IndianaFinesse

Usually you're allowed to take as much out of a lake as you want (within reason) but aren't technically allowed to put anything in without a permit or something, I believe. I could be wrong on that so don't take my word for it. But it doesn't stop very many anglers from planting rock piles and what not, and I may or may not have planted a few artificial bushes and small rock piles. Thinking about planting a few more now that I better understand where best to place them.

I agree, and I'm also going to add that I highly recommend sticking with Ned rigging the way it was intended and as detailed by Ned kahde and other Midwest finesse fishermen. I prefer 6-8 pound braid (any braid will work, but my favorites Gliss) with a 8 pound leader. If the fish get real finicky or if I'm looking for a challenging fight, I will occasionally take the leader down to four pound mono just for the challenge, but that is not necessary.

Hm, so its not the line or rods fault, as long as you were using braid, the hooks penetrate much more easily with no stretch braid instead of mono. Another thing you should consider in the future is trying some 1/15 ounce heads, it won't help the hooking percentage but it is almost garrunteed to increase your catch rate. Contrary to what many people think, you don't want to feel the bait during the retrieve, which requires a lite jig head. Scroll up five posts to find a link to a post detailing what the Ned rig is and how to most effectively use it.

Nice fish, especially since they were on topwater in February! What was the water temperature?

Next time you go out, try the area by the dam on the top right where the 12 foot hole is close to the shoreline, the fish should be stacked up in there. The other two areas that look good for winter fishing is the spot next to the north sign where the 16 foot hole cuts close to the shoreline, and the other is the 15 foot hole by the lower dam where it is closest to the shoreline. Use a suspending jerkbait if the water is clear, a blade bait if they're on a clean bottom, half of a zinkerz on a 1/16 ounce mushroom head for shallower water less thyan eight or ten feet deep, or a 1/8 ounce bucktail jig for just about anywhere the bass are in or near the bottom. And your friend is right, that is a gizzard shad.

Never.

What size hook and what line/rod where you using? And how where you setting the hook? A medium lite rod with eight pound line tied to a #4 or #2 hook is ideal, and with those tiny hooks a different hookset is required to land a decent percentage of bites. Try simply reeling into the fish and letting the lite wire hooks do the rest, a traditional hookset will result in a lot of lost fish.

Got out and enjoyed the spring like weather yesterday for a bit over two hours. Caught half a dozen decent fish in the 13-18 inch range on the vision 110, fished along steep dropping banks. Also caught a single fish on the Ned rig skipped underneath a deep dock, but I stuck with the vision cause it was getting a better size. I was still catching them in winter areas like I expected, but I ran into a guy on the water who claimed to be catching some in the backs of coves. I don't particularly trust this particular person to not try to get me to fish unproductive water so there are less people on the fish, but its something else to consider. They were somewhat active hitting a four second pause following two twitches. Water temperature is roughly 45 degrees on the upper end of the lake and 42 in the lower. Had to share the lake with eight or ten other boats, not something I've had to deal with since last October. I rather enjoy it when I'm the only person on the lake and I can fish wherever I want, every spring I'm reminded that it is not my own private lake. It sure seams like it is during the wintertime when only one other angler is ever out.

topwater fishing right after ice out? As in water temps in the upper Thirty's and low fourty's?

I don't back wrap with the Alberto knot, I use a modified version with ten wraps before going back threw the loop. So there is no cross over if tied right, which increases knot strength and decreases knot diameter.

I'm going to we extremely well in this one, or I could just as easily bomb it. Picking a lot of risky guys, the highest picked guy on my team only has about 12%.

I actually managed three bass in an hours fishing this afternoon, all on half of a zinkerz glued to a 1/16 ounce mushroom head. Fished with a slow swim glide and shake retrieve in eight to ten feet of water. The water temp was 40 degrees even.

Thank you, he was mostly looking at the navionics for the auto charts function, so I think it might be money better spent on saving up for a helix g2.

The model I would be using (I don't own it, but I'm doing some research for a family member) is the older model of the helix 7 si/di GPS, and I don't think that model has the live sonar charts I believe. Thanks for the reply's.

Thanks for the reply's. So the hummingbirds can't create the hi definition maps?

Is navionics sonar charts compatible with hummingbird units? It lists a few lowrance sonar units but no hummingbirds that I saw. Looks like a great way to make accurate, detailed maps.

I'm struggling with all of my picks, I just don't know about any of them. And I may have gone insane, but I'm not picking Randall Tharp. If he was in any other bucket I would though.

, uh... do you mean Ned Kahde?

Try using upward twitches instead of downward, and if you're still hooking weeds, upsize the line to around 12-14 pound mono.

Almost any tungsten jig head will work for the damiki rig, it isn't anything more than a small fluke type bait on a jig head fished vertically. Can't think of any lead free underpins, but I'm sure there are some.

A day or two of fishing (although you might have to wait till summer for those topwaters) and you should be back to buying more tackle you don't really need. Those booyah frogs won't even last half an hour, if that.

I use braid with a mono leader for topwater (obviously besides frogs) because the mono is less prone to tangling with the hooks.

It is in no way the best bait for all situations, but for what it is designed to do half of a zinkerz works better than any of the others I've tried, including the TRD. I was just saying that I can't think of anything that z-man could improve upon for the zinkerzs. And no, I don't have a shrine to Ned lol.

True, but you can't win with the same team everyone else has.