TOXIC

You wanna know how to ruin your love of fishing? Make it your job. Once I started guiding and had to fish in all conditions and feel the pressure of putting clients on fish day after day regardless of their skill level, it became more work than fun. Luckily I spend much more time fun fishing now and taking trips to new bodies of water has reset the fun flame more.

I have to admit I’m spoiled when it comes to my Ned rigs. I have a friend who pours his own Ned’s and with a bit of Yamamoto bartering I have been able to cement my supply of his Ned heads. What makes his Ned’s so special is the hook. Extremely sharp and I have yet to roll the point or break one. The spike bait keeper was a request by me because my Yamamoto Ned baits hold better and the single strand weed guard is his idea and has mixed reviews. The biggest complaint is that it’s like a dang hypodermic needle and it’s easy to get skewered rigging baits. Just for reference, the Blue Cat I included a picture of was caught on one of his Ned’s and 6lb test.

She goes from here in Virginia (Middleburg where her farm is) to the USDA facility and then it could be anywhere in the country. Her last pickup was 7 Icelandic horses that went to Virginia and Kentucky. Because of the traffic and the wear and tear on her equipment, she is trying to stay in the Delmarva area more. She has also taken on a boarding business which keeps her more on the farm. Gotta give her credit, she’s 25 and scratching a good living out of the equestrian industry.

My daughter hauls horses from up that way a bunch and she hates it. She also picks up a lot of super high dollar horses shipped in from around the world at the USDA quarantine facility. Couple,of times, her gps has diverted her through downtown NYC with the rig I attached. I imaging interstate 81 is going to be very busy even more now.

It’s all about mechanics and range of motion. A longer rod will take more backbone to effectively set the hook from a sitting position where you have a limited range of motion and for DShads and Senkos which are designed to be a finesse presentation, you can’t get as hard of a hookset with the longer rods unless you are standing. A shorter rod allows for more range of motion with a more finesse rod. I can’t comment on those who use 50lb braid and a 10lb leader because that has always been counter to my way of finesse fishing and seems to be more the norm nowadays.??

Livingston had made battery powered lures for years. The crankbait that Randy won the classic with was one.

Every time I park the boat at home, I put a cable tie in the pee hole all the way to the end. I have a 250 Yamaha HPDI and it will not pee well on muffs at all. As soon as it gets submerged, it’s fine. It has had multiple impeller/water pump/poppit valve/ thermostat replacements over the years and it’s always been a very low water psi at idle, it jumps to 35 when running and yes I’ve replaced the gauge over the years as well. Yamahas, so I am told, work more on volume than pressure. It’s got 500 hours so I don’t worry about it.

Do you stand or sit in your yak? My brother in law asked me to outfit him and I did, just like fishing from my boat. He had trouble with DShads (flukes) setting the hook. Had to drop down to a 6’8” or shorter to give him the ability to get a good hookset while sitting in his yak. Same with a Senko.

My next trip is to Wisconsin and while the Spotted Cow is definitely on the list, I will be taking some of our local craft beers for my brother in law who is part owner of a brewery in St Augustine Florida. He will bring a bunch of their brews as well. Check them out if you’re ever in the area. They brew some fine beers. https://www.oldcoastales.com/

I didn’t think that Maryland was a big salt state due to it being on the Chesapeake watershed. I know here in Virginia we don’t use a lot of salt but there is a brine. My 2004 2500 Silverado I bought new in Virginia and traded in 2016 didn’t have a speck of rust anywhere on the body and the frame/undercarriage was pretty rust free. I’ll go ahead and say it……..weren’t those older Dodge trucks known for rust? Good on you for finding a cheaper fix.

Totally,depends on what the fish want. Las year on St Clair we had a couple of 100 fish days on Ned’s. This year it wasn’t producing that well so I changed up to a dropshot and the bigger fish came to play. Had to go old school with a 5” Yamamoto Pro Senko to get the better bites.

Oh, I almost forgot, the Yamamoto California Roll is a spade tail worm I have had good success on a Ned rig.

Yamamoto DShads are made with the same formula as Senkos and are generally heavier than most other fluke style baits. I have drug them on the bottom in 9 foot of water drift fishing on St Clair. Not to get too technical but I made a lengthy post on how to rig a DShad to get it to dive, stay horizontal, swing left or swing right or stay on top. Bottom line, I’ve never had the need to weight them in any way.

That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m a clean truck nut and I’ve been hold up indoors for the last couple of days not because I’m scared but because I have the luxury that I can, and I’ll bet my iridium white truck is coated. I loaned my pressure washer out to my daughter too. She’s cleaning barn stall walls with it because I told her to stay off the tractor brush-hogging horse pastures.

Slew, lake, reservoir, creek, oxbow, river, pond, cut, gut, and a few others I am familiar with. Explain “Bog”. Makes me think of Europe and peat bogs.

October of 2021 is a bit of old news. Yes, they were bought by GSM and have added new product's as well as discontinuing some others. The 7 inch Speed Senko is new. The 5 inch Floating Shad Shape Worm is new. The slinko is new. The Ned worm is new. I was with GYCB for 20 years and was lucky enough to remain after the sale. GSM has also acquired Buckeye Lures, SteelShad Lures and Bill Lewis lures, maker of the original rattletrap. Any questions about the product line let me know…..now back to you regularly scheduled worming…. ?

We experienced it first when we were on St Clair and it’s pretty bad here in Virginia now. We have been lucky because my house is in the forest and we have not had to turn on our AC yet this year even with the 80 degree temps. With the heat and air quality alerts, we closed up the house today and switched over to AC.

Last time I checked, there were various weights of lipless cranks. Even floating. The longer the cast the less sensitivity regardless of the weight. If I’m throwing a lipless in grass, the fast action rod needed to make a long cast is counter productive to “ripping” it through the grass. You are asking for too much from a rod. My lipless fishing in grass is normally not a distance technique unless it is in open water.

Well, you just ruined half the internet rod building experts opinions.?? I will admit, I thought it was a valid concern but mainly overlooked in mass production.

What’s with all of the craw baits being mentioned? Them ain’t worms!? 4-5-6-7 inch Senkos 5-7.5 inch Yamamoto kut tail 5 inch pro Senko 6 inch swim Senko 7 inch speed Senko 3 inch Ned Senko 5 inch Yamamoto Slinko 5 inch Yamamoto curl tail 3 inch Shad Shape Worm Original 5 inch Shad Shape Worm Floating And y’all wonder why I have never seen the reason to leave the Yamamoto lineup? ??

I can only comment on where I go and have gone every year for 20 years. Same dates, same lake (Lake St Clair). We’ve had good years, bad years, mediocre years all mixed in. There’s sooooo many factors that play into it that make it totally untrackable. I guess you could look at your local DNR studies which may include electro shocking and see if the population is down.

7 foot medium Smoke rod, smoke 2500 spinning reel, 6lb Excel mono. Universal for open water to heavy vegetation. Always a Yamamoto DShad and always weightless.

Sad to hear. Coupled with all of the uncontrolled spraying, the Florida fisheries are having some problems.

Mine is held on with a supplied stainless hose clamp.

And I almost forgot, since it is a vacuum system, the caps on the oil tanks need to be sealed. They can crack or have the rubber seal go bad. My boat had a remote fill that was on the outside of the hull in the rear. I could always hear the oil gurgle when it reached the bottom of the fill neck.