A-Jay

@Tom Rust Holy Smokes Tom, what a nice thing to say. I really appreciate the kind words. So happy that you found this material helpful. A very big aspect of my duties in the service was training. Which is essence is 'teaching'. With some experience, my favorite part of all of that was being able to 'train the trainers' how to be effective. Very satisfying, guess some of that stayed with me. Additionally I was a drill instructor and later trainer them how to make it happen. All pretty intense. Thanks again A-Jay

Habitats change continuously; month to month and especially year to year. Clearly a special piece of cover or section of structure might not change a ton, but the bait, water depth and a few other variables certainly can & does. That often changes how the fish set up or even if they continue to use it. Starting with a clean slate, forces me to relearn how all that relates. Sort of turns an old 'familiar' body of water into something new again. Todays was a perfect example of that. Finally, I will say that I freaking love the feeling I get when I find 'the right water' when I'm casting. And then 2 seconds later, I'm hooked up. Just doesn't get any better than that. Well, it does help when the camera operates properly. Fish Hard A-Jay

Spent most of a killer a day out on Lake Menderchuck today. I was on the water early and had the lake to myself, big fan of that. Air temps were in the low 40’s as was the surface water temps. An on & off NW wind and cloud cover kept me company most of this trip and seemed to increase a bit as the day wore on. I was dressed for the wind chill which was right on the edge of uncomfortable. The previous night’s rain had added just the right amount of ‘color’ to the water. I arrived early and already rigged up with a selection of jerkbaits so that’s where I started and stayed. The Megabass Vision 110 + 1 in perch did most of the heavy lifting. I was fishing edges & inside turns of some main lake points & drop offs – ALL in the wind. Fish were hitting the bait near the bottom in 6-8 feet. For whatever reason my stern GoPro decided not to record any sound. Both my cameras have been operating somewhat sporadically, and I’ll need to address that sooner rather than later. Either way all the views from the back are coming to you in radio silence. Once the fish gets on deck its ops normal. Overall I enjoyed this one. Got a couple of dozen brown bass to pull my string. First two ended up being the Best two. They went 5.58 lbs. and 6.48 lbs. Still trying to get the math right when it comes to taring out the weigh bag weight but I’ll get there - Eventually. Point of interest; After upgrading my electronics package late last summer, I decided to dump all my way points and start from scratch. And so this was my first adventure out on this lake since dumping my pins. It was interesting fishing it all new & free. Even managed to drop a few new points of interest as I went. Fish Hard A-Jay

Seasonably Cool & Windy on #lakemenderchuck this morning. Of the couple of dozen landed, best two went 5.58 lbs & 6.48 lbs respectively. A-Jay

Boy you really got me with that one. A-Jay

So, I've been mostly hesitant to add an update here. Reason being, all things considered, Lynn's better than she has is a while and I didn't want to jinx it. Results from the latest and continued Hematologist & Cardiac DR appointments have been OK. Monthly infusions are helping more than hurting. Blood work remains a little Touch & Go - but mostly OK. Side effects of some new meds are manageable (easy for me to say here in the cheap seats) but I can tell when they are wearing Lynn thin and we haven't been seeing too much of that recently. Our dogs totally give her away when she's trying to 'suck it up', they always know. Experience has shown, that can not continue without often grave results. We're both feeling very fortunate and doing EVERYTHING we can think of to keep this roll going. There's even 'talk' about getting out in the Old Town together again this summer. Something that hasn't been possible for a couple of years now. We celebrated Lynn's birthday last week. At this point these things are milestones. Thank you all again for your positive thoughts & well wishes. A-Jay

That link is Toast A-Jay

Workout Day 2 today. I'm addicted to the grind and I love it. #borninfiftynine https://youtu.be/RtqrCOs9ims?feature=shared A-Jay

All righty then. Moving right along Thanks A-Jay

I know who it is. Perhaps adding the above text to your inital post, rather than just the pic, would have helped the presentation. Otherwise, it's hard to know what was going on there. A-Jay

@KP Duty Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/190145-post-a-photo-a-day/?do=findComment&comment=2897470 Perhaps consider not allowing your mind to wander, apparently it's far too small to be let out on its own. A-Jay

We live in tick central. Between my wife & I and then all the dogs, we've seen & pulled an ungodly number of these bugs off of us & them. Some years are worse than others. We spray the entire dog yard, kennel & property perimeter a couple of times a year. Really cuts down on the over all tick instances, but we still get a few. ALL our dogs are on tick flea & tick preventative meds all year long. Not Free. If & when the tick attaches to the dog, it just dies. It's the ticks world, we just happen to be living & playing in it. Not every tick carries Lyme disease. Identify biters, getting them off right away and then monitoring the bite site is key. Learn the symptoms and know what to do in advance. As mentioned, it can be serious so give it it's due. Having ticks end up in ones bedding is either seriously bad luck or inexperience. Placing any fabric suspected to have ticks, in the dryer on fry for 30 minutes. Is a good plan prior to washing. A-Jay

Nice looking rig. Still has that 20 inch transom though. Weighs 500lbs more than my rig But that 250 should be fun. I just "built" one. Not exactly what I'd get but sort of close. Came in at 85.5K. Sweet ! A-Jay

Sets Hammers apart: Being able to locate bass on a big body of water through each seasonal pattern, as well as selecting a presentation suitable for the conditions, depth and water clarity, And then nailing the proper boat position, making an accurate cast with the proper tackle to mange your catch, are IMO, some of the characteristics we find in bassheads who display repeatable success. Bite detection is pretty far down that list. Familiarization with matched / balanced gear being used helps, as does paying attention to what your doing. We'll never feel every bite but keep doing it enough, it's a skill that can be improved. However the only way I know, is to fish. A-Jay

Interesting question ~ I'll say that the list of whatever I might be doing right, is longer than what I'm doing wrong. Not sure what other bassheads are doing. 😉 A-Jay

I cover up everything when in the sun. April to Oct which is a little crazy. Long sleeve shirt, long pants, socks & shoes. Sun gloves, a face buff, quality eye wear & sun gloves as well. I don't always have the buff completely covering my face, so I wear sun screen. I hate slathering that goop on my face, but I do it anyway. I Apply it in the morning while getting dressed. I use this 😎 A-Jay

LOL ~ And I'll deserved it and Like it ! Good Luck. I've never found any one net better than another with hooks. So I gave up and just bite the bullet. A-Jay

I use a Frabil conservation series net. Works fine for bass & brown trout with jerkbaits. Here's a little tip from me to you. When hooks go in the net, get over it. Take the few minutes it takes to get them out. It's part of fishing. 😎 A-Jay

Took my scheduled off day plus a day on the lake yesterday, which means I was back in the home gym for Workout Day 1 this morning. Went well. #borninfiftynine https://youtu.be/1Eye9m24e34?feature=shared A-Jay

Thanks ~ Not counting the excessive bending and jaw straining we occasionally see when bass are held up (I'm guilty of this in the past) I have never seen anything that says vertically hanging a bass by it's jaw is harmful. After all, they use that structure all the time. But just not in a manner that supports it's full weight out of the water. Seems a bass being completely out of the water subjects it to a version of gravity it never experiences naturally. I'll equate it to our own arms. We use those all the time too. But go hang from something (full body weight) by one hand for a while. If you're not acclimated to it, it doesn't feel too good, and if done for too long can and most likely will hurt something. A-Jay Yea - that's a little wacky. A-Jay

Thank you for the feedback. I have considered getting the weight in the net and do agree it's a valid option. However one of the constant challenges of this deal revolves around how quickly the scale will lock on a final number. In less than flat calm conditions that can take far longer than I'd like. Adding in the net handle waving all over and building momentum with every wave and wind gust, that scale doesn't stand a chance, which might not be helping the bass out. I'm going to continue on this route for a while and see how it goes. If the fish gripper starts showing up again, we'll know what that means. A-Jay

Every seasons different ~ Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. However it's a bit more than one or two a year. Personally, once they get over a certain size I prefer to know the weight rather than guessing. It's just how I do it. The old saying of "it had to be at least 5 pounds", makes me cringe. YMMV

Thanks for the feed back. As I get a little more comfortable with this deal, I'm pretty sure I can shave a bit off that time. Either way, I'm WAY better than I used to be. I sort of kept them out for pics * videos unnecessarily long in the past. Also I'm always netting the fish, especially with treble hooks, so slime coat removal would start there if that's a thing. I'm expecting that by wetting the net and the rubber coated bag in advance, I'll be keeping that to a minimum. We'll see how it goes. A-Jay

For the past several seasons, I have used the same fish weighing procedure. It included a digital scale and a fish gripper which was clamped down, pretty firmly, onto the bass’s lower jaw. Worked OK, the fish often flopped a bit but never came off the fish gripper. However looking back at some of my more memorable (insert Bigger) catches this winter, hanging a 5 or 6 lb plus smallie by its face might have not been the best plan. Could possibly jack up the fishes jaw. And while I never really saw any evidence personally that it did, I was thinking I could do better for the fish. In every other case, I always fully support the fish’s frames for photos and wanted to simulate that while weighing them. This is what I came up with. I’m still ironing out the finer details but right off the bat this Arsenal Fishing Pro-Performance Rubber Mesh Bag already seems better for this bass in the long run. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Arsenal_Fishing_Pro-Performance_Rubber_Mesh_Bag/descpage-AFPPRMB.html Btw - In the attached video I said the fish was 4.42 lbs in the bag, but it was actually 4.44 lbs so I jacked that up a little. My scale is in Tenths not ounces. A-Jay

I don't - but Calelas says that have one ~ https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/st-croix-avid-series-spinning-rod A-Jay