Stocking up for 2011.

2011 is going to be a great year for me in fishing (and in life.. I'm getting married in July!!) So what better than to organize my gear while the ice is still thick on the lakes. I also found some great deals in the offseason that benefited me as well.

Here is some of the new things that I bought:
-Okuma Trio High Speed Spinning Reel
-Abu Garcia Vengeance 7'0 ML Spinning Rod
-Abu Garcia REVO 7.0:1 LH
-St. Croix Premier 6'6MH Casting rod
-NOCS (Solarbat) 1001 Sunglasses
-Berkely HAVOC baits

I bought the Okuma reel and Vengeance rod to use for dropshotting this year. I haven't thrown a drop shot this year so it is going to be a learning experience for me. I figure if i want to do well on Lake Erie then I better get used to fishing it!

*** I will post reviews on these equipment whenever I get out on the boat and use them!***


Now, the past couple years, I have had problems on my small bassboat on storage and organization. I used to keep 2 huge tackleboxes in the middle of my boat. One had all of my hard baits and the other tackle was packed full with soft plastics. This winter I was reading on some forums and I think I found some tricks that will maximize my organization. Here are some things that I have done:
- Buying Sterilite plastic shoe box containers and seperating my soft plastics that way. (I will post pics when I get home.)
- Keeping all of my hooks and sinkers in their original packaging (At the end of the year, my plano box was a rusty mess from all of the corrosion on the hooks and sinkers.
- Cleaning out my storage compartments in my boat and keeping only neccesary equipment in there.
- Creating a storage space underneath of my drivers consol to store my life vests.
- Rigging up a Golden Rule holder and front light holder on the lid of one of my storage compartments.


So I have been busy this offseason. I will post some pictures whenever I get a chance.

Hope for the thaw!!

Peace out
Jimmy

Foster J. Sayers Dam- Howard, PA March 28, 2009

Woo! Today was the first day in 2009 that I was able to finally take my Procraft out on the lake! I woke up at 6am and got the boat ready and hooked up to the GMC Sierra. My buddy, Todd Dobo, arrived at my house and we were on our way.

We got to the lake, Foster J. Sayers Dam in Howard, PA, and quickly unloaded my boat into the water. I must say that both Todd and I did some serious tackle upgrading over the winter season while ice occupied most of the lakes in the area. I was pumped to use my new Abu Garcia Revo STX on my Berkley pro series rod.

After talking to the lady at Jim's Bait Shop and getting the scoop on how the fish were biting, we were suprised that not many people have been bass fishing on Sayers yet this year... Her fish report was that the perch and crappies were biting pretty good. We laughed and joked that it was a good thing we brought our crappie rigs just in case.

It turned out that we wouldn't need them as the bass were hiting just fine. After motoring across the lake we set up on a rocky point where we figured the fish would be pretty shallow this time of year and the big females would be pretty agressive.

NOTE: Earlier in the week I consulted Scott Laukhuff, if you don't know him, you should! He is a Berkley Pro Staffer and is an advisor for us on the Penn State Bass FIshing team. Did I mention he has his own television show? Check him out at centresportsman.com ! Scott gave me some useful information as he is a resident of Howard and does some frequent fishing on the lake. He told me that he has been out on the lake a few times this year and has had some luck. He recommended using a wiggle wart crank bait in the shallow stuff while cranking as slow as possible.

After only about 10 casts I hooked into my first fish of the day. I was using a bright colored crank bait that dives to a maximum depth of about 1 foot. It was a decent first largemouth bass of the year at about 14 inches long. It was my first catch on my new REVO STX and surely not the last! about ten minutes later I hooked into my second bass of the day. It was a 13 inch largemouth and the second bass a pulled off of that point.

After fishing the heck out of that point we trolled up the the lake throwin our crank baits. Todd ended up switching his color as he was throwing a brown colored crayfish crank. He ended up switching to a bright green rebel crankbait. Boy was that a good decision because after a few casts he hooked into freakin toad! after fighting the fish for a little bit he finally landed his personal best fish, a 18 inch 3.5lb smallie. After pumpin some water into the live well and stickin that big ol pig in there he hooked another big bass on his next cast! It ended up being about a 15 inch largemouth. Pretty nice for the first coupe fish of the year Todd!

We trolled up a little bit further and i ended up hooking a pig. It was a big female smallmouth that was 18 inches and 3lbs. By now it was around 9 oclock and it started getting really windy and overcast. we didnt catch another fish the rest of the time and by noon we were off the water.

In all it was a really good first day of the year. I got to use my new REVO STX and got to blow some dust off of the Procraft. Dobo is definatly hooked too and im sure we will be spending alot time this summer out on the lake.



TIGHT LINES!

Useful Information
Location: Foster J. Sayers Dam Howard, PA
Date: March 28th 2009
Air/ Water Temp: 51`air/49` water
Weather: early morning was calm and partly sunny, 9:30 am-noon was windy and overcast. Fish were hooked between 8 and 9:15am.
Total number of Bass caught: 5 ( 3 Largemouth, 2 big Smallies)
Successful arsenal used: Storm Wiggle Wart and Rebel cranks. Both cranks were predominantly chartuese and dive from 0-2ft.
Weapons Used: I used a REVO STX on a Berkley Pro Series rod and a Abu Garcia Cardinal on an Ugly Stick. Todd used a Stratus reel on a Shakespeare spinning rod
all rods and reels were equipped with Suffix monofilament.
Depth of water fished: anywere between 1 and 4 feet of water. Most bass were caught along the banks, 2 of mine were caught halfway to the boat.