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If an angler is missing fish, or just feel taps or bumps, the fish are just bumping or rolling on the lure. The fish has its mouth closed, and often times just bumps or rolls on a lure, to determine if its edible. This is a common occurance with top water lures. Perhaps 65-100lb superbraid would have an effect on a lures running depth. I use 10-30lb Masterbraid, which has neglible effect on a bass lures running depth. I also use 6-8lb Cortlands Endurance supermono. The Subwalk is a derivative of a lure by Lucky Craft. Lucky Craft got national attention, and Rapala jumped on the band wagon with a look-a-like. Common occurance in the fishing tackle market. The Lucky Craft lure has premium grade supersharp hooks, and don't need changing.

Hamlin Lake is quite large. Get a topo map. The NE region/section of the lake (Upper Hamlin), is a smaller section of the entire lake, that has shallow and deep water. This section is much easier to fish than the main lake. You can spend a week here---get familar with it. Pick 4-5 major fishy looking areas---fish each about 30 minutes, if no fish, move to the next spot--- keep moving from spot to spot---and you'll figure out a pattern. Focus on the weed lines (cabbage weeds), in the 8-18fow, next to the shallow sandy areas--- should be your primary target area. LMB, (lots of fish in this region), are moving into the weedy areas. Good Pike population. Great bluegill population. Some great crappie action, can also be had. Walleyes---focus along steeper dropoffs, in the weeds. Perch---in the cabbage weed areas, next to sandy flats. Fathead minnows or small shiners, are most productive. Pencil weed areas for LMB and SMB. SMB move up shallow, before the LMB. The coves and bays, hold a good population of LMB. Resort areas---boat docks hold fish. It may take a day or two, to locate the fish and find the pattern that is most productive. Live Bait: Shiners & crawlers. Too early yet for bottom crawling baits, such as crawfish. Too early yet for leeches---use crawlers---LOTS of crawlers. Artificials: Spinner baits---white/chart. 4" Senko's---watermelon/cream (901), Cinnamin (241), and Green/pumplin (297), and Green pumpkin/green& purple flake (301), are top choices. Stick baits--- Lucky Craft (light colors), or the like. Pike, Musky and walleye action---areas out from the state park sand dune area. Spoons and spinners best for pike and musky. Shiners and crawlers for walleye. Lower Hamlin---SW region, from the cove or bay area, up along Hobby Crest Resort (steep drop off and deep water close to shore here), and NE toward the sandy point. Large weed flats just east of Hobby Crest to the sandy point. Good pike and musky waters---many crappie and bluegills in this area too. Some walleye and SMB here.

and, paint water and trees for a background.

you know several languages??? you're amazing!

over the years, lots of anglers have been edumacated

Looking at the photo, it appears if he told him once, he told him "five" times...

>>>What makes the Subwalk different than other lures is that it is designed to sink to the 2 foot level and no more. <<< ??? I must have one that is inferior--- it only goes down to about 12"

The "Spike-It", I've mentioned above, is for plastics. It's a very thin viscous material, so as to penetrate into plastics materials, such as worms, or the like. Applying it to a hard bait, will only give you light shades, which will be acceptable in most cases. A separate dye material is available--- "Spoons" only---it adheres well to metal. Using it on hard baits will affect the finish, and may render it useless. The chemical reaction will affect most painted finishes. Some dye colors, that you apply, will add shades of colors to hardbaits, which can be a plus. Ex: chart on white---tones down the reflective qualities in white or pearl. I've found this to be advantages, when using in to mimic certain shiners. Permanent markers pens, available in a wide variety of colors, are available. These products, have an odor, when first applied, but wares off after some time. I use these, only on ocassions, but I always apply a scent to the lures, to mask the offended odors. The odors will cause the fish to reject the lures. Works for me.

"Spike-It" dye for plastics, is very handy. Various colors are available, in liquid form in a bottle, and the pencil stick form. I store various color dyes in a tupperware container, along with some Q-Tips. EX White tube with a red head and ''black" eyes. Chart or orange underside on a white tube. Pumpkin tube with chart tipped ends---(crawfish claws have lighter tipped ends). White tube with chart striped sides, and black eyes---(emerald shiner) White tube with green and brown---(mottled crawfish colors). White tube with blue---(shad fall pattern). Pumpkin tube, with chart dyed underside. White tubes are very universal, to make several different colored objects. Also, very handy are white worms, grubs, Senkos, and white skirted jigs. Let your imagination run. I keep a tackle box stocked with several sizes of white tubes--- 1/2", 1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", and 3.5", for a variety of fish species. Works for me.

I have often used spider jigs, dressed with a pork trailer, with the "light colored" underside "up". White jigs and trailers, are very productive. When fishing these lures, I generally swim them with a steady retrieve--- akin to fishing a spinnerbait. It resembles a fleeing baitfish.

Tom Seward, the last I've heard tell, is a lure designer for Worden's Lures. Some avid bass anglers were modifying their favorite lures--- painting various patterns, with a lighter colored top-side and a darker colored underside. The one that I found most productive, was a whitish or pearl top-side and an "orange" underside. It worked well for lmb, smb, pike, and salmon. There are a couple of pearl over orange patterns on todays market. Bomber Lures and Bill Norman Lures, are a couple OEMs, that I recall at this time. Rapala now has a "glass-like" minnow immitators. They feature a light or whitish top side with orange underside. Some anglers use color adhesive backed tape material, on crankbaits, minnow immitator baits and spoons. There are fish scale patterns and several shades available--- in greens, whites, blues---that are really slick. The reflective characteristics are very realistic looking. Spoons with the reflective tapes are very common with Great Lakes anglers, targeting salmon and trout. Some avid walleye anglers, rig a minnow or shiner, on a jig----belly "up". Others rig the minnow or shiner, sideways. I've experimented with the, as mentioned above, on many ocassions, and had successful results.

>>> "Stay away from vanish and floroclear/..."<<< What are the disadvantages? You say pline is good, but stay away from floroclear. ""floroclear is a pline product."" Do you know how many OEM's make the brands you've mentioned? Some companies make one line, with different labels! Some people swear by Stren, and won't buy Trilene. Some people swear by Trilene, and won't use Stren. BOTH are made by the SAME company on the same machines with the same formula. Go figure!

Hope they move the opening back a few years.

Yep---float rods are rigged and ready. When the water is low, take pics of all the structure and obstacles in the water and along that area. When the water is high, those objects are under water, and then you'll know where they're at and the distance from shore/bank. I fish that area, as if there's a fish behind every obstacle. Oh yes, the street drains are under water right now. Locate the drain covers and drains along the street curb, then follow it out toward the river bank. Just lower your bait/lure, and "WALLA" you just may be rewarded with the biggie of the area. PS---there's some larger boulders just out from the shoreline, and scattered. Some of those rocks use to be up on the sloping bank. They were relocated further out, so as to provide resting places for the fish. Fish are using some of the submerged rocks for their nesting spots. I don't wade thru that area, during spawning periods. pss---make a note of "goose poop island". There's a nice channel thru there. Some of the big trees roots are here. I'd suggest you hind behind the big trees when you bait up.

Whats the "density" of the fluro line vs mono that made it sink faster/deeper? Does anyone know the sink rate of fluoro line to mono? Is there published info on that? One can conduct an experiment at home. place a glass beeker 6" dia x 36" long, in an upright position. Fill the beeker with distilled water. Place a coiled section of 10lb line---30ft long, rolled in a 4" dia coil. Place the coiled line on top of the column of water. Measure the time in seconds, with a stop watch, that it takes for the coiled line to reach the bottom of the beeker. Compare the fluro, mono and coplymer results, and make a comparison, and witness for yourself which has a faster fall rate.

Fluoro lines were initially developed as a leaded/tippet material. Following that, someone thought it was a good idea to spool up their casting reels with it. Then followed by installing it on spinning reels. Some have claimed it was less visible to the fish, in clear water. Smaller dia, 2-6lb fluoro line will perform okay on spin reels, however on larger dia spools only. There are many mono and copolymer lines, on todays market, that perform better on spinning reels.

John, I found a couple nice fish in the east side shoreline--- from the bridge on down stream, to the creek mouth. A couple fish looked like they'd not spawned yet.

John, That area by the _ _ _, is not holding fish, this time of year. Prespawn and spawn season is in swing. Focus on slower moving waters, in sandy gravel bottom areas, around rocks and wood. Smallies build their nest/lay their eggs next to an object. Some objects may be as small as a single stick. Keep moving 'til you find fish. When fish are on their beds, they're tough to catch. ===== I drifted that entire west shoreline, from (A) thru (Z), last Thur, after I saw you--- nadda fish caught. Were they there? Yes---but they had lock jaw in that area, at that time. Did well further upstream---wood and rocks.

Down stream of the McHenry Dam.

Wow Jonn, that was awesome! Gotta love those days.

John, It's canoe time---NOW! There are some prime areas, that are not being fished. There's some big'uns in there, those fish need some exercise. They're just laying around and getting fatter. I'm getting to the fish, walking along the shoreline, fishing the structure with long rods. Some of it, you need a small boat or canoe. Stop by the store, I'll mark up your map.

I've cut back already, only going out 3-4 days a week.

Phil, Good tips. The areas you mention are often overlooked or ignored by most wade anglers. They'll prefer to fish the wider areas, with a greater flow. I've found some nice fish holding in such areas. Some have some nice structure, depressions--- on ocassions, I've found lots of fish. One area, I'm quite familiar with, also has plenty of fallen structure, that most anglers avoid--- its full of snags, brush, logs, laydowns, and the like. This area is where the long 10-12ft rod is very handy. "Just reach out, over, and catch something". It's a great area, I generally fish it, when others are suppose to be at work. I avoid it on weekends---don't want to draw attention to this hot spot. Downtown St Charles and the Geneva area, already get lots of attention and they get fished real hard. Gotta find new places that aren't on the internet or haven't been on TV.

$109.99 ??? hmmm--- anyway---still a nice reel for 40 bucks ;-)

Nice reels for $40