jbmaine

Thanks, being homemade had not occurred to me. whoever made them did a good job. they look store made. Jim

Hi all, I was cleaning out one of my tackle boxes last night and came across a clear bag with a couple of these baits in it . Both are the same. For the life of me I don't remember ever seeing these before. I can only assume I was given these at some point and forget all about them. I looked thru Cabelas and Bass pro and didn't find them. Does this bait look familiar to anyone? I'm going to use them, and if they catch fish I'd like to know where to get more. The head is weighted and the plastic is molded on the hook. From the head to the end of the tail they are 4" long. Thanks Jim

Hi all, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a humminbird helix 5 si. I picked it up yesterday and will install it this weekend. I opened the box and took everything out. I watched the cd on all the great things this unit will do, and then watched the manual cd. It's around 160+ pages. I'll never remember all this stuff. I called Humminbird and asked if it should have come with a written manual. No sir, I was told, the manual is on cd. I explained to her I didn't have a cd player on my boat, and could they send me a written manual. I was told they could print out the manual on regular paper and mail it to me for 18$. I know this is the world we live in today, but I sure do miss the old days. Back then when you bought something, it came with everything you needed and it made sense. I'll let you know how the install goes, but first I need to run into town and pick up some kind of binder for all the paper they are sending me, and pick up a 3 amp in line fuse because the installation instructions ( such as they are) tell me it needs a fuse on the power side and guess what. It's not included. Jim

I may be naive to say this, but it seems a compromise might be to catch SM and relocate them to another body of water. You will never catch them all, but you wouldn't be killing them either. Jim

Thanks, That's a very good explanation. Sounds like it should do just fine. Jim

Hi all, I'm really starting to think about picking up one of the Hummingbird helix si units. I know the bigger the screen the better, but it's also more $$. I guess what i'm asking, is a si 5" screen just as fuctional as a larger unit? With a smaller screen do you miss things you would see with a larger screen, or is like a small tv, everything is there just more crowded. Thanks Jim

Thanks everyone I appreciate the input. Jim

I fished Great East lake on Friday. It's the first time I've been there. What a nice body of water. We got a late start and didn't put the boat in until about 9AM, but we were the only one at the launch. Needless to say the lake was not busy. We spent most of the day trying to catch LM, but darned if we could find them. However before we left I caught a few 2-3lb SM on beds. I'm not that big on bed fishing, but I wanted to have something on my line before we left. All in all a good day. Jim

Hi All, I've been thinking about upgrading to a side scan unit. I've seen the pics and videos, and there's no question what you can see with them is amazing. But at the end of the day(fishing skills and everything else being equal) do you find you catch more fish? This would be a serious investment, and I'd like to make sure it would be worth it. I'd be putting it on a 14ft Lund and replacing my current Lorance X125. The beam is not that wide. Would I have trouble with the motor blocking part of the signal? Thanks Jim

Thanks for the replies, I'll fish tubes t-rigged or with a varity of weighted "tube hooks". I mostly use coffee flavored tubes as they do catch more fish for me. It sounds like for a larger profile bait, especially in dirty water, a jig may be the way to go. I'll pick a few up and give it a try. Thanks Jim

Hi All, Forgive me if these questions are simplistic, but I was wondering what the difference/ advantages are for these two baits. I use tubes with good success, but have never tried jigs, and am trying to justify in my mind the added expense of buying, using jigs, and the added space in my tackle box to store them. From what I can tell they are both fished the same way, dragged or bounced along the bottom, and they both imitate a crayfish or other critter that bass like. I know there are times when bass seem to zero in on just one bait, but generally speaking ,is there enough of a difference between the two to have both, and if so are there "rules of thumb" to know when to use one over the other? Thanks Jim

Thanks I had drained the gas out of the motor before putting it away, and the gas in the tank went into my car. I hope starting out with fresh gas I will be OK. I plan to run the motor at my house for a bit ( with water muffs) before heading up to the lake. Thanks again Jim

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll look over the tires before I lower the trailer. I hadn't thought of sun damage. I always use Startron fuel stabilizer in the gas, so that should help, but I'll start off slow running the engine. Thanks again Jim

Hi all My wife and I have a 2006 lund WC Delux with a 20hp Honda 4 stroke motor ( both bought new). It's a perfect set up for us, and we've had many fun hours fishing with it. 2010 started out as a good year for us. I had done a complete tuneup on the motor ( oil change and filter, fuel filter, plugs, new lower end fluid). I had also had a new water pump impeller installed. ( nothing wrong with the old one, it just seemed time for a new one. We made three trips in the spring of 2010 ( even caught a new PB, 5lb LM). Then we had a dramatic change in our lives and knew we wouldn't be fishing for a while. I ran all the gas out of the motor, dribbled some oil in the cylinders and rotated them a couple of times ( as per the Honda manual). Put the motor on a motor stand and stored it in my heated basement. I jacked the boat trailer up ( so the wheels were off the ground) and pumped new wheel bearing grease in. It's a Karavan trailer with thru the axle lubrication, ( you pump grease in until you see new grease coming out the front. Now after almost two years it seems our life is getting back to normal and we are ready to start fishing again. So what I am wondering, is the motor ready to go as is? It's only had about 2hr run time since the last tune up, but it's been sitting for almost 2 yrs. I hate to spend the $$ for another tune up enless I need to. The trailer bearings should still be good ( I would think?) I've never changed them, but have been anal about pumping new grease in every three or four trips. Total milage on the trailer is around 1500-1800 miles. So what do you think? Am I ready to go as is, or should I do maintance on the motor/trailer before going? Thanks It's good to be back Jim

Hi All, My wife and I just took our last fishing trip for the foreseeable future. Don't get me wrong, we love fishing, it's our main leisure activity all during the warm weather months. However, after being unemployed for some time I finally picked up a job. Great news for us, except this job calls for a lot of overtime. It looks like I'll be working at least six days a week for a year or more. Considering that the nearest lake we fish is a good hour away ( which shoots down fishing after work) , and I still have a house/yard to take care of, we reluctantly decided to put down the fish poles until we have time to really get back into it. As I don't start my new job until next week, yesterday we decided to take one more trip. We got up to the lake around 10 A.M. It was about 60 degrees out, overcast and calm. Water temp was 67, perfect for fishing. Before I go any further let me tell you about my wife. She has medical issues that have resulted in very little strength in her hands and arms. The only reel she can use is a Zebco spincast and her casting is more of a two handed lob. As is, if she hooks anything of size she has to hand her rod to me to reel it in. But I'll tell ya, she catches a lot of fish! Now back to the story. We launch the boat and put over to a cove. I shut off the motor and reach for my pole. Before I can wet a line my wife starts hollering " grab the pole, grab the pole. I got a fish!" I grab her pole, yank back to set the hook and realize it's a big fish. A couple of minutes later it's in the boat. It was a five pound ( best I could weigh on my cheap scale , not a monster but real good for Maine waters) LM. 21 1/2 inches long. It was also her PB by a pound and the largest fish we have caught in the lake. It was also, I think, a fitting end to our current fishing adventures. Two things before you see the pics It's me holding the bass. I'm not trying to steal my wife's thunder but she literally doesn't have the strength to hold it up. If you ever think a little Zebco spincast reel can't handle a big fish, we respectfully disagree. Here's a couple of pics Thanks for looking P.S. she caught it on a senko in a foot of water JB

Sounds like you had a great trip. Square pond is one of the nicer bodies of water in this area. I love being able to see the bottom 8-10 ft down. I assume you were fishing the shore line? I've caught some nice SM there but so far have not hooked a LM. JB

Hi all, Spent a few hours out on mousam this week. Instead of the fishing picking up it seems to be slowing down. The SM seem to be starting to head back into deeper water. Only caught two, both at about 10 ft depth. Hit the shallower parts of the lake for LM and got zip. Have fished this lake for years and have never seen the LM fishing so slow. I'm beginning to wonder if the fish in this lake are on a decline. I started this post hoping to find some more fisherman in the area to compare notes with, something like the NH guys are doing. A Lot of people have read this but input has been minimal at best. It hardly seems worth the bother to continue. JB

Thanks for all the input everyone. I think LOML is finally convinced JB

Hi all, To my wife and I fishing is the one " thing" we do all during the warm weather months. Every else takes a back seat. However my wife is sensitive to the sun and always lathers on the sun screen. One day she forgot and paid for it for a week. To help her out I bought her a very wide brimmed hat. It does a good job keeping the sun off her face but she feels self conscious wearing it. She thinks it makes her feel "dorky". I keep telling her the only thing that matters is we're out fishing and it doesn't matter what we look like, but she still feels funny wearing it. So I told her I'd ask your opinion. So let me ask, Do you care what you look like when you're out fishing? Thanks JB

Hi all, Hit Mousam lake again yesterday and did well. fished a couple of coves that had SM beds. It seems the spawn is over as there was no fish on them but we caught several nice ones randomly casting a senko in the coves. Also hit the shallow water for LM. Again, no fish on the beds but picked up a couple in the area randomly casting. Water temp was 65-68. We are going to hit it again on Monday. Any one else on here fishing these waters or am I the only one? JB

Got out a few times this last week. Mousam lake-- Hit it twice. water temp 60-64. This is a lake we have been fishing for years and usually do very well. However this year it's been tough fishing. have to work really hard to pick up fish. Saw some beds but no fish on them. still it was fun. Square pond-- Hit this on Tuesday and had a perfect day. air and water temp both in the low sixties. low wind and few boats. only two other boats and myself on a 900 acre lake. Also had fun watching a sea plane practice takeoff and landings. Fishing was great. Got dialed in right away on what was working and caught SM all day. Nothing over 3 lb but tons of fun. Here's a few pics. Anyone else fishing up this way? I'd love to hear how your doing. JB

We have a 14 ft Lund with a 20 horse motor. With two on board I have to use around 3/4 throttle to get up on plane, so I would think 15 hp is the way to go to give you the zip you need to get up on plane. JB

will do. Do you ever get up this way? JB

I've seen beds from one foot to eight ft. there may be some in deeper water but eight ft is about the max visibility on the waters we fish. JB