Guitarfish

I have 8-9 different Bantam Mags. But I'm still fishing them, lol.

I still have 7 of the original Stradics with the rosewood handles, of various sizes. They all still work great. I remember thinking I was spending my kids college money when I was buying them, lol. I will never spend the money for a Stella. Just the way it is. I buy 'good enough' to get the job done, plus a little. But I was raised by folks that knew the depression. The 'maintain it' mentality is just ingrained so deep it defines me. I fix everything myself, cars, boats, the garden, sheetrock, my roof.... So OP, I vote Stradic. And take care of it. Or do what you want to do and be done with it.

I'm too lazy to go look for the model #, but I have an old Stevens that was given to me by my step dad. It's the only shotgun I have. As far as expense, I have lots of high dollar salt water stuff. I realized at one point that every time I spent my money on equipment, I didn't spend it going on a trip.

Technically not a fishing day...My fishing bud was to meet me at the ramp. Shows up with a stranger and asks if he can fish with us. I'm a bit miffed because he didn't ask before bringing him, but say sure. I tell my bud to guide me down the ramp when all of a sudden he's waving like a maniac. I knew immediately what was up and stomped the gas to make it the last 10 feet to the water. The stranger had disconnected my safety strap to the boat and on a roller trailer the boat did what gravity asked for. Caused $4k damage and labor cost to the lower unit, but I saved my aluminum boat bottom. Stranger called a week later and fessed up but I already knew.

Vilas15, if the air bladder was sticking out it would be obvious, like saltwater fishing rockfish. But we use a descender device in the salt. I said I have never seen it in a freshwater bass if I wasn't clear. I don't fish deep enough I guess. And the OP never stated anything other than there was little fight to the fish, so I mentioned just cradling for awhile. Gotta keep it in context. I have heard poking fish is not a good idea at all in salt. Will have to do a bit more research before I'd be comfortable doing it to a freshwater bass. AGAIN, not saying it's wrong. But I don't play a doctor on TV either.

Hmmm, in saltwater fishing we don't even consider it a problem until like 80'. Fresh water bass are that different? If the fish appears exhausted it may just need to be cradled in the water until it catches it's breath. It'll swim off. I have caught LM in deep water and have never seen the air bladder on one. Not saying it isn't an issue, just have never seen it.

I'm no help, I haven't been in over a decade. We rented a 'cabin' there. My wife wouldn't let the kids swim at all after she saw something big submerge one evening by the docks. She swore it was an alligator, lol. Looking back it was probably a beaver or the like. If I was you I'd stop at the local shop there. The owner knew all the latest trends. If he's still there.

When I was young and had energy, I would send my work crews out, then hook up my boat and go fishing. Made all my calls from the boat and set up all the work orders for the next day or two. Never told the crews or they would have mutinied. Then Friday I'd switch to the 10' BassHunter for night fishing. Wife never complained either. How lucky was I?

That may be reaching a bit, but I agree sort of. I catch a few crappie for dinner and then go catch and release mode. Who can eat 25 crappie? I just cringe when I see buckets.

I will go with a 1/8oz owner ball head jig with a pumpkin chartreuse grub. I've caught everything on that. Small mouth, large mouth, trout and blue gill. I have a stockpile from around 1990 of the exact color grubs.

I just picked up a few mint vintage Fenwick fly rods & reels. Gonna whip the tar out of some bass fly's.

I'd keep running it until it starts giving trouble.

Nice work.

I would say about the same 2lbs, maybe 3lbs if lucky. In a boat so I was able to pull it out to deeper water. Good fun.

Age does help with that, lol. People are going to tick you off no matter what. I remember going to the Delta years ago with my then 5 year old son. We were fishing our little 12 foot aluminum up against the tulies. I was tossing hair raisers trying to get something for the little guy to reel in, when a big ole cruiser came blasting thru at about 25 mph. He was throwing a 3-1/2 foot tall wake across the whole 35' wide channel. Looked right at me and just kept coming. I yelled to my boy to hang on just as the wake picked us up and threw the boat against the tulies. Didn't swamp us or get us wet even, just scared the bejeebus out of me. I followed the channel for about a mile trying to find him docked for some personal delivery, but calmed down before that happened and went back to fishing. My son just thought it was fun. He had the right attitude.

I just went and looked. I have bunches of fishing books but nothing dedicated to just crankbaits. I'm also buying different crankbaits to try this year, along with finesse stuff too.

- I have four old Quantum Energy that I absolutely love. I do the maintenance on them. - I have 10 different Shimano Bantam Mags, my favorite being the 15XSG. Sweet tiny reel. - I also have some old Mitchell Spidercast S3000's. Love them too. - And some others from back in the day. I have zero reason to upgrade. The fish still get caught. High dollar reels are in my salt water stuff.

I drank a lot of beer as a young guy. Quit when I realized I was doing stupid stuff. Now all these years later I get a headache after one drink and it usually upsets my stomach. So now my body is self regulating.

36" works fine. And yes on a 55lb. Ideal for this class of boat.

New seats. Not being a smartypants, I tried everything as a cushion and they all slid off. Bought comfortable seats. I found that if you are going to fish hard, the seat has to be soft.

I bought one of those cheap head nets for a few bucks, sprayed it with 'Off', and wore a long sleeve tee. Sprayed a couple spots on the tee too. No bugs.

I'm going to follow this thread. I just installed a trim and tilt unit on an old Johnson. Pretty sure it will be similar.

I don't remember which hook I used, but back in the day night fishing with 10" black-blue flake Power worms, was a real kick. In the delta, tossing them into the shadow pockets between tulies.

Yes, been doing it for 30 years.

You run greased (cf) drags for a smooth start up and no jerkiness. Doesn't really apply if you just hammer down your drags.