlas & Field Guide. There are several editions. 2 for Wisconsin, Northern and Southern. In there, you'll find a list of nearly all the named lakes that list all species present in each lake and how common each specie is. The detailed atlas shows the location of lakes, boat launches, camp grounds and other points of interest. Northern Wisconsin counties of Oneida and Vilas have one of the largest concentrations of fresh water lakes in the world and nearly all have public access. Northern Wisconsin is several hours closer to Kentucky than Minnesota which is the about the only thing that separates the two destinations. Both states have a lot of lakes and good fishing.

I used to love his show. It was one of the many fishing shows that would be on starting at 5:30 on Saturday morning and run all day. A very different show from what you see today. Very laid back and relaxed, it didn't feel like an infomercial for the products he was using. A fellow that I'm friends with today, had appeared on his show many years ago.

It looks like someone added a blade to the front of the torpedo. I don't think that blade was from the factory. You said it was new in the package, but are you sure the package had never been opened?

Do you want GPS or mapping? They are not the same thing. The Striker series has GPS but no maps. You can mark your position, but it is just a dot or a trail on an empty screen. Mapping shows those marks and trails in relation to depth and the shorelines. Mapping costs more. Some brands like Garmin come pre-loaded with thousands of high definition maps at no extra charge. You can even record your own maps on lakes that might not have a map. Humminbird requires you buy map chips which can add hundreds of dollars to your final cost. New models are coming out all the time so it is hard to keep up with all the changes. Good deals are often found on last years models so a unit that wa $800 last year can sometimes be had for $500. You have to decide what you have to have and shop around. The biggest price differences usually come when you move up in screen size. 2 units can have identical features but one has a 7 inch screen and one a 5 inch and the price difference might be $2 or 3 hundred dollars.

I see a lot of posts here on BR about guys who can't seem to catch many fish. An abundance of prey is a very good reason why fishing can be tough. In the more southerly reaches of the US, the waters can be very fertile and produce a lot of food for all the fish species. Bass can afford to be picky because they have so many choices and can feed all year long. The farther north you go, the less fertile many lakes are. Growing seasons are shorter, and there is less food to eat. Guys who go to Canada for pike and walleye love it because fish are so easy to catch. In a lot of places, all you have to do is hang your lure over the side of the boat and something will grab it. For fish to survive up there, they cannot afford to pass up a meal. Your lure, even if it isn't presented in the best way, is still going to get eaten. This situation exists well into the northern US. It is seldom as easy as just dropping a lure off the side of the boat, but it does happen. I believe one of the main reasons I can catch good numbers of fish on my trips into Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan is because the bass there don't have as many choices on what to eat and when. When they see what they think might be food they grab it. I know for sure that in my many trips down south, I always have to work a lot harder to catch fish.

In your price range, you can get a nice rod if you build it yourself. If you are paying someone else to do it, in addition to the rod components, you have to pay for their time. For $130, buy a manufactured rod.

The way you suggested is one way. Another is to tie a rope to the bow and the other end to the trailer on the post that holds the winch. Back the boat in until it floats off, pull the truck and trailer out far enough where you can untie the rope from the trailer without getting your feet wet, and pull the boat to tie it off. Surely no need to remove your truck cap. Unless you don't know how to tie a knot securely, there is no danger at all. We have a rope that is just the right length with a clasp for attaching to the boat, and a loop that goes over the post that the winch is on. we don't even have to tie any knots.

What are the water temps this time of year where you fish?

Topics that start out..If you could only pick one..... kinda bug me because, there is no real world reason why you would be forced to fish only one lake. Forgive me, but I'm going to answer this my way. The most beautiful lake I've ever fished would be Lake Vermilion, MN. Having a home there would be nice, but the best fishing there only happens for a few weeks out of the year, and the winters there are literally the worst in the lower 48 states, so there is no way I'd retire and spend the rest of my life there. My favorite fishing comes from the Menominee River on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Absolutely great, world class, fishing for smallies in shallow water from ice out to around mid October. The summers are so mild you barely need air conditioning so It's a great place to have a summer home. But like Minnesota, the winters pretty much suck. I'd have to be a snow bird, spending winters in Florida and summers on the Menominee. I've never fished in Florida in the winter so I have no idea where I'd fish and stay in Southern Florida.

Forgive me if you've already tried this but I had the same issues for a boat I just purchased. The dealer I used was 250 miles from my home so going there just to measure was not going to happen. I called him and asked him to take a measuring tape, go to his showroom/storage area and measure the width of the trailer and the total length of the boat with motor to the tip of the trailer tongue and give me the dimensions. My 16 foot hull with motor, and a swing-away tongue on the trailer comes in at just over 20ft. My garage door just closes with only a couple of inches to spare.

Ha! those were two of my fishing buddies, were weren't talking business, just telling stories.

Fot baits as heavy as you want to throw, you should be looking at musky rods.

I already have a brand new shiny boat in my garage that I haven't even gotten wet yet.

Aww I wish you had stopped. This evening was really slow.

I had to retire from my job early due to back issues and sciatica. I used to wade and fish from my personal pontoon in rivers. I can't stand without walking for more than 10 or 15 minutes anymore so wading is out of the question. Fishing from the pontoon is OK, but setting it up, taking it down and loading it in the truck creates some problems. I went out and purchased a second boat, a jet powered jon that I can sit and fish from, just for river fishing. It was either spend the money, or quit fishing.

When I go on a long trip of one to two weeks, I’ll bring 8 to 10 rods with me. I never have more than 4 on the deck at any one time. Most of the other rods are back ups in case I break something. I’m never in so much of a rush that I can’t take a minute or two to tie on a different bait. I don’t like the mess that having more than a few rods on the deck makes.

I have no children of my own but a friend that I’ve been fishing with for 10 years has 3. His oldest son, never really fished much. The middle child, a daughter, has fished with her father but never really got into it. The youngest son nearly always came fishing with us starting when he was about 8 or 9. As the years went by, he became quite a good fisherman. He and his dad got pretty serious about muskies (which I don’t enjoy). The son was a junior musky state champ who I’d consider a die hard. Then when he became a junior in high school, he quit fishing all together. He now acts like his dad had to drag him fishing and claims he was never really into it. He’s in the rebellious phase at the moment and his dad, who was so thrilled that his son was his best fishing buddy, now just hopes that eventually his youngest will get back into fishing someday.

Winter is a busy time for me. I volunteer for my fishing club so this time of year, I’m working our booth at the fishing shows and I’m organizing our annual fundraiser where we raise money for our conservation work. I need some warm weather so I can take a break from the club activities and go fishing! Are you in the witness protection program or something? Two pictures of you, this and your avatar, and you are wearing a mask in both of them. Coincidence? Or are you hiding from someone? ??

Get the biggest batteries that will fit in your battery compartment. Size 24's will work but won't last as long as 27's or 31's. I'd use 31's but on my boat, my compartment will only hold 2- 27's.

There is a HUGE thread all about Toledo Bend. If you can't find what you are looking for there, it doesn't exist.

I know others will disagree with me but I have both down and side imaging on my bow unit and seldom use either feature. I fish almost nothing but natural lakes and there isn't much to see on the bottom except rocks and weeds and my 2D sonar shows those just fine. Maybe not in as much detail, but plenty good enough for me to tell what is what. 2D shows fish much better too. For side imaging, you have to be moving to make it work. I'm seldom moving fast enough while on the TM to take advantage. If side and down imaging showed fish a lot better, I know I'd probably use it more.

I prefer 10lb straight braid. No leaders, no swivels, no stretchy mono or FC lines. First, lighter braid allows me to cast farther. Having a swivel 18 inches up the line is much more difficult to cast. If you rig your bait straight, it shouldn't spin. I like a floating braid because with weightless baits, bites can be hard to detect even with sensitive line. Braid floating on the surface will visibly twitch when a fish picks up your bait. A lot of my strikes happen and my first indication is that line "twitching" The floating line, especially light braid, has almost no effect on the rate of fall of your bait. Allowing a bait to free fall on a slack line also means it can be more difficult to get a good hook set especially when using a line that stretches. I get better hook sets using braid. As you can see, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Try one or all of the above suggestions and see which one suits you and the way you fish best.

I almost never use the remote. How do you hold a fishing rod in one hand, the reel handle in the other hand and operate the remote?