TOXIC

Yes, I’ve been MIA for a while but I have been getting out. I blew a lower unit in Wisconsin and the weather here around home has been brutal and the fishing really off. I’ve been learning new water since the Potomac has been really off. Add to that my recent retirement and trying to make that transition and it’s been a tough year. We’ve been hitting the rappahannock river since it has been more consistent and there’s a good variety of fish. Pretty rare to catch a good smallie on that river but it’s always a possibility. I got into a good one last weekend and of course it was a senko fish. Also caught a good bunch of largemouth and even a couple of blue cats. Week before, I got a really good snakehead as well.

More than one of my buddies have meters wired into their bass boats. External led display and they can monitor the charge rate, battery discharge rate, life remaining and about 10 other things. They have an app on their phones that will give them the read outs as well.

Early morning, I head out in the fog before anyone is awake in my 21 foot bass boat. Get through 2 canals and about 5 miles from the cottage. Not another person on the lake. Fishing a stretch of bank enjoying the solitude and nature when all of a sudden there is an absolute explosion from the back of my boat. I screamed like a little girl and jumped 4 feet into the air. When I finally got my heart back in my chest, I turn around and there is my brother in law laughing so hard he can hardly breathe. He paddled up in his yak and slapped the back of my boat and I never heard him coming. That’s stealthy paddling.???

After a couple of runs in rough water or an extended time on the water like the 2 weeks I will be in Wisconsin, part of my routine is to check every screw I can get to. Don’t forget that trailering loosens a lot of things up as well. Rub rail screws are a seasonal check.

My favorite way is on a 1/4 oz gamakatsu football head hook exposed. Spinning rig with 35lb test braid. Go to bait on St Clair. Some of my friends that are locals just flat wear them out on this bait.

I can tell you that Yamamoto’s top selling color is 297 Green Pumpkin/Blk Fleck hands down. I personally have caught fish in gin clear water to coffee colored water to the dark tannic water in Florida on that color. There are other colors that may work better on different bodies of water like a red fleck in the Potomac or a Natural Shad color on St Clair but for “all around” versatility it’s hard to beat. The other major factor that gets forgotten.......confidence. Throw whatever color you have confidence in. That will usually produce the best. It’s like Gary Klein once told me, “I don’t know if confidence catches more fish but I guarantee you that if you throw a color/bait you have no confidence in, you won’t catch fish.”

Agree with A-Jay totally. I am an old dropshotter from years ago and I prefer different rods for different presentations. That may be getting into the minutiae a little too much but I have different rods for casting, vertical and dragging a dropshot. My favorite rod in differing lengths is the CastAway Skeleton followed by the Quantum Smoke.

??He’s a Strike King guy now that Lews bought them. He used to raid my Yamamoto baits every year on st Clair.

I will use a Yamamoto traditional single tail grub as a trailer but my favorite is the double tailed Yamamoto hula grub. What a killer bait!

They work well on largemouth and a lot of other species as well.?. I’ve caught a lot other than smallies.

I have never needed to stray from the Yamamoto 5” Pro Senko or the Shad Shape Worm for dropshotting. There’s a lot of good baits out there but these 2 have always put fish in the boat.

How close is Susquehanna Tackle to you? They have a lot,of baits specific to Erie and Champlain.

They already do. They are nighttime bow fishing tournaments though. Lots of fish harvested.

You are not totally wrong, in the beginning they did ask that all of them be killed.? Now you only have to kill them if you are going to keep them. It’s why I don’t keep them because I would have to keep a cooler full of ice because you can’t put them in your livewell alive and by the end of a hot summer day, dead fish in the livewell would not be a pleasant thing. They are very good table fare though.

While I have been going to Wisconsin for 21 years on the same chain of lakes that gets patrolled heavily by the sheriffs, I have never been checked there. 2 years ago, the sheriff was sitting in his boat on the water so I motored up to him and asked why he never checked me. His response....”You bass guys always have your chit together and it’s a waste of my time”. ?. We both laughed and I continued on.

There is really no difference between your catch and keep for perch and a hunter harvesting game. Actually the hunter has the advantage because they can see and choose if they have the right size, sex, and species of game they are harvesting. As a fisherman you have to take what bites and even you admitted if a spawner gets gut hooked, there’s no release.?

Like I replied in another post, the fact that you can’t run a Lowrance in brackish water or it voids the warranty, rules it out for a lot of us on the coasts, or the delta, or any tidal waters because they are considered brackish. If they don’t address that issue, it carves out a big part of their target market. How will the pros handle the tournament trails where there are a lot of brackish rivers. They are on the Historic James River right now and that is brackish. As soon as these hit the market, they better make it very clear that you can’t use them on brackish waters or the pr nightmares will begin.

Salt and brackish are 2 different things. There aren’t any bass in salt water. I hope they do address it.

The deal breaker on the Lowrance is that your warranty is void if you use on brackish water. That’s a deal killer for me on the Potomac.

I have a bunch of new baits and old faithfuls to try.

Whether I prefer it or not, now that I am retired and all of my fishing buddies are still chained to the hamster wheel, I have no choice unless one of them ditches work for a day. It’s nice to be able to go on the weekdays and avoid the crowds but I do miss the company of my fishing buddies. I will be leaving for 2 weeks in Wisconsin early next month and since my wife is flying into Kansas City for her class reunion and then on to Wisconsin, I will be doing the 2 day pull solo. I decided to take a little detour and hit a lake in Wisconsin on my way up. Will be fun to try and figure out a lake I have never been to in one day solo.

I always go back to what Gary Kline once told me. “If I can find the fish, there are no less than 5 lures I can catch them on.” It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian.?

You only have to kill them if you are going to keep them. The dnr has suggested to kill them but it is not required. It is illegal to put them in your livewell or transport them alive.

Last year for our week long trip in Wisconsin I used my power poles and a bow rope to hold my boat at the dock at the cottage. I did notice some rubs when I got home. This year I am still going to use my poles but I will tie some bumpers to the dock like I used to do.

When the time comes that I can no longer handle my 21ft Ranger, I may have to re-evaluate but nothing has changed for me as far as ability and stamina. The nice thing has been going during the week and avoiding all of the crowds. I’m heading on a road trip tomorrow to the Chickahomny River. The Potomac has been washed out for 2 weeks with heavy rain again today. I’m off to Wisconsin next month and maybe another trip up to Michigan this summer. I’ve got plenty to do around the house with getting my baits organized into a fishing room high on the list. I haven’t totally shook the feeling that I should be working but it is getting better. I finally figured out it’s almost like a form of guilt that I made it and all of my friends are still chained to the wheel.??