Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Last weekend we visited my hometown in NE Ohio, and as usual had the opportunity to fish a private pond and a private lake (the lake I grew up on and hence where I learned to fish).  I'll share the unusual, and thus interesting, results of the trip. The pond is only ~2 acres, but offers fantastic numbers of bass, although we've never caught anything > 3 lbs.  We (our two sons and myself) stopped counting after 12 bass.  Most were in the 1 lb range. These are representative.











What was unusual here is the lure our youngest son used to catch all of his bass, it is a custom painted (by him) crankbait (a fat free shad imitation) from Jann's.  Here are some closeups.  I realize he is not catching lunker bass w/ this, and it is a private pond w/ very little fishing pressure, but, it is food for thought the next time you are obsessing (myself included) about the realism of a given lure, or "matching the hatch."






    My step brother and I hit up the lake the next day.  This particular lake was mismanaged recently by an overstocking w/ Northern Pike, to the detriment of all other fish species in the lake, including bass.  Hence, there is a no limit, no release policy in effect for Northerns.  It is also all we caught that morning, two each, these were the largest and weighed 3lbs: a virtual tie.  It was also my step brother's PB overall: it was gratifying to hear him yell when this fish hooked up, and he was shaking after landing it.  We caught them all on lipless cranks: SK red eye shads to be exact.  N. Pike are an excellent fight initially, then they just give up.