TOXIC

I’ve told this story a few times, possibly here also but it is a good reminder. When I bought my boat (a 2005 model in 2012) I knew I needed new tires. I took my new to me boat in to a trailer shop get inspected (required in Virginia for any trailer with brakes) and the shop I took it to out in the country specialized in horse trailers that carry a lot more weight than a boat trailer, travel a lot more miles and can cost upwards of $60-70,000 and even more if they have living quarters. Here’s the advice he gave me……Trailer tires are designed to wear out by age, not tread depth and most tire manufactures recommend replacing every 4 to 5 years. I can sell you trailer tires that will travel thousands and thousands of miles on the tread life. They will be expensive. If within the recommended lifespan of the tire (4 to 5 years) you don’t pull your trailer that many miles, you have wasted your money. The key to buying trailer tires is to match the tread life to the tire life. He told me that because the compounds are different in trailer tires and the fact that on a boat trailer they are dunked in water and have constant weight on them is why they go by years vs tread. You can fudge the numbers some but it’s at your own risk……. I don’t want to get into brand arguments but he told me that he installed a lot of Power King Towmax tires and they never came back with blowouts. Yes, they are Chinese tires but seem to be well made. He didn’t even carry them and I had to have them drop shipped to his shop. I have since gone through that original set and I am on my second set. They have worn well, held a balance and no problems. My second set I had dropped shipped to a local tire shop for installation. The main point i am making is the schedule and replacement we should all be aware of no matter what tire brand you choose. And yes by all means balance them.

I would never comment on someone’s choice of rods. If they are happy with the characteristics and performance, more power to them. I know many a fisherman who have great success with lower end rods. I used to fish a benefit tournament put on by Woo Daves. All of his sponsors and NASCAR Hendricks Racing team would compete. One year he assigned the wife of the owner of Georgia Boot to fish with me because I was an experienced guide and had taken out a lot of newbies. I wasn’t expecting that and he said he would give her one of his rod/reels…..what was it? A Bass Pro rod and a Zebco 303 reel. He used it for his famous “slop” fishing and skipping docks. I rigged her up with a lightly weighted Senko and she took second place out of all the sponsors.

You need to raise your rates and get a better class of customer.

Nice clean boat. You’re going to have to get some motor details like hours and compression to get a good idea. With what you’ve said your usage is, I would imagine there is some hours on the motor. That can be countered by compression numbers.

2 kinds of pressure. Fishing pressure and recreational pressure. I can take fishing pressure but recreational pressure will drive me off the water PDQ. I have no problem fishing in a crowd. I like my sunrise solo runs and unmolested top water casts but I have full confidence I can catch fish in a crowd and have done it many times.?

I have a stockpile of the wide spool reels that I use for braid. Here is a pic showing the wider spool. If I had my choice, I would use the wide spool on any line or type over 8lb test. Bigger spool = less loops.

You know I have to say it…..the Yamamoto DShad is my choice for fluke skipping. For fluke style baits in that size, 5 inch, the DShad is denser and heavier. If you move up in size to the Super Flukes, or you use a weighted hook, that will change. The DShad is made out of the same plastic as a Senko so there’s that. ?

Since you are weighting the Senko, any worm rod action that you like will work.

Took my son wading and camping on the Shenandoah years and years ago. At the end of the day he asked what we were going to eat for dinner. I told him it will be the best cheeseburger you have ever eaten in your life. He asked why that was and I told him I really don’t know but for some reason a cheeseburger cooked on the grill over an open fire just can’t be duplicated. He took one bite and gave me this puzzled look. I asked him what was wrong. He said 3 words, “you were right”.?

SPRO,Little John in Cell Mate is the most productive square bill I have ever thrown. But the square bill bite is fickle. Biggest numbers bait? Senko followed close by a Ned.

Trout feast on the mayfly hatch, smallmouth in Michigan are now feasting on the “fish fly” hatch on St Clair (which are actually mayflies I think) but the difference might be that those are annual events and I’m sure the fish are conditioned to feed. The Brood X event is a 17 year event which would make me think that no bass swimming today was around when the last event happened and they would hit anything on the surface that was buzzing but not be in a feeding frenzy. I’m sure they naturally feed on cicadas that happen to fall in the water.

To answer your question about leaving a swivel on……no, it will not allow your line to untwist from spinning baits. I am a finesse fisherman and if my line gets too much “memory” from being on the spool, I change it out. Line conditioners will work a couple of times but if your line is laying on the water looking like an old phone cord, then for me it’s time to respool. You will find that the heavier test lines get memory sooner and hold it longer. Dunking your spool in warm water has never worked for me and only made it worse by actually “setting” the line to the spool. I never use swivels so about every 3rd outing, I either feed the line out the back of the boat or walk line down my yard at home and reel it back with 2 fingers on the line to eliminate “line twist” from my baits.

While I would agree that run variances could happen, the differences I am speaking of are constant which eliminates random run issues. ?

My fishing partner and I are “students of the sport” so while never in a negative way we are always aware of what the other is throwing and their success rate. Some days it’s me putting a shellacking on them, other days it’s him. Case in point, on St Clair this year he had the best day fishing of his life and that’s quite an accomplishment. He was out fishing me 3 to 1 on giant smallmouth. Was I upset? Heck no. But you can bet I was trying my hardest to catch up. You know you have a good fishing partner when he offers you the same setup and baits he’s throwing, knowing he has a very limited supply.

Keen observation and you are 100% correct. I have written about it in multiple articles and even posted it here. Certain colors react differently to skipping and the actions do change. It has to do with a number of things like the amount of pigment in a color, what type of pigment and also the flake. There are different size flakes, different amounts of flakes, multiple combinations of flakes, etc. while the overall weight of the bait may not vary that much, it will affect the action. Guaranteed.

8 hours isn’t going to get you to Okeechobee.? Maps says it’s 13 hours without stops for fuel and food. We went to Palm Coast and stayed the night so that we had a short drive the next day and could fish 1/2 day. I’m an early driver. It’s not unusual for me to be on the road at 3am.

I take a route that is a little abnormal and it routes me around Chicago but it is a little longer. I learned my lesson pulling through Chicago with a 21 foot boat. Total 1 way time is around 15 hours and although I have driven straight through, I prefer to cut it in half or if I’m feeling good 9-10 hours. That’s long enough in the saddle for me. Stop have a good meal, good nights sleep and finish up the second day getting there early enough to drop the boat in the lake at the marina, park the trailer and head to the cottage. I dock the boat at the cottage. I also pull to Florida either lake Kissimmee or Okeechobee in February and use the same time frames for stopping. Last year was our first year for Okeechobee so I just mapped out aboutn8 hours from home and used google earth and satellite view in maps to scope the parking at various hotels.

CastAway Skeleton or Quantum Smoke both spinning 7ft, medium action, fast tip. I can rig numerous techniques on either one. The CastAway is better for the heavier side. But realistically any spinning rod with the same action would work. The only determining factor is how deep your wallet goes.

It totally depends on what body of water I am going to fish. River/lake and current conditions…..but as a general rule….. 1. Senko weightless T rigged. 2. Dropshot 3. Ned 4. Crankbait rod that will handle the depths I plan on fishing. 5. Yamamoto DShad.

Depending on your status….AAA, rewards programs, etc., most Hamptons are 90-135 dollars depending on location. It’s worth it to me for clean and safe. You still need to check them out though because there can even be problems with them. I’ve had to park across the street in a shopping center parking lot because the Hampton had single row parking and I have had to traverse a cull de sac and 90 degree turns to get in to one that was off the beaten path. Did a lot of curb jumping there. I also have a loc r bar with the alarmed padlock for a little more peace of mind.

There is a big difference between staying the night while on the road and spending multiple days as your destination hotel. I pull my rig on a 2 day up and 2 day back trip to Wisconsin from here in Virginia which requires me to overnight somewhere in between on the way up and the way back. I’ve been doing it with my 21 foot boat for about 15 of the 24 years we have been going. I also tow all over the us so I can give you all sorts of tip and tricks for overnight stays but really nothing for extended hotel stays. I will vary anywhere from 8 to 10 hours driving before I am ready to find a place. On the Wisconsin trip, I have done it so many times I have multiple spots I have used and I know will accommodate my truck and trailer. Personally, I like Hampton Inns because they are clean and pretty standardized when it comes to layout. I will not stay in any place that advertises trucker parking. I can go into a lot more detail if anyone thinks it would be helpful. I have a long list of things I do and consider.

There’s so many ways to fish a dropshot, don’t get hung up on just 1. Even with a vertical presentation like you are describing, I don’t try to target individual fish, I look for them on the sonar and cast to them or drop to them. With the advancements in electronics, I can appreciate the new level of thrill being able to watch the fish actually come to and strike the bait (ice fishermen have been doing it for years) but luckily that bug hasn’t bit me yet because it’s gonna get real expensive if it does.

There are a lot of keyboard commandos that say things that they would never dream of saying to someone face to face. The internet and more specifically social media gives everyone a platform both good and bad. The more you put out controversial content, the more you are opening up to negative responses. I wrote articles for Yamamoto years ago covering why up and coming tournament anglers needed to be very mindful of how they handled social media and that they should really have a separate personal page from their fishing page. Many of the top level fishermen and women have social media managers that handle it. I’m sure Randy knows that if he keeps hitting the social media hornets nest with a stick, sooner or later he’s going to get verbally stung.

Sometimes it just happens. I’ve been uninspired for the last 2 weeks since returning from Michigan where we fished for a week straight and had a banner trip of 50-75 fish a day. I felt kind of “fished out” and unmotivated. This weekend back here in Virginia we got heavy rains all week so the rivers are totally messed up. I’m content to go when I feel like going. No guilt here. You should feel the same.?

Once you put a weight on a Senko, you can pretty much use any line you want. I have met Roland a few times, even stayed at his ex-wife’s resort on Okeechobee ?but he still makes me chuckle because he is the closest thing to a carnival barker you will ever find.? Even in this vid he says he saw that fish with his polarized glasses when he had them hanging on his neck. ? Gotta love him though, he has forgot more about fishing than I will ever know.