zach

earlier in the year i said it was too far. now i have to use my vacation time or lose it before 4/16 and it doesn't sound that far now. planning on leaving most likely saturday/ sunday to go take the ride down to kentucky for the week. sounds like after the bad weather that the temps are headed into the 80's and after talking to people down there it sounds like it could be a great time w/ bigger fish moving into 1-4 feet of water soon with the warm up. what i am looking for is other patterns than rattle baits and jerkbaits unless thats what u should be doing. water isn't too high, water isn't too dark. anyone ever fish it this time of year. anyone ever troll in 4fow? larry, any help?

i think he is a fisherman back home in texas and cetainly seems interested in the mighty muskie.

talked to newman from wbee 92.5 fm and sent him all the links to the opening day tourney. i thought this could give us a huge buzz if he decides to fish with us and talk about it on the radio. this could make it more well known in this area. when speaking to him he said he has time to learn before the tourney date. sounded like he wanted to do it and he liked that $ went towards the fishery. it could also get more hits on this page as i told him about this site and how people talk about all sorts of fishing. hopefully i can get off chads bad side after this

i will be happy to pass on anything i have learned so far.

i love him also, as does my father. what a life he has and he does think outside the box which is awesome. now that we are on that topic did u see where they noticed that a single 10 blade makes more noise than a dub 10? i plan on tying up a few of the single 10's after watching that episode, it was gonna be one of my secret weapons at the first tourney but don't tell anyone okay, but now its out so only u and i know right? on the top waters he also said that an un-balanced topwater like a tail prop bait makes a differant sound than a balanced prop bait like a globe. he said that through his experience the unbalanced version of a surface lure is superior most of the time at triggering a predatory response? the creepers also sounded awesome under water, but creepers don't catch any fish (lol). i could never believe how loud a twitched jake could be. made me never want to twitch a rattling bait ever again even though they are a staple for most people. makes me want a silent version. larry is the man b/c he thinks and doesn't just follow.

on the molds i have learned as i went. i have made a one piece mold out of wood and red high temp rtv silicone. i have also made a 2piece mold w/ a split pvc tube and it was tough for me to get that to line up perfect. what sucks is you have to destroy a bait if you dont carve one yourself. i mean u have to pull the lip out of say a tuff shad to get a real mold that u can then add a lip to. i ran outta resin before i really got the hang of it but will get more when my responsibilites as a father lessen. for me on prop baits, when it lands i rip it once or twice pretty hard and then reel pretty steady all the way back with maybe one or two speed ups of the reel not the rod to make it sputter more. good luck on that, my biggest came on chaut opening day like 5 years ago at 2:30am on a topraider (i have wrote about that in the past) and i was half sh*t faced. i have a bunch of baits i have made this winter but am not too sure if i am gonna post pics as i am somewhat self concious of them and dont want any thing negative to affect my new found hobbey but have made a few that seem very worthy to throw. the finishes on them seem tougher than just about any lure i have bought. i tell lex i just want to catch one decent musky on a lure i made. i have always tied flies for flyfishing, made bass jigs, put together fishing rods, tied alot of bucktails and do most of my own archery stuff so i find it only natural to try making musky lures. i got bit by the musky bug when i was 13 (now an ole man at 30) and fished chaut at least 2-3 weekends a month growing up w/ my dad and have made multiple trips to the french river (his pb 52.5"), nippising and one to lac seul. i stopped musky fishing for about 4 years and am now back into it when its not hunting season. so maybe that explains alittle about me and why i do it the hard way some times.

it has the tail of an old mudpuppy from the looks of it. it is made from alumilite products and they sell a kit at dan crafts and things except for the microballons which make it float and u have to order them from the company. legend baits (plows and perchbaits) are resin as are a few others (alley cats). i have some stuff at home and have made a silicone mold of a tuff shad and am doing a perchbait when i have time. neat stuff, if your gonna do this you might as well start pouring plastisol also. on the ohio fishing website, guys have been using these products since late 2008. tigger is the most famous on that site and kicks out amazing lures. what you can so is make a wood body and make a mold of it and pour baits in 25% of the time it takes to make one wood body. the alumnilite is not cheap after u get all the stuff though. best luck and i have seen not only the whopper plopper video but there are a few others on their website.

MIDNIGHT TO 4pm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats what i am talking about! its on! most amazing tourney times i have ever heard of! thanks larry!

i saw on the musky hunter website that in Minnesota they shoot the hell out of these nasty birds by the hundreds. wondering what you guys think about this. in my opinion we should shoot them all. could we even get a season on them?

as a musky fisherman i have t'ed my hooks for years and this year getting ready for trout/salmon trolling i have started t'ing my rapalas and such. i was wondering if other people t there hooks for fish other than muskies?

bob wouldn't just let us go down and fish with out him... my bets are he could be talked into it also. doesn't sound too far. april 1st is the start? thats early!

the good ole bill sandy's chicken. he got more action on that chicken than i did the last time at waneta. lol.

nitro- since cave run is alittle too far for me this year (sounds so tempting, throwing rattlebaits back in the hollars crash style). i think i would like to take that pa trip also. if you want another boat trying to figure things out w/ you pm me and its on. i got the fever, never went away.

this winter i have been making some musky baits and i reliezed i have never given the "pikie" style plugs their fair shot. i have made 6 in different lengths (7"-11") but was wondering what peoples experiences with them have been. i made them with the idea of trolling them. going old school making pikies... is it worth it? let me know, they look neat. what is your thought on the metal lip? will it attract fish or scare them away with that shine?

bob- remember, all i run is x-raps... and cut everyone off on their trolling passes with huge planer boards on the smallest lake on a busy saturday running 8 lines while u are running 2! can't wait until summer again having fun w/ "the king of waneta". "the king of waneta" has caught some skies on big nk spoons when he was forced to take the bunker or gold colored x-rap off. god i love rapala's and to take pics of every 24" musky i catch. how many 24"ers can u take a picture of until its no longer cool? i didn't even get one that small this year, but i also run lures bigger than 4". oh wait... i got a 54" in july. didn't measured it on a tape but it was 54". that 54" out of waneta was just as big as that supposed 54" out of chautaqua this year. can i get one of those measuring tapes for this year that they have, i might do better in the tourney's then. lmao!

when i did cast last year thats what i threw the most of and 0 fish on the dub's. still open minded to them but bill sandy makes it look to easy. maybe if we all fished lake of the woods... plus they're a pain in the a** to burn and thats how i fish them the most.

trolling accounted for all my fish, casted for only a short time last year. it was tough to stop trolling cause i was getting em. now i didn't catch a musky under 4mph though.

plus bob doesn't need any more lures. i saw him on the tv show hoarders b/c of his lure addiction.

i know of some nice muskies caught by other people on spoons this summer. never tried them. solgrande got some spoons wet this year for musky, maybe he will post also. spoons at one point were a staple lure on some bodies of water for muskies. thought about it many times but instead picked up a "normal" lure instead. give it a try, i am sure they will hit it if given a chance.

u guys with them rages. i have heard so many horror stories on archerytalk about them i cant let myself try em. they will not go through a shoulder! i know that this isn't our target but sh*t happens some times. i think that the only reason for a mechanical head is for someone that doesn't tune their bow. keep using those rages until u lose your biggest of all time. tune your bow and shoot a cut on contact head. a cut on contact head takes less than 3lbs of pressure to push through a deer skin, compared to over 30lbs of pressure to get a "bone splitting" tocar tip through. take your bath room scale and a deer hide and try it for yourself if you dont believe me. get good front of center weight and tune your bow and "most" heads will fly correct. i shoot over 300fps w/ my elite bow and carbon tech arrows and get montecs to fly right everytime. nothing to fail on a one piece head and easy to resharpen. have killed one bear and 5 deer with the same head. cant beat that. slick tricks gave me about 4" of penetration on a big illinois buck quartering away and i soon gave them up after finding that a broken blade cost me all that penetration. just my 2 cents. i have strayed from montecs 2x only to come back.

we dont talk about coopers on here. ice is always crappy w/ water on top and channel is unsafe.

the pike can be easier caught in my opinion. from what i have heard some monster skies get sighted in those bays in the spring but from what hear they leave soon after the spawn and head to the deep water. good luck though.

right on if he was caught. looks damn proud of himself in that pic also. i will second larry. scum bag!

man oh man those are some nice ones- lets get this guy!!!!!

thanks for the paypal link!