herder

Depends on what I'm fishing for and where I'm fishing. Local river is spinnerbaits and some top waters this river has some good size Pike in it. Otherwise it's a finesse game for me on the clear reservoirs and clear rivers.

No music, just the sounds around me.

Yeah, I thought I might be the only one too.

The snows all gone, the snows all gone, the snows all gone!!!!!!!!!! Finally, what a mental relief. My wife had won a wine tasting at the local school tricky tray, yesterday was the wine tasting. I don't drink wine, so after the tasting we went back to the house with a dozen friends, we wound up sitting outside on the deck, everyone had a great time, just to be able to sit outside. The lakes here still have ice, but the local river is clear, tomorrow I'm going to hit the river, water should be coming down since it was close to flood stage.

Well, it finally is breaking here. Snow is disappearing, mud season right around the corner. Hopefully I'll be taking the kayak out soon for my shake down trip, local river more just getting out and paddling and making sure everything is working. Got new dry pants and water boots to test out too, throw a spinnerbait around to see if I can get a pike.

Be the Mustache

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I have big plano boxes with saltwater plugs, from surface poppers to deep divers (25'+) Also bags of big plastics too for salt. The majority of my fishing the last couple of years have been in freshwater, finesse fishing.

Ooof, man that really sucks. Good luck with the surgery, pay close attention to the Dr and do your physical therapy, don't push it too hard. Y'all be back at em in August, the fish will still be there. I'm 73 too, yeah the stupid stuff I sometimes do leaves me shaking my head.

Thanks BigAngus, being retired I now lead the contemplative life, one more thing to ponder. This goes along with whomever invented the clock, how did they know what time it was I've been thinking about getting a scale, but it just becomes one more thing for me to forget to bring.

Like Swamp Girl I don't even have an anchor in my kayak. So a lot of drifting, try to set up to use the wind, doesn't always work out the way I want it to though. I have a rudder on my kayak which helps, also learned to use my paddle in one hand to position and rod in the other hand, this is mostly for drop shotting or bottom fishing in the salt for Tog. In a river sometimes I drift with the current and just let a jig bounce off the bottom on a tight line.

Man the worst ones I've read here are the one's where stuff was stolen, that really burns my *** Bluebasser, did that incident have any impact on your decision to enter law enforcement ? I was trying to tally everything I've lost while fishing, man I must be a major league klutz. Brought a handheld VHF radio , it arrived a day before we were doing a group Striper trip at Sandy Hook so I just put it in a pocket on my life vest. I did a quick radio check when I launched, then paddle out to where I saw some fish, went to check my radio and it was gone, fell out of my pocket and of course it wasn't in the kayak. Got another one, this time I was smart and tethered it to my life vest, only issue was I made the leash too long and wound up trolling it for about an hr in saltwater , another one bit the dust (salt). Subesquint ones have a short leash now. Surf launch at Montauk to catch false albacore which was a bucket list fish, managed to catch a couple but somehow dropped a St Croix premier spinner with probably Penn battler overboard. It was pretty nasty and managed to wipe out on the surf landing, broke a St Croix muskie rod. Gather all my stuff that was from the surf and went back to my car to change out of my dry top and brand new dry pants, sat on a striper plug and put a hole in them. Dropped a camera overboard in Salem taking a picture of the smallest striper I ever hooked, this was because earlier I had caught and got pics of the 3 biggest stripers I had caught at that time. Dropped a freshwater outfit overboard putting it back in the rod holder on my crate, completely missed the holder. Dropped my flip phone overboard, my kids were actually overjoyed about that as now I had to get a "real" phone. Lost my favorite rod, a 5 1/2 ' glass Fenwick when I flipped my kayak the only time reaching around to clear a rod that was stuck on a tree, that one really hurt as I brought that for myself when I graduated high school, no idea how many fish I had caught on that. Don't know how many pliers and other stuff, these are the main ones.

Marvelous Action;

I went there before they were actually opened yet as I launched in the industrial park on the Passaic River. Sal, the owners father was there when I went in, he said there not really open but I could try their beers but he couldn't charge me for them. Well that took me about 1/2 a second to say well ok I guess 😃 Was a regular for quite a few years, know Eric and Sal and Cheryl, some real good times. They opened another location in Medford which is much bigger, but that's quite a haul from where I live, which is 7 minutes from their Fairfield location.

One of my favorites from a local brewery. This was one of their original beers they brewed, they don't have it too often anymore. It finally got over 50 degrees today so it was perfect, snow is starting to melt, come on spring!

That ole saw still rings true; it's the Indian not the arrow. Having a Stradivarius doesn't mean I can play it 😀

Can't say I "baby" my stuff but I definitely take care of my stuff. But then again I have tools from my father for 40 years and they sure weren't new when he gave them to me. Frugality rules, my wife has a different saying bout that 😛

Pliers I use the cheapest Harbor Freight one, they sink as fast as the 300$ ones. Those are mostly used in the salt, freshwater a pair of hemostats works for me. Fish grips I've been using the Berkeley Big Game one's for over 20 years, many guys I know use the plastic fish grips without any issues. I don't bring a net with me in the fresh, only fluke fishing in the salt. Storage is just a milk crate behind my seat with a 3 rod holder, dry bag in my front hatch for some dry clothes and other emergency items (roll of TP)

Many ,many years ago I use to see kids just using a can with line wrapped around it, hey what ever works, necessity is the mother of invention

Ok, I have to make an admission, I don't think I've ever thrown a T-Rig, or a Carolina rig either. Please don't hold that against me, I might reconsider trying it this year. Hair jigs are on the list already for this coming year.

Last checked a local reservoir this past Saturday before the storm and still frozen. Checked my local river and that was ice free in parts but where I would put in it was plowed in right at the access point. I'm going to check it out tomorrow, air temps have been better and Saturday should be in the 50's. My first trip of the year is more of a shake down cruise, check out if everything is working, including me 😃

We went camping once over 30 years ago, we both came to the same conclusion that this was not happening again 😍

Bring my wife camping? Oh yeah, that would be a fun time 🤪

Just remember that the waterproof boxes keep water out, they also keep water in. I try to keep anything that I use during the trip and not put them back in the box. When back home I lay them out and let them dry out before putting them in a box. I also leave the boxes open to hopefully dry out any moisture. If fishing in the salt, I rinse them off with fresh water, with pretty much everything else.

What is this Spring you speak of Haven't had an out break of cabin fever like this in years