Scott F

One thing I haven’t seen talked about in this retirement discussion is health insurance. One you hit 65, Medicare will be a big help. For those who want to retire sooner, or if your spouse won’t be 65, the cost of health insurance alone might keep guys working longer than they were hoping. I was lucky in that part of my pension helps me pay for part of my health insurance but that pension benefit only covered half the cost for my wife and myself. Without the Affordable Care Act, and the subsidy we got, I would not have been able to afford health insurance even with my pension benefit. I know if I’d have been on the hook for the entire cost of my insurance, I could have easily used that money to make the payments on a brand new fully rigged Ranger with cash left over. No one knows how much health insurance will cost in the future, but keep it in mind while doing your planning.

My wife’s cooking should come with the same warning.

Is everybody using the same terminology for the hardware we are talking about? It seems like some guys might be calling a snap, a snap swivel. This is a (quality) snap; And this is a (quality) snap swivel;

You may be rushing the winter season a bit. I’m sure your water temps didn’t drop too far yet. Keep fishing around weeds that are still green as long as they are around. The bass will probably not go very deep until the water gets much colder than it is right now.

My situation is not much different than jbmaine. 2 years ago, when I was 61, I was on the first day of my vacation. I was unloading some fishing gear from my truck when I had a sharp pain go down my back into my leg. A few weeks later, I was in surgery for a ruptured disc in my back. I never went back to my job as a commercial food equipment service technician. I'm on social security disability now. I miss almost nothing about the job I did for 36 years. Beginning when I was about 12, I started earning my own money first as a paperboy, and a caddy, then at McDonald's, and retail stores before I got into becoming a service technician. For nearly 50 years, someone else controlled my life telling me where I had to be every day, following their rules. In the last several years, corporate demands were putting more and more pressure on me to do more and more was wearing me out. I have never been as happy in my life as I have been since I retired. Even though I have some physical limitations these days, I have enough money to get by just fine and I'm enjoying everyday. I wish I could have retired years ago.

You said you were looking for a comparable rod to the Avid X. If you aren't getting "good casting", it's not because of the rod. Thousands of guys have been using St. Croix Avids for years, including myself, with no casting issues.

St Croix Avid. Same rod, full handle, normal size guides.

The number and type of rods I bring is 100% dependent on the kind of fishing I’ll be doing. I’m sure your decision on what rods you bring should also be based on the waters and lures you will be fishing. Giving you good advise is hard without knowing anything about where or how you like to fish.

Do your crank baits spin and twist your line? I’ve never had that happen.

I wish I lived near Tulsa. I’m retired and could easily fit being an official into my schedule. The whole financial model of BASS where the participants foot the bill for half of the prize money insures that too many of the guys who fish make no money or lose money. I’m surprised that it took this long for someone to find a way for professional fishermen to actually get paid for their work like all the other pro sports.

Aside from the snap part of it that makes it easier to change baits, what do you believe the swivel part does for you?

You didn’t look at the video. This is not an MLF discussion. This guy is proposing an entirely new tournament fishing league with a team concept.

I’m not sure I can explain it in writing. I’ve never really thought about it. I cast out, crank down to remove slack and get the bait to dive by giving it a hard pull. I pause, reel in the slack, jerk twice, pause, reel in the slack, jerk twice, pause, reel in the slack. I’ll vary the pause times, and the number of jerks until I figure out what they want. I keep the rod tip down. I’m not sure, because I haven’t thought about it, why I don’t get slack on the reel that causes loops.

I use 10 pound braid on my spinning reels for jerk baits. Closing the bail by hand will do nothing to stop the loops if you don’t take the extra step of pulling the line tight on the spool. When Fireline is fresh, it’s a little stiff and gave me a few more problems until it got broken in. As far as getting loose loops while working the bait, I assume because of the way I work the lure, I’m not allowing any slack line at the reel so I don’t have any loops form except if I neglect to tighten up the line after I close the bail.

My 30 year old Ranger has pleated seats and they are still in great shape, nothing is coming apart. The boat has been garage kept it’s entire life. The sun has taken its toll on the gel coat, but you could never tell how old the seats were from just looking at them. I’d have to say that how the boat is stored will determine how long your upholstery will hold up.

Where I fish, abrasion is not an issue even in the rocky rivers I prefer. That, and I don't like having to tie extra knots, or have those knots go through my guides so I never use a leader. I don't need a special rod for bottom dragging techniques, my other rods will do the job just fine.

They are so smart that they can reason and they see line like braid and won't eat anything attached to it, but anything the mono or FC line (that really is still visible) is attached to is OK? And then, these fish that are so smart, try to eat a hunk of wood, plastic or metal without sensing any problems? Really?

I don't use technique specific rods for anything. I use the same rod for treble hook lures that I use for single hook lures. I have no idea what a bottom rod is or what that means. I use 10lb braid on all my spinning rods. It gives maximum casting distance, maximum depth on baits and is plenty strong but it's not so strong that you can't break it if you have to.

What is jacking? And how do you T-rig a crank bait?

What are you looking to do that you can't do with what you have? What is your biggest need right now? Are you going to buy it now and just stare at it all winter?

Any reel in that price range is going to be a very good reel.

There is a type of algae known as didymo or “rock snot” that for a while was thought to be spread by fishermen wearing felt soled wading boots so many places outlawed felt soles. Turns out, didymo was already present in most places and growth is triggered by low levels of phosphorus in the water, not by fishermen wearing felt soles boots. Vermont is already lifting the ban on felt soles now that they know they are not the cause of the problem.

If the river you are fishing is over 10 feet deep and you want to throw deep running cranks to get down that far, a baitcaster can come in handy. If your crankbaits go down less than 10 feet, your medium spinning rod should work just fine.

About the only way to tell if an un-named creek, in an un-named location has any bass, is to fish it and see.

The fish in my avatar is a 19 inch smallmouth and was taken while I was standing in the DuPage. It was well over 3 lbs but I have no idea exactly how much it weighed. I've never weighed a bass that I've caught.