Big Hands

I have one lake that is 2 miles from my door and another (that I don't care to fish unless it's a fishing emergency, LOL) that is 17.5 miles from my door. If I fish any other lake with my boat, there will be a quarantine period before I fish there, and also after I fish there before I can fish my home lake(s) again. So, 2 miles it is, but not necessarily by choice.

"Questionable" is being too kind. Pyramid Lake isn't even #4 on any list with more than four other lakes on the list. . . . unless Puddingstone is also on that list. The only time I fish Pyramid Lake is when Castaic is closed for some local disaster (happens more than you would think, mostly weather or fire related) or it's been so long since I've been to Pyramid Lake that I forgot why I don't fish Pyramid Lake.

Recreational fishing, at least on the west coast will only be legal in the Metaverse and will be considered more perverted than a porn addiction. Even if you only bass fish in the Metaverse, partaking there will so severely harm your social credit score, that you won't be allowed to reproduce (other than virtually) or even leave your veal stall. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Take what I (Mr. Sunshine, Rainbows and Unicorns) say with a grain of salt. I thought we'd all be travelling around in flying saucers by the year 2000.

I appreciate that you want to make the site better for the members, so please don't think that I don't appreciate that. . . because I sincerely do. But, like has already been said, if they wanted to be here, they'd already be here. Others may enjoy having them here, and therefore I wouldn't object to it. If it's to tell us exactly which crankbait they won such and such tournament with that comes from their sponsor, but they don't want to tell us the part about them adding 3 cc's of water to it so it dives to 35' instead of 20' then I'll pass (with the full understanding that there are several very valid reasons why they cannot afford to disclose such information). If they submitted articles to the library on technical subject matter, there's a good chance I would read it.

This reminded me of back when I was working for a major biotech pharma company in the facilities department and we had someone from purchasing come to show us how to process a purchase order in the new purchasing system. She asked the group to give an example of something we would create a purchase order for. Someone other than me hollered out "Jeff's new bass boat". Being a good sport, that is what she entered into the sample PO. About a year later, I got a call from the purchasing department telling me that I had some explaining to do, LOL.

Looks like the one I have is the Rabble Rouser Baby Rouster in Tennessee Shad color, LOL.

Pretty sure I have one lurking somewhere too. No idea of it's origin as it was given to me.

It's my opinion that bass will eat just about anything they perceive as possibly being food, including things like a ball of cheese, food pellets, cubed chunks of meat and even wads of soft plastic and metal that don't really look like an actual creature.

Things like breeding with northern (or other) strains from the Florida strain that was planted in several reservoirs, is one factor. In the case of Castaic Lake (where I have lived since 1987), the intrusion of stripers in the early 90's was the beginning of the end for this lake that has produced more top 25 largemouth than any other body of water. Trout stocking has been inconsistent, fishing pressure is relatively insane given the size of many of our reservoirs, and the supply of water relative to the demand are also contributing factors. Also, in most California waters, if you want to fish with crawdads or minnows, you have to catch them yourself from the water they will be fished in, and you have to catch them on the day you're going to use them. This was not the case several years ago, so the ease of being able to fish with live bait for world record class bass has been greatly reduced. In most cases that I know of, the stocking of Florida strains in California reservoirs was a project, not a program. In other words, they stocked them once or for a limited time, and that was it. I could be wrong about this, and maybe someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

I think LiveScope makes it more likely to be able to target fish that roam around offshore and are not used to being targeted such as they may be now with FFS (forward facing sonar, including LiveScope). I think they are used to being in those places and not having anyone bother them like they do when they head for the shallows to feed or spawn. This makes them vulnerable. Eventually, they will likely adapt, but for now, they probably haven't yet done so. As for that world record coming from California, most of the lakes that used to produce fish like that simply don't have them in there anymore. If I had to wager a bet, my money would be on OH Ivie within the next five years, hands down. After that, several years from now, Bois D'Arc looks to be a player if things go the way they are hoping.

Every bass I have caught on 'the plug' was caught on the front hook. I could have removed the rear hook and caught all of those same fish and probably hung up less.

Front hook?

It happens. . . December 19th Late in the morning 12 lbs 13 oz Poe cedar crankbait - medium diver I was within 100 yards of where Bob Crupi caught his 22 lb largemouth. I would have needed another DD to bite the free hook to equal his catch. The pigs that used to swim in that lake were plentiful and utterly ridiculous in size.

What could go wrong?

I don't know. I think I'll need to hit the lake this afternoon to find out.

Honey, is that you? ? Ah, what the heck, I'll bite. I live about 3 miles from the launch ramp (6 miles round trip) My Yukon gets 16 mpg and gas is currently $5.66/gal., so $2.12 per trip to haul the boat. The outboard (40 hp Mercury four stroke) uses about 1 gallon per trip, so $5.66 + $2.12 = $7.78 per trip for fuel. Parking/Launch fees would be $25, but I do volunteer work at the lake and qualify for my fees being waived, so $0.00 for that. Tackle? Yea, that can vary depending on how I am fishing, but I would estimate generally around $5 to $20. I've occasionally had a rough day with tungsten sinkers and that has got ugly a time or three, but not usually. Lately, I have been mostly throwing weightless wacky Senkos, so a bag of Senkos and maybe a few hooks. More than that if my kids fish with me. I would estimate somewhere between $15 to $30 per trip, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

If I make it to the tackle store today after my dentist appointment, this shop will have 2 less of these in stock.

I have a Daiwa Tatula CT100 (previous generation), and I would rather have another Shimano SLX MGL 70 that I got soon after purchasing the Daiwa. The SLX MGL 70 casts noticeably further with the same weight, or the same distance with less weight IME.

Quite a few good choices, and a decent budget number; much better to work with that a $200 budget IMHO. My choice would be either a Daiwa Tatula or St. Croix Mojo Bass spinning rod and a Daiwa Fuego LT 2000S-XH reel.

If you want to replace a rope on your Minn Kota, I used a replacement 'lawn mower' D-handle that I picked up at Lowes for $10, and some 3/32" coated steel cable from either Home Depot or Lowes (they never seem to have coated stainless steel cable in stock in that size). The lawn mower replacement handle is the exact same one packaged in a very popular 'kit' that sells for $52 on the big A. It's very simple task to do on an 'Edge' trolling motor. Add a couple of stainless steel cable clamps and a 'thimble' to connect the cable to the TM, and it's good to go. Having one of those ropes break (they get weak from the sunlight shining on it) can be a total PITA if it happens while you're on the water. Those ropes are living on borrowed time very quickly after being installed.

I have been on a vision quest for my ultimate weightless wacky Senko rod and have been through several 6'10" to 7'1" M/F, ML/F and L/F spinning rods. They were all OK at it, but I really wanted that extra casting difference. After grinding on what might be the next step, I kept coming back to wanting to try something a little longer. I was initially interested in either the Tatula TTU761MLMFS or the extra Gucci Tatula Elite TAEL761MLMFS-AGS (Seth Feider Hair Jig rod). The 'regular' Tatula version is very difficult to find in stock (or was a month ago), and I wasn't sure I wanted to drop $300 on a rod I couldn't handle first. I was in my local tackle store and they had a St. Croix Mojo MJS76MLXF (7'6" ML/XF Hair Jig rod) in the store. So far it's outperformed all of my other spinning rods (Tatula, Kage, Zodias, Expride & Phenix Feather) for delivering weightless wacky plastics (specifically 4" and 5" Senkos). The light tip lets me know the fish are there long before they know I'm there, and the extra fast action let's me lean into them to drive the finesse hooks in and keeps them pinned really well. Maybe I'm way off on this as it seems that so many others have homed in on the relatively shorter solutions, but as far as I am concerned, all of my other spinning rods can go back to doing whatever other finesse techniques they also do well.