Bankc

I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have said that. I don't know you or your situation. I apologize.

You know you're rich when being a millionaire means nothing to you. Your problem is, you've got too many rich friends, so you don't FEEL rich. Come on down to my side of the tracks if you want to feel that million! A million bucks buys you a lot more than you know. Especially the stuff that's easy to take for granted, like eating out at a restaurant when it's not a special occasion, paying someone else to cut your hair, or when buying a car, asking yourself how comfortable it would be to sleep in, just in case. I'm not proud of it, but I can rank brands of dog food by taste. It's hard to get by out there. And that million bucks buys you an awful lot of cushion when times get tough. But yeah, I understand. A million bucks isn't what it used to be. Not long ago, it seems like, that was a mansion! These days, it's half a small house in some cities. It's certainly not the gateway to a life a luxury that it once was. Still, for the purposes of this thread, it serves as shorthand for "person rich enough to start a business just for fun".

Sounds like you're talking about Ginghers. I bought my wife some of them several years back when she was into sewing. Great scissors. Really well made and SHARP! The only problem is, other than expense, they will rust like crazy! Not a good choice for on the lake, in my opinion. Plus, my wife would kill me if I took them, and confiscate them if I bought my own.

Yeah, I've definitely had some good luck getting to areas that other people can't in heavily pressured waters. There are several spots on a lake I frequent that have tons of timber you have to ride over in 1-3 feet of water. It makes it pretty much impossible to get a regular boat through because the timber would chew up a prop. And they're far enough away from the docks that most kayaks and canoes won't paddle that far to get to them. Also, our forests are so dense with shrubs and brush that you can't really walk to them. So even in these highly pressured lakes, there are spots that don't see hardly any other anglers, all year long. I can fish them because I can switch between my trolling motor and paddle on my kayak. That being said, they're not the greatest places to catch fish. They're really far from any deep water, exposed to birds, and the water is generally pretty stagnant. I can often catch one or two there, but there are usually better places in the lake, even with the fishing pressure. And these fish are hyper-sensitive to sound, unlike the rest of the lake. So there's a lot of pulling up to a spot, getting everything ready, and then sitting quietly for the next 10 minutes before casting.

I used to snell hooks when I wanted that cam action. The idea being that as the line was pulled tight, by going through the front of the eye on the hook, it would slightly kick out the hook to get better penetration. But, I've gotten away from that in recent years. Mostly due to just laziness. And I haven't noticed a big difference either way. I've certainly never had an issue with it sliding up into the eye enough to damage the knot. Maybe I'll do it again, now that I'm thinking about it. A good snell knot is a strong knot, so I have no worries about using it. And it's easy enough to tie. But the more I fish, the less I think about knots.

I'd pick the Zodias since it's a fast vs. extra fast. But either would be fine. I doubt it would make one fish of a difference, either way.

Good luck! My kayak came with a title, but I've never had to use it and don't know where it is anymore. I've read on various Oklahoma government websites where I'm required to have it registered and others say I'm not. I'm not sure anyone really knows for sure. As with so many things, it's not about the letter of the law, but the opinion of those enforcing it. Having talked to some lake patrol, they don't believe I am required to register it since it's just an electric trolling motor, so that's who I'm going with. They're the ones who would be enforcing it anyway. There's a city registration I have to use on city owned lakes because of the trolling motor, but to get that, I just put "kayak" on the form, instead of the title number. And, technically, I have the title number on a badge on the kayak, should I ever need it.

Yeah, the heat is good about that. When I was a kid, I used to wonder why my grandparents would sit out on the porch in the hot summer evenings in Texas and just stare out into the pasture and talk. They said it was because the breeze was so nice. But to me, the air conditioning was a whole lot nicer. Then, as I got older, I started to understand how the heat can really wear you out. And how sometimes just sitting on the hot porch at the end of a long day can really get your body ready for bed. It makes it easier to relax and sleep. Up until yesterday, this September has been ridiculously hot. This summer started off fairly mild, but it's hanging around a lot longer than it's supposed to. Thankfully, it's trying to cool off and might stay cool for a while.

You know your body better than anyone. So if it says you have the energy, then you have the energy. But play it conservatively. Don't push yourself into becoming uncomfortable. And if you do go, I'd definitely take precautions. Like probably wear some gloves and bring some hand sanitizer to treat any cuts or scrapes the moment they happen. Also, I would probably bring a lawn chair and some live bait to just fish from the dock. Make it easy on yourself. Don't risk over exerting yourself if you don't need to. At the very least, I can't see much harm in just going out there and pulling up a lawn chair and staring at the water for a little while. One of my favorite things about fishing is just relaxing in nature and taking in all of the sights, sounds and smells. A little sunshine can do wonders for your mood sometimes.

One of you rich millionaires needs to get off your duff and start a company that makes small fishing scissors out of CPM Magnacut steel. I've been doing a bit of research (for another hobby), and apparently this wonder steel is not only extremely stainless, but has better edge retention than all of the old carbon and stainless steels we've been using. It seems like a no-brainer. Now, there are some knives made of this stuff. They're pretty expensive, but apparently, highly regarded. They might be worth the price if you hate sharpening and need a pair to store in your boat. Still, knife blades are big and use up a lot of steel. Those tiny scissors, like the kind used in a Swiss Army knife or the plastic line cutters they sell, could be small. I'd probably upgrade the plastic bodies to 304 stainless, just to give them a more premium feel because you would have to charge considerably more. But I think you could still come in well below $100 and make a healthy profit. And I don't know about you, but $100 for some line cutters that actually worked AND would still work when your great grandchildren inherited them doesn't sound like such a terribly high cost. Plus, they're small. So they'd get lost easily. And you'd have repeat customers. So there's your get richer quicker scheme. All I ask is you send me a free prototype for the idea. In exchange, I'll say it was your idea.

I wouldn't want to guide if I was working for someone else (do guides even do this?). But if I ran my own company, I'd have no problem telling those few who just want to be mean to go stuff it! I'd drop them off at the dock the second I caught wind of that kind of behavior. And if they were bad enough, it wouldn't even be the dock we launched from. It took a lot of work, but I've finally convinced by bosses that the customer isn't always right and we don't need everyone's business. It took years of tracking data and tons of delicate conversations on my part to finally convince them that maybe 5% of our customers are the cause of 50% of our yearly losses. And they still don't fully trust in it. They'll still give a bad customer the benefit of the doubt for far too long. But they've at least started to learn how to tell customers "no" and "take your business elsewhere" when they get bad enough. It's a different world now, and everyone has to evolve with it. Most customers want your products or services. And even good customers will have bad days. But a select few don't want what you have to offer. They just want you to feel their pain. I certainly wouldn't want to rely on guiding as a primary source of income. The pay is too low and costs too high for something so unpredictable and seasonal. But, I could see it being a good job for someone to supplement another, steady income. Like maybe someone who's retired or a school teacher with summers off.

I'd avoid ceramic or anything particularly expensive, if I were you. I once put ceramic bearings in a baitcaster and discovered two things. The first is, they're loud! Not crazy loud, but loud enough to be annoying. And the second is, you don't need the highest quality bearings in a reel. They don't spin at 30,0000 RPMs, they don't spin 24/7/365, and they don't spin in temperatures north of 450°. Plus, no matter the reel and bearings, you're going to have to apply some breaks to avoid backlash. Which means no reel will be able to take advantage of high end bearings in real-world use. Yes, you want good enough bearings so that the bearings don't become your brakes. But beyond that, it doesn't matter. And pretty much any mid-priced bearing you can find will easily cover that. High end bearings might buy you an extra yard on your furthest casts. But 99 times out of 100, you need that extra yard to go into accuracy rather than distance. And if you ever really do need that extra yard, then there are other ways to get it.

Some people have a preferred brand. But not me. I go with anything other than Eagle Claw, because I've had too many of those rust out on me. Plus, they're never sharp out of the box. I've heard their Trokar line are better, but that brand has soured me too much to give them a try. Besides Owner, Gamakatsu, VMC, and Mustad, I also like Berkley Fusion19 and Bass Pro's and Academy's house brands. I haven't had a complaint among any of them.

If the bass tell me to, I will. I'll wait until they stop hitting something to bench it. If you've got something working, work it until it don't work no more! Besides, fish are dumb. If the fish can "learn" a lure, they will also "forget" that lure in a year or three. Their brains aren't big enough to remember things long-term without writing them down. So long as you don't drop mechanical pencils in the pond (because the wooden ones float and are too hard for them to use), you'll be fine. That's assuming, of course, that you're the only person fishing this pond. Because if a whole lot of other people are fishing it hard every day, then it doesn't matter what you do. They'll learn or unlearn those lures with or without you.

Do bring some gas money for the boat and offer to pay if it's his personal boat and he's paying for gas out of pocket.