TOXIC

Trust no one.

When I was 13, my grandfather took me on a dream fishing trip to Canada. Huge Walleye, Pike and Muskie. Lake Lac La Ronge in Saskatchewan. I was the oldest of 4 grandkids and the first to make the trip with him and my grandmother who went every year. We had an Indian guide and even did a fly in to another more remote lake. My grandfather unfortunately passed from leukemia when I was 14 and it was too painful to pick up a fishing rod after that. 30+ years ago when we moved to Virginia, a neighbor got me back into fishing. I was wade fishing the Shenandoah river on a foggy morning and had a miracle experience on the water. I met my grandfather again. I haven’t put a rod down since.

Vintage or antique? I have my share of metal rods and antique reels with cloth line but I just gave my daughter a rod and reel that I got for her in 2007. It’s a Browning rod and Citka reel also made by Browning. This was before BPS bought Browning if I remember correctly. Although a bit heavy, I put new line on the reel and she’s already catching with the combo. Added bonus? It was adorned with some artwork by my friend Bill McElroy who is known for his fishing artwork and the Scales and Tales cartoon strip that appeared in a lot of fishing publications. I kinda wanted her to preserve it but I see Mac every year and I have a lot of his artwork. So, yes she is fishing with her vintage gear.??

It’s not that there would be no value, there’s always something to be learned from those who make their living fishing and are considered “professionals”. You just have to know how to separate the information from the salesmanship. Patterning fish, dissecting bodies of water, technics, bait selection, etc., are all examples of specific knowledge the average angler could benefit from. The fact that they are sponsored doesn’t take away from their knowledge base.

Bass fishing fanatic or bass fisherman fanatic? I have a hard time keeping up with the 30 trails, all with different rules, all with different pros. Used to be pretty easy you had BASS and FLW along with the qualifying trails to make it to the big show in either trail. Now there’s heat winners, cup winners, group winners, stage winners and 20 different championships with 40 different pros hoisting trophy’s being “Champion”. I’ve met, over the years of being in the industry, many of the OG pros and those are the ones I will follow. I do enjoy the shows about fishing like Zona’s and a few others. I stay away from the YouTube fishermen unless I’m looking for information on a specific body of water. IMHO all this effort to make tournament fishing “mainstream” has done nothing but dilute the product.

While I agree that sponsorships are absolutely necessary to survive in professional fishing, it’s that exact reason anglers don’t put a lot of trust in the products that the pros promote. All it takes is a change of sponsors and the angler who at one time called ABC bait, line, lure, boat brand, etc., the best ever made, now is sponsored by XYZ and it’s the best. I’m just saying keep it in perspective. Just because KVD switched from Quantum to LEWS for example, isn’t a statement on Quantum or LEWS. it’s what he’s paid to do.

Funny this resurfaces now. Yamamoto has done 2 “live chats” with pros. Brent Ehler and Brett Hite. No limits on the questions and for the second chat Yamamoto gave $50 gift certificates to 5 participants. I didn’t promote them on here due to the rules. I must say they were not as well attended as I thought they would be and I attribute it to a few reasons. Most pros have their own social media programs where you can get all of their opinions. There are many internet interview talk shows. And there’s fear that they will only talk sponsored products. It’s pretty expected you’re not going to get any secret tips or techniques but it’s a good chance to ask “your” questions. For example, I asked Hite about using a California Roll as a dropshot bait since he is a Cali based angler and I use it all the time. He had to admit he doesn’t use it. They both did talk about non sponsored baits a little as well.

It’s pretty common knowledge why you can eat a steak rare but shouldn’t eat hamburgers rare (although I still do). The simple answer is because hamburger meat comes from ground up beef. All the bacteria, such as salmonella, e. coli, and staph are mixed in the meat during the grounding process. If you prepare it rare then you'll still be eating live bacteria inside the meat that could give you food poisoning.

Yamamoto now has a 3 inch Zako. I’ve not experienced it being too fragile. The Zako doesn’t have as much salt in the formula. I’ve had the same Zako trailer on for the last 3 trips. Proper rigging, as with all Yamamoto baits is paramount. Good luck on your pour!

Although I am overly cautious, I have seen videos on both fresh and salt water fish filleted and had worms in the meat. It seems to be more prevalent in certain species but universally it’s not a concern. I’ve seen it in crappie.

Going to give it another shot tomorrow. We are hoping to hit the fall feed bag one of these trips.

My initial thought when I saw the A-Rig and saw that it caught fish was that there is no such thing as a line shy fish. The amount of wire and metal in that rig is crazy.

First I would need to see a picture of the date.? As far as steak there was a place outside of Kansas City in a little town called Martin City that specialized in steak called Jess and Jim’s. They had a cook selection on their menu that was a little beyond the Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, Medium Well and Well done options. It was “Blue”. And it was perfect. ?

Before I retired, my job required that I step in and “manage” people. Could be as low as 30 and was as high as 200 depending on certain factors. I can assure you, I’ve dealt with every conceivable HR nightmare there is plus some. Inter office romances, drunk employees, thief’s, embezzlement, and on and on….doesn’t even get into performance issues, that’s the easy stuff?

A-rigs are much like swimbaits. Expensive and require a dedicated setup. You are either all in or not. If you are afraid of losing it, you probably shouldn’t be throwing it. That’s the mantra of the swimbait addicts I know. That’s why I don’t throw either.?. The other thing is that you never have just 1 of any bait or lure. That’s a sure way of guaranteeing you’re gonna lose it. I had a close friend that was a professional walleye fisherman and he bought single crankbaits by the dozen.?

Fish long enough and hard enough eventually you’ll end up with a “parts bin” with rod guides, reels and assorted parts. I have dipped into that bin to replace broken guides, reel pars and rod parts. You’ll be amazed at how many parts are interchangeable and it’s pretty dang cost effective to give a rod life again with a salvaged guide or tip.

Funny you mention it, I caught this one last weekend on a dropshot with a Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm. Not a normal catch and not the target species but it was a biggun.?

Last couple of times out we have had some tough fishing. We launch at Hopyard and normally go upriver. We have alternated between upriver and downriver without much to show for it. Bass have been picky but we have managed a few on Ned’s, Dropshot and cranks. Tide has been tricky as well. On our last trip we went downriver and managed some bass, a good crappie on a Dropshot and a good smallmouth on a crank.

Minus electronics, when you cast a slip float and it doesn’t stand up from not pulling the line to the bobber stop, you just keep shortening it by moving the bobber stop until the float stands up. You then can set it for however high off the bottom you want your bait suspended.

If you are fishing from shore, you have 2 options for crappie. Casting for them or using a float setup. We spend a fair amount of time every fall after the first frost catching crappie for the freezer. My preferred setup is a spinning rod with 6lb test and a bobber stop, a slip float, a 1/16th oz jighead rigged with a small tube. The bobberstop allows me to set the depth where the tube will be 6 to 8 inches off the bottom. It also reels up into my rod guides so that I can cast it. If I am just casting for them, I use the same jighead without the bobberstop or float and I downsize to 4lb test. And don’t forget your Crappie Bites and Smelly Jelly.

Haha. Anybody who fishes Florida on a regular basis understands. I had to learn the hard way not to tease a Gator ? with a buzz bait. I was pretty close to letting him have the boat but he turned around and went back out over the splashwell.

Exactly. My truck is bone stock. No problems. My motto was always that when I fixed anything on my vehicles to step it up to the next level of quality. My modification days are behind me. I modded a 68 Charger with a 440 magnum and a 73 Formula 350 Firebird. After numerous transmissions and tires and speeding tickets, I got out of the game. ??

The 2 women in my life have been schooled on maintenance of their vehicles. My wife is hard on everything, it better be heavy duty if it’s coming in my house and that goes from appliances to cabinetry. My daughter inherited my 93 Jeep Wrangler with 200,000 miles on it and I taught her how to change the oil and drive a stick with it. She still has it with now 475,000 miles on it. It’s rough, but still running. Because we live in the country and she now lives on a farm, that jeep has killed more wildlife than Ted Nugent. 4 deer, countless birds, bats and even a bear. I’ve done most of the maintenance on it but now I told her she is on the hook. What really peeves me is that people don’t understand how modifying their vehicles can really mess them up. I’m on a Silverado site that is filled with complaints and when you dig a little you find trucks have been lifted, huge rims, rubber band tires and they’re griping about u-joints and upper control arms and driveshafts and transfer cases failing.

6 volt ignition system. Flathead 8.

I’ve had all the “normal” scares, reels sparking in storm, spearing waves, getting in rod locker during storm, shore snakes, wading snakes, being swept fly fishing, having a Gator climb in the back of the boat, being in waves so big my boat hit bottom in 12ft of water, but the worst was shoreline camping with my son on the Shenandoah river in a canvass pop up trailer and having a bear decide to join us. I was mere seconds away from unloading a 38 into it but I was afraid I was just going to make it mad. Luckily we both stayed calm and it decided to exit the same way it came in.