Spankey

On a local scale, home water I fish I fish I can be there in as short as 20 minutes or 45 minutes depending on which ramp I use. But if I’m doing a road trip south to the Flats, Potomac, Chick or James that’s a haul 2-4 hours. I’m staying over most times. No complaints going or coming back. I love that part of the world. I have not caught a snakehead yet. Have never seen one. They are there by what I’m told and get asked if I’ve gotten one. I could be wrong but I think some people are into eating them. ??? IDK.

Great bait all the time. Sometimes I like to play around with patterns but my favorites are these. Chrome w/ Black back Chrome w/ Blue back Gold w/ Black back *** Firetiger if you spend time on the river ***

The lure lines of Bomber, Bandits, Rebel and other has been shrinking for years. Not surprised by your situation. I guess those H2O’s are Academy’s specific?

I have a small handful of the more expensive baits you are referring to. My results have not been poor but they certainly have not turned my fishing around. I’m a bit old school and I’ll always reach to and have my older baits tied on. I have an impressive collection of old school hardbaits I fish. Rapalas, Storm, Cotton’s, Bombers, Bandits and Rat-L-Traps. Majority of patterns have not been produced in years. Back in the real early 80’s while doing field service I met a guy who worked for Bandit Lures. He was a great connection. No Bandits were hanging from a peg board up here in my part of Penna. The 200 series he hooked me up with were killer on the river for smallies. They immediately caught fish. We kept contact for quite some time. He would contact me on special run colors and new standard basic patterns. I do not have one bandit (I have many) that has not caught at least one river Smallie. I bought some really bizarre patterns, colors that I’d never would consider fishing, only for them to put smallies in the boat. It’s just the confidence I have in some of my older baits. Over the last few years I’ve become real impressed with the results I’m having with Strike King Crankbaits I use at lake for largemouths. But I would not consider them to be expensive. Just another inexpensive bait that works.

Can’t really fish one wrong. The Jointed version is a good change up as something different for them to look at. Same with jointed Shad Rap. I’m just a Rapala junkie. Too bad they didn’t work out for the guy.

Boat.

As a kid when I was 10-16 years old I could not drive (farm tractor I did) to the trout streams. An old retired Philly Electric guy had a farm and a buddy I grew up with worked for him. He was a trout nut. He taught me about them and fishing for them. Being a trout nut is ok. For some better trout fishing we’d go over to the next county. Close to the creek we fished was one of those old gas stations with the pumps right along the road. Small two bay service building with the smallest general store I’ve ever seen. They had a good selection of live bait, CP Swings, Daredevils, Eagle Claw. But best of all the old guy had a sweet tooth that went along with that trout fishing. He’d get us those old Dolly Madison snack cakes (I think they were called Zingers?) and the place had a great selection of bottled soda. Royal Crown, A-Treat, Grape Shasta. Thanks for your post to jog my memory about that old service station.

I live in the wrong part of the country. Should have moved away years ago.

I’m fortunate enough to have two shops close enough to me that I can buy quality rods and reels from. Two things I don’t like to buy sight unseen. But not to say I never did, but don’t like to. Their selection of bass lure has a lot to be desired. But I realize they can’t satisfy everyone so there are ways around that. For trout season baits and live bait guys they sort of have it all covered. And catfish guys. I can get to these shops in 1/2 hr. Drive. As a kid and a young guy there were mom and pop shops and hardware stores that I thought had great selections. Loved to be taken there. They started dying out soon after I started driving in ‘76-‘77. My bases were covered for many years by a great shop I found outside of Allentown. Found some great trout fishing up in that area so it went hand in hand. He closed up and got scared when Cabela’s moved in. If I feel like taking a road trip to BPS or Cabela’s I can but that’s not very often. There DICK’S and Wally World in the area but generally don’t have much. I hear some of you guys have DICK’S and Wally’s with great selections. That’s the truth. I wish BPS all the luck in the world. But my desire with them fell off when a lot or too many house brand items seemed to over run things. There was a time they were full line dealers for most manufacturers like Bill Lewis, Storm, Berkley and many others. I’m not into their (BPS) baits.

I’m almost there for the lifetime license. I have one more year to do a reg. resident. My first year required to have license was 16 yo. I have a box full of all my old fishing and hunting license’s, derby buttons, club buttons. Though cool that I held on to that stuff the ones the guys back in 20’s, 30’s and 40’s had were real nice. Here in PA for quite a few year we had a real trout stamp. Similar to a duck stamp. That got killed many moons ago. I have them.

That was my favorite. I bet I could find some old issues if I dig around.

If you are in a spot and get a couple of bites and they are not that big. Maybe 12” fish. That does not mean that there are ones there that are bigger. When you catch a bass that does not mean it’s spooking others. But it is possible I guess. Someday if you fish long enough you’ll catch a bass and have him on, than while reeling him in you’ll feel a big bump and next thing you know you’ll have a double header. Likely on a crankbait or jerkbait. The amount of time I’d stay on a spot will vary. I might start out in a spot and maybe I get a couple dinks and runts but feel I should have done better, I’ll move on down from that spot but revisit that same spot a bit later. Give the a look at a different bait most likely. Never give up and try to make things happen. Try to keep it simple. I agree with this even know this is not a regular event for me. I’ve had times where I’m catching some nice fish in a particular spot, they go right in the live well until I move on. Get a few pics and release them. It’s nice to have a livewell in good working condition.

I pretty much know where I’m gonna start ahead of time. I’ll hit a couple of points I want to fish first or be the first person on them at least. Can’t say I get distracted and do something I didn’t have planned. Than drift river sections I normally fish. Lake fishing is the same thing.

Good lines and readily available. On sale all season long somewhere.

I would think Penna. has one of the better managed trout programs in the country. There is quite a bit of wild and native trout populations. But I could be wrong, not like I fished all over the country for them. Living basically suburban I don’t have to go to far for them. They are special regs trout. Catch and release fish. Great program. Some of our stocked streams have special regs sections. No fishing in there with conventional tackle or baits. I’ve been chasing trout around since I was a young guy. No intentions of ever stopping. Wish I would have taken the fly rod serious when is was around 10 years old. I’m ok with it but there is a difference between being good/ok and having it in your blood. Someone post that their state would stock small ponds or wet holes with trout. We’ll that’s for kids or kids derby fishing. That’s a good little project for them. Purely put and take. I’d rather see them put them in a stream with a positive flow to some degree. But fishing stocked streams is not just fishing elbow to elbow in a circle around a deeper hole in a creek or fishing the slack water under a bridge with bridge rats. Most of those guys that’s all they know of trout fishing.

“But there’s no guarantee on the box.” Couldn’t resist the quote by Ted in the movie Tommy Boy.

Pads or Hydrilla that drop of quickly. Rock banks the drop off steep. Don’t have a lot of wood laydowns at the lake. There is underwater structure there. Bridge piling. They’ll bust your stones if you fish the Marina and docks. Sort of off limits.

There was a time when the BPS Excel was great line. That line is not what it was 20 years ago. I was told it was Trilene XL. So I was told. What it is now I have no idea. But they (BPS) will stand behind their products if you are not satisfied. I remember the Photochromic from back in the 80’s I believe and it was a good quality line.

The SunLine Super Natural I believe runs slightly less diameter for the same rating as popular others. SLIGHTLY. I probably change/replace my line more than the average guy. Just a natural habit I’m stuck with nowadays. I just don’t like line that is not smooth to the touch and I don’t like memory coils. They make sprays for that but I don’t think those sprays are all that. Seem easier to replace my line after a couple outings that I used it hard.

I use very limited braid. Couple of particular setups. I use no Fluoro. But think I going to try a SunLine Fluoro on a certain cranking setup I use. Majority of my fishing is with mono. SunLine Supernatural Mono is good stuff, McCoy Mean Green Co-poly is great stuff. Some spinning setup I use for lighter crankbaits is my line of choice. You can use this line hard and stays flat. It’s meant for spinning reels. I don’t have any beefs with Trilene XL, Big Game or Stren. These will work for me also. I buy my line in bulk spools. Cheaper and makes sense when you change out your line a lot. I fish fairly light 6, 8 and 10#. I’m pretty anal also it gets replaced I’m sure more than average.

I don’t fish for a living. I don’t have manufacturers giving me freebies. Over all the years it’s been a lot of live and learn, trial and error (still trial and error to this day). During this time I sort of become loyal to some brands because they work or sort of have given good results. I’m a Shimano fanboy as well as one of St. Croix. Will continue to be but, more recently (last few years) I’ve been fishing some Abu Garcia stuff geared toward crankbait fishing. Has worked out well.

Pretty good overall selection. I like that Rapala DT in Bluegill. A favorite. Good luck.

Lip gripper is the most sensible. I have one and use it. But there are time when you get all hung up in the moment and crap happens.

Things are not what they were 20 or more years ago. Bomber was a complete different company. I could pull my Bomber trays out and the patterns were a lot more extensive and greater options. But times have changed. This Gen 2 my be necessary for them to survive as a company. For $3.99 they are worth the try. In my mind the two Shad patterns caught my eye and in my head I had confidence they would be ok as long as they ran ok. Hope other patterns work for y’all. Bombers are more of a river bait for me. I’ll throw those on Monday for a bit on the river. I can’t get out between now and than.

Had a less than stellar morning at the lake. Feel my head was in it. Really thought I approached it right. Had my share of hits, bites, hookups and lost fish. Did land a few on soft craws, 13”-15” fish but I was hoping for bigger. Wind got out of hand and was gonna pull the plug. I’m a long time old school Bomber fan. Recently picked up a few of the Gen 2 crankbaits. Did not have high expectations because they were $3.99 each and not sure with the new color pattern to work out. I was drawn to two of the Shad patterns and threw fat free fingerlings, Guppy and Model a’s. They ran perfectly without issue. I picked up a couple of more fish with them in the wind. To my surprise these $3.99 cb’s were successful. I’m not impressed with their color patterns but surprised with the way they ran. But as far as patterns I guess it is that the fish like and not what I like. Just wanted to pass on how well the ran and the depths I got with them.