J Francho

Congrats, Brian! Helluva fish! So, long arming a fish. It's called Perspective Distortion. I'm a photographer, did so professionally for a number of years, as in earned a very large portion of my living doing it. Long arming alone will not enhance the object in the foreground. You have to be close enough to affect a disproportional ratio between camera to foreground object, and foreground object to background object. This easy to do with a wider angle lens, such as what A-Jay used. If you can get it so the distance between the fish and camera is less than the distance between the fish and the person, the fish will *appear* larger in the frame. In Brian's picture, This isn't the case, and his fish is really about that big. Most camera phones without a zoom use a "normal" focal length lens, or in the world of a full frame dSLR, a 50mm. It has almost no magnification. I'm thinking Brian's was shot with a camera phone. GoPro cameras almost always use a shorter, wide angle focal length. A-Jay's looks like a still capture from a GoPro. That's why you can do the old "knuckle test" and get the results shown above. The perspective distortion is greater on A-Jay's picture than Brian's. And for the record, this not meant to disrespect anyone's catch. Personally, I don't why anyone that has a scale, witnesses, and personal integrity would hold a fish close to their body to satisfy all the people flexing their keyboard muscles that will attempt to discredit the poster. If you really want more on this watching paint dry topic try the wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_(photography) If you want to look at cool pictures, here's me straight arming a 5-12 L. Erie smallmouth. https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-p7TzQPF/0/19da1000/XL/20101113-ErieWithNoel-08-XL.jpg Here's my buddy totally ruining a picture of an 8-5 largemouth by NOT straight arming. https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Fishing-Journal/i-VtpJ3Bv/0/5866312c/XL/IMG_0007-XL.jpg Again, Congrats, Brian. Awesome catch, and thanks for coming up and posting the picture.

You'd have to source out an entire handle assembly that has removable knobs that fits your reel. Not impossible.

Whopper Flopper. I'll be using my typical TW baits: a one eyed Sammy 115 in the color "all scraped off," and a PopMax in "hook rash python."

Clear Palmolive and elbow grease. Dawn works equally as well, I just hate how it smells. I'm still looking for a good substitute for PS, just haven't found one yet.

Now it makes sense. Though I'd never want to use 12 if I had 24v.

NY state boat launches and most fishing access sites have a recycler. So do most sporting goods shows that sell fishing gear.

I've never seen a boat rigged the way yours is. I been around a few.

https://postimages.org/

Spinnerbaits, soft boot tail swimbaits, buzzbaits, cranks, walking type topwater are a few. You WILL have to learn when it's time to slow down, if you want to catch bass.

6 is plenty.

Thanks for getting back, and glad it's working!

Smaller gauge wires?

I doubt it just pulled in. Prespawn, caught another over 6 from the same laydown. I truly think it was presentation (jig) was better, and properly working the tree from the crown into the main limb joints.

This fish came on about the dozenth cast I made to a submerged tree. Two other anglers had worked the tree just before me.

Any heavy jig rod will do. No need to set vertically - works the same as any weedless worm hook.

Split this off into it's own topic, since it unrelated to the topic posted in. Baits should be fine in your garage. You can take them off and put them in the bag if you want, but this usually tears them up. I just leave mine on usually.

You want oars. Plenty of people up here have rowboats on the restricted reservoir system (water supply for NYC) some even have two sets of oar locks welded in, so two can row at once and be more efficient.

I love revisiting all the old photos from fishing trips. Not just the PB shots either. My vote is for a picture, every time.

I’ve seen what looks like a bed actually be from ducks or geese feeding.

That really depends on your hook sets, and your willingness to accept a broken rod. I don't think you'll be losing fish, though. A rod rated at 20# should be able to handle 8 lbs. of drag. Dead lift a gallon of milk with a rod, and you'll see what I mean.

Maui Jim

I'd rather watch water boil and paint dry than fish a Carolina Rig. It's advantage however, is in covering deeper water relatively efficiently. A Texas Rig (a true one, with a sliding bullet weight) on the other hand works best a little shallower, though I've caught fish as deep as 20' with it. When picking shallow, precise targets, the Texas Rig will be easier to make accurate casts. You really just sort lob a Carolina Rig out into the abyss, and wait until hits. bottom, and slowly drag it. A Texas rig can be pitched into a coffee cup 20 yards away. Extremely important if bass are in your coffee cups. I'm not saying I never throw a Carolina Rig, but when I do, it's been a rough day.

Rippin' Mono.

It helps determine where to set you drag. It also gives you some indicator of true power of the rod, since there's no standard for a "medium" rod. If you're using 50# drag on a 10-17# rod, then you can safely set your drag to 5-6# without fear of breaking the rod.