Scott F

Used boats are in short supply. If it were me, I’d take it to a boat dealer and have them sell it for me on consignment. Even dealers can’t get many to sell. I sold mine like that this spring. The dealer got top dollar and even after paying the commission, I pocketed more than I’d have gotten for it if I’d sold it myself and I didn’t have to do more than drive it over to the dealer.

At $100 there really isn’t anything that anybody could call the best. That’s the low end for waders. You are limited to rubber or canvas with the boots attached. These are the least comfortable waders you can buy. At $130 or so, you can get breathable, stocking foot waders but you’ll have to spend another $60 or more on boots. For something just to get in the water with, anything in the under $100 price point will do. If you plan on being in the water fishing, wading and moving around, you need to budget about twice that to get something that fits well, protects your ankles and is comfortable.

The guide in this photo is not the same style as in the photo posted in the original post. If the bent guide was on a rod I purchased, I would slowly bend it back to where it belongs.

Fall isn’t the same everywhere. Deep is also relative. When the lake turns over and the water temps are relatively constant from top to bottom, they can go everywhere. While there are still green weeds, bluegills will hang around them all winter even under the ice in just a few feet of water.

Do you think the reason you haven’t caught fish on those lures is because the lures are no good?

What do you call a dog that does magic tricks? A Labracadabrador

Sandbars can provide a good current break where they can sit out of the main flow and wait for food to drift past them.

There is another Butternut Lake about 80 miles East of Park Falls that is a fantastic smallmouth lake.

Straight braid for me. Makes walking the dog much easier. You do have to be careful not to let the lure stop too quickly in the air. If the lure stops with a jerk it will snap back and cause the lure to foul. Having it land with a little bit of slack in the line will usually prevent it. This goes for any lure, especially ones with treble hooks and braided line.

I was on a fly-in trip to Northern Manitoba several years ago. We had a guide who made us shore lunch every day with the walleyes we’d catch. One day, the guide had forgotten to pack silverware to eat our lunch with. I removed the treble hooks from a couple of Dardevle spoons and we were able to eat. I don’t believe Eppinger ever intended for their “spoons” to used as actual eating utensils.

Silver, Big Dude blade bait.

They can get pretty big. This one was around 17 pounds

What would make it sacrilegious? I had a couple of them on my boat for land locked stripers and Great Lakes salmon.

Smallmouth coloration has to do with the amount of sunlight, water color and the bottom content. They change color to camouflage themselves. Bass caught off a Sandy bottom will be very light in color. The tannic stained water of my favorite river has most of the fish very dark, almost black. Bright sun through choppy water really produces lots of dark bars on a light background. As roadwarrior just posted, put the fish in a live well for a while and the color will change quite a bit

I seldom use cash for much but I always have $20-$50 cash on me. I use a debit card most of the time. Credit cards for gas. I have at least 6 credit cards but have no balances on any of them. I’m a believer in keeping my credit score high.

Just another confirmation that muskies are just plain crazy and make those that fish for them crazy in the process.

Have him watch the YouTube videos of idiot drivers and dash cam videos. Those will freak you out even more. They made me want to stay home and I’ve had my license for 50 years and have logged well over a million miles. Seeing the consequences of distracted driving, too much speed and the need to be a defensive driver has changed the way I drive.

Matching the hatch is a trout fishing tactic. Different species of insects hatch at different times. When there is a hatch, of a specific insect, they all hatch at about the same that causes a feeding frenzy. The trout fishermen in order to be successful, needs to match the current hatch of insects. If a big hatch happens on bass waters like a mayfly hatch, I’d guess you have few lures in your box that look like mayflies. I know occasionally, bass might key on a particular forage, but they are more likely to key on the fish that are feeding on the insects than the hatch itself. My experience says not to waste a lot of time trying to match the hatch while chasing bass.

I stopped talking about retirement to those who still have to go to work every day. They don’t like hearing about how great it is. Back when I was working, retirement seemed like one of those things that are fun to dream about but was never really likely to happen. Like winning the lottery. Being able to live and pay your bills without having a job just seemed like a fantasy. But, here it is. Good planning, having a 401k, and living within my means is making retirement even better than what I could have hoped for. Even if you are still in your 30’s and retirement seems like it will never get here, it will be here before you know it. Plan for it, save some of your money.

I use nearly any plastic I own on slider heads. Senkos, grubs, crawfish baits, anything.

I was born in ‘55. I am constantly amazed at how technology has evolved during my lifetime. From 9” black and white tv’s and 3 stations where my dad would make me get up to change the channel for him to 75” high-def with 250 channels and on demand so you can watch nearly anything that’s ever been broadcast anytime you want. Cameras had film that you had to take to the drugstore and wait a week to get printed only to find you had your finger over the lens. Now, you not only get to see your photos instantly, you get high definition videos you can watch on your phone. Back in the day, we had 45’s and LP’s you had to take care of and not scratch up. Or your music came from small, tinny, transistor radios tuned to an AM station where you heard the same top 40 songs over and over again. Today, nearly every song ever recorded is available in a little device in your pocket. I remember pouring over the Christmas catalogs and circling the toys I wanted from Santa. Collecting soda bottles and returning them to the corner store for the 2 cents a piece and buying penny candy. Nostalgia is fine and fun to think about but I sure do appreciate how much easier life is in the modern world.

Natural lakes, as a rule, don’t have creek channels. Man made lakes, or reservoirs, are created by putting up a dam and backing up a river, flooding the area surrounding the river. There may be creeks that run into a natural lake and creeks that run out of natural lakes. As you noted, there is no current except for surface currents created by wind in natural lakes.

I have a lot of older fishing tackle that I haven't used in years. There are a few reasons why I don't get rid of a lot of it. I used to do a lot of fly in fishing trips for pike/walleyes/lake trout but haven't done a trip like that in years. I know there is a limited market for most of those lures and they'd only bring in a few cents on the dollar if I was able to sell any of them. It would be a lot of work to put the stuff online and as soon as I got rid of it, one of my friends would ask me to go on a trip and I'd have to spend a fortune at today's prices to buy the stuff again. Lastly. these lures don't take up THAT much space and I have a room to store all of it.

I’ve done it twice in the same day before. When you are fortunate enough to find an active school of bass, in my case it’s always been smallmouth, it happens.

Yes, that is normal for Fireline.