Johnbt

Worms from the backyard. If it's dry out, you pour some water in a shady spot under a bush and go back later. This was back in the mid-50s. Then I learned how to find nightcrawlers.

http://virginiaguidebaitco.com/special.pdf It's not listed on the special runs of baby brush hogs on page 5. Or the regular catalog. http://virginiaguidebaitco.com/standard.pdf Maybe it was a one off order made for a distributor.

"When the rods and reels cost more then boat you know where it's going." I know that if I hadn't gotten married last November to a widow with a son with a wife and 2 little grandsons I probably would have bought a new Allison locally. Now there's a Vexus dealer, and a marina on James River a mile down the road. I'm 69 now and probably don't need another boat. But she has a 3-car garage...We have a 3-car garage and I have a 103-year-old house to sell in a historic district. It's been paid off since 1997 and I suspect someone is going to spend the proceeds. I hope to get a little of it. A nice boat and a year or two of slip fees would be good. It's just money. Right?

I was going to suggest a Conquest 844c. That's the 7' heavy fast rod. I have one and it absolutely manhandled a 6# bass up and over six feet of thick weeds two weeks ago. It was my most recent rod purchase and this was my first good-sized fish on it. My buddy was driving my 1648 when it crashed the frog and he started spinning the boat around with the 70# Maxxum. Before he got us halfway turned around and headed over to dig it out of the milfoil/lilypad/mess I had the fish into clear water and halfway back to the boat. I've been fishing a 783c and an 843c for a year or two and landed quite a few similar fish without any drama, but the 844c was more like, "Come here. Now." And I wasn't really horsing it - much - because I was using 20# Yo-Zuri Hybrid. Think of it as finesse fishing with frogs. Okay, I keep saying frog, but it was an unweighted Sizmic Toad on a 3/0 hook. I love Conquest rods. Light, powerfully accurate, and strong. I have an 843s too. I've never tried any of the longer models. Short rods work better for what we normally do... sit and fish small ponds and electric-only lakes. We're old. Retired and lazy anyway. I keep looking at new bass boats, and buying nice rods and reels instead. But there's a new Vexus dealer about 15 from the house.

I love spinnerbaits. I've used the Uni knot 99% of the time since I started tying it in the early '80s. After a few months I could tie it on the beach at night in the wind. I think the directions came with a package of Stren. Or maybe Silver Thread, but probably Stren. I use it in freshwater, the Chesapeake Bay and surf fishing the Outer Banks with weights up to 8 ounces. I used to have a rod that would throw 12, but I traded it on a portable gas grill, collectable turntable and some other stuff. If 8 and bait won't hold I'm going home. Or to the bar. Moisten the Uni knot and then moisten it some more before you tighten it. That's probably good advice for any fishing knot.

"Just skip the lunkerhunt one. It's a train wreck." That's the ad I saw. Good thing I didn't order one.

"Got me thinking of trying either a dragon fly lure" I saw one for sale this weekend when I was placing an order with a large online outfit. I'd never seen a dragonfly lure before, but I didn't order any

My 6-pounder from just before noon Saturday. I caught it on a frog in the mess behind the boat.

"Personally I haven't understood why people provide free advertising wearing labeled clothing." Because I'm retired and mostly shop at tackle stores. Right now I'm wearing a t-shirt I bought the end of August at Tradewinds tackle shop in Ocracoke. I have a drawer full of tackle store shirts from Nags Head and Ocracoke. And quite a few free ones from Tacklewarehouse.

"Oh man, don't call them paddle tails, a couple members on here ripped me a new one because they are supposed to be called "boot tails", apparently." Ha! They're pulling your leg. Keitech calls them paddle tails. www.keitechusa.com/keitech-swimbaits/keitech-swing-impact-fat/keitech-fat-swing-impact-4.8/keitech-fat-swing-impact-4.8-bluegill-flash.html "The Keitech 4.8-Inch FAT Swing Impact has taken the Paddle tail swim bait to the next level."

This little Magnasonic came highly recommended (for the price) on pricescope.com diamond ring discussion forum. It does a great job on my wife's jewelry. Only $40. It's over a year old and still working. www.amazon.com/Magnasonic-Professional-Ultrasonic-Eyeglasses-MGUC500/dp/B007Q2M17K/ref=asc_df_B007Q2M17K/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198129187858&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8667776674126293355&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008438&hvtargid=pla-380705961335&psc=1

I've used a number of different rods over the 60+ years of fishing and I still have a lot of them. I caught my first 9+# largemouth on a short St. Croix Premier. I don't think they even make the 6' MHF rod anymore. I love that rod for some reason. For the past year or two I've settled on the brand I like the most - Shimano-Loomis. I only have 5 so far, but I got married in November and she's taking up a lot of my time (and money. ) People keep saying you don't need a Conquest to fish spinnerbaits. I like them for everything, especially spinnerbaits.

Does your boat trailer have brakes? And which Ascent transmission would you buy? Ascent manual https://cdn.subarunet.com/stis/doc/ownerManual/MSA5M1900D_STIS.pdf From page 391... When towing a trailer without brakes - total trailer weight of 1000 pounds. When towing a trailer with brakes - "Models with air-cooled continuously variable transmission fluid cooler: 5,000 lbs Models without air-cooled continuously variable transmission fluid cooler: 2,000 lbs"

Stealth is fine and I absolutely love Invisi-Braid, especially after the whiteish line takes on the dirty color of the water. I've been using Invisi-Braid since the dark ages it seems. I don't think it wears out either. According to my bass mentor who turned me on to it long ago and still has some remnants of multi-thousand yard spools from back in the day, the 10-pound Invisi-Braid breaks at 22 pounds. That's all I know about Spiderwire.

Okay, I finally found one of the boxes. The Instruction Guide for my Metanium MGL XG Left says under SILENTTUNE... "Do not pass the line through the decorative holes and tie as this may cause loss of SILENTTUNE function. (There is a risk of interference with the tuning spring and loss of function.)" Here's one thing I'm certain of...SILENTTUNE has 2 Ts.

Thanks, sounds good to me.

Is there a minimum speed required? 2 mph? 4 mph? Will drifting at 1 mph do it? Unless I'm fishing a reservoir and have my outboard on the transom, my trolling motor tops out at 4 mph.

Or when you can paddle by a Great Blue Heron without him noticing you. Which I've never done.

I'm a knob watcher. I have a little Minn Kota meter and seldom use it. Very seldom. I have 3 Schumacher Ship n Shore chargers in the garage that read voltage, but are automatic so I set and forget them for the most part until they say they're done. For the past 6 years I've had a Maxxum 70 on a heavy Grizzly 1648 and my meter is the knob on the pedal. As the day progresses the knob works its way up from 20 or so to 30 or 40 usually. The boat will make 4 mph set to 100 hauling 2 200-pounders, a cooler, and too much gear, and a little more if we use the ancient Minn Kota Turbo-something-or-other on the transom. It's mostly there for backing up to retrieve lures and loading the trailer. My mentor has an early Maxxum 70 on his even older 1648 Polar Kraft and watching the knob works for him.

"If your spool has holes, you can thread it through two holes and tie it off" : My Metanium MGL manuals say not to use the holes. It must be a model specific design issue. I was going to use a little mono backing anyway, but decided to read the manual first for once.

Things changed with the introduction of SAE J2807 and the agreement by the manufacturers to use the specific standards it lists for starting, stopping, grade, etc. The makers can no longer get away with rating their trucks based on a work truck that comes with the bumper deleted, the spare deleted and all that game playing. It adds a passenger and the weight of the hitch and such, too. http://www.trucktrend.com/how-to/towing/1502-sae-j2807-tow-tests-the-standard Most if not all vehicles sold with 5000 pound capacity listings can't meet the braking standards of J2807 without having brakes on the trailer. I mostly read the parts about 5000 pound capacity because that's what my '16 4Runner has - supposedly - until I read the manual. Fwiw, back in the day, my buddy fished regional tournaments and worked with Shimano, etc., and there was a regular who towed his bass boat all over behind a Corvette. I know it can be done, but should it be done?

"Separate functioning brake systems are required for safe control of towed vehicles and trailers weighing more than 1500 pounds (680 kilograms) when loaded.  Everybody misses that caveat." I think most if not all manufacturers misstate the towing capacity. I have a 4Runner and what they advertise isn't precisely what's in the owner's manual. Edited to add: Even this Carmax ad lists 2 different towing capacities. Looks like they read the manual about braked and unbraked limits. www.carmax.com/research/toyota/4runner/2015/features-specs "Towing Capacity (Max.) 1655/4700 lbs."

"Bass are good at spitting treble hooks!" I hate those skinny little wire ones. It's 3 a.m. and time to go fishing.

"15% off Tatsu" I need to put this thread on my ignore list.

Those lengthy, twisty conveyor belts are hard on long packages and jam up sometimes. The rods should be marked for hand sorting or something. I'm waiting on a nice rod to be delivered from a reputable tackle shop and I'm still concerned that the shipper will mess it up somehow. I know, we should stop ordering rods and just order fish.