jdw174

I've used SilverThread ever since it hit the market. Never a problem.

If you're fair-skinned, even a couple of good sunburns as a youngster can cause skin cancer later in life. Thus far, I've had 2 actual basal-cell carcinomas removed, plus 4 pre-cancerous lesions.

The only engine I'll be starting today is the one on my lawn tractor. I refuse to even go near Ky Lake on holidays/weekends.

I have a very simple approach. I start fishing when it's just light enough to see using a topwater. As the day gets brighter, I switch to a shallow-running crank. Later on, I may switch to a jig or worm/craw. I remain in shaded areas as long as possible. If there's a slight chop on the water I may use a spinnerbait or a double-propped surface lure. When the sun hits the area I'm fishing and gets hot enough to strip your hide, I go home. Do I catch a lot of fish?.....sometimes I do. Do I get skunked?.....EVERYBODY does at one time or another. Do I get big fish?.....well, every blind hog finds an acorn occaisionally. I just like being out there trying.

I have a Caenan. GET THE CITICA!!!

It was one day on Lake Erie. I was cruising on idle on the main lake in about 15' when I noticed a bunch of "hooks" on the graph right on the bottom. I tossed out a marker and proceeded to land 24 smallies in two hours. Smallest was 3lb, largest over 5. That doesn't count the ones that shook off. I never moved more than 3-4' from that marker the entire time. Lure was a 1/2oz Silver Buddy. When I left, my right arm felt like wet noodle and my thumb was all tore up.

Just me, but of the two you mentioned I'd go for the Champion.

The Rebel Poppin' Frog is one of the very few new lures I've purchased, and I'm sorry I did. Very little action/pop at all. Just couldn't make it do much of anything. It looks good, but that's about it.

One of the best fishing vacations I ever had came in the mid-'80's on Kentucky Lake. It was the middle of May, and the spring weather had been so warm that the surface temp at 5AM was 80+ degrees! I threw nothing all week long but Pop-R's and a 5" Bang-O-Lure w/tailspinner, and just whooped the tar out of LM. That was morning, afternoon, and evening. Topwater definitely works all day under the right conditions.

Once I threaded the line through the tie on a jig and tossed it in the water............without tying the knot!

I tie direct............to a snap. Never had one fail, and the lures run fine.

Cordell made a suspending Spot for a time..don't know if they're still made or not. I had a couple of them and never had so much as a sniff on them. The regular Spots were a different story entirely

I carry both, but I'm partial to the football heads.

I'd like to help you out, OP, but I use either KVD or Bomber squarebills exclusively. The Bombers work well for me.

This^^^^

If you can hear thunder....you can be struck by lightning.

I don't go out with the water below 40, and prefer about 48+.

If there's any kind of a chop on the water it's one of my favorite baits. Makes a heck of a racket....

When I go fishing I'm on the water about the time the roosters are crowing, so I almost always begin with a topwater or floating jerkbait. I don't carry a lot of colors. Silver/black back is one of my favorites.

I'd also go with the Silver Buddy (or other blade bait). When I lived on Lake Erie, we caught a lot of cold water smallies using the old Garland Gitzits by tossing them around rocks and moving them VERY slowly.

I'm kinda partial to Strike King/Bandit/Bomber lures. They seem to catch fish, and don't cost the rights to your first-born to own one.

My goal is to just plain get out on the water more.

Looks like either the opening day of trout or the steelhead run in a Lake Erie tributary.

If you watch the one where he walks around the back of the truck and cracks his leg on the trailer hitch you can see the padding outline on his pantleg. Still, the bloopers are good.

Some of you may have been bored watching all the dock fishing, but on that lake if you want fish quick, docks are the way to go. I've spent a fair amount of hours on that water, and I'm sad to say that I'll probably never see it again. You can catch smallies all over, but I always found that the south end of the lake (below the bridge) was better for them . There's a rockpile in what would be zone 6 that has always given up some big smallies, and there's a couple of points at the mouth of the coves that produce well. It's a beautiful body of water with lots of grass and tons of docks.