Jar11591

Truck still on the ice? Man that must be so de-moralizing. A week or two ago I went to one of my spots hopefully trying to make a couple casts and when I got there, hoards of ice-fishermen still! But the end is near.

Here in upstate NY the temperatures are looking up this week. In the 50s all week with nights in the high 30s and 40s. I hope to be fishing by mid next week, maybe even the rivers this weekend. How is everyone else from the NE doing as far as ice out?

I'm one if those yanks with hard water

Yeah. It's in profile settings somewhere.

What he said.

ribbontail worms, senkos poppers brush hogs and the Rapala shadraps and DTs

I'm now 100% convinced that you have a bad case of selective reading. Shape other people's experience? Wow that's truly comical. Just don't see whats wrong with people preferring quality, even if it costs more. Some people get joy from devoting time and money into a hobby as well. Before you try to make me a bad guy, please just go back and re-read my posts. If you turn off the selective filter, you will find absolutely nothing that is condescending towards anyone or the gear they use.

Sorry you thought I had an attitude. Not my intent at all. My posts are being read wrong, or "selectively" perhaps. But again, no attitude here. Sorry for the misinterpretation. Just an interesting debate with differing view points, that's all. Maybe not that different actually.

I see nothing saying that you need nicer gear to have fun, only saying that its MORE fun, which was my original point. It ADDS to the experience. It makes a good thing better for some people. It makes a GOOD thing BETTER. And like I have said before, my gear is not expensive in the least so I am certainly not talking down on inexpensive gear or the people that use it. Of course you can have fun and catch fish with gear any price. I 100% agree with you that you don't need expensive gear to have fun. But it can make it MORE fun. I don't know why people are twisting that. Here's another example (they are endless): You can watch the TV with no sound obviously, but some people prefer to watch the TV with the volume on. It adds to the TV watching experience.

Usually, if I see a bass and I toss a senko at it, I can get it to at least investigate. And if it stays in sight long enough I can usually coerce it into biting. Might take a few minutes and certainly doesnt always work. Longest I have tried to catch a fish I could see was probably 20 minutes. It was two bedding bass and the female was HUGE. I ran cranks through the nest, lizards, senkos, you name it. They only had one thing on their mind. That being said, I normally don't spend much time chasing fish by sight.

Who said the gear puts the fun in it? I literally haven't read one post where someone says they could not have fun fishing without expensive gear. Please find one for me. What people are saying is that nice gear can add to your overall fishing experience. You can't play angry birds on a trac-phone. Can't go from 0-60 in under 3 seconds in a stock Kia. You pay for quality, and quality is something, not nothing.

I'll be taking my border collie mix with me on the water this year. But first I have to break her of her fear of fishing rods.

With T-rigging, you have to pull the hook through the worm as well as the fish on the hookset. Maybe you're not setting the hook hard enough? Also with worm hooks, the point is usually in line with the eyelet, so hook up ratios aren't going to be 100% IMO.

A couple warm sunny days will get some bass moved in shallow.

I have zero complaints with XL.

If the Rays are gonna do it, they better do it this year, because you know Price won't be back next year.

I understood your point. My point is just that quality gear can certainly add to your overall experience. Now I'm not knocking inexpensive gear or the people that use it at all, because my gear is hardly expensive or what anyone would consider "high end". All I am saying is that just like anything, quality adds to your experience. Just like a trac-phone and an iPhone can both do the basic function of a cell phone, the iPhone is a lot more fun. Just like driving a sports car is more fun than driving a junker even though they both get you from A to B. Just like a flat screen TV is better than one of the 3000lb boulders that were 1990's TVs, even though you can watch TV on both. Fishing equipment is no different. Quality adds to your experience. It may not be the deciding factor of whether you have fun, but it certainly can help.

The Mohawk and Hudson rivers are close by, and there are all kinds of bank fishing spots. The Adirondacks are also close, and there you find any type of water body and fish you could want.

Too much.

RedEarth, so are you saying that driving around in a red Ferrari isn't more fun than driving in a rusted Neon, even if both get you from A to B?

I personally think it's more fun to cast 150' than it is to cast 50'. I think it's more fun to feel a hit on a super-sensitive rod than it is to not feel a strike at all on a cheap Ugly Stik. I think it is more fun to use a combo that feels comfortable in your hand rather than one that doesn't.

Got the Yamamoto popper I gotta try this year. Looks good, don't see why it wouldn't work. It has a smaller profile which I like.

Sadly, I think this might be true.

I was about 5 years old, fishing from a dock on a small lake. I was using a night crawler with no weight and it had been out there for a while. I started reeling in and felt weight on the line so I told my dad I had a fish. He didn't believe me, thinking I just had weeds as the lake was filled with them. After reeling in all my line, my dad reaches into the water and pulls out a 11-12" bass covered in weeds and slime. AWESOME. That feeling is why I still fish.

Popper for calm water during morning or evening. Jitterbug for after dark. Spook for when the baitfish are schooling at the top of the water column.