BigAngus752

We only had a dusting of snow after several tornados in the the area with some power outages this weekend. Unfortunately, last week when I turned the water back on for my detached workshop we found we had a frozen pipe burst a couple months ago that we didn't know about until I turned the water on. This is the ceiling in a basement bedroom after the water had been running for about 30 minutes. The next pic is what the bedroom looked like after the water mitigation company finished removing all of the damaged materials. This is a blessing in disguise, however. I found that the pipe froze because a bumpout cantilivered to the house was not properly insulated and I found evidence of THREE other pipe repairs in the same vicinity (1 to the shop and 2 to a hose spigot line). I'm going to insulate it correctly, move the pipes, and assure it never happens again. I thank the Lord for insurance. We have a $2500 deductible and just the mitigation was $4000. I have to do the corrections to the insulation and plumbing myself because that's a design problem and not covered, but everything caused by water damage is on insurance. Even a new bed. Really cuts into time for spring fishing, however. Being a grown up is stupid.

^^^Disregard free agency, salary caps, franchise tags. You can bring all that stuff back. As long as owner's think that the assistant receiver's coach on the team that won this season's Super Bowl is ready to be a head coach, there will be no dynasties.

Storm Arashi gets the nod over the KVD. I use the KVD regularly and it's very productive. The Arashi is hard to hang up and it shines for me when the fish are finicky.

Wow! That's a lot of ups and downs! It has to be tough but you have a great attitude. That's impressive. I've been through it also. I'll be blunt, it sounds like it's already a healthy thing for you. Even still, loss and change are difficult. Make sure you sit down and enjoy a Michter's now and then! I'm always here for a PM and a drink and so are a lot of other people on here. Keep that postitive attitude, man. You're winning.

Thank you for updating us! Honestly, you are the top news source that I trust for Puerto Vallarta. I happy for you that everything is back as it should be and I have to believe tourism will return full blast as some point. I feel for you and agree that you will heal faster when you can get back to what you love to do. We will pray for your quick recovery so you can get back at those DDs. We are looking forward to more pics of giants! Stay positive, have faith, fish hard when you get the chance.

Which is exactly why I posted. Hoping someone had some knowledge about the blanks. The AI thing and the "exclusive to (fill in any retailer)" is enough to prevent me from laying down my own money until there are extensive reviews. I feel that Duckett may be misreading their primary audience with this.

I have always been a big fan of Duckett rods. I know what I like (and don't like) when I try a new rod, but I don't know anything about rod construction and I don't even speak the language. Could those of you that know rods please take a look at these specs and let me know what you think? $250 is creeping up on the max I will spend on a rod and my first possible red flag is that they are exclusive to a single retailer. Is there anything new in this build? Or are they proven blanks? If you're a gear guy or gal and have an opinion please share. It's times like this that I'm missing our old friend @fishnkamp . He would have the full scoop on them. Available exclusively at Tackle Warehouse, the Duckett Fishing MaxCore Spinning Rods leverage AI innovation and advanced materials to produce rods that are incredibly lightweight, sensitive, and responsive. Constructed with Triple X AIRGT blanks that blend nanocarbon, graphite, and glass to create multiple bend points for durability and precision, each rod is also engineered with an X-Helical construction and X-Weave outer layer to minimize unwanted blank twist. -Built using AI -Premium graphite blank -Triple X AIRGT technology -X-Helical construction -X-Weave outer layer -Proprietary Kigan zirconia guides -Cork/EVA grip -Carbon-fiber reel seat -Hook keeper -Limited 5 year warranty

Okay, no problem. I just wanted you to be aware that those "convenient", crush with pliers and seal with a lighter, butt-splice thingies are notorious for changing the resistance of a wire. The best way to fix that wire is cut it, strip the insulation, slide a section of shrink wrap on, intertwine the strands, and solder the wire. Soldering is incredibly easy and is, by far, the top way to fix a wire like that. Second best is doing everything I just listed but just twist them together and heat shrink. The handy butt-slice thingie can be very quick and helpful, but it often acts like an over or undersized section of wire. You will be just fine using the pinchy butt-splicer on your wire because of what it's powering. If this wire was leading to a gauge, radio, or graph then you might not be okay with the results. Also, it's tough to see in your pic, but it looks like you are into the strands on that nick closest to the camera. That effectively lowers the gauge of the wire. I would probably fix that. The nick furthest from the camera I'm not even seeing copper. If you can see copper AND you can see broken/missing strands then properly repair it. If you don't see broken/missing strands just heat shrink it and cover it with some armor. Just my opinions.

Please! Before you decide how to repair that wire could you please tell us what the wire is for? You might be trading one problem for another problem.

I am blessed to be only 8.5 miles from a spectacular little lake where the majority of my largest bass have been caught. I am blessed to belong to a private fishing club that is 19.9 miles away. Another very good lake I frequent is 33 miles. My favorite lake (due to the variety of environments to bass fish on a single lake) is 65 miles away and takes an hour and five minutes one way. I am fortunate to be close to that little lake where I can run off to after work so I guess that's the lake I'm most thankful for.

That was fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

I say add 5% for your trouble. Actually, you're a good fisherman. Make it 10%.

H.I.I.T. is my thing. Might be hill sprints, kettlebell or sandbag exercises or carries, running stairs, running stairs with 75 to 100lbs, plain old calisthenics. I do H.I.I.T. and long walks with my wife (30 - 60 minutes after work or a half day hike on the weekend). Long runs are a hard no these days. Outstanding work @Jigfishn10 . I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Always nice when you buy something and find that someone before you had some sense!

Ah, gotcha.

I can understand your frustration. What sets the tone of your post is the title. I'm wondering if the responses would have been more focused if you had titled the "Should I look for bait balls during pre-spawn?" or similar? Maybe people are already mentally creating a response to the title before they finish reading the post? As to your question, I always care about the presence of bait fish. In the spring I still make the routes from winter spots to spawning coves my priority and I look for the bait in those areas. If I saw the wind pushing bait fish against a bank, I would make a beeline. But my priority remains the routes they travel to spawn.

I was excited to see this, but it's not working. First of all, it's sponsored by Shimano and Shimano is excluded. CABIN FEVER SPONSORED BY: *Online Exclusions: Shimano, Jackall, G.loomis, Team Daiwa, 13 fishing, Megabass, SFT gift certificates, Simms, and Reaction Innovations I put a St. Croix rod in my cart and went all the way to "pay" and no discount. Put a couple other brands of things in there to double check and no discount. I tried using cabin fever as a discount code to no avail. Not sure how to get the discount.

These guys nailed it. I LOVE music and so does my wife. We go to concerts, we pay for Sirius XM and Spotify. I listen at work (when I'm in the office or shop) and we have smart speakers in every part of the house. When I am fishing, I am fishing. That's all. Everything else is left on shore. This is extremely rare for me. I have lots of hobbies, but fishing is something different and healthier. That being said, I don't mind boats passing me with music on. I'd prefer you not fish the same cove as me with your music up, but you do you and enjoy. Just don't interrupt me being me please. And @Tennessee Boy 's voice is always in my head second guessing me also.

In my mind there are only two questions to decide between lead/AGM or lithium. First, are you running out of juice while fishing? The second is, do you need or want to fish several trips without charging? The second question you can already answer. Are you good with putting your boat on a charger after every single fishing trip? I put my boat in my garage and leave it on the charger so it's not problem for me. But if you leave your boat outside, at a dock with no electric, or you camp/fish a lot then you will love lithium. The first question it seems you don't have an answer for because you aren't using the boat yet? If you don't want to start off with the expense of a lithium battery, just install a lithium charger that also works for lead and agm. Buy yourself an Everstart deep cycle from Walmart and start fishing. If you find yourself running out of battery then you can switch to lithium without changing anything else.

I got to spend a week at HK USA many years ago. It was an armorer's class and we were strictly doing a few of their subgun models. The benches were for two people so they paired us up and my bench partner was from Scotland Yard. It was a fantastic experience. I'm not, personally, a fan of the USP but only because of it's size and ergonmics. I can tell you from nearly 30 years experience working on every manufacturer you can think of, the HK's are expertly engineered, manufactured to the highest standards, and are exceptionally reliable. And that's coming from a guy who owns zero HKs (full disclosure I deployed an MP5 for a bit). You aren't going to go wrong switching to an HK anything. We have three USPs in the armory where I teach now but I intend to trade those soon because no one carries them anymore. You'll be the "USP guy" now!

Bank fishermen stand on the shore and throw lures out into the water. Boat fishermen take their boats out onto the water and throw lures at the shore. I love my boat. You said you know what to look for from the bank, so you know what to look for from a boat. Catch 2 fish in a row and you'll have your confidence. It took me about 1/2 an hour to decide I made the right decision to buy a boat. Maybe less.

Nothing is black and white with these fish. Please keep that in mind. So....consistently "really cold" dirty water, no. But let's say that the lake is warming for spring for a few days in a row. There has been some runoff and there is water that's dirtier than the normal clear water (but not cold chocolate milk with garbage floating in it) and there are distinct lines where the clear and dirty water meet (and HUGE bonus points if the rain was a warm rain!). I'm thinking two things: Bass want warmer water in the spring and dirty water warms faster in the sun than clear water. Bass are ambush predators. I will be still be concentrating on the "highways" to and from spawning areas, but I will start where the dirty water meets the clearer water. If there is a definitive line where they meet, the bass will sometimes cruise the edge hoping to ambush baitfish in the clearer water. If no luck, then I'd be moving toward the spawn areas in the dirtier water as long as recent weather has been a warming trend. Remember, however, that fish are still responding to the previous few days of weather so the first day of warm up may not result in much bass movement. They may still be deeper and/or wanting a very slow presentation. If they are responding to a warming trend (and longer daylight hours) they may be moving up and want moving bait. Or I'm completely wrong about all of it and I go home with one dink to show for the day. Good luck! THAT's what I'm TALKING about! Heck yes.

I check my scale at least twice a year against two other scales of different types. Which means nothing. Weight is a construct, just as time is a construct. Do you use calibration weights? What scale were those weighed on? What scale was that scale calibrated against? All weights go back to ONE SINGLE SCALE IN HISTORY that was randomly assigned a calibration by some guy that said, "That rock weighs 16 ounces" and no one knew what he was talking about because he invented the word "ounce". Now we have weight. The only thing I know for sure about weight is...my wife does NOT need to lose any (if she asks).

After working my way through several scales that I hated, I bought a cheap ($20), orange, water resistant KastKing scale. That, amazingly, was the winning ticket. This will be my fourth season with it. I test it at least twice a year and it's always spot on. It can be set to lbs/oz or lbs/tenths. Auto shut off, backlighting, It's an outstanding scale.