J Francho

I'm sketchy on gas station ATMs. I know they have cameras, but you never know. They always sit in the back corner of the store, unattended. I prefer to take out cash at the checkout, where the card reader is well attended. Places like Lowe's, CVS, or the grocery store seem safer to me.

I hope for a speedy recovery.

The only thing I need cash for anymore is tipping. Cash is too easy to steal, lose, misplace, etc.

I simply monitor my accounts and have alerts set up for suspicious charges through my banking app. Most often, the bank flags a legitimate purchase, that I simply have to test "OK" back, or they call me directly. Once, a couple years ago, There was one from an out of state business. It was declined, and I got a new card in a few days. I save the tin foil hat for Halloween.

Congrats. Silence is the big plus with them. Also, if you have to launch alone, they are VERY handy. My next boat will have a pair.

When you run the card, it makes an initial charge. When you're done filling, it refunds the initial charge, and charges the amount you actually bought. This is how they prevent someone with only a few dollars on their card limit pumping more than their card limit.

Yes. Why? Because.

USCG has always been pretty transparent with their policies and recommendations. They are first responders, so I would assume hygiene protocols are in place.

Seals and shields are two different things, and many shields should remain in place. I don’t know of too many stock bearings that are sealed. So far, none have had to have their shields removed in order to clean them.

Really cool boat, doesn't do what I need. Maybe if I only fished off shore. It's also over a decade old. I don't want to deal with that twin shaft drive system in winter either.

No, I don't use spinning reels without bails for bass fishing. The reel I've ever seen without a bail was a friend's surfcasting rig, and it had 100# braid on it.

Trying to explain to people that will never have to worry about it, lol.

Yep. Still don't know why you have to flip anything.

Not sure why you have to open and close the roller at all?

The reason bails were removed from surf casting reels was because it would often pop back, mid cast, often jerking the rod, breaking the line with the shock, or even losing or snapping the rod. I manually flip the bail and re-seat the line, so I suppose not having one would matter much. Seating the line on the roller is done without a thought. The bail does help locating the roller before making a cast.

I could have saved my money, and only bought my $30 Popmax for the past three or four years. Seriously. That one bait... I still would have caught plenty of bass.

Yet another discrepancy with my "so called opinion" lol.

Old WWs are legendary. New, meh. If you've messed around with a lot of these, the ones that don't "work right" are the ones you want. If they have a perfect wobble, they're not as desirable.

It has a wide head, so it deflects off rocks better. The faster you reel, the lower the head angle, keeping the hooks from hanging. They transmit a distinctive wiggle. So much so, that I swear I can feel the difference when there is a fish in close pursuit. I've called it so many times, I'm not imagining it. Also, it catches. If they don't look like this after a few hours, you're doing it wrong. https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-s4fmHNk/0/X3/i-s4fmHNk-X3.jpg

Rapala is owned by Sofina. They also own Dannon yogurt, along with many other things.

That's a great video - good ideas. I know I joke around on this thread, but with a chin up bar, and a yoga pad, that video adds plenty of stuff to keep fit. Seems like it's getting more and more important with many of us WFH. Daily exercise was already bad, working in an office. Sitting at home has made it more important to get moving.

Here's where I have to diverge from the "one brand is best" diatribe, I just made, and I can make a pretty good point about variety. When it comes to lipless baits, I cannot find a better bait than the Aruku Shad for the way, and where I fish lipless baits. It does what no other bait in the category can do, and it works right out of the package as well. Another category is poppers. A Megabass Popmax is about all I'll ever use in this category anymore. It's my most productive bait, over everything else. I'm sure I could sub in a G-Splash or similar LC bait for it, but I love my Popmax. Hopefully, this demonstrates to the OP that it's DIFFICULT to ONLY pick one brand. There's usually a few baits from other companies that are in the mix. Can you stick to just Rapala or Boo-Yah, Berkley, Lucky Craft, OSI, MB, or Bandit? Yep. They all have baits in just about every category.

I'm probably almost 80% Lucky Craft already. This is what I'd recommend. I think a bait should be perfect, straight out of the package. No messing with hooks and split rings. Ever change out hooks and split rings on any more than a half dozen baits? It's not easy. I don't think it's weird to want that. Anything else is a compromise - good baits for the price, but... I also want baits that run consistently, from bait to bait. A northern eats my lucky jerkbait, and I want to be able to get another one just like it - just as "lucky." Lucky Craft has done that for me.

I don't use micro guides with a leader.

I took one of those chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, and dipped it in warm peanut butter as my dessert last night. I didn't really feel the extra weight of the peanut butter.