Fishing gurus, experts, or just hacks like me???

[JBlanck]

I just got back from the first real fishing trip in the new boat. The club had an outing on Deer Lake. No trolling but got a couple small ones to slime the boat. Planning on trying to troll a little on Green Bay next month. Otherwise, a couple fall weekends on Vermilion to target some pigs. Still some time before ice so hoping to get out as much as possible. Looking forward to the photos of the pigs from LOTW.

Jeff

[dpear]

Well another classic SoDak waterfowling morning.Instead of kids today,my buddy Argo Man and I took an 89 yr oldtimer.We had a limit of geese and ducks in less than an hour.Old boy(as if I'm young)sat on a bucket and shot his geese but struggled a bit hitting ducks.Great time!
Yeh,Doug,get some big ones!Post some pics as well to keep this place rolling-about the only fishing site I visit anymore.
As to water movement,I troll little so better keep my mouth shut but,especially on the Woods,I'm thinking water movement is what makes many spots 'good' even though we often don't recognize it.Points and saddles for instance.Few would be worth much without it IMO.The movement seems to consistently make those spots 'busy'.
Jeff,congrats on the new boat.Us old guys with older boats could use a ride once in awhile,hint,hint-as long as we fish your spots.

[JBlanck]

dp, the guy you took hunting...was his name Herbert? I've seen a guy named Herbert that reminds me of you so I figured maybe you two got together. Check out some video clips of this guy and let me know if it's your friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QsFYCVjp0M

Your welcome in the boat anytime. The spots we'd fish are all your old spots, though, so don't hold that against me.

Good luck in your "off season".

Jeff

[fishwizard]

I admit I check this site just about daily, and it is too bad that it can often go a week or more without new postings. Especially disappointing knowing the knowledge base that reads and comments on stuff here when anything is posted. Still a great site, no doubt. I'm still holding out hope for a trip to Frankies this fall and would like to have pics of big fall piggies to post. They certainly wouldn't be caught trolling, but fishing the same shorelines and structure, that would be for sure. To each, his own.

Southeast facing rock shelf points with lots of open windblown water surrounding them. Those are definitely some of my favorite spots in the fall.

Until then, I’ll have to occupy myself with watching my Huskers welcome themselves into the B1G with a win over those “stinking Badgers” this weekend. Go Huskers.

Ryan

[dpear]

Doing OK Jeff-slowly.
Was away attending the funeral of a good friends 16 yr old son.Man does that put a lot of things in perspective.On topic,while awaiting the start of services a screen was showing pics of his life and a few were very familiar muskie scenes.A couple were of him holding muskies and if memory serves,I think they were caught on surface baits.Was tough on this old man.More later.

[lambeau]

sad news about your friend's son, Dick, thinking of you and them. Becky attended a wake for a 14-yr-old student on Friday; very sad indeed when someone so young passes.

Erik Jacobson and Brian Hanson of "Just Big Muskies" do some topwater trolling and caught a few nice fish doing it in their most recent video. i think they were using the electric motor and pulling baits on the big flats of Mille Lacs. at the end of the video they say they're willing to talk to anyone who contacts them; info is on their website: http://www.justbigmuskies.com/

some guys around here use standard planer boards to push topwaters up over the milfoil. getting a good hook-set is the trouble of course, though if you're getting strikes that wouldn't happen otherwise it would be worth those misses.

another idea i've heard people try is the "dual fin" planer board. a neat trick with this is the ability to flip it over so it planes in the opposite direction. you can actually get a bait to zig-zag with this, or use it to steer a bait in and out by driving it precisely around pieces of structure. if the bait was relatively close behind this type of board and you held the rod in your hands you might be able to get a good hook-set without much slack line. (this is theory, not first-hand experience for me.) http://www.bulletbobber.com/dualfin.html

[lambeau]

Or how about an adaptation of an umbrella rig, like a wing of top water props trailed by a topraider?

[dpear]

Ryan,
As usual,you are my hero.Thank you.'Gradient' was the thought/word I needed to jump start a stalled mind when trying to think through cold fronts.Good stuff.

[fishwizard]

I'm pretty sure you already know the answer to this, but for the sake of discussion here you go.

There are several parts to this answer, and I don't claim to know them all. Also, not a scientist, so take my answer for what you will.

Moving water is mixing water, and has higher kinetic and internal energy. Yes, "friction" does occur among the H2O molecules, but plays a smaller part in keeping the water from freezing than the mixing with warmer water. Water freezes by convection to the air due to the presence of temperature gradient. Water is cooled by colder air. The colder the air, the larger the gradient, the quicker this occurs. If the water is not moving the surface molecules will be in constant contact with the air and will cool and freeze (stop moving) more quickly. But with moving water the molecules that were on the surface a second ago cooling towards freezing, are now being mixed with warmer molecules below the surface slowing if not mostly undoing the cooling that had occurred from the convection from the air.

Like I said, there is more to it than that, but mixing and "interrupting" the convection occurring is the greatest reason moving water doesn't freeze.

Ryan

[dpear]

When I mentioned creative minds I frankly didn't expect to hear from Jeff but.....
I think we've got this discussion rolling a bit now.I've taken the liberty of contacting Frankies uncle Viktor from 'Badass Baits' about this and he and his staff are on it.Here's a short blip on Viktor and his crew.This shows their seriousness and their 'warm up' activities before starting each shift.
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/leonov.html

[JBlanck]

When I mentioned creative minds I frankly didn't expect to hear from Jeff but.....I wonder what he meant by that...huh.

Tim, that would be fun to cast also. The faster you go the farther to the side it goes. Could be pretty cool. The closest I've come to that concept is while working a Jackpot. You see a weed on the surface that you want to miss and you twitch the Jackpot with your pauses short, loooong, short, loooong, short, loooong and you can let it coast and move it to the side a little. Kind of fun to do when things are slow.

Speaking of slow...how ya doing dp?

Jeff

[dpear]

One more darn thing-for you scientists.Does moving water resist freezing cause it's warmer?Friction?

[dpear]

This goes into the 'for what it's worth' bucket.
Yesterday I had a long but interesting discussion with a friend I hadn't talked to in quite awhile.This guy is 'A' rated and spends most of his time fishing 'gin bottles'(clear 'trout' type waters).The subject of LOTWs and increasing water clarity came up and the discussion got very interesting.Again,for what it's worth,here's a couple points we agreed on if the clarity trend continues:
1.Trout water tactics(depth,lures,structure,weather,'light' conditions etc)will become more important.
2.Secondary and particularly non-traditional structure will become more important.
3.Trolling will become more than just a Fall tactic.A couple things here really got me thinking and now that I have Frankies old Alaskan,complete with top(sun screen),I may have to sit back,sip non alcoholic mint juleps and troll more mid days and during ''high skies'.Not a bad deal for an old man anyway.:-)

[musky1969]

And probably not another musky boat in site!!!!!! The new frontier

[dpear]

Just got to post this.A friend and top notch fisherman recently informed me about a very unique feat.Last saturday he caught a fish in a narrow current channel that measured 48.75 inches.Nice you say but..????

Well he also had caught the same fish in 2010 when she measured 49.25.Again,nice,and perhaps not that unusual right?

But,turns out he caught her in twice in July of 2012,2 days apart,and she measured 50.Now i suspect everyone would agree we are getting a bit unusual correct?

Not really when you consider he also caught her in August of 2013 when she was still 50.

5 times over 6 yrs.In a 100 yd stretch of water.Now we are talking unusual-and a real accomplishment.For man and fish.
All gospel,all fact.Good fishing!

[dpear]

A disease Tim,one that is spreading.

[dpear]

This goes into the 'for what it's worth' bucket.
Yesterday I had a long but interesting discussion with a friend I hadn't talked to in quite awhile.This guy is 'A' rated and spends most of his time fishing 'gin bottles'(clear 'trout' type waters).The subject of LOTWs and increasing water clarity came up and the discussion got very interesting.Again,for what it's worth,here's a couple points we agreed on if the clarity trend continues:
1.Trout water tactics(depth,lures,structure,weather,'light' conditions etc)will become more important.
2.Secondary and particularly non-traditional structure will become more important.
3.Trolling will become more than just a Fall tactic.A couple things here really got me thinking and now that I have Frankies old Alaskan,complete with top(sun screen),I may have to sit back,sip non alcoholic mint juleps and troll more mid days and during ''high skies'.Not a bad deal for an old man anyway.:-)

I knew the above comment was in this thread somewhere.(2008)
Was I right?Ask one of the best Fisherman I know who trolled most of the last few days with success.
Water temps hitting 90 on the surface?Rapid build up in temps as well?
Think about deeper,cooler, current etc.