Daniel Lin

Holy crap that's pricey for a net. Off to the fabrication shop I go...

From shore though? Recently I've been taking one, or at most two rods (BC and spinning) and a waistpack with a single 3600 and two pouches of soft plastics. A landing net would have to go on my back, fly-fisherman style, and would be of debatable use if I'm not halfway in the water, a la fly-fisherman.

There's that hiking saying: ounces lead to pounds, and pounds lead to pain. Seems somewhat applicable here. I'm also reminded of a saying from one of my past lives as a bike mechanic, courtesy of Keith Bontrager: Strong. Light. Cheap. Pick two. I decided to go with the strong and cheap route..... I'm considering the extra weight as strength and endurance training for whenever I can really start to afford lighter rods and reels to fill out my arsenal. It's kinda like how, as a news photographer, I spend most of my day encumbered with about 15 or more pounds of equipment. But at the end of the day, I'm free as a bird. And my girlfriend wonders why I'm always leaving her behind when we go grocery shopping after I get back from fishing after work.

I was night fishing tonight and I hooked onto what I'm pretty sure is the queen of the pond at the community college I fish at regularly after work. I was throwing a Strike King Midnight Special (7/16oz, single colorado) and had to pull through a pretty thick weedbed to get her out of the water. There was definitely an awkward moment when I didn't have my drag adjusted adequately for moving from relatively open water to the weed-filled shallows and I had to pause for a second to max my drag out and wrench her out of there. The spot I was at though, was illuminated by a lamp, and she was visible in the weedbed as I fumbled with my drag. I noticed that her tail was cocked fully to the side and her entire head and mouth was engulfed by weeds. Looking into the water, it was such an unusual sight that I thought I might have just hallucinated a battle with the hardest fighting boot I've ever encountered. She remained like this when I hoisted her out of the water too. Unfortunately, while holding her up by the line while I tried to get all the weeds out of her mouth and face enough to lip her with my gloved left hand and start working on getting the hook out, she unfroze after I got a ball of weeds about the size of a tennis ball out of her mouth and shook free of the hook and landed just out of reach in the extreme shallows. Two flips later she was back in swimmable water and there I was, likely my PB out of that body of water gone without a photo. (My actual PB has no photo either, apparently my phone camera won't start when battery is under 5% and now I make sure my phone's battery is adequately charged before going fishing) Has anyone else encountered any other situation like this? If anything, I learned that if it's not going to be a routine lip and unhook procedure, I'm going to take a few steps back from the water and turn around too. I've lost three other fish in the past week as they kicked off my hook while I was getting ahold of them after pulling them out of the water. This goes in the book of habits I need to get into, just like how I realized I was missing a lot of time observing the water when I turned toward shore to rig up another lure.

I've really been starting to pick up the night bite from shore lately. It's cooler, the fish seem to be much more comfortable, the bugs have calmed down, it helps keep my out-of-control farmer's tan in check, and honestly, the darkness really helps me focus on the fishing. It's almost like how blind folks have a hypersensitive sense of feeling, the night really helps me tune in on exactly what my lure is doing, what sort of cover its in, whether I clipped a piece of timber or it's a bite and time to set the hook. That being said, tonight I totally misjudged the distance to a thicket of brush I was targeting and lost a night spinnerbait by pitching it right into the middle of it. Live and learn, I guess.

I just did some reading on the fall turnover, I think you're right. All of the weeds I pulled up smelled suspiciously like doodoo, and there were tons of bubbles coming up for no particular reason. I guess I should be thankful for my experience as a whole, given the conditions.

Checked out a place in the Homochitto National Forest called Clear Springs Recreation Area today. It's a 12-acre little lake, and I'd been told that it was natural spring-fed and the fishing pressure was minimal. Expecting to finally have an opportunity to run some clearwater finesse techniques, I was somewhat disappointed when I got there and the water was fairly clear, as in free of sediment/algae, but severely stained with this brown tinge, almost like fishing in tea, if you get my drift. Anyway, I decide to roll with my usual 3-rod shore assault setup, a MH baitcaster, a M baitcaster and a M spinning reel, and tie on a spinnerbait, a crankbait, and a weightless senko. Shortly thereafter, I destroyed a Strike King KVD 1.5 lip by somehow smashing it into a pier on a cast, which apparently caused some kind of jam on my spool. I tied on a Sexy Shad KVD 2.5, cast it, heard a pop, and watched it sail away into some brush. Swearing at myself, thinking a somehow botched my knot, tied on another one in Chartreuse Sexy Shad, and triple checked my knot. Well, my knot was good, but apparently not good enough, as I cast out and POP, it went sailing away, landing probably no more than 4 feet from its brother. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, I decided to abandon the crankbait approach (I didn't want to lose my entire box in one sitting), and I tied on a buzzbait, figuring maybe I'd buzz that brushline. POP. Lost that too. Only then did I realize that my line had dug pretty hard into the spool and was cutting off my cast just as it reached terminal velocity. I throw some spinnerbaits out for a while, no bites, swirls, nothing. I switch to the senko and BAM, for a second, I'm convinced I've got a lake record fish on (I don't actually know if there's an official lake record). Instead of being a Personal Best, it turns out to be my Personal Worst. But during the somehow prolonged battle, in which it was the first fish on a new, more limber than I originally thought rod and my drag was set hella loose by accident, this 10-some year old kid I hadn't seen fishing behind me took notice that I had a fish on. He starts cheering and I turn my attention to him, noticing that he's statistically way too young to be throwing a Shimano Calcutta. I also deduce that he's part of what appears to be a family reunion in progress at the picnic shelter up the hill, although his parents, nowhere obvious to be seen, clearly are engrossed with that and cut him loose on his own. I release the dink and kinda watch him for a little bit. It's hard to describe, but his casting motion was probably more suited for throwing a cast net than a fishing rod, and was about as effective as you might imagine. I can also see a massive backlash that he'd just been reeling over from about 40 feet away, and decide that I need to intervene before this kid ruins his dad's setup. I really didn't want to have to teach a kid that wasn't in a learning mood how to throw a baitcaster, but I remembered that a rod I bought for my girlfriend's brief foray into fishing, a good ol' Zebco 33 combo, was still living in the trunk of my car. I make my way over to the kid, fix his world-record backlash somehow, and tell him I've got a rod that'll be much easier for him to use in my car, but we're going to give his dad his rod back (and also for me to check in with his dad so his parents don't think I'm kidnapping him). This story is getting long-winded, but over the next several hours, I helped the kid perfect his casting technique, helped him catch a couple of dinks on a curlytail under a bobber (who would have thought that would work?), and I caught another seven bass that all gave my Personal Worst a run for its money, all on the senko. I nearly just up and gave the rod to the kid, but his dad stepped in and told me that they've got one just like that at home, they just didn't bring it with them. Guess it'll keep living in my trunk to be a loaner rod for another day. I believe there's a saying out there somewhere that goes like, "Take a kid fishing. If you don't have one of your own, borrow one." I'd say I accomplished that mission today, which hopefully will cancel out throwing about 20 dollars into the lake in the course of about 5 minutes. Might need it, as I'm pretty sure I'm fishing my first tournament (although as a co-angler/team partner) this weekend, and I don't even know where it is yet. I'll find out at my first local bass club meeting this Thursday.

For a few bucks more, check out the Shimano Sellus. I'm a pretty big fan of my 6'10" MH F "Spinnerbait" rod. Slightly OT, but does the inclusion of a braid rating alongside the traditional line rating signify a sort of nod of the head from the manufacturer that the rod was built somewhat with braid in mind? I'm always a little paranoid of throwing braid on my rods that don't give such a rating, but Shimano in particular gives mono(/fluoro) and PowerPro rating on most of their rods, it seems. I know they own PowerPro, but it gives me a little bit of peace of mind knowing that at least my rod is supposedly rated for 50lb braid. Yeah yeah, I know that's what drag settings are for. Just wondering.

Update: dropshotting today was an epic failure. After about 20 casts I had a big enough pile of weeds at my feet to take to the farmer's market, all drug up by my weight. There's just too much vegetation to let anything I throw into this pond make any bottom contact whatsoever. Threw some flukes and spinnerbaits for a while to no avail, but decided to stay a little longer and try out the night buzzbait bite. Success!

I did something similar with a spinnerbait once. Screwed up the knot somehow and it came totally undone without even a pop. I'm pretty sure it cleared 150 yards before it found a home high up in some trees.

I'm planning on trying out dropshotting (from shore) highly pressured water tomorrow after work, and I'm taking the time now to prep my plastics and such. I'll be fishing water that at its deepest is maybe 7-8 feet, but most of it is around 3-5. The clarity is usually surprisingly clear for the area, but has a very weedy/scummy bottom, hence the desire to dropshot. I picked up some VMC Spinshot hooks thinking that since it's got a connection point on both sides of the swivel, I could premake some weight rigs of varying lengths and rigs and use these too-small duolock snaps I mistakenly bought to clip them to the lower eye. The idea is that this should allow me to rapidly change up my dropshot depths without having to totally retie. So far, I've put together three: 12" with a 1/8oz, 20" with a clip on the end, currently carrying a 1/4oz, and a 24" with a 1/4oz. I read somewhere that a somewhat longer length is generally desirable when fishing from shore, doubly so when fishing shallow bodies of water, as the line often flattens out to nearly horizontal. Somebody say something if I'm totally off my rocker with this whole idea. So with those made, I'm picking out some soft plastics to try now. I quickly went for the more traditional dropshot-sized baits, which didn't take very long as I don't have many too downsized baits. So far, I've pulled Zoom Super Fluke Jrs in White Pearl and Arkansas Shiner, 4" Yum Dingers (which were $1 sample 5-packs from Walmart) in shad/pearl laminate, baby bass and watermelon red flake, Strike King Bitsy Tubes in Green Pumpkin and these two packs of handpoured reapers made locally in ghost/black flake and watermelon red flake. I'm also looking at these Finesse Worms I have in watermelon seed to round out the larger end of the spectrum. First question: I assume reapers should be rigged so that the "leaf" is horizontal to slow the fall of the bait? I really can't find much information on how to use them other than they used to be a very popular finesse bait in the pre-internet era, but have mostly fallen out of favor. Second question: I'm thinking about cannibalizing some of my better-stocked plastics for use as a smaller dropshot bait. I'm particularly looking at cutting most, if not all of the tail off of some Zoom U-Tales, and cutting Trick Worms in half to make two dropshot baits out of one full-size worm. I also have some Strike King Elaztech 7" finesse worms I'm thinking about cutting in half to harness some of their buoyancy. Some of the crazier ideas i'm playing with are cutting a beaver-type straight down the middle to make two smaller-profile baits, and even just using a Zoom Split-Tail spinnerbait trailer nose-hooked. Total mad-scientist mode here. Any other input on my rigging or plastics choices?

Thanks everyone for the input. The universe works in funny ways. I was in Walmart this afternoon killing some time in my day to work 9 hours in a 14-hour timeframe, and while I was browsing the soft plastics, an older gentleman approached me, obviously noticing that I was checking out the fishing section a little bit more in detail than your average joe in the area. He introduced himself to me as a member of the elusive local bass club I'd heard about in passing but couldn't find any information on, and gave me the details about when/where they meet, their monthly tournaments and yearly tournament scoring format, etc. That said, he still made a pretty visible frown when he asked, "I assume you have a boat right?" and I told him I didn't, nor do I have the means to store a boat or even tow the trailer for a little john boat at the moment. But maybe if I can end up partnering up with someone in the club over the next couple of months, everything will work out.

I'm with aavery2 here, focus on your education. Get a good degree, solid internships during college, and present yourself as an incredible job candidate as you approach graduation, and with any luck, watch that money pile up at your door pretty soon post-graduation. Get a good, satisfying job and you'll have more than enough money and time to fish to your heart's content. I wasted a lot of time in college away from my coursework. Granted, that time was spent working for the student paper and otherwise honing my photojournalism skills, which is really what I wanted to do after graduating. Also, thank God, newspapers don't care about your college GPA, only that you eventually obtained your degree. 2 great internships later, I still ended up freelancing for a year after I graduated before I landed a staff job, but I chalk that up to partially me getting a bit of a late start and the rough job market in this field. Unless you've figured out a sure-fire way to fish your way through college into a decent career post-graduation, I would definitely put it on the back burner until you're settled into school. I know everyone says it, but you'll have more than enough on your hands when you get to school.

Please be sure to update us on what the contents turn out to be!

In regards to this thread I posted: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/145330-thoughts-on-trying-to-hitchhike-onto-the-water-with-boaters-at-the-launch/ I'm a non-boater looking for a boat to ride with any given weekend at Lake Okhissa. I'll split gas/launch fee costs with you, etc. I don't have a particular preference in technique, my experience in fishing from boats is little enough that I'll try anything.

I've gotten in the habit of wearing my Shimano socks and hat.... left over from my former life as a bike mechanic!

I understand the caution, especially since I'm an avatarless person on an internet forum. Here's a photo of me when I was working as a freelance photojournalist for the Roanoke Times at the 2013 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament in Charlotte, NC, scouting out aerial angles. https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/894096_10151386936143040_612588467_o.jpg I think it would take probably 10 seconds, if not less, of talking with me to realize that I'm not looking for a way to send your body to the depths of the lake. I know there's a lot of shady types that also happen to enjoy bass fishing. I'd like to think that I don't give off that vibe. Worst thing you can do is say no, and I'll tell you thanks and tight lines, and I'll ask the next guy who comes along who doesn't look like he'll push ME into the depths of the lake.

Just a thought. Does anyone have any input on a bank fisherman trying to hitch a ride with a solo boater in a bass boat or a small group in a larger boat that has room for one more at the boat launch? It's something that's crossed my mind a few times the last few times I've bank fished lakes. Some of the conditions that I've come up with for myself to the would-be boat operator are, in no particular order: Unless you specifically ask me, I won't dictate at all where to go, maneuvering adjustments to make, etc. I'm just along for the ride, and trying to walk on water isn't going so well. Want me to fish back of boat? Sure. Are you a back of boat guy yourself? Cool, I'll take the front. Want me to drive the boat while you sit back and relax? Maybe you should think twice about that one, largest motor I've ever operated is a 50 on a 14-foot aluminum boat. I'm willing to negotiate a price if you want cash money. I'm thinking for the lakes around here, $5-10 seems reasonable, as I'm really trying to be as unobtrusive as possible to you. If you want, and I'm ok with you throwing it, I'll give you access to my tackle bag and soft plastics. If I think you're trying to throw my entire collection of GYCBs or Lucky Crafts overboard, I might say something. This is mostly a "Hey, I've thought about getting that, can I give it a try?" sort of thing. Most likely, I won't ask to access yours. If you're a fish keeper, I don't really think there's a way for one person to come home with two people's worth of fish legally, since I'm usually 100% C&R. But seeing as nobody ever seems to get a limit around here for some reason, I'd be more than happy to donate my fish to you until you hit the limit. I suppose we'll have to start culling once we hit the (usually) 8 fish a day limit, but the slot should help us a lot with that. I'll bring my own PFD, bug spray, etc. All you have to do is cart me along wherever you go. If you need me to net a fish for you, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and help you out. Same goes for any other partner tasks you might need me to do. Unfortunately, I'm not really that experienced with putting in and taking out boats. Seeing as you originally planned to launch and recover the boat by yourself, it might be best if I just step to the side for this. But if you can delegate a simpler task in the processes, I'll be more than happy to help, and always willing to get more experience. Basically, I guess I'm saying that I'm willing to pay a nominal amount to be a co-angler for solo boaters that I meet at the launch? I guess this is kind of the opposite of guiding? Hahaha. I figure most solo boaters around here would be happy to have some educated company to chat fishing with that isn't HURR DURR WORM, BOBBER AND PAINT BUCKET. Perhaps we should set ground rules of no politics or religion... I've found that my personal views often don't exactly align with the majority of Southern outdoorsmen. But at least we clearly have a love of fishing in common.

FWIW, I think many Lightning Rods are subject to some awful abuse on the store displays. Mine broke about 8 inches from the tip setting the hook on its second fish. Internet reviews suggest that the first foot or so of the tip seems to be particularly weak. Whether this is a design flaw coupled with awful handling, or just a straight up design flaw, it's hard to say. Also, I've seen the front grip cork cracked into pieces on more than one Lightning Rod on display. Additionally, the skeleton reel seat design is awesome on a casting reel, but absolutely retarded in my book on the spinning reels. It's about as unergonomic as it gets. Which one did you have in mind? Add all of this to the pretty sheisty QC you can see between rods, I'd suggest you save up a few bucks more and get something in the $60 range if you're on a budget. I'm pretty happy with my Shimano Sellus.

Josh, you are a hero. I'm really thinking about the second 5000 that's on the Fenwick rod for $40. While it would be nice to have the more ornately engraved sideplates of the first 5000, that one's going for 80 on a whatever-rod and it kinda operates like a bucket of bolts. There's a bunch of things obviously loose in it and I'm not sure I want to arse myself to get everything back to spec on it. It's very encouraging though, that it appears that modding an old 5000 to be modern-spec isn't too hard. A couple questions in that regard. Is it possible to put a modern handle on it? I'm really not a huge fan of the cylindrical knobs and much prefer the flatter paddle knobs of modern reels. Also, how easy is it to mod one of the thumb-hood things onto an old 5000, kinda like the 5500C3 that I posted and Abu Garcia's modern round reels? You've got me very interested in a modern restoration, old school meets new school project now, in the same vein as the 70's Camaro I saw at a car show once that had a modern Corvette engine in it and a modernized cockpit. $40 to kick off such a project (and get a decent rod too) seems like a pretty good deal. Additionally, I should also mention that a large part of my interest in one of these reels is not only a slower-than-6.3:1 ratio reel for bass fishing, but also for potential future saltwater and hell, maybe I'll give catfish a try too.

Ok, here's a link of what's available. I really don't know that much about the technical details of these reels, and I'm having a pretty tough time finding specs on them that don't regard to collecting. Hopefully someone here with a bit more knowledge can help me out a bit The photos of the rod follow the reel they're on, but I think I can probably negotiate some rod-swapping among them in a purchase. The first red reel and the silver 5500c3 are priced at 80 (not sure why they priced the red one at 80), the second red reel is priced at 40 (this is the one I'm most interested in) and the last black reel is priced at like 45 but is on a 5'6" Lews pistol-grip rod ("Ceramic Guide Inserts"!) http://imgur.com/a/075GJ#0

5500 you say? A little more boat rash, the grips are a little bit wobbly, but overall I think it's still ok, although I haven't examined it quite as closely. I also don't know if it has a drag clicker or not. It's definitely also a little more modern than the 5000 I posted earlier. It's on a 6'6" M Castaway of unknown vintage. Is it really worth $80 over $45 though?

I'm pretty sure the 5000 I had in my hands today had a drag clicker?

So basically what you're saying is, decent power cranking reel with free rod for $45?

Went by the pawn shop again today, found that someone pawned off a bunch of old school Abu and Abu Garcia Ambassadeurs on decent rods, all going for about $40-$50. One in particular caught my eye, a Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 ("Product of ABU Sweden") on a 6'6" MH (probably M by today's standards) Fenwick Eagle for $45. I almost impulse bought it, but in terms of rod power and length, it's totally redundant in context of what I already have. But, that ABU signature Red. So attractive. I don't want to accidentally get in the business of collecting reels that will never be fished again, so I ask: What sort of applications could I apply such a rod/reel to? In comparison to modern reels, how do they differ compared to what I'm currently using? Is there a checklist of things I should refer to when inspecting an older round reel before purchase?