dwh4784

I stopped by Walmart today for this very reason, and the first thing I noticed is they are doing a total store reset. Isles moved, product being cleared out. I got excited until I got to the fishing section and they had nothing on sale. Bummer!

I'm jealous of all of you that can fish rivers and creeks for smallies with Senkos and other plastics. My local river has native redband rainbow trout and is "selective gear" which means single barbless hooks and no bait or scents. Sadly that takes pretty much every soft plastic I can find out of contention since they are always salted and/or scented. I do best with float-n-fly but catch a LOT of dinks. If I could find a source for unscented tubes or stick baits I bet I could find some bigger fish in there.

Most people won't recommend a sit inside, but if you aren't concerned about being able to stand I really like my Old Town Vapor 10 Angler. You sit low, it's very stable even in rough water I never felt in danger of tipping. I added one rod holder in front so I can take three with me. I have plenty of room for my tackle bag and whatever else I need, I even took my 4 year old out in it twice and brought a small cooler for snacks. It's light, easy to carry and store. And on sale it was only $400.

I honestly hated having a bass boat. I bought my dad's when he quit fishing and unless I could convince him to come with me I had nobody that could help back the trailer, load the boat, generally contribute anything. The truck I had at the time was a 5-speed so most people couldn't even drag the boat out of the water. But everyone wants you to take them out. I'm much happier with my kayak.

Call a local Scuba school, see if anyone would go get it for fun or a small reward? My uncle dropped some expensive sunglasses into 20' of water one weekend, came back the next with his scuba gear (he lives across the state) and went down and got them. Even in relatively shallow water like you are talking it would be tough to do without being able to stay down there for a few minutes to let the silt die down and be able to see.

Been there! But if I've spent a bit much, there's always the option to call the sort center and have them hold the package at will call. Also, you can pick up your stuff at 10am rather than waiting all day. Learned this from my shipping/receiving days.

I have a local hardware store that is expanding their "fishing hole" by leaps and bounds. It's great. There are some serious bass fishermen working there as well. The tackle they carry is significantly better than Cabela's or Dicks, and the employees know what they are talking about (and ordering in). Rod/reel selection is not great though and always full MSRP. I'm watching the bigger stores for sales on that end of it most of the time.

I went to Cabela's today with a birthday gift card and some cash from helping a relative replace a power steering pump. Walked out with a Lew's Laser Pro Speed Spool SLP for $80, originally $129.99 marked down to $89.99 and another 10% off because I bought the last one (display model). As an added bonus the clerk also put the 10% off on the spool of PowerPro I got for it. Only snafu is that they accidentally gave me the box and rang me up for the LH retrieve (also only the display model left) so I need to go back tomorrow and straighten that out in case I have a warranty issue otherwise I'd likely be denied.

Agreed, I did that once. A sprain/partial tear which was awful pain for days and still took several weeks before feeling back to normal, but if you treat it right it will repair itself. A full tear is a different animal, requiring surgery and lengthy rehab. As for could be worse, Google "Ilizarov". I've worn variations of that contraption on four separate occasions on the same leg. It couldn't actually get worse than that in my opinion.

Taco Bell

I'd give that dragonfly a try long before any iteration of this thing. Although if it does hit the bargain bin it would make a great gag gift.

My frog rod is beater from head to toe. Shimano Callisto (at least 10 years old) mated to a $25 Shakespeare MH rod. Still yards them out of the thickest cover. The reel is sounding pretty awful though, I expect to have to replace it soon.

I fished straight braid for years with good results, lots of pike got the better of me when fishing jigs and plastics but the worst part was losing so much line on a snag and how hard it is to break off. Before you know it you are short on line and having to re-spool which sucks considering how long braid can last. Last year I started kayak fishing and didn't really want to see if I could tip my kayak over before breaking 50lb braid, so I went to the leader route this last year with the uni-uni knot and it's great. I tie on 5' or so and don't lose any mainline, plus it's definitely less visible. I use straight braid on my frog rod but other than that I'll stick with leaders. I had two hookset break offs one day with a 12lb P-line leader, but they were at the hook rather than the knot so it was either a nick in the line or a tiger muskie considering where I was fishing. I'm surprised to see how many on here use the lower test braid. I might have to look into that as I've never tried anything under 20lb (6lb mono equivalent). The 10lb braid is so tiny I just never really considered it, no logical reason why though now that I think about it. '

I paid $60 for a new Shimano Spirex last May, should have returned it right away but I thought it would loosen up and then I missed the warranty window. I thought I had a year at Cabelas but apparently not. Anyway that Spirex is a total piece of junk, the binding is unbelievable. Which is sad, I grew up fishing Shimano reels with the quick fire trigger(I'm a lefty and it just worked for me) and was happy to see some still around after my old Sidestab died. I did some shopping around and bought a Daiwa Revros to try out this year but haven't had a chance to use it yet. I also use an old wood handled Pfluegar Trion and it works great. Caught a 3lb6oz smallmouth on it last year actually.

In my experience you will pay more for it but the shortest transit time = the less handling events. So ship it 1 day or 2nd day AIR, never Ground. Ground shipments can potentially get destroyed via any carrier. It goes from truck to trailer to sort center to truck to train to trailer etc. We had a shipment damaged once via a train derailment. You ship it air it goes from the truck that picks it up, to the airport/plane, sort center, plane, truck, delivered. In 24-48 hours. With a shipping tube you want the least amount of handling. This time of year there isn't any holiday rush so either carrier should be fine, I'd personally choose FedEx though. We had way more damaged packages from UPS. UPS employees are union, they basically can't be fired and they (sometimes) don't care. I once packed a $13,000 piece of equipment w/ insurance and "fragile" stickers on the box only to watch the driver throw it as hard as he could right into the corner of the wheel well. Just my two cents as a former manufacturing company warehouse supervisor.

I have a 3500 box full of my favorites, but a plain gold Vibrax has been my best inline the last couple years.

I've only had pike once but it was memorably good. It was my soon to be brother in law's bachelor party, two whole days of bass fishing w/ 7 guys and 3 boats. We had a blast! Pike sandwiches for dinner after the first day, delicious! I don't recall the lengths but we kept two pike to feed everyone, one was mine at 6lb8oz and the other was slightly larger.

I've got one. A few years back my brother in law took me to this somewhat secluded spot where you can catch decent rainbows off the bank. Very limited access but not heavily fished. I've since been back a few times, and every once in awhile you catch a smallmouth instead. I got to looking at this place on a map and the complete lack of boat and bank access made me believe there was something to exploit here. This year with my new kayak I decided to try it out, paddled over to a rock face that looked good, and within a few casts with a 4" blue/black Senko I was being dragged all over the place and finally landed a 3lb6oz smallie my PB by far. I had a couple other decent outings there, but I didn't even start until late summer and I'm ready to hit it harder this year.

And here I thought they made this shirt just for me...

First thing I would do would be to check the state regulations, better make sure you're OK to even fish there and that there aren't any gear restrictions. If your state is anything like mine they will say what type of fish are present as well as the season, access, etc.

It's cool to support your team, but to come up with silly scenarios and proclamations where they would have won the super bowl is a bit ridiculous. Cowboys had the #1 seed so theoretically the best chance to make it, they failed. Atlanta could have and probably should have won that game, but they also failed. I've got my Seahawks (that I just barely claim anymore due to their cheap/trash talk play) that beat New England on the road this year, so I guess I could claim that "we" should have won the super bowl. Except, they had their chance and failed as well. That said, the Cowboys do have a good shot to be great for years with Prescott and Elliott and the rest of that team. It would be nice if they win one before Witten retires though.

Falcons let up too early. Collapse of a lifetime there. Gotta give it up to the Pats to keep fighting though. Crazy game, I thought Buffalo Wild Wings was running the show in the 4th.

For me, the advantages would be casting distance and the ability to cast lighter line and lures. When fishing open, clear water I almost always use spinning gear.

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone outside of Goodell has ever been too serious about "Deflategate". It was ridiculous that Brady got suspended, but hilarious that Garappolo won all those games anyway. And look back on that infamous game against the Colts, did the ball have anything to do with it? 45-7... I'm not a Pat's fan, but that team is the best coached and best prepared team out on the field almost every time. I'm still rooting for the Falcons though! That team is stacked with talent and they've never won one.