Steveo-1969

Congrats!!!

Lots and lots of great advice above. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet but I feel can save a wasted trip is finding out if there is a river level/temperature gauge online you can check for your river or stream. I check my river on a National Weather Service website almost daily. It tells me the current level, gives me a forecast for the next couple days and shows the water temperature. I know from experience how low my river needs to be for me to safely wade and if the level is above that I bank fish instead. Also the temp tells me how to dress for wading to stay warm or cool. Also if the water is dirty enough that I can't see bottom I will only wade places that I'm familiar with. That way I'm not stepping into a deep hole or off a ledge.

I wade in a river for bass whenever the water level is safe enough for it, year-round. When the water is warm enough I wear shorts and sneakers, I only wear waders when the water is cold. The river I fish is very popular for swimming, water-skiing, tube floating, etc. and (good or bad) I'm not worried about infections, ticks, or poison ivy. And neither are the thousands of others who regularly soak in it. Sorry @Scott F. Oh, and I don't fish for trout......

Congrats on your first musky! And 48" to boot!!!! My first one was about 12"......

I lead a very quiet life, just the way I like it. Fishing and reading are my only hobbies.

Wading is my first choice year round if the water level of my local river is safe. Warm water wading in shorts and sneakers. Cold water wading in chest waders. The bass are predominantly smallmouth and a big one (for me) is 17+ inches. I usually catch a dozen or so that size or bigger every year. The great thing about river smallmouth is every one fights big!!

My smallmouth usually jump so that's easy. A channel cat will start rolling after an initial run so that's pretty easy too. And a walleye will head shake pretty hard. I'm usually correct on those three, but not always. And if I lose a big fish without seeing it, I always tell myself it was a snagged carp...........

Have you asked your wife for some pointers?

I give up. What is a "California rig"?

Like others have said, you can't go wrong. Rig 'em up, slather some Megastrike on them, and catch some fish!

I've used both the Sniper and Finesse in 3/16 for river smallies and they work great. I used a Rage Baby Craw for a trailer, but that was before the new Rage Baby Menace came out. Gotta get me some of those!!

In total agreement with both of these. I don't mind not catching fish, but there has to be a chance. Otherwise I'd be perfectly happy fishing in the neighbor's swimming pool...

That *requirement* makes perfect sense. Why should just the people that worked hard to find the fish and figure out how to catch them catch all the fish? Everyone should get a trophy, not just the winners!!

I've never heard of Tom Robbins. Just looked this book up and placed it on my Kindle Wishlist so I won't forget about it.

Sorry J Francho, didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. The Ambassadeurs may be the most popular Abu reel on the forums, but I meant Abu Garcia in general doesn't get a lot of mentions on the site. Shimano and Daiwa are more likely to be mentioned. Here's some very quick unscientific digging I just did. I searched for keywords in this Fishing Rods, Reels, Line and Knots forum and here are the results: Shimano - 30,322 results Daiwa - 15,776 results Quantum - 7,749 results Abu Garcia - 7,210 results

Thank you for your service and for sharing your personal experience with Abu Garcia. That company doesn't get a lot of love on this forum, but I own 2 baitcast reels and one spinning reel from Abu and like all of them.

Wow, WAY too many books to choose from! But if you held a gun to my head... Blood Sport (A Journey Up The Hassayampa) by Robert F. Jones. I first read it around 12 years old and probably read it half a dozen times before it was lost somewhere. Unfortunately it's out of print and not in e-book format. I need to buy a used copy off of Amazon one of these days and reacquaint myself with this amazing book.

Have you already fished a Conquest? I understand they won't be available to the general public until this fall?

The first time I bought fluoro to use for leaders with braid I bought Sufix fluoro leader material and it worked fine. Then I started buying bigger spools of castable fluoro for leaders instead because it was much cheaper. I would definitely try it. The only downside I see is you may like it better than your current P-Line and start spending more $$ on leader material...

My preferred method of fishing is with a jig/craw. Followed closely by a jig/craw.

Congrats and thanks for sharing. If you had told us this was a skin mount I would have believed it. That's probably the most realistic replica I've ever seen!!

^^^this^^^

Thank you for the suggestion SC.

I like to catch fish as much as anyone, but I'm not going to cut a fishing trip short because I haven't caught a fish. I know when I leave my house how long I'm going to fish and it only gets cut short for bad weather or family emergency. I go for the "fishing" part. The "catching" makes it more fun, but the "fishing" still makes the time enjoyable and well spent.

Looks like that fish might be 1.53 kilograms. Wrong setting on the scale maybe? I've done that before.