Johnbt

I got a BP/Cabela's 20-page flyer in the mail yesterday. Marine Sale & Event from 2/9 to 2/22. First item, first page - Lowrance HDS-12 LIVE for $1999.99. "SAVE $1450 off orig."

The first one I ever caught was on the Chickahominy River above the lake in '72. I was dragging a piece of nightcrawler around under a bobber on a blazing hot day, just sort of drifting around with my girlfriend waiting for her parents to return. The fun part was being jerked around in a canoe.

The guy that's taught me to bass fish during the past 45 years used to be with a Shimano-affiliated group that fished a regional circuit and worked shows and such. I heard about a bunch of people that influenced him. I've never fished a tournament fwiw. One time when Roland Martin came to town they asked my friend to take Roland to Lake Anna (13000 acres) and show him how the fishing was - largemouth and striped bass/rockfish. I've heard a lot of secondhand stuff over the decades. This is the guy who got me a real deal (among many) on the original Shimano Bait Runner 4500 I showed the other day in the Shimano thread. It was a show sample, in the box and for less than half price it looked new. _____________ And I'd like to mention regional tv star Franc White, The Southern Sportsman. Not because he taught me to bass fish, but because he was a weekly reminder to go outside and do something. "RALEIGH, N.C. — “Do yourself a favor, take a kid fishing.” The words were uttered so routinely by Franc White. He closed his weekly show, “The Southern Sportsman,” with them 1,087 times over 24 years {'72 - '96}. They carried such little burden but such profound fervor." "However, he is best known as an expert outdoor sportsman, writer, and conservationist. He made the Southern Sportsman show an institution in households throughout the South and even as far as California for over 25 years."

I let JT know the package arrived. Kayo Sonoda's response included the statement "Fedex is amazing...!" There's also the time zone difference. When they say they will ship on Jan 25 and I get it by lunch on the 26th, I have to remember that their day starts 14 hours before our EST zone day. But still, Japan to Virginia is a long way. These are really nice reels. Really, really nice. I have two Steez SV TW models from a couple years back to compare them to. After I get back from lunch with the guys I'll put some line on them and cast a little in the back yard. There's 35 or 40 yards of wide open casting room without getting into the woods. I'd go fishing, but it's 10 a.m., sunny and only 40*F. It was in the 20s overnight.

I looked at Digitaka of course, but they never had both at the same time. The Zillion is large, but it only weighs 7.05 ounces even with those huge knobs on a 100mm aluminum handle. I'm 72 and done with waiting for the next big product release of anything. If I'm around when the next big thing hits and I'm curious about it then I'll buy it.

I'd been looking at JDM reels for a couple of weeks, but pickings were slim and inventory would drop to zero every time I would decide what I really wanted. This would be my first JDM reel. This past Sunday night a few great choices turned up on JapanTackle, so I pulled out the credit card and made a decision. Monday they acknowledged the order. Tuesday they charged the card and later e-mailed that it would be Fedex'd on Wed 1/25 and to give it 5 to 8 days. I figured I'd give it a day or two before I checked the tracking number. I got the package today around noon today. Thursday 1/26. Color me shocked and very happy.

Top to bottom: Baitrunner Plus 6500 Triton Sea Spin Bait Runner 4500 from mid to late '80s iirc. Note the graphite spool. Note that Bait Runner is two words on the side. And last but not least an MLZ10. Aluminum from the late '80s. "Colfor" spool. 104 yds of 6#. Spool diameter = 1.34" And a Washington quarter, diameter = 0.955" Edited to add: The Bass Pro receipt for the 6500 Plus is still in the bottom of the box. 3/11/88. $56.94 plus $6.10 shipping.

"832" My hands stay rough enough that just tying a knot with 832 will fray it. I've tried, and still own, 10# on up. It's fishes okay, just looks like heck.

Ozium comes in large spray cans and also as a solid in a jar with a perforated top. www.amazon.com/Ozium-804281-Regular-Eliminator-Original/dp/B008XNZZ7O

"most braids over test by quite a bit." The last time I tested a half dozen brands of braid they broke at 50% more to 110% more than the rating. That was 5 or 10 years ago so take it for what it's worth.

It comes and goes. My first mortgage, a 30-year conventional, was 12.75% in January of 1980. I was lucky because things got worse. Some people with good credit ended up paying 16%, 17% or more. "Why were mortgage rates so high in the 80s? The reason interest rates, which ultimately are set by the Federal Reserve, exploded in 1980 was housings' arch nemesis, runaway inflation. The Fed funds rate, which is the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, hit 20 percent in 1980, and 21 percent in June 1981."

29,800 yen = $230.02 We will see.

Uh-oh I just realized there's a Lund dealer closer to Richmond VA than 130 miles away in NC. It's barely an hour away at Lake Anna. I need a river boat that will seat six - wife's son, d-i-law and 2 little boys. If I order now can I get it by January? Discounts for cash? I wonder if the two nearby river marinas have any covered slips left? No, they never do, but I hear the economy is in turmoil and the county ramps are closer than the marinas. Well, one is next to the ramp, but on the far side. Time for a road trip. Pray for me. Mid-Atlantic Watersports 58.0 miles away 349 Pleasant Landing Rd Bumpass, VA 23024 (540) 893-6111 (My wife doesn't care what I do boatwise. We did 2 bathroom tear outs last year, 2.5 PVC decks, 2 sliding doors, and well, her old house is 28 years old. We were married in 2018 fwiw and I sold my 1916 house in 2020. Moving up. Moved to the country.)

I love some of the specs. "Baits Type: Fake Bait"

Nice boat. I keep looking at James River-size boats - it's tidal for 100 miles to Richmond and there are some tugs and barges and container ships. Just one more thing to take care of. Maybe I should get a small bay boat. Meanwhile - In 2014 a 1648 bare bones, no console, no trailer, no nothing, Tracker Grizzly hull was $2599. Now? Only $5595. A trailer is another $2k. Was $1250 more in '14. ----------------------- 2023 GRIZZLY® 1648 JON National Price $5,395 Freight: $200 Your Price w/ Prep & Freight: $5,595

Looks like a nice design. But I'm good, yesterday Amazon delivered 2 Tatula LTs, a 3000-CXH and a 4000-CXH. Maybe they'll have a deep, deep, deep discount sale somewhere. Get some backups for the backups. Maybe another 2500 and 5000.

Send them the pic and see what they say. And then return it.

Sure, but what happens when they decide that you cannot use it ever again because you signed over your rights? Wait until they doctor a pic of your kid holding a fish and sell it to advertisers and such or put it on t-shirts for sale depicting your kid as the new fish killing maniac and butt of all vegan jokes. Don't give up your possessions so easily.

No thanks. "you grant PostImage a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights) " "With regard to any file or content you upload to the public portions of our site, you grant PostImage a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights) to use, to display online and in any present or future media, to create derivative works of, to allow downloads of, and/or distribute any such file or content, including embedded (hotlinked) into third-party websites otherwise not affiliated with PostImage. " From: https://postimages.org/terms

https://daiwa.us/collections/spin-reels Just looking at the single pic of each model shown it's possible to see a bunch of A/R switches. KAGE LT PROCYON AL TATULA LT FUEGO LT EXCELER LT LEGALIS LT QR 750 STRIKEFORCE B I like the Tatula LT for bass fishing and some other things too. I will probably get a few more, although I'd prefer a Shimano Sustain if the current ones had the switch like my older FE models. I noticed years ago that some of the saltwater reels and some of the inshore reels were dropping the switch, supposedly to eliminate one more place that water/sand could inside. I still think they're dropping the feature to save a few pennies and eliminate a little warranty work. I still find it useful when surf fishing - to play out tight line after casting while backing up out of the breakers. Same for keeping a bass worm in place hanging on a branch or a snag while my boat drifts with current or wind.

"Way of the past, it's dead," Nonsense. You probably think full cork grips are dead, too.

My buddy was driving my boat and caught this in 15-20 feet of water. The lake gets a bit deeper in places. We were casting at the bank 25 yards away and hopping them on the bottom until they were under the boat. He caught this one almost straight down. 10.5# caught on 3/9/17 on a 3/8 oz white/chartreuse chatterbait with a large trailer - Kalin's Mogambo Grub - Chartreuse Hologram - 6". His technique; my idea to show up with large grubs in our favorite color. He was using a 6.5' Medium casting rod. We found a few of them at a show for $25 each new - the stand where the guy takes loss leader combos and breaks them into racks of rods for $25 and bins of (nearly useless) reels for $10. It's a Quantum ULC661 IM7 and I eventually found the last two combos in North America on line at the Quantum warehouse in Tulsa iirc for something like $17.50 each. It took some work to find the combo number, the rod number was useless. Great rods for lures up to 1/2 ounce it says. Full cork, too. I think he had an original Steez on it that day. It's his favorite spinnerbait rod, too.

No music in the boat. No tv in the boat. I enjoy the peace and quiet and the sounds of the wind and the water lapping.

I have no idea about the BP catalog. I dearly miss the hardback catalog Cabela's used to send me every year. BP stopped that.

" but these aren't 150 dollar rods. " Sure they are, they just charge a lot more for them. Speaking of charging a lot, I just shopped for a pound of jumbo lump crab meat - blue crabs, Chesapeake Bay crabs. $83.99/pound. I thought paying $47/pound last summer was expensive.