TOXIC

Generally on the issue of security, I’m not a touring pro and I don’t carry 100k worth of gear with me on the road, but I have traveled overnight a lot with my boat or my fishing partners boat in tow. Week long stays on different lakes in Florida, annual trips to Michigan and Wisconsin with Wisconsin being a 2 day pull up and back. Although we get to Florida in 1 day, we always stay the first night in a hotel and fish the next day before checking into our week long location. Our last trip to Headwaters was by all accounts, the most safe we’ve felt. Even though we had to pull the boat out every day, where we stayed was 1/2 mile down an isolated road at the very end of a dead end and a coded gate 1/2 way there. The road is lined with farms where there is 1 way in and 1 way out. On Kissimmee we stayed at Camp Mac and on Okeechobee we stay at Roland’s, both are pretty secure but we still took gear in, electronics off and covered the boats. At Headwaters we just leave everything. It’s that secure. In Michigan we are on an island and then down a long road to a house that has no neighbors close by. Boats stay in the water and docked outside the house. In Wisconsin, the boat stays docked outside the cottage and I don’t pull any gear. The dock is down a steep hill surrounded by woods. If someone wanted to get my gear, it would have to be at night and from the water. On the St Lawrence the motel had docks. It was a little sketchy because the public ramp was right next door. As for all of the hotels, I have a list of ones I have used in the past and try to use them. I am a Hampton Inn level stayer and the ones I use have good parking and are usually not right on the highway. I have found them through trial and error and the error part can be painful like when you pull in after a long day on the road and the parking doesn’t allow a trailer. I have had to park at a shopping center and walk to the hotel and I had to cross a field because there was a high curbed roundabout to get into one hotel. If going to a new area, I always use either google earth or google maps on the satellite setting to look at the hotel as to how/where it’s positioned. I have stayed at some little mom and pop motels where I could park right outside my room. So far (knock on wood) I have never been pilfered.

Nobody knows the cash value of sponsorship deals because they vary from pro to pro and manufacturer to manufacturer. The ones I do know about that I was told directly and not rumored are all vastly different. Generally speaking the old boat memo deals are a thing of the past. As for trucks they get discounts. Gear and baits, depending on level, they get all they want. I can tell you 2 of the pros I personally know told me they could not survive if it weren’t for non tournament income. One was a bait designer for a major company and the other was a ghost employee who was paid and never worked for the company.

My cigar voyage was a fun one while it lasted. I traveled in some groups when I was working that had access to some pretty exclusive sticks including Cubans. They weren’t a favorite of mine though. I started with macanudos because of their mild smoke and very good flavor. I started experimenting when they had quality issues and inconsistencies with their center flavor leaves. I started attending a local cigar shop event that was the first Wednesday of every month. For $30 you got 2 hand rolled cigars made on site by rollers brought in from the different brands. Along with that you got all the booze you could drink and hors d’oeuvres you could eat. It was a great time and I learned a lot about cigars from the rollers that spoke English. I worked my way through all the various wrappers (Connecticut/madero/blonde/natural, etc) and as my palate got more refined, I zero’d in on what I liked. I ended up really liking PUNCH. I was fly fishing and also bass fishing where there were hoards of mosquitoes, black flys and gnats and I found out a cigar kept them all at bay. I couldn’t smoke full size sticks all day so I added Hoyo De Monterrey mini smokes to my humidor. They were great tasting and came in a tin I could store in the boat or my pocket. They were “dry cured” and didn’t benefit from a humidor. Unfortunately I liked them so much, I started buying them by the sleeve and smoking them very regularly at home vs the occasional full size stick. When I was getting ready to retire 5+ years ago both my wife and my best friend fishing partner asked me to give up the cigars generally for my health, not that I had any problems. The day I retired, I had my last small cigar and while I always said I would allow myself an occasional smoke, I haven’t had one since either full size or small. I have a tin of small ones and a humidor with some Cubans and Dominicans, but they are for guests. I do miss them because I truly liked the taste of a good cigar but so far, I haven’t fired one up. It’s always a possibility. 😂

When I was guiding I many times took 3 out plus me. You better be skilled at boat control and situational awareness when doing that. But that’s not what you asked about. Friend fishing aside, in a tournament situation 3 to a boat is unsafe, un manageable and un smart. As the boater I wouldn’t complain since your section of the boat is reserved for you. The other 2 are where the complaints should come from. The middle man is the most disadvantaged. You have to divide the casting lanes into thirds. Front, middle and rear. My advice is to draw co’s and when the boats fill up, pairing is over. Otherwise the boater is going to be more of a referee than a fisherman.

I usually come on here and boast about being able to fish year round due to having access to a nuclear hot water discharge cooling private lake (3,000 acres in 3 pools). Our average temps “normally” allow us to bundle up and go fish. This winter has been brutally cold and windy. We went to Florida the first week of February and have not been out since. I’m normally up for cold weather but this year I finally had to tell my fishing partner I’m not going to torture myself to fish. We are heading out tomorrow for the first time. Weather is supposed to be in the mid 50’s and 9mph winds. That’s pretty pleasant for winter.

I would be seriously concerned with a $5,000 fiberglass boat. If that’s your budget, you’re not ready. Sorry.

I’ve hesitated to reply to the looooong thread because I don’t consider myself to be “super” in any specific skill or technique. I pride myself on being able to pattern well, adapt when necessary, and from being a guide for so many years, good boat control. The one thing I am better at than most is catching from the back deck. It takes a whole different set of skills and I am very, very good from the back deck. On one of our trips to Headwaters we had 3 in the boat. 2 on the front deck and me on the back deck. The 2 upfront were very good sticks and literally seined the water before I ever got a shot at it. I was steady catching fish all day. One of my buddies turned around and commented he just couldn’t understand how I was catching so many fish, actually more than him. I could write a long diatribe on how to look at lures, techniques, water coverage, casting areas, etc., and how they relate to the back deck and I actually was going to write a series of articles for Yamamoto called “From The Back Deck” but it was right around the time co-anglers were being phased out of major tournaments.

There’s only 1 thing I have no, nada, zero, control over…..weather. I know how to avoid other boaters even if they are ignorant to the rules of the road, I have good enough common sense and mapping to be careful of depths in new water, I have smacked floaters which, while scary, never caused me to lose control but weather can come on hard in a heartbeat, lightening can strike from 45 miles away and while I consider myself to be a very good captain, weather can and will overpower my boats ability and /or my ability to safely get back to port. The most scared I have ever been on the water have all been weather related. I can name more than 1 incident. Once was lightening, and one was true 5 foot waves just off the top of my head. If the weather overpowers your boats ability to operate, I don’t care how knowledgeable or skilled you are, you are doomed. Cue the song…The Wreck of The Edmond Fitzgerald.

I only throw straight braid on both spinning and baitcasters. For spinning I use 35lb braid for dragging a Wong rig or flipping into beds nestled in the pencil reeds both on St Clair. I use the same setup on Headwaters in Florida for punching grass or throwing a weighted Yamamoto 7 inch Kut Tail in and around vegetation and wood. Big producer.

We are getting a good rain here in Virginia with the Facebook meteorologists warning of high winds and possible hail. I went out and put a tarp over the boat cover and put the truck cover on just in case. We are fishing Friday, so I want to make sure the boat is dry.

@Bucks Bass and Bourbon now that this post got dredged back up, how did you do on your solo trip?

I have a pair of Rapala anodized needle nose/split ring pliers that are 15+ years old, stored in my boat which is stored outside and not a speck of rust. I was too trusting due to my past experience.

I had to resurrect this post and give an update on one of the products I bought. I'm not a complainer and I don't like trashing products but when I find a piece of gear that fails miserably then I'm going to first go back to the company for relief. Because I am always fair and it's obvious if I am complaining that there is a defect in the product, I'll usually get taken care of. Not so in this case. Around Christmas, I ordered the below multi tool from RAPALA. I have used it a total of 3 times. Then I noticed some parts were rusting. The slide handle and the actual blades of the line cutters. I took pictures and sent them to RAPALA along with a request to either replace, refund or give me a credit in their product store equal to the value of the tool. Their response was "Thanks for the email. Unfortunately, rust is not a defect. Rain, saltwater, moisture, exposure, etc. And metal never go together. If left outside, exposed to water, all metal will rust. Stainless steel is a bit more resistant, but will still rust. It is a good idea to keep things dry or dry them after they have been exposed to water. Especially closing them up in a tackle box or tray. Thank you for your understanding. Rapala USA. I won't go into my response but in a nutshell I replied the tool was never exposed to the elements or stored outside and that stainless would not rust in 3 outings. I asked them to reconsider and their response from Rapala USA C, was "Thanks for the followup. Unfortunately rust is not covered under warranty". It's not a big deal to me, i can eat a $25 multi tool purchase but it chaps my behind when a company won't stand behind their product. I went back to the product listing and found that although they responded with the characteristics of stainless, there is no mention of stainless anything on this product. Looks like I fell victim to a clever marketing scheme where I thought that for the price of the product, it was stainless. I was obviously wrong.

In my trips there I have fished Harney Pond and the Monkeybox but never in the locks or the Rim Canal. Might need to rethink that. 😂

All I know is that I wouldn’t want to tangle with one. When it’s time to give this terror any medicine or clip needle mittens, I’m lucky to emerge without stitches.

Anglers that are proficient with FFS aren’t just staring at their screen and not fishing. They are fishing what they see on the screen. It’s not an either/or scenario. If they weren’t looking at their screen they’d be staring at open water or the bank while they fish. It’s a little overblown when complaints are that they stare at their screen all day and it makes it boring to watch.

I don’t disagree but remember where he was fishing. Not your normal Okeechobee water. More like a river or canal. That being said, he obviously figured out what they wanted. 😜

I feather when I am shooting for a target and need to tightly control distance. Another tip shown to me by one of my buddies that I fished with in Michigan for a spinning reel was how to keep the wind from peeling off waaaaay too much line on a cast. You can use the feather to put resistance on the line but once your lure hits the water, dunk the tip of your rod. It will use water tension to keep the bow out of your line. For an avid weightless Senko fisherman it was like magic and allows me to fish that specific bait in very windy conditions.

Prayers for a favorable outcome

Okeechobee traditionally fishes small. Always has.

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Waiting for all of the California folks to chime in. They are a problem there.

What they are saying is bass “relate” to brush piles. They ambush their prey, so you can put your prey imitating bait “in” the brush pile and as you pull it out, the bass ambush it. I’ve never fished a situation where a bass won’t ambush the same bait as you pull it by or near the brush. That’s why it’s so important to fish a brush pile from different angles.

Depends on how I’m fishing and I consider both a river and a lake my home waters. On the river, I’ll search for more structure and bait concentrations, whereas on the lake I’ll idle more looking for open water schools in addition to pounding the shoreline like I do in the river. River 5%, lake 10%. But also if it’s my home water there’s some historical knowledge from the many times I’ve been there so I don’t need to graph near as much.

Something to remember about brush piles. The bass are not in the brush piles, the baitfish, their prey are. I fish all around a brush pile never “in” it.