DitchPanda

I too am a type A personality so I have a tough time when people are being rude or entitled if it affects me in any way. Now I agree it shouldn't be taken to an extreme level... But I also believe you shouldn't let people push you around or treat you like a door mat. If somebody gets close I will move down...if they walk up on me and take my spot im saying something. It's just an unacceptable amount of disrespect. I think about it like this...if your in line at the grocery store and somebody cuts in front of you who wouldn't say something? But what's the difference? Your both there for the same reason spending your time and money in a public place

I do not...I know guys are collectors but that's not me...I buy lures to fish with. I wouldn't buy something so rare or expensive that I would be scared to throw it.

Agreed..but I'm just guessing with all brands that the improvement isn't equal to the money increase somewhere in their line. Meaning the $300 rod may be twice as good as the $150... But the $600 while being better is likely not twice as good as the $300. Now that said this is speculation on my part as I havent ventured into that high end territory.

When I stepped up from a $100 to $200 dollar rod there was a huge difference in quality. Then I tried my buddies $400 rod the difference was there but it wasn't nearly as substantial. Diminishing returns are a real thing imo.

I talked about a situation that happened to me a while back when a couple my age (mid 30s) walked up on the jetty I was fishing almost back to back with me. Didn't even ask me which would be customary especially...but on top of it this covid deal is raging so it m ticked me off. I grabbed my gear threw it in my truck and when the guy looked up I called them something I shouldnt. I was honestly hoping at the time the guy was gonna come up and start simething...that's how mad I was. Of course afterwards I realized it was stupid for me to react that way and I'm glad it didn't get any worse. So words of wisdom...don't do that. Now about the kid calling his dad...I realize he is a young man but that is pathetic unless you are being aggressive or disrespectful...as long as you handled it the way you claim than there is no reason to react that way. Probably a young kid used to get what he wants and when real life hits he runs to dad to fix it. Heard a story from a work buddy the other day. So he is on the volunteer fire department in his town and every year they have a big town celebration...music, food,beer garden etc. So he is at this celebration one night and he is watching the band having a few beers. New guy on the department comes up and is giving him a hard time about not working the beer tent..my buddy laughs it off as just a guy messing with him. Well this guy continues several more times throughout the night..each time getting a little more outspoken let's say. My buddy confronts him about it so the guy gets in his face threatening him...buddy has been drinking so he grabs the guy by the neck and pushes him down. The guy gets up and smartly storms off instead of pushing the issue. So the next day my buddy wakes up and gets a call from another guy in the department saying this guys dad is gonna kick his a#@. So he calls the guys dad and explains it to him and they bury the hatchet. Pathetic part in all this is the guy that called his daddy is a 27 year old "man". I use man very loosly here because that's no man I've ever seen..that's a coward...a scared little boy. Apparently some people never grow out of it.

Was gonna say 2 things mentioned above:the bone color more closely resembles the belly color of fish and the most important thing is it works.

Nope never happened to me...not sure what your problem is P.S. I'm a Liar

I don't disagree with this..but for me it doesn't matter really. I'm not tourney fishing so unless I'm on total dinks I'll stay and pound on em until they quit.

Well yeah jordan lee is up there as well...kinda forgot about that honestly...still think Wheeler is the king right now. Stacking KVD caliber paper.

This is a huge reason for me. I use live maggots for panfish thru the ice but they are very hearty with almost no care required. But things like minnows and shad especially are a pain in the a@# to keep alive...particularly if it's hot out which is when I would turn to live bait to help a tough bite.

I fish an area until they shut off...I don't cast catch and instantly move on. For example I caught 14 Thursday....random 1 here random 1 there then boom 12 from the same small area.

Ha...I get it. Nobody likes seeing the same old story play out with the same people on top all the time. But I've gotta admit that I really like Wheeler. Also there is no doubt in my mind that he is the best fisherman in the world right now. Only guy close to him the past few years is John Cox.

Dudes 71 and he just won the FLW tournament at the Mississippi river. Also probably one of the best swim jig fisherman walking the planet. On top of everything he just seems like a laid back down to earth guy in every interview..so it's hard not to root for him. I'm really looking forward to his FLW Day 5 coming from this win.

I use 2inch grubs for crappie and 3 inch grubs for walleye and bass. A 3inch white Mr Twister on a ballhead is skunk repellent..it's kinda like a Ned rig in that it will often produce when nothing else will.

I think this is true as long as people know what they are doing. I saw a guy with a few kids the other day fishing minnows down the bank from me..they caught a cat and what looked to be a few small bass. In that time I caught 10 bass on a Ned and shallow crank.

I use live bait for fish I eat like bluegills,perch,crappie and walleye. For me the pursuit of bass is about the sport...I don't know if I've ever targeted bass with live bait. Much more satisfying to catch them on artificial.

Ice fishing for me is one of those things that comes in hot and quickly runs out of steam for me. Every November or December when it's starting I'm super excited for it. By February I'm over it...by March I'm begging god to make it end.

Shouldn't take a very hard acceleration to destroy a Ford off the line...just sayin

So I managed to catch a nice one and saw several more feeding on shad briefly. Even though they haven't been super common in my local lake for years it appears they are making a comeback. What are some good lures to target them with? What areas do you look for? I haven't fished for them in a long time so any help is appreciated. Let me clarify...how do I target them when I don't visually see them? When they are on top that's pretty easy

Hooked a beaver one time(don't even start)...hardest fight of my life...had my drag as tight as I could and it still almost spooled me before my line popped.

Was gonna say that Yum is notoriously bad for this. I use a ton of zoom stuff and I've never noticed it.

What I experienced is nowhere near that level of chaos...but it was cool anyway.

So I went out from 6:30 to 9 this morning and was able to get on a solid bite...it's been a while! I ended up catching 14 largemouth and a nice white bass. 8 dinks and 6 keepers with my best 5 between 13 and 14lbs. Caught 1 on a plopper,1 on a Texas rigged worm, 5 in a 1.5 shallow and 7 plus the white bass on the good ol Ned rig. I'm really starting to love that stupid little rig and see it's true potential. Not sure what the fish see it as but they eat the crap out of it. The white bass was cool cuz they aren't super common in my local lake but they started busting on shad for all of about 20 seconds and I managed 1 before they went down. Wish they would have stayed up a few minutes or come back so I could have caught 4 or 5. Still it was a great morning and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Braid can help for sure yes but it's not perfect in every situation. Around grass braid is great..and unless your water is extremely clear or very heavily pressured I wouldn't worry about the fish being line shy. If your fishing around rock at all braid is a poor choice as rock just destroys it. Maybe fluorocarbon would be a good compromise for you...still good abrasion resistance and a little better feel. I myself use copolymer..have used hybrid in the past and currently use izorline xxx....I rarely hook fish deep. Learning to keep the line tight enough to feel the bait but not impede action takes time. I also agree with draping the line on your fingertip as they are very sensitive and will feel any change or tick/jump in line. The most important one is line watching...I catch a lot of my jig\Texas rig fish by seeing the bite. Mobasser had it right you have quality gear so I don't think that's the issue. One more thing that helped me was using a bit heavier weight...it naturally keeps the line tighter and keeps you in better contact with the bait. For instance let's say your fishing 3-5 ft and normally you use 1/8 or 3\16 ...step up slightly to 1\4 and see if that helps.

I'm also not sure what exactly it does...somebody will come on here and drop some science on us...but I know it works. I just boiled some curl tail worms the other day..about half the pack was kinked...I dunked the tails in boiling water for about 30 seconds and laid em on a paper towel to dry. They are perfect now.