ww2farmer

Post spawn here means fishing shallow around bluegill beds, or for suspending fish outside the deep weed line. I like a frog, a shallow running crankbait, swim jig, and a wacky rigged stick bait or finesse worm on a light (1/16 oz.) jig head for the shallow fish. For the deeper fish, I like the wacky rigged stick bait or finesse worm on a little heavier jig head (1/8 oz.), wacky and nose hooked baits on a light line drop shot rig, or a c-rig dragged along the deep weed edge on days when I get a heavy north or south wind that makes boat control a chore. I just let the wind drift me down the edge dragging the c-rig behind the boat. As much as I love to pitch and flip jigs and big t-rigged creature baits, this is one time of the year where I keep that stuff at the bottom of the rotation and only get it out IF all of the above is not working well, or if I go hunting for one big bite.

I add 3 BB's to Booyah frogs all the time. It helps me get a few more bites when I am fishing thick over head matted grass. For two reasons...it makes the frog push down in the water a little bit more instead of riding high on the mat, and adds just a touch more sound that the fish can zero in on when they can't see it. I found the fish missed the frog much less when I started doing this. I used to add weight to the frogs by putting chunks of heavily salted stick baits in the body, and that helped with the water displacement on mats, but added no sound. I was getting fewer misses doing this, but still more than I did before adding the BB's. Any more than that, and it changes the way the frog behaves in the water. It'll sit too low, and affect the way it walks for me.

I have been doing it for years. Now I don't want to see it mentioned here again LOL.

I used to throw cranks on slow reels, but that was back in the day when fast reels paired with a deeper diving bait felt like you were pulling a water logged roll of carpet off the bottom of the lake. Today's reels with the over sized gears, coupled with crankbait mfgs. making deeper diving baits that pull easier have made low speed reels obsolete for me. I use 6:1 or 7:1 reels for everything, with a strong preference for 7:1....even for cranking. In fact, I know I own a few 6:1 reels, but I am not sure they even made it onto the boat last year, or will this coming year either. The one disclaimer I have....about the biggest/deepest diving baits I use are SK 6xd's, and the 5xd is usually my go-to 10'+ bait. They are not hard pulling on 7:1 reels.....but other brands or bigger baits might be.

I like it just fine right where I am. Of the two lake I fish regularly (Silver and Conesus), I think I like Conesus a hair bit better. Maybe because I fish Silver 10x's as much during the course of a season due to how close I am to it. But I also seem to have fewer "bad" days on Conesus.

Aside from the custom rods I had built to the specs I wanted them built to, my current favorite off the shelf rods are: Daiwa Abu Garcia Berkley I find those brands offer a good "bang for the buck" ratio. While not as finely built and crafted with top notch components, or as "nice" as Loomis, St Croix, etc....the performance of "budget" rods now-a-days is closing the gap on some of the premium rods. That's a huge plus for someone like me, who, for reasons only known to god, is very rough on rods. Sure, the warranties on the high end stuff is usually great, but breaking a couple $200+ rods a year is a tuff pill to swallow, breaking a few $75 rods a year is still not desirable, but easier to stomach.

I have used original and only original for a long long time. It goes on everything I put in the water except for Berkley Powerbait/gulp stuff, as I feel that is just as effective too.

I had a down year for big fish. Only two over 6lbs.... one caught on a beaver flipped under a dock, one on a swim jig. Only a dozen and a half or so 5lb er's, biggest was a 5-13 caught on a jig when I took bclark7b out on our yearly spring trip. ZERO 5lb + fish in tournaments this past season. Biggest was an upper 4lber. ZERO 5lb + smallmouth this past season, but lots of mid to upper 4's. That's not humble bragging....it really is/was a lower than average year for me for big ones. I am used to getting at least 1/2 dozen 6+'s, more 5+'s than I can remember , and getting at least one 5+ every few tournaments with largemouth. With smallmouth I always seem to get a handful of 5+'s every year, but not this past season for some reason.

Thanks for the well wishes guys. I am going to have to reconsider my stance on not getting a flu shot going forward. My biggest aversion to it (at least the last few years) was that my mother actually died from complications of a flu shot.

It's miserable. I have never had it, never gotten a Flu shot, but my luck has run out. Started late last week. Was all I could do to get out of bed for work Friday, and then literally could not get out of bed Sat.-Monday, other than a trip to the urgent care on Monday just to be told...."yeah, you got the flu....rest/fluids, tylenol for the fevers, and ride it out" Started feeling "better"...not good, just better Tuesday. Pushed my luck and went to work yesterday........I think that was a mistake, back to feeling like I did over the weekend, with the exception of at least being able to sit up and get out of bed. So far wife and kids seem fine...but they get Flu shots. How long am I looking at this thing kicking my butt? I am not one for sitting home sick unless it's bad, and this is about the worst I have ever felt.

Any hard bait that costs more than $10. Way too many toothy critters here to be whipping around Lucky Craft, and Megabass stuff on my salary. Good thing for me I catch plenty of bass on sub $10 baits. But even a day of losing a half dozen SK crankbaits hurts the pocket book pretty hard.

Funny thing is....last two falls (I know different than ice out) my best action for smallmouth has been in low 60 degree water, and largemouth in mid 40 degree water. Go figure.

Smallmouth yes.... Largemouth seem to take their sweet time. I will fish for smallies from ice out until the water is in the low 50's then start chasing LM. I have some decent days fishing for largemouth in 40 degree water, but it's unpredictable at best.

They are all garbage now. Send them to me, I work in the trash business and I will get rid of them properly. Just to be safe, better send the reels too (only if they are LH).

That's exactly what I do as well.

I would never buy a glass rod. They feel "dead" in my hands. Especially when trying to steer a crankbait through cover. They also tend to be heavier than similarly spec'ed graphite rods, which can be felt at the end of a long day. I don't put much stock into what "experts and pros" say is the best. It may be the best for them, but I have been doing just fine cranking, and fishing reaction baits on graphite rods for 20 years. Plus they can be used for other stuff and do well.

I have that same revolver. My father worked at Crossman down in Bloomfield for 20+ years, and retired in 2016. He has Crossman stuff coming out his ears. He would often buy the factory "scratch and dent" models for a song with his discount, and give them out to anyone who seemingly ever met him LOL. Funny story about that revolver.................but first a disclaimer.................kids don't try this at home. I wanted to see what this thing was capable of, so I pointed it at my wife's backside as she was bent over feeding a calf at work......let me tell you.....when your then 25 year old hot, young wife says "I dare you" it's not actually a dare. Who knew ? But I have paid for it every minute, of every day, for the last 17 years. In my defense, she was wearing heavy carhart coveralls, and it didn't go through, but there was still a bruise, and me offering to kiss it seemed to make matters worse. The first few shots out of a fresh C02 cartridge are pretty stout.

I use both casting and spinning gear for drop shotting. It all boils down to cover, line, and hook choice for me. Heavier cover/line/hooks = power shotting with casting gear. Lighter cover/line/hooks = "finesse" drop shotting with spinning gear. Usually both are rigged up and ready to go for me all the time. I don't like to over complicate things, but I also don't like to not have the right tools for the job at hand. Pitching a drop shot rig into a tight hole in a milfoil bed with a ML spinning rod, fine wire hook, and 6-8lb test line will work.............but hilarity will ensue if you get a bite. You'd probably still get that bite with a MH casting rod, a heavier hook and 15lb test line, and stand a much better chance of getting the fish in the boat.

Not real well...................But I float good.

I rarely spend more than $100 on a rod anymore. Many of today's "budget rods" feel and fish like $150+ rods from 15 years ago. Some of my favorite rods under $100 are: Daiwa Aird X, and Fuego's Abu Garcia Vengenace, and Vendetta's Berkley Lightning Rods, and Lightning Rod Shocks All of those rods are offered in various lengths from 7'-7'6" in H power that are excellent for frogging/flipping/heavy cover work. My least favorite of the bunch is the 7'6" Lightning Rod Shock, it's very heavy, and is better A-rig/large moving bait rod.

If they would bite a frog all the time, it's all I would ever fish. But they don't. So I have to use other stuff.

When is the next TW sale?

A very common recipe for disaster around here is: Idiots + booze = hilarity ensues at the ramp.

For spinning rod, light line, light wire hook, finesse drop shotting...1/4 oz is my go to size, unless it's windy, then I bump it up to 3/8's oz. If I am doing a "drift and drag" with a drop shot..I use 1/2 oz. Power shotting, I use 1/2 oz. most of the time, but have gone up to 1oz. depending on the cover and/or wind conditions.

I will be 42 when tournament season rolls around in 2018. I have had enough. For 10+ years I have fished just about every open team tournament that has been on my home lake. And quite a few on other area lakes as well. Have won a lot, cashed a lot more. I have nothing to prove, and I just don't enjoy the grind of it anymore. I have given up running team opens, and evening tournaments. Someone else's turn. From now on, I will only be running my "single angler" opens. These are cheap, low stress, and low turnout. Usually it's an 8-12 boat field with my close friends and guys I know/trust well. Most of whom are all great anglers so the comp. level is still challenging. It's kinda like club fishing. I hold one or two a month, bouncing between Silver and Conesus, and I hold them on weekdays, or on weekends later in the season when boat traffic is gone. I will pick and choose my spots for any and all future team opens I fish from now on. And I will only do so as the non-boater. My boat is getting long in the tooth, and I just don't enjoy having to be there if I don't want to any more.