Sphynx

Y'all are bad influences...Tackle Warehouse sending you guys any kickbacks? They should be lol...off I go to our favorite etailer

After much deliberation, I have decided these rules suck and I do not like them, that being said, I'd probably have to go with a senko style bait, probably a Yum Dinger knowing how much of a tightwad I am about it, and it would be green pumpkin if I could only have one color, add black/blue if I could do multiple, I'd probably go with a 4/0 offset round bend, probably an Owner, and probably a 1/4oz bullet weight, fishing the whole thing on a 7ish foot MF spinning combo 2500 sized reel, 15lb braid to a 8 or 10lb mono leader, I feel that between switching weightless to weighted Texas rig, I could get as near as possible to having all three levels of the water column covered, and you can fish a stick bait like 7384859596 different ways...I hate that I've posted this, and if the old lady ever hacks my phone you lot had better tell her that one of you hacked my account and posted that for me, because I'm denying that these words ever came outta my fingers til my dying day. I've never really understood the argument, the baits catch fish well enough, if you want them and aren't skipping mortgage payments or whatever to buy them I don't see any trouble at all with using the products, my guess is if you took every worm on the market and got rid of them except for one, I don't think it would really make as much difference as we like to believe...some difference? Sure, but it's not like fishing a (insert preferred brand here) lure is going to catch anymore fish than any other companies worm if you don't put it where it's supposed to be for the fish to find it.

I think parents of all generations have been concerned with the social influences on their children, the only answer I can offer is that at 7, the only social influence of significance in my life, or in my step children's lives were parents and other close family of whom there was zero reason for moral concern, there was never a concern about what they were watching because if they were watching it, the parents had already viewed and approved it, as to the nature of the content, there are many fishing channels on YouTube which are family friendly, and they provide content directed at the market of those with these concerns, the other channels cater to other audiences, it is not considered such a big deal to drink a beer or to smoke to some people, and certain parts of the world/country have different prevailing opinions on these matters, really it is incumbent upon the parents to monitor and facilitate what access the children they are responsible for are watching, in accordance with whatever they deem right so long as that isn't running foul of the laws of the land. Go through a Texas summer without air conditioning and then we'll see how many rose tinted glasses are to be found eh? Lol...things are not always better just because they used to be done a certain way anymore than things are not always worse now, there are objective trade offs with anything, not so much right and wrong as it is about making choices, if you want to go left you cannot go right, each way has its ups, each has its downs, but you'll have to choose eventually.

Out of curiosity, how do you think a kayak would do for an overall adventure craft?

What model of canoe is that if you don't mind me asking?

A big part of the reason that a canoe is in consideration is that I can pack a massive amount of weight on it, there is precisely nothing to stop me from doing a multi day float/camping trip, and still be able to take along fishing stuff, so it's a very serious option for me.

I will be purchasing one or the other this year, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sure.

So I'm on my way to Alabama to fish with an old battle of mine for several days and he says "We'll get on them early with buzzbaits and when that bite dies off we'll go hit'em with lizards." So being the nice guy I am I figure alright, let me stop and grab some lizards so I don't mooch his since I rarely use them, stopped in at the Academy in El Paso while waiting for my truck to regeneration and I'll be damned if they didn't have a couple of Mike Bucca Baby Bull Shad in the rainbow trout color in stock, d**n bait monkey got me again! Grabbed 6 or 8 packs of lizards in 6 and 8 inch in a few different colors and a rod glove as well.

It was a poorly executed play on words by me, you seem to have gotten the idea for all that.

Nah man, it was a topwater, a fluke is something entirely different lol

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to get out butt early in the spring and leave the rods at home, or if you do take them, drag a nice big c rig or something along the bottom before it gets choked looking for anything different, it can be a 6 inch drop, if it's what's there it's what the fish will use, alternatively you can always fish the top, frogs, buzzbaits and other topwater lures work well in these situations, I'd avoid the treble hook baits unless you have room between the surface and the salad, but my experiences fishing in Minnesota do not lead me to believe this is the normal summer conditions, once things start dying off and matting up you can find a bunch of fish under those mats if there is no other hard structure to relate to, just plunk a beaver or craw through the mat and hang on tight.

That's a chunk, he'll go over 3 for sure, you can see the girth much better in this photo.

It appears as though the bait is angled, making it a bit shorter in comparison, and while we can approximate for those size differences in both height and length of the fish, girth is a significant factor to estimating weight and we haven't got a thing to go on there at this angle...that said I would estimate around a 3lb fish, assuming it is at a healthy weight for the apparent length, but you'd never get my hand on a good book to swear to it.

You'll find nice fishing out west, it's got plenty of bass fishing, plus if you decide for whatever reason you want a change of pace you'll be within a few miles of a trout stream, and your not terribly far from the Deschutes, Rogue, and a handful of other bucket list western rivers for cutthroat trout, salmon, steelhead, rainbows, browns, brookies, and you might even hook up with a bull trout, you'll definitely want to closely read up on OR's fishing laws though, they are regionally controlled in many cases and sometimes they are not at all clearly defined or consistent. I don't do saltwater but I know lots of folks who do, and they stay busy landing fish, if you want to try your hand at ice fishing there are lots of opportunities for it up in the cascade range during the winter, @WRBis bang on about the locals turning noses up about bass, most folks can't stand them and many folks consider them problematic for salmon species, my advice is to play dumb and do your thing, arguing with those types isn't worth the time or trouble.

Here's a solution, use your same rods, and grab a spare reel and line, pflueger makes a few affordable models, so do lots of other manufacturers, line them with appropriate pound test for what your doing, and when you want to fish for trout switch reels to your 6lb stuff.

I don't like losing lures any more than the next guy, but that's just the way life works, there's the world we WISHED we lived in, and the world we DO live in, sometimes people forget that they aren't often the same thing.

Seems like your looking for a voodoo-like solution that permits you to fish trout gear for bass and not get noticed by pike...hate to be "that guy" but that's not the world you live in, you can either do what you know will solve the problem, address being lazy, accept that losing lures is part of fishing, use gear appropriate to the environment you are fishing, or you can continue to accept the results you currently get, there is no magic pike-away spray that is going to make them stop attacking your lures...alternatively you could consult Marie Laveau's daughter/grandchildren and they may have a mystic solution I am not aware of.

I don't like jerkbaits unless it's on my rod, I guess everybody has their eccentricities, and that's one of mine, otherwise he's got an extremely versatile list, and any time you have to limit yourself, versatility becomes even more important

I generally carry a 6 rod rotation, and it does change a bit based on circumstances, but mostly that's a 6'8"MXF jerkbait rod on the smaller end, and the 7'11" HF swimbait/a-rig rod on the other, other than that my lineup includes all the noted rods, with the only exception being I prefer a 2 crankbait rod selection, M and a MH, good stuff otherwise, thanks for sharing.

I'd also add micro or finesse jigs to the list as I haven't seen them listed, like the z man ones. A tube is pretty much never a bad idea either with smallmouth, but I still am of the opinion that putting the wrong lure in the right place is infinitely more productive than putting the right lure in the wrong place...so put the lure where it's supposed to go and you should have success with most of the tactics listed.

My willingness to grind depends heavily on a number of factors, if I took a week off work and head out of town on a proper fishing trip (probably featuring a tent and a campfire at some point) I would fish through a hurricane, if I stop by the pond a mile from my summer contract after work, I will not grind very hard, I fish that pond probably 100+ times a year, I have never caught any bass larger than a pound out of that area, and it just isn't worth putting up with a lot of discomfort for a few buck bass. Outside of bass, you stick me in a nice run with a fly rod and some willing trout? You may as well stick a fork in me, because I'm done, I'd fish like that all day, every day and I wouldn't complain a bit...so it just depends on the perceived cost versus the perceived reward. You guys on about dehydration, don't fool with it, it's not worth it, I have had severe dehydration and heat exhaustion many times throughout my time in the Army and its bad news, it'll kill you if it goes too far, and most of the guys who I ever saw get really jacked up by dehydration bit it in the cold months, we had a private flat line on us once due to heat stroke and dehydration because he thought he was tough (he lived, thanks to a very skilled medic, he'd have ended up tagged and bagged otherwise), not a game I'm terribly interested in playing again.

When they are on whatever your throwing they hit harder than any other fish it has been my good fortune to catch, if there's something in my area that hits and fights any harder than a smallmouth I'd love to know what it is

Been out a fair deal with the fairy rod and a couple packs of fat Albert grubs, I'm not terribly brand loyal when it comes to this presentation because I don't use it super often, I keep it pretty simple, something natural and something bold, green pumpkin and black usually but I don't really insist on it, I find a lot of times on the river especially that during the cold months I have no need to do anything, just soak it and let the current tickle the grub tail, works well if you can tolerate the pace and the weather.

If you look hard enough, you'll find "experts" that will tell you both things, you'll find a whole lot of conflicting information in bass fishing, lots of this stuff makes for an interesting read and is fantastic for giving someone new ideas to try, but I would be very leery of considering anything posted or published as the gospel truth, the only advice I ever got I consider holy writ is the "The fish is always right" meaning that no matter how wrong it might seem for the fish to be biting a certain presentation under unusual conditions, the fish is right, just go with it and enjoy it.

Paca chunk most of the time, but if I haven't got one of those or I think something else might work better I have no issue switching it up, speed craws, vilecraws, fat Albert grub, trd...generally I run on the assumption that it doesn't matter what I think looks good on that jig, if the fish think the dumbest looking combination I have is good enough to eat, I am more than happy to accommodate them.