the reel ess

Yes. But it is yours to do with as you please.

Everyone loves to hate on the Whopper Plopper. YouTube declares it dead because the fish somehow recognize the sound and stopped biting even though every size makes a different sound. Pulleeeze! Look how many imitators there are and more are still coming out. The 110 size is a big mama catching machine. It was my #2 big fish catching bait of 2025 behind only the black/blue Yum Dinger. I'm of the opinion that if you throw it long enough it will eventually anger a fish into a bite. I caught one on it in February this year. Beyond this, I love the usual ones, Devil's Horse and Torpedo, etc. But these seem more niche to me than the WP. It has worked for me when they weren't on a topwater bite. Maybe not in big numbers, but in size. And I'd rather catch one big bass than 10 dinks.

My guess was I got a bite from a big turtle that was also munching on a dead catfish. Then I just hooked the fish head.

I caught a ghost. As a kid, I was catfishing in a steady rain one day. In got a bite and set the hook. What I reeled in was a catfish head only, hooked in the mouth. It had glassed over eyes, like it had been dead a while. I can't imagine the sequence of events between the bite and landing the head. I told my mom and she said to stop telling tall tales.

I'm pretty stealthy in the yak. But when fishing in my buddy's 10' aluminum jon we just do the best we can. It's noisier, but it has advantages. For one, it's his boat and he runs the motor from the back. Win-win for me. I have more time free to cast. I don't notice a big difference in catch rates or size.

More than once, got to the spot and put the kayak in and looked for the paddle. DOH! Have forgotten the tackle box, the rods, the crate. Everything but the boat.

But my kayak cost about $700. And it drafts a few inches. I have no electronics. I can load/unload it by hand in places with no boat ramps. There is no boat/trailer maintenance. People hear I fish from it and offer to let me fish their private property. There's big'uns in those places. But mainly, it's just a matter of preference for me. When I was a kid I wanted nothing more than a Ranger bass boat. Priorities changed.

I don't fish big waters. If I did, I would fly a red flag. But the reason I got the kayak was I was tired of competing with people in bass boats for 2 lb bass. I had a boat. I would go over to my dad's Lake Wateree, SC house and spend the night. I would get up with the chickens and hit my best spot. There would usually already be 2 boats there. Did they sleep there? I'm 3rd in line to my favorite spot! No thanks. I started thinking I'd rather have a smaller craft to get into ponds and shallow spots like flooded timber that bass boats can't. I paddle with ease through weeds and stumps you can't run a trolling motor though. You'd be amazed how many big bass are in very shallow water year round. Now, to change the subject, my mom had ALS, which eventually claimed her life. I took her to the hospital and back to have a feeding tube put in. On the way out of Augusta we drove parallel to a canal and there were people kayaking, some fishing. I commented "That looks fun." She said "It looks like fun is over for me." That broke my heart. But when I got home I told my wife "I will have a fishing kayak." I didn't get it until well after she passed. But I really felt what she said. So I got a kayak, the first of 3 I've owned. I started fishing smaller waters and areas you can't even get a jon boat into. I've consistently caught more and bigger bass than I ever would have chasing dinks in the big lake. To me, it's fun, good exercise, and inexpensive. I would still like a jon boat. I'm 55 and there are some limitations to sitting in the kayak all day. I need a good stretch every couple hours.

Black/blue is the killer soft plastic color in my region of SC. But it's not for reaction baits unless the water is zero visibility-I'm thinking of a single Colorado bladed spinnerbait I have that was designed for night fishing. I've caught a total of 1 bass during the day on it. But I have caught them on brighter colors, even in dingy water.

@Swamp Girl You know my goals. And they DO include fishing. I honestly hope to be on the water in April, my favorite month of the year for bass fishing. Not only are all the fatties shallow. All the hunters are chasing turkeys.

I used to do the big bass lake thing with a boat and graph and run all over the lake. I got tired of it and started fishing smaller bodies of water. I admit I wasn't very good at that style of fishing. And the inconsiderate boaters and jet skiers irritated me to no end. My main big pond/small lake is 25-30 acres. A lot of the big lake rules work and a lot of them don't. Bass there are rarely "schooled up" unless they're very young and small. I think tiny ones run in packs for safety as baitfish do and they congregate where small prey will be found. I may catch a couple bigger bass close together, but it's usually one bass and move along. I could beat that spot to a froth and waste my time. The bigger the bass, they less likely there's another in the vicinity (there are always exceptions). But I know enough to hit a particular point or laydown or patch of lilies or outside weed edge to get that one decent bass that so often is there. There are bass fishing postcard spots on that lake that never have a bass. Then there are bare spots that for some reason do hold them.

I know enough to occasionally call my shot. But as soon as I really think I know something, I get severely humbled.

Insurance initially denied the PET scan. So the surgeon did a laparoscopy instead. That tests the fluids around the thorax. It was negative. It would have been positive if cancer had spread outside the stomach. The surgeon is confident it's contained. He said he would have insisted on the PET scan if the laparoscopy pathology had been positive. That would have been the ammo he needed to force insurance to pay.

I wondered is you meant 2-3 acres. That's a small pond to me. One I can get around 3-4X in a fishing trip.

That's very encouraging. I'm going to get through it. I just have to go through it. Before this whole episode began, the only person I knew who had stomach cancer died from it. So that's all I could think of before i got the CT scans and consulted with the surgeon. When the surgeon came in the exam room and started talking about the surgery (surgery would not be an option if the cancer had spread) I said "So, you're thinking of this in terms of a cure?" He said it appeared to be contained to the stomach and, therefore curable. I said "Stick your hand out! (shook hands with the man) That's the first good news I've heard yet." The wife and I cried right there in front of two doctors. I texted my daughter the news as we walked out and waited for bloodwork. I honestly believe the oncologist was pleasantly surprised when we met with him again.

I had a Daiwa Procaster from the 80s that wore out 2 pawls. They sent me replacement parts for free twice, no questions asked. They didn't even charge me postage.

The GI said they really were not expecting to see a tumor. They were expecting esophagitis. They thought they might have to stretch the esophagus due to scarring. Doctors play the odds.

There were signs going back about a year. But the major complaint was that I felt full prematurely and I knew it was unusual. I could eat half as much as I used to but feel like I was stuffed. 15 minutes later, it would settle and I'd feel normal again. Also, my iron is very low and I can tell. Suffice it to say, I insisted on an endoscopy and it was discovered that way. Honestly, I feel normal otherwise. It was difficult to believe the diagnosis.

Well, I have had indigestion since I was a teen. I'm 55 now. About a year ago I started noticing that when I ate a good amount in one sitting it was uncomfortable and that slowly increased. I also developed these belches that seemed to bubble up all the way form my stomach, not just a burp. It happened more when my stomach emptied. I saw my PCP in May and discussed it and she gave me another acid blocker, though it wasn't really an upset stomach feeling. In the meantime I noticed inflamed gums and saw my dentist about it. She asked if I had ever had chemo/cancer or if I might be anemic. That was alarming so I went back to the PCP and she was of the opinion that the inflamed gums were caused by some mineral deficiency. The stomach was not doing its job completely. I basically demanded an endoscopy then and she agreed and referred me to a GI. The GI thought it was going to be a case of esophagitis. The tumor was discovered by that procedure. I'm really glad I pushed for the endoscopy. In SC, the eagles are more common over larger lakes. But they do have a range and travel pretty far from lakes. It's still kind of a big deal to see one. When I was young, they simply were not around here. I saw my first one when I was maybe 30.

Appreciate the recommendation

Thanks for that info. It is encouraging. It seems this type of cancer is less common and most cancer survivors had a different type.

Thank you. I have a lot to live for.

I consider you all people I know pretty well, so I have some news. I have been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in my stomach. But it appears it was caught early enough for it to be completely contained in the stomach. There is no metastisis. And that's really GOOD news. It is operable, but the surgery will be a gastrectomy. I may get to keep a small part of the stomach, but probably not. It will be like a permanent gastric bypass and the surgeon and oncologist and GI assure me people live relatively normally afterwards. I'm about to start chemo before. Then there will be the surgery and recovery. Then more chemo. Between God, doctors, nurses, technology, my friends and family and positive attitude we're confident in a complete cure. It will be a real lifestyle change. But that has the word "LIFE" in it. So I'll be extremely thankful to be among the living. If you pray, I would greatly appreciate your prayers. If not, I'll take those good vibes and your fish pictures. This site will be a vacation for me while I go through the whole ordeal. On a side note, after being diagnosed, but before the scans that showed cancer contained, I went out with my buddy and I caught a real donkey (7-4) on the Super Spook, Jr. This fish absolutely crushed the bait. I have 50 seconds of video after the fish had already jumped 2 or 3 times. I also saw a bald eagle that day, which is not an everyday sight in SC...yet. I considered these things very positive signs that helped get me through until I got the good news from the scans.

My favorite way as well. I had one day in July when they hammered the Super Spook, Jr all day in broad daylight. One bass came out of the water like a shark. I thought it missed the bait until it hit the water. And I got my 2nd biggest fish of the year, a 7-4, on the same lure Nov 15th.

I don't write down every bass I catch. But I do write down every one over 3 lbs and the lure. Here are the lures in order. I did catch some good fish around the spawn that I did not write down. They were all from a small pond and most on a black/blue lizard. You can see that black/blue is my confidence soft plastic color. Yum Dinger, black/blue flake - 7 fish Whopper Plopper 110 in bone - 6 Super Spook, Jr. in gold - 3 X-Rap in clown - 3 Lipless Crank - 1 Pop-R - 1 Johnson weedless Silver Minnow - 1