PhishLI

Yes, there's good rain. Then there's cryin' out for your momma rain. Tears mixed with raindrops...

Surprisingly heavy cloud cover rolled in out of nowhere last night to blot out a nearly full moon, which doesn't seem to happen often enough. I'd rather stay home and belt-sand my bunions than fish under clear skies and a beaming orb. It's the worst. Rain by itself is a close second, but with the spawn so near combined with an unusually good mixture of the two, they'd have to be biting. Right? Right! I just had to go. Got a nice Crappie pronto on the Livingston Bullnose, but then black clouds crept in. Oddly, there wasn't a lick of wind when the deluge began. It just poured. Got a fat little chunk on the Shellcracker G2, then another just like her on the S-Waver 168, but by then the rain was simply unbearable. It's about time for a waterproof case for me old iPhone 6, I reckon.

I'm waiting for this 11-4. Maybe he accidentally added a 1?

You should make sure you'll be comfortable pitching with a typical long-handled swimbait rod like the 795. I don't like them myself for that duty.

Snuck in an early morning in-between-rain-storms sesh with my brother. Got a few bites before we were blasted out of there.

And it looks like he didn't blank. Milliken takes on Buggs Island - Bassmaster

Looks like it. Thrift caught 1 fish at the Heavy Hitters final day the other day. 9.6lbs. $100K fish Uncle Frank days are must watch.

Lots of guys haven't posted catches today on Basstrax. Adds to the drama. He'll be in early, so 1st flight it seems.

I don't know that I like or dislike seeing it. I don't look at it that way. If anything, it tells you the poster is honest. Points for that every time. If you fish often enough you're going to get thumped sometimes. Just keeping it real. We've all had to grind it out at times in most places. I don't fantasize that I'm a super hero, so why not? Also, it adds some spice to a fishing report. Irish/Italian Catholic here. God's always watching, ain't he?

OK, Huey?

Use mono. Set the drag on the light side. Lighter than you think you should initially. Keep your thumb riding the spool when you're winding. Get a bite, set the hook with heavy thumb drag, then back off your thumb quickly and let the reel's drag work. This isn't a theory. Last July/August most of my fish were caught wading way out on flats with an ARK Essence 7'6" MHF which is stout enough not to cry when power casting a Gantarel Jr, so it's more of a MH+. The bait that did all the damage was a 70mm Livingston Bullnose wake/crank. Line was 15lb Tatsu. I don't recall losing a fish, but there were painkillers in the mix.?You'll be fine.

Angels fly. RIP. Sorry, AJ.

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Have you consulted with your orthopedist yet? I'm right-handed and did a number on my left shoulder last April where I was sure before the visit I'd need surgery. Barely slept for days because of the pain and had numbness from my elbow to my hand. I finally capitulated and saw the doc when it went from bad to worse. No detached tendons thankfully, and while surgery was an option, he recommended a course of steroids followed by PT to see how I'd feel first. Stuck with it and I feel much better. I have full strength again in most areas, but I'm aware of which angle I did the damage in the first place, so I'm mindful to adjust around this still somewhat vulnerable area. I've tweaked it a few times, but have been able to just shake it out like any other minor tweak to a muscle group. What allowed me to fish consistently again after a few months was modifying my casting stroke and using rods with shorter handles. Basically, with short handles I can isolate my upper left arm by keeping it tight to my side and pull the butt-end of the rod using only my elbow-to-wrist. The shorter distance between my hands during the cast facilitated by the shorter handles greatly alleviated stress on the injury. I can still generate good casting distance this way, and I feel no discomfort at all as long as I remember myself. Even when I forget occasionally, I'm pretty much OK now, so it's not a problem. However, as with any other old injury I've had, I must be mindful to work around this one in order to avoid inflaming it. I can still move like a chimp when I want to or need to, as long as I mind the stress angles which caused my problem in the first place. After this experience I came to learn that several people in my orbit with far worse situations than mine chose the given option of PT instead of surgery and are fine with their choice. You may need surgery no matter what, but if the option for PT is offered as a viable alternative, you need not be as skeptical as I was beforehand. I really thought my goose was cooked, and that there was no way I wasn't getting cut, but I was wrong.

DM him on his FB page and ask the source.

I'm optimistic in the sense that anything I choose to do or truly desire doing gets done. Whatever the reason, I've been able to will things into reality for the most part. I don't know whether I was born with this or not, but at least part of the dog in me was certainly made through life's trials and the will to survive. I'll leave those details out, because in the end my perception of reality and past events is dwarfed by the overwhelming fact that like every person reading this, I've won the cosmic lottery by being born when I was and where I was. God save you if you can't work with that. No person ever had or will ever have it better than we have no matter what might've occurred along the way, or what might occur going forward. Whether or not one maximizes upon this good fortune is entirely on them. Abe's quote is spot on, and being grateful is a component of happiness.

This time of year, dirt shallow spots like this experience big temperature swings. Wind is the biggest factor, especially where overnights are in the 30s. It will suck out most of the warmth which might have accumulated during calmer, sunny days. It's been quite chilly at night in NY for the past week and a half, so pretty much the same for Maine, just colder. During a rapid cold drop bass tend to be belly down in darker bottomed areas and are slow-moving. So is everything else. The first time I drove in the snow and ice by myself right after I got my license my father told me that whatever I think driving slowly is, cut it in half. This is a good place to start in your current situation at a place like this. Slow won't help if the fish are not there, spooky if they are, and not in the mood to eat, but it's the safe play if they are. This will all change once green weeds start popping up in this place. It's remarkable how much warmer those zones stay once they're up. When I wade just outside of them, I can instantly feel the difference in temperature, and it's not small. Once these green zones expand, so do the bite windows which might still be short, but furious. In a few weeks this bog will be a completely different place, and don't be surprised if it holds giants.

Have you any guilt about catching these poor, poor, diabetic bass? Just nuts! Awesome smallies! Just this afternoon I was telling my brother about your goby fed footballs in the snow.

New lake. New sights. A 5+lber, finally. Crazy fight! Zman Pro Crawz. Mother Goose...Swan.

I want to be there to take the picture for my brother's first 7lber or better. It's doable. Everything else is gravy.

My 1st spinner was a Daiwa 1000c which offed the option of swapping retrieves, and I chose left handed without a thought. I hadn't looked at a fishing forum or witnessed a debate on the subject 1st hand before I bought my 1st bait caster, so the idea of getting anything but a left handed reel had never entered my mind. A few years ago, I decided it would be good to learn to cast lefty and retrieve righty mostly because of fishing with two people on small john boats, Bass Raiders, Sundolphins, and the like. A few hats smacked off and too many close calls with hooks. I got it down in my early 50s with lots of on the water practice, all except for skipping holding the rod in my left hand. Last spring I Kung Foo'd my left shoulder badly enough so the right retrieve reel experiment is over permanently. I offloaded all of my stupid righty reels except for one I'll use for jerkbaits. That doesn't seem too dangerous. So, I say it's doable past a certain age if you want to do it, but "things" seem to happen past a certain age that wouldn't have happened when we were younger.

Two shoes...

Plastic Bonder Syringe - Tan | J-B Weld (jbweld.com) Plastic Bonder Syringe - Black | J-B Weld (jbweld.com)

The new LFS is a completely different animal regarding build quality. The mag-brake is the same though. If that's what you didn't like about it, then move on.

Talk about a shoe to the junk. He must feel sick.