Spankey

Rapala becoming one of the bad boys……?…..but it will probably work.

If I’m having a day that’s not going real great. Have had many days like that, Maybe a skunking is coming or heck maybe a day-o-dinks is going on and I’d like to go home having caught one respectable fish. The old Rat-L-Trap has come through.

I’m all about wade fishing the creek and the crick but in my waders with a decent wade shoe. When I was a lot younger we’d wind up doing all kind of spur of the moment stuff and go down and catch some trout and smallies during the summer. Great times.

Took delivery on a few new baits today. Tried to find the Rocco 5 locally without any luck. They appear to be a great bait and I expect it to work as well as DT’s, OG 6’s or any of my Rapala’s for that matter. Silent balsa square bill, can’t wait to use these in shallow laydowns. Only chose a few productive patterns I already use.

Kicked off my bass season off yesterday. No big mishaps. Boat ran fine, didn’t hit anything submerged, water was not in great shape but fishable. We just came off a lot of rain. Don’t think I made great bait choices but in my mind I thought I was doing right. Caught a few runt Smallies. I’ll take it, I was happy enough. I’m switching from being in trout mode to bass mode right now. Got a lot of fishing and catching in in the last 5 or 6 weeks. So casting, knot tying, detecting hits has been going on. Having a trout season sort of shakes away some of the winter cobwebs. Trout aren’t bass and bass aren’t trout but it makes the transition easier after a long winter.

Pretty common to see lighter (paler) colored Bluegill here in PA lakes. Not just juvenile sizes. I’m no panfish expert by a long shot but color my differ by surrounding or aggression levels as that of bass. My two grandsons have caught many variations of the PA Sunfish family. Always a new one coming along it seems. Here in PA we have some lakes with size moratoriums on bluegills. Fun on a fly rod. I’d bet it he were alive he’d be pretty light in color is what you have there.

Kicked it off yesterday. River conditions not great but fishable and safe. Had it in my head to fish jerkbaits on a few incoming creek points. Just the way I would normally start off covering these points first on any day I’m out. I fished Rapala Husky Jerks, Count downs and a few X-raps. Accomplished nothing on them. Don’t think fish were there, but can’t say that for sure. Kicked myself in the butt for not fishing some Shad Raps and a DT’s. I would have fished them faster. Switched to soft plastic craws on these points and caught 3 smallies and had countless hits. 11” fish, sounds like nothing but it’s my start. I got hung up fishing these jerkbaits and craws. Should have thrown more stuff. Grubs, tubes and Spider jigs next trip out.

I don’t use them when I’m crankbait fishing. But the use of them might help with line twist. Might. Crankbait fishing is hard on your line, but in my case I’m always replacing line prematurely to eliminate twist and abrasions.

I don’t know the rod you are talking about but keep fishing it. I’m willing to bet it will all come together for you. Others seem to like it. Last June when I retired a couple of work buddies bought me a Victory VTS73MXF. At first it was a hate hate relationship. I tried to like it. I tried to fish it as much as possible. In my hands it felt too weird to me. The fore end was too long for my liking. But it’s not, I was not fishing that handle correctly. This past fall I took it to the Lower Chesapeake Bass fishing and it was 2 days of a half decent bite. LM and everything else was hitting. Found out that my hand position had to be corrected between the reel seat and the fore end. I realize this might not be the same problem as you have but what I thought was gonna be a disaster has worked out great. Was easy enough to adjust to. At first my mind didn’t want to. Those Victory rods are nice. I like all my SC rods. Great for soft plastics. I had been kicking around a second, thought the VTS71MF would be a better all around, a bit slower tip. After touching it numerous time over the winter I finally bought the dang thing the other day. It will work out fine now that I have that longer fore end figured out. I hope it works out better for you this season.

St. Croix has hook keepers. I Trout fish with a couple of UL rods in the Trout Series and Triumph Series. Decent feature. Pretty sure the Panfish Series has them as well. But if you like the rod and it has the right feel I would not worry about the hook keeper. Too many ways around that. Seem a bit weird but fish it if you like it. That’s the most important thing.

I guess as long as you get your ****.in a timely fashion what’s the difference. But it’s a head scratcher.

Woke up this morning thinking about my trout fishing buddy who passed away in the fall. I think about him a lot in general, will never forget him. Was not a life long friendship, about 7 years worth but it was like we had known each other since being kids. Many fishing things in common, we did grow in the same area but never knew each other. So anyway I have him in my mind and the Paul McCartney song “Uncle Albert” in there at the same time. Sort of goes together I guess. The first few sets of lyrics at least. I wish I could call/text him but I can’t. The lyric “But the kettle’s on the boil and we’re so easily called away”. That part just gets me because I didn’t have contact with him for the handful of days before he passed. “The kettle’s on the boil” = talking past and future trouts, “And we’re so easily called away” = I got hung up with other things I was doing or had to do. The loss of contact. If his family would have cared about him more and at least let me in on things even a little bit, I would not be troubled (as troubled) about it. But they are dicks.

I like this idea ??. A tube is an all around go to for my river smallies. When I’m on the lake I’ll tube fish rock, pads and grass. But I have not fished a big flipping tube. But can see the point of fishing them.

I can spew a very colorful tapestry of profanity at the drop of a dime. It’s a Philly thing. Bad things happen in Philly. ?

I realize that the question is not directed to me but it doesn’t make any sense to come that way. Actually more expensive for them. Who cares what it cost them? Ok I can see that but if they were more efficient maybe they could pass that savings on to me. BPS in not cheap and overpriced for the most part. Not a full line dealer for any mfg’s anymore. It all depends how you look at it with BPS and Cabela’s.

You are 100% correct I’m sure. BPS/Cabela’s is fairly easy to deal with. Hope they resolve your issue. I don’t want to bad mouth them. Time have changed. They have changed. It is what it is. All that loyalty stuff went out the window a long time ago. Big companies like that put a lot of good mom and pop shops out of business. I’m lucky to have two decent mom and pops, can buy direct and TW picks up the rest. Heck, as I kid I would buy my stuff at the hardware store.

I’m fairly new to retirement (last June). I don’t fish day and night, I have other various things I have to do at home. But I do get out when I want to vs. when I can. There is a big difference between the two. At 3:30 this afternoon I’ll be at my oldest daughters house picking up my middle grandson after school. We’ll go down to the creek and cover about a mile of it for some trout. Weather has been terrible and creek conditions not great due to recent rain. But fishable. Priceless time, couldn’t do that when I was working during a weekday. Our last time out before rain kicked in they were hitting Rapala ultra lites. That’s what we are gonna start off with and take it from there.

For my river smallie fishing it’s mostly stepping back to my roots a bit. I’ve gotten away from some basic types of fishing. But I’m not saying that is/was a bad thing. Whenever I’m out I’d like to think I’m fishing for a new PB. * devote more time to topwater fishing with time proven lures I use to fish. * break out the old Rebel and Mann’s crankbaits and fish them again. * fish more of the old school tubes and grubs.

For a long time I’ve been a St. Croix and Abu Garcia rod fan boy. It’s just how things developed. BUT, I’ve fished Mitchell, Lightning Rods, Rapala Rods and Ugly Sticks for many many moons. Have caught countless Smallies and Trout with them from the time of being a kid. I’m gonna say the Rapala branded rod is probably the best of the lower end rods I’ve ever used. Would like $0.10 for every smallie taken with it. That rod and the Browning reel I bought with it at the time is now days a wall hanger in my back room. I have an old UL Mitchell set up from back about ‘71 or ‘72 that’s a wall hanger, countless amount of trout taken on it. I’ll give opinions on rods I fish these days but I’ve never have been one to push an opinion on what someone else should buy. I can’t do that in a world where everything is overpriced. A St. Croix or Loomis is not a low $$$ rod and guys should not have to feel that they are necessary to catch bass. There are plenty of good/very good moderately priced rods out there.

Here in PA I believe length possession is 40”. I would never take one any way. I’m 2” short of that with a 38” Tiger Musky caught in ‘21. While river Smallie fishing on a 08 Shad Rap and 8# test. Shad Raps, DT’s, Bombers and Bandits have gotten them. Lost a couple of lures to them along the way. I been lucky enough to get them in on 6 & 8 lb. test. Never had one die from exhaustion (I don’t think so). I don’t touch their skin. They are a cool fish. The Spotted Muskies I’ve caught, though smaller 24-26” fish are by far the nicest looking pattern of fish with random size and shapes of spots on them. I’ll never be a true Musky fisherman. But the accidental unexpected catch of them is cool.

This is in line with my goal. A 7# Greenie is doable with some luck. I’ve had her on a couple of time lost her with a head shake. I fish for a new personal best every time out. It will happen. My PB Smallie and LM are very close in size. I don’t really fish targeting Muskies. My catches over the years have been freak catches while fishing for river smallies. Majority have been landed. I’d like to hit that 48” mark. But one that size as an accidental catch is gonna make a 6-8 lb. Smallie Rig a real mess. The chance I’ll have to take. If I purposely fished for them I’d probably never catch one.

Yep I’ve noticed the same thing. Package comes without a packing slip and that is the most frustrating thing about it. Sort of don’t know what to expect. Guess you can check your email but I just want a packing slip. I won’t talk ill of BPS or Cabela’s but I don’t have the customer relationship I once had with them years ago. At one time, years ago, they were full line dealer for many top manufacturers . BPS would rather push the house brand of items these days and I’m not interested in them. I've had a couple of recent orders where a few items were damaged. Not in shipping, damage at their place and sent out damaged. They acknowledged it was their fault and made good in a short time frame but it’s just a hassle. I could name a few dislikes and give some poor opinions but won’t dis them. I have found others that can get me what I need/want.

I hear ya. I’m kicking on a 2nd Victory rod. Leaning toward the VTS71MF. Have touched it numerous time but have not pulled the trigger. YET. When I retired last year a couple of work buddies bought me a Victory VTS73MXF. I almost sold it or was gonna trade it because I didn’t think I’d ever get use to the long, longer, fore grip length. Fished it off and on, was still up in the air about it. Fished the bay (brackish) twice with it later in the season and caught everything going with it using bottom contact baits. Boated a lot of fish. That Was all it took to get use to the longer fore grip. I feel the 7’1” Med. Fast will get used hard with the soft plastics I used. Like the bit slower tip to it. I’m now a fan to the longer fore grip. Was easy to get use to when you have days with a decent bite going on. You don’t think, over think about it. Have two gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. Don’t need another rod but would like to have a pair of Victory’s.

Will kick the season off midweek on approx. the 10th. Here in the North East/Mid Atlantic we’ve been slammed with some torrential rains (the way of Mother Nature) a few rivers have to get back to a normal. Tuff river conditions right now. Can kick it off on the lake. Smallies are a tough catch. At least in my case. Will cove fish for them and fish chunk rock banks. More apt to catch Mr. Greenjeans. But I’m fine with that. The lake has a heavy stain to it and up right now. Went to the ramp today. Needs a few days of sun on it. Bass season doesn’t kick off until mid June but my bass fishing is 100% catch and immediate release. For the most part not late to the party getting out. Been hammering the trout fishing spinning and fly fishing. My middle grandson has been having some real fun with it and I enjoy spending every minute I can with him. We’ll keep getting out for more. Have him signed up for a couple of fly fishing seminars that I’ll go with him. My winter project of finding duplicates (triples) of some of my crankbaits didn’t go real well. Many of my productive Bombers and Bandits are long out of production and longshots to find. But not impossible as I did find a few. Rapalas are a go to anytime I’m out but have started fishing some SPRO, MegaBass, Googan and 6th Sense with success over the last handful of years. I like my old school but want to get out of the box every once in awhile. I have to get back heavier into the topwater game for river smallies. Have not been fishing it for longer time lengths. Been too quick to switch techniques up. Not that that was a bad thing but I’m shorting myself on topwater time. Sorry for being so long winded. Got carried away.

Height and flow will certainly increase. What we got last Saturday created a better flow. I’m not gonna deal with the downpours this weekend. I’ll mess with them during the week. My middle grandson has taken a liking to trout fishing. He wants to give the fly fishing a whirl. I have him signed up for a class in a couple of weeks. I’ll go with him because I can use all the help also. I get my river and lake time in but running down to the creek is quick and easy spur of the moment stuff. Actually gets me more fish time in.