TOXIC

Reeling against the drag gives you nothing and adds to premature wear on the drag system. I don’t do it. Options are to let the fish tire on the drag or reach down and tighten the drag depending on a lot of factors like line type and fish size. There are a lot of times I purposely set my drag light and adjust during the fight. Remember also, some like to backreel instead of using drag.

As long as the weight distribution isn’t off by too far, you should be fine. If it really bothers you, you can swap out the bunks for straps.

Stay tuned, I’ve known Kim Striker from the tv show “Hook n Look” for years and he contacted me and wants to do some underwater filming on the new Yamatanuki when we make our annual trip to Lake St Clair at the end of next month. Strike and bite video. He also is on Yamamoto’s pro staff. Should be interesting. I’ll keep you all posted.

Just to clarify, in our restaurants, the beef we bought was custom fed on grain in a feedlot for the last 100lbs or so. You could set the amount marble you wanted and they would finish feed it to your specs. I’m not sure the 30 days or so the bull got grain really made a difference. She has a cow/calf that are the Holstein cross but they are not scheduled for butchering, she has had a lot of offers for the heifer calf. The bull is the one with the horns. He is the one that was butchered. Another FYI, custom butchers are booked up a year in advance!

Here’s a question…..my daughter raised and butchered a Holstein Angus cross and had it butchered. We took 1/4 of it. My father used to own restaurants and we sourced all of our own beef. The restaurants mostly used steak cuts and the occasional prime rib. Granted, we aged and hung our meat and the flavor was great. Since we have been in Virginia the last 30 years, we have found that all of the ground beef is pretty much the same in flavor and fat content. Wife usually buys prime 90/10. The processor who made the ground from my daughters cow commented that is was really good meat. He adds additional fat to the ground beef to make it more useful for different recipes . Here’s the deal….it doesn’t taste like any ground beef I’ve had before. It’s very lean and very good but it has a distinct flavor that is foreign to me. Could it be because of the different fat added? The fact that it was 100% grass fed up until about a month before slaughter and then fed grass/grain mix? I don’t think it’s the breed, bull holstein mixes have been a preferred beef cow for a long time. My buddy also bought a 1/4 and he says it’s the best beef he’s ever had. Roasts and other cuts are more in line with what I’m used to.

I’m surprised he’s not getting dissed for his skill with front facing sonar. I’ve been watching him ever since he lived in Nebraska because we are both from Omaha and I enjoyed watching him fish the same local waters I grew up on. I don’t consider him a YouTube only fisherman. He branched out since he moved to Texas and added a lot of content. He doesn’t hawk products and is just straight forward a good fisherman. I’ve seen him fish drainage ditches with dough balls for carp and a hidden lake in the northeast for trophy smallmouth. What sets him apart is that he’s not a young gun and he is more like one of your fishing buddies. It’s his fan base that talked him into going for the bigger tournaments. Whether or not he can maintain the level needed to be successful remains to be seen because the mental side is just as important as the skill set. I wish him all the best and will continue to watch him.

Many times I have broken off a fish on a Senko and then turned around and caught the same fish with my Senko still hanging out of its mouth. Did it most recently in Florida. Hooked a bass, wrapped me in the reeds and broke me off. Re-tied and threw back to the same spot and caught the same fish again. Was not on a bed. Think about it, bass eat things that poke them all the time, crayfish and most all other fish with back spines. In my opinion, the reason they don’t hit again when you lose one is not because you hooked them but because you have spooked them off.

I can’t believe nobody has mentioned a 3 inch single tail grub. ?

When I wade fished the Shenandoah it didn’t matter the season, I always found them in the deeper pools and eddys. The warmer the water the deeper the pool, except in muddy water, then they went to the bank.

I retract my statement.?. A 10th place with that many boats is a respectable finish. Do you think your spots would have produced that? Better? Worse? That’s why as a co, prefishing is almost a waste of time because chances are, you’re not going to be fishing any of your spots anyway. I’m not dissing the boater. Back deck tournament fishing is truly an art form.

Launched out of Hopyard and had a huge species day. Was tough fishing and fish were scattered on various cover but we caught Largemouth, Smallmouth, Crappie, Perch, Bluegill, Striper, Bowfin and at the end of the day got into a mess of Snakeheads and we even doubled up on them. First outing of the year on the river and it was a good day.

Good report. Trials and tribulations from the back deck is why Yamamoto asked me to write a series of articles on fishing from the back. Evidently your boater didn’t take your prefishing results seriously. That’s a shame.

Taken Saturday on the Rappahonock River in Virginia.

Hopefully now that the rush is over, I’m going to order a bunch to take to Michigan the end of next month. Bedding smallmouth will grab a Senko by the tail to move it off the bed. With a little nose weight and the short length, these just may be the ticked for blind casting and plucking them off the beds.

Dang it, I was hoping I wouldn’t catch one until we got to St Clair at the end of next month. That would more than likely be a brown beast. True to the forum, we were out on the Rappahonock River Saturday and while targeting green bass, a brown one hit my crankbait. So here you go. Technically my first smallmouth of the year.??

Just saw where the governor of Michigan declared a state of emergency to 2 counties in the UP of Michigan. Seems warm temps and snow melt have caused severe flooding.

Since I’m not really an “insider” in the corporate side of the fishing industry, I can’t really give any insight. But I did notice Pure Fishing was buying a lot of fishing related entities and it made me think that in the business world, an unusual amount of acquisitions can signal a “last grasp” of cornering the market and increasing the balance sheet. Corporate economics is a lot different than just consumers buying baits.

Don’t complicate it…..you have x number of feet between your garage door and the back wall. A folding tongue increases the amount of available space occupied by the boat/trailer by the amount of the folding tongue. A jackplate decreases the amount of space. The same boat/trailer in the same garage will fit with a folding tongue and will not fit without it. A jackplate extends the motor out from the rear and takes up space. We may just be playing word games on a simple question.

Pure Fishing is one of the largest ownership corporations in the fishing industry. The financial rating of Pure Fishing has been downgraded as sales at the world’s largest supplier of fishing tackle declined by nearly 15% last year. Moody’s Investment Services lowered Pure Fishing’s Corporate Family Rating – long-term ratings that reflect the likelihood of a default on a corporate family’s debt – and Probability of Default Rating both to Caa2 (very high risk). “The rating downgrade and negative outlook reflects Pure Fishing’s unsustainable capital structure and the elevated risk of default over the next 12 to 18 months given its very high financial leverage,” said Oliver Alcantara, AVP-Analyst at Moody’s. “We expect that demand and industry headwinds will persist in 2023 and the company has limited financial flexibility to absorb prolonged revenue pressures given its constrained liquidity. Pure Fishing reported ‘meaningfully lower operating results’ in fiscal 2022, with year-on-year revenue declining 14.6% as persistently high inflation and weakening macro-economic conditions pressurised consumer demand for its product. In addition, said Moody’s, the elevated level of inventory has negatively impacted reorders. The company’s debt balance sheet doubled over the past two years due, in part, to having to fund the acquisitions of Plano Synergy in April 2021 and Svendsen Sport in February this year, added the report. Since 2021, ongoing cash flow deficits also contributed to higher debt. Moody’s noted that in late fiscal 2022 and early 2023, Pure Fishing completed a series of transactions to improve its liquidity, which included entering into a $60 million property loan due October 2024, secured by the company’s North American real estate and provided by its financial sponsors, Sycamore Partners. The company also obtained a $50 million promissory note due until February 2027 to fund working capital and for general corporate purposes. In addition, the company extended the maturity of its ABL revolving facility to March 2026. Pure Fishing announced changes to its executive management team this month, with its CEO, Harlan Kent, stepping down but remaining on the Board and Dave Allen replacing him. The company has also implemented productivity improvements that include labour cost reduction and production efficiency improvements. “The debt capital injection provides near-term financial flexibility to fund operations and working capital seasonality, particularly during the first quarter of 2023, ahead of the North American fishing season,” added Moody’s. “The company anticipates cash flow generation will improve in the middle of this year as orders stabilise and excess inventory declines. Still, Pure Fishing will need to sustainably and meaningfully improve its profitability and cash flows to sustain its higher debt service requirements and fund business seasonality past 2023.”

I’m just waiting for Earth Shoes and silk shirts to come back in style. ??

Also depends on what size motor and if it’s on a JackPlate. My JP sets my motor back an additional 6 inches and that is a small JP.

I had a friend who was a “prepper”. Every year on our annual trip to Michigan, we would take him cases of MRE’s. He had a cottage in the UP that was crammed full of food, guns and ammo and in an area that was ripe with wild game and other sustainable food sources. ?. Sadly he passed from a heart attack.

If you want my personal opinion, it’s because the bait is a proven catcher in Japan and has never been offered here in the states. We never know what shape plastic is going to trigger bass and it’s evidenced by a lot of offerings out on the market. Take the Senko for example…..doesn’t look like really anything and catches the snot out of them. This new bait doesn’t look like anything and has been catching the snot out of them in Japan. It’s an obscure shape that for whatever reason has proven to work.

Just like you, I feel a clean rig is a good rig. If you take care of it, it will take care of you. Just got back from Florida and drove through some rain coming home as well as a weeks worth of salt dew from the ocean and a heaping helping of squished bugs. I had to pull the pressure washer out of storage and get after it. Looked good for a couple of days and then the pollen hit. Having owned a black truck, I can sympathize greatly. I need to wash again and throw the cover on it.

I repped for Quantum and the smoke line both rods and reels were my personal favorites. Great combos.