ww2farmer

Since last report...all on Silver: Sat. night: Took the kids out for Rock Bass destruction, 2015. We all tossed KVD 1.0's at the bank/around docks. And 100's of rock bass were caught. As well as a few decent SM and LM Sunday: I was out for 14+ hours....6am to 8pm. Morning was looking at smallies on beds lots of action, no hogs though. Afternoon the largemouth were on fire, 25+ keepers caught lots of 2.5-3.5lb fish, with the best five a 4-9, 4-5, 4-4,4-3, and another 4-3 Tuesday morning before work:....not bad, 6 decent largemouth in 3 hours. All three lb clones, except a 4-12 as the big one of the morning.

Depends.Every lure in the boat is effective at times on a weed "edge". It don't matter if that edge is in 2, 5, 8, 11 or 15 feet of water. In my home lake, we get a deep edge of milfoil in the summer at 10-12' fow, a "transition" edge in 5-6' fow where the milfoil turns to eel grass, and an inside edge in 1-2' FOW between the eel grass and the bank. Plus many "false" edges where docks, anti- weed mats, under water objects, etc... prevent weed growth. I fish all these edges with the same style of baits, and adjust presentation methods, fall rate, etc... as I get a "feel" for what's going on that day. The baits that are my bread and butter on all of those edges, year round, are a texas rigged beaver style creature bait (or the same creature bait as a trailer on a jig if the water is a little stained) and 5" stick bait on multiple riggings, with weighted wacky getting the nod most of the time. I also crank, swim jig, c-rig, etc... but day in day out, the t-rigged creature, and weighted 5" wacky rigged stick are my go to stuff.

I have never been worn out from a day of square billing, lipless cranking, easy pulling stuff like wiggle warts, etc....but a long day of walking a frog, fishing a jerkbait,or pulling a 5xd/6xd has made my feel like I had my ash whooped with belts, even on gear designed to do such things.

At any given time my hands will have:sunscreen, diesel fuel, gasoline, grease, various oils (motor, hydraulic, gear,etc...),cow manure, dirt, and god knows what else....I catch fish just fine.

Been out three times since last report Monday night:.... Meh, limit of 14" largemouth and a 3lb smallmouth, no real excitement. Tuesday for about three hours in the afternoon in mega winds.....decent. A limit of 3lb largemouth and a 4-4 largemouth for big fish of the day. Last night.... Also decent, not great, but not bad. A limit of keeper smallmouth with a 3.5,and a 4.5lber as the highlights. Plus another limit of keeper sized largemouth with a 4lber and a 3lber as the big fish with them.

Daiwa Exceler can be found nib all day, every day on eBay for $60 with free shipping. I have multiples as well as a few near identical Lexa's, and I prefer, for some strange reason, the Exelers

For my 1.5's I use my jerkbait and top water rod. A 6'6" M Lightning rod shock, Daiwa Exceler 6.3:1 w/20 lb braid and a 10/12/15 lb test fluoro leader. For my 2.5's, I use my frog, spinnerbait,chatter bait, swimjig, buzzbait rod. A 7' MH Lightning rod shock, with a Daiwa Exceler 7.3:1 w/50 lb braid, and a 15/17/20 lb fluoro leader.

I was on a bird pattern once myself, saw a bird land on a mat, and was immediately engulfed by a bass. OK, I guess it wasn't really a bird pattern, and more of a " they are active under the mat " pattern. The next two hours was good frogging. No fancy "match the hatch" nonsense bird lures needed, I probably could have caught them dragging a hot dog across the mat.

Either you see the same buffoons fishing that I do, or they all have the same story. Only once did I set one of these idiots straight, I caught a decent three lber, and he proclaimed in great jubilation that the fish I caught was bigger than his "8lber" he caught last week. I hung the fish on the scale, trolling motored over to him, and said "sorry to burst your bubble Einstein, but this fish is only 3.5lbs" ....he hufffed away in discomfort, and I was proud of being an a-hole.

My reading comprehension skills are terrible unless it's in my own words lol.

Yup......but... More times than not the best fish the peice of cover has to offer, is right in the thick of it. Only problem is, once you cause a ruckus getting her out, any less dominant fish in and around the cover tend to scatter. The same is true in reverse to a lesser extent. Start yanking the fish off the edges, and the lord of the manner gets edgy. This can work in your favor though. Sometimes it makes them more aggressive when they are on high alert. For me it depends on what kind of fish I am looking for. Need to get a few bites? I work from outside in, need a kicker? I swing for the fences.

I'm not that friendly.

Yup, that's how I do it too.

I have been out 5 times since Ben and I did real well last sunday. All on Silver. The quick re-cap: Tuesday night: BUST!! One Pike and one small keeper LMB to avoid getting skunked. Thursday night: Secret spot #1 (the one we fished in the AM Ben) ON FIRE....30+ fish in 2.5 hours. No hogs, best 5 around 18lbs, but lots of 3lb+ fish. Friday night: Secret spot #2 (the one we fished in the PM Ben) ON FIRE X2....40+ fish in 3 hours, and it was a hog fest. Best five were a 5-4, 4-9, 4-5, 4-4, and 4-2. With oodles of upper 3lb class fish. This spot has def. been hotter this year, In most years, it's about even, with a slight edge to spot #1, but this year, not so. Sat. afternoon/night: The lake itself finally was on fire. Got the smallmouth skunk out of the boat with a trio of fish. Nothing special, a 14"er, a 2lber, and a 3.5lber, but the largemouth bite was insane. I caught over 30, with more than half of them over 4lbs!!!!. This afternoon: my mothers day gift to the wife was to give her the day off and take the kids with me. The rock bass bite was on fire, so that kept the kids busy. Meanwhile the largemouth bite from the day before was not happening. Still a few decent ones made it to the boat, but nothing like yesterday. Kids like secret spot #1 for the scenery, so I went there. Bite was good. In the 1.5 hours I spent there, I put 20 or so fish in the boat.............but they shrank from the last trip. A couple 3lbers was all I could do size wise, and lots of 2lbers. The kids pounded dink bluegills there, and even got a few bass as well.

Erie in a kayak??? I can't think of a worse idea.

54-63 depending on location.

We put an end to that today, now didn't we? LOL Ben came down and fished all day with me on Silver, and by all day I mean ALL FREAKING DAY!! LOL.We were on the water by 6:30am, and fished till 6:30pm. Now, you may ask, why would these two fools fish for 12 hours..........well because it was pretty decent. We did things a little different today than our trip last year, and photo's were forbidden due to the "secret locations" I was showing off, but by the end of the day, I would say roughly between us, 50+ largemouth were boated on numerous baits. Only one pike and one smallmouth visited us, but the largemouth were plenty willing. No super hogs but each of us boated a couple mid to upper 4lb fish, and small keepers up to 2.5 were abudant, and we probably each caught 2 limits worth of 3-4lb range fish. Frogs, wacky-rigs, swim-jigs, and flipping craws/creature baits were the best producing baits today. With a couple more cranking. Suspending jerkbaits, and wobble head jigs hauled water. Which was a bummer, but oh well, we still caught them plenty of other ways.

I remember where, and about when I caught it. Size??? It was a bass which seemed like a monster compared to the bluegills and other panfish I was catching, when in all reality, it was probably just a small 12" fish. I do remember the first big one I caught. Conesus lake, opening day of pike/walleye season in 1990 while drowning shiners under a bobber for pike. We had no scale, just a ruler, and it was over 20" long.

Varies by style Squarebills: bluegill Lipless: Red craw Mid + deep depth: chart.sexy shad.

As main line, no. As leader material, yes.

I got out for a few hours yesterday afternoon, during the "warmest" part of the day. It wasn't on fire, but it didn't suck, despite my thinking it would with this nice winter weather we have returned to this week. In about 3 hours worth of fishing, a dozen or so largemouth and I visited each other, no hogs today...they ranged from 12" - 3.5lbs. I'll take it for a nice 45 degree day with a chilly north wind.

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Strike King and Storm

yup yet oddly enough, the same baits are great at being totally engulfed by things with teeth, that you pray bites you off so you ain't got to go in that cave of razor teeth to get it out, but those are the times when even 4lb line becomes like steel.

They are the only jerkbaits I use anymore. Suspend perfectly, in the "nose down" position with Mustad KVD elite triple grips (the 1x strong, 2x short version). I sold off all my xraps, husky jerks, Clunn jerk baits, etc...once I started using these.