Dwight Hottle

Good news for sure. I'm going in for my 2nd year scan this week so I understand the feeling. Good luck with all of them.

Congrats to you & your family. A worthy achievement indeed.

Short & sweet. Get a new largemouth PB & catch a 6lb smallie up at Rainy Lake in Canada.

He's a good looking boy for sure. Enjoy.

I cheated twice. I apologize to any one I have offended.

I finally moved to Florida permanently not just for the winters. Got a chance to fish Rodman Reservoir up near Ocala for the second time. First day of a cold front with 46 degree air temps & water temps of 62.5. The bite was a little slow but not bad considering the effect cold front conditions have on Florida bass. Had over 50 fish for the day with two over 7lbs and the big girl of the day weighed in at 9lbs-4oz. All fish were caught on swimbaits in gold shiner color.

Good news. Cancer is the one word everyone would rather forget.

Congrats on the new PB.

I have a close friend & lifetime fishing buddy (lucky Dave) that has always said "he would rather be lucky than good." Over the years his statement has borne fruit many times. Let me start out by making the statement over our fishing lifetimes I & most of my buddies have been competitive about who has the biggest fish of each species we chase after. I have always prided myself as being a student of the game. I watch & learn from others & on my own. I study other peoples success, read as much as I can, practice and prepare so when the moment comes I'll be as ready as possible. I'm always checking my knots, respooling fresh line, sharpening hooks, replacing hooks & hardware as needed. I'm always looking for that one special bait or that special technique that will give me an edge over my fishing buddies. We grew up living the mantra "in your face" with each other. That enough background the stage has been set. Lucky Dave just shows up. Smallmouth fishing. Lucky Dave almost always catches fewer fish but learned early on to catch the biggest. He has the record in my boat for catching the biggest smallie of the day as his first fish. During one lucky week in May prespawn fishing for smallies his first fish of the day for two consecutive days went 6 lbs-12 ounces. He has caught three 6-12's as the first fish of the day for him. His personal pb is 6-12. He had the biggest smallie overall for several years running. Salmon fishing. We used to fish the Niagara river in the fall during the spawning run. Lucky Dave had the biggest male overall (27-28 lbs with a well developed kype) and either the biggest female or second biggest female (32-33 lbs). Musky fishing. Lucky Dave caught the first musky & had the pb lead for a few years running until the rest of us caught up & exceeded his efforts. Pike fishing. This is where lucky Dave really excelled. Dave excelled as a spoon fisherman for pike. He mastered the retrieve that would get a following pike to eat. He was really good at it. He has the camp record for 8 pike over 20lbs caught in one day. His 25.5 lb pike caught that same day held the PB record for a few years. Later on he caught the 2nd largest pike caught by our group at 29lbs, a real trophy. Largemouth bass. Lucky Dave had the early lead with a 8lb bass for many years. Later on he improved to a healthy 8.5lbs. Lucky Dave also was the first to hook a DD bass. He hooked it on a wacky senko near the d**n on a large farm pond in Georgia. The big girl jumped clearing the water & both Dave & another friend saw how big she was. They both guessed her to be 12-13 lbs. Lucky Dave hooked her again on another trip at the d**n. She jumped twice before the hook pulled. The same two guys swore she had to be the same fish same size. Lake trout. Lucky Dave was the first to break the 30lb barrier & held the pb lead for several years before he was finally surpassed by two others.

They like fast & erratic retrieves with artificial baits.

Original floating rapala & the jointed version both in the J-11 & J-13 sizes. Also LC pointers. Ima flits, rapala husky jerks & smithwick rogues.

Great lakes brown trout are suckers for jerk baits & trolled stick baits.

Sweet!

The NRX 893 stands out as better than GLX by most people that have compared both.

My thoughts are that power stays the same. Action seems to speed up with higher quality blanks even though the ratings stay the same. Best way to describe it is the action seems more crisp or telegraphs faster with the higher modulus blanks. Sensitivity also increases with the better blank.

Good luck with your recovery.

Point well taken. All & any released livewell fish have a better chance of survival than the legal limit kept for cleaning/eating.

Sounds like you need to find a new dealer that you can trust. Your past dealer isn't being honest with you.

Musky fisherman always count follows so go for it.

27 lbs for smallmouth. 36 lbs for largemouth thanks to this December.

For what it is worth the deepest I have seen bottom on Erie is around 22-24 feet.

I can't help with launches but I will advise you to stay in the marked channels when running on plane. Great fishery with trophy bass available if you can crack the code. ?

Sweet. Sounds like you had a great trip.

Anybody have any experience kayaking in south Florida with the gators?

The rod pictured is the legend that came before the blue/green flip generation. It dates back to the late 1990's or very early 2000. The serial number would give you the exact year. https://stcroixrods.com/pages/service-warranty