fin

I wear sunglasses and cap, and sometimes I can pull down the brim to block the sun, but there's a couple places I fish from the bank and there's no way to get in a spot where the morning sun is not right in my eyes. And it's not blocking the sun itself, that's no problem, it's the sun's reflection on the water that's the problem. I tried sticking a handkerchief under my cap once, but not only did it look ridiculous, it didn't work well at all. I think I need something like flip-up welding glasses ?

What do you do when you basically have to stare at a reflection of the sun in the water? A hoodie is great in the winter, but only when the sun is off to the side a little, not straight in front of you. Is there anything made for this? I was thinking like maybe something that would hang off the brim of your hat/cap that could be re-positioned as needed?

Here's a pic of some of the 10# Suffix 832 line I trimmed off. One year old, trimmed off about 50' or so. I've been through a lot of PowerPro, and a few other brands and never seen any fraying like this. I'm not badmouthing the line, it's been good except for this one issue. I've only had one break, usually my 10# Trilene leader breaks. After that one break, that's when I trimmed off the 50'.

I've only had one instance where it broke, so maybe it doesn't affect the performance too much. It doesn't increase my confidence though. I thought maybe it was just me. Good to know.

I sent Zoom an email Sunday asking if they’d replace the defective pack of flukes. Today I find this on my porch. It’s been like 10 years since the last time I had a quality issue with Zoom, and they handled it the same way then. Class act. Just one of the reasons they’re my favorite for soft plastics. ?

I thought the opposite was true, but I’ve been using 10# Suffix 832 for the past year on two rods and I’ve been getting a lot of fraying. I never had that experience using 10# PowerPro. I’m using the same rod/reels and fishing the same places and methods. I do fish on riprap a lot, but I always have.

I only bought one pack, but all of them are like this to some degree. It’s funny because I looked through a few packs to try to find the ones that were the least bent. I didn’t even notice the mold problem until I got home and opened the pack. I’ll probably just keep them. My main concern was whether this was some change at Zoom.

I got these at Walmart last month. I’ve never seen this before. Is this the way Zoom is making all their Super Flukes now, or is this some made special for Walmart? I know some manufacturers have special (cheaper) production lines for Walmart. At first I thought maybe this pack missed a finishing process, like they weren’t trimmed or something, but trimming wouldn’t remove that band going across the fluke. It looks like clear tape, but it's part of the fluke.

The refillable ones will fit in a glove, or at least it fits in mine (X large). I don't know about the rechargeable. I've even tried to fish with mine in my glove, but it doesn't work well at all. Some air-tight fabrics might smother out the refillable.

lol. I have the same problem. If it comes to you, please let me know. From what I could tell, Zippo only sells the whole burner. I was expecting to buy just the catalyst material, not the metal frame. I gather that is some kind of treated fiberglass.

Any particular one you would recommend? It looks like my hand warmer needs a replacement burner after a little less than a year. Zippo wants $7.44 for one on Amazon. That plus shipping would come pretty close to the cost of a whole new hand warmer from Walmart.

I’ve fished this one dock for years that was all wood in the beginning, I think it was like 8 slips, and then after a few years they replaced it with a larger aluminum floating dock with like 12 slips that is anchored by four posts. They cut off the old posts a few feet below the surface. I don't fish there a lot because it’s always been high pressured. Not a lot of boat activity, just a lot of fishermen standing on the dock fishing. I caught a lot of fish on the old wooden dock, and I still catch fish on the aluminum one, but I caught more and larger fish on the smaller wooden dock. I do like @Woody B and pull lures under the floats and walkway, but most of my catches are at the posts, like @WRB said. Lately I've been catching the same fish at the same post. I've caught him like four times in the past month. Obviously other fishermen aren't fishing those posts, or he would have been eaten by now. The aluminum dock is much noisier. I don’t know if that noise is muffled underwater by the floats, but it seems like it could scare fish.

I'm usually concentrated on fishing, but once I find one lure, then I can't stop looking everywhere. Anywhere, like you said, no matter how illogical. But those certain parts of any lake where floaters will end up, I can't ever pass those areas without having a quick look.

It's better than snakes, at least.

You mean when you mess with the hive itself? I don't even want to think about that. Every time they've come after me, it's just been like 1-3 of them.

Yellow jackets usually have more than one entrance to the hive within a few feet. Watch your six when dealing with them. You did the right thing blocking the hole - they can come back next year and nest in the same place, but you want to find the other entrance before you deal with them so you can seal it too. I've gotten stung by them cutting grass a few different times, and I've gotten stung by them fishing at least two different times when standing on their hive without knowing it. I've seen lots of wasps nests along the bank, but I've been more fortunate with them. Yellow Jackets feel like someone put a lit cigarette against my skin when I get stung.

Yeah, that's a nice color on that jointed shad rap. What the heck is that white thing right above it?

That's interesting. Were the H2O marked for clearance? That would be odd, a brand new store with stuff marked for clearance, but I could see it happening. I wonder if that store has the new branding/packaging?

I don't think that's true. I've caught a few bowfin, and I don't recall any slime. Never had the pleasure of meeting a gar. I think the catfish's lack of scales is the reason for the slime.

Yeah, all the tell-tale signs of a cat. I’m not much of a cat fisherman, but the ones I have caught have all been like that. Sudden, really strong run to deep water, no jumping, the slime. They are really strong fish. I’ve seen dead cats floating with bass lures in their mouth before. Most of the cats I’ve caught have been on bass lures.

Actually it says they should NOT eat from the lake. ? That's easy. A life where you catch a bunch of locally caught fish, and don't get sick because of them. Seriously though, none of us really know what we're being exposed to and what it's doing to us, and it's impossible to avoid it. Here's a case where they have proof, so I'll listen to them. If I was starving, it would be different. Most states have websites that provide information on the safety of fish in particular areas.

I caught one once that had a hook stuck in the roof of its mouth, all rusted and swollen. It looked like a snake fang. I was lucky I didn't get stuck by it when I lipped it.

I wish I could find a cheaper trick worm, but I wouldn’t be able to get the exact Zoom colors I love. The little 6-12 inch bass are destroying my worm inventory this time of year. I can catch several 3-4# bass on a trick worm before it gets worn out, but let those little buggers hit it one time and then they go into a conniption fit and ruin the worm almost every single time. 25 cents is nothing when you’re catching decent size fish, it starts to hurt when you’re catching nothing but dinks.

What is that top middle? And what color is that?

I mentioned it in "The Latest Sale Thread" back on August 16th. Yeah, this is what I'm hoping for. It's a strong possibility. My biggest fear is that they lost their manufacturer. Anything is possible these days. They do clearance sales almost every year around this time, but this is a little different.