I'm not going to take over this thread, but I do want to reminisce.

The best fishing I have ever done was when I was 10 to 14 with my cousin. We'd stay at my grandmothers, and we had rudimentary gear at best. Regular old Zebcos 33's. We'd dig up a handfull of worms, or catch a half dozen crickets, and walk a mile or two to the pond.

We'd catch bream to start. If it was big, it would go on the home made stringer (thin limb stripped of leaves with a large v left at one end to keep the fish on). If it was small, it became cut bait for catfish, or if it was REALLY small, live bait for bass.

We fished summer after summer without buying lures or store-bought bait. At one point we did get innertubes and converted them to floating....things....which we floated around on and fished areas that were inaccessible otherwise. We'd tie Styrofoam minnow buckets to the side for fish storage. It wasn't unusual for those buckets to tip over and release all the fish we'd caught for supper.

We stirred up snakes, gators and turtles over the years. We got into poison ivy, fire ants, wasp and hornets nests. We got caught in thunderstorms. We didn't catch anything for a week on end. During the slow times, we turned over logs and watched the trees and found out what lived in the woods in this area. To this day, I can identify most of our native birds by sound.

We pissed away a lot of time back then fishing. At the same time, I don't know if we could have spent our time more wisely, and I hope one day my kids can waste time so constructively.

That sounds like a lot of fun and great life experience, Ineedaride, seriously. Kids today could do a whole lot worse than this.

I know these are directed at fishwhen, but im going to give my answers too

Biggest: walleye 7bs northern pike 12 lbs crappie 16 inches catfish: 15lbs largemouth bass 6 lbs smallmouth 5 lbs and many other misc. fish

best tasting: walleye, with crappie coming in a close second

how to cook: deep fry them in a batter called shorelunch. In butter cooked over a fire wrapped in tinfoil is also very good. Some fish like trout, salmon, whitefish are good smoked.


in the boat, prolly about 16+ hours.

If sleeping in the fishhouse in the winter counts, about a week

use the stinkyest bait you can find. for example: buy chicken liver and leave it out in the sun for 24 hours then use it. I'm not kidding

I have a 14foot lund with a 25 horse yamaha. It has plenty of scratches, but it still floats.
I've never fly fished, not really anywhere to do that around here.
I would love to fish in the ocean, the closest I have ever gotten is lake trout fishing on lake superior.
I use live bait mostly and rapala's certain times of the year.
If you smell fish you are not at work, so no.
Beer: well that really depends how much you bring with you.

about the same price here in Minnesota. Slot limits can be a pain, but it keeps breeders in the lake.

you want simple. Slip bobber, jighead, and live bait. Doesn't get much simpler and you will catch fish.

I've only fished cats in rivers. My strategy has been heavy sinker and bait a big plain hook. Toss it out into the current, reel until you line is tight. Prop it up with a stick and let it sit there until your rod stars to bend then set it hard.

Haha, that sounds like my friends. I don't think a full beer ever survived out on those lakes.

I've caught my dog before. I felt really bad.

Where I live you have to drink it just to stay warm

I don't really target bass, but it seems to be effective. yet i still deny

my favorite is a #5 firetiger shadrap deep diver

lol, ive never ran into this problem

you couldn't pay me to do that

a week after I caught my 7 lb walleye, i had one to the surface that was probably twice the size, but my dumbass forgot to bring a net that day. It dove back down to the bottom was coming back up dove again and snapped my line. That one would of gone on the wall forsure.

I've entered ice fishing tourneys, but never in the summer. I would like to. My dad's company sponsored a tourney once and he got to fish with Kent Hrbek all day. I wish I could of gone with.

It really depends on water temperature. Walleye opener is next weekend and I am going to use what I always do in the spring. A lindy rig with minnows, either rainbows or chubs, trolling somewhat fast. I'm a big fan of rapalas the last hour before dark, but not during the day. If minnows are not working, I will use nightcrawlers on a worm harness with a spinner. In the summer once the water warms up, I mostly use leeches with a jighead slow trolling or drifting.
Sometimes none of the above works and I just experiment.





I apologize for all the posts in a row, but I do own this hat



and this shirt

I saw a fishing T-shirt last summer that I appreciated since it was intended to antagonize politically correct, lefty granola crunchers and assorted PETAs, vegans and vegetarians:
"Catch and Fillet."

Biggest for me is Paddlesfish. Many in the 60 to 80 pound range. I had one on last year that I would bet went over 100 pounds. Worst one that got away was actually my sons. We are in the boat (Whole family) just trolling for crappie. He is using his little snoopy pole which is about 2 feet long with crappy line. He hooks into something pretty big and is working it for all he is worth. I notice his line is twisted around the end of his pole, which is hard to explain exactly other than he can still reel in and let line out but it is bound up a bit. Anyway, he gets this walleye to the boat that is 7 pounds if it is an ounce. I grab the net and proceed to botch the net job and walleye breaks line and gets away. Normally I would have been more careful netting, I am actually a pretty good netter, but I knew with the way his line was wrapped around the rodtip this one was getting away soon and I was in a hurry. I still hear about how I botched the net job on that one.

That is a great story and thank you for sharing it! I did a lot of the same things when I was a kid. Digging my own worms, stomping around in the woods, spending day after day after day at the lake catching panfish. That was the life!

I HATE PETA!!! They are a radical lunatic organization and I have zero tolerance or use for them. To me that should stand for "People Eating Tasty Animals"

**** PETA!!!