TOXIC

When I bed fish, I don’t need a flogger. I can see these same type of beds in 15 feet of water on a good day on St Clair. That’s the only place I bed fish and even there, we tend to target those moving in more than those locked on beds.

So either you spend big money or we are by your definition “cheap run of mill gear” users? Cmon man.…..spend your money how you want, if it were that important to use that level of gear every professional would be fishing with it when they are competing for $100,000 per tournament. Enough is enough. Go buy what you want but looking down your nose at everyone who doesn’t spend the same is petty and arrogant. We get it. You buy big dollar gear.

I get your point but the flogger is not a magnifying glass, it’s just glass or plastic that allows you to see just like a scuba mask. My point is if you want to hate on something that creates an unfair advantage, there’s a lot more sophisticated “devices” than a traffic cone?. As for the bedding fish debate, that one has been kicked to death. You’re never going to get that changed.

Somebody’s going to have to prove to me that once a bass decides to bite a plastic, they do so with differing intentions like….I’m just gonna nibble this one……I’m gonna engulf this one……I think there may be something to getting them to strike but I highly doubt they are making a decision on how they are going to eat it.

Every person I have ever fished with has taught me something. My grandfather planted the seed whether we were fishing creeks, ponds, lakes and rivers in rural Iowa or in Canada catching pike, musky and walleye, he started me down that path. He passed away too early from leukemia when I was 13. Since then, I have fished with hundreds and hundreds of people whether it was Elite series anglers or clients in the guide service. I’d like to think I helped a lot of others plant that same seed.

Between the two, spot lock and flogger……spot lock is the game changer in current and wind. The flogger has been around since before paper graphs, it’s nothing “new”. I love the northern cold water clear lakes and I have known about floggers for as long as I’ve been fishing. If you are well versed at using one, it would actually help from sticking every fish on every bed just to see how big it is. You can tell with the flogger pretty well how big they are.

Those who wade learn very quickly how to read water and currents to tell where ledges or holes are. It becomes second nature. There are a lot of do’s and dont’s when wading big rivers. Not usually a problem with small shallow trout streams, but bigger rivers and squeeze chutes of rocky gorges are a whole different story. I have never wade fished a lake. I’ve had plenty of clients in the guide service break out their fly rod in my boat. I’ve also gone out into the Chesapeake bay and fly fished striper with a 9wt fly rod. As for rubber waders sinking, they do. I can guarantee it. Even if they are neutral buoyant the human inside, usually with filled pockets, gear, etc., is not and if you add current, you will sink. Like a rock. Use the right gear for the conditions.

My question is this… At what point does the quality of a $1,000 rod exceed what the human hand and arm can perceive? We have skin covered nerve endings that allow us to “feel” sensitivity. There is surely a limit to what degree we, as human beings, can perceive. Some I’m sure more than others. To what degree is a $500 rod less sensitive than that $1,000+ rod and can we really tell the difference? What other factors come into play other than sensitivity? Castability? Component quality? Blank quality? All of which add cost but what really do they add beyond sensitivity? Certainly not durability. I will never criticize how a man spends his hard earned money but for me I have done some blindfolded tests on differing quality of gear and walked away very “enlightened”.

You also need to know which units pair with which sonar brands. It makes it possible to automatically navigate to waypoints, retrace a trail and other options. The jog feature allows for pre measured moves with one push button on the remote.

When I fly fished I had stocking foot 5mm neoprene waders and wading boots with felt soles. I was hard core and fished winter/summer and many times had ice chunks bouncing off me in the water. I fished the south fork of the Shenandoah river between Luray and Front Royal and there are some major deep holes. I can guarantee you they are buoyant enough to keep you afloat if you get “swept”. I tested the theory many times! You just have to stay upright until you can get a foothold. My buddy one summer went out with “tuna boat” style chest waders and had a full blown panic attack when he got swept. Once his waders filled, the current kept trying to pull him under.

Older rangers have bench seating in bow and some even have it in the stern. Only reason I know is that I moderate a Ranger boats page on Facebook and a lot of owners are always asking for instructions on how to build a casting deck for them. I would take 3 + me on guide trips but my old boat had a flip down seat in the middle. Even with that someone usually ended up sitting on the floor facing the rear of the boat with their back against the front casting deck because 3 across is the only comfortable way to utilize the seats. With kids involved, a traditional bass boat hull would be uncomfortable with 4. Especially when the hooks start flying. ?

Looks good.

All true bass boats have a single row of seating. Multi species have the pedestal seats. If you look at really old bass boats some had an open bow and a wrap around bench.

Believe me, I had a lot of people accuse me of making their animals sick. I would always just drop off a copy of the equivalent of a MDS sheet that we were required to carry by law and told them to take it to their vet and if they said it was my product, I would cover the vet bill. I never had to pay any vet bills. ?

Simple, at that price point, it’s not about fishing, it’s about you.

Just so everyone knows, any rodenticide you can buy over the counter does not have a “secondary kill” factor. Can you imagine the lawsuits from idiot John B. Consumer putting out decon and killing his dog or cat? You might have a problem if you put it out in the house and your kids hamster gets into it or if your small dog eats an entire package of it. Even then more than likely it would just make them sick. The products I could get as a licensed PCO were much more potent and why you have to be licensed to buy and put them out. We used locked bait boxes etc. I had liquid products, grain bait products, powdered products they licked off their feet. My bait products were designed to keep the rodents going outside looking for water and if they did die in the house or barn or any inside structure, they decomposed from the inside out so there was no smell. Now I did have some that was more potent and had an immediate kill and a high second and third kill component. When I used that, I had to stay on site and retrieve all the bait and the dead rodents. Usually that was an overnight thing. But I just wanted to make clear that the over the counter rodenticides will not kill any other animal that may eat the dead rodent or the bait itself.

Does anybody really think that catching a bedding smallmouth is any reflection of fishing skill? The skill is to find the bed after that bait choice plays little to zero role in catching them. So the flogger helps them see the bed and possibly the size of the fish. I had a local friend on lake St Clair drive this point home when he caught bedding smallmouth on a gummy worm, a shoestring and a cigarette butt.

I store my boat outside and in the winter months the warm glow of the charger is an attraction. I also used to own a pest control company and had a specialized license in rat and mouse applications. The #1 thing to do is to keep them out by baiting around the area. If they do get in, then my suggestion is sticky boards or snap traps so you can remove the carcasses. Most modern poisons are safe around pets and do not have a secondary kill if they eat a dead mouse but I would prefer to avoid it. I had a lot of methods to kill rodents but that’s my suggestion. All of the home remedies are marginal at best. Dryer sheets, moth balls, peppermint/spearmint/cinnamon oil, etc. are not that effective.

Go here to see if your current unit is recalled. https://www.kidde.com/home-safety/en/us/support/product-alerts/recall-kidde-fire-extinguisher/

Dropshot and Ned rig need to be on your list of baits. As for locations, anywhere you have a weed line around drops or rocks. Might want to add a top water as well.

Kiddee had a very large recall on fire extinguishers. I can’t remember what it was for. You might have gotten it replaced for free.

I understand the frustration and I’m not trying to be a smart alec but the way you keep a Senko for multiple fish is to rig it with a few things done right. If you don’t it’s a one fish bait. I have fished a single Texas rigged Senko for multiple days and multiple fish. And I have lost them after a single fish. The difference has always been how well I rigged them. I think I have posted before how I don’t wacky rig and my technique for the Texas rig. At the risk of running afoul of the mods here and I’m sure Glenn has a video on rigging them, I won’t repost it.

Sorry, didn’t imply you were disagreeing if that’s the way it came off. I was looking at the picture he posted of the ramp and it looks to me like there are options.

Did the same thing pitching on Lake Okeechobee this spring. Pitched into a bunch of reeds and broke off on the hookset. Re-rigged and threw right back in the same spot and got both the fish and my broken off rig back.

I don’t know how it will “help” but if it means more constant pumping/current, then it might. As for water temperature, there are federal regulations that determine the temperature the water has to be that gets pumped back into the cold side. I don’t know how much they fudge those numbers but it gets really, really warm over there in the summer months. As has been said, triple digits is not uncommon.