CountryboyinDC

Not drinking beer before I start fishing would be the first thing that comes to mind. Casting accuracy (still not the best) is far better, and spend a lot less time looking for an empty Gatorade bottle.

Pat looks stoic. I'd have been grinning like a jackass eating green briers.

I used to show up early to everything. Then I joined the military. I learned that showing up early guarantees you end up "in charge of this detail", which is usually a job nobody wants. Now I try to make sure I'm never more than 5 minutes early, even if it means waiting somewhere else.

I like heavier hooks than the traditional Jewel finesse jig had, so mine are the War Eagle Heavy Finesse and the Santone Texas Finesse jigs. I dress with either a Paca chunk or a Missle Baits double tailed grub.

Overrated. Rhubarb, sweet potatoe, and peach are tops in my book, although I wouldn't turn away a slice of blueberry for breakfast this morning. Crocs (the shoes)

I've tried those on others' vehicles and I'd probably save some money and just get a bath mat with one side that sticks in place to assist on loading from the rear. There are several folks I fish with that do that and get them on that way without any help. No matter what you use, a 100 lb kayak is going to suck getting on your roof by yourself.

I tried several years back a Big Bite Baits "craw worm" with the same idea. I'm not sure that bait is still made, but essentially it's a realistic- looking finesse craw. Anyway, I decided the bites I was getting weren't any better than a worm, so I'm back to a Missle Baits 48, whether I'm Neko or reverse rigging it.

There are cargo bike trailers. I met a guy that had worked as a bike courier (probably a lot crazier breed than the downhill crowd) in DC that brought his kayak on one of these up to Lock 6 on the Potomac https://www.bikesatwork.com/. Besides the kayak, he had gigs retrieving garbage/recycling cans from parks and toting bulky (not necessarily heavy) things around. The trailer looked very sturdy, and I'm assuming pretty heavy and he was pulling it with a steel framed what I'd call gravel bike. I didn't take a picture, but did talk to the guy for a few minutes (as I have a habit of doing when I see interesting bikes around) and looked his rig over a bit.

Man you all have some beautiful country up your way. Makes me lament that I couldn't convince the wife to let me take a job up in Hamilton (about 40 miles south of Missoula). To think I could be waking up to views like that every day.

I imagine you would know the Tennesee River aspect down cold. I've been on maybe a tributary or 2, though the only one I can think of is the Clinch River around Tazewell, VA. I haven't fished much in Tennessee, rode horses in the Smokeys, played football against Johnson City, and paddled on the Ocoee and Pigeon. I need to get right on that.

I only have 5 spinning rigs for bass - all but one with a 2500 size reel. 3 are Stradics, 1 is a Pflueger Supreme (I think its 35) and the other is the newest and probably my favorite - a 2000 Kage LT on a 7' L/F ALX Zolo (fishes more like a ML). My main concern is they're fast and don't flex. It wouldn't do for me to have beautiful gear like @bulldog1935, us river types just aren't gentle on gear.

Glad you figured out what was important and made it out okay. If you believe in a higher power, give a little thanks.

Virginia and Pennsylvania. Virginia's record is 8 lbs 1 oz on the New River, North Dakota's record is more than a pound less and it wasn't on a river. Recently, someone caught a larger one on the James, and released it after some photos (didn't want the hassle) on a fly rod. There are other less famous rivers where you can catch relative giant fish smallies out of really skinny water like the North Fork of the Holston. I'm not sure where on a river you're more likely to catch a 20" smallmouth than the Susquehanna along it's course in Pennsylvania, but I sure haven't been on it. It would be hard to argue with Tennessee rivers (not just the Tennessee River) and smallmouth bass. Once you consider lakes, especially big ones like Erie, that might change. But for wading or paddling, it's gotta be south of North Dakota. I haven't been on the St. Lawrence either, come to think of it.

It's probably something like with bicycle pedaling, there's an optimal rotations per minute range where you find that you fatigue less (with bicycling, most of us are around 80 RPM). I know that I prefer 5:1 reels for most cranking, just because unless it's square Bill's or something I want to burn, I have a tendency to go too fast. Be warned that deep cranking will wear you out, and not just the arm/wrist/hand doing the cranking. I fish from a kayak, and I tend to approach the target area staying a ways off, cast and retrieve a little, then pedal backward. It's the only way I can hit 20' or more and it leaves me less tired than cranking hard pulling plugs.

I saw a reference to 'Journal of Science' which I don't believe exists (there's the journal 'Science', a heavy-hitter high-impact general science publication), and had to look closer. This is an interesting study, with a summary published in 'Scientific American' https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/getting-hooked-runs-in-family-for-bass/. I'm sure there's actual data and the methods and results detailed in the original Transactions of the American Fisheries Society article. Interesting what kind of traits are purely genetic for bass.

6'6 M/F St. Croix Premier. Honestly, it's a bit fast for my taste. I had a Falcon 6'8 MH/MF (honestly about the same power, just softer tip) Lowrider 20 called "Angler of the Year". It was just what I liked, but after years, it became a spaghetti noodle. Hard to find US made MF actions these days. The St, Croix is fine, but a few fish have shaken off that I wish hadn't.

@TnRiver46, you and your clever friends aren't camping, you're glamping! A setup like that with all the good food you cook will make a person never want to go home. That's a clever way to go about it too - we used to cover rolls of hay with tarps like that, and now that you mention it they are all silver (never saw a blue or green one). I'm sure you've thought of it, but just keep that away from sparks. Unlike a canvas one, it could make for an ugly fire. But with the prices of the canvas ones, even an Army surplus GP medium, you've got all the functionality without the smell and cost.

A wall tent with refrigerator and range? That's just cheating!

What's a cooling dot?

I buy some really cheap jigheads rigged with grubs as my go-to bait for shad. Those have the line tie so caked with powder coat, you can't use another hook to dig through it (you probably could with something like a Trokar 5/0 flipping hook or something). I find it's just easier to use small drill bit (a little larger than the line tie hole) and drill from either side. One thing I believe is that the line tie being painted over is a sign of poor quality control. Considering that these pre-rigged grubs are $3 for 7, I'm okay. They serve their purpose and are fine for shad. If I found that with a "Ned" jig head, I would switch jig heads - Owner Blockheads, Berkley Halfheads, and some I get when I go to the Richmond Fishing Expo work well.

With most of my friends, whoever catches the biggest fish buys the beer. If I'm with someone that hasn't fished as much or is my guest, I'm happiest when they catch the fish more than when I do. I'll give someone some good-natured ribbing if I think he or she can handle it, but fishing and hunting have never been something that I've desired to compete in. Too much in life is competitive, this is one thing I try to keep from getting that way.

Evidently channel cats have decided they like Keitechs.

I don't know exactly what you have in terms of rail to work with your particular kayak, but a lot of times if I'm expecting low branches or even a low bridge, I'll throw 3 Ram tubes/Ram tube Jr. on the rails around the tankwell, and I can have the rod tips as low as my seat. I always put them on a tether when I do, though. The Ram tube Jr. has a slot that the stem of a spinning reel will stay in pretty good, but I don't take any chances.

You infer too much sir. Although I do have a '2-60' air conditioner that works as long as someone cranks the windows down.

It could be your delicate good looks. I almost always wear a ball cap, but with so many old dudes wearing the gigantic straw jobs I have to wonder if that approach is wrong (old dudes tend to do what works that they figured out by experience). But with a buff, a ball cap seems to work, and mine is usually one of the trucker (mesh back) ones in the hot summer. I still put on sunscreen before I dress to go fishing in the summer, just don't reapply. These gaiters are nothing like the standard Army-issued gaiter, which we also wore to keep the rotor wash from getting sand under our tops even in the summer. They're very light, and not nearly as hot. They may (and do for me occasionally) cause certain sunglasses to fog, but I just move the glasses a tiny bit down my nose for a few minutes, and it passes.