sherman brown

are you wanting help on the big water or inland lakes and rivers. i have fished Erie for about 45 yrs. and still haven't learned much. but I have drifted and trolled the western basin but troll the central basin now. it is almost imposable to be of much help without knowing more on where you need help and what you need help with.

i don't have a clue where Westfield is. i do a lot of fishing out of Geneva Ohio the end of July. by this time most of the fish are in their summer pattern. unless someone gives me numbers, I'm going out blind. I'll go straight out to 72 feet of water and fish north unless i have a north wind. then I'll go out close to the border and fish south. i use large spoons on divers to get me down. then I'll run bandit cranks on my 2 downriggers.

i grew up around guns, i hunted squirrels and rabbits all alone from the time i was about 8. i never had a dad to teach me anything about guns or hunting. asi grew up i was safety minded. but joined the marine corps at 21 yrs old and learned so much more about gun safety. but i have took it a step farther with safety. when i started deer hunting with my boys and my brother i hounded them about gun safety. and the last thing i asked them before heading into the woods was what's the most important thing you take with you. they would reply gun safety. we sometimes hunted with a friend that took his 17 or 18 yr old son with us (my nephew) one day i had walked out of the woods and was waiting on my brother when he walked up and started talking. but every time i looked over he had his muzzleloader pointing at my head. i asked him to move it a few times and he did, but after a few minutes it would be pointed at my head again. I got grumpy and told him to move over to my other side. i said don't you know you never point a gun towards anyone. after he moved i noticed his hammer was all the way down on the cap (we were using cap locks) and not on half cock which was the safety on these type guns. i come unglued on him. i raised he** about him not having his gun on safe. he asked what safe, muzzleloaders didn't have a safety. i told him about the half cock being the safety. i asked didn't your dad teach you these things. his dad had hunted all his life. but a few times rabbit hunting i caught the barrel of his shotgun pointing at me. but anyway, the boy answered no his dad just handed him the gun and said go get a deer. so, the age of the hunter isn't near as important as them being taught gun safety. his dad was an unsafe hunter which in turn made his son an unsafe hunter.

when i took my 10 yr old sons in the deer woods here in indiana they were a heck of a lot safer than most adult hunters out there. however, they were accompanied by me until they were 14. we only hunted with shotguns and muzzleloaders. but they had safety pounded in them from the time they were 6. but everyone doesn't stress safety like i did. at 12 they should be allowed to hunt if accompanied by an adult hunter. but this is just my opinion.

is this for 1 rigger? how many do you have?

willows are more speed tolerant than Colorado blades. but i troll at 1.6 to 2.2 and have had great luck using double Colorado harnesses. i start fishing at 1.8 to 2.0 then if i know i'm on fish but not catching them i slow down to 1.6 if that doesn't work i'll speed up to 2.0 to 2.2. but i started out using double willow blades. but as time went on i was doing better with Colorado blades. i was buying all my harnesses from bait shops with a high mark up on price. then i bought a few off eBay that turned out to be gale force tackle when they were just getting started. but now i buy all my harnesses from 2 places, galeforcetackle.com and challengerlures.com and get the 3D worm harness in nuclear green. the gft i love the jawbreaker, but dr death is a close 2nd then reverse muffin has been good but so have several other colors. a lot of my large spoons have came from gft. i troll them around 2.6 to 3.0.

you already have some great suggestions. now just go on the web and type in which one you want to look at first. then check out the recommended sights until you find the best deal. like others i am a diehard Lowrance guy. I've been using the lcx 38c hd for over 20 yrs and it still gets me back home and shows me the fish. I've bought 2 spares off eBay so if mine pukes i'll replace it with the same one. but if i was buying now i would be looking at a hds7. but keep your eyes open for one to pop up for sale on fishing forums where guys upgrade to larger units. buying a hds 7 or bigger you need to find a used one for sale, they are expensive. I just went on line and a refurbished one was still 1099.00

i had geico boat insurance and boat us for towing and trailer assist. i had a outdrive crash and needed a tow at geneva oh. it costed 600.00 and all i did was call boat us and they did the rest, i didnt pay anything. my trailer lost a wheel a few miles south of cincy on I-75 and had road work going on. it was about 10:00 pm and in the middle of nowhere and i didnt know what to do. but then i thought about boatus and called them and it wasnt long until a flatbed wrecker showed up and towed us to there shop. boatus paid for everything. a couple of weeks ago i backed my boat into the pole barn with the brand new tol leaning back on the 2 back posts where on my old top it would lay all the way down. the top hit the pole barn door bending the top beyond use, it tore the connectors out of the boat and the top came around and bent the side window frame and busted the side glass. the adjuster came out and totaled the boat. i received payment about a week later. they gave me the option to buy the boat back for 675.00 and i did. no hassle at all with them. i recommend them both.

oh yeah most people around the central basin uses ch 68 on the radio. but i think some guys use ch 79 i think it is. i go by last chance on ch 68.

it looks like we'll be up there almost the same time. were going up to Geneva on the 24th and hopefully be fishing the 25th. if you need help with something send me a message. and if i can help i will help. good fishing.

you just use the tools to get you down to the fish. dipsy divers, dreamweaver deeper divers, lite bite slide divers, or heavy sinkers like red nek inline 3 oz sinkers will all get you down to the fish. if you've never fished deep water inline boards with 3 oz sinkers is a good place to start. rednekoutfitters.com sells weights and dive charts for there weights. but divers has always been my choice. i went out on a charter that used dipsies for 2 days. the last half of the 2nd day we were running the baits. i recommend going out on a charter that fishes the way you want to fish at least 1 day. you might go out with a charter that runs divers then one the runs boards. but i chose 2 days with divers. in those 2 days we learened more than we would have learned in a couple of years on our own. but we started out running 6 divers on our own. then we switched to the deeper diver to get away from the ring as the deeper diver is the same size as the dipsy with the ring. but then i tried the lite bite and never looked back. i did go out on a charter with boards and weights and they did catch fish.. but i still liked the diver best. better.

i'll be going up to geneva the 24th. right now we plan to start sun with 3 shallow bandits on 3 divers and spoons on the other divers. will run 2 more shallow bandits on the riggers. 2 colors that will get run on the bandits is sunspot and blue & chrome. may try running wire on outriggers but don't know if they will run on outriggers without getting tangled with divers. i answer to last chance on the water. i'll be out the 25th if possible and through fri the 30th. good luck and good fishing.

with the cranks and or big spoons in mid summer heat 2.8 to 3.0 has been our speed. i may not be able to help but if you have questions you can feel free to message me. if i have an answer i'll be glad to share with you.

i personally like to fish bula and conny the start of aug. i don't run bay rats but the color should be the same. i run bandits on lite bite slide divers. i run shallow bandits on my divers and downriggers. i also like large spoons. the colors i like the best for bandits, is blue back chrome belly and sunspot then use whatever color that's getting fish. then i like big spoons from galeforcetackle.com in jawbreaker, dr death, reverse muffin, with plenty of other colors to choose from.

i fish geneva just a few miles east of cleveland. mid july the fishing is usually hot but you need to fish 70'+. the spoon bite with divers are great. but harnesses and cranks are good choices. if you use boards you should get 3 oz inline weights from rebnekoutfitters.com to get down to the fish. but i like divers. i also use downriggers with a 25' lead with shallow bandits. cleveland should be about the same as geneve.

i turn my clicker on and adjust it to where it just lets the line out. if you free spool them out your just asking for it to tangle.

a lot of guys use willow but i bought some colorado blades from galeforcetackle.com and i've had great luck with them. i just picked out the colors i wanted then contacted them and asked them to tie me up some tandem harnesses. dr death, reverse muffin, jawbreaker has been some of my favorite colors.

its the only harness i use any more. better at slower speeds but works at normal speeds also.

where do you get blood worms? don't they cost a lot more than nightcrawlers?