JimR

Great, thanks.

My boys (9 and 7) are "taking me" to the Apple river on Monday for father's day. Wondering what a good/safe stretch to wade with these guys wood be? Will be camping at the state park. Thanks.

I'd love to do that, but unfortunately I work weekends. I'm planning a mid-week outing. Sturdy boots it is.

I'd love to fish the Apple river this year. Was wondering if anyone hear could give me some pointers on the type of wade I can expect and maybe an example or two of a nice route to take? Thanks in advance.

Had a lot of fun. Definately be back next year.

Fish catchers for sure!

Sounds like I have a great base of information to make my decision on. Thanks for the input guys

Wondering what weight fly rod would be a good all around starter. I fish the Kish mostly for those who are familiar. For those who may not be: It's mostly 10-16 inch smallies with the occasional tank. Pike are plentiful, but seldom (unless your fishing for them) will one over 24" show itself. Lots of white and rock bass. The former scarcley reaching more than 14", and the latter, well, they try hard. I'm thinking 6 or 7 but I will be the quintessential new guy when it comes to this so I need your help. Thanks.

Sounds good!

?

1 up on me Josh. I have not fly fished in 15 years. You said it too with "in the long run". That's what i'm thinking about when I switch away from a proven method. Terry-That's kind of what I do I suppose. With the grub that is. Thanks for the feedback guys.

Allow me to clarify. Have you ever not used a lure that you knew would catch you more fish, maybe lots more fish, just because it was a "child's lure", "cooky cutter", or maybe because you were just so darned determined to prove that you could catch them on something else too? I sure know I have. Mostly probably with the inline spinner. Sometimes I think that I could almost double my numbers if that was all I used. The truth is, it's almost more fun for me to catch few or even no fish while learning to use new techniques than it is to make a million of the exact same cast with the same lure and catch 30 dinks. I have absolutely no disrespect for the in-line spinner (quite the oppositte actually) and especialy not for those who use it almost exclusively. I just cannot however bring myself to believe that that's almost always going to outfish most other lures (for numbers anyway). Now obviously there are exceptions probably from most of you (Eric, John, Norm,etc,etc.) who could tie a shoelace with sparkles to a hook made from bone and catch just as many fish as me with the spinner, but I'll think I'll stick to my mediocre days of pearl grubs, flukes, chug bugs, and Wasshoppers with something new every month. Am I alone in this? Tight lines.

Awesome Tom, great job and "Here here".

Awesome report Terry. I was super bummed I couldn't make it, but glad to see a pretty good outcome. Will there be any more this fall do you think?

I just might be able to make this one. The water felt great last week. Cool for a second the first time in, and not much cooler than the air temp thereafter. It won't be as warm next week but still wet wadeable I would say.

Awesome! Thanks for reporting.

I should be able to make it, maybe even to breakfast. The boys and I will be coming at least, and perhaps even the wife. Will not be able to bring the canoe however sorry.

Good meeting. It's always nice to talk with like minded fisherman. Next is fishing with them.

Sounds good.

We mostly used it along weedlines that dropped from 4 feet to 6-8 feet. Or where he new there were submerged stumps and laydowns (where we may lose a couple). Never used it around riprap or chunk rock because that wasn't where the fish we were trying to catch were.

I guess 36" may be a little long, it looked pretty big when I was 10 years old. One thing he did, was to remove the front treble hook. This helped aleviate some of the tangles.

Not too much of a problem. We used medium light to light action spinning equipment with 6 pound mono. No trolling, reeled in just fast enough to get the crank bait wobbling and just slow enough to keep the weight on the bottom.

All this talk about the Carolina rig got me thinking about something my Grandpa and I use to do in Wisconsin lakes for bull bluegills and slab crappies, that also caught us a lot of bass unintentionally. We use to rig the small Rebel and Bomber crankbaits almost Carolina style with a weight about 24-36 inches up the line that was just enough to sink the crankbait until the weight hit bottom. Steady but slow retrieves to keep the weight on bottom was all it took and it was a deadly quality bait. Not a 100 plus panfish a day style, but the 25 or so you did catch of crappie and gills were usually photo worthy. He would even paint the weights to make it look like the crank was chasing something on bottom. Him and my grandmother use to go to Florida in the winters where he would fish for bass. They use to call him "Indian Joe" because he had a sixth sense when it came to fishing. A story I love is that people use to wait in there boats in the morning for him to show up at the launch so that they could see where his spots were. I owe my passion and most of my knowledge of this sport to him. Anyhow, I was just curious if anyone else had ever used the "Carolina Crank" method before. Thanks. Jim R

Sure can pay off Paul. The CB Slider sounds like just what I'm looking for. I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the replies guys. What a wealth of knowledge. I use fluorocarbon mostly. Mono only on topwater baits. Sand bags? Was that a joke? I'll try some of the things you guys mentioned. I'm also thinking about making some of my own jigs this spring. Well, tight lines everyone, just not the kind that leave you 5 bucks in the hole;)