Messages

1

Boating Forum / Re: Minn Kota Talon Stomp Switches

« on: April 26, 2021, 02:14:54 PM »

I am running 2, but even still that shouldnt really have an impact. Not sure why that is. I would get it if 1 remote was doing that, but every remote I have is doing it.

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Boating Forum / Re: Minn Kota Talon Stomp Switches

« on: April 26, 2021, 01:36:14 PM »

How is the battery life on your remotes? When I had the non-bluetooth switches the battery would last for years. I am finding that the battery life on the bluetooth ones only last a couple of trips. Its crazy because I have 3 remotes plus the triangular foot pedal. No matter which one I use it lasts maybe a week or two and its dead. I ended up bulk ordering batteries. How are your holding up?

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The Hawg Forum / Re: cold weather gear

« on: April 08, 2021, 11:00:08 AM »

The other point that was mentioned previously that cant be mentioned enough is how slow you drag these things. I know Bass U had a video with Paul Mueller who is killer with this method (won on Lanier with it) but it is painful to watch because he is just creeping this thing along the bottom.

Also, if you want to try some different swimbaits I am much better now that I was a couple years ago at pouring them. The ones I sent you were from a Reins Rockvibe shad style (cant use their name) mold. I now have Keitech style (cant use their name) molds that I really like.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: cold weather gear

« on: April 08, 2021, 09:02:10 AM »

Or go in the complete opposite direction. I am like the people here and go with a 2.8-3.3. In warmer months I go with 3.8. However, there is a group that has good success chucking the giant swimbaits this time of year. Im not one of them, but this is the time of year you see it work for them.

Also, I know you are fishing swimbaits around weeds. I found myself pulling my hair out rigging them weedless. If you can find clean hard bottom you will likely find that a swimbait jig head really works well. That open hook wont get in in the same places as well, but it hook up more often.

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Lure Making / Re: Breakfast and Baits

« on: February 23, 2021, 06:46:46 PM »

Evergreen is the name of the company that helped design them. That color is "B Hite Delight". Real solid color. Really can't go wrong with it in any situation. 

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Lure Making / Re: Breakfast and Baits

« on: February 23, 2021, 01:15:09 PM »

Hey Metz, what color was that one? Evergreen is the company that helped design it. Im curious if it was green pumpkin since those were ones were the ones that people couldnt get their hands on a couple of years ago. I used to take them and tie in some purple strands on it, but now they have "bama bug" and sprayed grass so I really dont make any modifications. 

For trailers I seldom use paddle tails. I usually use a zako. I have a zako mold, but it does not pour cleanly or easily so I will pour some and supplement that with bought ones. The other option I like is a lake fork magic shad. Those segmented soft swimbaits tend to work well on chatterbaits.

Also, I think the ones I bought that were "home made" they used a split ring that was a little too big. It would get kinked up and I would have to pop it a couple of times a the start of a lot of casts to get it running.

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Lure Making / Re: Breakfast and Baits

« on: February 18, 2021, 09:34:50 AM »

Hate to be that guy, but I really like the jackhammer. I feel like the only objection I ever hear about it is the price. Sure its expensive. However, I dont think there is any dispute about the quality of the product, how it functions, the quality of the components used, etc. I have a statement from Zman in regards to it where they talk about the profit margins on the jackhammer being the lowest of any of their chatterbaits. Simply put, its a quality product. Some of the components of the regular chatterbait (mainly that line tie) scare me.

The main reason I like it so much is that I LOVE to skip them under docks. They skip well, but more importantly they start vibrating right away 100% of the time. Especially when skipping a home made one (or any one connected with a split ring) I find that it doesnt always vibrate right away. Sometimes you got to pop it a couple of times to get it going. I dont want to run the risk of my vibrating jig not working right away wasting a good skip. The home made ones often get twisted up, especially during a skip.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: Who needs Mass anyway.

« on: August 07, 2020, 11:38:23 AM »

I figured you would be pushing for another trip to candyland. Feels like we got some unfinished business there.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: Who needs Mass anyway.

« on: August 06, 2020, 01:49:15 PM »

... the guy who lives on the MA border LOL. Looks like you had a day.


Dont get me wrong, I have had a REALLY good year for fishing where I have fished this year and have honed in a technique I think is just killer. . However, not far from the area you described are fisheries such as Singletary and Webster. Its also nice to be be challenged to fish deep clear water and hone in some tactics that would be suitable on some of the prime fisheries we have in the northeast.

Meanwhile you look at places out on the cape, and western MA and see some high quality smally fisheries. I need that fix. Candlewood is still in play, but it being nearly a 3 hour drive for me day trips are not something I will be doing too often.

In short there are a handful of good fisheries that are within a convenient driving distance that have been completely cutoff this year. For the first half of the year its been only MA residents can launch a boat in MA, and now we cant go in at all. Yeah Im a little salty about it.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: RI Removed from Low Risk COVID List

« on: August 06, 2020, 08:14:11 AM »

So it looks like CT has a caveat for "routine travel and work". The rules they laid out outline 24 hours being a guideline. So it sounds like CT may be OK.

MA doesnt have any caveat for day trips or routine travel. I only fish in CT a few times a year. MA just shutting us out is a killer for me, this after them not allowing us to launch a boat for the first half of the year.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: RI Removed from Low Risk COVID List

« on: August 05, 2020, 09:55:15 AM »

Not seeing that anywhere. Would love to see something that says that. Everything out there states the contrary. The only example relatively close is if you are dropping a kid off at school and leave same day. Everything else simply mentions just entering the state, even if you are a resident. CT is $1000 fine and MA is $500. I want to be sure before I attempt to play dumb. Basically with few exemptions everyone must quarantine in designated quarters and cannot be in a public place (so I cant "quarantine" on my boat). Clearly this was written by larger states where interstate travel is rare.

The exemption list is as follows:

Lower-risk State: This includes individuals coming from a COVID-19 lower-risk state within the United States, as detailed below.
Transitory travel: This includes people who are passing through Massachusetts and permits travelers to drive through the State or to connect to their airplane, bus or train, or to stop at a highway rest stop, but this exception extends only so long as is reasonably required for the traveler to complete their transit, make any necessary airplane, bus, or train connection, or make use of travel services such as at a highway rest stop.
Persons Commuting for Work or School:
Patients Seeking or Receiving Medical Treatment: 
Military Personnel:
Workers Providing Critical Infrastructure Services:

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The Hawg Forum / RI Removed from Low Risk COVID List

« on: August 05, 2020, 09:06:05 AM »

Boy this year has been fun hasnt it? So effective 8/7 we now cant travel to CT or MA without a negative test or 14 day quarantine. What a great year.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: Anyone catching big fish in this heat?

« on: July 29, 2020, 07:28:48 AM »

Ive gotten a few good ones over the past week+.

@metz12 I got a couple more good ones locally on that bait I was using.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: Combatting tough fisheries

« on: July 07, 2020, 10:40:27 AM »

So yes, time on the lake is the number 1 way to learn, along with trying new things. However, I think this topic came up because of a tournament he had to fish recently. If its a fishery you dont enjoy fishing, isnt one close to you, and you only fish it when your trail goes there (and lets say its not very often) then do you spend time on the water to learn it, or do you just grind it out when you have to?

So there are 2 options. Option 1 is to spend as much time on the water as you can trying as many new things as you can until you figure it out, and that may be the right answer... or the alternative is to have a couple of techniques that you are super confident in that you can fall back on and feel like you can grind out a limit no matter where you are. To the contrary of Toadhunter I feel like doing the wrong thing with confidence will have better results than doing the right thing with doubt. I would do my homework, work to figure it out, but if things dont go as planned then go back to the safety net. Its just a question as to when you bail on the plan and when you go to the safety net.  For me that's flipping.  Flipping docks, laydowns,  matted vegetation or visible targets may not be the best answer, but its never the "wrong" answer. Whether its preserving just a day of fun fishing, trying to bring a respectable bag to a weigh in,  or scrounging out some points for AOY, well all have rough days and just have to figure it out.

I think its more important to know your techniques than it is to know the body of water. Fisheries change, conditions change, seasons change. What works this time last year may not work (or as well) this time this year. To expect to know everything about every body of water you fish is just not realistic. I think knowing a handful of techniques inside and out, in what conditions it works best, and being able to adapt is more valuable. Knowing a couple of lakes inside and out is awesome, but we all know that each year there will be a couple of stops on the trails that we are not thrilled with.

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The Hawg Forum / Re: Pre frontal fishing

« on: June 01, 2020, 02:12:38 PM »

Love this conversation because its so hard to predict when it will happen but I think we've all seen it happen. Last fall I think I posted o here that I thought we had one of these days coming but it turned out to be a very good day instead of a memorable day. The couple of times I experienced this it was after longer stretches very vanilla weather. Just days on days of nothing days that met what the season called for and there was an abrupt change.

The most recent was summer of 2018 we planned on heading out on a Saturday and were going to cancel it. The weather forecast called for heavy rains, heavy winds. We looked at the hourly forecast and saw it shouldn't hit until late morning. So we figured lets get out there early and we'll be off the water before it gets bad. As we idled to our spot we felt the pressure drop and it suddenly get like 10 degrees cooler. Like a sudden noticeable difference. We absolutely started to pile up quality fish. It was like we could do no wrong. Then our phones started buzzing. TORNADO WARNING IN YOUR AREA. SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. Umm.. we are killing it.. We kind of chuckled but we were still catching quality fish on almost every other cast. Second warning FLASH FLOOD WARNING. We joked "hey no better place to be during a flood than in a boat".. BAHAHAHA.. Keep catching them. 10 minutes later another alert TORNADO WARNING IN YOUR AREA. SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. Thats when we saw lightning in the distance and decided to call it quits. Got to the ramp. Pulled up the boat up. Packed it up and as we pulled out of the parking lot it just started pouring rain and lightning. It was the start of a couple of days of cooler, wetter weather.

So I feel like the points above are right on point. It is long stretches of nothingness but the front needs to be something significant. I feel like the faster and more violent the change in weather the more likely it is to trigger this phenomena. However, once it does hit I do find fishing can be very challenging.