Friday is looking good. Might try to bail out of work at noon and take the boat out in the afternoon. I imagine the lake will be a mud pit after all this rain.

 Been raining steady for hrs. up here with some heavy still happening now 10:00 pm M/C arm area. Supposed to continue raining till 6:30 am.   Robins gonna be happy tomorrow. A Little Tikes wagon in back yard today was loaded with drowned earth worms. Heading to Pymy on Wednesday with a load of lures smh. 3001 posts, that's more hits than the Great One had in his career. So much could have been accomplished instead of posting that much.    
 
crappy

Windfinder app seems to be pushing the stronger winds on Friday towards dusk.  If it keeps pushing them later, then Friday may end up being a gem.
 
I think you are likely good with a minnow or waxworm under a float.  Roostertails work well to vary up the color options, but if kids are small, not really going to work for them.  Same with the trout magnets or other jigs under a float.  Even a crawler chunk or smaller worm under a float will drive them nuts some days.  Really depends if they are actively biting or not.  Minnows are a great choice for small kids, but may end up wanting to take some home as pets...  We have had many fatheads as pets as well as a stickleback that was in with our fatheads (lived close to a year in a 10 gallon aquarium).  I used to fish NP when my kids were little.  Great lake to fish for 1/2 hour, then run over to the playground, then take a walk or bike ride, then toss a ball or frisbee around. 
 
It takes 15-20 minutes more from the Shaler exit to get to Arthur than it does to get to NP Lake.  Less if McNight Rd is backed up, which it often is.  I find it to be worth the extra time to hit Arthur.  NP is a nice place to take a kayak for a ride and grab dinner and a beverage at the OTB.  MUCH more eye candy at NP Lake than Arthur too.  But also a lot more crowded in general.

Anybody have luck making their own chatterbaits? I ordered some blades on eBay because I have a million bitsy bug jigs and it would be way cheaper to attach blades to some of the jigs I have, rather than spending $5+ each for a bait that I might lose after a few casts. Seems like some jigs work with blades better than others?

Sunday looks great. If you don’t mind your family not talking to you for months!

Porktown
Sunday looks great. If you don’t mind your family not talking to you for months!

Unless you're Orthodox, your Easter is April 24th.

That was always a plus growing up. My father's side were Italian Catholics and I was raised Catholic. My mother's side were Syrian and practiced Middle Eastern Orthodox. 2 Easters was fun.

MyWar
Oof yea, wind forecast for Friday looks terrible. I was thinking about tomorrow too, but I won’t be able to get out of work until 4.

I could shoot over to north park or glade run in the kayak tomorrow after work. Maybe try to grab a few stockies for the freezer, just to get a line wet. A friend of mine has been taking his son to north park and they can’t seem to get on any fish. If I spent an hour or two there I could probably figure out something easy they could do to catch some trout. I haven’t spent a lot of time fishing for stocked trout, but they can’t be that hard to catch, right? Minnow under a bobber or something? That would be easy enough for his kid. There’s also some surprisingly big bass in north park lake.

I’m a little apprehensive about kayaking this early in the year in that cold water though.

Glade is pretty easy to catch some pelletheads. Go down to the dam, use whatever. If there's wind, just throw some Powerbait on the bottom. 
Surprised that you mention they didn't pick up anything from NP. It's packed there, but I've always caught something. Best advice for there is to find a spot that isn't too common. Maybe take a slight walk in the woods and set up some chairs. Less people travel the hillsides, and it's not bad to walk down some of them. 

You're right about the Bass. There's some bruisers in there. I caught a solid 3lber last fall on a Bucca Bull Gill. Lure is so **** pretty, but was 15 bucks or something so I only toss it right on braid. 

MyWar
Yea I caught a few trout late last spring at glade run pitching shiners for bass. Minnows would have been better though, shiners were too big.

I don’t think my buddy really knows what he is doing, and he struggles even more with his kids around because they have such a short attention span.

I’m burning a couple vacation days this week because my girlfriends sister is in town. I might take the kayak to glade run. That little lake is a lot of fun in a kayak. I’ve never tried fishing there from shore. You get spoiled in a kayak because you can just paddle anywhere and get way up in all those trees.

Yeah recently discovered it because I live semi close. I can imagine those trees are insane in the summer. 
Of course, I had only discovered it AFTER buying my boat, so the idea to buy a kayak after throwing down money for a boat was a no go. 

I have seen dudes take 16 ft bass boats there though, running on trolling motors.

The difference in stability and fish-ability in a $300 vs $1000-1200 kayak is worth the extra money.
 
The Old Town Sportsman 106 or Bonafide RS117 will make you wish you didnt buy a $300 yak. My Bonafide still cost a 1/4 of a Hobie.  

pensfan1
Anyone get out today? Ended up a really nice day. I'm to the point where I might not even get out there, besides to run the motor. Walleye opens up in 2 weeks and there's some sub 20FOW I'm dying to get at up North. Stay tuned 😉 😎

When you are getting walleyes in that close, are you mostly fishing first light and last light into the dark? I know the fish can be skittish when its that shallow and the motor is right on top of their heads. I ve been wanting to try it myself with my 16 footer. 

Will Arthur be a zoo this weekend, magic 8 ball says: Outlook Good. 

Hit Moraine yesterday. Zero bites. Lot of carp jumping. Must be soawning. No schools of Alewifes or Stripers spotted......YET....water was 59 degrees.
 

Thinking about taking Maggs out this afternoon. Finally get that motor running, at the least. If we go, we'll probably go hit Muddy Creek. Let yinz know how we do.

We did pretty good today. Was really windy but we stuck it out from 1 to almost 6. We didn't kill any, but we coulda brought home a couple dozen. Launch was a zoo coming in but it's 528 whattya expect. Water temp was up to 61.9 back there. I did see alot of boats lined up on that far shoreline way in the back. I'm not a fan of that real shallow. We stay in those weeds that are in 3 to 4 FOW.