the reel ess

And when it hauls you around. It's more like close combat than fishing from a deck. Nice ride. To your point about lugging the kayak on and off a vehicle, that's pretty easy with a pickup. Mine weighs about 60 lbs. with the seat in. It's much easier to me than towing, unloading, loading and towing back a boat. I don't have space in my yard for a boat. And this feature of a kayak means you can put it in places you can't get most boats in. And for the rods I can take as many as 8 with the flush mount and a crate. But I rarely take more than 6. I just take the bags of plastics I might need and one or two boxes. No gas or oil, no batteries to charge or lug around, no motors to get fixed or replace. All boats have their have pros and cons. I'd still like to own a jonboat.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do try to use more weedless lures in a spot like that. Spinnerbait and jig. But I have thrown and retrieved my Whopper Plopper 110 right over laydowns. If a big fish gets it there landing it is low percentage. Not to mention I may lose the expensive lure.

After I got a kayak I found that I was never using my fish & ski. It was falling into disrepair so I sold it. I haven't missed it a bit. I catch more and bigger bass than I ever have going to places you can't easily get a bass boat into.

If working a shoreline, the back seater can cast or pitch in a backwards angle. They may pick some fish off the front guy misses. I've been successful in my buddy's back seat by fishing out of the other side of the boat or using lures he won't or doesn't use. Gotta do some different things sometimes.

Anybody remember Virgil Ward's fishing show? If I recall he caught about half his fish on this bait with a pork trailer.

I used a gold one last summer during the dog days. I bought it at the beach to use for inshore. It's a frog replacement for me. A trailer helps out a lot. I just slowly retrieved it over the lilies. And yes, the hook needs a good sharpening. One of the cool things about the spoon is if they bite and miss you can let it sink. If they miss the frog, they often lose sight of the lure. It also shows the fish something they probably have never seen.

My next smallmouth will also be my new PB smallmouth.

Looks perfect. Every time I ever overfilled one I just backlashed the excessive line off.

It was an original Star Wars reference.

Yeah, when they're finicky everything matters. When they're chomping nothing seems to matter.

My dad introduced me to fishing. One of his friends, a coworker, introduced us both to bass fishing. He took me fishing a few times when my dad was working. He recently passed away.

I love the anise (licorice) scent.

On the bright side, it'll be mild to you wherever you go.

LOL. Nobody retires north, do they? I'm in SC and I still want to retire further south and/or near the coast.

I was 49. It was last July. 8.2 lbs. on a gold War Eagle spinnerbait. It was the first time I broke into the 8s. I almost beat it this spring, but that bass didn't quite make 8. That one was on a Whopper Plopper and I caught another 6 pounder in that same spot, same day.

Nice! There are no toothy critters where I fish. We do have pickerel and bowfin in some waters. Do they shorten the life of hollow body lures? I fished a lake from the time I was old enough to hold a cane pole until I was mid-40's. I never saw a gar on it in all that time. Now people catch them regularly.

To expand on @DitchPanda's comments, playing the odds, you would concentrate on shallow water near deeper water in the dog days. Having said that, my last 2 PBs came in July on shallow flats. But it was early both times. Night fishing is not an option for me at this place.

He was headed out of the cove when we came into it so we couldn't put a show on.

We just landed every fish we could and left with them. Because my dad thought that if you caught enough fish to cook, you should cook them-every time.

No, I said if you're driving by (or trolling for that matter) and see someone catch a fish, how do you not retain and use that info? I don't mean run right up on him and start fishing the spot. I'd never do that. But it's happened to me.

Yeah, my family had a house on Lake Wateree, SC. I used to go over and spend the night so I had my boat in and ready to go early.

Was that a joke? The spot, not the boat. This thread reminds me of an encounter my dad and I had with a guy who was practicing for a tourney. We were fishing one of our usual spots. He told us to avoid part of that bank because he had a tournament the next day and then he left. Well, you can imagine what we proceeded to do. Sucks for him, but if I have one day a week to catch bass you ain't telling me where I can do it.

I used to do the same. But I couldn't get there early enough. Two boats of fishermen must have spent the night where I wanted to start fishing.

How do you drive past someone who catches a fish and forget it? I'm not going to go horn in on someone's honey hole while they're fishing it. But you can bet I'll give it a try when no one's on it. Anyway, those days are behind me because I have no motorboat.

I'm wearing black today