TOXIC

Interesting situation. Most of the serious guides I worked around, wouldn’t even allow cell phones to be on during their trips. Mapping apps and waypoints weren’t part of their fee. Me personally, I could care less.

We have a tradition of meals around the holidays but this year it is totally messed up (but not in a bad way). Normally we have clam chowder on Christmas Eve and a standing Prime Rib on Christmas Day with Yorkshire pudding (bread), spinach casserole, and then black eyed peas and ham on New Year’s Day. This year we drove from Virginia to Kansas City to celebrate, with a big party, my mother in laws 90th birthday. Relatives came in from Florida and we flew my daughter in from Virginia. We had an abbreviated Christmas with just stockings at our vrbo but we did have our chowder and Prime Rib. My daughter had to get back to her farm, so she flew out before the Prime Rib dinner. We drove home and was promptly advised by my daughter that she wants the traditional Prime Rib dinner and to celebrate our family Christmas. Then she gets a cold and we are having our Christmas this weekend along with our traditional dinner. Whew!

@casts_by_fly for weedless shakeyheads you have 2 options. Offset or weed guard. Like I said, I throw a football head with the exposed hook more than the shakeyhead now.

I haven’t looked yet but the posts and coverage of all what seems like 100’s of trails out there, it is apparent to me there has been a major “changing of the guard” and the young guns have filled the ranks. The few old guard I like to follow are scattered across the trails. Many have now retired. 😞

There are plenty of weedless shakeyheads on the market and they work well. I have some excessively large ones I take to Florida. I transitioned from a shakeyhead to a football head on St Clair because as you drag a football head, it walks like an upside down kite. Smallmouth can’t resist it. Judy Wong popularized it when fishing a discharge from a dam with heavy current. Few picked up on it….I did. 😉

New to the market, Bill Lewis has a new Hammer trap flat sided crank. I have some but have not had a chance to fish them yet.

And just let me add, one wrong move rigging your bait and that cable weed guard has a bead sight lock for going right underneath your fingernail. That is a pain that is right at the top of the list and it lasts for days if not weeks. 😡😱

I’ve fished Ned’s pretty extensively. I can say I’ve lost hundreds😂 I use heads custom made because of their strength for such a small size. I’ve caught 5lb smallmouth, 6lb largemouth, 12lb Snakeheads and even a monster blue cat and have never broken of even straightened a hook. The weed guard is a steel cable but in my experience, it hasn’t helped with grass or wood considering how many I lose. I’ve tried the offset versions and would rather fish a slider head made by the same guy who makes my Ned’s

You can’t “explore” every time you fish a body of water or you would be largely disappointed. Remember the 90-10 rule, 90 percent of the fish are in 10 percent of the water. That’s why we have all these fancy electronics and maps to help us narrow down that 90 percent. And it’s also why we habitually return to places we’ve caught fish in the past. When I was guiding, I had to know, with a degree of certainty, where the fish would be in order to put clients on fish. Depending on the client, I had a “milk run” of spots that had a history of producing. I knew a guide who spent like 3 summers fishing the entire shore Line of the 13,000 acre lake I guided on. I don’t know if it helped him or not. When we go to St Clair, we have “areas” that we know fairly well and have been productive through the years. Conditions change, fish change, and we need to change with them.

A common thread between those that have had a NDE (near death experience) is that they become very comfortable with their mortality. I am in that club. Coupled with the a driving desire to leave my name and memory that will last in perpetuity, which I also achieved, I am at a very high level of satisfaction with whatever my remaining time on this earth is. I think the band the Eagles said it best. “I’ve got a peaceful easy feeling”.

I’m getting ready. It’s my mother in laws 90th birthday Christmas Eve so my wife and her sister have planned a party in Kansas City. We decided to drive from Virginia. Fingers crossed we don’t get buried somewhere along the way.

As if this topic isn’t complicated enough, let me throw another factor in that applies TO ALL baits/lures. I was working a show with Gary Klein one time and I asked him how he chose his lures. He gave me 2 answers. 1. If I can find fish there are no less than 5 lures I can catch them on. Anywhere, any season, any conditions. 2. I don’t know if confidence in a lure catches more fish but I know if you don’t have confidence in the lure you are throwing, you will be guaranteed not to catch any fish. I’ve never forgotten those 2 nuggets of wisdom. 😂

As far as soft plastics, in a pinch I can make a Senko work in almost every application. Yet I still have a staggering array of soft plastics. 😂😉

It’s very simple. Have fun. That’s it.

If it were “me” I have seen where one of the major retailers has taken used electronics in trade and offers them at discounts. I can’t remember if it was THMarine or one of the others. That’s where I’d be looking. 😉

I store all of mine in boxes. Of note, all my plastics are Yamamoto so I can’t vouch for any others. In my 25 years with Yamamoto, they have never melted in a Plano. There has been some color transfer if mixed.

When I was commuting, I would get in the “zone” driving. All attention on the road and what was going on around me. I saw many wrecks and was involved in a couple of which neither was my fault and neither could have been avoided. One, I was sitting in dead stopped traffic and the driver of a big suv wasn’t paying attention and slammed into the rear of a car 3 back from me. The impact was so great it pushed them all forward and I got slammed from behind. I managed to turn the wheels on my vehicle so that I missed the car in front of me and I got launched into the ditch. To add insult to injury, now you can’t get inside the 495 loop around DC without paying a toll. It has been up to $40 one way.

I feel like it’s a reflection of how we feel as a society right now. Everybody is pizzed at something or someone. Road rage is getting downright violent and dangerous. Now that I’m retired, I don’t get out as much as I used to when I was commuting into Washington, DC and when I do get out it’s early morning and home early afternoon from the lake or river. We decided to drive from Virginia to KC for my mother in laws 90th birthday (big party planned and my truck was requested) right before Christmas. I’ll be stressing weather and traffic all the way. There’s a deli owner on my local Facebook community pages that has taken upon himself to report every traffic and police call in the county. The amount of traffic jams, wrecks, and issues is mind boggling.

Well, I know it’s not his son because he is my fishing partner.

Bill Lewis Gnat.

Just a thought, the lakes I go to in Wisconsin have a combination of year round docks and seasonal docks. The year round are attached to big wooden posts that are driven into the bottom and can withstand the heaving of ice. The seasonal ones consist of an aluminum walkway held in place but thin metal poles which allow it to be easily removed and the boat lift/dock section is on wheels so it can be pulled up on shore.

My buddy is coaxing me into a new truck and sent me an article that GM redesigned the 5.3 in the Silverado for 2026 and eliminated the lifter problem. Went into depth on all of the changes to the block and components explaining it finally made sense to them since repair costs and public opinion were costing them more than a redesign. I’m not a first year adopter so if it can perform for a couple of years (or less) with good reviews, I might be tempted.

@Rockhopper yeah, sometimes they are too smart for their own good.

In that water temp here, we find bait balls and schools with electronics in deep water and drop blade baits on them there’s always a few up shallow with Ned’s as well.

Exactly. I traded in a 2004 3/4 ton Silverado for my 2016 High Country and I feel like my truck has just enough bells and whistles (heated/cooled seats, Android Auto for WAZE, Sirius XM, Bluetooth for phone, lane assist, park assist and a few more) but not so many to be problematic. Now if the motor and transmission will hold up, I’m golden. I’m a maintenance junky so fingers crossed. I’m at 108k now and getting ready for a winter drive from Virginia to Kansas City for Christmas.