TOXIC

Here we are in a severe water restriction. No watering allowed. No washing vehicles. All my grass is crunchy.

Junger gave you a good rundown but in all honesty, DC proper leaves a lot to be desired shore fishing for gamefish and panfish. Carp and catfish are plentiful and easily caught but for a shore angler it’s a tall order. I was a guide on the Potomac and even with a boat it’s rarely easy. For some real fun google Fletchers Boathouse and keep tabs on the Shad and striper runs. You can also rent small boats there.

Wife found a treasure trove of cast iron pans when we went on a cleaning binge in our huge storage room in our lower level. It is a concrete room that is directly under our 2 1/2 car garage and is cement on all 4 walls and ceiling. We have been accumulating grandparents and parents items after they pass. We ended up stripping the pans and reseasoning them. Gave some to my daughter who now has her own farm and we kept some for our use. We have a glass electric stove and aside from it taking longer to get the cast iron up to temperature, there’s no scratches. Funny thing is that not long after we remodeled and put in an expensive glass top, my wife was taking a small spice jar out of the cupboard and the jar slipped out of her hand hitting the corner of the glass top. It shattered. We called the retailer we bought it from and they told us it was not covered. I told them that if a small spice jar could shatter it, there must be a manufacturer defect. The repair service they sent said that the glass top was normally more expensive than the entire stove. We have a gas furnace and in the remodel I wanted to run gas to the stove but the gas line and venting was too expensive.

It’s like the old Ron White comedy line….”I had the right to remain silent but I didn’t have the ability”. ?

Was a tough weekend for us as well. First forgot a rear ratchet strap on a 20 foot Ranger and it was impossible to get it back on the trailer so we cut the strap. Next drifted into an old dock complex at high tide that we knew was there and ended up putting a scratch all the down the side of my buddies glitter sled. Not good.

TOXIC bites tongue firmly and moves on to another topic.???

A sound that avid Senko fishermen know. When a Senko hits the water tail first and is like an Olympic swimmer sticking the entry from the 10 meter tower.

It doesn’t make it anymore catch effective. It makes it more cost effective. I know guys who could care less about the cost as long as they catch fish…..and they do. Better than others is always a debate and one I don’t participate in.

When you have a daughter who likes to forage for natural foods, you get to try some different things. She's been educating herself on mushrooms and I have a natural like for them so she brought over some oyster mushrooms she foraged off the woods on her farm. She's already tried them so I'm relatively certain my liver is going to stay functional for the near future. Process was to sweat them in a pan, then cut up and cook. I added some bacon and egg to make an omelet and it was very good. Ya'll need to do a welfare check on me in about 3 hours.?

Hopefully the UAW doesn’t put a kink in delivery. From what I read, GM is starting to take a hard line.

I’ve never had chrome or silver hooks hold a point like the black nickel. Most aren’t even sharp out of the box.

I don’t want to appear argumentative but my experience includes trebles on cranks, jerkbaits, lipless, football heads and every other treble rigged bait. To be fair, thick hook baits like jigs and spinnerbaits may hold up but I’ve even snapped 4.0 offset ewg hooks. I change out any bait that comes with the silver salt resistant hooks.

If I may be so bold to use your rig as an example of why Senkos don’t last. You have way too much of the Senko in front of the hook eye. To get it to last longer you need the very tip of the hook eye to be extending from the Senko. That keeps your worm weight and your line from slicing the Senko causing it to begin to tear or ball up on the offset.

For me there are some differences that have been mentioned. When first introduced, offset ewg hooks promoted better hookups due to the fish being able to bite down further between the bait and the shank, exposing more of the hook. As has been said, when guiding newbies, the extra gap made a gut hook less probable and made earlier contact with the fishes mouth. The Senko was originally recommended to be fished on a 3.0 offset ewg but I had all of my clients throwing a 4.0 for even earlier strike detection and less gut hooking. You will also notice the hook point is angled more down on the ewg which makes skin hooking much easier.

I can attest to the fact that once rust has eaten away the outer black coating on a gamakatsu thin wire hook and rust is not possible without that, the hook will be compromised at that very point. I’ve snapped too many hooks retrieving them with pliers at those very points. If I see rust, the hook is done. You may trust it but I won’t.

Don’t forget Sinatra. We actually had some century a couple of years ago. ?

It’s no different from a Senko when rigging and I have posted in depth rigging mistakes that make people think they are more fragile than they really are. Search my Senko posts and you’ll run across my tips for line, hooks, rigging, etc. the only thing that is different with the kreature is that you use a weight or a football head jig.

Respectfully, if you are only getting a couple of fish or actually casting off the bait, you have something wrong with your rigging or setup.

Social media is what you make it. I moderate a couple of sites and being pro staff for Yamamoto baits as well as writing for them, I am expected to be active on social media to a point. The difference with me is that I’m not a talking head and I actually use and believe in the Yamamoto line so my posts are from actual experience and a lot of it. As a moderator on a Ranger Boat owners site and a Chevy Silverado site, you get frustrated with the repetitive basic questions that have been answered a zillion times and keeping all of the spammers and scammers out. I would never be afraid to ask a question or start a topic here that I wanted an answer to.

In my experience, any rust on a hook has degraded the hook to a point that it will fail. I change every hook that gets rust, every single one. I use thin wire hooks for single hook baits and they are more susceptible. Treble hooks are the same. I spray my hooks when in storage Plano with WD40 and I put chunks of chalk or desiccant packs in with them as well.

You can use 303 Aerospace Protectant on it. I use it on all of my vinyl and rubber. It has uv protectant and will not dry out the rubber. I replummed my 250 Yamaha so that the bulb was inside the bilge rather than sitting exposed in the splashwell. With my HPDI I don’t have to prime with the bulb so it wears well. I’m due for a replacement. Thanks for the reminder.

I think we are dealing with a few issues that are affecting the fishing on the Rapp. Our part of Virginia is currently either in drought status going so far as both voluntary and mandatory water restrictions. A lot of the rivers have slowed to a trickle including the upper reaches of the Susquehanna, Potomac, Juniata and Rapp. Luckily the Rappahonock where we fish it is tidal and not as affected. Further downstream I’m sure the salt line from the bay is creeping upstream more than normal but for us it’s just lowered flow. Water is still extremely warm, 80 degrees plus and that doesn’t help. This last trip, we managed a few bass, a couple dink smallmouth and some snakeheads. Bite turned on more in the afternoon on the outgoing tide.

IMHO every single big swimbait is a natural walk the dog subsurface bait. It’s the normal swimming action of a baitfish.

True but fish instinctively know if their eggs will survive in the water temperature. So if the lunar cycle is telling them it’s time to spawn and the water temperature is telling them their eggs will not survive, they will not spawn. If it goes on long enough they will just absorb the eggs and not spawn.

I fish with a retired marine. If you’re not 1/2 hour early, you’re late.