TOXIC

SteelShads did a good job on Saturday.

As soon as you said you were going to venture out on St Clair you made my opinion very easy. A 19 footer is the absolute minimum I would venture out on the big pond with and even with that you better be very aware of the weather and in the summer with all of the pleasure cruisers it’s downright dangerous in smaller boats. My minimum for St Clair is a 20 footer and personally, I run a 21 footer. Give a little consideration to stepping up in size and back a few years in age.

@ol'crickety it sure is a lot of fun. It helps keep our sanity over the winter. There’s something about being out in the cold but being toasty warm because you have the right gear and then being able to catch bass, striper, white perch, catfish, blue gill, crappie and even a rare walleye. We’ll be heading off to Florida at the end of January and that is a great trip as well. 👍🏻

We have transitioned over to our wintertime lake which is a power plant lake that never gets below 50 degrees here in Virginia in the winter months. We have been fishing this body of water for so long, we have a progression that we go through and we usually find them somewhere along that run. Baits are well known so there is no real thought process involved in what to bring. There’s something about throwing a buzz bait in a snowstorm that makes me giggle like a little girl. If we can get to the ramp, we can fish. They are calling for a snowy winter this year so we will see if we get sidelined. I towed my boat there (about an hour 1 way) and got caught in an ice event. I never want to do that again. We went Wednesday when it was low 50’s and we’re going tomorrow in the low 40’s.

If I could only take one bait to the river in cold water, and I have been wading with chunks of ice bouncing off my neoprene waders, it would be a 3 inch smoke/salt & pepper grub on a 3/16 ball headed jig. I might take a pack of grubs in a natural brown color as well. Never failed me…..ever.

We swing in when going to and from Florida. There are groupees and there are foodies that love the place because their food is really great and they have specific products only available there. Their bbq is amazingly good. We’ve never had a problem finding an open pump or getting to the bathroom facilities which are touted to be the cleanest in the industry. No semi trucks allowed and it’s a little tricky with a 20ft boat but the price of fuel is considerably cheaper, so it’s worth the diversion to me.

I don’t know about the pros but I had my arse handed to me plenty of times in tournaments by a guy who ran a small Carolina Skiff with a tiller. As the old saying goes “it ain’t the arrow, it’s the Indian”

It’s great when you find the tool that fits your toolbox perfectly. Same with boats.

In all of my braid applications, I am either fishing shallow pitching with a baitcaster or dragging baits with spinning. Pitching I can normally almost reach the bait with the rod and dragging, I can get on top of the bait which is normally in 5-15ft and either break it at the bait or straighten the hook. I don’t use any braid other than 35 and 50lb test depending on the application. Never have needed or rigged a leader.

What’s the deal with Buffalo Trace? Went to the local ABC State store and was looking to buy my fishing partner a gift bag to make Old Fashioneds so I read up on what the best bourbons were for that drink. A few expensive ones came up that I have in my private stock like Eligiah Craig and 4 Roses but Buffalo Trace came up as well. I was scanning the 500 or so bourbon selections and didn’t see it so I asked one of the clerks and I got a strange look. He asked me if I had been on the website and I told him no and gave him my story. He said they just got their allotment (1 case). I asked where they were and he said we don’t put them out, we keep them behind the counter. They will all be gone by tomorrow and we don’t know when we will get another allotment. I found that odd because in all the articles I read, Buffalo Trace was listed as the “affordable” brand. He called bs on that and said maybe in other states but in Virginia it’s not. I promptly bought one.

Max psi on the tire is for max load. I run different psi for towing and when not towing. 45 towing and 35 not towing. Max pressure on tire is 50psi cold.

Yamamoto brought back their bulk packs albeit in limited colors.

Well, that explains it. On the main lake I night fished on, the bass moved up into the shallows to feed at night. This meant casting at docks, boat lifts and swimming docks. Pitching a weightless Senko under a dock in the black of night is an acquired skill to say the least. I could manage it but most co’s I took out with me couldn’t and I’m not a fan of hanging lures up on people’s docks and even less on their boats. While a Texas rigged Senko is pretty forgiving, it will still hang up. I usually put them on what I called the canvas boat lift pattern and had them throw their Senko on top of a canvas covered boat lift and slowly pull it until it fell vertically into the water. Caught a lot of fish on that pattern and never stuck a hook in the canvas. 😂😆

Before him was Carl Sagan……”billions and billions”. 😎😝

@Darth-Baiter my wife has a cabinet of expensive line to hang decorations with. 😂😎

@WRB Tom, I can look at all of the stats, breaking strength, diameter, knot strength, abrasion resistance, memory, sensitivity, visibility, and on, and on but that freakin Trilene line fit my fishing to a T. It just worked better than anything else I ever tried. When it was discontinued, I wore out eBay and I found some spools in Canada and even got contacted by Berkley but alas it never came back. I have been on a continuous rotation search since then with everything from bargain Excel to the more expensive mono’s and while good, I’ve never found anything that fit as well as that old Photocromic Tournament Strength. 😂

Not me. 😎All of my trucks have been bowties. My white 2016 High Country, and my black 3/4 ton I traded in for the 1/2 ton. My daughter drives an older Ford F-350 single rear tire because she towed a big horse trailer and it has the old reliable 7.3 diesel.

I know I’m in the minority but I absolutely hate night bass fishing. No, I’m not scared of the dark but I don’t like the mosquitoes, gnats, bats and the inability to see where I am casting. A full moon helps but switching on any kind of light is like a bloodsucking beacon and landing lights for mosquitoes. I’ve bank fished for catfish at night, I’ve night fished for bass from a boat and I just don’t enjoy it. I can adjust to the daylight haunts and usually find them in their daytime spots. Granted my night fishing has mainly been in Wisconsin where the mosquito is the state bird and in Florida, I walked out on the canal decking from our cottage and lost a quart of plasma before I could get back into the cottage. 😂

I usually get flamed for my opinion on this subject but I see many more are either returning to mono or never left. Far be it from me to tell someone what they should spool up with because we all fish differently but I have never used the braid/leader combo on anything. For me, I never got the benefit since I am a finesse fisherman first and foremost. I use straight braid on both spinning and casting for punching, frogs and a couple of dragging techniques. I consider all of the hybrid lines pretty much in the mono category (copoly, etc.) and fluro, I use max 12lb on baitcasters for cranks. Other than that all my rods are rigged with mono in sizes from 6 to 10lb test. I just wish I could still get this.

It’s a pretty sad statement when you have to consider the fact your tires might outlive your vehicle. 😂🤣

My fishing partner uses a baitcaster with 12lb straight mono. I just prefer spinning because he has to peel off line with the lighter blades and I’d wager he misses a few strikes on the fall. When he turns on the front facing sonar, we video game catch them because he can see them follow and strike the blades. We were catching walleye in 60ft + of water. I got to the bottom a lot faster with spinning.

To get the full range of functions, match electronics to your trolling motor of preference. Some have features that only work with certain trollers. Only exception I can think of is the new Power Pole Move troller. If it doesn’t matter then each manufacturer is better known for some functions. You need to choose which style of fishing you are going to use the most and finally, you see a lot of the pros with mismatched manufacturers. There’s a reason for that. Like I said, some do things better than others.

I am in no means an expert in blade fishing but from my responses on other forums and from friends who are guides, it appears the old adage ”it depends” comes into play. Personally, I prefer spinning because it gets the smaller blades deep faster. I use straight 8-10lb mono. No need for braid because when vertical jigging, you aren’t feeling the bite as much as other applications. They either hit it on the fall, on the lift or suspended. There’s really no hookset with 2 sets of trebles. They pretty much hook themselves. For a rod, I use a 7ft medium Woo Daves worm rod that doubles as my weighted Senko rod in the summer. With my blade setup I have caught 5oz white perch and 5lb walleye. It’s a fun way to catch ‘em!

This last Sunday, Lake Anna Virginia.

@WRB Tom, it’s a little confusing as there are different series that don’t correlate with weights. The “heavy” series are actually smaller in the same weight as the regular or “original” series. Confused the heck out of me until I figured that out. Website is correct.