PhishLI

Got that as a Christmas gift last year. Can't wait to give it a whirl. Just need to figure out how to strap it to myself for when I'm wading through mosquito ridden green ooze. Can that be done without setting myself ablaze?

Sorry, I have no suggestions for relief. There's a lake I go to where two of the dudes got chiggers. Both reported 3 weeks of misery. One poured gasoline on his feet hoping that would do something, anything. I'm not kidding. Since then we wear high calf tube socks, cheap sneakers, and really spray them down with deet before we go in. I found out the expensive way that deet attacks the adhesive used in sneaker manufacturing. They basically start falling apart. If this lake wasn't so juicy I wouldn't bother, but it is. As far as biting insects go, my only strategy to deal with them at their peak is with heavy clothing. Many of the lakes I fish are very close to salt water and salt marshes here. We have wicked green flies and mosquitoes. I don't know whether or not there's such a thing as a salt water mosquito, but these things are different. They'll penetrate a ball cap like nothing, so I'm forced to fish with a heavy wool skull cap in August. The last time I wore a ball cap there I had lumps on my scalp for 3 days. I also wear a heavy sweat jacket when wading. Garment thickness is the only thing I've found to be effective at stopping them. I dose my gloves and neck gaiter with Natrapel, but they still get my face and neck. Thankfully, they can't bite through my chest wader material, or I'd quit fishing there when they're active.

I guess a catfish will eat a big crank down wake bait. Nothing special for me last night, but my buddy got this one on a Toxic Baits WAD3. Fat little kitty got both trebles trying to eat it. Cool!

Daiwa BG 2500. Will tolerate light salt duty, metal body, and braid ready spool. It's a tank that will take abuse and last. No weird bail issues or line lay quirks. I have one on a Tatula XT 7'3" MH and 30lb braid. I usually go commando this time of year, but will tie on leaders as needed,

Buy a 1oz bottle of Mend It and it'll extend your plastic bait's life ten fold. Some people can't be bothered doing this, but if plastic's durability is an issue for you, and it clearly is, then this is your answer. I've saved a small fortune on plastics since I started using it.

I got mine last week from from SBC. It got bit on the first cast in two two different lakes on two different days. My buddy wrecked 'em during the prespawn on this color. Might be special.

Zoom Fluke Stick. I came across an open pack of these at a local flea market 3 years ago. The first time out with one tied on it got a lot of hits, including one of my best bass, even to this day. I happened to be at DSG a few days later and found them on sale during one of their triple BOGO deals, so I bought a pile of them in different colors. I threw them until my eyes bled in multiple bodies of water, and haven't caught a single bass on one since that first time out.

Bass are CRAZY. I was reeling in my Gantarel Jr thru an open lane, and about 6' away from a stand of Lily pads when I saw this guy shoot out and T-bone my bait. He missed, then shot back into the pads. I got the bait back to within a rod's length of where I was standing when I saw a flash from the same spot he'd ran to just seconds earlier. He actually got between me and the bait, then headshotted it. He was totally driven to eat it, and it might just weigh more than him. Nutz!

Fishing on the Equator?

Weightless white flukes on a donkey rig. Chuck it into the school and let it drop down and do its thing.

I hadn't planned on it, but last night looked so juicy during the dog walk that I just had to go. I've been cursed with nothing but 2lbers on my newest swim bait setup, so it was nice to land a good hard fighter with a bit of weight finally. It shook off of the Shellcracker G2 on the first attempt, but bit hard on the very next cast to the same spot way out there on a weed clump. My trusty Nories Spoon Tail Shad got alot of attention too, and found the bigger of the two. Good action for a short sesh. 4.53 and 4.22.

I finally made it back to a Walleye lake for a night sesh with The Mad Walleye Lipper. A mat of grass was present at the shore line that extended out about 3 feet in zero to eight inches of water. From a distance I heard a commotion that looked like geese fighting near the shore. I worked my way down about 1000ft to find fish nearly beaching themselves in the slop. As I got closer I watched big wakes coming in, and then huge tail slaps through the matted grass right against the bank. I got a bunch of short strikes throwing small swimmers right along the mat, but they wouldn't commit. Tied on some wakes and glides, then began nailing them. No bigs, but pretty cool.

Lovebirds. Daily ritual. She cries. He pokes his head under. A few sniffs and kisses, and they're good.

Pick up a few different sizes of plastic fish grippers and never look back. Just about every time I'm too lazy to use them when fishing trebles I kick myself. Even if I don't get a hook in me, it's often a close one.

Are you allergic to posting pictures?

Our Bass season finally opened back up officially at 12:01 AM this morning. Work was a grind yesterday, then we watched our 2 1/2 year old grand daughter, AKA The Energizer Baby. Walked the pooch at 11:00 pm, and I was really done. The new couch in the man cave is oh so comfy, but I woke up after a 1/2 hour nap with some pop. I might do a night yak trip tonight, so I swore that I'd only do one hour, then split. I started off chucking a Nories Spoon Tail Shad, and got bit quickly. This guy fought hard and kept plowing down into the weeds, so I was sure it was a nice Pickerel. Turned out to be a hard charging 3 lb bass. A scrappy 2 lber shook off a Keitech Noisy Flapper as I went to lip it, and something heavy bit then let go of the Beast Coast Miyagi twice. Sigh. Called it a night at the hour mark. Feels good to be back.

Looks like a 1/0 short shank roundbend.

Personal style has little to do with what has been described, which is lack of suitability for certain circumstances.

I agree.

Now the addiction begins. Very few things in bass fishing are as sweet as pulling up to a pad field, or buck brush, or a laydown, eyeing a perfect spot, pitching your bait right to it, then bagging a fish. It's especially awesome if it's on the first cast to the best spot you see. Perfect redemption for the half a billion times you'd pitched to a juicy hole but came up dry. Wipes that right away.

Use Owner TwistLock hooks with spring keepers and leave the glue home.

Rounding out the tools for a few Alewife lakes we're heading to soon.

Correct. It's not, but it's just as effective, AFAIK. In cases where there's a spool bearing that sits in a bearing pocket casted into the frame there is no shaft flex, therefore no friction. This also allows for an aluminum spool shaft as there is no interaction with the pinion's bore. Either way, Lew's and Quantum's approach works fine here. There is negligible radial play where the pinion mates to the spool's shaft. The spool's/pinion's bearing is only about 1/4" outside of where a discreet pinion bearing mounted in the frame would sit, and there's little chance of flexing the pinion over it's length. Regarding the TP LFS, it lacks a crankshaft bearing on top of the roller bearing which is something you get from Quantum beginning with the Accurist. Whether that adds up to trouble down the line or not is unknown. I've fished mine plenty. It stills feels fine. Last season I thrashed my Quantum ICONs. Really tried to break them. Heavy veg. Big wake baits. Frogging pad fields. They still feel great, and the fact that Lew's/Doyo copied Quantum's/Banax pinion support strategy gives me hope that all is well and will probably remain that way.

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