BigAngus752

^^^this^^^ I admit I've flipped a lot of 1.5 - 2 pounders when I've had their momentum working for me but that's laziness and I try not to do that. The more I practice lipping and netting the better odds I have of NOT losing my next trophy at the boat. And that is where I lose 90% of the fish I lose. Within 5 feet of the boat.

Not at all if you only need a light bench. You may want to put supports between them if it wobbles. Scrap 2x4 works perfectly for that.

Couple thoughts if you are flexible on size: You can buy hardwood plywood at the big box stores in 4x8 sheets. If you buy the maple plywood and seal it with Tung oil you get a nice hard top for cheap ($50-ish). If you rip the 4x8 sheet lengthwise you get two 2ft x 8ft bench tops or one top and one shelf. If you need a heavy bench you can put 3/4 OSB under the 3/4 Maple plywood and you've got a nice thick top. If 4x4 legs are too expensive you can buy the cheapest length of 2x4s and screw them together for a sturdy leg. Also, as mentioned by @.ghoti., if you look around in the kitchen or discount areas of the box stores or talk with an employee in the kitchen departments you can find all sorts of different brand new "damaged" or just "not picked up" counters on the cheap. Same with Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. The easiest, cheapest light duty bench in the world is someone's old Craigslist kitchen cabinets and counter and they usually look pretty good. Happy shopping! One other suggestion, if you are going to try to cut corners/price and build a lightweight bench I strongly suggest that you buy some angle brackets/corner braces/hurricane brackets to use instead of just screws. The brackets cost pennies and will make a wobbly design much less wobbly.

It could be the most perfect fishing line ever created and I'd still manage to birdsnest it or break a knot. I know this and take it into consideration when I review anything. I try to subtract the idiot-factor from the review. I suspect most people don't try. That's why info from here is so much more valuable.

Agree! I've probably lost more fish than him and I don't know I lost them.

Your thread has gotten a little off track here so let me bring it back home. WHY does Edwin Evers lose more fish that I do when he's a pro? He's a likeable guy, no doubt about it, but you are right. This guy whiffs like Helen Keller playing stickball. It makes me want to avoid whatever line and/or hooks he uses. Seriously. In his defense, he catches 1000% more fish than I do so he has much more opportunity to lose fish.

This young man is going to have to make some videos more suited to my attention span. Sometimes I can't even finish a

We don't need no brains in fishin'!!! Yaargh! ?

I'll have to agree with you. Sooooo....if I want a bass to see my jig/trailer/worm better in stained water then I get black with blue flakes (or just black), but if I want the bass to not see my line I get black...?

I won this on eBay brand new for $162.50. I've found being a lefty fisherman that either the reels are cheaper than righties or you can't find them at all. It's feast or famine. I'm happy with that price for a new SV.

You have numerous votes for KY. I have been there but not fished so I can’t speak to that lake, however I have fished Dale Hollow. It is a totally different kind of lake as @TnRiver46said and when I went it was my first time with that style of fishing. It is absolutely gorgeous and peaceful. You’d be hard-pressed to find that kind of peace on KY. Maybe on Barkley. I felt the fishing was good and, being normally surrounded by water with inches of visibility, I loved the clear water and watching those crazy spots hit my lures like a Tasmanian Devil. The SM were tough but it was my first time fishing for them. You won’t go wrong if you pick Dale Hollow and go with the right attitude. Good luck on your trip.

I don't have a bait monkey problem. I will also never buy any Googan crap. What?! They have little Ned rig worms with rattles in them?!!! Guess what I bought this weekend....so what time is next week's meeting?

Plastic: Z-Man ZinkerZ, SK Rage Craw, Zoom UV worm Hard: Cotton Cordell Super Spot, bladed jig, hollow frog

It's all about the water you fish! Bladed jigs and size 90 Whopper Ploppers (or the Berkley knock-off) are two of my best producers, yet many on here can't catch a cold with them. I, on the other hand, have no need to ever take a jerkbait out on ANY local lake. I have never caught a fish locally with a jerkbait nor has any fisherman I've met in this area. I will, however, be taking a whole 3700 box of them with me to Lake Cumberland and Green River Lake on my trip at the end of March...

Megastrike and "Steph's Secret Fishy Sauce" which is not available in stores.

I use two, the Paca Slim and the Rage Craw. I’ll use the Paca if it’s one if those days where smaller/slower is the deal but the Rage Craw almost always gets the nod. A Rage Craw on the back of a @Siebert Outdoors Fogy (matching skirt and craw with just two sections clipped off the craw) has made for some of my best days on the water.

As soon as the ice is gone I get the Ned out. It's my #1 fish catcher by far in water under 40 degrees. Nothing else is close. If I didn't have stuff with me for a Ned Rig then I would drag a jig slooooowly around.

I got the last Garmin Echomap 93SV UHD that Scheels had on sale for $499 recently. I called my boat guy and told him I was bringing my boat to him for typical service and asked if he would run the tranducer cable to the console for me. I made the appointment and hung up. I thought I was good. Then the monkey clubbed me. I called him back and told him to order an Ultrex for me too. Heavy sigh.

Last season I was having a great day fishing a long, rip rap-covered causeway with a blk/blu football jig and a blk/blu Paca Slim trailer. I was catching a lot of fish but the Pacas don't hold up well and I ran out of them. I tried a blk/blu Rage Craw for a trailer and all my bites stopped dead. I was seriously depressed. I found I still had a bag of Paca Slims in watermelon red so I stuck one on the same blk/blu jig and I immediately started catching again. Caught 4 or 5 more fish before the spot dried up. I stopped thinking about color quite so much after that.

This is an excellent idea. If I put them on deck ready to go then it's a no-brainer to pick it up and try it. My problem has been that I clip and retie for each weight change. I have enough set-ups I can do this. In fact, it will make me less "scattered" with 10 different lure choices on the deck. Thanks @Catt. This will be implemented immediately when the ice is gone.

I know this is correct. I know rate of fall is crucial and adjusting can make all the difference. My struggle is maintaining confidence in my choice of location long enough to cycle through several different weights/styles. If I've tried two different presentations (or changed one presentation a couple times) then the doubt starts to set in. Did I read the variables wrong? Are the fish not here but over there instead? I would experiment more with rate of fall and color of the plastic if I had more faith in my ability to find the fish. But when I switch spots without being thorough and then get on fish it reinforces that I was wrong the first time when I may not have been. I'm either going to be one of the best fishermen to ever wet a line or I will be confined to a psych ward.

That can vary from lake to lake or even by season on the same lake. That's a good question for you to ask at the boat ramp of your favorite body of water.

I used to get ten kinds of bent when I skunked. Then one evening my wife and I were having drinks and talking and she asked me why I like fishing so much. She said she sees how it makes me almost a different person because I love it so. I thought a long time before answering and I realized that it’s the skunk days that make me love it. It’s the failure to catch fish that makes the catching worthwhile. It’s the hunt. The chess game. A good friend of mine is a huge crappie fisherman and he loves his live sonar. THAT is not my kind of fishing. No interest. Yes, I get a pit in my stomach when I drive 300 miles and pay for a cabin so I can fish a strange lake for 3 days and I know I might not catch a single bass. But that’s the point. I don’t want it to be easy. I’m here for fight.

The “Ned Drop Shot” is interesting. At what point does it become a trot line? I mean in legal terms? Is it never a trot because it remains in your hand?