TOXIC

I sure would be interested to read an account of this incident seeing as how we just got back from there a week ago. All of the guides we ran into were friendly and helpful if you asked. Now where we were staying in Blue Cypress there was a murder scene at a residence along the highway on our way to the cottages. We passed it everyday. Command center, vans, police cars, etc. One lane of the highway shut down.

I’ve spent the majority of my fishing career “helping people” whether it be guiding, doing seminars or demonstrations and repping products that I believe in. I can’t tell you how many bags of Senkos and Gamakatsu hooks I’ve handed out and shown how to rig but there’s a specific example that honestly brings me to tears every time I think about it. I feel honored to donate my time and gear to take wounded soldiers out for a day of fishing through a number of different organizations. It’s a very rewarding experience. It was at one of these events out of Columbia Island Marina on the Potomac river that I got paired with a USMC Sargent wearing his military issue BDU hat pulled down over his eyes. All the military members were bussed in from Walter Reed. We got on my boat and headed up towards and above Washington, DC. I was pointing out all the landmarks, the Washington memorial, generals row, the waterfront barges, etc. We had been fishing about an hour and caught a few largemouth and smallmouth. I had been talking and chattering the entire time while he hadn’t said a single word. I stopped fishing, turned around and sat down on the deck step facing him and said “ I’ve been talking to you all morning and it’s going to be a d**n long day unless we start interacting because I’m not gonna shut up”. He sat there for a minute, raised the brim of his hat and we started talking and oh boy did we talk. 4 hours of laughing, personal history, hometowns, and life in general. We transitioned over to catfishing and caught some big cats in the marina. It was an all species tournament format with a lot of awards and prizes for all involved but special recognition for high finishers and we had a tournament style weigh in. When it came time for us to weigh in he looked at me and I told him that they were his fish and to walk up there and weigh them in. He did and after all weighed in, he took 2nd place. I walked up and high 5ed him and we hugged and fist pumped. Everybody ate bbq collected their prizes and as the festivities came to a close and I was standing with all of the other boat captains, 3 service members walked up to me and asked what I did to the Gunny. I explained he was a little quiet and reserved but I got him straightened out…laughing. It was then I noticed they were stone sober. They told me he had been through some pretty bad experiences in the sandbox and he hadn’t spoken a single word in the 3 months he had been at Walter Reed and as a matter of fact he was on suicide watch. They all 3 thanked me and hugged me before they boarded the bus. I can tell you this…there wasn’t a dry eye between about 15 boat captains. It affects me still to this day. One of my life’s greatest moments.

Using line as an example, there’s so many variables from user to user all you can hope for is to get a very “general” idea of the characteristics of the line because as a reviewer, you do not fish like me, hookset like me, fish the same waters as me, use the same gear as me, and finally have the same sense of perception as me. What works well for one person may be totally crappy for the next.

Because you don’t fish like me and I don’t fish like you.?

Don’t even go there with me. 2- 4 hour sessions to rebuild my entire upper teeth. 6 months later I get up and while brushing my teeth, I notice a gap between my 2 fronts. The next day I get up and one of my front teeth turned almost completely sideways. Went into my dentist and he immediately referred me to a specialist. Come to find out I had a genetic gum disease and per my oral surgeon we may have had to operate and rebuild my sinuses. YIKES! I was petrified. 3 operations later I have a full set of implants in my upper jaw. I’m great now but it’s been over a year of pure hell.

Heading back out Sunday after 81 degrees yesterday and projected 38 degrees Saturday. Supposed to be close to 60 degrees Sunday. That’s some yo-yo temps for sure.

If I had to give one bit of advice it would be to put together as many parts of the fishing puzzle as possible. Considering all the variables. While time on the water is helpful putting the pieces together, you can most certainly go to a body of water you have never been on and do the same. Case in point my last trip. Went to headwaters in Florida having never been there before and spreading all the pieces out and using general fishing knowledge, we put together a pattern that lasted an entire week. 3 boats and we put a 6+ in one of the boats every day. Although the OP has dropped off, I think the info is still useful.

Never used to then I decided to put it in my boat one trip to Wisconsin. Glad I did. 1 hour after launching I wasn’t paying attention and drifted shallow into some rocks. When I took off, I bunged up my prop pretty bad. Pretty much unusable without causing more damage to my lower unit and prop shaft. Without my spare I would have been dropping big $$ for another prop IF I could find one. Could have ruined my whole vacation.

Wow, a lot of great suggestions. My take is simple, you’ve figured out the small fish….now figure out the tournament size fish. They don’t run together. Not knowing your bodies of water, I can’t tell you where to go but I can tell you the big girls will eat the same thing the smaller fish do so lure selection is on the back burner.

Very interesting responses. For a number of years, even with the bad fishing, I was totally against not pulling the boat up when I was staying on the water. I assumed that would be the prevalent response to my question but it seems there’s a lot more logic than passion. I didn’t even relay the true amount of frustration and stress of pulling 2 days up and 2 days back, all of the gear packing, stress getting in and out of fuel stops on the way up and back, possibility of trailer breakdowns with a well maintained 2005 trailer, etc. The wife wants me to take the boat because she thinks I need more to do than just hanging around the cottage and taking folks out on the pontoon. She doesn’t understand the frustration of going through all of the hassle to just be able to take the boat out for casting practice. I can’t easily pull the boat out and go explore other lakes even though for a number of years, I would pull the boat to go fish with a friend on Wineconnie and the Fox river for a day. He has since passed so that is no longer a priority. It would be well worth it if the vegetation is coming back and the daytime fishing was better. Night fishing is a not fun for me because of the blood sucking mosquitoes that are the size of sparrows. ? They used to remove the excess vegetation with grass harvesters but opted to spray. I have seen the grass re-emerge better the last few years but nothing like it was before. I guess I’ll keep my ear to the wall and see if I get clear information to help with the final decision.

My wife just gave me the dates to our annual trip to Waupaca, King Chain of Lakes, Wisconsin this year. We are going for 2 weeks at the end of July and beginning of August. We have been making this trip for 24 years. I know the obvious answer is going to be “It all depends on whether it is worth it to you” but I am seriously 50/50 on taking my boat this year. First and foremost there is no cost consideration. Extra gas in the truck and a launch fee isn’t relevant. I use about a 1/2 tank of gas in the boat in 2 weeks. In the beginning, I actually pulled a small trailer with a 2 man pvc boat and fished small areas close to whatever cottage we were staying in. In the 24 years, we have stayed in 4 separate cottages, all on different lakes in the chain. I started pulling my big boat up and had a blast, the fishing was excellent, launching the boat was a breeze and all was well. During this time we were staying in a cottage on McCrossen lake and I would launch my boat at the marina, pull the trailer back to the cottage and park it across the street in a lot the cottage owner had. This worked out for a number of years and all was fine. Then we had to move to another cottage that was on Sunset Lake (there are 22 lakes in the chain most all are connected). This cottage, which is our current one, is nestled deep in the forest and there is no room for the boat trailer. There is a dock with power but it is down a hillside pretty much out of sight. Pulling the big boat there requires me launching at the marina, then taking the trailer to an offsite storage lot owned by the marina. It creates a bit of a logistical nightmare because I am the only one who can handle the trailer. It was well worth it when the fishing was good. Then the unimaginable happened. They decided to spray the lakes to control the aquatic vegetation. The fishing went from fantastic to horrible. I went from catching 50-75 a day to 4 or 5. It became a night bite if you wanted any kind of numbers. One year my wife flew into Appleton and I picked her up there and I used the extra time to spend a couple days on another lake before she got there. I fished Big Green. I don’t night fish so for the last 5 years, I left the boat at home and was content just chilling and tooling around on the pontoon we rent every year from the marina. I helped some of my relatives fish off the pontoon but it is for everyone and used for booze cruises and swimming excursions. There were not very many fishing boats on the lakes either. I watched them dwindle every year. For the last couple of years the number of fishing boats has exploded and I can’t tell if it’s from regrowth of the vegetation or just a spike in tourism. There’s not a lot of active fishing reports for the chain so it’s pretty much a guessing game. Soooooo…….long story long, do you think it’s worth the hassle of hauling the boat back this year?

Sneak peak. I caught a striper out of this school. You can see my line in both graphs.

And wouldn’t you know it, today I read an article in my feed about how amazon is now carrying OEM parts matched to whatever vehicle you put in “Your Garage” on their site. ?

Just for comparison. This fish was caught on a 4 inch Senko and a Ned head. ??

My pads actually looked really good Besides that little bit of uneven wear. I felt a little guilty changing them out. My 2 friends are a guy who builds and races no prep street cars and a retired marine who was a hilo crew chief. They keep me straight as an arrow on maintenance. ?

I am a lot like you and a benefit to my dealer doing most of the work is that they have all the records so when I trade it in they give me a better price. Up until the engine air filter deal, they were very competitive on price. Now I’m doubting them and will double check before I just assume they are fairly priced.

It’s so painful. It’s the main reason we haven’t gotten another dog since our Weimaraner had to be put down. I’m just not ready to go through it again. So sorry.

I am pretty good on maintenance. My rotor warp is a common Chevy thing but you can also warp rotors by over torquing your lugs. We used a torque wrench which I’m pretty sure none of the shops do. In the last 3 months I’ve had both the front and rear differentials and transfer case fluid changed. I put new tires on at around 65k. I will do plugs and wires at 100k. I did a transmission flush at 55k. I also changed out the brake fluid to a full synthetic. I’m debating a radiator flush and getting rid of the dexcool but that decision can wait until 100k. Yeah, I honestly underestimated the need to change that out. Looks like a mouse attempted to set up house but although my truck is parked for some longer periods, it gets run regularly so I foiled his plans. With all that being said, my days of turning a wrench are limited. I used to tackle most anything. I have a jeep wrangler with 475k on it that I have done all of the maintenance. I have a buddy who loves to work on vehicles and I am normally a tool grunt but he has a bum shoulder right now so I had him stand over me while I did the work. I traded my last truck a 2004 2500 6.0 Silverado with 175k on it for this 2016 brand new and the sales manager said that my truck would not make it to the lot, one of the dealership mechanics already bought it. ?

And we are supposed to be 81 degrees here in Virginia on Thursday.?

Those new Speed Senkos you bought were the ticket in Florida. Both weighted and unweighted got bit. I used a 7.75 Kut Tail with a small screw in nose weight and caught a lot of fish. My best came on a good ol fashioned 5 inch weightless.

Come fish one of our tidal waters like the Potomac or the Rappahonock and you will get your answer pretty quickly. Both these rivers are tidal and although you may not get skunked the entire day, I have never seen fish shut off like they do when the tide is wrong. Since the tide changes, you can either run up or down river to take advantage of the tide or you can wait it out for the natural tide change.

First trip out since returning from 85 degree weather in Florida to 29 degree air temps here in Virginia. To say I was having a little temperature shock is an understatement. We came home from Florida to some warm weather here but of course the day before we headed out a massive cold front with high winds moved in. My expectations were pretty low but surprisingly we had a very good day. Boated in the neighborhood of 75 fish and a couple of good ones including the biggest striper I have caught in a while. Ned rig, dropshot and blade baits did all the damage. Fished the Ned with a 4” Senko, 5” Pro Senko and a Shad Shape Worm. Dropshot was rigged with the same Shad Shape Worm. Seems they wanted baitfish imitators. Great day aside from the cold?

My 2016 Silverado High Country just turned over 77,000 miles and I was getting some rotor vibration from my brakes. My last trip to Florida it really started showing up and when I got home it was apparent even not towing. The majority of the miles on my truck have been with a boat or trailer of some sort in tow. My general rule is that when OEM equipment fails or needs replaced, I take the replacement up a grade from original. In my research I found a lot of good reviews on Power Stop Z36 Heavy Duty pads and slotted rotors designed for towing. Got a notification from Auto Anything that they were on sale from $600+ to $480 so I jumped in. I did not replace the calipers as that would have jumped the price up to $900+. When disassembling, we did find some heat marks on the rotors and one set of brake pads was worn a little unevenly. Funniest thing was we found where someone in the factory assembly line took their paint pen and put a smiley face on the back of the rotor. I also replaced both the engine air filter and the cabin air filter since they were original. The cabin air filter was terrible and I’m a little ashamed I let it go. Funny aside to the filters, I ordered both off Amazon before I left for Florida knowing we had a 14 mile drive on a very dusty dirt road everyday going to the ramp. The engine air filter was $26 and the cabin air filter was $14. Both were supposedly OEM ACDelco parts. When I got home, only the cabin air filter was here and so I jumped on Amazon and sure enough it showed my engine air filter “lost in transit” so I cancelled the order and opted to stop by the dealership and pick one up. To my surprise, the filter was $62!! I have a very good relationship with the dealer and they have been very competitively priced on other items so this really took me by surprise. And finally, of course you go digging around you are bound to find other things and now I need to order up new shocks. Fronts are good but pretty Rusty but the rears are weeping a little.?

I can tell you this…we fished in 40 feet of water this weekend and had Live Target running on the bow. Every single time the boat got over a school that was suspended off the bottom, they immediately went straight to the bottom. Schools that were out in front or off to the side stayed suspended. There was other sonar running, downscan and sidescan.

The other complaint I have heard is that the company has done no actual testing to prove their product works.