A-Jay

Easy like a Sunday Morning ~ A-Jay

A-Jay

Hello from up in Otsego County Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay

I associate a reels 'smoothness' with a precision build. Tight tolerances and a sturdy feeling construction can be a part of that I think. I will add the overall 'weight' of the unit, often comes into play. There seems to be a huge focus on 'lightness' which in my world is OK but not at the sacrifice of durability. Seems solid and ( OK I'll say it) heavy reels, are durable as all get out, and maintain the Smoothness perceived when new, longer. Bottom line, when fishing a bait of any kind, I never want to 'feel' the reel. Strikes are hard enough to detect for this hack. Just can't afford to be distracted by my gear. I'm going with that. A-Jay

Thank you very much for the kind words and the support. I do appreciate it. While I'll never target brown bass with a worm like that, the few times I'm focused on green bass, it's usually south of the border. There's rarely a need to be that finessey. A-Jay

After a one day reprieve, temperatures will crash again Sunday into Monday. Highs will only be a few degrees either side of 10 above on Monday, with widespread single digit or sub-zero wind chills through Monday night This is when we 'earn' the summer. A-Jay

Boneless/skinless - I get bulk packs - I think like 3 or 4 pound. They don't come with a lot of fat on them, what may be there usually cooks off while broiling or grilling. So there's really no trimming needed. If there was, I'd do it. A little salt & pepper and that's pretty much it. It's totally boring, but if I don't eat like that almost all the time, I get way too smooth and then get bummed out. Protein is just about the easiest aspect of my diet, as it doesn't change all that much. I need the same amount all the time and there's no benefit from eating more and definitely no help not eating enough. Managing the carbs & fats in portions that meet my needs, is a little trickier. Almost always boils down to the fact that I do not need anywhere near what I want to eat every meal. So I am relegated to measuring them. Best way for me to exercise portion control so that I will be hungry again in 3 1/2 hours. Skipping meals is not something that helps me. My wifes says I eat like a bird, but I get to do it 5 times a day. A-Jay

Total Body Workout #1 this morning. Sticking with the two working sets seems to be right for me at this point. Showing the second one here. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

Besides the strength for its thin diameter, one of the major benefits of this product is that I can tie it directly to whatever mainline I'm using. Uni to Uni for Braid & or FC and another uni knot to secure the bait to the leader. I do use a snap at the lure end on occasion - I prefer Owner Hyper Crosslock Snaps. I never use a swivel to connect the leader to mainline. While it would work fine sort of defeats the purpose of this type of leader. Additionally, there's a good chance of reeling the hardware through the tip top guide which will eventually damage it. If you're using the stuff pictured, which is what I use exclusively, I have never had any problem with fraying. There's a thin plastic coating on the leader that can get worn off by fish but once it's gone, I continue to use it as it Does Not compromise the integrity of the leader at all. There's some rather sporty toothy critters here so I start out with at least an 18 - 24 inch trace of this stuff. Insurance if they swallow it (and or roll up in my line) as well as affording a few bait changes before I need to replace it. Bass do not care if there's a leader there or not. Both of the bass below ate a vision 110 jerkbait in 6 ft of clear water while using this wire. I use it in front of anything & everything if there's a good chance of getting bit off, which is quite frequently I might add. So, as mentioned jerkbaits, rattle baits, squarebills, swim & vibrating jigs, even use it for jigs/craw & Texas rigs when the Pike are thick enough. Billed Baits WILL run a just a little deeper with this in front of them, fair warning. Good Luck A-Jay

Cold up this way too -10 Tank & Kya both went down like they got hit by a sniper. (love saying that) I was a full blown 5 layers this morning. The malamutes could care less. At least the daytime UV index is low A-Jay

Fish Catch Friday ~ Some Video Starting this one up today. I’m hoping that reliving these moments might help speed this long, hard water season along. As well as prevent my brown bass mojo from freezing entirely. First One was Toad ~ This one started off a most memorable fishing day. Easily one of my favorites. 12 Weeks, 5 Days & a Wake up . . . . A-Jay

Good Luck They rented space in my boat and in my head for 3 long and frustrating years. Next to trying to learn to stitch a worm, they were my next biggest bust. Life is too short and so is my fishing season. A-Jay

Depends on what it is. Seems there's a fairly long list of factors that are all sort of impossible to predict. Wood eats a lot of these bait (just read some of the recent threads). As noted the blade itself changes what's going on there. IME, sort of like a swim jig, works well very close to, over & around cover. But once I venture INTO it, there's a decent chance the effectiveness of the presentation could be compromised. If not totally bogged down or hung up. So like the 'weed guard' on a swim jig', adding a guard to a vibrating jig could can be helpful, but it ain't no Texas Rig. BTW - this bait is rigged like a Texas rig and is fairly 'weedless' https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Chatterbait_Freedom_CFL/descpage-ZMCFL.html?from=basres Unfortunately, I couldn't hook anything with it either. A-Jay

I can see where it might helps some in & around hard cover, but that's pretty much where it would end for me. A-Jay

Great Question ~ And I'd be willing to bet that there are a few sharpies up north here, that have already started 'exploring the possibilities'. Not sure if the DD northern bass is all that common, especially when compared to the water's JJ has been doing damage on recently. But we might see a few eye-popping bags coming out of places & during times that could be considered seriously non-traditional, if you know what I mean. And where I would be VERY interested to put FFS to work, is on some of these larger inland lakes in the north woods that hold big brown bass. There's a ton of 'assumptions' about where those big 6, 7, 8 and 9 lb plus females go in July, but so FEW true giants are ever caught and if they are, folks are being pretty tight lipped about it. Something Mr Jones is not. I've said FFS was probably not in my future. Well, this could put a whole different spin on that scene ! Fish Hard. A-Jay

I can relate to Both those feelings. A-Jay

Mentioned this one just recently ~ Glide baits. Now I know they catch fish, and some big ones. But for whatever reason, not for me. I just don't get it. Not only did I throw these wacky baits all ALL over my favorite big fish haunts last year, I've been hurling these things all over northern Michigan for going on 3 seasons ! Well, not anymore, my current glide bait inventory is ZERO. I sold them all and have NO plans to change that. Free at last ! A-Jay

Day in and Day out, Amazon has good pricing on bulk (600 & 1000 yds) spool. Of course, TW is running a decent deal (30% off) for 4 more days as well. A-Jay

Some solid suggestions offered here so far ~ Great aspect of this forum, especially when it comes to topics like line choice, is so many truly great sticks have already done most all of the leg work. No need to reinvent the wheel, sort of speak. Of course, trust comes into play as well. Who do you trust ? Either way, over the course of many years and at some expense, I went round & round & round & round with FC. Tired it, hated it, tried it again, hated it again, gave up on it, tried it again, still hated it. Finally, at the advice of some of the stud bassheads here, I tried InvisX. Done. Then heard, well if you like InvisX, you'll Love Tatsu. As usual, they were right again. They both do everything I need a FC to do; the Tatsu seems to do that just a little bit better IMO. Whether the $$ justified may be a personal choice. For me - it is. Good Luck A-Jay

Usually every couple of years sometime three for a complete casting reel cleaning & service. I use @Delaware Valley Tackle Superior results. It's an event packing , shipping, and insuring the whole arsenal but it's an investment and certainly cheaper than buying new reels. A-Jay

Total Body Workout #3 this morning. After plenty of warm-up, I blasted through 2 working sets of 7 exercises. Showing one set of each of them. 2022 is starting off the right way. #borninfiftynine A-Jay

This ^^^^^^ A-Jay

I purchased this ProXS motor the first year it came out in 2018. As part of an incentive re-power program and when using the in house Mercury Refinance deal, the new motors were being offered with a 5 year full warranty. This made that deal even sweeter. Just check the current offer and it's 3 years. (And @J Francho posted it above) Either way I've already arranged with the dealer to trade this one in either at the end of this coming (2022) season or the beginning of the next, while it's still under warranty. Provided the can get me a new one in a somewhat timely manner. Time will tell. A-Jay

Same with the Lund / ProXS - especially while the motor is still under warranty (5 yrs) A-Jay

When it's well above our paygrade, we never have the whole story. But we're not meant to. The how, why, when & where of a deal like this is for someone else to worry about, your marching orders haven't changed. Like water off a duck's back my friend. A-Jay