A-Jay

Good Question. I've played around with this one a lot. Started back during my years of surf casting and carried on the present times. There's a few reasons. One revolves around not having to retie as often as I change baits or cut back the leader. The other two have to do with casting and the connection knot. That longer leader length seems to allow the connection knot to pass smoothly through the guides on the cast. Where when I fish a much shorted one, seems I'm hearing & feeling the knot rattling through the guides the entire length of the blank. So I'm expecting the knot to experience less 'damage': if that's even a thing. But if you've ever made a cast & the connection knot failed, sending your $25 jerkbait into orbit, I think you can smell what I'm cooking. Finally, and this is the main reason, when fighting a trophy fish close to the boat, there is inevitably going to be at least one or two last ditch effort runs that pull drag. A longer leader puts that knot on the reel and I get to fight that toad totally on the FC or mono WITHOUT that knot (which is often under a decent about of pressure at this point) banging through the guides several times before the fish is in the net. Longer Leaders Rule. But only on spinning gear. Don't use them on casting gear. So there ya go. A-Jay

Stand your ground ~ This guy is always on a mission. #tankslife A-Jay

Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head Disclaimer *** I fish these on medium spinning / casting gear. Line never more than 12lb FC. A-Jay

I have some experience with utilizing a foam roller, some what limited but experience none the less. Specifically I had injured my lower back (twice) and foam rolling was part of my 'required' physical therapy. I was shown by a professional how, where & when to use it properly. Jury is still out on whether it helped or even speed up my 'recovery'. Either way, didn't take long to realize that this device is not a toy. Depending on the situation, if not used correctly, may do more harm than good. The advice offered above to seek out the advice of a professional is solid. This is not a DIY deal; especially when it come to spinal health & longevity. After my require time with the foam roller was over, I chose not to continue using it as part of my regular routine. As a warm-up or cool-down deal to regular resistance training, rolling it out never seem to really make a difference for me one way or the other. Since my last injury, (been many years now) I have dedicated myself to keeping my core & spine strong & flexible. We only get one each and they need to last a life time. Currently, at 63 I feel functional. https://youtu.be/9wEJ_yf_g9c Finally, I will say that if one lives a mostly sedentary life style, any type of regular mobility routine can be very beneficial. A foam roller could be that IMO. Especially considering some of the somewhat awkward body positions one is required to get into, then maintain and then even move through a range of motion in. Strength & flexibility of those specific deals can not help but improve. But it needs to be preformed consistently & correctly to realized the many benefits. A-Jay

Total Body 3 this morning. Performed three working sets of six movements. Showing two sets of that this time (except for calfs). The Leaning Press (push-up) with the weighted vest is really challenging for me. But I like it. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

I think it's basically the same blank with different branding. I like mine a lot as well. But you knew that. A-Jay

You Are The Man. btw - that 'other guy' seems like he might have some potential. A-Jay

I use HUK & Buff A-Jay

You've probably already seen some of the folks that should be servicing bearings. They are often pulled over on the side of the road/highway, outside of their vehicle, standing by the trailer, hat in one hand and scratching the side of their head with the other. Might be some smoke visible as well. A-Jay

While I do use Straight FC on most all casting gear, I use braid to leader on all spinning gear. My leaders are long 20-25 ft and I change them often. Mono (Big Game green or Maxima Ultragreen ) for topwater, FC for just about everything else. I understand and believe in the advantages of a leader, just can't justify the cost of using specific FC leader material for the way I fish. So I use the same Tatsu & or InvisX FC for leader that I use as mainline on my casting gear. Since standard non- leader material FC works pretty good as a mainline on my casting gear, adding a length of the same stuff to the end of my spinning rigs main line, sort of feels like the same thing to me. YMMV A-Jay

Been using this for a while. Very pleased. https://www.corrosionx.com/collections/lubricants/products/corrosionx-grease?variant=31163666563168 Besides my trailer, Anything with a fitting sees this stuff. A-Jay btw - this little Grease Gun Coupler has been super helpful . . https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H7LPKKU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Kya & Tank ~ Thick as thieves these two. A-Jay

Sorry, I can't respond right now. But I made a response above and it's also in the video. A-Jay

It's actually a older Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth stick. 7'4" Med. The extra length is helpful for longer casts, especially when I'm looking to cover a bigger area to find a bite. So that's the when I use this one the most. When my target area is smaller I use a few different 7' M sticks that are all pretty similar. Finally something to note is, long bomb casting & working a deep running jerkbait with a rod longer than 7' can be a bit of a chore. Depending on how I work it, the rod tip might be hitting the water. But The Pro-V Bass has a 25 inch transom which means I'm at least an extra 5 inches higher up off the water at the bow. In this case - that matters. A-Jay

And just because it so unusual, on 30 Apr 2019, I landed this brute of a Musky on 10 lb FC while throwing jerkbaits for brown bass. Fight seemed to take forever and I had to us every trick in the book to be able to get my hands on this magnificent Beast. Even had to make up a few. It all worked out in the end as I was able to hold & safely release this 48 inch stunner. A-Jay

PB Brown bass came on the morning of 12 Sept 2017 ~ Until I saw her, I thought for sure she was a pike. But nope - came in a 7.29 lbs. https://youtu.be/frJAlndpO7E My PB green bass came from south of the border on Lake Baccarac back on 11 Nov 2013 (Veterans Day) She weighed 11-11 hard to forget that one. Be lookin to put both of those great fish in the review mirror this up coming season. Fish Hard A-Jay

I'd rather clean snow than deal with 20, 30 & 40 below. That just hurts and stuff breaks. ? A-Jay

Tank the Long Way ~ #tankslife Jan 23 A-Jay

Guess I never realized just how prevalent that northern strain Missouri monkey actually was. Sounds bad. A-Jay

It was only a matter of time for us . . . Some of the coldest weather this season is expected as Arctic air moves into the Great Lakes region later this week. The coldest temperatures will be early Friday and Saturday mornings with low temperatures in upper Michigan around -15°F and near -10°F in lower Michigan. This will lead to wind chills between -20 and -30 degrees. ? A-Jay

pm sent

Still to early. R & D in progress. A-Jay

@KSanford33 You had good intentions and IMO, you did a good thing for another human being. Dangerous ? We each manager our own risk. As for help for veterans, there's quite a bit. Some don't know or aren't willing to accept it. But it's there. https://schenectadycounty.com/veterans https://veterans.ny.gov/ A-Jay

Total Body 2 this morning. Single leg training always gets my attention. Three working sets of six movements. Showing one of each here. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

Giving and even taking bass fishing advice can be tricky. However, one of if not The Most common aspects of most every experienced bass angler, is that they got most all of that experience by going fishing. Yup, time on the water. At some point, we all had to just bite the bullet and venture into the unknown. But the great part of that is, we figured it out. In our own way. A way that makes sense to us. Sounds like that's what you are in need of. So I say take the rods, reels & bait you have and go fish them. See how it goes. That's your time on the water so you can make your own assessment. So you can answer all of these questions for yourself. And then you WILL understand. Fish Hard A-Jay