RPreeb

This is why I paddle a canoe. Back in the mid '80s I paddled a whitewater kayak (Perception Dancer) on rivers in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. I ultimately had to quit because of lower back issues. To this day I can't sit in or on a kayak for more than 1/2 hour without my back starting to protest again (right now I can feel the twinge just thinking about sitting in a kayak). I can paddle a canoe all day long, even without a seat back, and with a seat back it's like sitting in a chair at home. A boat is not going to happen, so the canoe is how I get off the bank.

My F-150 has it built in. I don't know how anyone hooks up a trailer alone without one. I suppose you get pretty good at estimating, but unless the trailer can be moved a bit by hand, that would take a lot of running back and forth. Mine has regular view and a zoom view. I can hit it perfectly in one shot every time. That said, I can't answer the OP question since I've never used an aftermarket set up. I know that many of the newer Garmin GPS receivers have the ability to add a wireless backup camera to them for multi-functionality. I know that some RV'ers mount them on the back of the trailer for backing their campers.

Yes, and my wife sees to it that I remain that way. Actually she doesn't pay much attention to specifics, but she is the household Quicken manager, and when I put too many receipts on her desk from tackle purchases, I get a few caustic remarks about it. That keeps me at least somewhat under control. Since I'm still learning the game of bass fishing, I really don't need everything I read about here anyway. What I need to do, and she would agree, is to learn where and how to fish with what I've already acquired. I shouldn't need to buy anything this season unless I run out of a particular type or color of soft plastic. If I use a particular bait enough to lose a full pack of them, that would finally start to tell me what the fish are looking for around here and help me make more focused purchases in the future. I'm still in that mode of sometimes buying what I think looks good, without a clue whether the fish are going to agree with me.

My Shimano Spheros 5000 doesn't have a switch either. I've certainly gotten good use from the drag though... a 10 pound mutton snapper or barracuda can give a good battle with 30# Power Bro and 10# mono leader. It's especially fun when the big challenge is to get the fish in the boat before the lemon sharks get it. I'm hoping that you're kidding... never seen Shimano called a "lesser manufacturer" before.

Makes something of a difference how far you plan to tow. 10 miles to a local lake shouldn't be a problem unless there are issues in trying to pull it back up the ramp. For longer trips, I wouldn't want to load that vehicle that small unless it is truly rated for it. For one thing, it just isn't much fun to drive when the truck is straining all of the time.

My inexperience may be exposed, but I rarely reel the fish. I move the fish with the rod as much as possible, then take up line with the reel. That served me well in the 2 years of salt water fishing when I was regularly bringing in barracuda, jacks and snappers in the 5 to 10+ pound range. I draw the fish in with the rod, then reel down to take up the line... lather, rinse, repeat. Sometimes I may have to reel the fish part way, but only when it doesn't put a lot of load on the reel, as for a smaller fish or when it's moving more or less toward me. I realize that you sometimes have to move a bass out of cover quickly, and that takes a more aggressive retrieve than when fishing open water, but even then I'd try to minimize the load I put on the reel as much as possible. Still doesn't seem to me that a reel without any defects or previous damage should strip out in that situation.

My Old Town Discovery 133 arrived today. Ordered it through Cabela's 9 days ago - came to the house on a semi trailer. They take good care of their product - 4 layers of packaging. First to come off was a heavy weight plastic bag enclosing the entire canoe. Then was a double layer of bubble wrap. Then another plastic bag. Then the hull was protected by another inner layer of bubble wrap. Old Town packs and ships their canoes as if they were fine art. I didn't take any photos. It took me most of the day to rig the pulley system to hang it from the ceiling in the center of the garage, including the 45 mile round trip to town for more rope - what came with the kit was just about half what I needed. I also had delivered today the Sitbacker seat backs for it from Amazon, and I already bought the paddles and PFD's. I have one clamp-on rod holder (Eagle Claw) and I'll also be getting an anchor before I do anything much for fishing. The wind blows enough out here that an anchor is not optional equipment. Now I just need a nice day when the wind stays below 10 mph to get out and play with it. Just happy it's here and ready for the coming season. This is the one I got:

By the time I was in Cub Scouts, I was baiting my own hooks, and landing and unhooking my own fish. I grant you that at that age I was still using a bamboo cane pole with about 10 feet of heavy braid tied on the end, but I was fishing on my own.

When we were kids we just bit down on split shots to close them, but then I didn't carry pliers in my tackle box. I could barely afford to put any tackle in it, let alone any frivolous luxuries. Now I always have pliers - 2 pairs in fact, needle nose and split ring. It's only logical to use them.

I wish my Walmart was as good as those of some of you here. Just about the only such baits that they ever have is some Rapala... not terrible, but I'd like some more variety. They never have more than a dozen different plastics either, and I haven't found anything on clearance there. The only Berkley hard baits I have are a couple of Cutters. Picked them up this winter, so I haven't used them yet.

This is more my style. I'm more the "What a great day... I'm out on the water paddling - got a couple of rods set up - I'm at peace with the world - I might even catch some fish out here somewhere. Life is good.

You were richer than I was... I just did that with quarters. Fortunately not very often, because mercury is even more toxic than lead, or at least because it's liquid, it's easier to ingest. My sister nearly died from mercury poisoning when she was an less than a year old because of a mixture recommended by the pediatrician for washing diapers to prevent diaper rash. She spent a couple of months in the hospital, and had a couple of kidney surgeries.

There are many more techniques that I haven't used than those I have. Then there more subcategories within the main ones too which are beyond my experience. I have used topwaters, but not even close to every type or presentation, never walked a dog (on the water) nor buzzed a bait. I've cranked, but not often, nor have I tried much variety. I've used soft plastics, but never Carolina or dropshot. I've never jerked a bait. I haven't plopped a whopper, but I have popped a popper. I've never used a spinnerbait, but I have used spinners. Never used a swimbait, but it seems that most baits swim in one way or another. Some of those I will probably never try, others I might at some point. I still have to get more comfortable with the few that I have tried and enjoy fishing with. Some are just too expensive or too much hassle to bother with. Easier to just tie on a popper or T-rig a worm and get after it. I like simplicity.

Walmart carries a number of lower priced rods. Mine out here had a good stock of Shakespeare Ugly Stiks. I haven't seen any Berkley's in the rack but I haven't looked that hard either. I have one Ugly Stik with a Diawa Tatula CT 100 8.1:1 reel. It caught my first LM bass in 50 years last spring, plus a few more during the summer with only a half dozen outings. I've added a St. Croix Premier rod with a Tatula CT 100 6.3:1 reel for this year, but I don't really expect that will result in any significant improvement in my fishing success, since it's still the same idiot at the controls.

I know what you mean. I bought a St. Croix Premier rod and still feel a little bit guilty that I didn't settle for the same power rated Ugly Stik with crooked guides. My wife still hasn't noticed the new rod in the corner of my study with my other 2. With luck, by the time she spots it, I can honestly say "Oh, that old thing... I've had it forever." Stopped in Walmart yesterday... no sign of any clearance there.

At least the come and go for you. They stay year round out here. I drove past a ranch pond a couple of weeks ago... it had a tiny area about 15'x 100' that was open and there were about 500 snow geese and another 200-300 Canada honkers gathered on the ice as close around that little lead as they could get. The only time we don't see them in large flocks of Canada geese is when they are nesting. Then they disperse all over the countryside to raise the young. You'd need skates with a lot of flotation around here now. Here east of the mountains, the ice went off the ponds and lakes during the last week and a half.

My grandmother told me many years ago that her mother, my great grandmother, would only go fishing if it was raining. She said that was the only time that the fishing was worthwhile bothering with. That was at Balsam Lake in west central Wisconsin, and she would have been fishing there in the period from about 1910 through about 1940. I always loved those days when it would rain gently all day long, with almost no wind, and and they definitely were still good days to fish in the 1950's when I was growing up. I think I miss them in part because days like that are extremely rare out here on the prairie along the eastern side of the Rockies. Around here rain usually comes with lightning, wind, hail and sometimes tornadoes. But even back then I still preferred warm sunny to partly cloudy days for fishing, even if the catching maybe wasn't always quite as good. Just physically more pleasant. and I didn't have to dump rainwater out of my tackle box afterward.

The pond down the street went from hard water to soft in just a couple of days. It's trying to look like spring, but I know better. Here in eastern Colorado, we always get several false starts before spring actually arrives. When I see green on the trees that are native to this climate, then I know that it's actually spring, and that still doesn't mean that we won't get get a late blizzard. I've seen it snow 16" here in May.

I would think that they'd get all twisted up if just tied to fishing line. Wouldn't there have to be something to provide separation?

The Beaufort scale has been around for a long time. The descriptions sound about right to me. 8-12 mph is the equivalent of a calm day around here. When I lived in the Bahamas, it was a rare day that we didn't have at least a 10 mph breeze. I don't even usually take notice of it until it hits about 15-20 mph. It's not windy until the patio furniture starts to migrate toward the neighbor's yard.

I like your decimal precision.

Now that's what I call a bushwhacker. Nice machete!

We are going to be mostly in the 50's and 60's for the next week... should help to soften up a lot of the hard water around here. There is even rain in the forecast for Sunday.

No kayak, but I will be using at most 3 in my canoe - 2 lying straddling the front and middle seat, and one in my hands. I only own 3, but I doubt that I'd take more even if I had them - just gets too cluttered for me. I see photos of some kayak/canoe setups, and I just think "No way I could fish that!" with all the stuff sticking up everywhere.

Yeah... Hard for one to be the first when there are 30 that have never seen water. I have a rod and reel that have never been used, and yesterday when I was out looking around, the water was still mostly too hard to fish. The great weather in the next few days may change that.