Erik's fishing rants

New package inbound! should be here tomorrow. Going to try them out this weekend with my son over at the in-laws lake. Not sure whats in the lake, but I have seen bullheads and snapping turtles, so there has to be something else in there too.

 

Didn't see any of those split rapala's in that pic, but those work far better than them. Those yakami mag lip flat fish are even more deadly.

 

Ill have to grab some of those on the next order.

 

Looks like my new baits may not be showing up today they are not listed as "out for delivery" yet, but at least they are in my state.

UPDATE: fedex just updated the delivery time to tomorrow.... makes me sad, but Ill be home most of the day tomorrow anyways.

 

Got 13 of the 14 rapalas I ordered. the bottom left (floaters), bottom right (UL shads) and a couple of CD1s. Need a few more of the 2 inch, and 1 more berkley shad to finish this box up.

 

From the looks of this your loaded for bear, if fishing for bass or pike. I see you have that nest raider rebel crawfish in there...they are deadly on everything from jumbo yellow perch to large browns. Believe it or not...never caught a bass using it....well make a couple rock bass back in the day.

 

Hoping that I can pack enough gear into such a small bag will give me a ton more options when it comes to what fish I catch. I do think I might need to get a few more pike lures though, but time will tell if they want to hit some of those big fat hard baits in the other box.

 

tying on lures in a bobbing kayak, in the wind sucks. personally, I loath changing rigs.

I'd have a meltdown if I carried as many crank baits you have. I actually do not like fishing crankbaits. its is better throwing them with a crank bait rod (fiberglass), but with my rods, it is not a pleasure. I bring 6 crank baits with me.

 

I usually have 4 rods with me, if I will be changing alot then I will have a snap clip tied on the line to make it easy. But I usually start with a soft plastic lure, then go to the crank baits... spinner baits are something I normally dont use.

 

I'd agree, but i started out back in the day the same way till experimenting what crank baits work best in certain lakes in certain conditions...not all lakes are similar. Once you know what these fish primary feed on as the season wears on, you get a feeling just what baits you need to mimic, and carry with you. Right now i use about a 1/2 dozen of my favorite crank baits for all the various fish in my lake here.

 

Spinners seem to work well for rainbow trout as long as you can mimic the spinner to what their feeding on. Panther martin has a large selection that work best for me. I've caught many beautiful rainbows using them while browns hardly touch them.

 

Grabbed the final reel I needed for my baitcasters, now all my rods have a reel on them. I picked up a abu silver max to put onto my pistol grip rod, then moved the reel from the pistol grip over to my 7 foot. I like the "rocket clutch" button, it allows me to close the bail with a single button instead of having to start reeling in.

Also grabbed a few more baits and some more line. Ive got enough stuff to take the whole neighborhood on a fishing trip.

 

I do a lot of trolling, some of my bait casting reels have color coded leaded line, others have odo's so i know every time how much monofilament line to spool out.
As far as the boat, amount of gear, and all related....wife complains i shouldn't just bought the local fish market here.

 

Thinking of replacing my current ultra light setup. Its a ugly stik gx2 combo, 4f6in. Works well, but I want something a little more sensitive. So, I have a st croix premier ultra light 5f and pfluger president 20 series in my cart (along with some 6lb mono) I really enjoy how easy it is to chuck the lighter baits I am using right now with the ultra lights. Just need the IRS to hurry up and deposit my refund.

 

Not sure what your fishing for or if still fishing, or type trolling. For decent size trout and kokanee i use okuma rods that are 7' light power with moderate action when trolling with 6 lb test...they perform great. Doing fishing trips in quebec for speckle brook trout in those back country small streams we use to carry shorter ultra light rods using 4-6 lb test. Lots of fun with those small lively brookies under 10''. When we fished the larger rivers and lakes up there for these 5 lb brook trout we used our regular heavier rods with 10 lb test for pike and walleye. I've found those ugly stick combo's to be more general in their power and action...like one size fits all. Their ok for just about all species fish here, but when your going after kokanee with soft mouths, you want to see the rod action of your spinner, or dodger rig to work well and hookup when they hit.

 

No trolling here, just in the kayak where a shorter rod helps due to space restrictions. But Im fishing usually for what ever bites (sunfish, bass, northern, trout, catfish) I usually only go to one lake to fish, no real monsters in there.

 

I wish many of the lakes here had northern pike. We have white catfish in some lakes, but i have fished for them in many years. We have some trophy size brown bullheads. Yellow, and blue perch are my favorites outside of kokanee. Except for the catfish, and northern pike, its about the same on the lake where i live for those type's of fish. We do have some whopper browns, and decent size 20'' rainbows. Might even get lucky, and hook large slimy pickerel. We got some real chunky rock bass to. Long as its a calm day i've seen a number of kayaker's, and canoe's fishing out on the lake for kokanee, or trout so its fairly popular. I don't think they are that specialized on the gear they use. Seems the best time to fish is on rough days though.

 

Pretty much every lake here has northern, some have musky also. But there are 3 fish that are 100% in any body of water around here - bullhead, sunfish, bass. then there is a 90% chance of there being northern in there too.

Trout are pretty rare though as most of our lakes dont support them, but the lake I fish is spring fed, has perfect water quality, and its deep (70 feet)

 

Same here for the lake i'm on being spring fed and 70' deep in places. State introduced lake trout this year in some of the states area waters....been trying for years to get them to do the same here, or introduce walleyes. Problem is we've had a stable kokanee industry for many years with too much opposition to mess with it.
State already did an experiment introducing monster brown trout from germany. They had stocked alewives by the zillions to keep them fed. Back in the early 2000's you could catch 4-5 lb. browns all day long. Was common to catch one over 10 lbs. Well the kokanee quickly vanished, and many fishermen were pissed, and complained. Around 2010 state terminated the alewives, and the browns slowly starved to death. Still a few big ones to be caught, but very uncommon. Now designated a trout management lake, you can catch some decent rainbows, brookies, and browns throughout the year. If tired of that you have bass some bullhead, and all sorts of sunfish.

 

Well I gave in today, I figure my tax refund should be in my bank by tuesday. So I grabbed a st croix premier 5f6i ultra light and a president 20 size reel. I just spooled it up with some 4lb line I had laying around from my ugly stik ultra light. The st croix is a pleasure to cast with my lighter lures! So smooth, casts nice and far with the light lures too.