Rick Howard

So my house has been a fishing camp since the 60's. My great grandfather (retired sailor) built it in the late 20's and lived here till he passed. He was a fisherman also. The "cottage" being my fathers boyhood home he kept it but made it a camp. I've been working on a remodel for about 2 years. Anyway I have a bunch of old tackle from previous generations. I was going through much of the stuff over the weekend. I figured I'd share these. See if anyone recognized anything. I'm not intending to sell any of it. I am going to display some stuff in my house. This was pretty cool because it's kinda local.

Found this while going through some old boxes in my garage.

Awesome! Now a good day at work could be a bad day of fishing lol

Nice calling Brad! Calling coyote is fun. I call on much more limited basis now. I use to go out 3-4 times a week. After moving here its just tough to gain access to property and I have kinda given up. Also a change in career leaves me less time. I get out on the occasional invite though. I still make calls once in a while. More turkey calls than predator stuff though. I shot a 22-250 for a long time but moved to a .243 shooting factory 55 Nosler Varmegeddon and preferred that.

Quite a few to pike. I don't fish cranks very often but sometimes its just the best tool available. I lose more jigs than anything else. Its the nature of jig fishing to me and I fish jigs more than anything else too.

I have not tried many casting reels. But I haven needed to. I have the an Abu Ora sx that I've been using for 2 1/2 seasons. It's on a 7' mh. It gets fished hard. Spinner baits and crank baits mostly on that one. T rigs sometimes too. I fish 4-7 days a week from June to October. I have 3 oras in total now because I like that one so much.

Id add. The boat is fine for me and I wouldn’t want a newer boat but, I would like to fish some competitive leagues and tournaments around me and this boat just isn’t allowed lol. So hopefully sooner than later this one will get passed on to my nephew.

Im running a '79 Glastron HPV160 with '79 Johnson 115.

LOL My ex-wife once said "maybe you shouldn't fish so much". She's my ex-wife.

Works for me

You misunderstood. I was making the point that selecting a bait solely on the fact that your confidence level is high with that bait could back fire worse than using a bait you've never used before I think your doing the right thing by trying to learn as much as possible prior too the day. Worst case you I am sure you will learn enough on that day to catch some fish.

If your high confidence baits are in the first 3 feet of water than your in for a pretty slow day in 30' of water lol.

I have no idea what part of the country you are in. Maybe its not really "fall fishing time" where you are. Fall is not a free for all bass catching frenzy. It is easy to get that picture in your head by reading articles and watching videos. In my experience the bass are not as spread out in the fall. You really have to find them. When you do find the bass you will catch more and the fish also tend to be fatter. Its not about shallow or deep, to me. I look for Food + Healthy weeds or wood. If I can find the 3 together that is even better. Wood is normally easier for me to fish so I prefer that. I find schools of bait fish then find the good cover (healthy weeds or wood) and fish that. If the area is void of bait fish I keep on looking. If your body of water does not have schooling bait fish than I would skip right to finding healthy weeds. Food will be in those.

That's what's casting an umbrella rig feels like to me.

A worm. A real one. You’ll just have to keep catching them until you get a greeny. If you have not already you should probably check on the legality of keeping fish in your state.

im catching fish shallow and deep right now. On average I'm Catching better fish deeper. It's like a playground though. I can flip in the shallow to mid depth wood. Throw spinners and squarebills at shallow or mid depth wood. Crank or toss tubes at deeper weed lines, humps, rock piles, or wood. Or if I find some feeders I toss a popper or jerk-bait. Most productive has been deeper weedlines that are still healthy. Quality and quantity Are on those.

Ive tried mono, braid and floro. Settled on 20 or 25lb trilene Xt and big game for flipping and pitching in laydowns, weed edges, docks, undercut banks, and lilly pads. Mono is more manageable for me. No digging in issue. No coiling issue. Strong enough to hoist em out of the cover.

I am very lucky. I fish a lot. I'm not missing many chances , trust me. i have instant access out my front door. But it gets dark so early now that I only get about 30 min on weeknights. Weekends have been less cooperative lately. Fall fishing really start d a few weeks ago by me. It's still going and I think we have a few great weeks still left but then.... cold, snow, and ice take over pretty quick.

I suspect it’s more profound the farther north you live. This time of year I’m happy that the hot humid days are done and the fishing can be spectacular but... cold and hard water are pretty close. Im on my lunch break from work.... looking at a perfect fishing day... knowing only a few of these days remain... hoping the forecast aligns with my days off (Not looking good at the moment). Ice fishing just isn’t my thing.

I like to tinker. The 5xd worked just fine this morning. I will buy a few more dt's and alter them the same way I did the 5xd. It will just help me cover the sweet spot a little easier to have those in-between. I will I'll pick up the sespending dots also.

I would prefer a stand alone subscription. I refuse to pay for cable. I don't watch any tv but HBO. I dumped the cord 5 years ago. HBO came out with a stand alone app so now I can watch again. I'm relegated to watching bass on youtube long after the tournament conclusion. If BASS would offer a subscription service like HBO has... I would buy it.

Throw away your snow shovel! maybe burn it lol

Had a 5xd to experiment with. Haven't had much spare time but I ground the bill down about an 1/8". I followed the contour of the bill and it seems to swim fine. I plan to fish it tomorrow if the weather holds off.

I'm Not at home right now but I do believe the transducer is pitched a few degrees downwards. I will adjust to see what happens. Thanks. Again im not depending on the unit to show me fish. I'm more interested in the depth, bottom contours, bottom composition, and water temp. Also weeds and structure that's deeper than my eyes can see. But, since I knew there were fish at this spot because I was catching them. The lack of arches Made me question wether the unit was functioning correctly. The concept that anything suspended in the water would return to the unit was not lost though. I'm sure some of those blobs are floating debris also. This is is my first depth finder. In the past I've found fish the "old fashioned" way. Seasonal patterns, bait, cover... still do that first but the devise gives me a little more knowledge of my surroundings. Learning

Maybe a better way to phrase the question and some of my thoughts. Im not depending of the unit to show me fish. I'm more interested in bottom, temp, and depth. However, seeing all the blobs on screen when I know the fish are there, I was catching them, made me wonder if the unit is working properly. My gut says most of those blips are bait. I'm seeing larger schools with my eyes near the surface but beneath are lots of smaller groups that form into larger schools when the bass start chasing them. Does se this sound reasonable? I'm still surprised I'm not seeing an arch or two in the mix.