Sk8man

It could be that the concentrations of Zebra Mussels and Quaggas have blocked much of the traditional spawning beds of bass and perch as well in the shallower areas in many places you can't see the bottom itself because they are so thick. They also strain out most if not all of the pyytoplankton that the younger baitfish feed on in shallow so the food sources are scarce to none there and it goes up the food chain.....

Basic question: what kind of gas are you using? Is it ethanol? If the answer is yes it may be your problem it wasn't designed to use it... if it is non-ethanol how old is the gas? Was it "wintered over"? It may have water in it or in the gas line.You may want to check the fuel filter if it has one....it may be more than one issue... You may want to go back to square one with the impeller and check things out again because a hot engine may mean something is plugged there....are you getting a constant stream of water out of the outflow? I know my old 1979 Johnson had an automatic shut off when it overheated to a certain point because algae in the water had blocked the intake and impeller. The engine should not be hot at that point and it should not seize up so I would think that it is either an internal problem such as a gasket leak or malfunction, carburator issue, oil is not getting to the engine, or the water is not cooling the engine because of a blockage of some sort. I would think that given the age of the motor that 50 to 1 may not be enough oil in the mixture either despite it being well "broken in".

It seems to be because they have a little hook on their tail that is not able to adhere to the larger diameter line as long as it is smooth like mono...textured stuff like braid or leadcore is a very different story.....

Good going.....sorry to hear about Rusty's boat these are expensive critters to own aren't they? Good thing that pickerals head wasn't down further

150 ft isn't exactly "close in" its half the length of a football field Right now things will be tough until the water warms up unless you are lucky enough to happen across a pocket of water a few degrees warmer that has a color line....

Hey Abe you're kinda hard on the poor old lakers aren't ya (slime balls)? Enjoyable report....hope we have some sunny warm weather soon to get the water heated up and things moving....

A small black barrel swivel at one end of the leader (and small blackball bearing swivel at the "business" end. You can either keep the swivel you have on there and attach the barrel swivel to that or take it off and tie directly to the barrel swivel at the end of the leader (cleanest option if you don't intend to frequently change setups).

We need some warm sunny days real bad....all these lakes seem to be running colder than normal for this late in April.....

As mentioned above a #3 splitshot placed about 2 ft. above the stickbait will keep it down a couple feet or so and usually will catch grass before it hangs up on the lure as well.

Nothing beats current specific info like Matt provided. Some general things to offer would include this: Run the lightest fluoro leaders you are comfortable with (8-10 lb test if you can) Set your drag to accomodate for the lighter leader and the fact that there is little to no stretch in the fluoro ( it will come from your mono main line though). Run your lines as far back as possible. Vary your speed but keep it on the slow end for bigger browns. Don't use big shiny swivel snaps. If you use one use the smallest possible ball bearing (solid ring) and black. Either tie directly to stickbaits or use duolock snaps or Fast snaps - not swivels. Run s curve patterns when you troll. Occasionally putting it in neutral briefly and then re-engaging (this is often when they will hit (after following the lure). Use your boards to exploit the shoreline and consider using only floater type stickbaits and possibly jointed ones (tolerate speed better too) to run right in very close to shore (so you don't hang up). You may be surprised how close you get them in non-trafficked stretches of water especially early in the day (e.g. at first light).

Welcome! I think you'll enjoy it here ..a lot of really good folks who openly share info...quite refreshing Good luck with the trolling!

:smile:

I've never had much luck reviving big chinook because they fight their heart out and the lactic acid builds up in their system and they are pretty well shot after that fight...

Depending on size of the stickbait....I use one size 3 on the J-9 size Rapala types and two size 4's on the larger stickbaits about 2 ft up from the lure..

Part of your decision will be based on the time of season and particular species sought at that time. For general trout fishing in spring and early summer small to medium spoons are a safe bet. For salmon fishing especially in late summer and fall the larger spoons may be a good bet. In general in Spring 2-3 3/4 inch spoons are good Later late summer and fall if for salmon 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 are the range. Usually I try to match the approximate size of the sawbellies at a given point in time (smaller in spring then getting larger as the season progresses. In the spring for browns spoons at the smaller end run way back are usually more productive

Willing to bet its the bellows very common problem and does exactly what you described

Offshore releases work pretty well too

You could teach your pet monkey to do the updates (they are that easy)

To put it in perspective several hundred pound sharks are caught on 10 pound test line...for fresh water fishing there seems to a lot of "overkill" going on. As long as you have strong enough backing you let the boat and your drag setting do most of the work turning the fish around. I know a lot of folks get "spooked" by a chinook ripping out line and the drag making noise and there is the fear of ripping the hook out of their mouth (more likely with a rainbow though) but tightening down a reel with a 15-20 lb drag with sufficient pound test backing isn't as "dangerous" as alluded to here sometimes.

Nice fish and good report. Let's hope that those boneheads without life jackets on lived to see another day....I strongly suspect that they aren't folks who would be likely to be on here to see the posting....I would think that the rest of us would know better than that ...but...it is always good to have a reminder when you see idiocy in action I was wondering how deep you were getting those fish (below surface)

Nitro is right your chances of catching an "incidental" Muskie in the lake is about zero point crap.....spend your time figuring out the salmon.