I have been using 12 lb. stren on my every day casting rod.. I am using 14 Trilene on my baitcaster. But can not cast it good enough to reach back into those lilly pads and pickeral grass. I can only cast it decent with wieght added to it. I do not need any wieght down in there.

No Chuck as a rule I do not eat pickeral. 1) because of all the work to break the bones up so as you can eat it. 2) When I do eat one it is during the winter months when the water is colder. The colder water helps give them a better flavor as well as firms them up more. You are right about the flavor though. They are actually a great tasting fish just to much work to get threw all those bones.

Here are some of the pics I took of the area yesterday. The first 2 is an Eastern Painted turtle ( slider) I saw on land while getting ready to launch the boat.. The rest are of the Maine River and a Bull Moose that had come out in the heath that runs the entire length of the Maine River.. The bull moose stands roughly 7 feet at the shoulder and this shows somewhat how deep that grass is. Also the sun was not in my favor when I took this pisture..




This about what you see when traveling up the river.. The river looks about like this picture here when sitting in the boat..

The sun was not in my favor for this pic..

Thanks for looking! To me this looks something like what it was like the year I was done in Florida and visited Lettuce Park.. That was back in 1991.

Well I just got back from checking my bait trap and I now have a dozen live bait to use.. Hopefully I can locate those big fish in the lake now.. It is going to be sunny with a westerly 5 to 10 mile an hour wind with late afternoon thunder showers. Now if I can get a lunker to bite..