billmac

Keep an eye on facebook marketplace and craigslist. If you are handy, pick up an old boat and do the maintenance yourself. You definitely can find an old bassboat for $3-5K. Then find a couple facebook groups (if you can) dedicated to your motor. And of course you can ask folks here too. Having to do a little maintenance on boat and motor will probably serve you better in the long run than if you start with a new setup. When I first pulled the cover off my '88 Mercury I6, I thought I was looking under the hood of a space shuttle. But thanks to a persistent cold-bloodedness (and hitting a rock), I've gotten to know the motor very well. That's not a bad thing.

I've never targeted carp. They aren't in the small rivers and reservoirs I usually fish. But I'd like to catch one just to shorten my "fish I've never caught" list.

When I bought my first baitcaster in the late 70s, (Daiwa Millionaire), it took me a long time to learn to cast it with my right (dominant) hand. Surprisingly, after that it took very little time to learn to cast with my left hand. That said, although I am a decent left handed caster, I'm still better and usually cast with my right hand.

If the hook is exposed, then it doesn't have to be super hard. If you have to punch the hook through the bait before it hits the fish's mouth, or you have to bend those ridiculous weedguards, then it needs more.

Hi JC: Where in NY are you located?

I was thinking I needed to change the impeller anyway. ?

I'll have to replace the lower unit. I think everything else is OK. I hope.

I did something really dumb, and it wasn't hitting the rock. My family knew I was fishing, and since I had said I was going to the St. Lawrence, that's where they thought I was. We changed our location twice and I didn't think to let anyone know, so literally no one knew where we were, and we had no cell signal. No other boats on the water, no one in the camps. We weren't really in physical danger, but it had to potential to freak our families right out if I hadn't been able to contact them before we were missed.

I always tell my students that our lives consist of the stories we can tell. We never remember the times we were warm and well fed.

So I've never fished in November here in far, far upstate NY, but I wanted to have one more crack at getting a big smallmouth, so my brother in law and I headed for a boat launch on the St. Lawrence yesterday morning. When we got there we found the dock pulled out and the wind and waves a little daunting, so we headed to a smaller lake. Same conditions, so we headed into the mountains to a small power reservoir that I like to go to. I catch mostly dinks there, but fishing is fishing, and the wind seems a bit less treacherous there, so we launch. I like to fish at the far end of the lake, about 4 miles from the launch. We get there and start fishing. We catch nothing, and the wind is still a bit unruly so I fire up the outboard and decide to go back to a big island at about the halfway point and fish there. We went about 100 yards when wham, I hit something. No idea what it was, no buoys or anything. I raise the motor to see if the prop is damaged. I can't really tell, mainly because the prop and skeg are resting comfortably at the bottom of the lake. Now we have a bit of a problem. We're 4 miles from the launch, with no cell reception, and are tasked with using my 40lb thrust trolling motor to get us back, with a brisk wind blowing right in our faces. The temp is in the mid-40s. There's no one on the lake. It takes about an hour to get across the lake, to the side with camps, and we hug the shoreline to try to stay out of the wind. We make it about halfway back when the wind is simply too strong and we stop making our slow headway. So we pull up to a camp (no one home) and tie off the boat and walk to the road to walk the two miles back to the launch. Luckily we were still wearing our life vests (for warmth, mostly) and a passing hunter figured something was wrong, and picked us up and dropped us off at the launch. No cell signal at the launch, so we hop in the car and drive a few miles to where I get some cell reception. I call my wife to let her know what was going on, and I call the student president of the college bass club I advise to see if he can come tow us. His boat is in storage for the winter, but he says he'll call some of the other guys in the club. So we sit beside the road for him to call us back. He calls back, and everyone has put their boat away for the winter. The nearest town big enough to have a sheriff's office is Colton, so I look up the number and call. They ask where the boat is, and I tell them the name of the reservoir (just a few miles away) and they've never heard of it. Turns out I had called Colton, California. I call the right Colton sheriff's office, and they are going to try some fire departments to see if they can help. So we wait for a call back. Then it starts to hail. Eventually someone from the Colton fire department calls me back and says he'll meet me at the launch with a boat. So we go back and wait. It begins to hail again, mixed with sleet. Eventually he shows up with a pontoon boat and he backs it into the water. The boat won't start. After several minutes he says he has to go get another boat. He leaves to go borrow his father's pontoon boat. He's back in about half an hour and he backs the second boat into the water. The boat won't start. Luckily he has brought a portable jump unit and he eventually gets it started. The rest is fairly anticlimactic. We go get the boat, and tow it back. I hit the rock or whatever about 11:00am, and got back home, soaking wet, about 4:30pm. We didn't catch any fish, but I don't have to worry about draining my lower unit oil for the winter.

Yeah, he had to leave early because he had a severely bent prop. Bent it in practice and couldn't find anyone to repair it.

Yes, for now.

Randy complains a lot, but to be fair, I don't think he was complaining about Youtube particularly, just pointing out that this is the new reality. I watch way more Youtube videos than I do tournament videos. I and millions of others. Sponsors would be insane not to make the adjustment. A guy wearing a gaudy jersey with a thousand different logos isn't going to bring in the money like he used to.

I have mixed feelings about this. I use electronics (badly), and I've worked and teach in Tech, so I'm no luddite. If someone gave me a FFS unit, I'd use it. But let's face it, the end is inevitable. With each advancement, fishing becomes less challenging. Remember the old In-Fisherman F+L+P=S formula? Location is becoming a given. And once the fish can't hide, all the research will go into technology that forces them to bite. I'm afraid it won't be fishing anymore, just catching.

Have any of you seen the Youtube channel Carna Fishing Family? This guy has some videos of catching catfish that are just insane. I wish I knew where he was fishing. He is speaking French in the videos. The catfish are scary huge for a guy fishing in a belly boat.

Me too. I think I would be hard pressed NOT to catch smallmouth, no matter what species I was fishing for. If I stuck a tater tot on a rusty hook I'd still most likely catch a smallmouth first thing.

Tom, thanks. We'll usually let the bass swim in the livewell for a few minutes to see if they will go belly up. Last time, they basically all did so we ended up fizzing them all.

I think I know the answer to this, but I thought I'd ask people with more experience than me. The last time I fished the St. Lawrence during a college club tournament, one of the other guys let me borrow a fizzer that was just a needle glued onto a ballpoint pen body. I think he fizzed by going through the mouth, but I just used it in the side like I had been taught and seen on the internet. There was no internal wire inside the needle, just a plain hypodermic needle, but it seemed to work fine, although the pen-body made it hard to keep it in when putting the fish back into the livewell while it was releasing air. I have a small farm and have lots of syringes and 18 gauge needles for treating animals. I'm fishing on Sunday, and I'm thinking that will do just fine for fizzing. I'm not sure I even need the syringe, probably just the needle. I don't think the little reamer is necessary. What do you think?

I can cast left handed (non-dominant) with a baitcaster. It didn't take me nearly as long to learn as it did to learn how to cast a baitcaster period. I don't think I've ever tried casting a spinning reel left handed, but I don't even like casting a spinning reel with my right hand.

Just a shoutout to the members of this board, you don't see a lot of tackle or equipment snobbery at bassresource.com. If someone wants a rod or reel between $300-$500, they will get lots of recommendations. Likewise if someone wants a rod or reel between $30-$50 they will likewise get lots of recommendations. I for one appreciate that.

I'm not sure the fish care, but I've always liked the look of grubs better, so I tend to use those.

That's my vote, but it seems like anything with a curly tail is old school.

Honestly I doubt it matters that much. Pick one that looks good to you, and that will be fine. I've fished inline spinners my whole life, Shysters, Mepps, Roostertails, Panther Martins. I've never noticed that fish seem to have a preference. Plus, small bass are dumb. It won't matter. The only trouble you may have is getting the bait down to the bottom, depending on how deep you need to fish. Inlines aren't ideal deep water lures, but it can be done.

Although I've done way more fishing than hunting, I think I've heard more deer hunting myths than fishing ones.