Smokinal

I found a 1/2 digested mouse in this guy's mouth.

^^^I have never been into ice fishing. Something about standing on a huge slab of ice just doesn't do it for me. Not the fear of ice as I used to race on ice; just the fishing isn't the same for me so I don't fish at all and just wait for ice out. It makes it that much more enjoyable for me. I, too, fish until ice in and I'm out as soon as the water is soft enough to launch my boat.

Nice job!

Snook, could the fish actually be there, just not eating your stuff due to so much natural food? When the stripers run up here, I've had days where there were stripers busting all around the boat and we never caught one. I think they are so focused on natural bait they will not eat anything that is not an exact match.

I was wrong once. I thought I was wrong, but it turns out I was right.

I found a good deal on a DualPro 4 bank charger but I only have 3 batteries. Can I just hook up 3 batteries and tape up the last bank?

OK, I'll tell ya one of my secret fall baits....shh now...*looks around*... a blk/blue space monkey on a 3/8 jighead. Smokes em!

For $30, you can't go wrong.

It's good to carry a scale.

That is kool! And to think I have a hard time not getting tangled when my buddy casts a line toward the front of the boat....

If I was rich, I'd be looking at a new GMC or the Tundra.

Thx Dozer. That's what I thought; just makin sure. I've been known to blow things up before....

I'm looking for another on-board charger but, in the meantime, if I was to use a portable charger and charge one battery at a time, would I have to disconnect my jumper?

I had the same problem with my HB. Ended up being a loose power connection.

My buddy and I have had success throwing the exact same bait that the other one caught the fish on. If the first one bit it, and others are following trying to get it from him, they obviously want it. We usually have a few rods with similar baits on anyway.

If only it were that easy....

^^^^SSHHHHHHHH!!!

I just got into them last fall and am already pumped to throw them this year too. I have only tried casting, letting them flutter to the bottom and use a bouncing retrieve back to the boat.

Ya that's a giant anywhere you go...nevermind New England!

I only use snaps on my crankbait rods. Everything else gets tied direct, all the time. I'm picky as far as how my baits look and I don't want anything else on it that doesn't need to be there. They also catch too much grass.

Oh, we had a fun day and I didn't mind just catching them on the crank,,,I love a crankbait bite; feeling that rod load up after bangin a rock, mmm mmm mmm! I just found it odd. Usually when we get numbers like that, we can catch them on anything. In fact, my buddy and I usually use different baits and still get good numbers. But they just wouldn't eat anything but the crank yesterday. Oh well, I'll take it.

^^^So jelly of you guys...

My buddy and I went out today and boated 63 together, in around 6 hrs. The funny thing is, we both tried a number of different baits from flukes, spinnerbaits, worms, jigs, craws and cranks but the only thing they would key in on was the crank. The day started off slow so we were searching for that magical bait and we kept going back to the crankbait. So we eventually ditched all others and just stuck to that. A couple from today: : Not sure what the second one was thinking....

I love the fall bite and can usually have good days (20-30 fish) up until water gets below 40 degrees. It gets tough then. We fish until the water gets hard, usually going to a red lipless, jig and a jerkbait.

I'm going out tomorrow by myself, which is rare, and I will have my new PFD on at all times. Previous posts made me pick one up and posts like this keep me wearing it. Thanks for sharing your story and I'm glad to hear you are ok.