Driftb

That is a guide that doesn't want you to think that he doesn't have a full calendar. He is totally full of it. You don't get a full calender just because you decide to go full time. He isn't bumping anyone for $200/day. I wouldn't bump someone for $325 which is my daily rate. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't do it for 400 either. bad business. I have a lot of repeat bizz and I intend on keeping it that way. I certainly won't screw a regular or a new client that respects me enough to send me a deposit. I won't hold a date on my calender without a deposit, except for an outfitter. No deposit, you are taking chances. You will probably lose the date. That's the way it works in this business.

The great thing about high water is it will concentrate the fish. Once you have them patterned, it can be real easy to find them. I've had days we would have struck out if we had given up easy, but after a few hours searching came up with big pods of fish that more than made the day.

I have seen a lot of nice fish on 4-41/2" tubes. The tubes seem to catch a bigger average size than a soft 4" swimbait or Senko in summer. Although I've never done it, I see good results on 6 and 7" senkos for bigger bass. You don't need to match the hatch, you need to find the colors that work. Chartreuse works here sometimes, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what hatch it matches. Hard Jerkbaits are great spring and fall, but I usually don't waste my time with them until water temps have dropped significantly lower than they were in summer. The soft jerkbaits are pretty good in summer though, and seem to appeal to bigger fish, at least when you can find them shallow. Although I have not caught my absolute pbs on them, jerkbaits also consistently bring in big fish, so if they are looking up and conditions are right, Spooks, Sammies, and other walk the dog type lures will be my choice.

For spinning I like Fireline the best. For casting, Power Pro. The lighter PP line always seems to get wind knotted on a spin setup. Fireline wil last for years on a reel. Heavy PP wokrs great on a casting setup.

We had a late spawn and high water levels until mid summer. My 40 acre pond is very normal. Choked with weeds, algae and fish! I noticed less weed growth than usual in some of the lakes though. I think because the high muddy water didn't allow light penetration. So now some of these lakes still have less visibility than normal. Usually the weed growth eats up all those minerals from the water. Who knows, maybe that will just happen late, but we aren't real far from turnover now. The Delaware river was high and the water warmed up to normal summer temps very late this year. Heavy releases went on through July, so the early summer smallie fishing suffered. The water level is normal now, and the temperature is where it should be. It looks like the shad spawn was very successful and there are juvenile shad in all the deep pools. The smallmouth fishing has been phenomenal lately. Lots of insect hatching and the large numbers of shad have the fish eating aggressively. I am hoping that the higher water levels will lead to better insect hatching in the future, as for the past few years we have had super low water and super high summer temperature highs. Aquatic insects are adversely affected by temperature more than fish, so when the temps spike, bugs die and the fish lose an important food source.

I had a number of a cheap Gander mountain reels some years back. They were actually pretty decent reels, except after a few seasons the drags would start to back off during the course of a days fishing. Those reels have been out of my lineup for years, but my buddy Ed is still cursed with them. I get a laugh every time I fish with him. He'll hook a fish, then his drag starts spinning. He thinks he has a big fish on, then I remind him to tighten down the drag. Maybe he'll learn someday. I used to back off the drags in the day when drags had felt, cork and leather washers. I'd rather know that each rod is ready to go, and when I pick one up to cast, I'll pull out a few inches of line to make sure the drag is set right. Today with stainless steel and teflon drag washers I don't think it's that important. Matter of fact, I can't think of a drag failure in years, other than those Gander Mountain reels, but that was a design flaw, not drag wear. Usually the drags way outlast the gearing and bail mechanisms. On casting reels, it's usually the spool release mechanism that goes first. At least that's been my experience.

BTW- I always disliked wearing shades too, but you should know that your eyes are also susceptable to UV light and in the long run, your vision is going to suffer. I regret that I spent so much time in the sun without shades and I wonder if that has caused any vision issues. You don't need to drop a lot of money on shades either. The fashion shades only give you partial protection so your pupils will open up, but then the lenses don't protect you from side light, so the protection is diminished. You are better off with wrap around lenses in amber, like Cocoons. Amber or yellow are a little beter in low light conditions.

On hot days I am in the sun 10 hours and I really hate the heat. Give me 45 degrees and raining any day over 90 and sunny! I have found that a columbia omni freeze t under a simms long sleeve solarflex shirt is cool and comfortable all day. I will take the outer layer off and soak it in the water, wring it out and put it back on. That always makes me feel a lot cooler and the cooling affect lasts quite a while. I have a few other UPF type shirts, but this is my fav combo by far.

If they aren't biting early, try fishing late! Frogs are more active at the warmest part of the day. Of course you are actually looking for active fish, not active frogs! If the pond is overly choked with weeds, you may have an oxygen problem, especially in early morning and after a few cloudy days. Plants only produce oxygen during the day in sunlight. When it gets dark, especially during a cloudy few days at this end of the season, you can have an overload of weed which can take up a lot of oxygen.

which techniques you want to do with a "make it work" rod has a lot to do with what conditions you spend the most time in. I don't do a whole lot of deep cranking, but I like my crankbait rod for spinnerbaits much better than a medium heavy casting rod. I'll use the moderate medium action rod for spinnerbaits and topwater plugs, poppers, dawgs as well as cranks. And I like a moderate action spin rod for throwing DD shad raps for walleye. They are kind of light and wind resistant, so I get much better distance with the spin outfit. As for line, I like Power pro 20 lb and up on all of my casting rods and Fireline or Nanofil up to 12 lb on my spinning rods. I stay away from flouro completely, and I really don't have much use for mono either, except as leader material when I am throwing topwater. A heavy mono leader will help keep your line out of the trebles. I think the sensitivity and strength of braids trumps all the other good properties of mono and flouro, at least in my home water. If you are worried about straightening hooks, maybe set your drag a little lower.

have done great with a buzzbait catching smallies on some waters, others, not so much. A buzz over deep weedbeds will crush them at Otsego lake in central NY state. I have never done very well with the Buzz in the Delaware river, my home water though. I think in has something to do with weed growth. I usually do well fishing the buzz over weeds. Today we hit the smallies hard with topwater though. I caught a few with a Sammie, the my buddy caught a few on spittin image. I caught a few more on a fly rod popper, then switched to a sebile bonga minnow. We hammered the fish all day with those lures, and I don't think we went more than five minutes without a hit once they got on that topwater bite. I am surprised that we didn't get a double as they were so competitive to get to that lure. A few times I had five vicious strike before I hooked the fish. We ended up with over fifty fish caught on topwater today. I hope this bite keeps up, it was amazing. Unfortunately, Ed boated one fish a little green and managed to get hooked right through the index finger. I tried to get it out using the string method, but ended up cutting the fishing short to drive him to the hospital.

No doubt that I could be confusing ethics and conservation. But the OP was about bait fishing. My opinion is that bait and catch and release do not go together well. It turns out that the tournament community agrees with me, by and large. And I guess my assumptions about "sportsmen" being conservation minded, and that "sportsmen" would be more likely to catch and release are just assumptions. I didn't invent the idea that bait is detrimental to catch and release. Have you even fished a "No-Kill" area? In my experience, they don't allow bait in a "No Kill" area. BASS doesn't allow bait in tournaments either. It's not because bait is more effective, its because it causes more harm to the fish. At least to me, this gets back to ethics.

You have the idea, but I am not talking about 10 bass out of a farm pond. I fish that pond maybe 10 times a year. But it isn't a farm pond, it is public water in a state park. Are we talking 100 bass per year? I don't know. I am not the only guy who catches fish there either. As far as size, well, I think that lake Champlain is a little bigger than a farm pond. Can you just pop in and catch big fish there? I always have, and a lot of guys do. Has the heavy fishing pressure of the past several (10+) years affected the fishing? Ask anyone who fishes Champlain.

OK, OK, I admit it! I was a little harsh on bait fishermen. They can be ethical. And I did say that I am for Selective harvest. Keep small fish, release the big girls. I fished bait for years, and I used to sell bait too. You could say I am a hypocrite. I'd rather think that I learned a better way to do things. I am not the only one to say that bait fishing kills more fish that lure fishing when catching and releasing. I don't think PETA is for fishing at all. My point is that when anglers become very good at catching big fish, especially in limited environments like freshwater lakes , rivers and ponds, they need to realize that every fishin trip they have the choice to do the right thing. I think it is a responsibility. Do you want to take your kids fishing and have to tell them how there used to be big fish in this lake, or do you want to take them fishing for big fish? When I fish a local 90 acre lake in my area, there have been days when my buddy and I catch catch 10-15 bass that are 18-22", weighing 3.5-6 lbs. We could keep ten a day between us. Would it be ethical to do so? To keep and eat bass that are probably ten to twelve years old and play a vital role in controlling the fish population in that lake? It would be legal, but we would clean the lake out pretty quick, and then all you''d catch would be dinks. If you disagree, just go across the river to Pennsylvania and tell me how you like the fishing. Pa has more liberal limits and allows bass fishing through the ice. I see a lot of Pa guys over here. Not so many NY guys fishing PA lakes.

I agree that it isn't unethical to keep your limit sometimes. Is it ethical to keep limits of big fish every day? Modern ethics demands that we release the big fish and keep smaller eaters. Do you think that merely adhering to the law makes someone an ethical angler? The word "ethics" means that someone is making a conscious choice to do the right thing, not just blindly adhere to the absolute minimum standard that society will allow. I think that in this day and age, we need to protect the resource. Limits are too liberal and slot limits have been set for legislator's convenience. Laws always lag behind conditions. In other words, the fish will be gone long before the laws change. Ethics demands that an intelligent, effective angler protect the resource, not merely obey the law. I don't see why anyone wouldn't do his best to protect the resource.

How tough is Simcoe to pattern? I know it's a big piece of water. Obviously to find concentrations of big fish takes dedication, but do you see many guys poping in and doing well?

Actually, years ago, I believe that tournaments did allow live bait. They also allowed competitors to keep fish. Eliminating live bait and later on going to catch and release was instituted in response to conservation concerns. There were too many tourney anglers catching big fish and then dumping dead fish. People didn't want to see that happening at their lakes. A few forward thinking organizers realized that tournaments were adversely affecting fishing, and public perception of angling in general. Eliminating live bait helped to reduce mortality in caught and released fish. Today, ALL ethical fishermen avoid the use of live bait whenever possible, just as ALL ethical fishermen practice at least selective catch and release.

I fish a pool in the Delaware that is full of large fish and I have noticed that if I can get a topwater stick, like a Sammy or a Spittin Image to the fish early in the day, I have my best chance. I like to walk the dog and I think something about a stickbait brings out the mean in a smallmouth. If you get to the big fish, they will fight to get the lure, and commonly a school of fish chase the fish with the lure all the way to the boat. I once had a huge +20" smallie take my topwater, When I got him close to the boat, a little smaller one (maybe 16-17") got it away from him. He took line, fought like hell, and when I was getting ready to land him, right at the boat, I saw a 15 incher come in and grab the lure, ripping it out of the bigger fish's mouth. After that, the school scattered and we caught smaller fish in the area. Usually a smaller fish will dart out and connect first. Once the big fish follow him to the boat, it's all over. They take off and don't want to bite again. You can even follow one and try to feed him a wacky worm. Sometimes they will take it, but if the big fish hesitates, usually a smalller one will dart in and take it. The big one will sit back and watch him get caught. Best chances are real early or real late in the day. Off colored water, like after a rain helps too, and a little wind, as the fish are less spooky then. Those topwater lures are appealing more the the fish's territoriality and aggressive nature or curiosity than feeding instinct. If you are in the area where you know the fish are, don't try to sight fish. Stay a little off and do long casts. The bigger fish are very wary and shy, and eye contact usually is a deal breaker.\ One other thing to try is speed. Sometimes when there is a tough bite, we catch the fish at the end of the retrieve, when a guy is ripping the lure in the cast it again. Then we will Unfortunately, a lot of the time, the fish grabs the bait's tail and it just gets ripped in two. The best lures for that bite are a 3.8" or 4" Keitech swing impact, or the cheaper but equally effective Berkely Havoc Beat shad on a 1/8-1/4 oz 2/0 Gammy jig head.

If I am going to spend a $ 200 bill on a rod and reel, I am making sure the rod has a good warranty. Fenwick has Lifetime on HMG and Elite series, both could fit your budget. And they back it up. I broke one, and Fenwick sent me a new one no questions asked within 2 weeks. I also think that Fenwick has some of the sweetest actions you will find in the price range. To me it's a no brainer. As far as reels, shimano is #1 but i have had good luck with Pflueger. I have half a dozen Pflueger reels, presidents, Trions, patriarch. They are all good reels. The Trions are a little on the heavy side, but even the trions at $30-40 have been pretty much flawless for years.

Not a bass, but a trout story. I hope that is OK. I was rowing, and My friend Tom was casting a fly to a trout. The fish took the fly and jumped twice, then ran straight downstream. The fish was ripping line off Tom's reel as it went. I saw it jump again as it continued downstream, this time maybe fifty feet out. Tom's rod was bent double and it didn't look like he was going to stop the fish from running out his backing, with his light leader. All of the sudden, I saw a nice rainbow all of 19 inches, jump into the boat, behind Tom, whose rod was still pointing downstream, but that fish came back up and jumped into the other side of the boat from Tom, who had about the most confused expression on his face I have ever seen. I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk to tell him what happened.

You didn't say how deep you are fishing. If you are in shallow water, you might want to downsize that leadhead. Unless I am working with high water conditions, or fishing deep in fast current(deeper than 25 feet) I hardly ever fish 3/8 in summer. You want to use the lightest weight you can get away with in the current at the depth you are fishing. On the Upper Delaware river We rarely go over 1/4 oz in summer, usually more like 1/8 or maybe 3/16. The average depth is about 4 feet and the current averages 2-3 MPH. The fish tend to be shallow this time of year, so we don't spend much time in the really deep holes, but even when we do fish deep, I usually use 3/16 or 1/4. A fast or extra fast medium or medium light action 6 1/2'-7' spinning rod with 6-12 lb Fireline or braid is a must. We used mono for many years, and caught a lot of fish on it, but the sensitivity is so much better with braids that once you try them, you will never go back to mono. Being thinner than mono or flourocarbon, Braids cut through the current better too. Flourocarbon has good sensitivity, but can't stand up to the abuse of a rocky river. If you are fishing from a boat, Cast at roughly 90 degrees to the bank. Casting a little more upstream than 90 degrees will give the jig time to drop, but if the water is shallow, it may hit bottom before you can take in the slack. Once you get that slack in, you will probably be hung up. Even if it is deep, casting at too big of an upstream angle, you jig will hit bottom and snag before you feel it hit. At that point, you are likely snagged. If you are going downstream and cast ahead of the boat, you won't feel bottom until you are already past your jig, which will already be hung up. If the boat is anchored, or you are fishing from the bank, wet wading, etc. you will have a little more latitude. Cast a little upstream to get the drop going. Pick up your slack quickly, and start your retrieve when your jig is starting to tick bottom. Swim the jig slowly, and lightly pop it off the rocks it hits as you drag it along. Too much lifting and jigging your rod will just keep the jig from dropping. Smallmouth and walleye will take a bait being pulled slowly across current, upstream or hanging in the current. Walleye will rarely take a bait retrieved downstream. Smallmouth and trout being more active swimmers are much more likely to take a bait retrieved downstream than a walleye, but with jigs, your best bet is swimming across the current, then a slow upstream drag. Bass and walleye will even hit a jig on a dead stick in the current. If they don't want slow, sometimes you can trigger a reaction strike by letting the jig drop, swinging it across the current, then ripping it in before it is hanging downstream.

Fly fishing for smallies can be really good in good conditions. In poor conditions, it usually really sucks. If it's muddy, tie on a 1/2 oz white or chart spinnerbait with gold blades. When the water is high, throw tight to the banks. Usually slow rolling will do the trick, but sometimes they want a faster retrieve. I have had some of my best days in high muddy water. It seems to bring out the big girls!

Spread the word! If we don't practice selective harvest, all we will be catching is minnows. Even the owner of our local tackle shop doesn't have a clue about this concept. I have asked him to only post lunker pix taken on the water. He doesn't seem to get the connection between catch and release and his business, so I spell it out to him . The guys who really get me ticked off are the few old timers around here that don't like to eat fish, but like to "keep a few nice ones and give them to friends and neighbors". Release the big ones! if you want to eat fish, keep some "Barely legal" fish. I don't allow any harvest on my float trips except for walleye. They are heavily stocked in my river, eat the hell out of everything else, and I don't think keeping a few of them will have much effect on the population.

Maybe I should spend more time throwing a big lure. There have been years I only threw a long topwaterand although numbers are slightly lower, the top end usually goes up. I usually try what is going to get the most attention from the most fish. When topwater gets bit, I hand it to one of my guests. Funny thing about lure size, though, is that some of my best days for average size have been with a 3" long fly. Last year I had 3 19" fish on one trip, with the fly, among lots of other good fish, during the course of a day that I also rowed 8 miles.

Lake fishing, I usually have a buzzbait tied on one rod and it stays there pretty much all season. If the weeds are too heavy or emergent for that, I like a Spro Popping frog. BPS Slim Dog in open water. In the river, I carry and will try (if the fish are looking up) Heddon Spittin Image, Baby Torpedo, Sebile Bonga Minnow, BPS Slim Dog, Storm Chug Bug. I probably carry about 50 other topwater lures that have been favorites at one time or another. Fish have been feeding on whitefly lately, and when that is happening, the fly rod is the way to go. I like to fish a Yellow Gartside gurgler this time of year, and there are many days I can school a spin fisherman with a fly rod.