herder

Since I retired I consider cleaning fish work, as Maynard G. Krebs said "Work??? When I was heavily into Saltwater fishing and had a boat we'd have a cooler with ice and added saltwater so it was a slurry, fish were bleed and then dumped in the cooler. Filleting was done back at the house on an outside table, it was pretty easy with the fish ice cold. There was an ample amount of cold beer too, I was pretty good and still have all my fingers! As was said a sharp knife is critical, knife of choice back then was a 8"Dexter carbon steel, after a few fish a couple of swipes on the hone and it was back to razor sharp.

They ain't fancy, but work for what I want. eBay25 1/8oz Ball Head Jigs Mustad BLN 32746 Hooks #4 #2 #1...My ball head style has no collar. All of my jigs are proudly hand-poured in the USA!

Rorer 714, that brings back some memories from a distant dark time.

He looks very comfortable in his new surroundings 😀

"Took a last minute day of work when I saw the wind forecast. Went to the big lake figuring for some topwater smallies, but of course the water was 43 degrees when I launched and the wind was blowing 5-10 (not the 2 mph forecast)" I always find that what ever the wind forecast is for there, add at least 10mph to it😀 Great call on the move, nice catching on a cool variety. I've only been out once, nothing to show for it.

Had a visitor this morning;

Every time on doing it this song goes through my mind;

Not a lost art for me, I've been doing it my whole life. I started out just river fishing, I look at that as a type of drift fishing, your casting your line upstream to drift your bait along what ever line you want to target. Later years I caught the salt bug and pretty much just concentrated on Fluke fishing which are a type of flounder with teeth. This was pretty much 100% drift fishing, either along channel edges, across channels, or on adjacent flats. Now I'm in a kayak, and most of my fishing is drifting, lakes, reservoirs and rivers. Drifting in the river one of my most productive things is just casting out a jig and letting it just bounce along the bottom. Probably to my detriment I don't even own an anchor, just adjust my drift via a rudder and my paddle.

Well you are correct! Not sure of the count, but it is over 20. There's clear lake, muddy lake, clear river, muddy river rods. Saltwater there's striper, fluke and tog rods. The monkey and I have a "relationship"

Next up are the Dogwoods, could be soon. Then that usually means gassing up the lawn mower.

Yeah, I had to read that 2 times, this is a family site

Like MRQturbo my kayak gets the 303 treatment multiple times a year. I use it on my latex seals on my dry top too. Dash gets it also on the Forester, keeps it looking like new even though I'm on my 11th year on it.

2.8" Fat Swing Keitech on a 1/8 ball head jig, I buy the jigs on ebay in 50 packs.

Round reels, man that's so last century 😉 Just kidding, there the only ones that I own, though pretty just used for striper fishing in the salt.

Nope, just here, it would help if I was catching, guess I have to be on the water to do that I do email some of my fishing buddies, my social media footprint is minuscule.

Sorry don't know about smallies down that part of the river. I just fish from the water gap north. Shad should be there now, forsythia are just starting to bloom here in North Jersey.

It changes for me depending on where I"m fishing, but the one thing I always have ready is a 2.8 " Keitech Fat Swing Impact on a 1/8 once ball head jig.

Being in a kayak, I bring at most 4 rods. The only one I bring that's technique specific is a drop shot rod, which is only brought on certain lakes. The other's do multi-task.

Haven't fished Pompton Lake, it's on the list for this year though. There's Potash lake above it that might be on the list too, it's small though. Might give Cranberry lake and Wawayanda a shot too. First camping/fishing trip is a month away down at Belleplain State forest, mostly salt for tog, small lakes around there too if the wind is too bad, mostly pickerel in those but it's something. Then a week at Worthington on the Delaware river, June will be a week up in the Adirondacks then later in the month 5 days in the Catskills. July a couple of days at a friends house for fluking on the Manasquan river, August a week up in Salem Mass for stripers, September another week at Worthington and October back to Belleplain for another week. Retired life is good.

I finally got out today on my local river, I got nuttin. I must say lottabass lives up to his name 😃

Access is a pain on the river, especially for a boat. We launched at the Essex County Environmental Center in Roseland. It has a gravel launch but really no place for parking a trailer. Right now the water is high, but during normal flows it's pretty low, and plenty of downed trees. There's a boat launch listed at Camp lane in Fairfield, but I checked it out and it's posted as for emergency use only, plus the area is real sketchy. The only real boat launch is on the Pompton River in Lincoln Park at Aqueduct Park that I'm aware of. I've seen duck hunters on the river but I have no idea where they launch.

Well my self-fulfilling prophecy came true, got out for a couple of hrs and I caught nothing. Though everything worked, new dry pants and boots worked great, feet and everything was dry, depth finder was working, and no issues paddling. My buddy did get one pike. Beautiful day here, plenty of turtles were out sunning themselves, hawks, great blue herons, various woodpeckers, deer were out.

I'm heading out to the local river in a couple of minutes, not expecting anything. Pretty much my shakedown trip, making sure everything works.

No mesh for me, what hair is left is short. Head sunburn sucks, also when it's hot out I'm always dipping my hat in the water to cool off.