moguy1973

Caught this nice one out of my in-law's pond last weekend. Also caught this one that had been got by something, maybe blue heron as they've seen one in the pond lately.

I have one that I bought for my wife to use. It's a nice spinning reel for the price. Very light and smooth.

I use the 5 for $20 SA Fishing ones. Work fine for me.

Nothing super expensive. $120 Carbonite II rod with a $169 Lews Tournament SLP Speed Spool

Straight 30 or 40lb braid. My new go to braid is Power Pro super slick.

I’m no engine mechanic or expert but those seem to have a pretty big gap? I did a quick google search and it says .042-.044 gap recommended. Those seem a little bigger than that? Hard to tell with the pictures though. They the insulator doesn’t look like they are fouling though.

That is not true. Pre-packaged meat is put on a styrofoam tray, then wrapped in plastic, then according to whatever the number is on the bottom of the tray they put that number in the scale that prints the label, it tares the scale to remove the packaging weight, and the weight of the actual product is priced. I worked in a meat room wrapping meat at a grocery store for several years when I was younger. The weight of the packaging is rolled into the cost of the product inside usually. In fact, the luggage scale up above that I bought has a tare button on it. I use a fish grips to hold my fish when I weigh it. So I turn the scale on, hit the tare button to zero it out and remove the weight of the fish grips and I get a true reading of how much the fish weighs.

For wake baits I'm thinking a Cotton Cordell Red Fin would work great up there.

I picked up a couple of these back when this thread came out. One for my fishing bag and one for my boat. They work great, are super cheap, and are accurate. If they get wet or I drop it in the water I'm only out a few bucks.

If you are looking for a spinning set up you can't go wrong with a Pfluger President reel and a Berkley Lightning rod. Great setup for about $100. Casting will cost you a bit more unless you go with something from Kastking or something. Lew's makes a couple lower end casting reels for about $60 or so that are decent, and for a rod I'd again go with a Berkley Lightning rod.

Bed liner isn't slick and it's rather heavy when applied correctly. Would definitely slow down any watercraft. I'm with WRB, a good welder could have all that prepped and welded up in about a day, if not half a day. Flap wheel would make it so you'd never know there were holes in it.

https://zekoshoes.com/ Comfy and easy to take on and off if you need to

These are the split ring pliers I use and they work great. Much better than any fishing split ring pliers I've ever used: https://www.amazon.com/Xuron-496-Split-Ring-Plier/dp/B07DDBDDCS

It's possible but not ideal, and Trackers aren't flat on the bottom and the rivers are rather rocky around here. Plus it does well with the 60hp but putting a jet on it effectively makes it a 40hp and it wouldn't perform as it should.

I'd love to have both a lake boat and a smaller river boat, but the two limiting factors. First is I don't really have a good place for one boat as it is, as it takes up one garage spot during the summer as it is and my truck has to sit outside during that time. Not a big deal but there really isn't a place for a 2nd boat unless I store it somewhere else which is less than ideal. I have a somewhat large yard but being it's a corner lot there are some local municipality laws which require it to have it's own pad to store it on and there are stipulations on that. Second is my boss (wife) would require a river boat big enough to fit the whole family, which kind of goes along with not having room in the first place to put a 2nd boat.

Too far. When I got my boat, a 17' Bass Tracker with a 60hp prop, I thought it would be awesome to have a boat to be able to go out fishing all the time. Being in St. Louis is a horrible place to live and have a boat like mine though. The closest "decent" fishing lake is in Illinois about a hour and 15 minutes away. There are other lakes closer but they have HP restrictions which mine has too much to run on. We do have awesome lakes like Table Rock, Bull Shoals, and Lake of the Ozarks, but even those are all 3+ hours away, and Lake of the Ozarks anymore, unless you go on the week days you need a 21' fiberglass boat to even have a chance at all the waves created by the recreational yachts and wake boats they have there. Being that far from these lakes makes day trips pretty worthless as 6 hours+ of driving makes for a short day of fishing. If I did it all over I would have a boat with a jet on it. I live about 5 minutes from a river ramp, and although the fishing isn't super great, it's super close. That same river, if I drive 30 minutes to a ramp upstream, has amazing small mouth bass fishing, which I prefer anyways.

It's actually a 656% increase. But hey, whatever right? lol He also just closed all state DNR ran lakes and parks, so you can't even use your $118 trailer to tow your boat to the lake because they are closed.

Bringing this topic back up for those who have sick leave during this trying time. Our work, in the case schools are closed and we have to stay home to watch the kids, is requiring us to take sick leave while we are home. Another reason why not to take a hookie sick day to go fishing. Still gotta get paid.

Nice 2 1/2 lber out of a chilly pond today https://flic.kr/p/2iEiHve

Typically they should last about three years if they are a lead acid battery. AGM and gel batteries have a longer life of 6 or more years.

Kankakee River just south of you has them. Good luck!

It's the only braid I use now. I find it more manageable than normal power pro, especially on a spinning rig.

I asked about what happens to the fish for long Classic weigh in drives in the 2020 Classic thread. Found my answer with Google search in this article from the 2016 Grand Lake Classic. https://www.bassmaster.com/news/what-happens-bass-after-classic-weigh

When they have the Classic on Grand in Oklahoma it's about the same time-wise of a drive to Tulsa. None of these Classic lakes are really close to the bigger arenas they need for the weigh-ins so that's what happens. I want to know what happens to the fish then. Do they get to make the trip back up to the lake to be put back in? Or do they become local food pantry table fodder? I guess this article from the 2016 Grand Lake Classic explains it. They make it back home it seems: https://www.bassmaster.com/news/what-happens-bass-after-classic-weigh

I love my Carbonlite 2.0 bait caster.