Jar11591

Old girl love the snow. She seems to walk better in the snow, I think it feels good on her arthritis.

We’re a winter wonderland once again. Got 6” over night, more coming tomorrow evening. Up to 25 total snow events for about 28”. So far we’ve managed to avoid a monster storm. But March is usually good for a doozy or two as a final middle finger as winter ends.

I use Power Pro and Sufix 832. They both perform great on casting gear. Haven’t found issues with either line on casting gear, other than it flattening out after a lot of use, which is the same as any braid I’ve ever used.

A lot of people use braid on spinning gear. I am not one of them. For me it’s strictly casting gear because I hate how it performs on spinning gear, but I recognize I am in the extreme minority. Some braids cast better than others, but I think that’s more brand to brand than it is casting to spinning. And now they make scissors designed specifically to cut braided line, so if you get a pair of those, your cutting woes should be non existent.

Looks like some beautiful fishing weather. Meanwhile in the North Country:

Some truly good folks on here.

Hard Candy and Fire Craw from Rage Tail are great. Green tomato is a spinnerbait skirt color from Strike King and its accounted for more bass than probably any other single color or pattern for me the last decade. Siebert Outdoors colors Bama Craw and Bluegill are two of my favorites as well.

Chug Bug Jitterbug Culprit ribbon tails. These are still mainstays in my tackle box.

We’re at 20” total this year with 22 days that received some type of winter precipitation. Not bad for my neck of the woods. It’s been frigid cold, but we could easily receive a single storm that dumps 20”, so that amount spread across 2 months so far isn’t bad at all.

First and foremost, my boat is powered by “pounds of thrust” rather than horsepower. Kind of hard to fish a tourney when your top speed is so slow.

When I went to Baccarac, we were told to bring a minimum of 20lb line, and they recommended that line be nylon. So I went with several spools of 20 and 25lb Berkeley Big Game. Seemed like a perfect choice. The cover can be abrasive. As@A-Jay mentioned, the cover is mainly submerged trees. Lots of rock structure as well. The trees are of the very tangly variety and you definitely don’t want to let a big Mexican bass bury down into them. I don’t remember ever seeing a single blade of aquatic grass or any type of seaweed.

I haven’t used dirty jigs, but I do use Siebert jigs exclusively and the brush head is my favorite. It does well coming through weeds. It may not be the best option for heavy weeds, but it comes through weeds well enough that when I’m done pitching it to brush, I don’t feel the need to change jigs when I hit the hydrilla or milfoil next. To me it’s a jack of all trades jig, and an ace at coming through brush/timber.

Made cottage pie tonight

I don’t really know what to say to that.

@Rockhopper hitting out of a cage where the ball is delivered at the same rate to the same exact spot dead over the plate is not a major league fastball. That is a batting practice fastball. Major league fastballs are delivered by major league pitchers attempting to get the ball past the hitter. Not a pitching machine meant to deliver the ball to the same spot every time at the same rate so a hitter can get some practice in. Very different. What’s gonna happen when a major leaguer throws a fast ball at a measly 93mph and buzzes the tower, then paints the outside corner with the next pitch? You ain’t gonna be leaning over the plate like you would in a batting cage!

@Pat Brown It’s the same concept. You can make the same argument for anything. How many naturally gifted basketball players never had time in their schedule to join a basketball league? How many naturally gifted fishermen don’t have the capital to get their foot in the door. But we’re not talking the entry price. We’re talking about skill level to dominate of the best in the world. The percentage of that is effectively zero, in my opinion. Is there that one great white buffalo out there? Of course, odds say there has to be. Is there a non-zero percentage of these people who could dominate? I don’t see how that could be possible.

The White Mamba Brian Scalabrine once said to fans heckling him “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me”. Hes right. The worst pro is closer in skill to the best pro, than the best non-pro is to the worst pro 999/1000 times.

The question isn’t how many average Joe’s could compete. The question was how many could dominate the pros. And I think the answer to that is a resounding “0”. Or such a small percentage that on any scale that isn’t minuscule, it’s effectively zero. I think people underestimate the gulf between pros and Joes. There is always that guy who thinks he can hit a major league fastball because he hit a couple dingers in beer league when in reality the bat would still be on his shoulders as it whizzes by him.

@AlabamaSpothunter Meanwhile it hit 40 degrees up here in NY today and it feels like a beach day!

Nice, that’s the “inshore grand slam”! Looks like it was an easy choice to use the same guide. I’m in the process of planning a guided salt trip as well for when I go to Croatia in a few months.

The cabin fever has hit me especially hard the last week. And it’s not even February yet. My buddy and I were texting earlier about which lakes we were gonna hit first, what baits etc…This winter has been bitter bitter cold and showing no signs of letting up. At least the ice fishermen are happy.

I prefer an 8:1. Wanna pick that slack up in one turn of the handle.

I usually head north. I live just south of the Adirondack Mountains, and that’s where most of my fishing and overnight fishing trips are done so when I load up the boat I most often hit the interstate North.

@J Francho thank you. I always read through the regulation book every season. I don’t know if this was recent or I somehow missed it. I find it surprising that the DEC cares enough about the bass of Hamilton and Clinton counties to make special regulations for them. Either way, thanks for educating me on something that as a bass angler I shouldn’t be ignorant to.

@J Francho could you provide a link with the information? I do the majority of my fishing in 5, mainly Saratoga, Warren, and Hamilton counties and I am not seeing anything regarding bass regulations being different than the state wide rules. https://www.eregulations.com/newyork/fishing/region-5-regulations#:~:text=Black Bass%2C June 15 through,St. The DEC website has the same information as above.