Fallser

Drop shot with either and 1/8 or 1/4 oz weight or jigs in the same weight range with soft plastics. If you don't have a depth finder on you kayak you'll be fishing blind. And the fish may not be that deep. I'd start off in 10-15 feet of water. They may even be shallower than that. Weed lines, lily pads, grass beds, should hold fish. If you can find structure, a drop-off, shoal or rock pile to work even better. Sunken timber, etc. I've fished South Jersey lakes and pickerel are always shallow. Walleye would be deeper, I would guess between 15 and 25 feet. Largemouth shallower than smallmouth.

I have a limited quiver. Three 8 wgts, three 6 wgts and two 5 wgts. For bass and light salt water I mainly use a 9' 6 wgt. Nice thing about tying your own flies you can tailor them to fit the rod you're using. I fished that area once when I was down there for my nephew's wedding. On one of the barrier islands, south of Charleston. A lot of redfish in the area, some that could put a good bend in a 9 wgt. I use one specific 6 wgt and one specific 8 wgt. The others are spares, in case I break one. I would've kept the 9 wgt. A fly rod doesn't take up that much room when packing.

I tie them directly to the line. Never noticed any line twist.

I use the plastic photo boxes that I pick up at the different craft stores. They're usually roughly 6"X 8" inches or 4"x 6 inches. I line them with 6 mm craft foam and make rows in them. Mainly I use them for flies, but I've been making up buck tail and other jigs for dark side fishing for my Ontario trip in late August. I can get as many as 24 jigs in the larger boxes and the materials don't get bent out of shape and they fit easily into my tackle bag. I haven't tried them with lures, They should work for certain types.

I usually use a fly rod. I've had that problem, mainly with the fly rod. Problem with the fly rod and I normally strip set the hook is, especially if the fish jumps immediately after taking the fly. There's always slack in the fly line. You have to tighten up the line as quick is possible so you can control the fish, not have the fish control you. I've loss less jumping fish when I'm fishing jigs or lures. There's a better "connection" between line and jig/lure, less slack. You just have to get the fish under control as quickly as possible. All my flies are barbless, so are my lures. I haven't gotten around de-barbing my jigs unless I'm tying flies on them. Barbless hooks add another dimension to fighting fish.

I'm probably a lot older than ya'll but I grew up with them in the 50's. They were popular in the 30's, 40's and 50's. They were distractions, escape and positive. They always had a happy ending or taught a positive lesson. I still enjoy them, because they are an escape, have a couple drinks, smoke a couple of.....cigarettes. Just forget about wokeness, CRT, MAGA and whatever else torques you off. I think "American in Paris" may be the best musical. "Singing in the Rain, Brigadoon, On The Town and "Yankee Doodle Dandy"(Cagney sings, Cagney dances). Not sure folks consider it a musical, but "Fantasia" way ahead of its time. A great movie to get stoned/high/drunk, or whatever and watch.

Before I took up fly fishing, though I still use them when I step over to the dark side and pull out my spinning gear. Top water- it's a toss up between a Hula Popper and a Jitterbug. Subsurface- Senko, though the Fin-s would be second

Generally, that's what we do. Find a good spot, anchor up, work it over with various lures, or in my case, flies. One of my friends, fishes with his son, who is definitely into bass fishing. He hates doing it. His son will pull up to a spot, make a half-dozen or a dozen casts and is ready to move on to the next one. His dad is like, "Wait a minute, we just got here." He's always happy when one of us "old farts", like him can head up to his place in the Poconos and fish with him.

I use 3/0 Eagle Claw Aberdeen hooks for the crayfish patterns I tie up for fly fishing for bass. I haven't noticed any open eyes on this style of hook. I like them because they're sharp right out of the bag/box. You're not going to weaken the hook by closing a small gap in the hook eye. I don't go near Mustad hooks when I tie flies.

I'm not much of a tea drinker. I always enjoyed sweet tea when I was in college in NW Tennessee. Today the only sweet tea I drink is Firefly, on the rocks. Coffee, I have to drink decaffeinated for medical reasons. I started grinding my own beans, and mixing my own blend. Main ingredients are Decaf Expresso, Dark French Roast and Italian Roast, mixed with some Eight O'Clock coffee beans. I don't really measure the beans, I just fill my grinder. Usually I make 8 to 10 cups according to the carafe. That works out to two cups of coffee for me. I don't want to be able to see through my coffee.

Most of my hooks are either barbless or the barb is crushed. In fact, I'm in the process of replacing the trebles on my lures with barbless trebles for my trip to Ontario in late August. I haven't crushed the barbs on my jigs yet. Still up in the air on that, since I use soft plastics, and sometimes bait with them. I'm mainly a fly fisher, and all my flies are barbless, including the small jigs I tie some of my bass flies on. Main reasons, easier to get the hook(s) out of me or my clothes and of course the fish. Easier to get out of the net if the lure gets tangled. Often easier to get out of snags or hang ups. A lot of the lakes I fish for bass have chain pickerel, musky and sometimes pike in them easier to unhook them quickly. Will I lose more fish, possibly, but I haven't lost many hooked on lures with barbless trebles. Most of my lost fish have been on flies, but as I think about it, it's not really the barbless hooks, but how I'm fighting the fish whether it's with a fly rod or spinning rod. As I've improved my fighting technique the number of lost fish, particularly with the fly rod have gone down.

Another possibility, if they are fish could be walleye. They tend to hang near the bottom.

Nice.. It looks like a good night fly. How long is it? I'm a bit too OCD to mess with deer hair these days. I wonder if I could use a Siliclone as the main body. Might give it a try. I've been finishing up some frogs and crayfish for my Ontario, I'll post some pictures when I'm done. Also been making some 1/4 oz jigs using Faux bucktail, interesting material.

I knew some guys who lived in the Toronto area that would specifically targeted gars when they weren't chasing trout or smallmouth. They actually made a video of one of their trips but that was years ago. The main toothy critter I catch around here are chain pickerel, and pike when I'm up in Ontario. Here's one of the locals.

Was it a red and white float plane?

The creek I fish has a gravel bottom, mixed with rocks and the occasional downed trees. No gravel pits nearby that I know of, but it does have springs which cool down the creek in the area. Just because there's a gravel pit nearby doesn't mean the creek will have a gravel bottom. What it might be is that is there is an outflow pipe to drain water from the pit or the if the pit is close enough there maybe seepage from the pit bringing cooler water into the creek. As far as crayfish go, they don't need rocks or even gravel to be in a body of water. Ever hear of "mudbugs"? Just another name for crayfish. My sister had a small pond at her house in Vermont. It had crayfish in it. Sandy to muddy bottom. You could see the crayfish holes around the bank.

As of today, it was still required, but who knows by August. The 72 hour requirement for ArriveCan is still a PITA though. I hope I don't have to tell them what time I expect to cross the border

Nice musky. Good to hear that crossing the border will be a bit easier this year. My trip isn't till late August when I head up to a lodge on Lady Evelyn Lake in NE Ontario. Main target for us will be smallmouth and walleye.

Since it's your first try, I'd follow the K.I.S.S principle. Just put the guides where they were originally. If you removed the butt guide, there should be some sign on the blank as to where it was. It was most likely somewhere between 22 and 24 inches from the center of the reel seat. I just stripped down an 5' 10" Ugly Stick I picked up at a flea market for $10. I'd fished it for a couple of years and was satisfied with the distance and action. I didn't like the reel seat. So I stripped it all down replaced the grips and reel seat, downsized the butt guide from a size 30 to a size 25. I used it back in May and it was fine. I build my own rods, and if I'm starting with a new blank I follow the steps that MikeK and DV Tackle outlined. If I'm replacing guides, I just put them where they were. Once you start moving or adding guides you're creating more work for yourself. You'll have to make "cosmetic" adjustments to the spots where you removed the guides. Just keep it simple. Good luck with your project.

I use salt water lures in fresh water and fresh water lures in salt water. The fish don't seem to know the difference. The largest pike I've caught took a 4 inch mackerel pattern Yozuri shallow diver. If they're only going to see fresh water action most of the time I'll replace the stainless hooks with the fresh water version. The flies I use for bass when I fly fish for them are often the same flies I use for blues and stripers in salt water. You shouldn't have any issue using them.

I have one buzz bait blade. I thought I might be able to find them at Cabela's when I went up there today, but no luck. Maybe I'll find another one somewhere in my tying room. I have some jigs to finish up for my Canadian trip, but when I'm done I'll work up a couple of the in-line spinners with props and the buzz bail blade and post some pictures.

That makes sense, I think I might have a couple of buzz bait blades lying around. I'll have to see if I can find them. Thanks, I got the idea from an in-line spinner bait I picked up at a fishing flea market a couple of years ago. The guy was selling them to use for stripers in salt water. I still have one of them. I gave the other to a guy who fishes for musky. It's 9 inches long, including the grub and weighs two ounces. The only difference is that he used an in-line spinner blade(doesn't need a clevis)rather than a Colorado, Indiana or French blade. I tried it that way, but didn't like the action. It's possible I used to small a blade. If I can find my buzz bait blades, I'll make a couple up and take some pictures. I know I have some large props. I'll make a couple of them up, never thought about using them that way.

Something like these? I consider them in-line spinners, loosely based on the Mepps in-line spinners. I got a chance to fish a couple of them a last month in a couple of lakes in the Poconos. And unlike the in-line spinners I make that are sparsely dressed rather than staying down, they rose and stayed just under the surface when I retrieved them. Caught a couple of small pickerel on them, no bass.

I'll be following this with interest. This will be the first year I plan to use "hair" jigs. In my case, bucktail, marabou, zonker(rabbit) strips and some tied with artificial hairs. I tie my own, but all mine are tied on 1/4 oz jigs. I'm mainly fishing in 8 to 25 feet of water.

I actually don't use a leader, even with braid when I'm fishing for bass. I tie my line directly to the lure or jig. Most of the lakes I fish have chain pickerel, some have musky. The only time I use a leader is when I'm fly fishing, and part connected to the fly is called a tippet. I usually use a 25# fluorocarbon tippet when I'm fishing for bass, chain pickerel and pike.