bigbill

I believe the pod has a 500 hour life on the water. The sight explains it. I had ours ever since they came out. I haven't tried it in a while. I used it to learn the bottom structure and layout. I haven't used it to find fish yet. I use my talents for that. Plus by hammering each place all the time we learn we're the fish are. This is an awesome tool. Sam is right it takes more to be a successful shore fisherman. I throw a variety of different lures and colors till I get action. But don't be limited to that one pattern that's working. We can have multiple patterns at the sametime. In the low light conditions use brighter colors. If your having success with a mepps Anglia #3 and the bite stops let's say in the middle of the day try a mepps Anglia #4 & #5 in the same color. The bigger fish will come in to see what the smaller ones are feeding on but they won't hit the smaller lure. When the light conditions change from daylight to dusk. Example your throwing a Joe's fly in blackgnat silver blade w/black tail. The bite slows down or stops as it gets darker. I put on the Joe's fly in firetiger apache or his glo tiger. You will land a few more fish. Going from a more natural color in the day light and switching to a brighter color as the lighting conditions change. On the low light overcast days throw brighter colors moved slower. Don't be afraid to slow the lures down. I notice in the low light that speed matters too. I'm giving you my tips on what I have learned though the years while fishing from shore. I actually took my time and tried different things to see how the fish react. I like to see everyone catch fish. I even stop fishing if there are kids near me so I can help them too. I even stop to help adults too. Think about it if they catch more fish they actually buy more tackle sooner or later. It's giving back to the manufacturers who make me have success and make me look good too. Plus we're helping new fisherman catch more fish. I feel like I'm a salesman for fishing equipment when I'm fishing and having success in front of everyone. I'm no pro nor ever claim to be I just love fishing. And I like to see others enjoy it with the success like I have too.

I been looking for a 6' casting rod to use in the tighter areas. I looked at most of the manufacturers and all they offer is 6'6" & 7' rods. I found a lews 6' casting rod on eBay. It might be a 2011 or 2012 model but that's ok with me. My rod selection is complete now. I wanted to go fishing today but we had a plumbing pipe leak. My son's came over and helped me fix it and they cleaned my chimneys and put new brakes on my wife's car. It's a very busy day. My point is remember to clean your fire place chimney, your Woodstove chimney and your furnance chimney too. Don't forget to clean your clothes dryer & pipe from all lint too. This should be your annual fall cleaning just like doing the leaves in your gutters. Remember this could save your life. Please do it right. God bless and enjoy the holidays, bigbill I can always live to fish another day but I can't bring back a life.

Great job, nice fish, awesome story. I hope this motivates others too. I preach we can do anything we put our minds to. If we stay motivated and focused we can do anything. No matter what gender we are. When most will sit there and say it can't be done others are out there doing it, living it. What more can be said but congrats. You earned it.

Every time I think about ice fishing I think of the movie grumpy old men. I was thinking of making a few of those duck rods too with no reels. They would look neat crossed and hanging on the wall.

I'm looking into swimbaits more and more. The real looking trout, sunfish, perch etc. Do you guys have a lot of success with these? I just purchased three Matt lures. I have tossed some 9" castiac trout lures but found them harder to cast even with light saltwater setups. I think I'll stay with the 3" to 6" swimsuits. Do you guys or gals have any tips about which swimbaits you like or what's the best presentations? To me it's time to throw the yum money minnow but I may toss some swimbaits too. The fall to me is when the bass want that big meal too. Maybe some 10" or 12" worms may work too?

Spinning or bait casting rod? The lews speed stick is a decent rod yet not to of a heavy action were we lose the feel of the softer lures. In the one piece spinning 6' rod in a medium action is around $39.99 on eBay. That's discounted. They also offer one in a 6' med/but action. I have the medium action and just ordered the med/hvy action. If your looking for a 6'6" or a 7' spinning rod they have those too. I have the lews speed stick and Berkley lightening shock rods too. Both rods feel awesome action wise too. These are inbetween $49 to $99. I have the vengeance rod too it's a good rod also. But overall I'd look at the lews first it's a great feeling blank.

For all my cranks I prefer the 5:3-1 reels. As we go up in speed the lures get harder to reel. I think the deeper cranks are even worse to crank with normal speed reels. With any faster line speed we can adjust the speed by how fast we crank it. But by the end of the trip our body maybe sore using the faster reels. I have some older bait caster reels that are 5.3-1. After reading about the faster ratio reels here. I purchased an okuma 6:3-1 spinning reel. My thought was to burn spinnerbaits like everyone else. It was a craze I guess. By the end of the trip my arm was so sore I wish I could remove it to let it rest. I have no clue how you guys do it.

I just purchased some spinning reels for my ice rods. I have some tip ups with a home made ice sled. I have a close by water shed were I can pull my sled out there with my tractor. If this works out I may build a heated shed with a stove to cook on next. It looks like fun. I did it twice already and caught nothing. My co-workers said it's about eating and bonding with your buddies. But I'm there to fish. Since the reels won't be used that much I got the cheap reels from eBay. The rods I went the average name brand ice rods. I think using the braided line made for ice fishing is the key too.

I started off mainly using clear Excalibur silver thread copolymer line for many years. Buy I slowly switched to green one setup at a time. Now I mainly use the yozuri hybrid in green. I don't notice any differences in the numbers with catches. But like you it's slightly stained water to stained water conditions here on the average. They say that blue colored lures can change to brown colors under certain water and light conditions. You have me wondering if your blue line turns to brown too? I guess the real question does the color of our line really matter? Are the fish line sensitive? I know for sure a noisy reel can send sound vibrations down our line into the water. Just some facts.

I noticed I can cast farther and much easier with the 7' & 6'6" rods from shore.

My hottest one so far is the silver blade with the yellow tail. Every fish here tries to rip it off my line. The river bass love this lure. I have one Plano 3600 box with just about every panther Martin made. It's in my soft sided boat bag. This lure is on my variety of lures to throw list. With fishing the dropoffs in the evenings we use the PM with the yellow blades with the black dots with some scent for catfish.

One area I used fine grit sand paper then I polished it with the Simi-Chrome polish till the area is very smooth.

The hummingbird portable fishfinder is wireless. We purchased it the minute we read about it in a bass magazine. We went to the local wal Mart and there it was.

The hummingbird portable fish finder comes in two different models now. One is the wrist reader(screen) while the other screen mounts on your rod. There around $99 the cost of a decent rod or reel nowadays. It's well worth it in fishing new smaller bodies where no topo maps are available. I think it's the best tool us shore fisherman can have besides or brains. Once I know the layout I know how and where to fish it. Then I throw my ritual of lures. Shore fishing is rewarding too. You can master it by spending more time fishing. Fishing knowledge isn't free it comes with a price. The time we spend fishing, learning as we go is the price. We take everything we read, every video we watched and everything anyone has told us about fishing and stored it in our minds. Then we're ready to go fishing and try it all out. It's not luck in fishing it's skill. Spending more time fishing is the only way we can hone our fishing skills. Don't limit yourself to fishing one body of water. Learn and hone your skills to the max at one spot then take your skills and knowledge you have learned to any other body of water and apply them. You will find out your skills will work in any body of water. The only limitations is what we actually put on ourselves. Think out side of your tackle box and apply your skills.

Now I know why I special ordered my 32" double barrel 12ga. PETA people eating tasty animals. When the zombies come most of them will be peta people. My hats off to the ammo company who coined the zombie ammo phrase.

It appeared that this bad area was plated over. I need to inspect my other reels of the same model. I have like ten of them. If more are found in this same condition we have a problem. I have some of these reels New in boxes too.

The Wal-Mart quantum spinning reel with my Shakespeare 6' black beauty rod that caught my PB of 10# with. I should have it bronzed. My Excalibur silver threat 8lb test did its thing that morning. This post should be about the line we use after all its the weakest link in our rod setup. Excalibur did me right on that morning. It's awesome when a plan comes together. Every time I caught decent fish or had even many dinks I purchased more fishing lures.

Hey Fish Chris how us doing we haven't talked in a longtime. How's the hunt for big bass going? I still can't get past my PB of 10#. Had bigger on but lost them. Play with the numbers could make us rich. I'd love to hit the lotto. Most of it would go for kids charity. I have been fortunate in life. My wants are very little, I'm a simple man living a simple life I been lucky in life make the decisions I did. But it's the ones who need our help we need to help out now. Christmas is the time for giving. Remember tackle the storm.

My rough area wasn't visible at all. If I ran my finger over it too fast it wasn't felt. When I ran my finger slow over it felt more longer of an area than it was. It actually felt like it was under the plating. I didn't see and marks on the plating. Either was we need to fix it. I been feeling the same kind of marks in my line. I'm not sure if it's abrasions, the acid rain or caused by the condition of the water quality. But it's with any mono or copolymer line. I feel this roughness down inside the unused line in the spool too. Can the poor quality of the water cause this? Have you seen this line problem? It feels like there is mini or micro chunks missing out of my line. It's like the line is deteriorating. Do you feel this happening to your line too? I do notice at some places I fish at the line needs to be changed sooner because of this deteriorating happening sooner much faster. I'm not sure if it happens faster during the rain.

I purchased three new lews speed stick SG spinning rods. Two 7' and one 6'6". I also purchased a 7' x heavy, x fast bait casting rod too. I really like the feel of these graphite rods. Tonight I ordered three more lewd rods a 6' med action, a 5'6" med/or action and a 5'UL trout rod. There all spinning rods. I'm very happy with the quality and feel of the lews rods. Now I'm interested in the baitcasting rod craze where the 5'6" & 6' is going to hit here. I don't see any of the better quality rods in these shorter lengths yet. My question is do you stay with one brand of rod for most of your selection or do you try different brands? I guess I'm going to part with some used rods soon. There still in New condition.

Every new lure and presentation we learn is one more pattern we add to our arsenal of baits. It really pays off when we stay switching lures till we get action. The more baits we learn the more chance of success we will have. It's more skill in catching fish than its luck.

First I accept everything our creator throws at us as a test in life. The more things that happen to me the stronger I become. Failure is not an option. I never look back I look ahead to the future. Things will change in time for the better it always has for me. The storm will pass by and the sun will shine again giving us a new beginning, a new life it just has to play out to nature's timeline. Keep the faith it will all work out. We all hit speed bumps in our lives your not alone. Not too long ago I took a break from fishing. I just needed too. It came full circle and it renewed my interests again. Sometime nature gave me a break too in the drought we had. I just found other hobbies to keep me busy. My teacher taught me don't put all your eggs in one basket, meaning putting all your money in one bank or place. I say don't have just one hobby have a few you can rely on. Life is a test to me by our creator to see how strong we can be in the tough times. Back in the early 80's I lost my job in '83, in '84 & in '85. I worked three months per year those three years. I had a house to pay for and three small kids that eat like me to feed. I found out what little money I could really get by with. I focused on my garden to feed my family and firewood to pay the bills and heat my house. I lived on 10k per year. We can survive. God bless, bigbill Any good rivers to fish at near you?

If it's one of my local hot spots where I'm 100% there are bass there I take my time using my ritual of lures. If nothing happens I go thru them again varying my presentations. I throw topwater, to cranks, to inline spinners, to spinnerbaits, to plastics etc and repeat. I can gun and run to another nearby spot and repeat. But one more trick is to change my scent from the yum shad /original bass scent to a garlic. Garlic scent is my last change up pitch. Remember when all else fails firetiger will bring home the bacon. On a tough day make sure you read the water conditions closely. How long will I stay there if there is no action. I'm a lure tossing addict. As long as I can just toss lures and practice my presentations I'm ok with that to keep me sharp. I need to keep the edge. I use every bit of slow time to practice and the bass always will interrupt me when I get it right. Don't go out there with sloppy presentations. We invested our money into all these many lures why not throw them all why rush? Settle down and have fun.

So what's your favorite hunting camp meals?

I was and am the cook when were hunting. Breakfast. Sausage, Eggs, Cheese, Muffin Jones farm frozen ground sausage made into patties. Scrambled eggs of whole fried eggs over easy or hard. American cheese English muffins I take the English muffins and fry them in butter n a frying pan till crispy. Add cheese top and bottom when it leaves the pan. Then assemble the sandwich but make sure you make extra. Lunch in your stand. I make roast beef wraps for everyone. Roast beef sliced thin. I cook the roast beef at home before we leave to go hunting and slice it. Tomato Mayo Lettuce Roast beef Wrap bread. I put the tomato and mayo in the middle of the wrap so the bread won't get soggy. Most of the time it won't last till lunch Supper Hotdogs n beans n bacon n cheese bake Can of Bush original baked beans. 1lb of sliced bacon. 9 of your favorite dogs American cheese Place the baked beans on the bottom of a 10 x 10 or 9x9 pan. Slice the dogs like a canoe and stuff the opening with cheese. Place the stuffed dogs cheese up in the pan. Lay the bacon across the top of the dogs covering the whole top of the pan. Cook at 350/375 till the bacon is cooked You may need a bigger pan the next time you make this.