CrankFate

The only way to stay with it is to keep learning. As soon as I feel like I know everything there is to know about anything, someone always points something else out that I didn’t know. And the person who points whatever it is out, might not even know that much themself.

I’d much rather be remembered for getting chased by an eleven foot alligator than an eleven pound rat....

Once you get to mid market, the reels all have good quality carbon drag washers. They don’t need to be upgraded. Unless there is a fiber washer under the main gear. That is something a lot of people replace, if there is one. The only benefit of adding an “upgraded” drag is that the washers might be thicker and could make the reel feel more solid and could give you more than stock drag pressure. I put “upgraded” in quotes, because I’m not sure if this is an actual upgrade. I, personally, prefer the feel of a reel with slightly thicker washers, but is is not at all necessary.

And here everyone’s worried about color. The fish can recognize each other just by looking at each other..... recognizing other humans is waaaay easier.

I work in a professional field. In the a smaller, dirtier part of the city where there are no fields. Last place in the world you should be bass fishing. But we are surrounded by saltwater that produces a lot of fish. It’s a little more suburban where I live so there are a few puddles to fish in. If you were the above average American freshwater bass fisherman that visits this website and lived in the area where I live, you’d have turned out much, much worse. Just from being around the people here. I lived every summer in Ohio when I was growing up, with almost relatives that worked in the USAF as an officer and civilian employee. Over the years, I spent time in around half of the US states in the Midwest and Northeast and as far down as Oklahoma.

Lake Champlain. I see the lochness monster every where I fish. Every cormorant in the world is the lochness monster in a blurry picture with no sense of size.

There’s one on eBay that appears to be mint or near mint selling for $175 + $15 shipping. The ones in good to very good are at around $150.

My grandmother (RIP) basically crippled herself by deforming her feet because she refused to wear flat shoes and only wore high heels until she could barely walk in sneakers. Most guys aren’t going to do that, but a lot of guys will fish overly heavy gear forever. And it’ll cause the same types of problems. I switched all my gear over some 25-30 years ago, so I didn’t do the same to myself. Especially because I had a fishing related wrist injury dating back to when I was about 3 years old. I spent the years between 2 years old and about 15 years old fishing gear that was way too heavy. Over the years, especially the last 10-15, the lighter gear and BC only fishing has really made a huge difference. At 45, my right hand and wrist is better than it was at 25 or 35. It’s not worth it to stick to heavy old gear, when there is so much lighter, better gear out there at all price points.

Keep fishing. Skunking builds character.

I was actually up in those parts 2 years ago. No guides anywhere in the region would even do bass only fishing. Didn’t make it to Honeoye. Proving people wrong isn’t going to help anything. Because if the big fish are sitting in 18” of water in the sun, they’re not going to be easily catchable. I believe this is because they probably go into the hot water to speed up their digestion. After pigging out. Unless you find one that’s just about ready to go feed again, they probably won’t bite anything. You will always be better off fishing where there’s fish biting. It was a nice area up there. But it was all trout and pike. Between all of us, over several days, we only had a half dozen bass the biggest being a little over 3.5lbs. 4 were smallies.

By Executive Order, no person in my household is permitted to even touch a closed face push button reel or the rod it is attached to, if it is attached to a rod.

I ordered my last rig from back order/preorder. They emailed me to let me know the items were not in stock, I said I knew that. They then gave me the time frame for the items to come in and gave me the option to cancel for a refund or keep the order. Since both items were not in stock anywhere, I kept the order. I thought letting me know was good customer service.

I have a specific design for a soft plastic that does not exist. I was watching YouTube videos on how to make your own mold. It is waaay too time consuming. If I didn’t have so much to do already, I’d could be casting my own molds to make it.

I have tried lots of sunglasses over the years. Now a days, I wear iDrive glasses, polarized amber glasses. $90 a pair. I’ve lost and broken too many glasses that cost way more over the years.

Nope. Nope. Nope. To cut my hair, you have to be a guy. You have to have to be married. And you have to have kids that are at least 15 or 16. If it’s not just a guy cutting a guy’s hair because guys need haircuts, it’s not for me. I don’t want any massaging, cuteness, nothing. I just want my hair cut.

Almost 2 months after the fact, part one of my birthday present arrived today. Going to use this for jerkbaits and slack line presentations that require a quicker hookset. Nice rod sleeve, but it’s never going back on the rod. Still waiting for the Curado BFS. Just finished cooking Mother’s Day dinner # 2 today. I don’t play when it comes to that type of thing.

I used to go to a place that did that. Nah, not for me, I can’t have some strange woman all up in my scalp like that.

All I can say whenever anyone says that no one catches when it’s hot out, is that I am the last person you’ll see hit the water at 4 am before first light. Usually, I show up when everyone else is leaving saying “it’s too hot now.” That was even the case with my PB, which was caught in the last moments of the trip, with the guide telling me I should’ve been there earlier because they stop biting at 10. I casted exactly where the guide was saying not to throw the bait, because it was too hot. I casted into the thickest pocket of steam coming off the water right next to the bank.

All I’m going to say, is as soon as I decided I was going to break a record, I haven’t caught anything but dinks. Literally. For like 3 years, nothing big.

I just looked it up. They can’t be held on a string or placed in a bucket, tub, live well or any other holding device. 6 CRR-NY 10.1 (c) (8) says “catch and release angling (i.e., catching and returning a fish to the water without causing it harm) is only permitted during the open season for a particular species. Measuring, weighing and photographing the fish are permitted as long as the fish is not removed from the water for an extended period or handled in a manner that could cause harm such fish may not be held on a string, or placed in a bucket, tub, live well or any other holding device.” Guess I should get a Boga and get it Certified ?

Not claiming to know the area, but this might mean they are sitting alone in between 18” and 4’ of water, with no top cover, right next to the bank, in the burning hot sun, where most fishermen will tell you they never go in the dead of summer because of low O2 levels.

So what if you protect the fish, transport it to a certified scale, weight it and then safely release it? No one ever said that there is a time frame between when it’s caught and when it’s released. Oh the things you can think about while fishing.....

Fished the thousand islands area a long, long time ago. All from the bank. Did better everywhere that wasn’t the St. Lawrence River.

I care about the drag because low start up inertia is critical when fishing thin braid. Otherwise, it could dig in if it’s not on tight.

By this time of year, I am covered up. I sunblock my face, or wear an SA face mask. I wear long sleeves or SA arm sleeves. I always wear a hat, too. Had about 10 things removed by the dermatologist last year. I don’t want to get those speckled redneck arms that run in my family.