Champ188

Donna and I fished Grand both days this weekend. Didn't catch big numbers either day but size was above average. Would rather not say what lure due to upcoming derbies over there but it had treble hooks.

Reminds me of Larry Nixon's old saying about tournaments .... "Someone's gonna win. Might as well be me." Someone always catches em.

Ron, I wear the original green mirror lens (not the 580s) and love them. Have two pairs (Zane and Brine models) and Donna has a pair of Harpoons, which she also adores. All have held up well except that I dropped my Zanes and broke a lens and crushed my Brines in my jacket pocket, like a numbnuts. Got lenses replaced and was back in business. Can't blame a product or a company when you break it out of abuse. The lenses are glass — you drop them, chances are they will break. They're big boy glasses, not toys.

Very nice fish, Quillback. Congrats.

Very good info and well explained. Thanks, Josh.

I like the Mill Creek idea. Seems centrally located.

Count Donna and I in for sure. And let us know how we can help.

Nice mess of fish, Tightline. Next stop, Crisco Creek. Enjoy.

LOL Thumbs, my driver could sure use some work!

LOL, that goes for all of us Edwin. And yes F&F, that would sure draw some looks in my locale.

Those fishing up the White, the Corps ramp at Eagle Rock and the H Highway ramp inside Baxter were both in good shape last time me and Donna were there. The lake hasn't dropped more than a foot since then.

Have fun, Ultralance and keep at it. You'll catch some. Weather looks promising.

Hey Edwin, when the water gets REALLY cold, I take my putter and a sleeve of balls and practice my putting during pauses. I use the extra pedestal hole in the floor of the boat to practice those devilish 3-footers. When I've holed all 3 balls, I pick up my rod and twitch my bait, then lay it back down and go back to my putting.

Happens to all of us, Quillback. Might've happened to the guy you talked to at the ramp, too, only he wasn't as honest as you about it.

I'm also a fan of the medium power, fast action rods for jerk bait fishing. You want plenty of "give" both when hooking and fighting a jerk bait fish. And dtrs5kprs brings up a good point ... my 6-8 or 10-second pauses are for water temps of 45-50. Below that, you'll want to increase your pause time to 12, 15 even 30 seconds if/when water temps dip down into the 30s. I simply can't pause one any longer than 30 seconds.

Ultralance12, if you want to eliminate the worry about throwing the right bait, here are two that you can throw in full confidence the fish will bite them under just about any conditions. First is the original SPRO McStick 110 in the blue bandit color. Second is the Luck-E-Strike RC Stix in the Pro Blue color. Sprint is telling you right ... get on steeper chunk rock banks and bluff ends, preferably with shade, wind blowing in or both. Throw your bait as faaaaaaarrrrr as you can on 10-pound or even 8-pound line, then reel it down hard for 6-8 turns, finishing with a couple of hard twitches to quickly get the bait to its maximum depth. Then let it sit for 6-8 seconds and twitch it sharply but not too aggressively a couple of times. Wait 6-8 or 10 seconds and twitch it once. Wait 6-8 or 10 seconds and twitch it twice. If you don't get bit in a few minutes, change your cadence up a little. Stick with those two baits and stay within 75 yards of a bluff end or point and I will BET you will start getting bit soon. After that, the confidence will come and you will be another jerk bait addict like the rest of us.

Maybe I'm off base, but it seems a little extreme to me to ask someone to warranty a two-year-old fishing lure. When I buy a TV, computer or microwave, it comes with a one-year warranty unless I choose to pay extra for extended coverage. I can see right now that I'd have never made it as a customer-service rep.

Agreed, Edwin. That ol' Fluke is a proven fish catcher.

dblades is right. You want regular 2D sonar. Both side imaging and down imaging require constant boat movement in order to get a true reading. By nature, they are "scan" units that operate not unlike a CT scanner used for medical purposes. Besides, you won't purchase a side-scan or down-scan unit for $450. I won't go so far as to recommend a certain model because there are folks here who know far more than I about such things.

Soft swimbaits seem to be coming into their own as a wintertime staple. The obvious advantage over a hard jerkbait is they can be rigged weedless and thus worked in and around heavy cover such as cedar thickets. The Keitech Swing Impact and Berkley Split Belly swimbaits are good choices.

Hope you hammer em aarchdale. I have some friends who have been catching limits and then some on Beaver.

This pic may help ....

Good stuff, guys. May try your trick gitnby and see what happens. If it doesn't work, I'll default to wrench's suggestions. I especially like the ones about the tree and the courtesy dock. Sounds like great entertainment.

The balls have probably built up rust on them. Pitch it in the nearest refuse receptacle. You got two years out of it. That's better than some.

Yes, huntest ... go ahead and Texas-rig your worm in normal fashion, then poke the hook on thru the worm completely. Then pinch the worm upward slightly and reinsert just the hook point back into it, making sure the worm still hangs straight. That will give you a bit of weedless protection but will also make it easy to pop the hook home when you get a bite.