Lures'n'Liberty

B.F.H., the universal wrench.

https://www.amazon.com/SeaKnight-Rapid-Saltwater-Spinning-Reel/dp/B0732VXZM8?ref=ast_p_ep&th=1&psc=1 These are pretty nice. Sealed against saltwater so they'll work more than once, better handle than most saltwater reels, comes with a free 5 piece set of crankbaits or spool of mono this month if you enter the code at the bottom. Anodized, stainless bearings, aluminum spool, 33 lb drag on the 6000 series. I put one on a cheap 10' telescopic rod for my Deeper transducer/spare flathead rod/ sometimes frog rod/ take on the plane to dad's house on the gulf and saltwater fish for 2 hours once every 2 years. I prefer it to the Kastking Sharky 5000 reels on my flathead rods. Seaknight's braid is also good stuff cheap. less likely to fall apart in your buddy's hands. Worthy backup for the Daiwas. $39.99 and you'll use the free lures (or your friends will use them instead of yours).

I've got an 8'0 MH telescopic rod that's usually strapped to my tackle bag and sometimes comes out for frogs. It was cheap, it's on the heavy side, and it's next on the list to upgrade, but it's got braid on the reel and it makes a pretty good broom handle. I think it was $10 on eBay and it's a cheap POS with a main purpose in life as a backup for my catfish and carp gear, however it's relevance to the topic is key. The butt of the handle telescopes as well, and sliding that tube out makes all the difference in the world. The butt has a threaded cap and the tube has a little storage compartment for hiding your wee... um, small first aid kit. I put a 1/4" deep well socket in there, jammed in place with other stuff so it doesn't rattle or move and it makes a world of difference in the balance. sliding a couple big egg sinkers in the handle sure makes it nice when you're casting 3 oz of lead and a big hunk of cutbait, too. ^^^So that was an awful lot of words to say long rod + weighted handle = better balance. Don't like the balance? try adding weight. Beyond the frog rod, my longest in the bass arsenal is 6'6" and most of my gear is 6'0". I might not be the best example, as I use mostly spincast reels, but my goodness do I wish they all had pistol grips. Yes, my reels are probably heavier than yours, which makes all the difference in the balance, but wow what a difference. Seated, they're so much more manageable. While standing, flipping and pitching is more natural and the angled grip gives better control and feels like kind of a mechanical advantage, plus the lower reel seat puts the big button in a more comfortable spot. I think @S Hovanec is going to get some of my money this summer, and I'm going to get a 7'0" pistol grip rod built for topwater swimbaits and a 14 oz reel.

Don't forget the highest fuel tax in the US, too. Wouldn't want to leave that out.

Not to change the subject much, but Highway 101 was a really good band. I miss hearing them on the radio, and after seeing this post I've got "Somewhere Tonight" stuck in my head.

I've met Jack Lambert a few times. He's a great football player, but can be a real jagoff. He is a WCO with PA Fish and Game the last I heard, though, so don't be fishing without a license. Pirates? Not so great as usual, but hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Go Pens!

Any place in the world is better than Cleveland. The rivers catch fire, the football team sucks, and the only sign of life says "Pittsburgh 133 Miles." Go Steelers!!!

I love PA but the taxes suck. Property tax reform is coming but they're just going to replace it with another way to steal your money. The weather is not as cold as Maine but not as warm as it is in the south. North Carolina seems to maintain a pretty low cost of living for retirees. East TN would be my dream piece of land and the state has no income tax but does tax dividends on investments, something that you may want to look into if your retirement fund is invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. They do have county property tax as well.

How to be a millionaire bass angler? I'm posting just to follow the thread, maybe someone will come in here with an idea I can take to the bank. In the meantime, I'll give you the same advice they give you in AA. Take it one day at a time, each day brings new challenges and you've got to work through every one to stay on top. If you want to win a million fishing, you're going to do it one tournament at a time. You might get lucky, but I wouldn't count on it. I've got a friend that won an $85,000 Ranger from Cabela's after the number on a tagged fish he caught in a tournament was pulled. It didn't make him a better fisherman, if anything it just meant he had to buy a bigger truck. If you want to be a millionaire, that's awesome, but you're probably going to have to get good at being a hundredaire first. With any luck, you can be a thousandaire in your early twenties. To be fair, however, at age 18 and with a 6% interest rate, if you put away $170 and some change every month until you're 65, you can retire with $1,000,000 in the bank and live pretty well off of the interest. My "guy" told me that's the sure fire way to become a millionaire, and he's made a lot of people really happy. I'd get a "guy" too, if I were you. As far as being a bass angler, well, I'm still trying to figure that one out myself, so I wish you the best of luck.

After reading the threads on here and doing my research, I'm pretty sure you need 2 kayaks, a bass buggy, a 12' jon, a 16' jon, a 17' bass boat with a 9.9, and a 24' bass boat with 400 HP and at least 3 power poles to be close to truly satisfied, even then something may be missing.

That's what she said. (sorry, had to)

Yes, absolutely, 100%, I don't think I typed exactly what my thoughts were before coffee. I didn't proofread. My apologies to all the readers, I believe I transposed a few words, corrected by you. Anywhoo, to clarify the edit a bit, there is a difference. A deep cycle battery is designed to be fully drained, slowly, and hold a charge for a very long time, with a chemical reaction creating energy from deep within the plates (hence the name). An automotive cranking battery is built to put out the highest amperage all at once, with plates deep enough to hold as much of a charge, for long (a shorter cycle). Quality marine cranking batteries will have slightly thicker plates than an automotive battery, as to hold a stronger charge for a longer period of time. If you're looking at the differences on a store shelf, you'll notice that the screw type terminals are very common in marine use, but the group designation and the letters after it determine the terminal type, polarity, and venting.

Never forget that a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Don't get yourself flustered when you're having a bad day on the water, always remember to relax and enjoy your happy time. Keep away from the negative waves. That's what I keep telling myself, at least. Really though, all of the above is great advice, but none of it will be worth a d**n if you drive yourself crazy following it. KISS, Keep it simple, stupid. That should help to keep you from going broke while you're at it, too. As for the gear, the folks above are spot on with the polarized glasses. Mine are probably the best $20 I've spent on equipment, and they are probably the only item money can buy that will make you a better fisherman, all the other stuff just gives you more choices and makes them easier, sometimes. Another highly recommended $10 purchase is a product called Bull Frog. It's Sunblock with DEET, and it won't help you catch fish, but it will keep you from being a miserable S.O.B. while you're out on the water, and that really helps to get you back to where I started with happy time. Being a better fisherman doesn't have to be about catching more fish, either. It's about conservation and sportsmanship, too. Volunteer, help clean up. Take a kid fishing. Be kind. You can catch all the fish in the world and you'll never be a good fisherman if you're not a good person while you're fishing.

As have I, and they were great. Super impressed with the shipping. Will buy from them again.

I wouldn't go out and buy a car battery for a boat, but I wouldn't hesitate to take the battery out of my truck to save a day of fishing. Car batteries aren't designed to be fully drained, deep cycle batteries are designed to give max amperage all in one shot. Marine cranking batteries are designed to be a happy medium between the two. I'm boat shopping, plan on buying in the spring. I also have a 4x4 play toy in the back yard. They will share a marine cranking battery.

Not sure about the particular track system, but it looks an awful lot like it will accept readily available "Track Nuts." You can find them on Amazon and a ton of other places online for a buck or 2 each, maybe even your local hardware store. If you're handy, you can mount about anything on them.

Dude, you need to get you some boat shoes. A pair of crocs, whatever. I wear slippers around the house for the same reason only there's no hooks on Legos, but man the only things I can think of that would suck worse than stepping on a lego in your bare feet are fish hooks and land mines.

$200 will certainly get you a hell of a lot of rod and reel. I'm an oddball but my preferred swim jig combo is a custom 6'6"MH with a pistol grip and a Daiwa GC80 with 12# Trilene and it works really well with Screwy Lewy jigs.

I beat you to it!!!

Yes, you absolutely can, however you have got a perfectly good reason to go buy a new rod and reel, so why not use it? I'm not sure what your budget is, but there's a lot of good deals out there, find one and tell the wife it was on sale.

Pics or it never happened! (Sorry, somebody had to do it) Really, though, good deal. You have found a rare quality in someone who sounds like a very special lady, I'm very happy for you

My Daiwas are still catching fish, brought a Silvercast into duty after my trusty Mitchell 400 failed about 1 mile into a 14 mile float trip 2 weeks ago and it worked flawlessly, all day long, reeling in dink after dink after dink on a 3/8 jig and a paddletail.

We're not allowed to talk politics on this site or I'd go on a rant about the Stolenwealth of Pennsylvania and how a License is actually a Liberty that the government steals and then sells back to you along with your constitutional right to free ingress and egress and how it's being violated, but I'd rather not have the admins boot me.

Both, LOL!!! Nah, really they're both great girls, girlfriend grew up with 500 head of dairy cattle on the family farm, so I've got more faith in her than the tired old Chevrolet!! I'm looking at trailers myself, too, trying to figure out how to get her, 2 kids, bikes, quads, dirtbikes, kayaks, canoes, coolers, clothes, lumber, roofing materials, or whatever other crap that doesn't all fit in the 6 1/2 foot bed in my tacoma back and forth to camp. I wish the Menard's trailer was an option here in PA, (OK no Menard's here but Harbor Freight has about the same deal) but the hoops you have to jump through to get a box store trailer registered are flat out insane. Applying for titles, waiting on PennDOT, 2 enhanced inspections (that you must legally flatbed your trailer to and from because it's illegal to tow it) at a place an hour away, more waiting, and cost & fees nearly twice the cost of the $300 trailer in the first place, you're better off buying a bigger trailer from a dealer or a used one that's already registered. For a lot of people, a $1000 pickup is a good route to go.

Also a good call. I keep spare vehicles around, they really don't eat much and the peace of mind that comes with knowing there's another way to work sitting in the back yard is well worth the annual cost of registration. I don't plan on taking my '92 S-10 with space shuttle miles on any 300 mile fishing trips any time soon but when I've got to haul a load off to the dump, go fetch some landscape supplies and leave them on the truck for a week, take a little romp in the woods, or whatever, I've got a second truck to do it in. My girlfriend's car is almost 20 years old, too. Should it decide to crap out, she can still get to work. When I bought my new Tacoma, the dealer offered me $200 for it on a trade, so really, I mean why bother? I can still squeeze another 10 years of work out of her, plus the new truck is a stick and the GF can't drive it, the S-10 is automatic and she can run it anywhere she wants to go without bothering me, therefore I have more time to fish. Same deal as someone else stated above, having a 4x4 around when the roads get bad isn't a bad thing. Before saying a word about insurance, either, ask your agent about a multiline discount. More often than not, adding an extra $1000 car with liability only coverage as a pleasure vehicle will either reduce your overall monthly payment or raise it by less than you carry in your change pocket.