Tackleholic

Swamp Girl, you are every fisherman's dream. A woman who loves to fish, paddles her own canoe, cleans the fish, and does all the lawn work. I have never met your equal.

I'm a tackle junkie. Before retirement I was a big fan of G Loomis rods. Following retirement and relocating to a serious bass fishing area in 2012 I wanted to increase my rod selection. Two local dealers convinced me to try some Duckett rods, and I now own about 30 of them. One attraction was that I could buy 2 or 3 Ducketts for the price of one Loomis. I have now reversed course and am back to Loomis; their quality cannot be denied. In defense of Duckett, I have not had one single problem of any kind with any of their rods; none.

I owned a flooring business for 37 years. I convinced a good drywaller to convert and train as a flooring installer. He told me of all the builders who instructed him to "put tape over it" whenever he discovered flaws in construction.

Good idea; I'll try that with a Stealth bladed jig, no skirt.

I've fished with Scroungers for a long time and I live in a fishing community. Recently I took out a not too experienced father and teen age son; rigged them with scroungers, and they smoked 'em; smallmouth, largemouth, spots, and white bass. We all know that fishermen love talking about fishing. I was amazed that not one single person knew what a scrounger was, and no tackle shop within 25 miles stocked them. Since I have no one else to compare notes with, I would like to hear tips from some of our members. I use sizes from 1/16 to 3/8, and mostly use a 3-4 inch fork tail minnow with a straight retrieve.

I have so much tackle that some friends borrow lures to see if they want to buy their own; I don't mind at all. I try to hold myself to rigging 3 lures each time out; my best days always come when the first lure I throw produces well and I do not switch. Yup!

I watched a 12 inch male smallmouth nest guarder hold off 4 very large carp at one time. The carp would continuously circle the nest, which held eggs, and when they came too close, that little smallmouth would dart out and hit one of those carp like he was Dick Butkus and quickly return to the nest before the other carp could move in.

This post is great timing for me. Yesterday I received my first two bottles of Mend-It. Two friends of mine claim that Super Glue works just as well; do any of you have experience with that?

Heddon Sonic, wood Jitterbug, Crazy Crawler, Hula Popper, Lazy Ike ,River Runt, Junebug spinners, Daredevils, Red Eye Wiggler, Bass Oreno, Creek Chub Pikie, Globe, Twin Spin, Flatfish, asst. Uncle Josh strips.

From my own experience, Smallmouth which reside in rivers and streams with constant current are long and lean fighting machines compared to their pot bellied sumo wrestler namesakes pulled from deep and still waters.

Sensible advice. A-Jay's advice should be heeded; there is little doubt that none of of us have had his experiences.

As long as you wear one, all is good.

We get a White Bass run every spring in the Ozarks and I always look forward to it; lots of 3 pounders, even some up to 4. IMO, they fight nearly as hard as Smallmouth.

I have one, don't leave the dock without it. I also attach the kill switch to my clothing, put the outboard remote in one pocket, and the trolling motor remote in another pocket. I usually set the trolling motor on auto, and if I were to go overboard the remote would be my only option to stop it.

I've had a couple of Megabass Magdrafts collecting dust in my mancave, still in the packaging; today I took one out for a spin. Good looking bait, it even skips pretty well, and I caught a big largemouth in short order. "Great", was my first reaction. Closer inspection revealed that one fish, although a big one, had torn up the $18 lure. Knocked out one eye and ripped the hook holder right out of the lure's belly. Can some of you lunker hunters tell me if this is to be expected, are they really that fragile, or do they usually last longer?

Can't be too skiddish if they will hit a whopper plopper. 1/8 oz. spinnerbait and buzzbait with small trailers, weightless flukes, 4 inch Dingers and 4 inch ribbon tail worms. Shouldn't need anything else.

I live on Bull Shoals and keep my boat in the marina which my house overlooks. I can be on the lake within 15 minutes, with a second option of launching my trout boat on the White River within about the same period of time. Being retired (and unmarried) I fish whenever I want and see no reason to grind out the 8-12 hour days anymore. Most often I launch just before daylight and am home by lunchtime.

My old Berkley line stripper finally met the trash can and I need a new one; preferably an upgrade. Judging from the experience of BR members, I would like some recommendations. Thankyou in advance.

My experiences with ALF have been all good. Last year alone, I purchased two of Daiwa's new BFS rods, two of the new size 70 reels and spools of Tatsu. One of the rods they shipped was the wrong model and with one phone call they immediately sent the correct one without even waiting for me to return the other. In the end, they even offered me an excellent price on the rod that was to be returned and I bought that one too. I call that good service.

Keep it dry or it will not last long.

No cull for me, catch and release only; I wish the tournaments would all adopt this policy.

When I was working I bought only G Loomis. When I retired and relocated the local tackle shop talked me into stocking up on Duckett Rods, micro guides were briefly popular. My mistake, now I've gone back to Loomis; anyone in the market for some used Duckett's? I do have to give some kudos to a couple of BFS from Daiwa, matched with their reels they are really sweet.

At 42 you've barely passed puberty; contact us in another 40 years.

UUGGHH!