N Florida Mike

Haha - yeah I thought someone would pick up on that. I should have said “Not knowingly careless “?

As some of you know, I broke 2 rods yesterday. ( I never broke 1 before in 45 years bass fishing.) So today I’m at the park waiting for my next work appt., and I see a family of 5 playing baseball. 3 kids, 2 parents. ALL 5 of them threw and batted left handed. Have never seen a whole left handed family before. Even the 3-4 year old. I got a long distance pic, I didn’t want to cause Them a corona scare by getting too close.?

No, it banged off the boat as I was fighting the fish somehow. I’m at least looking at some. I’ve brought an old ugly stick out of retirement for now. I have about 5 other old rods that I’m trying to match one for my finesse-Setup. For me, I’m scratching the bottom of the barrel with what I have left. Was even thinking about putting my finesse spinning reel on a bait caster rod, but at medium- heavy it wouldn’t work for finesse anyway.

So I’ve been bass fishing for 45 years and never had this happen before. I broke a rod. Not only that , I broke 2 rods. I was not angry or careless. The first was my 6.6 Bps finesse rod. Somewhere between my office and my first cast- have no idea how - the tip broke 3 inches or so from the end. The second was a Rhino rod , that I have my favorite spinning reel on. It, of course , was made in China and has the word “ indestructible “ on it . Broke the tip of it off also fighting a fish when it hit the boat?. I had never broke a rod, and broke 2 in one day!! Unbelievable. Oh, I did catch 15 on a craw, speedworms , and super flukes. Don’t know if it was worth it though to have 2 rods down.

Yeah us neither, unless you count 15 minutes under our desks as a tornado went by!!

One statistic I read said 60,000 people died of the flu last year in the U.S. As of Friday morning, 41 people had died from CV .Why no hysteria with 60,000 but the world is coming to an end with 41???

I was given a garlic scent attractant. After a few fish picked up my bait and spit it out quickly before I could set the hook- I quit using it. Im open to trying another one, but it would have to be a gift ?

I usually watch MLF and did yesterday. It’s a 2 hour show, so sometimes I get a little bored with it. The way I remedy that is to pick someone ( or two ) to root for. It keeps me interested. Yesterday, it was Terry Scroggins. He pulled it out to stave off a run by ? Can’t remember who. Got his 23 pounds to place 4th and be able to continue. It always seems like he pulls it off at the last minute. I thought about getting out fishing yesterday but decided to plan on going late this afternoon. Going to be hot though (87) , but the waters still cool. Should be increased activity even since last week. Got daylight savings time now too !!!?

? . I don’t see why not, except that I don’t know if the cables would have enough room though. There isn’t much room with the full length- they nearly fill up the shaft already, and there’s only a little slack lengthwise. I guess I could cut them and reattach them. Still a great idea to try if this fails. Planning to test it this afternoon. I can always chisel off the JB weld if it doesn’t hold or if I need to work on the gear box.It runs almost like brand new- It still pushes my JB very well.

Finally took it to the trolling motor shop because I couldn’t tell - it looked like maybe the end of the shaft had a piece that had come off. He said SOMEONE had broke the shaft near the top below the pin hole and had filed it down to make it look normal. I have 3 suspects, but I know they won’t admit it. So I used JB weld and reattached it. It’s that , or get a new one . When it breaks down next time, I will. I should have known.?

I use my remington 12 gauge for squirrels, deer and hogs. For deer/hogs I either use a slug or double/0 buckshot. Squirrels usually#7 1/2 .Got to be careful to get all the shot out when cleaning em though.

A wawa near me had gas for 1.91.

I caught a 6.3 on a booyah pond magic. Painted willow blades. Skirt was red, yellow and green.

I’ve got plenty of fish ? and I can always pick off a few squirrels and such...

Same here I’m angry. My business has tanked because of irrational fear spread by news stations , internet etc. Only 40 people have died in the US. and I am sorry for those folks and their families but I’m living my life as usual. Better to live your life without fear and have a tiny possibility of catching this virus, or not live it and be scared of everything that comes along and eventually die anyway. This society has become a bunch of wimps. I’m sure world leaders are watching this with interest.

Same here!

First “ boat “ I had was a inflatable rubber raft. It was hard to fish from let me tell you. It would spin around - very hard to control. It wasn’t long before I hooked it. I paddle frantically to shore and made it just as it sank. Patch kits don’t work too well. Neither does duck tape. I used my friends Jon boat for years. Got a used bass boat when I was 24. Can’t remember what kind- I don’t remember ever seeing another one like it - probably because it was a piece of crap , definitely one of a kind . I could take half an hour or more to tell you all the stories of breakdowns, boat splitting open on lake George, etc. Finally sold it, went out and bought a j. Boat with a little kicker and T. Motor. Have caught thousands of fish out of it. I later added a neighbors old kayak and bought a used bass hunter from a friend to complete my fleet.

Don’t lip one of these!!

I trap em out of my lake because They eat my bank away. These only are out at night and dusk. Very shy . As far as the fishing , I’d try a 4 inch senko or zoom super fluke . I Texas rig them weightless. If they don’t bite them I’d try another lake!

Feeding rats? Think I’d stay away from there anyway...

Got out with my good friend Jeff who I’ve known and fished with since I was 11 years old . Fished all afternoon. Windy and cool, day before the full moon. Mostly cloudy. Jeff had 2 fish break his line but managed a 3 1/2 pounder for his best fish . He caught most of his on a Berkeley havoc beaver- style bait, kind of orange and crime color. We caught 3 in 5 minutes on a point on different spinnerbaits. We also got a double . I caught 2 that were 4 3/4 pounds, one on a 6 inch big bite stick bait in watermelon red, and one on a watermelon seed fluke. I caught most of mine on those baits, and a few more on the speed worm and baby brush hog. We both lost big fish when the fish ran up into lay downs.Most of the fish were on the north ( shallower ) end of the lake. We ended up with 23. No dinks! Already planning our next trip to a lake we used to fish a lot in our 20s. Good times!

Hey , I appreciate that! Will look at it after I go fishing!

Thanks Tim. The hole in the shaft is more of a slot thats open to the top. I can’t see how it ever held it in place unless there was something there before that fell out and I didn’t notice it . Wish I could find the handbook with the parts diagram.

I’ve tried several times to figure this out and just can’t. I’ve had many TMs, mostly minnkotas and have never had this issue before so ... The gear box head keeps coming off... I’ve taken the pin out and reversed the head a few times , and when you put the pin back in and tighten the nut, it would be secure and not come off. Now, I do the same thing and the head is still loose and comes off, sometimes when I’m trying to turn especially. It sometimes comes off and I go around in circles until I can fit it back on. It seems like maybe there’s something missing that was holding it on but I did it before and don’t remember anything different... Im swallowing what little bit of pride I have left and need y’all’s help. It’s probably some little thing that’ll make me look stupid, but I don’t care at this point...