07Rapala

7'3" St. Croix Victory ML, XF is my preferred for both, which is a problem sometimes since I only have one of them. Handles hair jigs and 1/10oz ned rigs fine on the light end. I have used up to a 1/2oz drop shot on the heavy end. It gets a little weird at that weight but it works. Works well up to 3/8oz.

I have a 4000 series NASCI. Miravel is notably nicer, feels smoother and lighter (though I realize it's a bit of apples to oranges with the different sizes). Ultregra is also nice. I don't see much difference between the latter two, I think the Miravel is lighter, a good quality for a finesse reel.

"Red lures catch big bass" is repeated over and over all over the internet and on these forums. I'm inclined to believe that this is because those red swamp crayfish are really really red, and the bass are seeking out a know pray. I also wonder if the bright color makes them easy to find in mirky waters. But up here in WI our crayfish are more of an olive drab, and our waters are pretty clear 5-15' of clarity on my local lakes for example. Does anyone have any experience with red lures working up north?

I think if I were coming from central IA, I would go to the western Chequamegon area, biggest town around there is Hayward, otherwise you'll be driving past a lot of good lakes to go fishing other good lakes. There are a lot of storied lakes in that area. Just my 2-cents but, if you have a smaller boat anyway, I'd suggest finding some smaller lakes off the beaten path to fish. The DNR has a real obsession with putting public access on every little lake they can. Once you figure out where you're headed, research some small lakes on public land in the area that have primitive boat launches. It's nice to fish lakes known for producing good fish, but not so much when 100 other guys have already fished that spot this week, or when jet skiers are buzzing around all over. Some of the smaller more remote lakes that are hard to get to hold good fish, and probably less than 10 guys have fished any given spot that year. If nothing else, it will be quiet and beautiful.

Thanks for your concern for my wife and her sister. My brother-in-law is from New Orleans and he’s going to be with them some of the time (he’s also working events). My sister-in-law lived there for a couple years so she knows her way around. Apparently they’re staying at a B&B a block of the parade route in the Garden District. I don’t think they’re going to the French Quarter at all, let alone Bourbon St. I though I’d stick around to see one parade before I skip town, to get a taste for it, but I’m sure I’d get tired of it pretty quick and get stir crazy being stuck in a city.

Thanks all for the input. A big part of what I want out of this trip is to experience some real cypress swamps and coastal marshes. I'm going to be bringing a camera long toHonestly, the fishing is a secondary goal... but you know, if I'm on the water, I'm going to be tossing something out there to see who I can get to bite. With that said... I looked at Chicot Lake when I was researching the trip. Apparently the biggest bald cypress in LA can be found in the park. That said, I think its a littler further out than I want to go. BayouSlide, that photo of Lake Faust Point looks amazing to me. Very weird, to me at least, to see a lake that muddy. How does that not settle-out? So maybe I don't spend so much time fishing in that lake, or don't expect much while I explore it. What drew me to that park is that there are some paddle-in camp sites, and overall, it looked like the park and/or the Achafalaya Basin adjacent to it would have some pretty 'natural' swamps. I will also check out Lake Verret and maybe Grassy Lake if I can get up there. Whoever said that Google satellite images would lie to me, yeah I get that. I can imagine tree cover hides a lot and fluctuating water levels changes the landscape quite a bit.

I appreciate your concern. I didn't want to fill my initial post with too much excess text, but perhaps I could have been a bit more clear. I plan to drop-off my wife and sister-in-law in New Orleans, Then I'm going to find somewhere to camp and fish/paddle/hike etc. I will probably go back to get them later. I was thinking of camping at Lake Fausse Point State Park. I could paddle/fish around that lake and the park, or I could launch from one of the boat launches on the other side of the levee into Bayou Chene. I would certainly be open to other ideas where I can get off the beaten path with a canoe... and find fish. Oh, and thanks for the tip about the water possibly starting to rise. I kept reading that water levels would rise in "spring" but I don't have a good frame of reference for when spring is in LA. Up here in WI, the lakes are still solid ice into mid-March.

My wife and her sister want to do Mardi Gras. I'd much rather spend my time paddling my canoe around the Atchafalaya. Being from WI, that's a whole different world for me. Does anyone have any tips on what the bass will be up to that time of year and where (and how) to look for them? I'm assuming that they will be in early pre-spawn and feeding on crayfish around that time? With the shallow waters in most areas (I assume) and ample vegetation and wood in the water, I was thinking of focusing more on jigs, T-rigged soft-plastics and flukes. I'd limit my treble-hooked lures to just a couple lipless crankbaits, maybe a couple finesse crank baits, and a handful of spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. Am I on the right track here? I want to keep things simple for this trip and limit how many boxes of tackle I take. Thanks!

So far I've been happy with the Plano bag to drop into a standard milk crate. I do need to do a bit more organizing inside the box and fix up how I connect the buckles and shoulder strap, including cutting extraneous buckles off. The only real problem I am having is now that I CAN carry more tackle, I AM carry more tackle. Its getting too heavy!

Well, that's a wrap on my Traverse City trip! I caught some big fish, but it took a lot of patience to get them. The area I was in on the Old Mission Peninsula has a shallow shelf that extends 100-200' from shore and slowly descents to about 10' of depth, before dropping precipitously into over 100' of water. A lot of this shelf is just bare sand, but there are areas of rock, boulders and short vegetation. The drop-off tends to be pure sand, but in some areas has biocrust or that very short grass. I was able to catch fish both in the shallow rocks and on the drop. In the shallows, I mostly caught them in the morning. The edge seemed to be any time. I never caught more than 2 fish in the same spot at the same time, though I did find a spot in the shallows where I caught 3 fish over 4 days. It looked just like everyplace else in that rock garden, not sure why they liked that spot. Along the dropoff is where I might catch 2 fish within a couple casts. The spots that held fish were either points or pockets in the dropoff, or areas where the drop was more gradual or created a little shelf of sorts, especially those with some plant life, even if it was sparse. Spot on the spot. Despite trying many different baits, I caught 1 fish on a hula grub, one on a Ned TRD and one on a swimbait. The rest were all on a drop shot, and all of those were on a Berkley Flatworm. Thanks for the help folks.

Thanks Dwight. I've been watching some videos and looking closely at maps. Lots of structure in the 5-10' range near where I'll be (East Bay), rocks, boulders, weed beds, maybe even a sunken ship? Then it drops quickly to the abyss. I'll take a second look for structure a bit deeper. I may have found some weed beds. When people talk about fish up "shallow" vs "deep" what depth range are they talking about? How deep is the thermocline typically?

I'm heading up to Traverse City MI later this week. Where to start looking for fish. I'll just have a canoe and my eyeballs for finding fish. Water temp is about 71° right now. How deep are they usually this time of year? There is a moderate amount of shallow (6' or less) structure in the area I have access to, and a good amount of deep structure (10'-30').

I'm more and more sold on the Plant Kayak Crate Soft Bag. I should be able to fit at least 8 3600 boxes in it. That allows me to sort out my tackle by type. Can't carry everything, but anything I would need for a day. It will be lower profile and more stable in the boat. And I can bring it in the house to re-up with new tackle and into my dad's boat just as easy. I don't think I'll ever use the side bags (that's where my rods go), but it will be nice to have that top pocket/lid to keep everything from falling out.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for either. I’m imagining a bag that fits the exact same stuff as a crate, so I could just move the boxes from one place to another. Or… do I just make the crate my go-everywhere tackle holder? I saw that Plano crate bag, but I don’t think the side flaps would be much use to me. Even if I just toss those in a corner, could still be an option. On the one hand, I’m definitely over-thinking this. On the other, I’d like a good system because currently my tackle management is a mess.

TLDR: Does anyone have a good recommendation for a system to easily transfer tackle in 3600 or 3700 boxes from kayak to boat? On caveat: I will have the tackle behind me in the kayak and won't be able too see it, so it needs to be easy to access behind my back and grab-able by touch alone. I have been doing most of my fishing from a small pack-boat style canoe for the past 3 years. My dad just gifted me with an old, home-built 17' cruiser kayak. I think it will be great for covering water and fishing on the 3,000-10,000 acre lakes near my home, but the cockpit is fairly small so I need to organize all my gear carefully. Meanwhile, my current tackle bag holds 5, 3600 boxes. I need more space for the tackle I want to carry and even this little box won't fit in-front of me in the new kayak. So, I'm going to start using my Mk.1, stolen-from-behind-the-grocery-store milk crate for tackle storage. This crate will fill either 7, 3700 boxes or 7-9 3600 boxes. I like the lower profile of the 3600 does and they would be easier to secure under a bungie. But, since I sit on the floor in my solo canoe and kayak, and the crate will be behind me, I will have to reach blindly behind my back to grab the boxes, so it would be easier to memorize the locations of a smaller number of larger boxes. But, also need to be able to dump all this in a tackle bag to take with me when fishing with my father in his boat or in the family canoe. But it's hard to find a tackle bag that will fit as many boxes as the crate (particularly if I stick with the 3600 boxes), without a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles. So, does anyone have a good system for moving your tackle from a kayak to a motorized boat and elsewhere in-between?