Tackleholic

Not a braid fan, are you?

I hear what you say about the release factor in Walleye tournaments, I'd forgotten about that. The PWT used to hold tournaments on my lake, but to my knowledge Bull Shoals and some other southern lakes were removed from the tournament circuit. A friend of mine who used to participate in the PWT told me it was due to the high mortality rate of fish placed in livewells in the lakes with warmer water. Some of the Brown Trout guides on our White River will use various types of live bait, and the ones I know will release every Brown Trout their clients catch. That water is always cold, and the guides share the attitude of not killing the fish which are the source of their livelyhood.

I'm dedicated to catch and release. The mortality rate seems higher with live bait than with artificial lures. Whenever I see someone using live bait I know whatever they catch will be going home for dinner, even if it is a 5 pound smallmouth. I also look down on people who use chicken livers when fishing for large brown trout; disgraceful.

I feel badly for the great older pros who are now losing to "kids" because they do not and never will have the ability to be as proficient with the electronics. I would like to see some tournaments with no electronics allowed; bet the old guys would rule.

A few years ago the State began taking license sales away from tackle dealers. One of them told me that he received nothing from the sales, so he didn't care. He said the time spent kept him away from other duties, he also had to swallow credit card fees and fill out a separate deposit form when turning in the cash to a bank. He was pretty sour about it, stating that the people buying licenses seldom bought anything else. I'm referring to Arkansas.

That's a Golden Trout, we have them in the Arkansas White River. Personally, I could never kill such a beautiful fish.

Jig Man, you and I must be of different generations; you are more tech savy than I.

I'm OCD about keeping a log; begin each new year with a new spiral notebook. Date, time, temp., wind, sun, cloud cover, moon, water temp., lures, where, depth, dock talk, what I'll do next time out, etc.. I fill it out as soon as I get home.

Tiny crappie trailers made by Bobby Garland increase their appeal.

I was introduced to them by my guide while trout fishing on the Arkansas White River and I was immediately impressed. The guide let me keep the one on my rod and a couple others that were trashed. When back in Illinois I tied them on for Smallmouth and crushed 'em. Next day I placed a sizeable order with White River Zig Jigs.

In the 1940's my parents would give me a quarter to put in the collection plate in church. I would drop the quarter in and take out a dime in change. Don't believe I ever was caught.

There is a pro, I believe Matt Robertson, who uses Ugly Sticks. If I am correct about that, I would like to know what reels he uses.

I believe the flag incident happened as a result of him running aground and wrecking his boat. Ranger dropped him over that and other boats he had previously wrecked. Ike and Bass Cat hooked up after that.

.90 cents per hour, 45 hour week, 1958 in a men's wear store.

Good old Illinois, speaking from experience, a good place to be from and never go back to.

For years I was loyal to Berkley Fluorocarbon 15# but began to wonder about the amount of stretch. When I would become hopelessly snagged and needed to break off, the line would stretch so much before breaking that it was a time consuming chore, no matter what methods I attempted; so I bought a single spool of 16# Sniper. Big difference, much less stretch.

Thankyou, first I've heard of that. Where I am, extra rods are allowed on the lake, but more than one on the river may get you free room and board in an Arkansas 1 star lockup hotel.

What is the second rod "privilege"?

Zillion is a great reel, why did you want to make changes?

I've been trying to order reel replacement parts from them; I leave messages but receive no call back. Anyone know if this is a dead issue?

It was Michigan over Bama 27/20 in overtime. Too bad someone had to lose.

Ranger boats went on a 3 day work week in 2023 and moved Triton back into the Ranger facility. Their lot is the emptiest I've seen it in the past 12 years, and most of that inventory seems to consist of small aluminum boats designed for hunting.

I'm 100% catch and release and always have a fizzing needle in the boat. Most people do not.

Don't remember 16 years back, but I bought a 65 and over lifetime hunting, fishing license and trout stamp, it was very inexpensive. I live on Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas, and pay $10 per year to hunt and fish on the Missouri side.

I often fish for Brown Trout on the famous White River in Arkansas. Most of the river boats, including mine, are long and flat bottom with small motors. Dense fog comes in with little warning and quite often. Most boats do not come with bow and stern lights, mine has them, but the fog is usually so dense that I can barely make out the bow light while in back and running the motor. Knowing there are river jockeys going full throttle and inexperienced boaters sharing the water is scary as hell. I usually fish alone, but one time I got very lucky and had a friend with me at the right time. We were 8 miles downstream from the launch when fog began and in minutes we were fully enveloped (afternoon fog will stay until the next morning). I had a floodlight on board, most boats do not. My friend sat in front with the floodlight and was able to keep us between the banks, going extremely slow. Suddenly he yelled for me to make a hard left, which I did. There was a wade fisherman standing in the middle of the river and I missed him by no more than 2 feet; if I had been alone I would have run right over him.