DrMarlboro92

If you are a bank Or kayak/canoe Fisher, go buy an 8ft long piece of 6" Pvc pipe, then order conduit carrier kits from Amazon for $50. stuff a bit of polyethylene foam in the ends, and many a strip across the bottom, and you now have a locking, extremely durable rod carrier for your truck under $100 instead of paying $3-500 for the exact same thing. One that everyone knows, is when your braid starts looking old and used, spool it into another reel. now you have new braid without having to go buy any more. Do you like crank baits as much as I Do? If so you know that line test means a lot when fishing them. Buy a few spools for your reel, then spool them up with different test line and take them with you. now you no longer have to respool your rod when you need a few extra feet on the dive. this one costs a bit up front, but it saves money down the road. Find a fishing buddy who likes to fish as much as you do. That way, you can split costs on fuel. It's very useful for those of us who have to drive a ways to the lake. Buy some mend-it. You will keep soft plastics twice as long, and if you are as cheap as i am that trailer you cut 1/2 inch off of can now be put back together And used on it's own. Are you a big coffee drinker? save the grounds and once they are cool marinate your soft plastics in them (I've thrown a crank bait or two in there before as well). congratulations as you now have coffee scented lures without buying anything.

I think what's going on here is a lack of good communication. I don't think Catt is discounting patterns. I think what he's really saying is the same patterns he has fished for his lifetime still work today. location is a part of a pattern. and we call them patterns because you can repeat them. we don't completely relearn a body of water every time we go out. we just have to find what the fish are doing that day. Establishing a pattern is important. this tells you where fish are likely to be, what they are feeding on, and how they want it presented. If you are on a new body of water or somewhere you don't often fish, this is paramount to your success for the day, and you will likely start to figure out locations the bass will hold. when you establish a pattern you are only finding out information for today, but when you find a location that holds fish, it will likely continue to hold fish unless massive changes occur. every time you come back, you will have to find the pattern for THAT days conditions instead. as seasons change, bass move and with differences in weather bass change habits. But I can almost assure you, if you have found an area that holds bass, it will continue to hold bass and you will likely be able to repeat patterns as long as conditions are the same for years. that doesn't mean I'm going to fish my spawn locations year round, and I'm not going to fish deep summer cover or structure year round either. I'm going to apply the patterns I've learned over and over again, and if I'm having a bad day, then I know something must have changed and i will re-establish a pattern. A good example of when fishing memories is bad, Is my great uncle when muskie fishing. love the guy to death, but every time we go out, we go to thr same spot, because 30 years ago someone raised a big muskie there. we have never caught a thing.

I once had a fishing room. it was my entire house. fishing rods everywhere, fishing magazines in every corner by every chair, including the throne. tackle was strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other, with my fly vice set up on the coffee table right in front of the tv with feathers, dubbing, and fur everywhere around it. I would always have to tell people "check where you touch, sit, lean, or otherwise make contact with furniture. there will definitely be a hook there." then I got one of those things they call a "committed relationship." now I can't even have my rods displayed in the living room. they apparently do not meet the criteria for "acceptable home decoration...."

I normally just fish for bass, and I think a lot of it has to do with how you fish. the baits are reasonable sizes, so no over working yourself just throwing baits all day. It's definitely more enjoyable standing on a deck trying to figure out the bass on that particular day even if you don't catch anything. That doesn't mean I don't Chase other fish of course. sometimes you can find me wading streams with a fly rod chasing trout, or chasing muskie, trying to land some slabs, or even throwing for bluegill. all of these have their disadvantages that make them more irritating than bass, and a day without catching one is much less enjoyable. if I'm throwing 8oz baits for muskie, it's very disheartening going home with nothing but sore forearms. if I hike 3 miles to that trout stream, wade 2 miles, then go all the way back to the truck, I'm not a happy camper. or, if i spend all day jigging for crappie and get nothing, I'm going home without my planned fish fry and it's just irritating. bluegill are irritating for the same reason: I can't fry a 5 inch bluegill. so that's why I bass fish. I'm always doing something even if it's not catching fish (its been a while since I've went out and caught nothing, so knock on wood) I'm busy, and having a good time.

Old, not obsolete lol.

The only reason I started buying expensive reels is from when I used to musky fish. I found out quickly that when throwing those massive baits that cheap reels are cheap for a reason. That mentality carried over to bass fishing for me, but, some of my bass reels are el cheapo's that have held up for years. The real deciding factor in all this is if you can justify it. Personally, I can justify $200 for a reel that is durable, fits well in my hand, and looks gorgeous. But that doesn't mean that theres anything wrong with you if you can only justify a $50 reel. Get what you like, and what you feel will work best for you. If you don't have many expensive baitcasters anyway, it's not likely that you will be able to tell the difference.

I typically won't use a football jig under 3/4oz because I want it to sit on the bottom and just drag. I'll normally opt for 1/2oz on heavy cover flipping jigs, and anywhere from 1/4-1/2oz for finesse jigs depending on how deep I want to fish them, and how fast I want them to fall. All my swim jigs are in 3/8. As far as color, my favorites are either peanut butter jelly, black/blue, or some variation or blend that includes green pumpkin. So when you pick your weight, just ask how deep are the places you fish, and how fast of a fall do you want? I'd say start somewhere around 3/8oz And go from there.

I most definitely will. I've caught a few on accident before and they are great fun, so I was trying to go specifically for them. I'll wait till the summer if that's what I have to do. This is where I ended up completely on accident. i put in at leesylvania and looked in a few spots I've been to before and saw nothing so I decided to scope out the Maryland side and went over there. there were grass mats everywhere, and more bass than you could count. some quite decently sized and we did really well for bass throwing rage toads. not a single snakehead though.

You should grab it if you are the least bit interested in it. they are a bit on the heavy side, but they are great canoes. Edit: as far as price, it's not uncommon to see these things go for $8-900 So 150 was a steal. if you run across one for cheaper you should definitely grab it.

We don't need to discuss what's in the closet. I always said cleaning was just moving the mess until you are out of places to move it to. my garage requires ninja reflexes, a wire harness, some dude on a laptop telling you what to do 3 buildings away when he can't even see it, and a love interest between you and Emmanuelle Béart in a van somewhere sitting with a big old black guy who is telling you to stop goofing off and focus to traverse safely. Edit: and don't forget Craig. he has a very important job of bringing refreshments after the tool box heist has concluded, rewarding us with the sought after 10mm wrench. d**n. we really need an 11. time to rig back up!

It's simple really. Different gear cuts have different sounds when not under load. A straight cut gear is going to have significantly more noise than a helical cut gear. What you are actually hearing is the teeth slamming against something with no resistance allowing excess play and motion. Most reels have helical cut gears, but they all have different slopes. It's simple mechanics, and something you find out real quick as a technician the cool thing about gears, is whether it's a differential, a tranny, or even a fishing reel, they all have the same characteristics.

I'm more impressed with how clean your garage is than how you can drive it in on top of your car. there is some serious garage *** here.

I've caught snakehead before, but this will be my first time going specifically for them. I'm planning on going somewhere on the Potomac in VA and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good place to put in, and i also wanted to see if anyone had an opinion on if i should go tidal, or farther up near dc? Anything you guys can give me would be great.

It's called gear whine. you should be fine. The first thing I do when I buy a reel is take it apart and clean it, and degrease all the bearings. i like my bearings oiled instead of greased because even though you have to oil them more often, you end up with a quieter, and smoother reel.

Keep fewer (A dozen at a time or so) And have two bait buckets. A small 5 gallon or so one that you can dump and refill; that is going to be your calming bucket. as soon as you catch your dozen put them in this bucket with some coffee creamer. They will freak out and poop and make the water nasty pretty fast, but the coffee creamer will calm them down. After they've had time to void their bowels and calm down, move them to your main bait tank, and run the aerator d**n near constantly. I can keep alewives alive for about 3 days caring for them this way. calm bait is living bait. Back on topic, It's a gizzard shad. I would know that nasty thing anywhere from 100 miles away while blind in both eyes.

When asked where to find bass, my grandfather would always say "in the water." That's a good place to start if you ask me. Find the bait, find the fish. this can be a little difficult without a fish finder, but it is possible, and when I'm fishing somewhere I never have before this is the first thing I would do. A bass is always just waiting for the dinner bell to ring, and when it does they won't want to be far away. After finding the bait, it's a good idea to know what that bait is. this is going to help you pick colors for searching. I have a few lakes and rivers near me that are Blue Herring waters, so I know that the primary food source is likely herring; I then fish with baits similar to a blue herring pattern. on lakes that have gizzard shad, or other types of shad I would use those colors. And then obviously if there are no shad in a lake/river/pond I know that I should be using bluegill, crappie, or shiner colors. this will give you a good basis for color starting out, and then once you find them you can go to more flashy colors, or a different bait fish color, that might produce better. Next up is quite a bit of searching. some people don't buy in to the whole search bait thing, but it works, and works well. you want to cover as much water as possible to start, and then once you get a bite, switch up and pick that area apart with other baits/techniques. Once you feel you have either caught everything there, or that there isn't much else, move to the next spot. Some good search baits are bladed swim jigs, lipless cranks, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, swim baits, and basically anything that gives you fast water coverage while also triggering reaction strikes. while searching you are looking more for hits to say fish are there, not specifically that what you are throwing is what they want to eat. And then fishing cover. fish things that aren't the same. If you come down a bank and it's covered in lily pads or grass mats, look for holes and breaks in the edge. if you're fishing grass, try to find drop offs, or the grasses edge; when fishing trees, look for holes between them, or maybe one that comes out further than all the others. these all make great ambush spots and will keep the bass there. Another interesting tip that I was told a while back, is if it's really tough, use smaller bait. I always thought it was counter productive, but since bass are opportunistic feeders, throwing something small and slow could be a good way to turn on a school, or just make that one big one decide it's worth the effort even though they aren't ready to feed.

Agreed. when catching stripers out of 70ft of water back when I tournament fished for them a bit, i would fizz. without fizzing there would have been no way those fish would have made weigh in and survived. that said, catch and immediate release is always best for barotrauma fish. I'm sorry, but they are a gimmick. They don't do anything to actually help the fish but keep him upright and at the bottom of the well. sure your fish survived out of 25ft with just weight clips. A fish from that depth isn't experiencing barotrauma. one caught at say, 30-40 might have mild barotrauma, but it would take 40+ to see major, unsurvivable symptoms, and at that stage some clips holding him upright in a livewell is doing little to address the fact you have a fish with a balloon in his gut about to kill him. If you do decide to fizz, please practice side fizzing. I've always heard from a marine biologist buddy that its safer for the fish and would cause little to no problems. But ive heard mouth fizzing can cause all kinds of trouble for the fish, and only slightly reduced fish mortality. Edit: it seems as if I had taken the time to read @Catt's link, I would have realized the side fizzing thing had been said already.

If all I could take fishing with me was 3 of my rods, I would go with: 7'-7'3" Medium, fast spinning for all finesse fishing 7' medium, moderate crankbait rod w/baitcaster for crank baits, 7'6 medium heavy baitcaster for literally everything from jigs to spinnerbaits to top waters. Obviously, 3 rods is not enough to have the ideal set up for everything you're going to do when bass fishing, but these three will cover most of the bases pretty well.

Yeah, you pick up a lot of that stuff when looking for it. But the genuine Indian brand canoe is a registered trade mark to rivers & Gilman. Those really are some of the best canoes I've ever had the pleasure of using, so if you ever decide to let it go let me know. I've been hunting for that exact canoe for a while for sentimental reasons, and also because they are great canoes lol. Hold on to her, and take good care of her. She won't ever let you down as long as you do.

What's the average depth? A lake is typically a body of water with a depth that prevents light from penetrating to the bottom, and a pond is normally a body of water that is shallow enough to support plant matter throughout. Even though terms differ and things get named lakes that aren't, and I know of a few ponds that are 80' deep. It is a relative term, but I would say that's a pond.

The brand is right there in the picture. It's a genuine Indian brand canoe. And i know that sounds sarcastic, but they were made by Rivers & Gilman moulded products I believe, and if my research is right they went defunct when Gilman died. My grandfather used to have the same canoe. It was a great boat.

Gambler ace -$4 an 8pk, good construction, great action. The x-mas color is quite unique and works really well. And I see you already have it, but I will second it, the BPS stik-o. It's amazingly cheap, comes in big packs, works well, and that orange/black color is to die for.

I could see it now. Japan hosts summer Olympic fishing! Species is:AYU America hosts winter Olympic fishing! Species is: yellow perch in Alaska. UK holds summerolpics! Species is:carp Can you see how ridiculous that is? How many competing countries would have access to 21' ayu rods and places to fish them to "train?" How many would have access to I've fishing and yellow perch? How many for carp? Whether there is physical exertion or not is irrelevant when you can't even come up with a common sport.

It hasn't gotten much better, I was there over the weekend. I don't get to fish it often so I never seem to be there at the "correct" time according to those who fish it regularly, and just like @TnRiver46 said, I've heard it's a good winter lake. That said, there are definitely spots in there, but that is 100% a largemouth.

After making 100 flies a $200 kit (which can normally give you well more than 100 flies) pays for itself when you consider most flies cost $1.75-7.00, and a budding fly fisherman is apt to break off numerous flies in a single outing when starting. Personally, I've never upgraded from the vice and tools that came in the kit I bought years ago, and it only took about a month or two to pay off given that in my early days it was quite a frequent occurrence for me to break off flies in trees on the back cast, and wanting to try out every pattern I could possibly tie. Given that even today after exhausting the usefulness of my $80 kit, the only "real estate" my fly tying takes up is a medium sized Tupperware tub in a closet, and a bit of table space when I break it out to tie, it's not a hard thing to make room for. My bass tackle takes up more space then all of my fly fishing gear, and that's not including a closet full of surplus and multiples storage. Obviously fly tying isn't for everyone, but it's nowhere near as expensive or cumbersome as many want to make it out to be. But that's just my $0.02 And comments from the peanut gallery.