Fishes in trees

Most of my reels say Shimano on them somewhere, so I really don't know that much about Diawa reels. However, Christmas is just around the corner. I'd say you should buy several of each model mentioned previously and field test them extensively for several years before you form anything so binding as an opinion.

I always carry a few spare baitcasting reels in my boat as well as a few spare spools for my spinning reels. If I'm going by myself, I'll have 20 or so rigs in the boat. Should I have someone else in the boat with me, I'll cut that down to 10 or 12. I carry spares because I think changing out line in the boat is a pain in the butt and a real time waster.

I've got a 9 year old Lowe WF 180. It looks older. It is pretty skuffed up. One reason is that the way I fish, I slide into many stumps and trees. Another reason is that after I'm done fishing for the day, I don't feel like wiping the boat down - so I don't. I get to go fishing, on the average, 40 to 50 days per year. I hate to think what a fiberglass boat would look like after this kind of treatment. I've had it out on big water a number of times - Truman, Table Rock, Stockton. It handles a 2 foot chop reasonably well. What I like most about it is how I can fish shallow and not be very concerned about how much I skuff up the bottom on the hull. I like fishing out of fiberglass boats, but right now, the way I fish most of the time, I can't justify owning one.

Some things never change. Fish + Location + Presentation = Success. Having said that, I do think that there is such a thing as a "hot lure" For instance, I distinctly remember the success I had the first couple of years that I discovered senkos, which I haven't really duplicated the past few years. There have been similar experiences with Terminator spinnerbaits and Timber Tiger crank baits, Chompers brand soft plastics and there have probably been others that I'm not remembering right now. Of course, I've had the experience of getting some fishing toy and thinking it would make a huge difference and it didn't. Oh well. Every time I come across a fishing toy that I can afford, I ask myself a question, " Is there a chance that this might help me catch a fish?" If the answer is yes, then I'll probably buy it. It is only money. During these tough times, we all need to do our part to keep all the different companies alive that feed our addiction. Now I'm joking, but the point is that should you see some piece of fishing tackle that might make a difference for you, go ahead and buy it. Your opinion is the only one that matters if getting some piece of tackle is smart or dumb. p.s. I have caught fish on a Banjo minnow, both rigged as a jerkbait and as part of a dropshot rig.. So, you never know until you try.

I live in Missouri and I've not had any problems storing soft plastics in my unheated outbuilding. I do keep everything sealed in plastic show boxed or storage totes, something to keep the mice out. This summer I used some pork baits that I had forgotten about and had been through several (6 or 7) freezing/thawing cycles, and they worked fine. They were a little softer than new pork baits, but they worked ok. I wouldn't worry about it.

For some reason, I'm missing the point of this post. You got 3rd in a tournament - good for you. How did you do for the season? One tournament is just that - one tournament. I'm amazed they let you you in. The reasons for length restrictions in many tournament organizations have to do with safety. Being out in big water or even medium sized water in any kind of wind in a 14' jon boat isn't being smart or safe. Especially if this is your first boat. Next, I'm trying to figure out what you were railing against. One of the charms of bass fishing is that you can play at whatever level you're comfortable at both fiscally and emotionally. It isn't really your call how much other guys, (who may or may not be in different stages of life than you are ) spend on fishing gear. Bass fishing can be an addiction, I think that there are very few on this forum who'd disagree with that statement. You can feed addictions with time or money or both. The notion that you had a tournament where you did better than some guys who spent more money than you just sounds like gloating to me. How cool is that ? Besides, what goes around comes around. Basically, I missed the point of this post. It seems like you were talking to yourself rather than the collective membership. Lastly, bass have a brain the size of a pea. Pee is something different. OK, I'm finished being snarky now. Thanks for reading my reaction to your post.

Lone Wolf is right. I would add: (1) pick a ramp that isn't very busy and where there is room for you to work. (2) scout out the job thoroughly prior to launching the boat. Be certain that you have enough or the right size fasteners, etc. Have an extra battery for your electric drill. Be certain that you've got the correct bits, driver heads, etc. Should you get the bunks off your trailer and then find out you're missing fasteners or your brackets are bent, broke, etc, you're screwed. When I did the bunks on my boat, I brought along a mechanics creeper and that was much more comfortable than crawling around on gravel. Just saying, I learned my lesson in this instance by watching someone who didn't. You might want to bring some beer. You'll be thirsty when this chore is over You might want to bring a buddy. I changed the bunks out by myself and in hindsite, having a buddy along to hold stuff, help measure, and so forth would have made the chore go quicker. This chore took me most of the afternoon.

Last summer I had worn and rotting boards on my trailer - again. I replaced them with "ultimate bunk boards" a high density polyethelene, They've been on my trailer for over a year now with zero issues. They were somewhat more expensive than new boards and carpet. I'm ok with that. In the future, I may have other issues with my boat and my trailer but I am not going to have any issues with bunk boards rotting.

What works for me is to remember to eat a couple of Alieves right at the start of the day, before I'm finished putting in my boat. It seems to make a difference for me, at the end of the day my hands and wrists don't hurt as much.

I don't know why you'd get any reel that didn't say SHIMANO on the side of it somewhere. Just sayin.

I've got several different models of reels, but when I'm pitching 99% of the time I'm using one of my Calcutta 200 TEGT reels. I find I don't have to change any settings at all. I go with 3 brakes on and 3 brakes off, with the spool tension knob set pretty light. It should be noted that I very seldom throw anything lighter than 5/16. Pitch, side arm cast, overhead cast, its mostly all the same for that reel. As long as my thumb doesn't have a brain fart, its all good. Its very humbling, really, once you've upgraded your equipment to a certain point, any time you miss what you're casting at, the cause is "operator error".

I found some plastic rod brackets that were intended to snap on to a 5 gallon bucket, as a rod holder for cat fishermen. I took these same brackets and snapped them on to my boats wind shield and I've got a rod rock that holds up to 10 rods off the deck at an angle. I have some handicap issues as well and with this bracket I can reach down and grab different rods and not have to reach all the way down to the deck.

I've fished 14 lb Vanish for years on baitcasters. I think it is an ok line for soft plastics, medium weight jigs, wacky senkos and stuff like that. I've broke off some fish over the years, but I attribute that mostly to operator error. Now,with that being said, I don't think fluorocarbon line is a real good idea for reaction baits like spinner baits or crank baits. For spinner baits, I like a tough mono. Currently I'm using 17 lb Stren Dura Tuff. I'll use the same line for throwing square bills, sometimes I will drop down to 14. I very seldom use line any lighter than that on bait casting reels.

Lots of different things can make bunk boards rot. The last time I had a bunk board go bad, I replaced them with the plastic ultimate bunk boards. Solved the problem.

Got back yesterday from the Wounded Warriors tournament/fishing derby at Truman Lake out of Long Shoal Marina. Got on the lake a couple of days before the event. Friday was a little windy, no it was a lot windy with intermittent 30 mph+ winds. But you could get out of the wind kinda in the coves and it is possible to drive your boat around, just don't do anything stupid. They had a good BBQ dinner on Sat. night and they we drew for partners. Day of event, Long Shoal Marina sponsored a good breakfast, all you wanted to eat. (Apparently some of the younger wounded warriors forgot that later on they bould be bouncing around on a boat all day, but that's another story.) I drew a nice guy, a career sargeant from Fort Leonard Wood, recently returned from several years overseas. We each caught a few fish, shorts, nothing to weigh. The sergeant went home with a picture of a 5"bass that attacked his crankbait. Anyway, had a fairly inexpensive short vacation and at the same time supported a very worthy cause. Some of the guys I met had been wounded, recovered, and were going about their lives, other guys not so much. They were in need of some serious chill time. And they got some on a beautiful October day riding around on Truman Lake. This just wasn't a fishing event for guys with the big swank Rangers and Tritons. While there were quite a few of those, there were quite a few guys with aluminum rigs like mine, and some smaller 16' or so rigs. I saw 3 or 4 big Lowe deck boats. They were there to take out the guys in wheelchairs and walkers. Overall there were over a hundred boats. The Leavenworth Bass Club and Long Shoal Marina is to be commended for sponsoring this quality event. And I know there are lots of sponsors I'm leaving out.. Event organizers told me that the date for next years event has already been set., i.e. the weekend prior to Columbus Day. I'm going to go next year, (assuming I can get the days off from work) and I'd encourage any other member from the region to attend if they can. You'll have some fun and you'll be doing some guy who got shot up (and lived) in the service of his country a favor. There is lots more information about this event on the Fort Leavenworth Bass Club web site.

I've had some minor success with wake baits, no monster fish, but a few here and there. My approach has been to use them in places where you might otherwise use a buzz bait, being mindful about the treble hooks that could snag on excess vegetation. Basically I'll use them around shallow to mid depth stickups like trees and bushes, not so much around softer vegetation.

I'm not a tall guy. I don't care about handle length so much. I find when I'm fishing jerk baits, any rod over 6'6"and I'm smacking the side of the boat alot. I haven't broken a tip yet, but that's just a matter of time. Most of the time, I use an even shorter rod, a 6'3" med action spinning rod. That lets me throw a half ounce lucky craft a long ways (14 lb fireline). Anyway, that's my current approach to jerk baits.

Please understand that there aren't any magic colors or rigs. You start with seasonal patterns. The old In-fisherman formula - Fish + Location + Presentation = Success is a good plase to start. There is a time and a place for every rig under the sun. Notice that presentation is the third line in the formula. First, do your research, get an understanding of how & where fish live. Then stat to use the grey matter between your ears to figure out a presentation. The background information is required to give your questions context.

I have a number of different lipless cranks that I experiment with from time to time, but day in and day out, I throw a Berkley Frenzy in a shiny threadfin shad color.

Like the previous post, I've got an older Bottom Line version of the Fishing Buddy. Mine runs off of 4 C cell batteries (or 3, I'm not certain at this moment) I got it when, back in the day I was dependent on borrowed boats, or I fished waters where people kept jon boats on the lake. I thought it worked ok. It worked better when I got an extra mounting bracket, which made moving it from side to side on the boat much easier. The only down side I remember was that it ate batteries,i.e. new batteries would last all day, no problem, but they were unlikely to last very long into a second trip. Basically every time you wanted to go fishing you had to drop 4 bucks or so on batteries. Not a really big deal, but a pain in the butt. I haven't traded or gotten rid of my unit on the off chance that I might go fishing from a borrowed or rented boat some time and I might need it.

My favorite square bill type crank is the Timber Tiger. I think the 1/2 ounce DC8 size is the most versatile, although I throw the DC4 and the DC16 quite a bit. (The DC16 isn't really a square bill type bait.) Most of the time I'll throw a whitish, shad colored bait, in very clear water they make a very good blue gill imitator color. In very stained/muddy water I like to throw a chartruese/purple color.

I just googled "waterproof containers". You've got many options. All the options listed previously plus waterproof document cases, waterproof cigarette cases, nearly any size you can imagine. They weren't all that expensive, either. I've got a smallish pelican case that holds my cell phone and truck keys. It will work for now. Should I decide to upgrade, I want one that floats.

Everyone has their own idea of how to approach this fishing issue. Here is how I do it. (I fish from a boat) I bring 20 or so rods and reels along, all rigged up with different baits, sometimes only slightly different. So for me, switching lures is just a matter of setting one rig down and grabbing a different one. I'll take a moment to explain the logic behind this. Fishing tackle can be bought. Fishing time can't, it is priceless. So anything I can do to maximize fishing time and reduce down time caused by changing lures, etc, I will do. An exception to this rule is if I bring a buddy along in my boat, I'll really try to keep it to 8 or 10 rigs.

I managed to get the time off from work and I've decided to do the Fishing for Freedom thing the first weekend of October (8 & 9) at Truman Lake, out of Long Shoal Marina. I just wondered how many other guys from this board were going to participate. Everything I've researched about it seems like a good deal and I'm planning on having a good time that weekend. For more information, go the the Leavenworth Bass Club website and click on Fishing for Freedom.

I prefer upright freezers to chest freezers primarily because it is easier to keep stuff orgainzed for me. Stuff can get lost at the bottom of a chest freezer and stay there for years. You probably won't notice it on your electric bill. The only bad thing about a chest or upright freezer is if you suffer a long power outage. You'll lose a bunch of food and you can't imagine the stench it will create.