Johnbt

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"their higher end reels are as expensive as Japan Made Shimanos and Daiwas" I just looked at some casting reels on the TW site. ABU has a $550, but Daiwas run up to $750 and Shimanos up to $600. It's all play money past about $250 or $300. Play, as in it's a hobby and I'm blowing my play money budget on it (if I actually limited myself to a budget.) I could be down at the bowling alley every week spending $75 on three games, shoes, a burger and a pitcher of beer, but I don't. Or maybe it would be $100 these days from what my wife spends to take our 2 little grandsons bowling once a month. I bought 3 ABU Premiers in 2012 and they are still fine reels. Meanwhile I have purchased more Daiwa Steez than Shimano Metanium and certainly prefer the Steez variations more than the Metaniums even with the brass gears I added.

Even no wake or 5 mph is dangerous. If you hit a submerged stump or a large diameter submerged standing tree at 4.5 mph while sitting in a bass boat seat on my 1648 and you're coming out of the seat and landing somewhere in the boat or the water. If you have both feet back under the seat you'll probably end up on your face on the floor. One time with both motors running at 2/3rds and the boat at 4.5 mph we hit a submerged sandbar in a reservoir. Luckily it wasn't a stump, but we stopped in about 2.5 feet. We both ended up landing on our butts sorta of hanging over the gunnel. The Maxxum prop and motor bent all the way back under the boat and took some paint off the hull. It cracked the bottom of the upper housing, which I replaced, and I had the local MK repair shop replace the armature assembly. They had one in stock and did the job the next day. No harm to the prop or the shaft and I'm still using the repaired motor. I learned a lesson that day. Slow down.

"PA can make their own laws." The chart is in the PA booklet on the pa.gov website. They should fix it. www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/fishandboat/documents/boating/regulations/boatinghandbook.pdf _________________ "Electric motors are outboards" - Okay, I see that now at the end of the first paragraph. The trouble is, the entire paragraph reads "There are four primary types of boat motors: 1. Outboard motors vary in size and clamp onto the transom. The whole motor pivots on its mounting to aim the wash and steer the boat. The boat turns in the opposite direction that the tiller arm is pushed. Electric motors are outboards." So the 70-lb MK Maxxum bow-mounted trolling motor on my boat isn't an outboard and doesn't need a kill switch? But the transom-mounted MK 45-lb Endura Max trolling motor on my boat is an outboard and does need one? This is making my head hurt. Anybody have a trolling motor with a kill switch? I have never seen one. Neither of my MK's do.

It's not a switch. Here's the 26-page boating handbook. I was looking to see if electric motors were included since they said "engines". They only list four engine groups: OB, stern drive, inboard and jet. www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/fishandboat/documents/boating/regulations/boatinghandbook.pdf The chart on page 11 says use the switch "if equipped". They need to fix that.

"It makes no sense to run heavy line throught the entire spool when you don't need it. " It eliminates the knot, always a weak point and frequently an irritation. I don't know about anyone else, but I am constantly cutting off the first two feet of frayed/nicked line and retying. I may be down to half a spool by the end of the day. Line is a wear item, like tires and brakes and wiper blades. I live by the motto, "If you aren't getting hung up you aren't fishing." See the spinnerbait by the rod? I love spinnerbait fishing way back in the pads where the fish hang out.

Strong leaders and line are useful around treetops, stumps, snags and even chain pickeral. Ever fish a place like Briery Creek Reservoir in VA? My usual lines are 17# to 20# nylon and 30# to 65# braid depending on how deep I'm fishing and I don't use a leader. Nothing like worm fishing 20' feet down in the dark on a moonless July night. My idea of finesse fishing is 15# with a 3/8 spinnerbait and a 3-,4- or 5-inch grub. Fishing in a stump field is sort of like playing pinball. Cypress swamps are fun, too.

"like to cast their worm out and light a cigarette and they don't even move it till they're done smoking the first 100 mm." I used to catch more fish that way - bass, catfish, pier fishing, surf fishing, boat fishing, everywhere. Lures, nightcrawlers, minnows, cut bait, whole fish, everything. And then I quit smoking about 15 years ago. Maybe there were more fish back then? P.S. - a largemouth will pick a spinnerbait up off the mucky, swampy bottom after it's been sitting a minute or three. Maybe it was the grub trailer that attracted them, but they ended up in the boat.

My mentor's 10.5#. One of many he caught in VA. Let a guy drive your boat for an afternoon... Of course, the 10.2# I posted was caught from the backseat of his boat.

This is my first one - 10.2# on a chartreuse double willow spinnerbait, with 3" chartreuse silver flake grub trailer.

I'm 74 and started fishing when I was 4 or 5. I've never been able to figure out why I would want to ruin a fine day fishing by being restricted to when and where someone else tells me I can fish? And pay money to do it? I've never been tempted. The guy that taught me to bass fish over 40 years ago used to fish a regional circuit and work a booth for Shimano and take some of the big name guys fishing when they'd come to town, but he quit after a few years of running himself ragged running his business, fishing, working shows, and playing tour guide for the big boys. We decided we'd rather fish for big bass. __________ Was it fun to see the big boys weigh fish and get to meet some of them? Sure. For a year or two anyway. "The Bassmaster Classic was held in Richmond, Virginia in 1988, 1989, and 1990, with the following winners: 1988: Guido Hibdon won the championship on the James River. 1989: Hank Parker won the championship on the James River. Parker narrowly beat Jim Bitter by two ounces, who led the first two days of the tournament. 1990: Rick Clunn won the championship on the James River. Clunn made a comeback that was so big that no camera boats captured it on the water. "

I'm about 35 years past being able to sit or kneel in a canoe. I liked them when I was younger/middle aged, all before I had back surgery in 2003. I know why fewer and fewer people are buying new jon boats like I did in 2012. A 2025 Grizzly 1648 bare hull is now $5195, which includes the $200 freight. In 2012 mine was $2699 including freight. Mine is small enough to load over banks on lakes with no ramp, even with a 24v motor on the front and a 34 ft.lb. motor on the back. And carpet, rear deck extension and bass boat seats. I have a 10 hp Merc for restricted reservoirs and the river, although it will only go 11 or 12 mph with two 200-pounders and a load of tackle, 2 anchors, etc.

My buddies all laughed at me when I first showed up at the ramp with the old Home Depot step stool I use in the garage. The next week they all had them. They make a 3-step if you don't like the $25 2-step.

"The only time I use a trailer on a spinnerbait is during pre-spawn and the only one I use is a Kalin's Lunker Grub." I use a Kalin's grub year round on a spinnerbait. I love spinnerbaits. I use 3", 4", 5", 6" grubs and yes, I have a few packs of their 8" and 10". My best successes have been with chart/silver flake. Fish them on top, on the bottom, in the pads, everywhere.

Always.

Is there a gory movie about boating deaths similar to the 1959 movie about car wreck deaths we had to watch in driver's ed in the '60s? I don't know that it would do any good, but it might scare some sense into somebody. It was much talked about when we were 15.5. It's 27 minutes and it's on Youtube. I won't post a link, but here's one of the comments. "This was shown in my high school to all 16 year olds, as that was the age we were allowed to get our driver's license. During the showing, one girl passed out completely and had to be taken to the nurse's office, and many of us had nightmares for days. Fast forward 51 years, and I am still an accident-free driver. This film had a huge impact on me, and many others my age." Signal 30 (1959) US Auto Industry

If you find your seat too close to the pedal for comfort because you can't extend your leg and there's no room to move the pedal away from you a few more inches, consider getting a bent seat pole for $40 or $50. I know jon boat owners who won't fish without one and two people who can't adapt to the way the seat can swing from side to side. But hey, it makes the jon boat 5" wider on each side. I carry 2 and 2 straight posts on my 1648. (And an 11" straight post for my 5'4" wife.) "Offset Seat Post measures 13" high and is offset 5". "

First I bought a long sleeve Columbia sun shirt. It's great. And was on sale. Then I bought a couple of lesser known long sleeve shirts on sale. They are great. I use them in the sun fishing, at the beach and on the riding mower. Then I bought a light gray Jason Christie hoodie from Aftco. That's all I wear now for fishing. Yeah it was on sale. www.aftco.com/products/jason-christie-fishing-bass-long-sleeve-performance-shirt?variant=21395277512809 "Bigger hood with closure and hat visor sleeve" "Jason's direct feedback was instrumental to fine tune our already popular Samurai hooded performance shirt. Jason took additional measures to modify the hood of his Samurai shirts to improve the sun protection coverage on his face and prevent glare." I'm an XL and wear an XL or XXL hat. The hood is roomy and big ball hat fits nicely under the hood and the bill pocket holds the outfit together. When I'm not using the hood I don't even know it's hanging behind me. ________ AFTCO. The company that brought us the roller guide for saltwater fishing. "1958: J.C. Axelson Founds the Axelson Fishing Tackle Company (AFTCO) Axelson Tackle Co. was a large company with over 1,000 employees that manufactured products including aircraft landing gear, tooling for the oil industry, and even the famous Axelson machine lathe. The man who built the company, J.C. Axelson, not only loved the manufacturing process, but fishing as well. As an angler, he could not find roller guides to match his quality standards, so he decided to make his own. After selling his business, he purchased a waterfront home on Lido Island in Newport Beach, California. To indulge his passion for inventing and manufacturing, he built a full-fledged machine shop in the basement, and this is where the AFTCO roller guides were born."

Yes, I do. Get them and laugh at them. Yes, I know I buy too much stuff on the www.

My 1648 Grizzly is a 4. This is after we put the carpet & deck extension in and before it went in the water. That's his old 1648 Polar Kraft all electric in the background. We both have a Maxxum 70 for chopping weeds. My buddy's fish is a 10.5 I spent all my money on the 4Runner. They're a hi-tech 11, although that's the '16 that my stepson has now. I bought a '23. This 35 acre lake is a mile off road. Bonus pic of a 9.25# of mine.

Welcome from the outskirts of Varina, aka the southeastern end of Henrico county.

Approximately 9% of males have bad red-green color vision. Even the ones with a mild case of it - like me - only see red clearly in very good light. So please don't rely on your little pointy red flag hanging limp on the pole to get you noticed. "There are different degrees of color blindness. Some people with mild color deficiencies can see colors normally in good light but have difficulty in dim light. Others cannot distinguish certain colors in any light. The most severe form of color blindness, in which everything is seen in shades of gray, is uncommon." I had a rich uncle on my mother's side who saw the world in blacks and whites and grays. We always joked that he could see green if it was the color of money.

Social media? Old people? The co-founders of Myspace are 59 and 53. That's almost-old. The www was invented by old people. My 7-year-old grandson asked me how I knew so much about computers. I told him I was using them before his father was born in '83. He looked at me for a minute and said, "How old are you?"

And yet fishing with live bait is still against the rules. What are they afraid of, losing to some old guy with no electronics stuff?

I have been using Kalin's grubs for decades and haven't noticed any change/chemical smell. I use them every trip and have enough on hand to give bags to my buddies. Use them in saltwater too. I haven't bought any since December so maybe something changed or they had a bad batch.