jimf

You hit the nail on the head. If I leave rods in the locker, I'm probably catching fish. Same goes with lures/colors etc...

I used 4 rods today, so I had 4 on the deck. 2 stayed in the rod storage. I rarely take out more than 6.

I like this article which outlines 6 combo's to cover everything: http://www.***/outdoors/***/story/1465944-6-rod-and-reel-bass-fishing-system-rods And coincidently that is exactly how many combos I carry with me, and in fact it's 5 baitcasters and 1 spinning outfit I use for finesse. My setup is not that far off from that article and I think it works great.

Alot of the state park facilities (maybe all?) in Illinois open at sunrise and close at sunset, so getting there too early or late is not an option. The good news about some of the water I fish is it's fishing only - no recreational boating allowed. You can still have some insanity but it's more just having to wait in line to launch, not being able to fish your spot etc... I've been scared for my life before on recreational boating waters - I used to fish Lake of the Ozarks off and on when I lived in Missouri and that was just frightening on the weekends in the summer.

I wade fish the Fox and DuPage. 3K I actually like fishing from my boat, launch up at the state ramp right off of I55. That area gets tons of boaters in the summer and is a zoo on the weekends. Braidwood is exactly where I am planning on going this weekend.

Same here, we can work 4x9's Mon-Thurs and then get every other Friday off as a "Flex Day", and during fishing season the Friday's I don't have as a flex day I telecommute and take 1/2 vacation day to get out on the water by about noon when I can. Most Friday's where the weather is ok I'm fishing. So generally I can avoid the crowds, but the weather didn't cooperate today and I really need to get out. One river I fish is crazy on the weekends with skiiers/boaters and there really is no practical way to fish it on the weekends. Pretty much have to go during the week.

Next week I'm going to pick up the Tatula. I own a Lew's LFS and a TP and am very happy with both, but I just want to try something different. I'm curious about the T-wing gizmo. I owned Daiwa's many years ago and was happy with them, didn't do it intentionally but it just happened that I phased those out.

I have to wonder if the $3 deal was a mistake. My local Walmart had them for something like $6. I would have bought 10 packages easy at that price.

What kind of crowds do you all deal with, and how do you deal with them? I become very crowd averse over the years, doing just about anything and everything to avoid them. Fortunately I have flex schedule where I can basically take every Friday off in the summer, and use that to beat the crowds. But that doesn't start for a little bit. This week it's either Sunday or take a day off Monday which I'm not sure I can swing, and Sunday will be a zoo. Alot of places are still closed up here, and the lake I am talking about is a cooling lake with water temps in the 60's when everything else around here is probably below 40 which draws big crowds. Long launch lines, parking issues, your favorite spots already taken etc... I'll probably end up going but I'm still contemplating not going, which given my state of Cabin Fever says alot.

If you are just starting out with getting "decent/good" equipment and have a $400 budget, I would go with 2 "decent" setups as opposed to one "good" setup. For the money you are talking, you should be able to do that. I think the difference between "junk" and "decent" is huge, with a relatively small price jump. The difference between "decent" and "good" is much more subtle, with a higher price jump. Once you have your bases covered with setups, you are likely to start diving into the "good" stuff, but for now I wouldn't do that. The other advice I would have is spend a little more on the rod if you can. For example, you could get a nice spinning outfit by going with a $130 St. Croix Mojo paired with a $50 Pflueger President. I would to that before I put a nice Shimano Ultegra ($150) on an Ugly Stick ($50). For one thing, my opinion is the rod is more important than the reel, and two the rod is going to have a longer lifespan than the reel. You buy a solid rod and it will be in your lineup 10+ years from years now, but a $150 reel and chances are it's not around that long.

I recently subscribed to Bass Edge's "The Edge" podcast and listened to my first episode (Episode 252). Outstanding. I was not expecting alot, but they had Clark Reehm on there and his tips and insight were just fantastic. Maybe I just got lucky with the first episode, but I'm definitely going to go back into the archives. He spends some time talking about a recent tourney but then gives some really good (imo) advice about fishing in general and technique specific stuff. For example they asked him kind of a deep question about spinnerbaits - techniques, what he likes to throw and he just responded that many just "overthink everything". Keep it simple - don't worry about gold vs silver, chartreuse/white ... same with frogs. Have a transluscent color and an opaque color. Also great tips on using your off the water time - use google earth for example. Someone asked about tungsten vs lead and instead of giving you the technical reasons, he gave a practical reason why he mostly uses lead: Money. He's a guide as well as a tourney fisherman and he can't afford to drop dollar bills into the pond every time he gets hung up. Another great honest answer. Here is the whole thing: https://bassedge.com/podcast/the-edge-episode-252-clark-reehm/

The only thing I can think that you missed was the kitchen sink.

It happens to everyone, and it's unfortunate. You absolutely did the right thing by leaving. I admit when I was younger I would not shy away from a confrontation, but now I've arrived at that stage in life where I just don't feel like wasting my time with that. My time on the water is too precious, that and I'll find other water and catch my fish.

I am in the market for a new baitcaster that I will be using for worms/jigs, and wanted to keep the price down under $150. I have held the Lew's Tournament MB LFS, and have two other Lew's (a Speed Spool and the Tournament Pro) and am very happy with them. I'm now considering a Tatula, mainly because long ago and far away I had some Daiwa's and was very happy with them, and thought maybe I should give them another shot. In fact, the first serious baitcaster I bought back in the 80's was a Daiwa. Lew's is lighter, a slight drag advantage (14 vs 13.2), more bearings (not that I really care one iota), has a more ergonomic profile, and I am familiar with them. The only thing the Tatula brings to the ledger is something new, and maybe a bit of nostalgia for me. I know it has that t-wing gizmo which might increase casting distance, but generally I range between indifference and disappointment when it comes to new fishing gizmos. Is variety the spice of life? Or should I just stick to the tried and true? I think I'm going to try the Tatula, but I was wondering how many others do stuff like this - make decisions based simply on trying something new vs. sticking with what you know and like.

I have been using offset for much of my worm fishing but stocked up on straight shanked hooks, going to fish those exclusively for a month or so. After reading a bit and thinking about it I do believe the straight shank should be better for hook setting.

Reading Spoonplugging 30 years ago was the point in time where I seriously began to think about fishing. I formed many of my own ideas based on that book. @Team9nineI really agree with everything you said above, for me it's not about throwing out anything but maybe using others ideas, different ways of observing and studying fish behavior to sharpen the focus a little bit. And Lord knows I could use sharper focus when it comes to fishing.

One of the main ideas Buck had were these regular (twice daily I think he said) trips across contour lines from the deep water where they lived to the shallow water where they fed, following underwater structure. What Ralph Manns was saying is that not what has been observed underwater or through tracking. BTW - the "Ambush" article mentioned above was featured here: https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/ambush_bass.html That was kind of eye opening to me.

I found a copy of the book and re-read it. During the re-reading I started questioning some things, and upon researching that I kind of stumbled on a few articles and studies by fisheries biologist and fisherman that contradict some of Buck's ideas. For instance, I found this from In-Fisherman author and fisheries biologist Ralph Manns: Buck is a great angler and contributed many fine ideas to fishing lore. But, he formed his opinions about what bass do (how they behave) from his fishing successes. He did not watch bass move. He only observed where and when he caught them. What's more, he only observed bass that were willing to bite, and missed out on the activities of inactive and moving but not biting bass. As a fishery-biology student the mid-1970s, I tracked bass and dove under water to observe them for more than a year. One of my objectives was to prove or disprove (I expected to prove)Per’s assumption that bass lived deep and moved shallow to feed in daily sorties. My literature search showed that the seven or eight bass tracking studies made prior to my research failed to find the vertical movements claimed by Perry, but I attributed that to the fact that the first trackers only monitored their tagged bass once a day. I, and assistants, followed them over full 24-hour tracking periods to learn where and when they went up and down. I failed to prove Perry's ideas. Instead I found bass tended to stay within a few feet of the same depth day after day, and even across major weather and seasonal changes. Further research revealed that the gas bladders of bass will only let them change holding depths a foot or two an hour. They can dash upward as much as 12 feet near the surface and have greater vertical mobility at deeper depths, but they quickly return to the starting depths to which they have adapted their gas bladder pressure. I also tracked bass that swam directly across my lake (Travis in Central Texas) crossing over areas more than 140 feet deep and back. they did not need to follow structure or breaklines when moving. The did do this sometimes, however. These tracking/diving findings and many other disagreements with current fishing lore were reported in the In-Fisherman magazine, issue 43 (June/July 1982. The limitations of the gas bladder were outlined in Book 66 (Apr/May 1986). I've monitored scientific research on bass continuously, including more than 40 subsequent tracking studies without finding any evidence that bass move as predicted by Perry. Two trackers have, however, found greater vertical movement in smallmouth than in largemouth, and one reported several fish that might have moved up from around 20 feet to 7 feet overnight. Three other researchers reported bass that moved out over, and suspended over deep water, without actually moving deep. The conclusion is that bass are found at many depths, and are active at different depths at different times. This behavior can be documented at most major bass tournaments, where bass are taken both deep and shallow on any given day. The point is: To learn about fish movements you've got to watch fish move. Perry's trolling system is very effective, rapidly helping anglers cover both deep and shallow water to find the active, biting bass that we catch, and he fathered "structure fishing" as we know it. (Remember the difference between structure and cover. hey are not the same thing.) But, he created erroneous lore about how the bass move. Science has failed to document, or even briefly observe, his proposed behaviors. Usually researchers have reported mainly horizontal movement and depth stability. Bass holding at 7 feet may move up to 5, or even 3 feet, and back during a feeding movement. But, bass feeding moves are generally along contour lines, not across them. The ultimate lesson from all this is that it takes many years and many repetitions and arguments before factual observations and scientific data replace the angling-based assumptions of non-biologist anglers. We still find many, if not most, bass anglers and bass PROS think bass are "ambush" predators, despite countless observations by both scientists, divers, underwater videos, and anglers themselves that bass usually move along cover edges and/or breaklines (shelves) when they feed. See my "ambush" article on the BFHP articles pages. BFHPers who are interested and have no access to a well-stocked library of fishing magazin

Never. Although I liked the suggestion of listening to a ball game, I've done that before. A little Mike Shannon on the radio with my fishing works for me.

Nice! I've heard very good things about the G3. Congrats! I don't have near the boat you do (Lund Fury 16') which is probably all the more reason I just love and appreciate the tiller layout. A friend of mine who goes through new boats very couple of years bought a tiller a few years ago which surprised me, and when I saw it the lightbulb went off. I'll take a little spray in my face to open up all of that space. My current boat is almost 2' shorter than my previous bass boat with a console but it fishes bigger than that boat. Tiller and deep-V - 30 years ago when I had a nice shiny fiberglass boat I would have laughed at me launching this thing, but yet here I am and I love it.

7.5" Culprit black shad plastic worm fishing for fun. I'd bring a #4 fly rod and fish a size 12 Wooly Bugger if fishing for survival - catch bluegill all day with that.

I have never regretted going to a higher end St. Croix rod. I also have been in situations where I couldn't afford to go to the higher end and therefore "settled", and happily fished those rods. Bottom line .. if you can afford it, go Avid or Avid-X depending on your preference. If you can't, go Mojo. And if you absolutely have to save those last $30, then go with the Bass-X although I really think the current Mojo's you would be happier with long term. Whatever you choose, fish the heck out of it and have fun.

Pflueger President spinning reel is a really good reel for the money. I'm not familiar with the rod at all.

I found a copy and am now reading it, and as I read it I was thinking back to your comment about Buck not embracing sonar, and that is amazing to me given the importance he put on deep underwater structure.

That is always the danger of going to a place with such a high reputation. No guarantees anywhere. I have fished more exotic waters for trout than bass. I've fished Paradise Valley of Montana - the Madison and the Yellowstone. It was amazing. Bass-wise not so much, partly because I think bass are so prevalent everywhere that you don't have to go that far to find a honey pot.