schplurg

My season was pretty bad as my main local fishing areas completely dried up (creeks and ponds). I caught okay until then. Caught a few fat 4 and 5 pounders at Lake Tulloch 2 hours away. Next year will be totally different as I have a new yak, Sportsman 106 and my primary focus will be on the Delta and who knows where else. Not the San Jose area that's for sure. Time to get real!

Yep. Flip the switch to activate the plugs and it works like a champ. I bought all the parts on Amazon. The box goes in the milk crate. One problem I have is that if I toss stuff in the crate it can turn the switches off. I'm going to build a combo power - tackle box with built in switches and ports, maybe out of ABS. It's a project I'd like to do anyways.

Me either, meaning I didn't catch anything haha! I usually know where I'm gonna fish but this was a new creek for me. South Bay is terrible now. Ponds and creeks are almost all dry. I pretty much went just to get out of the house. But I like the little adventure of it. I'm gonna concentrate on the new kayak next season though.

This is a video of a typical day of bank fishing for me along one of the creeks on the edge of San Jose, CA. I walked and crashed through shrubs and rocks and trails for 5-6 miles looking for bass. I wonder if the creek had dried up recently like some others nearby because it was almost lifeless. But I met several people, had some funny moments and just thought it might be interesting to see. I think an ad might play at the beginning, not sure, but I do not monetize my channel. I think the 1.5 seconds of music wasn't public domain like I thought it was, so Youtube slapped an ad on it. I usually make my own music. I go through a lot to catch a fish, or not, so this is for all the folk who will damage their body and do whatever it takes for love of the game. Check out the deer on the sidewalk. I missed videoing the two bucks right next to the road.

I have 2 x 11 ah AGMs in my yak for fish finder, plus lights, cameras and recharging of phones or whatever. They just were the best fit for my DIY "Hot Box" power box. I use it camping to power stuff too. Go ahead and laugh at my electronics "skillz". There's a piece of wood in the bottom cut out to hold the batteries in place.

I have a multi-tool from Walmart and those pliers are fine, if we're talking hook removal. Fine for other things too really. I used to use hemos but on tough removals they would fail - as in they weren't strong enough to "stay together" if I had to twist out a tough hook. Maybe I had a cheap pair.

Wow thanks for the stories guys. I've never really waded but I've heard of the dangers. I'm scared just reading this. Would a manually inflatable CO2 PDF help? I don't think I'd trust one as my normal PFD, but for wading...seems like it could help in an emergency.

EDIT To ADD[Someone responded with a "sad" smiley but I don't see it now which is why I wrote this second post.] [Oh I see it's still there on page one, I double posted my story] That's not the sad part. The sad part is that this woman was a horrible person and a few months later her two bigger dogs killed two of the little ones, about a week apart from each other. Me and another neighbor called animal control - I heard the second attack myself and so did they - and one thing let to another and she got kicked out after threatening the other neighbor. She was on one side of a duplex, me on the other and we shared a landlord. Every time I'd BBQ after the chili day the little dogs would sit at the fence hoping for food to fly over towards them. I think they were fine with the chili. I'd see them through a small hole. I think she didn't feed them well. She was the worst neighbor I've ever had by a long shot. Got drunk, stole my mail (I had cameras), got in a fist fight with her son on the front lawn. Cops came over a lot. I think I did the dogs a favor by feeding them every now and then, though. I do admit I hoped the dogs would crap in her house with the chili at first. You had to be there. She was awful.

I disagree that police have better things to do. This is their job. Call them, and if they say call animal control then do that. A-Jay has it right. Use the services you pay for. I love dogs but I really really dislike a lot of their owners. I once tried to put a note around a cat as someone did above with a dog, telling the owners that "Next time the nice man may not be so nice to me", but have fun grabbing a loose cat!!! I once had a neighbor with 5 dogs and the little yapper dogs were the worst. Barked all day long. My drunk neighbor didn't care. She said after many months of this, "Try giving them treats, I'll give you some, just don't give them people food or they will crap all over my house" Never got the treats, so I tossed them chili the next night. I wonder what happened?

^^^ Looks like the giant condom from Porky's on a stick. I give it a 4/10, and whoever it fits, a 10.

Both please!

Hate to repeat myself but... Natural cycle? As in "we don't address environmental problems in this lake so this happens all the time"? I don't know I'm just asking.

From what I've seen in the past two years there are people out there dumb enough to try this. Not on this forum, of course!

3 of my "fairy wands" even have Pflueger Lady Presidents on them because I got them brand new at clearance prices of 66% off, straight from Pflueger. Pretty much identical to regular Presidents except a bearing or two (or maybe they're the same?) and the color (kind of salmon-ish). Caught many 4-5 pounders on them including the one in my avatar photo.

Yep. On a tough day if either of us catches it was a good day for me.

Sea Lions will swim up and growl/bark at you, at least I've seen it in videos. That would scare the crap out of me in a yak. They get really big.

The silence here is deafening but you guys were all correct in your responses: there is nowhere to bass fish right now in Salem! Haha I tried Minton Brown Island the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It rained, it was shallow, and there was no signs of life. But it was free to fish the two days after the holiday so I didn't spend $100 on a license to find out. Visited family so it's all good. Saw a small pond in the industrial part of the city stocked with trout and people catching them.

I still have my old Ride 115. I figure I can sell it later, right now I can maybe let a friend borrow it and fish with me. Right now it's getting rained on though (covered).

Thanks and now I can see the photos too. Very cool.

Been meaning to do the same to mine. I can't see the photos due to bad internet right now, but I assume it's that orange one I got on Amazon. Blanchard modified the same net. Did you use screws or anything to clamp the handle onto it?

See the "Do you carry while in your boat?" thread in the gun sub-forum for just one of many reasons why this is a bad idea. You are also probably breaking several laws.

Saw nothing on sale I wanted. They only had two BC rods on sale and I think one reel. Probably a good thing for me. San Jose, CA

I'm not really looking for one. My DIY does what I need ( til it breaks!), but if I need one the WS is top of the list.

Visiting Mom and Sis in Salem, Oregon. I almost lost my Mom a few weeks ago to a massive heart attack. Now she's walking around the kitchen looking for her phone. Amazing. Very thankful.

I'll give a different perspective. Week or so ago I hiked and fished along a creek for 5-6 miles. Some of it was on trails too but most was tramping through brush and climbing around. If I do the same distance on the yak my legs get a bit of a workout but that's it. Hiking like that I was dead tired limping back to the van. It's more than just the legs working I think. Depends on how one bank fishes though. I like to make it a little adventure. I don't think you need to get the heart rate going for any length of time to get a workout on the legs and body from climbing around like that, and my legs definitely feel it when I'm done pedaling the yak.