Here is a photo of a little critter I caught on 24 May 2013 on the Ohio river at McAlpine lock and dam area near Louisville,KY.

CPR: catch,photograph,release.

24 May 2013 2.jpg

24 May 2013 3.jpg
Then it's release
24 May 2013 4.jpg

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I'm fishing from a square stern canoe using paddles as power until I get my motor running and I have been trying to troll my local lake in northwestern maine for trout and salmon. I have had a little luck catching brookies up on a really slow stream that feeds the lake trolling with a black and orange wet fly with a little gold spinner on it but it's really too light to troll it on the bigger part of the lake.
My biggest problem is the only bait shop near by that sells anything but worms is only open in the winter for ice fishing. I also have walmart, but I have always been skeptical about anything I buy from walmart, besides for phoebe rigs. Does anyone have any recommendations for me? I don't know if a bigger phoebe would work well in the lake or not.

I know I did see a guy out fishing under power with a small boat and he had (looking from a distance) what appeared to be a bunch of silver dollar sized flashy things on the end of his line. He was also catching lots of fish. Does anyone maybe have an idea of what this was?

last week the temp was in the 70s by day and 50s by night. the last 4 nights it was close to freezing and 50s in the day. went out for the opener friday and couldnt find the fish in the normal places where i fish this time of year. maybe the fish where there and they are just turned off. how long after a cold front should i wait to try again? my sonar is not showing the temp of the water the last time out last year the prop from my electric hit the transducer the water is probably in the low to mid 50s. at this time i fish on a flat of 8 feet or so. one side is a large weed flat and the other steps down into 12 feet and then falls of into 18 to 25 feet. its not a deep lake and mostly sand or mud bottom. one other thing i didnt see any schools of smaller fish like normal. in other years i saw schools of shiners and small bluegills. also i would see pike swirling the surface eating those smaller fish. maybe i need to wait a few more weeks?

Hey gang,
I want to start fishing now that my boat is working pretty good(Thanks to these forums!). What kind of pole/reel would you suggest? I will be fishing mainly smaller freshwater lakes in northern IL, also Springfield, IL...

I havn't been fishing since I was a little kid, and even then it wasn't much. I have seen poles at sprawl mart for like $30. I also saw a couple poles on craigslist for $25 apiece. One was a Shakespeare LX25, the other was a Daiwa 130RL. They look to be the 'open reel' type, if that makes any sense. Are these good poles for $25 apiece? What should I be looking for in a beginner's pole?

I don't know if I should stick with the standard looking reel with the thumb button on the back or what. I think I'll be fishing with a bobber mainly, but the 'lure casting' sounds cool too. I have never done that before, just a bobber line from the shore as a little kid.

What other gear should I get before starting out? Net? Pliers? Filet knife? Hooks, sinkers, bobbers? Bait? Beer?

Also, my boat (14' smokercraft "Big Fisherman") has a live well built in to the bench. It has a hose that runs under the floor out the transom with a small valve at the well. How exactly do I use this to my advantage?

Thanks!

I live in central KY, the water temp is around 63-65 degrees, the outside temp is around 80, but will drop to high 60's. Don't know if any of that is important, what is important is that I want to take my boys aged 13 fishing for crappie, I figure they don't have the patience for bass fishing and I want to get them away from video games and teach them the fundamentals of being environmentally conscious. what do I use to target crappie, baits, live, artifitial, what structures do I look for? basically if you could tell me where to throw my line and what to put on the end would be great. I've caught some before by accident when bass fishing, but have never sat down to fish for crappie. Thanks

I know this sounds stupid to ask but Im technically new to fishing from a boat still. (second season) I was told both that music in boat while trolling some 40 feet deep with downriggers was not going to affect fishing at all. Then was told just the opposite...
What do the iboats community think? Just wanting to catch more salmon this year. :)

Can't take credit for this one, but my brother-in-law and I fished in a little catfish tournament this weekend (not really a tournament, just some guys from his work that got together and had a little private tourney), and one of the guys caught this 76lb-er.

Catfish 001.jpg

Sorry about the crappy pic, but I took it in a hurry when they were moving it from the water to the cooler.

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Hello.

I have a 1993 Lowe deck boat with a leaking rivet. I want to use a 1/4" closed end blind rivet. My problem is this.
I can only find this size rivet with a 1/2" head diameter. The rivet on the boat has a 5/8" head diameter. This
doesn't seam like much until you look at them side by side. The 5/8" head look twice the size. Has anybody used the
smaller head rivet to replace a larger head rivet? Will it work or is there a alternative? Thank you

I ordered a couple of bottles of garlic scent last year, the kind that you can dunk your plastic worms in and tint them different colors. So today I hooked a super salty wacky worm on my hook and dunked the end of it in the garlic. Now I know this garlic is highly concentrated and you don't want to open the bottle in an enclosed space unless you want your sinuses cleaned out. But what amazed me was that after I dunked the end of the worm in the bottle and lifted it back out, the end of the worm was falling apart like it had been dunked in acid. I guess I am going to have to go back through the you tube videos and see which plastics they were using this stuff on.

I just bought a minn kota saltwater series trolling motor. I bought the 60" model just because I'm not sure if I will be getting a bigger boat in a few years or not.
My question is does it matter how deep I let the motor head in the water? Or should I only let it in 12-24 inches like another website suggests?

Thanks in advance.
-Dave