zach

Ronix- for $5 I can tell you where we were casting! Yeah- lucky Kevin, On his first cast ever banged a decent one, six casts later another one. He is the same guy who can shoot a 10pt buck when everyone else sees nothing all day out hunting. Some people are just lucky I guess. Maybe it was his guide? lol. I had to put music over the video b/c I was swearing like a champ. That location has shown me fish consistently for over a dozen years and I have seen some hogs also. Its an sharp inside turn on a weed edge that I bet I have done over a dozen fish on. Almost forgot about that spot, thanks for helping me remember BlueEye! BlueEye, I say do the wine tasting and then go out fishing, lol.

I wouldn't call myself a GURU at all! Last year the small Phantom Softails were hot for me and actually did all my tigers on that one bait and all in the same general area. It seemed as if all the tigers showed up shallow at one time and I was there. It lasted a few weeks and then it was over with low light being the best. The little guys (<30") came in first and the bigger ones followed shortly after. I only go to Conesus if I have a few hours to fish and can't make it to Waneta or I am too poor and don't have much gas $, lol. That's all, nothing special, just did some reading and tried it out. I didn't get any tigers on blades (bucktails or spinnerbaits) which I find weird but they sure did eat up those jerkbaits in shallow (less than 6'). Best luck as I don't think I am going to mess around with them much this year. Being a father to a 3 year old takes up most of my time now. Good fishing and tight lines guys! Read this article!!!!!!!! http://www.fishinfo.com/fishing-article ... _485.shtml This was the article I found and I talked to Tony Grant 2x over the winter at the shows about tigers and this article.

Brad is hot this year! I better steal his drain plug at the ramp so his boat is full of water! Gotta do something to slow him down! Ronix- he'll score his first fish and make it into the $ on his first trip to the lake. Old Man- he is the darkhorse, so we will have to find out? Musky Lips- he may do well now that he is partnering with "The King", they are a match made in heaven . Solgrande- he will only catch one fish, it will be a slob and he will do it while in site of me just to make me pull all my hair out and probably win the thing fishing water I just went over. Nolad and Blueye are becoming Chautauqua veterans so my $ might be on them if its a bait chucking event. Nitro used up all his good luck on Saturday so........ Gonna be fun, I personally hope Lex kicks all you butts and nails a slob right in front of Solgrande to turn the musky world up side down. Once again, I am official net man for her so watch out for the woman, she is good! We are most likely going back down to the South End where her dad and I did a few on Sunday after doing nothing Saturday on Waneta. We did 3 and lost 3 more in a morning of trolling all on bright stuff. Lex and I are capable of doing decent #'s but we never get the big ones when it counts. Best luck to everyone and I hope someone here on LOU gets the winning fish! Remember to save a few bucks for the lure raffle after the tourney!

Who cares as long as we all go fishing right? I fish muskies but I tell you that a big ole walleye is a nice treat when I get them by accident. Fish are for people that can fish- stories are for people who can't. Nitro- why do you have to go stirring the pot?

Nice job!

We need teeth marks! No question about it! Just in- On Tuesday a 48.5" LSC fish just took the lead as biggest so far this year on a bait I made. $9 Bass does it again, I love hearing about fish getting caught on my baits, almost as much I like catching them.

Sounds good Chad- if you need anything before the tourney you know where to find me. Baker Big Fish Bonus- makes me laugh a bit. Larry- sound cool? If so lets promote it up!

Same here Ray! It helps clear things up and keeps others from thinking this or that. I say that the winners have to stand up and describe their pattern a little to get the $$$$$. I would have no issue with doing that myself. Chad- how about this,catch the winner on a bait I made and I will give the winner one of every color I am doing in the smaller size, it works out to a dozen baits for free. It would be worth a couple hundred $'s in baits. I just got a call about a nice 45" Wisconsin fish caught on Sunday on a Black Carp color which beat out a 44" that was caught on Firetiger in May for the biggest this year on my baits. I am getting excited about fishing boys and I always get a kick out of fish being caught on them by other people!

Cool- depending on what I can get done between now and then- I may flood the table with them. It would be good for me to show them to people that may have never seen one.

I will see if I can get a few done for the raffle. As of right now I am all sold out of plugs (good thing) but will do my best. I will try to get at least one 8" bait and a few 5" for the table.

Yeah buddy! Showing those Canadians how to fish! Congrats on winning!

At least your out trying. I am so busy right now it doesn't look like I'll be fishing until the musky opener. Sooner or later you'll get on them Old Man- you always seem to!

Everybody already signed up? I am getting really pumped to get out and fish this. My partner like always is Musky Lex, she loves Chautauqua and fishin' these tournaments! We always have a great time as most people do, unless Solgrande comes into the area you have been fishing for hours and bangs a 45" right in front of you! Some people (me) don't like that stuff (its my turn this year to do that to you ole Bobby Boy!) so you need to quit doing stuff like that so I can have even a better time. Honestly, its a lot of fun to fish these and if you have never done one, go for it! Some of us will be more than happy to point you in the right direction. Cpt Larry- anything going on before or after the tourney?

Those are some nice sizes you got. Make at least an L-turn every single cast. When you get lazy and don't extend your cast into at least the L-turn, thats when the fish always show up.

Hey bud- as soon as the Genny clears up- casting spoons, deep divers or dropping crawfish to the bottom all work. Catch them off the Summerville Pier and have some fun!

Nitro- First off, yes- you are fishing the wrong lake if you want pics like this. Oneida is the best inland lake for walleyes, plus Snagger makes it look easy b/c he is darn good and fishes it a bunch both during winter and summer and knows the game well.

One last bait I re-did for myself and I'll quit. It's a Loch Ness that was beat up. Another perch color .

Thanks guys, I hope someone else makes one and shares it with us. Cpt Larry- thanks very much for hooking me up with Jason Cheney. He is going to order between 50-60 to start with. It helps out big time so big thanks once again! I am really excited to get a bunch of guys using them on Lake St Clair. Ronix- I have some extra perch, walleye and $9 bass if you like those colors? P/m me your address and I will send a few out for you. Once again- big thanks to Cpt Larry for hooking me up with the only musky shop on LSC! If there is anyone else that may want to try a plug- just p/m me as I would love to make one for you. Lots of people to thank so far! Here is a Wiley Fatbody that I have run for the last 5 years that was good to me. I stripped it down, took it all the way to the wood, pulled the old lip out and re-did everything from there. New lip, resealed, new hardware, filled in holes and new paint job. This plug had 1/4" deep holes in it from teeth and hook rash before I cleaned it up. Thanks for letting me share some of these baits with you guys! Zach Baker

I am trying to get a baby sitter for tomorrow. I will need to stay away from all the beer and wine unless someone wants to come pick up my sorry butt. Trying to make it, we'll see?

Sure it would work if the water is clear enough. I have a friend that gets them bass fishing occasionally, he gets them on deep divers if that helps out? Congrats bud!

If I didn't explain something good enough, just ask and I will try to clarify. If you read through what I wrote you may find a trick or two that will help you out along the way. Feel free to add any tricks you have also as I may try it out next time. Thanks for your time once again!

Twisting up your own bucktails for this summer that is. Bucktails are imo the easiest types of lures to make yourself. I have wanted to show this process since talking to Blueye last year and discussing it with him. Chad said it was a decent idea so here it is. I started tying them up at around age 13 or 14 and do a few every year even though I don't use them as much as I should. I haven't bought any new bucktails since, honestly. I have tried to take pics of the process so everyone here can at least make a bait to use. Start with some components like spinner blades, some beads, clevises, wire (.051 or .062), some hackles, marabou, flashabou and tying thread. I usually start by looking at the blades I want to use and then build the bait around that. Here are some supplies I get from lurepartsonline where I get my crankbait materials from. They sell pre-looped wire ends but I ran out so I made a loop in .051 wire for the line tie. I recommend using at least .051 wire for this project. I then stack some blades and clevises on the wire shaft since this will be a double bladed smaller bait for pike and early season muskies. Now we need to do some tying. I tie on the spring coils they sell and I like them best out of everything I have tried. You do need to find some way to hold the coil while you tie though. I make some small bends in a scrap piece of wire to keep the coil from slipping and spinning as you tie it. I put the end of the wire into a fly tying vise I have. You can use anything you can find, some people use bench vises but this is what I already had. Put in vise or anything else that will hold the wire. Wrap from the back forward giving you a good working area but don't wrap all the way to the front of the coil, you may not need the whole coil. I use some flashabou on the back of the tails but feel free to use anything you want. I mix the different colors together before I tie them on. For this one I am using black and perch color flashabou. Tie it in and glue over your wraps. Next I do some hackles to add movement to the bait after the glue dries. I strip off the fuzzy bottom of the hackle before tying in (old fly tying trick) Glue them in and next its time for some marabou. Same trick, strip the ends, this time wet them to keep them somewhat controlled and tie in. Do final wraps, add some whip finishes, slide a plastic bag over the tied coil to keep everything contained and glue to finish it off. I can't take credit for that trick but man oh man does it help! Cut off the part of the coil you don't need, close to the final wraps you just did. Now its time to put it all together after your glue dries. Starting from the blades, I work backwards towards the back of the bait. On this bait I am using 2 blades and it really helps the blades spinning to gently flatten the clevises so they are flat to each other. This helps out big time and gets those blades spinning faster and helps keep you from having to kick start the blades when reeling it in. Add beads, body and then put tied up coil on. After getting the coil on, its back to using the bag trick but this time from the bottom, put the wire through the bag and this will hold the tied coil back so its not in your way anymore. Next we will need some weight to help it cast better and to run faster while not blowing out. Add some lead, how much depends on the size of the bait and how you want it to perform. One good thing about tying on coils is if you want to change anything after giving it a test swim, just cut the wire shaft, make your change and re-wire. After adding weight, make a bend in the bottom giving you about 1/2" to 3/4" of room to finish the bend. Bending from the bottom lets you see how much space you need so the clevises have room in the front. I personally add shrink tubing to the hook and think its helps out. Cut a piece of shrink tube so it fits on the shank of your hook, any bigger and you can't get the wire through the hook eye. Add the hook and heat shrink the tubing. This is where it is nice to have that bag over the hair so it doesn't get in the way and you burn all your hair. Heat your tubing so the hook is always in the correct hooking position. This is how it should look when done shrinking. Take the bag off and tada- you have a homemade bucktail as good as any you can buy! Soon you'll be making your own baits and getting the satisfaction of getting fish on a bait you made yourself for a 1/4 of the price you can buy one for! Who knows where this may lead you. For me, I then starting making a few rough jerkbaits and then it was on to my biggest challenge yet- crankbaits. Crankbaits are tough, time consuming and if you mess up anything, even a little bit, the bait will show you something is wrong first time you use it. Best luck and go make your own lures if you don't already. It took me 15 minutes to do this one and that was taking pics the whole time. Best luck guys, any questions please ask. Once again, this is how I do it. There are a million ways to do it but this works for me after trying just about everyway possible. If anyone makes one for themselves please share! This is a new bait I am messing with. 10" body and 5oz deep diver with a 1/4" lexan lip, 2 line ties and 6 clear coats. I had it out and it swims great all the way up to fast speeds! This is my next project as I am happy with how it performed and the action is different depending on which line tie you use. A fast tighter wiggle to a wider slower wobble! Thanks for your time and I hope at least one person tries this out for themselves! If people like these step by step things, I will do more in the future. Good fishing and even better times out fishing - Zach Baker

That sometimes happens to me. Get a fish right off the bat and then pull pud for the rest of the day, lol.

You guys setting the hooks a few times- that has always given me bad results. Just my opinion. When I used to fish spoons a bunch I had no issues going to a single hook. Tigerhunter- you using braid? If your using braid and a half way sharp hook, imo set once and the fight is on. Personally, I would never set more than once as things happen like ripping a hole too big in their mouth where the hooks can fall out easier or ripping hooks out of a skin hooked fish. Even though they are small now, later in the season some bigger tigers should show up in the shallows. Usually the hooks on those spoons aren't the best- if you having issues try a VMC conecut hook (best big hook they make, imo) or a single siwash and make sure they are sharp, check them all day when fishing and resharpen as needed. Best luck and congrats on banging up the tigers on your lake. Is it only spoons you have trouble hooking up on?