PhishLI

As long as the rule-maker allows me to use use several different hook types and a few different sized weights; 5" Strike King Caffeine Shad in watermelon seed.

We were hammered by big rain here yet again this past Thursday, which was awesome. My spots that had been dilapidated for the past 5 months are fully refreshed now. It usually takes several days for these places to stabilize after a blitz of rain like we had, but the wind was blowing late yesterday afternoon so I had to give it a whirl. Made it down to one of my spots to find it void of people, which made me smile. The milfoil here is still laced with filamentous algae, so chucking spinner baits is a misery. It simply shuts the blades down pronto, but with @LrgmouthShadalways babbling on about them, I though what the hey.? On my first cast a giant Pickerel slammed a double willow bluegill spinner and fought hard 'til the end. Really thought I had a mongo bass until I saw it. Unbuttoned his slimy azz in the water, threw again, and got another. Nicked up my Tastu, but I didn't lose my spinner. My fingernails were already gack'd up from trying to get the algae off, so back in the bag it went. Got a nice hard fighting bass running a jackhammer along a pad line while wading in a flat which was bone dry just 2 short weeks ago. Darkness fell, and next up I got a crappie and a healthy small bass on the trusty Livingston wake. Shortly thereafter I watched as wave of headlamps descended through the woods on the opposite shoreline. They were so bright that they lit up my side of the lake. This crew doesn't turn them off, so it's pretty unbearable. By the time I made it back around to where I planned to fish last, the brigades had occupied every spot on the eastern shoreline with surfcasting gear and live bait. This faction had huge coolers with water in them, so around here we know they're selling the fish to certain restaurants in the city that want them alive. They get busted sometimes, but ultimately nothing stops them. There were already bullhead and perch swimming in coolers by the time I made my way around. They take everything, so only god knows how many of our quality bass have ended up in a wonton. This is how it is living 30 miles outside of NYC. Oh well. Next time.

In my opinion this isn't something you should have to think about. It's either comfortable or it isn't, even if I can't nail down precisely why. For me, I know when "I'm home" instantly with a rod. The rest can be worked out with line choice and drag settings.

This is why your line choice means nothing, meaning there's no wrong line choice in veg'd out lakes. That said, I can show you hundreds of quality bass caught using straight braid on chatterbaits, jigs, whatever. Clear water, or stained, Largemouth bass aren't swimming around inspecting anything. They're springing out of ambush points and positions provided by the vegetation. If you're going to use fluoro, be sure to retie often. Chatterbaits use line tie clips that are fine wire. That, combined with their heavy-ish jig hooks, puts a lot of stress where the knot loops around the tie. It's the perfect storm to break fluoro and your heart. Personally I won't use it for this bait. I've watched my line-shy-paranoid buddy break off countless times. You're better off with copoly or mono as a leader if you must use one because you're paranoid too. Those lines can deal with the shock of slamming home the hook far better. BTW, I've never been broken off using 30lb J8 tied directly to a chatterbait or anything else.

You should now rinse them off in warm water and leave them to dry completely before storing them. Residual salt will still rust the hooks.

Not really. Any shop that knows what they're doing can order JDM parts. Warranty is the issue, but few reels require service requiring parts during the warranty period anyway. Brass.

No. It depends on how salted they are. Some plastics have very little. I have Berkley Champ Swimmers, RI Skinny and Little Dippers, and others rigged on hooks for months at a clip with zero rust. Same with Zman Diesel Minnows, but most Yamamoto, Strike King, and Zoom baits are loaded with salt which will rust hooks rather quickly if you leave them installed.

If the water is still soft, and my guides aren't icing up, I'm going when possible. January 12th. 3 degrees a few days earlier and skim ice.

Close the top quickly between each individual repair if you're fixing multiple baits in order to keep the solvent from evaporating. Crank down the top really tight when you're finished and keep it in a drawer away from light and it can last for quite some time. Easily a year or more. If you haven't used it in a while give it a good shake so the solvent mixes with the semi solids.

Awesome!

I had 3 full bone impactions removed when I was 18. I found out there was an issue after I'd gotten a swollen gland. The bottom right rear wisdom tooth was growing in angled forward and pushing out my molar, which caused the infection. Had to go on an anti-biotic for 2 weeks before the surgery to knock it out. Doc said there was no way I could be awake for this procedure. My mom took me in for the surgery as I wasn't allowed to drive afterwards. When we got to the office and sat to wait, and as god is my witness, we heard a man moaning in one of the back rooms as if someone was extracting his toenails. It was so over the top that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This was not encouraging at all but, feeling about 10 pounds lighter, I made the walk anyway when they called my name. I woke up afterwards being escorted down a hallway by a dental assistant and had an odd soreness in my chest. After I'd woken up a little more I asked to speak to the dentist about it. He told me that he'd needed to go in to assist the surgeon by holding my head down and jaw open while the surgeon kneeled on my chest in order to leverage out my bottom rear wisdom tooth. It was really bad, and he said it was a very stressful procedure for all present, and that I should be thankful to have been asleep. The pain afterwards was beyond miserable made worse by needing to bite down on gauze to keep it all from bleeding. Tylenol with codeine didn't make a dent in the agony, but thanks to one of my relatives having just been injured badly in a scaffolding collapse, I was able to get the good stuff by day three. Within a half hour of downing two of these magic pills a warmth washed over me and the pain simply evaporated. Meanwhile, most people I know who've had the procedure said it was smooth sailing with very little discomfort.

Let us pray that @Cbump is near a bucket.

The drought here finally ended after 5 straight days of rain capped off by a nice thunderstorm last Wednesday afternoon. A decent rain returned Friday night into Saturday morning which was an added bonus. Late this afternoon I stopped down at one of my spots most affected by the drought to check things out, and was thrilled to find it at full pool once again. The water has come up over 2 feet which filled the bone dry creeks, and the mud flats are mud no more. Joy! Wading in I found the water to be much colder than last week. All the new runoff and constant northern winds shocked the once stained water clear. I dropped my thermometer into a 6ft deep spot and found the temps fell 9 degrees in 9 days, from 63 to a cruel 54. Where certain sections of shoreline were loaded with bait last week, I found none. A nice SW breeze was blowing today though, so I hit the eastern shoreline where the sun was still beaming down. I couldn't get anything going near the shoreline in the weed beds though, but got a few weak bites on a Bitsy Bug chucked way out there. Tied on the reliable Livingston Bullnose wake, chucked it to were I got jig nibbles earlier, and got a healthy little guy to play. Darkness fell quickly, the wind disappeared, and a blaring full moon was rising fast over the eastern shoreline. A good sized angry pickerel hit next, and the front treble hook pinned its mouth shut while the rear treble was buried in its face. What a mess, and this thing was charged up. With no way to use my grippers, I needed to grab this slimy nut case to avoid getting impaled. Not fun in the least. Got one more midget bassling on a different colored wake, and with the moon now high I skated on outta there. We have 3 days of sunshine on the way before it rains this coming Thursday. The water should stabilize nicely by Wednesday afternoon, and the bite should be fire on Wednesday night. I'm readying myself for a marathon grind. We'll see.

It's unlikely that you'll find anything wrong. The bail is tripped when the handle is turned. Turning the handle rotates the rotor, which causes the bail's dog to encounter a fixed trip point built into or attached to the reel's frame. Occasionally a heavy-ish handle is randomly in an unfavorable position during the cast. Here, the jerk of the cast will rotate the handle just enough so that the dog hits the trip point and prematurely closes the bail. The same problem can occur on a baitcaster with an unbalanced power handle. I had this issue with my Daiwa BG2500. I pulled the rotor and removed the trip ramp. Hasn't happened since. It's a meaningless part because I always close the bail by hand anyway.

Mag brake reels, ABU and Lew's, on the medium rods. Curados on the heavier setups.

It's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.

Yup.

Big time too much. 1/16oz max with just one blade, or else. Yes. They're made for bluegills only, or they'll explode dramatically.

Way more fishing fast, and I always start off fishing slow.

They wrecked two of mine. Give 'em a lick. They're very salty.

Good idea. After any bait I have is finished drying after a rinse, I spray the hooks with Blaster silicone lube. Seems to work fine and provides a buffer if I happen to leave salty trailers on jigs and CBs for a few days longer than usual during a trip.

Water temps will be dropping steadily from here on out, and they'll be munching heavily in tighter and tighter bite windows until they shut down. Got to be there when.

Storing them in in plastic boxes isn't a problem. Storing them wet with salted trailers installed is though, especially heavily salted types like a Zako. They'll eat the hooks over time. I pull them after each trip then rinse the CB to get the salt off. Mend it patches them up endlessly. ElaZtech is a different story depending on which type, but in general it doesn't seem to be as salty as a Rage Menace or Zako. It can't be repaired with Mend-it, but super glue makes them reusable. Either way, I don't leave anything on a Jackhammer. I've had a Razor Shad start to corrode one after leaving it on too long. No issues with Diesel Minnows though.

Great idea. Au contraire. I throw them year 'round as part of my normal rotation when I'm working a zone. If the rain we're getting now brings the water up just a skosh, I'll be throwing a Black Dog Baits Shellcracker G2 again and I'll catch 'em good. However, due to the low water levels here lately, combined with tall weeds, it's harder to get my larger bodied types through, but smaller ones are doable. One that has outperformed all others for me over the past month and change is the Livingston Bullnose in the Tournament series. Unlike the Mann's Baby 1 Minus, it has a subtle wobble and it doesn't sound as if it's full of BBs. Less rattle than the Yozuri 70mm wakes too. It has a much quieter 1-knock, and it comes thru tall weeds remarkably cleanly. Everything eats it, and it's great in colder water too. Fish it slower so it simply wakes, or fish it faster so it dives, and it'll dive to about 1ft deep. Sometimes they like it cranked down, then stalled so it rises, or just a straight retrieve. Play typical wake bait retrieves, or fish it however you like until you find how they want it. This bait has been deadly here when they're feeding up, and often when they won't touch a pencil/popper, WP, walking bait, or other similar sized noisy wakes or topwaters. P.S. Recently @The Bassman touted the Azuma wake Z. They've been loaded in my cart since just waiting.

Thomas Russell Jr. with his 8 lb. 6 oz. state record smallmouth bass he caught from Cayuga Lake, Seneca County on June 15, 2022. https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7935.html?fbclid=IwAR3wcNrnMUhFDXbIvzmRhJd-vWnniQNBDbPFutlENWiPYA3IFXpI_1aCSUA We’re excited to announce that another state record fish has been established here in New York. On June 15th Thomas Russell Jr. of Albion reeled in an 8 lb. 6 oz. smallmouth bass from Cayuga Lake (Seneca County) while fishing in a Finger Lakes Open Bass Tournament. The smallmouth was caught on a drop shot rig using a soft plastic minnow. After being weighed on a certified scale and getting witness verification, the record breaking fish was safely released.