MacJig

Agreed. Most of fishing and the fishing industry is nothing more than a sales job. Every fisherman needs braid. Everybody needs braid to fluoro. Everyone needs this and every angler needs that. I use mono 90% of the time and I never have a problem getting catches!

Ain't it the truth. Bottom line: you can catch a fish with a broomstick and string if you had to. I just prefer my loomis! I have a better idea! Just tie a uni knot. ?

If you have one or two close fishing friends that is worth its weight in gold. I have anglers that i'm friendly with but not necessarily friends with. I would love to have someone that you can just hook up with and go !

Love that. And you are right. There is a lot out there that can ruin your day/life. Need to stay positive. Fishing is a big positive. And by the way one of my pet peeves is that you have no pet peeves! ?

The YouTube One about the bigguns, totally agree. Funny! Your other point about trash, that's a popular one on this thread! Just don't get it. people have no respect for nature and their surroundings. At least some of them don't.

Ouch. I hope I'm never that guy in the back of the boat! That's why many switch to spinning gear!

Those are all beautiful. Being a bank angler, I can relate to the dog splashing scenario. Dog splashing. Bye-bye fish!

You are right about the fishing line and such. Terrible. What does it take to bring a small garbage bag with you and pick up your trash?

Ouch. I better be careful not to start a sentence with "in my day" or " back when I was a boy" or " I used to walk 5 mi to get to school ... barefoot". ?

Well when you live in an "entitled" culture where everything is supposed to be handed to you, then you can always blame someone else when things don't go your way.

One issue is the way the sport has evolved over the years. When I was a youngster in the '60s fishing was much more like hunting than it is today. It attracted a smaller population who liked to fish and harvest a few for dinner. Fishing and harvesting went hand in hand, within legal limits of course. With the onset of tournament Fishing, especially bass fishing the climate changed. It became much more of a money making, trophy carrying sport. Quite literally, it became a spectator sport with a lot more attention. More attention means more anglers. More anglers means more crowded lakes and other waterways. The bigger the crowd the higher the profits for fishing gear manufacturers. Hunting, unlike fishing, has, for the greater part, kept it's earlier roots with the same niche population. It is far less commercialized and so it's allure has remained the same. A lot has changed with the sport of fishing over the last 60 years! Many may think, not for the better.

So how about a thread of those painful pet peeves. You know, those fishing related things that make you go ? and ?‍♂️. Here are three of mine and they are YouTube related. 1. When anglers mix up a rod's "power" with it's "action" and vice versa. I don't know how many times I've heard YouTubers (even professional anglers and veteran YouTubers) describe a rod's power as the "action". I can live with that. But it's just a bit of a head scratcher. 2. Bait box infomercials on soooooo many YouTube channels. If I'm in a cranky mood and I hear at the beginning of a video "sponsored by blah blah box" I turn it off. Stop already. It's like a bad psychology experiment. How much can an angler stand? I think Karl owns YouTube. ? 3. And related ... The Googan Squad. I think I would rather take the Brady bunch. And that's not saying much! And yours?

Well I can answer this by experience. I fell down our stairs at home and tore my rotator cuff completely. It was a very bad tear. I couldn't even lift my arm to comb my hair (whatever I had left of it). The tear was so bad they had to use a cadaver part to repair it. So, I had the surgery and the recovery time and process was painful. For me, it was worse than my total knee replacement. But, I'm glad I had it done. It's not perfect, but I have my movement back. So my answer to you is ... how bad is it for you. If it's life debilitating, for me, I would get it done. If it was just a nuisance for me, I might wait it out. Bottom line: it's not an easy surgery but sometimes necessary. Of course you have financial issues to concern yourself with as well. On another front, I need to have my other knee replaced but that one I'm holding off on because I don't want to miss fishing season!!

Probably 85% or more of my fishing is with spinning gear, aka the fairy wand. As a bank angler I find I can avoid brush, trees and other instructions much more easily with spinning gear as compared to casting. Love ? my spinning set ups !

That's a very big boy here in NY as well. Big congratulations. That's a great Bass no matter what season you catch him in!

Yeah, until you open that lure closet at home and just stand there and go ... ?

That's great.

Oh that's a beautiful thing !!

Those are great companies that work with you even when the fault is your own. It makes you want to be loyal to those companies. But I was also thinking that the mark up on rods must be tremendous. Even at a fraction of the price they must be making a good profit.

Hey we are brothers. I just turned 67 in November. I know what you mean. I've worked my whole life and now I'm retired and I enjoy fishing and fishing related things. I don't need to apologize for that! So I have a lot of tackle snd 39 rods and reels ... and counting. ? I am, however, starting to feel the need to recycle some of my rods and reels. They are all starting to blend into one! Funny. Isn't AJ the angler with like 300 rods? Just trying to figure out which rod to take would give me anxiety! I mean it gives me anxiety now. ?

Yeah and you get some 8-10 pounders there to boot !! ? I got two bass the end of November around the 29th or so. Since then ?️. That's a beautiful thing. Just getting a bass in December is worth a great big yahoo! That one looks really nice.

Would love to but the canal that I fish for them in gets drained. ?‍♂️

For sure! Old guys like me have to really be careful when bank fishing. You never know what you're going to step into or trip over. ?

I feel your pain. 90% of my fishing is from the bank. But I avoid the creeks and go to the ponds. Hey, there's one thing that we get that boat anglers don't: exercise!

I have a number of their products (6 rods/reels, give or take) and I have a somewhat love/hate relationship with them. Aesthetically the rods and reels are A+. I do place some importance on the look of the gear and in this case they deliver. They also know how to market their products! I did "buy into" the BOGO sales; a few times as a matter of fact. I do think if you get the rods at the bogo price it's a good deal. If you pay full retail, not so much. I also own a typhoon reel that I've had a lot of problems with dialing in. It isn't one of my go-to reels. In my opinion they are priced as a high-end product but they are not high-end. Also as a footnote, I did a rating for one of their reels on their website and gave it three stars. They never posted it! Just got the feeling they monitor what ratings are posted and which ones aren't.