Scott F

The idea of having videos to go back and look at later is very tempting. The reality that many find is that going back to look at hours of video to edit down to what amounts to a few minutes of interesting footage gets pretty tedious. Even after you’ve spent all that time editing, you may not watch the final results ever again. If you are able, like A-Jay, to capture some great catches, terrific! Just be prepared to put in a lot of time off the water making videos that others will find entertaining enough to watch.

Do you still have to buy map chips for the Humminbird units vs. getting the HD maps pre-installed for free on the Garmins?

Because the word fridge is short for Frigidaire, the brand name of the first refrigerators.

Get off the bank and get into the river. You need to cover more water than you can get to from the bank.

Last month, I posted my tow vehicle, a 2003, red, Ford F-150. A couple of days ago, I retired the old truck and replaced it with a new, 2019 F150. A cap and bedrug are on order. Haven’t even hooked it up to a boat yet.

In my smallmouth club, we have a big group of guys who chase smallies with fly rods. I used to do it myself. Fly fishing presents a whole new set of challenges. For the guys who are serious about it, the presentation itself along with tying your own lures is as much a part of the experience as catching fish.

Your height doesn’t have any bearing on the length of the rod you choose.

My wife used to fish with me quite a bit on vacations from Northern Manitoba to Florida. She wasn't really into it, but she enjoyed it. After a while, she didn't like what the sun was doing to her skin so she quit going.

3 years ago, when I was forced to retire due to an injury, I would not have been able to afford any health insurance for my wife and myself without the Affordable Care Act. It was a huge help to me.

The brand of line you use has little to do with the amount of backlashes you get. I use nothing but 20lb braid (Sufix 832) and I never have the line dig in. As with almost everyone I may get a backlash once in a while but when I do, it’s because of user error, not the brand of line I’m using.

I usually find my best river fishing often comes in the middle of the day. During the summer, I always concentrate on finding the fastest flow I can and I don’t spend much time where the current slows down.

That tieable wire isn’t cheap. When tying knots, it takes some practice to make a knot and not getting a curled up pig tail. I used a small split ring on one end of a leader, where I’d tie it to my main line, and a loop knot on the other that I’d attach to my lure.

Several years ago, I spent a day with a guide fishing Rainy Lake In Minnesota for walleyes. I’m not a walleye fisherman but I did it because my fishing partner at the time wanted to. After we were done for the day, while standing near the dock, a boat pulled up with Al Lindner in it. I knew the guide Al was using, so I went over to say hello. Al could not have been nicer. He posed for pictures and we talked about walleye fishing. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I’d been with a guide all day, I doubt I would have been able to contribute much to the conversation. Al Lindner, is one of the best walleye fishermen in the country and the fact that he was using “dock talk” with a couple novice fishermen to see if there was anything he could learn, impressed me a lot even though I’m sure I wasn’t able to tell him much of anything useful. If Al Lindner uses dock talk to try to improve his chances, I’m going to follow his example.

Thicker line doesn’t stretch as much which could be a reason you have different feel with heavier lines. On a test done while preparing a book on how deep lures dive, the author found that they could feel strikes with 17lb test mono, that they couldn’t feel with 10lb test. Not sure if that applies here, but it might be something to consider.

With my electric steer, being flush to the floor and immovable, would make it more difficult for me to operate the way I want.

Most hospitals affiliated with religious organizations are already not for profit. They just roll the profits into expanding the hospital, not lowering prices.

A small pikes teeth are just as sharp as a big ones. Do not trust heavy braid or undersized FC leaders to protect your baits.

I’m on Medicare and so far, it’s the best health insurance I’ve had. I filled 2 prescriptions for short term dental issues yesterday, my total cost was 32 cents. My long term drugs which are all generic, are free. Monthly cost for Medicare is only $135. My wife on the other hand is paying $800 a month for not so good coverage.

Doesn’t that apply to every lure that you can catch a fish on?

I push a button on the trolling motor and it shows me in increments of zero to 4 bars,

A friend of mine used to have a pond on his property. He used to feed the fish there after work everyday. He had an electric bug zapper and he’d use the bugs collected and other “fish chow”. They could hear him come to the edge of the pond and be there waiting for him. I can imagine that someone fishing for them, hooking them, and taking them out of the water, might have the opposite effect and cause the fish to hunker down and hide every time you get to the pond especially if you do it every day. Give the fish a few days between days you fish, or feed them frequently to get them to be active when you are there.

For me, fishing isn’t about the size of the fish. It’s about being outside, enjoying the company I’m with and having something tugging on my line. I never get frustrated if a fish tosses my lure back at me, or I lose a big one boat side. All the fish go back in the water so at the end of the day, I’ll never be unhappy if I spent the day fishing.

I caught my first bass, a smallmouth, on June 19, 1965. It came when my dad took me on a road trip from Gary, IN back to his hometown, in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River in upsate NY when I was 10. We'd spend 4 or 5 days fishing the bass opener every year for about 6 years in a row. We'd use minnows, inline spinners, or top water poppers on a fly rod. Those few days were the only time I fished every year until I was in my upper twenties. Here is a picture of my first 20" smallie from June, 1969 when I was 14.

I use braid all the time and never use a leader.

I’ve been throwing top water baits for smallmouth for over 30 years and always used lighter spinning gear until I started using whopper ploppers. Poppers, tiny torpedos, Chug Bugs, Hula Poppers, Zara Spook Jr. are just some of the smaller top water baits you can throw with a spinning rod.