the reel ess

I'm intrigued by the news of the future Ramcharger. It will have a 3.6L Pentastar engine, not connected to the drivetrain, but rather to charge a battery to run front and rear motors. Supposedly this is good for over 600 hp and torque and a range of 690 miles with a full tank. But having owned a Jeep Wrangler with the 3.6L, I'd bet it will have an engine code or two in the first month.

Full disclosure: I own a 2008 Silverado and a 1981 Z28. I'm not anti-EV, though I am very pro-ICE. But this truck looks much more attractive and capable than Elon's Cybertruck. I saw a few X (Twitter) posts lately about EVs depreciating as much as $40K in the first year. The battery is most of their cost. They're going to be disposable. Also the cost of owning and driving one, when all government subsidies are factored in, is comparable to driving an ICE for decades with gas at $18-20/gallon. As for the argument that they run off coal, that's an exaggeration. Coal accounted for about 20% of power generation in 2022. These plants are being converted to natural gas so that percentage is going down. EVs do in fact lower greenhouse gas emissions. Now the acquisition and disposal of the battery materials and their propensity to catch fire and burn down whatever structure is around them is problematic. I prefer he idea of a plug-in hybrid. Best of all worlds.

I love April here in SC. It's the spawn and it's also turkey season.

Good job, my man! Now you have a ton of fishing friends-people that are downright fanatical about it, actually. I'm the same about sharing my good catches here. Not many people I know really care. I'm a firm believer that if you can get a bait in front of a big gal she'll bite more often than not. I think bait selection is secondary to other factors. The trick is getting it presented to the right fish.

When it's really muddy I go shallow and pitch a black/blue jig or a nighttime spinnerbait to all the visible cover. You'd be surprised sometimes how far a bass can detect food in off-colored water. Living in the region I do we see a lot of off-color water in the year. Fish have to eat.

Every decade, whether it needs it or knot (see what I did there?) But seriously, It doesn't really go bad, just looks bad, unless you're around a lot of rocks. I'm not. Honestly, the looks are not an issue if you're using it for heavy cover, like a frog or jig, or you're using leader. I spool up the first half on my BC reels with 15 lb. Big Game mono and then finish with braid. Then, when that braid gets old looking I reel it onto another reel. Badaboom! I'm using the new end-new line for free. If you don't want to do that, but on the same reel, I keep a couple old reels laying around just for swapping the ends. So, if you subscribe to the "use it for 3 seasons" idea, you can now stretch it to 6.

I think the Zoom Speedworm is better at this approach. It also makes an awesome, subtle topwater when rigged weightless.

I like the Zoom "Finesse Worm" in 4" size when I can't buy a bite. I'll just rig it on a very light C-rig. It will get bites where you didn't even believe there were fish.

I bought a few a while back and they just flat out work. Caught a 3 pounder first time. They're far from weedless, which makes them a sort of open water lure for me. But if you use weightless or very little weight you can keep them off the bottom on retrieve. This is a variation of what we called a do-nothing rig in the 80s. That rig was not curled in the package. These will twist line so a small swivel is not a bad idea. EDIT: Take it easy on the hooksets and play the fish. These are small hooks.

One thing I like about the kayak is I can hold the fish in the water while I fumble around for my scale and phone with the other.

I try to only keep one or two when I decide to keep any. That way I go home and fry them up fresh with no leftovers. My wife and daughter will only eat crappie from the freshwater fish I catch, and not many of those. So I usually fly solo on the fish fry.

I've caught some 2 pounders on UL. My buddy landed an 8+ trolling Roadrunner jigs for crappie with 4 lb. test. He has caught several big bass doing this. He's also seen bass chasing the crappie he was landing.

I had a PB of barely 8 lbs. at one time on a War Eagle Gold Shiner double gold willow blade. I rarely try a single excpet in the dead of winter. Then it's a nighttime bait with a big Colorado that you can reel so slow it's like a jig.

In winter I prefer the swinghead jig with a craw or black lizard. It and the jig will get some bites. But I catch more pitching a T rigged craw to wood.

The Trashmaster jig is the most weedless jig I've ever fished. It has a screwlock for the trailer and once rigged it's as weedless as a T-rig. It's not cheap if you aren't a Karl's member. But then I've had two for a couple of years, so they last. https://shopkarls.com/p/gamechanger-lures-trashmaster-jig That said, I usually just use a T-rigged craw or beaver with a superline EWG hook and the weight pegged.

Every time I read this thread title my brain reads "41 year old virgin." ? Welcome!

Near silence, no one else around.

Gas motors running in a no-gas-motors lake. It has happened twice while I was fishing. And if there's one thing fish in a no gas motors lake are not used to hearing it's motors.

Pitching

In winter rocks will warm in direct sunlight.

I have some friends, a married couple, who gave me carte blanche to fish their pond. They sometimes ask me questions and when I start with "If this, then that, except when, and then..." I see they get the 40 yard stare and I know they've stopped listening.

I got a Daiwa PMF100 for Christmas when I was 13 in 1983. I retired it after 30+ years. The only maintenance it got was 2 replaced worm gear pawls and the occasional cleaning. I fished hard a long time with that reel. It was my only BC reel for the longest time. Captain Shane Procell takes them to The Amazon for some peacock action. He has a fleet of them he keeps serviced.

I have a "friend" who owns a pond. Every time I see him around this one horse town he says "Why don't you come fish my pond sometime." So I asked him 3X and each time he said it was not a good time. I'm slow, but I get the hint. Sad, because we were pretty good friends at one point. I had a key to his gate, which I'm sure he's changed. Not exactly what you asked, but he's a one way street. Not a real friend.

Flipping, pitching and frogging, I horse them in. Especially frogging because they don't need much slack to bury themselves in weeds and leverage their way out of the hook(s). For these I'm using 30# to 50# braid and reel with the drag almost locked down. I've made the mistake of thinking I could horse a fish in with a standard straight shank worm hook only to have the fish bend the hook out. That was a potential PB and I'm not sure if I've caught a bigger bass to date, so lesson learned. Use flipping or superline hooks when pitching. Trebles and thin hooks or when using medium rods, I play them on a looser drag.

Not all that common, but I've never caught a double on one lure. I have caught two white bass on a double jig rig.