Stoneroller

http://www.wired.com...s-bee-collapse/ the soybean field could be destroying your hive.

bluegill will move offshore into deeper water during warmer weather. redear inhabit deeper water all the time. so it's always possible to get nibblers. something I didn't think about before but it could also be crayfish feeding on the stink bait. Try suspending it about a foot or more off the bottom with a bobber and see what happens.

rip out your lawn and plant clover

it can help reduce pollen allergies as there is a small amount of pollen in honey. jd I would strongly advise you go with a better foundation system. that looks sketchy to say the least.

I've hooked into a 20lb+carp on my kayak and it had no problem pulling me to deeper water before coming unbuttoned. I'm hoping to replicate that sometime next week. video to follow.

check out the 'calling catfish samurai's' thread. there is an amazing video posted that shows some carp feeding on ground feed and on a baited hook with a couple of variations on the rig. Some really cool stuff!

note how the hook is snelled, which increases the hookup ratio too. WOW that video is awesome. You can see how some of the carp either taste something 'wrong' or can feel or sense the hook and drop the bait. Personally I would not use a 3oz fixed weight like that in anything less than major river flowage. A slip weight of 1oz is more than sufficient in a lake or pond and would allow the angler to feel the pickup of the bait and probably produce more hookups. Note how the mouth of the carp is open all the time when feeding. It doesn't close like a bass or catfish, so if you set the hook, you can easily pull the hook right out of the open mouth. That's why they use that 'hair' rig to suspend the corn away from the hook. some of those fish tried to spit the bait and hooked themselves in doing so.

looks like a female Lepomis macrochirus (bluegill) to me. it's possible it could be a L. symmetricus (bantam sunfish) but the colors on those are usually more muted.

I've read a lot about anglers in europe who say any kind of bitter taste to the bait at all will cause the carp to avoid it. and I wonder why, if a person can catch a carp readily on a fly, are they so tough to get to bite on a hair jig or similar presentation? I suspect they feel the vibration from the tight line during the retrieve as opposed to the more natural presentation of a sinking fly. I see huge carp in some of the lakes I fish, sometimes thinking it's a large rock or log sticking out of the shallows until it spooks and explodes to deeper water. Even the sound of a 1/16oz hair jig lightly hitting the water within 5 feet of them will spook them. And this time of the year it's very common to see massive carp breaching the surface of lakes. I've always wondered exactly what are they doing. Some biologists are convinced they are simply 'having fun'. I have been told many times by old timers, "when you see the carp start jumping, the bass start biting". Anyone else ever heard this?

Ok, lets have it. Your favorite method/recipe for carp bait. Boilies, doughballs, stinkbait, grain mixtures, ground baits, etc. what do you use, how do you make it and how do you use it. Carp are a hugely unappreciated game fish here. I promise any of you lock horns with a 20lb+ carp, you will not look at them as trash fish ever again. Let's spur some interest!

ooooo, big carp! you tie into one of those bad boys and they will break most stuff people use for catfishing. Love catching huge carp. They are a prized game fish in the rest of the world.

I agree a paddle boat is the worst thing you could use. If it's just you, I would lean towards a kayak, but i'm partial to them anyway. no gas cost, no boat registration, you don't need ALL the coast guard safety stuff that a boat requires, no launch fees most places, etc.

Interesting. sounds like smaller fish picking at your bait or line, but if they aren't nibbling the dog, that's kind of odd. could be that they pick up the bait, feel weight and drop it. cats usually aren't that skittish though, that's more like carp behavior. shotgun some different rigs out there and see if any certain rig works better. you have me stumped.

techinically it's a 'borrow' pit. as in, they 'borrowed' the dirt from there for the overpass. but I know exactly what you are talking about, Illinois is full of them along the interstates. There are also quite a few along the levees. Some can be outstanding. others can completely suck. Are you landing any fish? could be full of bullheads that are small enough to eat your dog and not get hooked. I've run into that issue before.

I stopped fishing for cats with trebles under the water. I catch them on topwater with bass baits with trebles, but I only use circle hooks when fishing dip, cut, or live bait subsurface. With a circle hook all you need to do is pick up the rod and hold on, the fish will literally hook its self as it turns to swim away. If you attempt to 'set' the hook it will pull right out of the fish's mouth. It's likely they are feeling the hook or some other part of your rig and dropping the bait. I throw a line out with a team catfish furrythang circle hook and dip bait suspended from a bobber, and another line on a 3 way rig and a cut or live bait suspened less than 1 foot off the bottom. If you don't get bit on your dip bait within 20 minutes, move. Cut/Live bait 30 minutes, move. That can be as simple as casting to a different area or moving entirely depending on where you are set up. Personally I like to set up on a main lake point with a shallow side and a deep side, but a shallow bay is a great 2nd option.

i would have pushed the jerk with the net into the canal for missing my fish on the first pass.

Today was day 1 of ICast 2012. Bagley has taken the show with their reintroduction of many of their classic crankbaits. Coming back are the Balsa B, in 3 sizes and 10 colors, the Small Fry in both balsa panfish and crawfish imitations, and the Kill'r B. Expect to see these baits at your local bps, sometime in late 2014 based on their past track record. =) I'm glad to see some of the older lures coming back. No reason they really should have left other than pro fishing has become a bandwagon jumping game.

I found this picture on a fishing report page that I frequent. Here is the info: Mike Douin and Jeremy Leskovisek caught this Awesome 110.2 pound BlueCat on a whole moon eye in the Alton pool of the Mississippi River 54.5 inches long and 42 inches around. To compare her size just consider Mike is 6´ 8" and Jeremy is 6´ 6" Jeremy says their friend Devon Loftus baited the hook that catch this fish (definitely a team effort)

no swivel. i don't usually use them except on a carolina rig. they tend to gather too much algae.

now you gotta go start a thread about building more trout waters....

if I'm not on the water a minimum of 3 days a week, then I get bored and have to come on here and rant about stuff.

what's odd to me is the stories make it seem like the 'authorities' aren't overly concerned with the source of the electrical shock. Could just be the reporting, but it seems like that might be a priority after a death.

two instances of children dying from 'unknown electrical sources'.... odds on that have got to be astronomical.

Reuters 6:48 p.m. CDT, July 4, 2012 By Tim Ghianni July 4 (Reuters) - A 10-year-old boy was electrocuted and his friend seriously injured on Wednesday when they were shocked after jumping into a lake off a docked houseboat in eastern Tennessee. Five people who tried to aid the children also were shocked in the incident at the German Creek Boat Dock in Bean Station, Tennessee, where two families were celebrating Independence Day on a houseboat on Cherokee Lake, officials said. "People on board the houseboat heard some screams and found the two boys floating in the water, with their life jackets on, unconscious," said Matt Cameron, a spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Bean Station is 45 miles northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee. The second child, who is 11, was flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville by helicopter where he was in serious condition, while the five others were admitted to a hospital in nearby Morristown, Tennessee, officials said. "We're hoping for the best, that's all I can say about it right now," Cameron said of the second child. Power was shut down to the marina where the electrocution occurred and law enforcement and state officials were trying to determine the source of the electricity, Cameron said. (Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville; Editing by David Bailey and Peter Cooney)

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (AP) - Two Missouri children have died after coming into contact with electricity while swimming at the Lake of the Ozarks on the Fourth of July. The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified them as 13-year-old Alexandra Anderson and her 8-year-old brother Brayden, of Ashland. The Patrol says the children were swimming near the 6.5 mile marker in the Gravois Arm of the lake when they were electrocuted by an “unknown source of electricity” just after noon Wednesday. KOLR-TV reports several adults at the scene removed the children from the water and performed CPR until medical crews arrived. The children were taken to an area hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead. "Unknown source of electricy"... that seems rather odd to me.