CrankFate

Was in a local fishing tournament today, bank fishing only. My first ever. And likely my last. Actually at the lake I caught my first LMB in when I was 4 or 5 years old. It was like 4 or 5 inches. Haven’t fished there since I was 5 or 6 years old. We did no scouting or prefishing. Because life. Too many other things to do. We did OK with 7 fish between us. All dinks. Only one of each of our fish made the 10” minimum size limit. I was #23 out of 58. I think my son was 2nd for the kids, because he was only a half inch behind the winner. My bag was 39 inches, counting the shorts. My son’s was 30. It was a terrible 92 degree day, with horrible, oppressive air quality. This was the only time I was ever happy it started to rain during the last two and a half hours. We did OK considering we had no real game plan, except me looking at google maps.

The hand size makes it 26-29” - I would guess 12-15lbs if my hand size estimate is accurate.

Got 2 of these for the kids for travel. Thinking of getting a third for me. These are real rods. Worth triple the price. https://www.amazon.com/KastKing-Compass-Telescopic-Fishing-Spinning/dp/B088R33Q9Q/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImIeXy4fk8QIVC5WGCh25HA9oEAAYASAAEgKWlvD_BwE&hvadid=178115762838&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9004156&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=13253960409894240314&hvtargid=kwd-457029030152&hydadcr=9714_9896908&keywords=kastking+telescopic+fishing+rod&qid=1626317177&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A2IJQ4TEEM9I9E&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFLWVZaTzVQMjlNMUUmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4MjI1NzAyMjVWSlhSQjJOODdSJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNTE0ODIxUEsyVjFGVzUwVFgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

I don’t go below 10. There’s rocks and sticks to Knick the line and then big fish to break it off. No way I’m losing a fish over 5lbs for the sake of going light for the sake of going light.

d**n not an owl. I’ve seen ducks and seagulls tied up. And it’s impossible to cut it off because you need a net to catch them. Those are the idiots that cut the line at the tip of the rod.

After over two months of strategic starvation, I went back to the gym today. My workout was weak, slow and less than 45 minutes. Easing back into it. Now, to focus on not making my traps, upper back and neck so big. I was at big and tall sizes just to fit into a shirt. I have gotten rid of a lot of it, by changing my form in the first half of 2021, before my weight loss break. God willing, I will overcome my genetics. Weighed in at 216 today. Much better than the 229 I was stuck at. That was about 13 pounds off from diet alone. There is absolutely nothing worse than losing weight from diet only. But I finally dropped most of the quarantine weight. Aiming for 208. I hate going back to the gym after time off, because ego lifts make for a high likelihood of injury after sitting around doing nothing for 10 weeks. Must resist the urge.

Looks better than my crappy fish tattoo. Never. Ever. Go into a tattoo parlor, mid day, on a week day, randomly and pick an all black tattoo off of the wall and get it done on a whim.

If braid digs in it means the line is spooled loose close to the arbor and spooled tightly around the outside of the spool. If spooled tightly enough all the way through you won’t get dig in, even with super thin line. Stopping can be anything. A knot in the spool or an overrun coil is usually it. Happened to me on vacation about 2 years ago. Eventually I realized there was a tiny overhand knot in my line more than halfway down to the arbor. After I got home.

If your fishing around anything to get hung upon, it nicks the line. That leads to more break offs. I don’t play when it comes to line. I always have something on hand, just in case.

Skunked for the first time this season. Fishing my first tournament next week.

You’re lucky. They lowered the water where I fish, it killed the bite and the water is now green.

The heat, by itself, IMO, does not harm the bite. The other things that come with the heat do. Things like algae bloom toxins, decaying leaves and the toxins that come from whatever algae or vegetation died off in the heat do kill the bite. This is even more noticeable in the small lakes where I fish. In big lakes there will probably still be safe zones for the fish to go to. But I don’t think the heat kills the bite, especially not with everyone saying the cold fronts kill the bite.

Time on the water. Watching the water (since I’m usually on the bank). I was watching a fly fishing video recently. The fishing guide said when you get to the spot don’t just start casting. Look at the water. Look at the current (still water still has a lot of movement). Look for fish and bait. That is just as important as everything else. The more time on the water, the more of these things you’ll see.

What is SHS?

I’d say if at all possible, make it $300. At $300, you will get a setup that has little compromise and which should last you a lifetime. A $150 rod is going to get you a much better deal than a $50-$80 rod will. The difference in sensitivity and weight when you step up to a $150 rod is, IMO, one of the biggest jumps in quality that you’ll ever find in any product. If there was one thing that I’d say is a must, for a serious fisherman, it’s a rod and reel both in the $130-$150 range.

If it was me, I’d take it down a notch on the expensive scale. You see so many people with “warranty issues” on “high end” rods. Just go down one level and you should be good to go.

^ This.

If you are careful and know how to tie knots and handle your gear, you should be gut hooking only a few fish. I’m usually trying to get them to hold on a half second! If you handle them properly, you can minimize the damage and safely release almost 100% of them. Usually, the fish only dies when someone just yanks, pulls and twists the hook to not lose it in the fish. I can’t tell you how many times I helped people remove rusted dull hooks from gut hooked fish. They are usually saveable if your careful and take a few minutes to remove the hook with minimal tearing. These fish eat live crawfish, birds, mice and spiky fish. They are designed to have no problem getting puncture wounds in their digestive tracts that could kill a human, without antibiotics. We’d die swallowing a live 4-5” bluegill, crawfish, bird or mouse.

Light line (bass fishing) uni/uni. Heavy line 50lb braid to 50lb Fluoro - overhand knot to uni.

I don’t know? I only started wearing the mesh back hats this season. No problems, though. I think with my hair all pressed down it’s ok. I wouldn’t wear it with a very short haircut.

I always wear a hat. When I was younger, I had a really really short haircut. Spent a few days working outside 12 hours a day in the summer and got sunburn on top of my head. It was dark brown, burnt and peeling. All of my hair never grew back and I got a permanent mole the size of a dime on my temple. I have worn a hat whenever I’m in the sun ever since. I still have good amount of hair, and no man on any side of my family ever went bald, but the area where the worst burn was is thinner and is never coming back.

@Bluebasser86 that’s what I need. Actually, those are bigger than I expect to catch.

1. Top quality hooks. 2. Fishing ultralight gear (before it was called “BFS”). 3. Fluorocarbon line. 4. Money to buy better stuff. 5. Actually reading through articles, comments and tips (but the YouTube videos by the pros are great, too). 6. Fishing very fast. 7. Not using green pumpkin anything around here. Last time I threw it to fish that literally had no reaction to anything I threw, it was the only thing they reacted to. By swimming away from it. 8. Trying different colors. 9. Remembering that whenever I think I know everything about anything, I’ll quickly be reminded that there’s another thing I didn’t know. Probably should be number one, but it never will be or I wouldn’t have this problem to begin with.

That’s what I’m after. Big rainbows. Because I caught them when I was a kid, but the biggest ones were about 6 inches.

Fly fishing is overrated. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.