TOXIC

I have a fishing buddy who travels with a small gas generator in the bed of his truck to charge his boat batteries while on the road in hotels. He chains it up and locks it. When I lived in Florida neighbors on both sides had whole house generators. One was a modern gas and he had to run it every month to cycle through the tank. It was fairly quiet. On the other side of me there was a huge house that had a diesel generator that was the side of a bulldozer. When it fired up the ground shook. Had the metal flapper on the exhaust pipe and everything. I think he could have powered the whole neighborhood.

As a guide, I got stuck hundreds of times. No infections. Worse than a hook is a barb stick from any fish and worst of all a catfish. I’ve had some nasty wounds from cats.

Also keep in mind that it’s not uncommon nowadays to upsize what would normally be finesse baits well suited to a spinning outfit to oversized “bubba” applications. Then they work just as well on baitcasters. Dropshot upsized to Bubbashot, Senkos from weightless to weighted punch baits, shakeyhead upsized to magnum sizes, etc.

You are going to get a lot of suggestions. For me it’s a dropshot, shakeyhead, Ned, and small swimbaits.

While sponsorship is nice, I can tell you I fished their plastics long before I got sponsored. Sponsorship is not the reason to fish a bait. Fishing the bait is the reason for sponsorship. I was buying at retail, cases of their product before I got on staff. My loyalty is not blind either. When there was/is a gap in the product line that my sponsor didn’t make and I felt I needed that specific style of bait to be productive, I fished another manufacturer’s bait. It just so happens as it currently stands, they have filled all the gaps plus more than I can fish,so I have zero need to supplement my baits. 👍🏻

As for the pintail, Yamamoto makes the Scope Shad and the Shad Shape Worm. One has a forked pintail and the other is a straight tail from 3.5 to 5 inches. 😉

I can relate in a couple of ways. First, there was access to the Shenandoah river for wading that was 2 miles off the main road and you needed a 4wd to get to it. No problem, I have a jeep wrangler that made it back there winter or summer. Great place to park, great spot on the river to wade with lots of smallmouth. I went there often to flyfish and just regular fish. Somehow word got out and it started being used as a party spot and a weekend campsite. Then it got to the point that it looked like a garbage dump with dirty diapers, fish carcasses, cases of beer cans, fishing line, worm boxes, grocery bag garbage and fire spots. It was obvious that the spot was being heavily abused. Every time I would go, I would pick up 4 or 5 garbage bags of trash. It wasn’t long before the landowner chained the access and posted the property. Im afraid once you let access happen, you can’t control it. I did get access to another spot and I knew the landowner and for allowing us to use their property to camp and have access, we cleared and maintained about 3 acres of riverfront for them. Second is my daughters farm where she is hounded nonstop for access to deer hunt and coyote hunt. To the point there have been altercations with hunters. It’s hard to patrol +-300 acres of mixed woods and fields she has control over. What she did was to give ONE family (father, 3 adult sons) permission to hunt and they are required to let her know when they are planning to hunt. Opening day they actually pull a camper to her farm and spend 3 or 4 days hunting. It’s a family affair and they invite her out for barbecue and best of all when they process all the deer they all give her a portion of the harvest, along with a portion of some hogs they raise. I’ve met them and their family’s (wives and 3 sons young kids) and handed them some Yamamoto goodie bags for which they were extremely grateful. The best part….this family is very close to being “off grid” lifestyle and they supplement their subsistence by hunting and gardening so they truly value what my daughter allows them to do. The property has a very robust deer population. They know they are the only ones allowed on her land and I feel sorry for anyone who they would catch trespassing. Likewise, they are always ready to help if she needs something like fence repairs, tractor fixing, etc. That just an example of a positive as well.

Can you get by using either a baitcaster or a spinning outfit only? Sure. There are a lots of reasons for both. Setting aside medical or any kind of mandated need to use one or the other, I go by what is the right tool for the job. I’ll use screwdrivers as an example. There’s flat head screws and Phillips head screws for example. Each requires a specialized tool (screwdriver head) to effectively work. But wait…have you ever seen the phillips head screws that have one of the notches cut all the way across so that you can use either a flat head or phillips head? Same with baits. Some are specific and some are and either/or in my book.

Short answer is…yes. Different lakes/rivers/ponds have different forage bases that present themselves at different times depending on the geographic location. Smallmouth on St Clair for example have a huge hatch of mayflies, or as the locals call them fish flies, to the extent there are actual fly slicks on the surface. Doesn’t last a long time but happens every year. Many bass key on the Shad spawn if present and many chase open water herring, all seasonal dependent. As the old saying goes….you’ve got to match the hatch. That being said, I’ve caught bass with birds, ducklings, snakes, turtles and a variety of other creatures in their mouths that can’t really be described as a pattern.

In the 3 bodies of water I fish, the striper have totally different patterns. There is some similarity between the rivers (Potomac and Rappahonock) because they are seasonal from the bay and migrate up the rivers to spawn. That is very specific patterns. The lake (Lake Anna) is landlocked and they are much more predictable and normally hang in the same areas year round.

IMHO rod makers put species/technique labels on rods to assist the less savvy customers or those that don’t have the desire to learn rod lengths, actions, power, etc. My favorite frog rod when I was sponsored by CastAway was actually a saltwater model. It did what “I” wanted it to.

I am in a bit of a different situation being Regional Pro Staff for a plastics company. Most know who that is. 😉. I have a strict rule with sponsors….no competitors allowed. In the fishing circles around me here, it’s kind of a given that you will never catch me throwing a competitors plastic. Since we are talking about plastics, my sponsor, under the old management, used to encourage me to use others knock offs and report back to them how they performed or what they could do to improve the baits. I also give them color recommendations and even new product lines that fill a need not addressed. With the new management there are multiple lines of plastics under the same umbrella but I have been asked to stay with my main brand. On a personal note, my brand has produced every style, size and color plastic I will ever use or need to use. As new products come out in the line I represent, I give them a shot and see if they make it to my “must have” list. So yes, I only use one brand of plastics……and I have zero complaints.

There’s pros and cons to both. I’ve had both on motors 225hp and 250hp. They are great for control and driving, they are spring loaded so they return to idle if you remove your foot, they are a pain if you have long no-wake zones and can foster foot/leg fatigue, the spring setting is tight enough you don’t unintentionally “feather” the throttle in rough water unless it’s an evenrude that is a fly by wire and not cable driven. Evenrudes newest versions do give you the ability to switch back and forth from hand throttle to hot foot. There is a learning curve if you switch from a hot foot to a hand throttle. With a hotfoot, you quickly push the hand throttle in gear all the way to what would be full throttle if you did not have a hotfoot. I’ve seen many boats smash the dock or the trailer when the captain forgot which he was dealing with. 😱

I handle fish with reasonable care. I lip them out of the water over a couple pounds, net them if over 4, don’t jaw jack them, don’t lay them on the deck and get them back in the water as soon as possible. They live in a pretty hostile environment. Let’s remember bass are not an overly fragile creature either. I’ve caught many with large wounds from turtles/snakes/birds or whatever predators they have. As for the all fragile slime coat concerns remember, these fish spend a lot of time on or in wood, weeds, rocks and laying on the bottom. I’ve caught many with mud caked on their belly. Look at their tails when they spawn, ripped to shreds. Their slime coat is pretty resilient. And if poking them in the mouth with a hook caused so much trauma, in the lake they would starve to death because most all of their food sources have claws, pinchers, and spines as defense. I’m not trivializing good fish care but sometimes it can go a little to the extreme. Do what makes you feel good and is beneficial to the fish.

Get outta my head! 😂. The only thing I would add is never fill the livewells or take the net out before you catch a fish. My old tournament partner had a hilarious one. He would drive to my house and we would ride to the lake together and he had to stop at the same gas station EVERY time and destroy the bathroom. 😂🤣

Last year it was: Virginia Lifetime Michigan New York Canadian, Ontario and Sportsman Card Florida Wisconsin

A fact I learned when guiding is that if you run out of fuel in the tank, your day is over. I used to be a no eat fisherman but I found that as I aged, my tank runs dry a little quicker. Given the fact that when guiding and now when I’m on travel trips like Florida, Michigan, and New York, I need to keep the tank topped off along with other measures like good sleep. As a rule, my fishing trips are anything but relaxing. Enjoyable but not “relaxing”. I can’t imagine those of you who paddle can not overload calories before your day, dude wipe stops be damned.

Very little variation for me. No breakfast for the reasons given 💩. Coffee on the way to the lake. Always twice as much water as I think I will drink. Gets boring but every “sports” drink or hydration enhanced drink I have tried makes me swell up like a tick. Low sodium/no sodium doesn’t matter. For lunch I have done a variety of things like crustables, various sandwiches, wraps, lunchables, canned tuna and chicken salad with crackers in boxed meals, cold pizza, and usually a bag of chips. When I was sponsored by Jack Links, I always had cases of all kinds of jerky that I gave out at tournaments or to my buddies. I actually had people come up to me on the water because I was the “jerky guy” and I would toss them a bag. I also would toss bags on all the boats at tournaments. I guess my favorite for meals are the wraps I make and the leftover cold Detroit style pizza one of my buddies who brings his own pizza oven to St Clair makes.

The box with the Senkos is 2 sided so I have another side for different size Senkos. I also have a Ned rig plastics box that has both the heads and the baits in it.

All of my soft plastics are in boxes unless it is a bait that I might want to try and not give up space in my box from something I know I will throw. I do understand bank fishing limits your carrying ability.

Rig up a weightless Senko and get back to us. 😉

@Bigcatcher1 remember, I am not liking the multi tool. It rusted and is not stainless. It’s also very heavy, so heavy that it would not retract on the lanyard I purchased to put it on but that was my mistake, not theirs.

I used to be sponsored by CastAway and loved the offerings. I left because I went with a rep group that pushed Quantum/Zebco. I still have a lot of the older CastAway rods. My absolute favorite rod of all time is a Skeleton. I have a couple Invictas and a David Dudley worm rod as well as a lot of their normal sticks. As a rule they are a heavier action than advertised but they are the toughest rods I’ve ever thrown. As a matter of fact, my favorite dropshot rod is a Skeleton that is 15 years old. Looks like it was dragged down a gravel road but still performs like new. That rod has caught hundreds of fish.

My follow,up bait is a Senko. Most often my primary bait is a Senko. It’s one of the most effective baits for multiple hits from the same fish. We say after a missed strike and we either slow down or completely stop the bait, that the fish “came back”. As a matter of fact, I watched one of the tournament trails and the angler threw a Senko back in where he had gotten broken off by a fish and caught the same fish with the Senko still in its mouth. I’ve had that happen as well and it’s only been on a Senko.

You said “New” body of water. For me, regardless of electronics level, the first thing I would do is look at a map either on your electronics or online and determine the most likely pattern the fish would be in. Spawn, post spawn, pre spawn, winter haunts, summer haunts and then factor in the variables like water temperature and current weather. Going in blind and just casting would be the last thing I would do.