CountryboyinDC

I usually use PowerPro original - it goes on sale routinely and comes in yellow and green. Not the quietest through the guides or the roundest, but neither of those things bothers me too much. I have used Tuff Line 4orce, and that is a lot like PowerPro without the waxy coating and it's not so dyed so much (you can look at that as good or bad - PowerPro always leaves some residue on your hands when it's new). If both are full retail, the Tuff Line is a little cheaper and I don't see the downside. As far as 832 and other 8+ carrier braids, I have tried several. They stay rounder, I guess, and are quieter passing through the guides than these 2. Maybe they cast farther. But they cost more and don't cut through vegetation as well, so I end up hung more with them. So for a good deal, PowerPro and 4orce are the 2 best I've come across.

Two of my friends had 80s Toyota pickups, one of them a very rare 4wd. Both of them did better than 40 mpg. My friend with the 4wd put 33 inch tires on his, and it was lucky to make 60 mph, but it still was a fuel sipper. I would imagine some of the smaller diesel engines make 30 mpg now, but my truck can barely make 20 with nothing behind it. My truck has a manual. Drive it in DC traffic and you'll understand why.

77 Chevy Chevelle. Not the best year for a Chevelle, but the ad in the penny saver had the line to get my attention "$1,800 or will trade for cattle". Something I had, or at least could convince my dad to give me. 4 yearling black whitefaced steers later, and I was the owner of a poorly restored almost muscle car. It had a small block, a Turbo 350, and a tall gear. Once you wound it up it was scary, but that 4,000 lb beast wasn't going to leave anything faster than a Volkswagen at the line. It had a vinyl interior, enormous back seat, and a trunk that a mobster could fit 6 bodies in. I guess it had personality, but I'm not looking for another one. Today is POW/MIA Day. How many ads have I seen that said a little old lady only drove it to church on Sundays? I've showed up to look at the car and had a mind to ask them up what goat trail this church they go to is.

We used to pick them and set them in a window that got plenty of sunlight to ripen. Since I've learned that ethylene turns fruit ripe, probably that approach was about as well founded as water witching for a well. I know people that tried individually wrapping tomatoes in newspaper so they wouldn't ripen. That worked surprisingly well. So putting then in a bag with a banana would probably work well. You could always move south; we've got longer tomato growing seasons here.

I agree, it isn't fair to put something down until you try it. After seeing the Amazon prices, I only read the description and formed an opinion. I will still say I agree with Catt: The things that anglers are most concerned with are best studied in the environment we are likely to fish for them. Without going to far into the weeds, Berkley is studying what is feasible. Studying fish in their usual habitat using a scientific approach is orders of magnitude more difficult and correspondingly expensive. Think of the effort of Jane Goodall to study chimps, and then consider that all she came away with were observations (amazing ones to be sure) - she did no experiments! Laboratory research has it's place, and if this book has made you a better angler, then the research wasn't a waste at all. Me, any time I have these days isn't probably going to be spent looking for things to read. I'm only getting a few minutes a day to read The Good Book; every other reading pursuit has been abandoned. I understand traffic is not so bad these days here in our nation's capital. I wouldn't know. I have been working from my corner lot since March. That I could get used to, but coronavirus also has us managing 7 hours a day of virtual class with my 2nd grader. I'm ready to sit in traffic again.

I've never been through a hurricane personally (praise the Lord), but I lived in the Caribbean for a little over a year and talked to the locals who'd been through Kotrina and Andrew. The goats, burros, and even iguanas mostly disappeared for a while after those storms. Some of the iguanas must have survived or someone brought a breeding pair over, because I would run into them pretty often and a 6 footer scared me when I came up on him while hiking.

I don't know what they're doing for sure. There are other companies that use blanks made outside of the US and put some form of 'made in USA' label on them. And since they say nothing, it's hard to know which lines are made where. With St. Croix or ALX, at least they are up front about it. I really like a bunch of the Falcon tapes, they tend to be a hair slower than the competition, and I felt they were reasonably priced. But as long as other companies are making rods in the US (and make that known), I'll probably support other companies.

I use a Falcon Cara T7 6'10 MH/F finesse jig rod. I liked it so much, I bought a backup for when this inevitably breaks. No longer made, and I've stopped purchasing Falcon products on account of them stopping making rods in the US. My jig/trailer combos all weigh 7/16 oz or less, but they have heavier hooks than the original Jewell finesse jigs. Another rod that would probably work that I have is a G.Loomis IMX Pro 7'2 MH/XF jig and worm rod. It's a little faster action and seems more powerful than the Falcon. I've been using it with some smaller swim jigs/smaller trailers, and it is definitely a good rod for that. It is powerful enough that I might worry about bending out the hooks on some of the jigs you mentioned. I use spinning gear for Bitsy Bug-sized jigs (and smaller), when I do fish them.

From that boat, you can potentially have a lot of fun and learn a lot. I think others have covered the concerns I would have - the boat's capacity and trying to keep your tackle selection simple. For the anchor, it would depend on where I was fishing with that boat. If it's in the river, probably best to leave the anchor at home until you're relatively comfortable fishing from it. No need to submarine your close-to-capacity kayak in current somewhere cause you can't cut free from your anchor quickly enough. On still water, the anchor might take away some (just some) frustration you face on windy days. You don't need much anchor for a kayak - 3 lbs. is plenty. Get a good PFD with that money you saved.

I've caught some largemouth in rivers for sure, but they aren't anywhere near the prevalence of the smallmouth around shoals. When I have caught them in the shallow, rocky parts, I have chalked it up to them being 'lost'. Usually there's been a flood or something that I can use to explain them being there. On the parts of a river I do find largemouth, they're generally navigable by powerboat.

Definitely there is more water with largemouth in it, with farm ponds accounting for a great deal of it. The reason I prefer to fish for other black bass species is where I find smallmouth - in rivers where there aren't jet skis and 40' cabin cruisers. I like to be where fewer people are. If there are shoalies, smallmouth, or even the Kentucky spotted bass that doesn't mind current, I'm likely trying to spend my time fishing there if possible. But if there's no such river around, largemouth offer a very fun alternative.

I had an Alberto knot fail for some reason after fairly little time being used. The running end going the wrong direction could have been the reason. I know if gave me pause; I haven't had a Crazy Alberto fail on me in enough years that I can't say exactly how many. The cast felt weird and then my swim jig just went sailing, along with the leader. I did tie that leader on late the night before fishing and I was tired. I will probably burn my ends in this time for confidence sake, though. Years ago I was curious to see what the conditions in which I fished did to line. I tried to fish my normal stretch of the Rivanna River, which is a shallow rocky river suitable for canoes, kayaks and the like. I used a single spinning rod with a 30' or so leader (at that time I used long leaders, but now none are long enough for the knot to make its way to the reel). My plan was to fish the same lure (a small jighead) the entire day without re-tying. The smallmouth here are small; a nice one might be 12". That unfortunately did not end up happening, I did break the jighead off once, but I re-tied as close to the end as possible (normally I would have run my fingers along the line and cut off the rough section and tied above). After the fishing was over, I took the entire length of leader still tied to the lure and a section of unused leader to my lab and looked at it under the stereo microscope. I was kind of surprised, the line toward the new jighead was pretty badly damaged, but the damage tapered off sharply at about 20 cm and above about 75 cm, there was scarcely any damage at all. The knot at the lure was unsurprisingly beat up pretty badly. I figured that as horizontal as the retrieves were, the damage to the leader would be along a longer portion of the leader. That's convinced me that the leader is a great tool for me to keep line from becoming abraded without having to really think much about it. I put on a new leader each time I fish, and I can tell how much line I've consumed each fresh knot I tie since I keep the leaders about 6'. And my braided main lines on these setups lasts me years - I sometimes go a couple of years before I "turn the line around" and take the working end and tie to the backing.

That'll be something to look forward to reading about. I've only done one roast on the smoker ever, and it was a crown roast. If only it had tasted as good as it looked, it would have been something. A beef roast would be a good new dish for me to learn.

That's good to know. I've been working off some internet heresay for a while. I've never found the citation for the number of hooks in the DGIG book. Do you know where it is? I just checked, still don't see it.

Bass Pro Shops sends me mine for free. I read it when I'm waiting for something, if I'm not reading or posting something on a forum. I do like to look at the clunkers page, just like on this forum. No one looks anything but happy when they catch a big bass!

I think the rule in Virginia is a 3 hook maximum, unless it's changed. Come October, I usually have a 3 wire job made by Yum and use it on rivers like the Shenandoah or Rappahannock. I only use it in a few spots with 3.3 Keitechs, 2 1/16 oz heads and a single 1/8 oz heads. I get some looks; most people are using light spinning rods. But doubling even with 10-12" fish is a lot of fun, and one of these days I'll get 3 at a time. No giants like @A-Jay, that's for sure, most of us around these parts have only heard of brown bass that big. But still a nice change from casting into the same eddys all summer. Even a 3 wire rig will get hung up on you, though.

That's an expensive read. Keith Jones sure picked the right subject to author on. At those prices, it may make sense to print a few more copies. As for research done in an aquarium, I could hardly badmouth it without being a bit hypocritical. I was never a wildlife biologist, but I made a living researching chemical and biomedical phenomenon. And it is true that discerning thing such as the optimal pH at which gas exchange or even rudimentary neurological physiology/function is best done in the lab. If it's true that his observations are from studies in an aquarium and he extrapolated "how they relate to fishing lures, and ultimately how they interact with anglers", then this book is pure moonshine. And I don't mean that in a good way.

I had to go look up the name, but G-Finish shad would be my color. Baby bass and a pattern that is black with a white 'skeleton's are my best producers. I don't remember if I've ever tried bone, but I have a lot of bone colored topwaters.

I can't think a better reaction to what you're going through. That's the sort of thing that can test a person's faith. I hope your sons are better at dragging brush than mine. Mine starts complaining about heat and bugs after I prune 1 dogwood.

We'll be praying for y'all. That's a lot of cleaning up and repair a head of you.

I have seen some people fish these, and assumed they were from the 80s with their styling. I learned that one was 3 years old. I was able to handle and cast one. I don't see anything magical about them and I didn't even notice the lack of an instant anti-reverse. It was about a 3000 sized reel, and probably weighed upward of 10 oz. I would imagine they have relatively few bearings, which may be the reason for their reputation of bulletproof. They remind me of packaged roll of Kodak film, and I'm the kind of feller who uses the digital camera on my phone.

These don't have the claw action that something like a Netbait Paca or a Rage craw does. I use them exclusively on Jewell style finesse jigs, which have been War Eagle or Santones with pretty heavy hooks for a finesse jig. I tried these Big Bites craws that are bigger but have similar claws, etc., and the look just doesn't translate. Tried fishing them Texas rigged, on a shakey head, and on a regular football jig, no dice. The Zoom Little Critters make a good trailer when it's cold or the bite is tough for me. Otherwise, I prefer a bit more action.

Are you in a boat, jon boat, canoe, kayak, or fishing from the bank/wading?

There is no way this is true. The computer they gave us was mothballed during the Cold War. We turned it on and it went to the DOS prompt. A Raspberry Pi has more horsepower than this 20 pound relic.

Schools where we are have (Fairfax County, VA) are starting the school year virtually after Labor Day. Since there are many 2 job working families (and because some of the parents just want the kids out of the house several hours of the day), yuppies up this way have started 'podding'. This means your kid(s) stay within a small number of other kids and either the parents rotate overseeing the teaching they're getting through the screen, or you hire a tutor. We're throwing in with a teacher that doesn't want to go back to school because he has a susceptible kid, and he actually wants to teach. It cost more than most people's mortgage payment, but with 7 hours of instruction every day, either the wife or I would have to quit working or sleeping one until they go back to school. I'm ready for this virus to go away.