the reel ess

Indeed. Stay away from farm raised fish, especially if it's raised outside of the US. At best, it doesn't have any health benefits. ie: low Omega fatty acids because it hasn't been fed an aquatic diet. At worst, you're really just eating fish waste and antibiotics. Yum! Where do you think that freshwater flows to?

Here's the low-down on the mercury issue. Unless you're a women who is pregnant or palns to become pregnant, you're not at high risk for the mercury in fish. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12344/why-eating-fish-is-even-more-dangerous-than-you-thought.html Here are the PCB risks. Of course, I ate a lot of fried fish when I was younger from areas that now have warnings. The main issue with PCB's for men seems to be related to memory late in life. I don't know that anyone would notice because most old men can't remember much. You might chalk that up to old age. http://seafood.edf.org/pcbs-fish-and-shellfish Anyway, I stopped eating fish from public waters years ago. There are only two places I take any fish from now. One is a drinking water reservoir and the other is a pond with a natural spring as the headwater.

More PB's!!!

I use House Autry seafood breader and cook fish in a Fry Daddy when I cook them. But I rarely keep any bass and I only fish for bass so I don't fry much anymore. I love to go to a seafood restaurant and get a pan-seared snapper, black sea bass, grouper or triggerfish.

I agree. It's a rule, not a law. And the Wiggle Wart might just be the exception.

The general rule of thumb I've read over the years is you want to use cranks with a wider wiggle in warmer water and those with a tighter wiggle in colder water. I think the Wiggle wart is also better around rocks, maybe? That might change that soft rule. Not sure. I have one and never use it because I don't fish around rocks much anymore. even where I do see rocks, they have moss all over them and weeds around them. I don't fish much of any diving cranks anymore.

I see no problem with me using live bait. ? For all others, it's cheating. LOL. Seriously, if I caught the bass of a lifetime on live bait, it would still be swimming anyway. So what's the harm? But I don't do it because it's more trouble to handle on a kayak. I don't usually even use live bait for bream or crappie.

Aye Carumba! That made me misty eyed. Just a beautiful experience.

I do pitch them. The PB I caught under some overhanging brush. It immediately buried itself in the brush and I had to force her out. That fish had a huge gut but i didn't have my phone that day for a pic. Funny thing is, the next PB I caught on the spinnerbait was about 50 yards away from that spot, looked exactly like that same fish and weighed .2 lbs more. It's in my profile pic. In my mind, it's probably the same fish, but since I let it live, that's 2 fish for me! For me, the fact they make gold ones with a gold shiner skirt. Gold shiners are a primary forage in the place I catch the best fish. The PB wrecked my War Eagle gold shiner SB. I still have it, but the head is loose and it does not appear that the wire is directly connected to the hook. I ordered some replacement shirts to use on other spinnerbaits that I've lost the skirts off of. https://www.wareaglelures.com/war-eagle-gold-frame-double-willow-spinnerbait-gold-shiner-1-2-oz

Black & blue jig and craw. i made a serious effort to get better at it this year with a lot of practice and ended up catching a PB. I used it every time I went in 2018. Runner-up is the War Eagle Gold Shiner tandem willow spinnerbait, which caught my current PB. Of course, there is a chance I catch a PB on something else...

I have a stupid little unexplained mystery I was catfishing at my family's lake house when I was maybe 12. It was raining so I cast my bait out, tightened up the line, set the rod in a holder and went to sit under shelter. It took a long time to get a bite. I finally did and ran down to set the hook. It was a strong one and put up a good fight. Suddenly the fight stopped but I could still feel some weight. I reeled up the bait and there was nothing but the head of a catfish on it, hooked in the mouth. And the head appeared to have been dead for a while, with glassed over eyes. My guess is, since I was using hot dogs for bait, a turtle had been cruising, eating a dead catfish, when it came across my gourmet meal and took a bite of it as well. I told my parents the story and they accused me of telling "fish tales".

Ghost of Osceola

The Lost City Of Gold Plating! El Dorado!

What paint would you use to duplicate a gold War Eagle spinnerbait? Is it specific to fishing tackle or will any old hardware store metallic gold work? Thanks.

Spinnerbaits (2) ,jigs (2), and frog (1) have accounted for my last 5 PB's. These baits also won't cull all the smaller bass so you'll get lots of action between new PB's.

I used the same worms you did, traditionally T-rigged. We settled on purple as being the all-around best color on our lake. My dad and I went from primarily crappie fishing to bass when they were within reach beating the bank. All we knew to start off with was the T-rigged worm. I later added a crankbait and spinnerbait to my arsenal. They were easier to set the hook with. Having been a panfish fisherman, it took me a long time to get the hang of setting the hook. Once I got that skill and a good bass combo, I was off to the races. Later came the C-rig for when the bass migrated offshore. I still never used any other plastics or jigs until maybe 10 years ago. To this day, if I had to fish for food, I'd have the worm tied on. Some baits burst on the scene, then get shuffled to the back of the pack. But the worm is maybe the oldest soft plastic bass lure and it's here to stay.

Did you get one? If so, what do you think of it?

If they were bigger and/or we were small enough, we'd be on their menu. LOL I have often thought about that and even when I get a picture, I limit the time they're out of water. I'll even hold them in the water if it's taking a while. I'm sure they feel some flight instinct and it must be unpleasant to not be able to get oxygen for a while, like having the breath knocked out of you. They also have no eyelids and they usually try to shield their eyes when there's total sun either with cover or depth. So I imagine that's unpleasant as well. I don't think you can attribute human feelings to them though. Their brain is basically one tiny stem of nerve. They're running on pure instinct. They just act and they have no thoughts as to why they do what thy do. If I was that concerned about their feelings, I'd probably stop sticking hooks in their mouths for fun.

There are smallies in the Broad R at least an hour away. I'd have to drive 3 plus hours for the others. Well, DNR stocks trout in the Lower Saluda below the Lake Murray dam during winter, but most don't make it to the spring. Stripers eat them. That's about an hour away.

I'll never own another one that you can pick up from the top while it's unlatched and dump the top of the tackle box all over the place. I can't tell you how many times I did that as a kid. Enough times that I put everything valuable in the lower trays.

I never use a trailer with my spinnerbaits. Sometimes I use a spinnerbait that has some longer strands in the skirt that mimic a trailer. I ALWAYS use a trailer hook though.

LOL. And check out that bait Apparently you have not mastered the art of keeping at least one mismatched combo so you'll ALWAYS "need" a new rod or reel.

A spincast reel would do fine with it. It could double as your crappie combo. Or you could make it your topwater combo and use most any new BC reel. How about this? http://www.mrcrappie.com/products/Lews/mr-crappie-fishing-reels.php Or this https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-crappie-maxx-mighty-lite-low-profile-baitcast-reel

I use this. It holds a min of 4 utility boxes. I have 5 in it. There's a velcro pocket on the front, zippered pockets on each end, a zippered pocket in the lid flap and a net pocket on the rear. It helps you carry a lot of plastics. https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/tackle-storage/tackle-bags/pc/104793480/c/104777280/sc/104619780/cabelas-pro-guide-tackle-bags/1934464.uts?slotId=6

That's a real steal. I use a regular Lightning Rod that's more than 10 years old for that very purpose. I find that action/power to be perfect for treble lures until they get to about 3/4 oz. I use Big Game 15# mono on it because i don't use deep divers much anymore. Too weedy or shallow where I fish. I use two old LR rods and I'd like to replace them with better, lighter rods, but they just won't break. LOL. They're fine for applications that don't require or benefit from the lack of sensitivity.