wolc123

As far as surface baits, I am the same way with those weedless frogs. I probably miss 10 for every one that I hook on them. They say the trick is to wait until you feel them before you set the hook. It is easier said than done apparently. I have much better luck working a Zara-Spook along the edge of the weeds in the early morning. Those trebles hook them almost every time. My go-to bait for smallmouths is the bucktail jig. There is no bait that I have more confidence in. The biggest advantage is that they are almost free, since I make my own and only have to pay for the hooks. The clearer the water, the better they work, and the zebra mussels have worked wonders for that. For largemouth, my preference is a big weedless, rubber-skirted jig with a plastic swim bait trailer. That seems to make the big ones hit around docks and so forth. I also like to slow roll a big willow-leaf tandem spinner bait over sunken weedbeds and have a second rod rigged up (or a second fisherman in the boat if possible) with a wacky worm to pick up the followers. I recall my last day on Lake of the Isles in the Thousand Islands last June. We only had a couple hours in the morning and my brother in law scored his limit on the wacky worm, but I picked up the "big bass of the day" on the spinnerbait, doing just that. That one largemouth equalled his three biggest in weight. I went back out to the edge of the shipping lane in the afternoon to complete my limit with (4) smallmouths on bucktail jigs.

My strangest opening day catch happened many years ago, and did not involve bait or even a rod and reel. A couple neighborhood buddies and I drove my pickup, with a rowboat in the back, down to Chataqua lake on the Friday night before opening day. By the time time we got everything packed and drove down there, it was a little after midnight. We tossed the boat in the lake and I hooked my 9-1/2 Evinrude on the back and clamped on some cheap navigation lights. My buddies drove my pickup over to their folks trailer, which was a little way up a creek that led to the lake. The only thing I had in the boat was a 5 gallon bucket with some tools and safety gear in it, and a life preserver. As I headed out across the bay towards the mouth of the creek, I could hear the motor churning up some weeds. Suddenly I heard a loud bang up front, then a series of quieter thumps. I shined a flashlight up there, and noted a 15" smallmouth bass flopping around on the floor of the boat. I dumped the stuff out of the bucket and filled it with water for the bass. My buddies were waiting at the dock when I got there and were quite surprised when I held up the bass, since they knew I had no fishing gear. I have always been a real stickler for the rules, and not knowing for sure if it was "legally" taken, I released it. I can't recall if or what else we caught that weekend, but I will never forget that bass that jumped into my boat.

My wife also does not like tents. A truck camper works ok for us. The pros are: 1) Can tow a boat with it. 2) Can take the camper off and use the truck for other stuff. 3) No registration/inspection required. 4) No wheel bearings or tires. Cons: not much room inside - good for one or two people, three works, but four is too crowded. When the whole family goes, I usually get to stay in a tent while the wife and two girls stay in the camper. What I like best about ours is that the queen sized bed up top is very roomy and comfortable, and the propane heater with fan and thermostat keeps it real nice inside when it is cold outside. My old one had a propane heater but no fan or thermostat. I used it a lot for hunting before I was married and it was always a little too hot or a little too cold inside. My wife also likes the bathroom with portapotty in the new one.

It soaked in good here, just south of the Niagara county line in Erie County. The last two rains missed us clean and even the grass around the house had stopped growing. That rain woke it up again, so I had to cut it this afternoon.

Have you got any good bass recipes ?

After about 2 weeks with no rain, we finally got a good one yesterday morning. I could almost see the corn grow, when the sun came out in the afternoon. I don't know if it will be knee high by the fourth of July but at least it has a chance now. That rain also kept the dust down while mowing the last of my red clover. I managed to get about an acre and half of buckwheat planted in the late afternoon. I would have put more in, but the seed was a lot more expensive than I remembered from the last time we planted it here, more than 30 years ago. A 50 pound bag was $30 this year.

Keep shooting Chef, maybe you will hit something. The pollution is a bigger problem for you folks in the eastern part of the state. I try and stay within the health advisories that are printed in the NYS fishing regulations book, when it comes to eating fish. I actually separate the packages in the freezer, so that my wife and girls can eat the "less polluted" stuff. That means mostly lake Erie and Western fingerlakes stuff for them. As a man over 50, I am in the "low risk" group, so I get the higher-risk Adirondack, Lake Ontario, and St Lawrence stuff that would not be recommended for them. Without a doubt, we would eat a lot more fish, if it were not for these advisories, and I do feel sorry for you folks who are stuck on the "polluted", eastern side of the state.

Thanks Chef, nothing pleases me more than taking shots for my faith in Jesus Christ. I will keep praying that you find some. I am very thankful that this site places no restrictions on religion. Very few pursuits put one in better position to enjoy the blessings of His grace than Hunting and Fishing.

It sounds like you missed this part Chef. I will pray that you pick up on it before it is too late. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Leviticus 11:17 (KJV).

It is good to see you back here Chef. I don't know if there is an "animal heaven", but I am certain that there is a "people Heaven". The Bible very clearly states the way to get there ... Faith in Jesus Christ. If I eat a fish, bird, or animal, and "I am what I eat", then that action would create a shortcut for at least part of that "food" to get into Heaven. I also verified that the cormorant is indeed on the "unclean" list, in the King James version of the Bible, however that is "Old Testament stuff". Because Jesus Christ bore the penalty for all past, present, and future sins of His believers, we can now get away with eating things like pork, cormorants, snakes, etc, and still get into Heaven. Interestingly, modern medicine has also determined that a lot of the stuff on the "unclean" list is really not that good for you. As a chef, I am sure you are aware of that. Two things that are very clearly on the "clean" list, per the Biblical definitions, are deer and bass. There are many examples in the Bible of Jesus providing fish for multitudes of people to eat. One nice thing about the internet and search engines, is that you can quickly find the Bible chapters and verses that contain all this information without reading the whole book. Have you got any good bass recipes ?

Depending on the wind, we will be on Lake Erie, or the Upper Niagara river. The target will be my favorite fish, the smallmouth bass. Hopefully we can find some "good-eaters" in the 12"-16" range. This one, from last time out measured 19-1/2", which was about 1/2" too short to legally keep then and a lot bigger than I like to eat. I wish they would go back to 15" minimum, for that early lake Erie season, like it was for a few years.

Many years ago, when we had cattle on the farm, we fed a lot of red clover, pasture in the summer and hay in the winter. Since the last of them left, more than 30 years ago, I have only planted white clover for the deer. That is until my nephew gave me the bag of red last year. I don't think red clover is a perennial, and it probably does not fix nitrogen as well as white, but if I can kill a button buck on it this fall I sure will plant it again. How well the deer can digest it is not my primary concern. Nothing is tastier or easier for me to digest than a button buck.

Why is everyone picking on FSW ? Someday he might taste a button buck and then he really will have sampled the finer things in life.

That's a good one and from my favorite brewery, but it is a little late in the season for it now. Here is a better one for the summer, and the yellow can goes better with the yellow fish: the

It would be cool if they took out some drag up in the air. I have only experienced that in very short bursts with steelhead.

If they taste anything like the diver ducks then they would not be worth eating. The Bible has a section which tells what type of animals, fish, and birds are best for eating. I think the cormorant is listed as "unclean" and on the "do not eat" list. In China they train them, put bands around their necks, and use them in place of a rod and reel. Just like a coyote, I would only eat one at gunpoint.

I am glad that I was able to put your mind at ease. I do admit that I was very tempted to try and take down a cormorant or two last Sunday. It probably would have been tough to bring one down with the 8 pound test and light action spinning rod that I was using. I think that the NY state DEC should consider some measures for getting them under control. They are also a big problem at my second favorite NY state fishery (the St Lawrence river).

Hopefully it makes tasty deer also. My nephew gave me a bag of some kind of pasture mix that I put in last spring and this year it looks like mostly red clover. I hope the button bucks like it. As you know, antlers don't do a whole lot for me.

The difference is, when a human eats a fish (or deer), that sends them directly to Heaven. The Good Lord created fish and game for man to eat (vegetables are what "real" food eats). He did not make them to be "senselessly maimed", which is what I consider "catch and release" fishing to be. You would be better off playing a fishing video game than doing that. I am sure I will get jumped on for "catching and releasing" a couple dozen bass on that Sunday, but I was targeting walleye and/ or 20" plus bass (legal keepers). One good thing I can say about the cormorants is that they do increase your odds of taking a 20" plus bass in the Buffalo area of lake Erie right now anyway. I believe they will cause the fishery to suffer in the long term though, if they keep eating all the little ones.

The main purpose was not for my enjoyment. That would just be a nice side-benefit. The goal would be to get rid of the bird that is eating the small fish that I would prefer to eat myself. I stopped short of doing it, because I am not sure it would be legal, and I don't like to break the law, and He probably would not like that. It is All about the meat for me, whether we are talking about fish or deer. As a "catch and release guy" I know why you might not get that. Some of us are born killers while others are born fighters (the catch and release folks). I did release that Heron relatively unharmed in Disney world, but I was unable to get my big purple plastic worm off of it's neck before it took off. It was an interesting fight but it ended quick as the 30 pound test on my Garcia Ambassader 5500 with the drag tightened with a pliers brought it right down (I was set up for fishing for largemouth in the weeds). I was just learning to cast at that time and that particular cast went a little too far, wrapping the bait around the Heron's neck. Have you ever caught a bird ?

I am too cheap to use anything but my own hand poured and tied bucktail jigs (all I need to buy is the hooks). Lures and bait is expensive and a pain to deal with. About 20 years, I hooked and lost the largest walleye I ever saw, very close to that round house. That is part of the reason why we went back to that spot on Sunday. We considered trying to hook a cormorant as they swooped overhead last Sunday, so that we could enjoy the "aerial battle". I did that by accident when I was a kid, down at the Disney Fort wilderness campground in Florida, with a Great Blue Heron.

Has anyone else noticed this trend ? We were out last Sunday for about 8 hours and landed about 25 smallmouth bass, the smallest of which was 16" long and the largest 19-1/2". I was hoping for some walleyes and maybe a "keeper" bass (must be over 20" at this time). We started at 7:30 am, off the windmills in about 30 feet. I did see one walleye that looked to be about 18" caught in another boat (there were about 50 out there), but we had no luck in that spot. We moved to Seneca shoal, where there were 5 or 6 boats drifting, but no luck there either and the light East wind died off completely soon after we got there. Next we moved down closer to the mouth of the Niagara, where the river pull was enough to move the boat in the "dead calm" conditions. We started catching bass on nearly every drift, as well as a 26" walleye (the only fish that we kept), a sheephead that probably weighed 10 pounds, and a silver bass that was also quite large for that species. I was thankful for that big walleye, which produced enough meat for my family of four along with leftovers for me at work the next day. The big ones taste a lot better early in the year, before they start suspending under that "zoo-plankton", and the meat takes on that unpleasant flavor. I noticed a ton of cormorants nesting on the "round-house" water intake and the little island between it and Canada. We could smell their crap as it hit the water while we were drifting by and it smelled just like rotten fish. I wonder if that might be where all the small fish have gone. I always liked fishing around Buffalo Harbor on opening weekend of bass season, but that outing convinced me to head further West the this year, where hopefully there will be more of those tasty young 12"-16" bass available.

Yes.