Alex from GA

There are live wells in kayaks. When we were tagging bass the leader has a big Jackson kayak with a live well in the center. BTW Drew designed the Jackson Coosa for the rivers he fishes.

Many many years ago I had a gear box on a saltwater reel that was 3x the speed of the basic reel and found I couldn't start a jig with it. The gear box was called a Real Deal and the reel I used was a 3:1 Penn 250. Now a days the reels are much different and do work with the higher speeds. BTW I still have the reel and gear box.

I'm primarily a worm fisherman and carry 3 T/R rods different weights and different length worms.

I have a couple of Symetres, which have 95% the same parts as a Stradic so I'd buy the Stradic. Very smooth, good drag and fairly light.

Walmart marked down a bunch of nice graphite IM7 rods for $7 each, bought them all. Bought 2 Shimano Symetre 2000 reels @ a garage sale for $15 for the pair. Still using them.

When I first moved to GA in '99 I was at my peak. Now, with health problems, it's all downhill. I was still going kayak fishing weekly after 80 but this year knocked the crap out of me.

I've never caught a tagged fish but I was part of a tagging program in places where shock boats couldn't go. We tagged, recorded and took fin clips of over 500 bass on the Chattahoochee River, mostly Shoal Bass. Interesting days.

My PB was caught on a spinnerbait a couple of years ago; the first and only 7 lber I've caught.

Thanks for sharing your adventures. I forsee a road trip south during one of those long winters visiting several of the all year fisher people. Me among them.

But the largest I've caught in several years. Been fishing several times a week with varying results. Today I fished this afternoon and went to a place I don't usually go, threw an Okachobee Craw trick worm at a dock and caught this Alabama Bass. 3.79 lbs.

You can repair it and probably won't notice any difference. I've done several. https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/repair-oquinn.html

My first and only instance of catching a pike was about 4 years ago on a road trip to Maine. I launched my kayak on a lake in hope of catching a smallmouth and ended up with a nice LM, a pike and a SM. Yes I have a picture somewhere. I found out not to lip them. BTW they all were caught on a finesse worm.

If the ramp is very busy I've been know to shoot my boat off the trailer, park the truck, walk back to the ramp and hitch a ride to my boat.

I just checked "bassresource.com" and it worked like old times with no red f and the menu in the upper left.

Jigging spoon or doodle and keep on doodling. If they're not bass the spoon will catch them.

Get on the cavitation plate of the motor and bounce. If the transom flexes pass. Also with soft floors. Like way says pay an expert to check out the prospective boat.

Blue.

I fish private docks everyday and avoid the ones where people are weather they're fishing or not.

When I go to "bassresource.com" a big red F comes up and there's no menu on the top left to get to the forum. To get there I have to go way down the page and click on an article then the menu appears. I rebooted my computer to no avail. Am I alone?

Your adventures always entertain me; keep them coming.

I was there then and fished Castaic and Casitas every couple of months but not for the huge fish that Tom was after. Mostly fished the salt water. I would read the reports, in Western Outdoor News, of the catches and reports that they were using live trout to catch the giants which was illegal. Caught my PB in Castaic around '81 which was 6 lb even which I broke a couple of years ago with a 7+ in GA.

I have several of those and the later high speed, 5:1, ones also. The one you have might not have ball bearing on the spool and it has a very slow, 4.7:1 gear ratio. I've caught thousands of bass with mine.

Thank you. I don't have to drag my canoe or kayak through a jungle just to get to the fishing like you. YOU'RE MY HERO.

A friend told me to always ask "how deep are they". He also taught me how to doodle and said he also taught Iovino.

I'm fishing in the evening now that it's cooler in the mornings and not catching nearly as many as the morning bite. My shoulder won't let me cast much so I'm worm fishing mostly. Lots of bait but it's hard to find any fish in it. Thursday the dock pole bite was the ticket and here's the largest.