Jar11591

April means ice out and the couple weeks proceeding around here. During this time jigs and spinnerbaits do most of the damage for me.

@ol'crickety it’s certainly possible they were carp, but the sustained endurance the fish had didn’t feel like the typical carp runs. But carp could certainly fit the bill in terms of size though. Fish I can rule out are bass, walleye, panfish, bullhead, perch, gar and pickerel. That leaves sturgeon, pike, muskie, bowfin, and carp. If they were pike, they would have been absolutely massive.

This is one story that always come to my mind when I think crazy happenings while fishing: About a decade ago, I was staying on a famous fishing lake in northern NY, a short distance from the Canadian border, for a week long fishing trip. One morning at sunrise I was down at the dock waiting for my fishing buddies so we could take the boat out and slay some smallmouth like we’d been doing for the last few days. I was making a some casts in the weedy, murky, slate colored water with a wacky senko. After my bait hits the water on one cast, I get the unmistakable line jump of a strike, so I reel down and set the hook on something heavy. After some brutal head shakes, this beast starts swimming straight at me and I can’t reel down fast enough. The fish swims under the dock, parallel with it, and my drag is screaming. I still can’t see what ever this thing due to the stained water. I have no control over this fish, I was just along for the ride. It continued darting back and forth under the dock at unbelievable speed and peeled drag off my spinning reel like a T-Rex. Predictably my 8lb nylon line breaks either from sustained pressure or scraping the dock. I sat there stunned at what I might have hooked, but not surprised at the outcome. But that isn’t the crazy part of the story. This next part is still hard to believe, even though I’m the one it happened to. After my line broke on the giant mystery fish, I tied another hook on and rigged up another senko as soon as my adrenaline settled a bit and my hands stopped shaking. I make another cast and I’m immediately greeted with another strike. I reel down, set the hook, and I kid you not, THE EXACT SAME SCENARIO PLAYS OUT MOMENT FOR MOMENT, INCLUDING THE OUTCOME. Same heavy weight, lightning speed, brute force, took the same path under the dock, until my line breaks after the drags screaming run. Same exact situations play out back to back. I have no idea what those 2 fish could have been, but they were certainly not bass. The thing that really makes the story is that this lake almost every fresh water fish imaginable, including lake sturgeon, Muskie, and bowfin. So it’s very exciting to think about what I could have hooked into, but man that back to back heart break losing 2 monsters will stay with me.

@LrgmouthShad Im the same way. The only “working” I do of a spinnerbait is ripping it out of weeds. But other than that, it’s a straight retrieve. That’s what gets me bit. I remember years ago watching a video of KVD talking about spinnerbaits and he said something along the lines of “you won’t catch fish on a spinnerbait with a straight retrieve”. Well I’m no KVD, but I do alright with the old rusty gate tied on. So in my opinion KVD couldn’t have been more wrong on that front. 🤷🏻‍♂️ that’s why time on the water and actually fishing is the most important thing when it comes to honing your craft.

The fact that MLB is rolling with these uniforms, and also denying that there is any issue with them, is insane. Rob Manfraud is such a joke of a commissioner. 2029 can’t come soon enough.

@TnRiver46 I’ll have to check the show out. The book is great. @fin I suspect the “gore” rating is for animal carcasses being prepared or something along those lines. Don’t want people being traumatized seeing a terrifying raw chicken leg

I recommend taking a scientific approach, and read the book called “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat”. It doesn’t just cover which ingredients go together, it goes over the science of why flavor, texture, and other combinations work or don’t work. I consider this learning to cook, rather than just following recipes. Once you know how and why things compliment each other, you can create your own recipes. This is what I consider to be the basis of actually creating a dish, rather than just reading a recipe that someone else created and following instructions they’ve written down. Creating a dish from scratch that turns out delicious is so rewarding.

If it ain’t broke, I ain’t fixing it. The 3 knots I use all work perfectly and I have no reason to experiment.

Spinnerbait - Strike King Tour Grade double willow Jerkbait - Megabass Vision 110+1 Jr. Squarebill - Strike King KVD 1.5 Lipless Crank - Rapala Rattlin’ Rap Shallow, Medium, and Deep Cranks - Rapala DT series Jig - Siebert 1/2oz Brush Jig Frog - Booyah Pad Crasher Popper - Megabass Pop X Walking Bait - Rapala Skitterwalk Soft Plastic - Rage Tail Structure Bug

Old girl enjoying the beautiful upstate NY day.

I am usually not apathetic or indifferent to natural phenomena, so I totally get the excitement over it. But for some reason this one really just isn’t grabbing me. And I’m already aggravated over it because the signs on the interstate tell me to “expect delays, solar eclipse Monday”.

I was in a customers house replacing light fixtures. Didn’t feel anything, my coworker’s wife, boss’s wife, and my girlfriend all called us at the same exact time and we were all clueless because we didn’t feel anything.

Strider looked good, bullpen looked great, and offense did what it’s expected to do. Awesome win for the Bravos!

Braves/Phillies was postponed already. I think Philly just didn’t get enough time to prepare for Strider, so they’re stalling lol

@NavyToad I agree, unless it comes to light that there were bets made on baseball specifically. But I enjoy the drama, and anything that makes Manfraud sweat and squirm.

Opening Day’s Eve! Should be an interesting start with the whole Ohtani circus going on.

Perfect combination of challenge, catchability, excitement, availability, fighting ability, and size.

We’re getting more winter this week than we have in a month and a half. A dusting last night and another dusting coming tomorrow night, but next week is back up to the 50s. I’ll take it.

-Always poop before you get on the boat. -never wait on a hookset when using a frog any longer than it takes to drop the rod tip and reel the slack -if you’re wondering if you should go fishing, you should

I’m gonna assumed you’re using braid, and if that is the case then your line is just slipping on the spool. Just put some cheap nylon backing on the reel first and you’re good to go. Easy fix. 95% of the time when this problem happens it’s because your braid isn’t grabbing the spool.

@NorcalBassin I would absolutely demolish that pizza. Looks amazing. Rueben pizza is underrated. That time of year to get the seeds going.

I am a right handed caster and right handed retriever. I’m a righty taught to fish by a lefty who didn’t know the difference when it came to fishing. I do the hand switch, but I find it sort of confounding that something that is so instantaneous, something that happens before you can blink an eye, is talked or worried about so much. I never even realized I did the switch until a friend pointed it out to me.

More than 5, less than 7.

My condolences

I have one Kastking reel that I bought as try-out. I figured if it was junk I wouldn’t be out much money. It’s a KastKing WhiteMax casting reel. It’s been slinging Spinnerbaits for me for well over 5 years now and hasn’t had any issue. I can’t speak for their spinning reels or anything besides the White Max, but surprisingly the reel holds up and does it’s job reliably. For a $70 reel, that’s more than I expected.