Scott F

This is my personal pontoon.

I’m not a kayak owner myself, I have a different style personal watercraft, but I know a lot of bass fishermen who have them. The guys I know who have them are all smallmouth guys. In northern Illinois, there aren’t many lakes with largemouth but there are many miles of rivers that have good populations of smallies. Normal prop driven boats can’t safely navigate these rivers so if you want to catch those bass, a kayak is one of the best tools. I’m older with some back issues and I’m not comfortable in a kayak. I use a personal pontoon. Much more stable than a kayak and I can get in and out of them easily. The only other real disadvantage to kayaks is that for the most part, rivers are one way. You float down and need a shuttle to get you back to your car.

I’m 70. I used to drive almost anywhere. From the Chicago area, I’d take annual driving trips to Florida, Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin plus other side trips to Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan etc. I’d drive all night, or 15-16 hours at a time, all no big deal. Now, if I have to drive an hour, I’d rather stay home. I can’t imagine spending 12 hours behind the wheel ever again.

For many years, the majority of my fishing were on trips anywhere from 100 to 2,500 miles from home. After a while, besides long trips, I’d fish the smaller rivers near my home. I no longer live near the smaller rivers and I no longer wish to drive (or fly) to all the remote waters I used to.

Several years ago, my wife and I were on vacation in Florida. While visiting the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, near Cape Canaveral, we saw a large animal on lying the side of the one lane road on the wildlife drive. It was dark in color and from a distance, I thought it was a deer. As we got closer, it stood up and began walking down the road moving away from us. I quickly realized it wasn’t a deer. The long tail told me it was a Florida panther. We slowly followed it for about 100 yards when it stopped, turned it’s head, looked at us the lept off the road into the dense vegetation. I enquired at the visitor center if there were any panthers known to be in the refuge but they weren’t aware of any.

I agree about choosing a river to float down. The current takes care of moving you so you only have to paddle to steer. However, you’ll need to arrange a shuttle. Locate a kayak/canoe rental place and for a fee, they’ll not only provide a shuttle, but they will give you good options for stretches to fish. If that works for you, try to arrange to leave your car at the take out point. You won’t have to wait around for someone to come and get you once you get done.

I keep most of my plastic baits except for elaztech baits in plastic boxes and have done so for many years.

If it were me, fishing with 2 young boys, I’d stop trying for big fish, and just try to catch anything, regardless of size. Going long periods without a bite gets boring especially for kids. If you want them to quit being excited about fishing, keep doing what you’re doing. Downsize your lures and stay shallow. Try for some panfish to break up the day. You’ll probably still get a few “keepers” and hopefully get more action that will keep the kids entertained.

It’s a very small percentage for me. I’ve been fishing quite a long time and have lures for every occasion. I’ve got boxes for musky, lake trout, northern pike, walleye, crappies, stripers, white bass, fly fishing, and of course, boxes for large and smallmouth bass. Because my days of traveling long distance to fish are about over, I’m afraid 95% of what I have will never get wet again. I’d sell most of it but the amount of time and effort to advertise, take orders, box and ship isn’t worth the amount of money I’d get.

How deep a lure can dive depends on how thick the line is, how much line is out and how fast it’s moving. The same lure on 17 lb mono cast out will not run nearly as deep as the same lure on 8 lb braid being trolled 100 feet behind the boat.

It’s not at all painful. I can use my other hand to straighten the finger, but it droops back. In more sever cases the finger could be broken, but because I can move it without pain, I don’t believe it’s damaged too badly. From what I’ve read, if I don’t keep the splint on 24/7, it might never get back to normal. Fishing season is over for me anyway even without a mallet finger but even if it never gets better I could still fish.

Jammed my finger yesterday and now, I can’t straighten the tip. After some internet research, I see I have what is known as “mallet finger”. Which is damage to the tendon that holds the tip straight. Treatment calls for keeping a splint on it for 6-8 weeks! Anyone else have this happen? How long did it last?

For a person new to fly fishing, spending a couple hundred $ to lose a bit of weight on the reel isn’t a good value. It can be difficult to become proficient at fly fishing and many who try give up before long. A cheap rod is much harder to cast and you’d give up much sooner using a cheap rod while an inexpensive reel even one a bit heavier won’t make casting harder, at least it didn’t for me. A $50-$60 reel will give you good performance. Reels at that level are often plastic and don’t weigh as much as metal reels at much higher prices. If you find you really enjoy it, and you want to step up, you haven’t spent much.

There is very little reason to spend a lot of money on a fly reel, especially if you are inexperienced. All a fly reel does is hold on to the line. Expensive ones may be milled from a solid block of aluminum or titanium but it doesn’t matter. If you were tarpon fishing you might need a good heavy duty drag system, but even a big smallmouth in current can be handled with even a basic drag. Put your money in the rod, and decent line, not the reel.

My boomerang cutters are still working well after several years. My problem with the Cuda scissors is that when I hang them on a retractor or put them in a pocket, they are always poking me or poking holes in my pockets.

Climbing over rocks and logs puts a lot of stress on the seams which is where most waders develop leaks. I recommended getting waders larger than you think you need to reduce the stress on the seams.

Lightweight, breathable, stockingfoot, and a size larger than you think. Your budget is up to you. You can get waders with these qualities for $200 or $1,000. ALL of them will leak at some point. Cheaper ones will leak sooner, expensive ones later. Neoprene will keep you warmer but you’ll be sweating inside them. You can layer inside the lighter waders, one of the reasons to get them larger than you think. Lightweight waders should be used during warmer weather to keep waterborne bacteria off your bare skin. Most guys I know who wade rivers do some bushwhacking to get to prime spots and waders keep you from getting poked by thorns and poison ivy. Wading boots are much more comfortable and add ankle support to keep you from twisting an ankle

This is Cody. He’s a Bichon - poodle mix almost 3 years old.

I’ve never found the color of baits makes much difference in a river. Because of the current and general lack of abundant food in rivers, if a bass wants to eat, he’s not going to pass up an easy meal just because it has/ doesn’t have a specific color. He will let a bait go by that isn’t within his strike zone, or it’s not where he can see it because you didn’t put it in the right place.

Another cool thing that is always a bit spooky to see is when a loon swims under water near you, especially if you didn’t know one was around. The large, black and white shape moving past you can really make you jump!

When we are in the mood for fish to eat, we target a few rockies. They taste great! While smallmouth fishing, rockbass hit nearly everything we are throwing at the smallies. No need to go very small with baits like you might do for bluegills, but Ned rigs, 3-4 inch senkos, spinners, smaller crankbaits or topwater poppers all will work.

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Here’s a couple of muskies spawning right underneath my boat.

Clubs in general are fading in popularity. My last fishing club had over 500 members at one point but over the last 10 years, membership has declined drastically. If you start the club, be prepared to do almost all of the work by yourself. Web site, treasury, membership, marketing, scheduling, itinerary you’ll have to do everything unless you can convince someone else to help you. You should look a little harder to find an existing club to join so you can get some experience in what it takes to run a club.

If the river you wade has a rocky bottom and if the water isn’t clear, it’s very easy to twist an ankle while wading. A good pair of wading boots provide much more support than boot foot waders ever can. When you have any leaking issues with waders (and you will) you won’t have to buy boots again with stocking foot waders. Separate boots and waders are definitely more expensive, but in my opinion, worth it. If you seldom wade and don’t plan on doing much of it, the cheaper option might be better.