Wayne P.

For fishing on a upper Wisconson clear water lake for smallmouth and largemouth, is yellow 20# braided line with about 2 feet of 20# fluorocarbon leader a good setup for throwing a black 5" Senko rigged Tx style around boat docks and sunken brush?

The terms "fishing" and "Labor Day weekend on Smith Mountain Lake" are not compatable unless you are thinking about after dark. Even then the shore will be the safest place, but then again maybe not.

Bug sprays have a warning about not spraying on or near a lot of surfaces such as paint,certain fabrics, plastics, watch faces, etc Whatever the carrier in those sprays is dissolves the plastic and the damage is permanent. A spray fish attractant may contain the same carrier. Read the label on those products.

I use Coppertone Sports Sunscreen in spray and lotion. I have (had) red hair and blue eyes (still do ) and have the highest degree of sun sensitive skin so I have to use it all the time. I use the lotion on my face/neck and the spray on my arms. I haven't seen any negative affects of applying sunscreen on me. Anytime I reapply during the day, I just wash the excess off my hands with lake water and fish. It may repel bass if applied directly to baits, never tried. I'll try some SPF 50 on a finesse worm later this week and let you know.

NetBait has a longer version of the Trick worm that is 9" in length. It is named SUPER T-MAC. There are 14 worms in a package.

So the consensus is that it is OK to break the law if it doesn't harm anything, doesn't bother anyone, don't care, don't agree with it, don't know why it exists, or lots of other people do it. Thanks for your comments, I must be in the wrong place.

Your e-mail hasn't made the trip via India, and Indonesia yet.

zellaander, thanks for that question. If you will read my first post, you will see that the lake is a HP (horse power) restricted lake with a 10HP gas engine max limit. Only gas motors of that power and less are allowed to be used. You can also use electric, or paddles. No wind power though-its not a recreational lake-its a fishing lake. Lots of small lakes in the East have those type of restrictions. A bunch are electric only especially drinking water resevoirs of less than 2,000 acres. I guess the history of boaters and their behavior has resulted in those restrictions. If larger boats with large engines were allowed with no-wake speed restrictions only, someone would be doing 70mph, water skiiing, tubing, jetskiing because they bought a boat and felt it was their right to do so-they paid that tax that fishfordollars mentioned. High speed on crowded small lakes is a disaster waiting to happen. Most of those lakes that I fish are public, Game Commission managed, no ramp fees, and no permit required. If I was thinking about hunting an area with certain weapon restrictions, and I didn't have the appropiate one, I would get one or not go. Just as good is not good enough when it comes to obeying the law/rules. I got enough weapons of each type to cover all species that I would encounter on the North American Continent. Excellent question though. wagn, Just because laws are broken by some doesn't mean its OK for one to do so. I get that speed limit justification analogy all the time. If the speed limit was increasd by 10 mph, people would still go 5-10 mph over that because they can, not because its legal. Enforcement of those limits varies all over the country. Just try and go 5-10 mph over the limit in a school zone in some locations.

Super Flukes with weighted swimbait hooks and weighted weedless wacky rigged Trick worms. PM sent. The weather calls for HOT, I'm staying home, LOL

fishfordollars, Yes, you are wrong to even consider it appropiate to do so. Using that craft is not illegal, they could have just used their electric trolling motor just like numerous others with that type of equipment do. They chose to use their illegal motor instead. I have owned fiberglass bassboats since 1988, jon boats since 1972, and bank fished starting in the late 1940's. I never felt the need to put a gas motor on a jon boat until that lake was built. I did so just after it opened for fishing in 1989. I chose to do it right and legal as many dozens have, they didn't. Certainly the boat owner can afford a little ole jon boat if he can afford the Triton. Owning a fiberglass bass boat with a large engine does not put anyone if a special catagory to ignore laws. Purchasing a fishing license or fishing equipment doesn't put anyone in a special catagory to igore laws either. What they were doing wasn't causing any "problem". They were breaking the law, that is a problem. Yes, I do report fish and game law violations and so should everyone else. That is why I took the time to do the video. I was on a school of 2#-4# bass, catching one about every 3 casts and felt it was my duty to pause and document such behavior-it eliminates the heresay when doing so. They saw me catch one about 30 seconds after I put the camera away when they were perpendicular to me about 40 years away. and I heard them commenting about it-they had to talk loudy because of the outboard running-those Optimax motors have a special sound. Oh, by the way, I can run around 25 mph GPS with my 12' jon boat and 9.9 2 stroke Mercury raised 1" off the transom with a 9 1/2" prop, 3 gals of gasoline, two size 27 batteries and a bow mount 24V trolling motor beside two sonar units.

For those that have a "justification" for it, the reason for the HP restriction has nothing to do with the imposing of the restriction. I don't know why, dont' care why, and have no need to know. A law is a law. It is a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries managed lake. The lake is a flooded timber lake, but a lake about 10 miles from it is not-they both have the same HP restriction and both are less than 900 acres and are not recreational nor residential lakes. The pictured location is a trophy bass managed fishery in Va. with a known lake record of 16 pounds and 2 ounces. Its name is Briery Creek Lake.

fishfordollars, I am quite familiar with that lake and a couple others in the vacinity that have the same restrictions, I been fishing them for almost 20 years. Nothing has changed in that time to allow such behavior. I have a video file of similar violations I have witnessed for years. The Game Dept is aware of it and I have seen a few being ticketed for it. They are shorthanded like most areas of the country and can't patrol all of their territory all the time.

A while back there was a discussion about using larger motors on bodies of water that had HP limits and changing the motor stickers to indicate a legal motor, i.e.- 15- 9.9 and such. I stated that those who do that are poachers since they are attempting to take game fish illegally. Some said that was a harsh statement. I disagree. Here is a photo that I took last week of a boat being used on a lake with a max 10 HP limit. The picture is blurry because it is a frame of a video I took. Is this not the same as blatantly disregarding the law?

PM sent

A hook may harm a trout too. Are those going to be banned too? BS

Send me an e-mail for pictures and presentation description of using Trick and Finesse worms. I use hundreds of them each year. purdum43@aol.com

I saw the same thing last year in a Va. lake. The cause was the shad were trying to spawn and the water temp was too high for them to endure the stress.

You need to learn how to operate it before you even think about jack plates and prop changes. The procedure is to trim the motor all the way down and move the throttle quickly to the WOT position until the boat is on plane and then trim out a little until the steering gets easier. After that you can decrease the engine rpms to a confortable level. After you get used to doing that, you can start trimming out as the boat comes close to getting on plane and do your trim and throttle adjustments. At some point you will learn how slow your hull can go and stay on plane. Slowly accelerating is not the procedure to get a heavy boat on plane.

Your biggest challenge is the have a single hook attached to the lure with it in the proper orientation. You will probably have to use two split rings to get the hook point to be positioned either up or down. edited: a hook suggestion would be a spinnerbait trailer hook in an appropriate size-it has a larger than normal eye

The only lure type that I would consider a treble to single hook change would be a spoon.

fivesixone, I have used those hooks. While the cone stop functions well, the little barb near the hook eye will cause lots of pain and hand damage when trying to remove the hook from a struggling fish. Its size has minimal holding power in soft plastic. While I was using them ( don't any more ) I removed that feature.

Had the same thing happen to one of my single bank portable chargers last week. I opened it up looking for a possible fuse failure--no fuses, fried circuit board.

LBH, there are compromises but no substitutes for Senkos. It has no design flaws-its copies are the ones with design flaws. Its durability is not a factor in its effectiveness. The whole idea is to have a product that works. Its no different than using live golden shiners for bass, you basically get one hit per shiner and its done. There a lots of live shiner compromizes-swimbaits, crankbaits, etc but none are as effective in the right situation.

Sam I agree with your statement "Remember, you want the Senko to sink at its own rate and flutter downward and you do not want a heavy line to interfere with the downward flutter." That is why flurorocarbon is best because its sink rate is faster then nylon monos and can keep up with the sink rate of the Senko better. The nylon monos exert more drag in the water.

Yes, I hear that type of question. I have a lot of "stuff" and carry a lot of stuff when I fish. Out of the 53 rod and reels I have, I carry 8-20 depending on which boat I am using and the prevalent expected pattern. I am not brand loyal for equipment or baits and may have something of most everything. I go prepared to utilize several presentations at any given moment to maximize the opportunities of being successful. Most days, I figure out a pattern rather quickly and end up only using one or two bait styles and one or two rod/reels most of the day. I replace whatever I may use up so I am prepared for the next outing. I think most efficient fisherpersons do the same.