Before you know it the summer will be over. Have you taken your kids fishing yet? Some of the best times and best memories will be the time you spent on the water with your children. It is not important how big of fish you catch, but that you catch something to keep their interest. You may want to try for panfish such as perch or bluegills in addition to some walleye or bass fishing. Also take the time to enjoy wildlife such as the loons on the water, an eagle flying overhead, or maybe a deer down by the shoreline getting a drink.

You may have a neighbor or an old friend that because of age and/or health conditions may not be able to fish by themselves anymore. Stop by or give them a call and see if they would like to go fishing with you. The day will come for all of us when we may need someone to go with us in order to launch the boat or help in some way. Maybe someone took the time to take you fishing when you were younger and would just to go fishing with you again while they still can. Time goes by too fast. Don't procrastinate. Do it now!

Talk about what you expect from each other when you get a fish on. Pulling the motors up and getting things out of the way if you have a big one on. How you expect the fish to be netted and who will make the decision when to net the fish. Most of the time this should be the decision of the person playing the fish. Do you plan to net the fish or make a water release? Get the hook removal tools ready. Get the camera ready to take a picture so that if the fish is to be released it does not have to be out of the water very long. Then send us the picture so everyone can enjoy it.

We often fish the most obvious spots on a lake. We look at lake maps and watch where other people fish. We may fish shore lines, around islands, weed beds, sunken bars or other obvious structure. This is always a good place to start when fishing a new body of water. If you like the lake and plan to fish it more often, take the time to learn more about it.

Get a good lake map and study it carefully. Look at the map carefully and try to find other areas that you feel may hold fish. Take the time to survey the lake and mark on the map spots that you will want to check out more thoroughly.

Check the lake structure out thoroughly. Use your depth finder to identify underwater structure. You may want to use marker buoys to locate and learn how the contour of the lake runs. Check out smaller structure such as small clumps of weeds rather than the larger weed beds. Try to find out if there are any fish cribs and where they are located. Find out where the transition areas are between hard and soft bottom. Look for sunken logs or trees, large rocks or boulders, and other areas that might hold bait fish.

Watch birds, bait fish activity on the surface, and other fishermen. If you are fishing for walleyes, watch where the pan fishermen are, not just where other walleye fishermen are. Find out what the main forage base is for the lake and look for bait fish activities on the surface. Watch where the loons are feeding and if they come up with fish after diving.

Some people fish the same spots all year. Learn what places are best at a particular time of the day and year. For example inside weed edges are good in the fall. Most people fish the outside weed edges, not the inside weed edges. As weeds begin to die off in the fall some of the baitfish leave the weeds and locate in other structure such as sunken trees, or suspend in open water.

Changes in water temperature. Inlets or outlets, underwater springs, and river channels may provide different water temperatures. These areas might also provide different oxygen levels at different times of the year as well and hold more fish. If you take the time to learn more about the lake, locate underfished structure, and determine what times of the year these areas are most active, you will increase your fishing success.

1. Use Small Baits - Downsize your tackle in the spring of the year. You can catch fish using larger baits, but you will catch more fish in the spring of the year if you use smaller baits. This is true if you are using live bait or artificial baits.

2. Work Your Bait Slow - Slow down your presentation during the spring of the year. You can catch fish with a faster retrieve, but you will catch more fish with a slower retrieve.

3. Change Your Line - Start out the season with fresh line. You may look at the line and think it is fine, but it will cast better and you will have less problems if you start out with new line. This is especially true when using monofilament.

4. Sharpen Your Hooks - You had all winter to sharpen those hooks. Just when it seemed like winter would last forever, now your finally on the water. If you did not sharpen those hooks last fall or during the winter, spend some time at night and check your hooks to make sure they are sharp. You should be able to hang a hook on your thumbnail and make it stick. If it slides off, it is not sharp enough. Get a good hook file or hook hone.

5. Change With Conditions - Every spring is just a little different. You might not find the fish in the same spot you did last year. Be ready to change and check out other areas until you find the fish. If you keep track of conditions and where you find the fish every year, you will have a much better idea how to make adjustments.

1. Look For the First Green Weeds. In the spring to early summer, I look for the best patches of early spring weed growth. These can be very productive.

2. Try Deeper Water. There is a tendency to fish shallow in the spring of the year. Fishing shallow is always a good place to start out. If you are not having any luck in shallow, try locating fish a little deeper. The crappies stage in deeper water before moving in to spawn. After spawning, many of the larger fish move out deeper. This is true for walleyes.

3. Try Good Looking Spots at Different Times. We often try a spot and after not catching anything we do not come back again. Many times I have come back to spots that I know are good and have limited out after not catching anything the first two or three times I tried it. It is not just knowing where to fish but also when to fish the spots. I have some places that only seem to produce fish when it is raining.

They cost less than any spinner bait case and sizes are available up to a hundred baits.

You've just launched your boat and you are waiting on your partner to park your vehicle when he returns in a panic saying he just locked the keys inside the truck! "No problem" you say as you get your extra set you had hidden in your boat. An extra set of house keys is a good idea also.

To keep from losing your trailer license plates, a visit to the hardware store to pick up a pair of strap hinges is in order. One side to the trailer and the other to your plate lets them swing back and forth when backing into the water or brushing on obstructions without them breaking off. It might just save you a ticket one day also.

Use a clear-plastic packing list envelope to hold your fishing license, boat registration, ect. Stick it to the inside of a boat storage box or rod locker lid to keep it dry but handy

Use it to carry bait, bail out the boat after a rain shower, top off your minnow bucket or livewell with fresh water. Lay your lures in it when spraying it with scent, fill it with concrete to make an anchor, For large fish in rivers, Tie it to your anchor rope to make a maker buoy, untie to fight fish then return to your buoy. This way you don't loose your spot.

Want to make your trolling motor really quiet, remove the prop and fill the hole with Blue RTV or a similar product. Reassemble, let dry and if you ever need to remove it, the RTV comes off the shaft easily (and as an added benefit, it helps keep fishing line from wrapping around the shaft, the leading cause of seal failure!)

Bass have a strong instinct for survival and depend heavily on their senses, sight, smell, and hearing. Bass are nearsighted and will depend heavily on smell and sound for locating food, up close is another story, bass have extremely good close up vision and can scrutinize your poor bait to pieces. Because of the position of the eyes bass have a very wide range of vision, front, back, side down and up. Because of this when the water is clear and flat they can see above the water and are very easily spooked by the un-thinking fisherman.

Small non threatening noises even though an unfamiliar sounds to the bass can pique a bass's curiosity. Surface lures such as the Jitterbug have been slaying bass for decades. Two drawbacks to surface fishing are its addictive, its so invigorating that most anglers don't want to fish any other way, and is confined normally to shallow water when the water is calm. Sound type lures are extremely important to the bass fisherperson, especially in dark or muddy water.

Tired of re applying scent to your worms, take the scent and pour it into your bag of worms

1. Store line in a dark place under moderate temperatures.

2. While fishing, check your line often for nicks and abrasions by running the last several feet of line between your thumb and fingers.

3. Replace the line on each reel when it shows signs of wear. (Buying line in larger spools will avoid waste of excess line left on smaller spools.)

4. Always buy premium line. You get what you pay for! A couple of extra dollars now may save a lot of cursing later.

5. Do not expose line to chemicals such as gasoline, which may cause it to deteriorate.

6. Clip off several inches of line and re tie to the lure frequently, especially when fishing heavy cover or catching fish

Clear or Raining      Red or Blue Crank bait      Medium/Deep Diving

Muddy/Stained      Red or Black Crank bait      Medium/Deep Diving

Always set your reel speed to 5 and your drag at 3

Fish slowly. Give every cast a chance, always remember that as long as the lure is in the water its open game for the fish.

Fish the points. Always pay special attention to points because fish , especially bass, tend to congregate at points.

Know the lake setup. Try to get as much information about the terrain below the surface of the water.

Fish drop-offs. Fish like to sit on drop-offs and on shallow ridges.

Fish heavy cover areas. This includes vegetation, rocks, or just about anything that will provide shade for the bass.

Fishing is at its best in the early morning and the late evening.

Always be as quiet as possible when fishing. Excessive noise tends to spook the fish

Have a second strike rod ready. This is a rod with a different lure. Use when the initial strike is missed because the fish is more likely to take it.

The rubber squeeze type of various colors - pink, green or yellow (You can get these from your local sporting goods store) and cut them to the size of salmon eggs, soak in fish scent, bait your hook with them and go fishing. Remember, these rubber earplugs float! So, set your rig accordingly. Note: Get the fluorescent earplugs. Good Fishing!

In places that get fished a lot, the bass will just set there and watch your bait go by. It is about like the baits that folks throw out to them. Try something "weird" or make something up yourself. Where they get fished heavy, fish can be caught on a bait they ain't seen before.

When you are putting new line on, most people like to put a pencil through the hole in the spool. That works good with a bait casting reel, but it can cause line to twist on spinning reels. When you are putting it on a spinning reel, let the spool lay flat on the floor. That way, the line will come off the spool in the same direction as it is wound on the reel.

When you get a strike, and you go to set the hook, it works a lot better if you use a sideways motion and keep the tip of the rod level with the water. I have seen a lot of people jerk it, and I have done that too, but jerking doesn't set the hook as well.

Did you know that lighter line makes crankbaits run deeper. Ten pound test line will run a couple of feet deeper than 14 pound line using the same bait. Not only that, lighter line spooks fewer fish and you get more strikes on it.

When you are using a trolling motor on a small John boat, dingy or canoe, tie it to something solid in the boat with a rope or light chain so you wont loose it if you accidentally hit something submerged. Everyone has probably forgot to tighten the mounting clamps from time to time.

Two items you should always carry on your boat are Zip-Lock bags and plastic trash bags. If you cut slits for your head and arms trash bags become ponchos or slickers when an unexpected rain come up. When the rain is over, slip it over your wet boat seats. The nice thing about Zip-Lock bags is, they'll keep your wallet dry and safe and, if you leave a little air in the bag, it will float if your boat turns over.

Soft plastic jerk baits and spinning reels don't seem to mix for some people. The problem is, if you don't get the bait rigged just right, they will twist your line. That is bad news if you're using a spinning reel. There is an "easy fix" (I wouldn't have mentioned it if there wasn't). Try rigging a barrel swivel just ahead of the bait. That'll fix it.

When fishing for bass in the early spring and the water temperature is low, and you don't get any hits on the regular bass tackle. Try using smaller lures, dig in you box and get some of those trout spinners out. I have had good luck with the rooster tail, it seems to get there attention when doing else would. Fish it as slow as you can and get ready.