Bankc

Five years ago I would have been shocked that a bass boat would cost $200k. I kind of miss that.

It all depends. In some lakes, it doesn't change anything. On some lakes, it changes everything. On some lakes, it changes nothing in the lake, but everything in the river behind the dam. Ask some locals how the lake responds. They'll know.

I'm the Secretariat of bass fishing. I have no idea what's going on around me and I just do what I'm told. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. I'm not really aware either way. But whatever happens, I'm happy because I get to bury my face in a bag of food when it's over.

I see a lot of elderly people fish from them. Small bass boats can be hard to stand up in, so a lot of the older guys migrate over to them so they can still get out on the water, and not have to worry about falling over. This is what my grandfather and father in law did. Unfortunately, by the time you're to the point where you need a pontoon boat, you're probably not far off from just needing to stay out of boats all together. Neither of them got more than 3 or 4 years out of the pontoon boat. Which would have been fine if they had lots of money. But at the rate they used them, they would have been much better off just renting one, as that's a huge investment for someone living off social security.

There's probably some truth to what he said. But, consider that more action isn't always what the bass want. And if you really need a ton of action, perhaps a swim jig isn't the right approach. So I wouldn't get too hung up on magic pairings.

Not in any way that I'm consciously aware of. But anything's possible!

I don't watch barometric pressure directly. However, I do follow wind speed and wind direction, and that is usually regulated by barometric pressure. So I kind of follow it indirectly and plan fishing around that. Mostly in form of: I can go fishing one day this weekend, so which day I chose depends on the weather.

A truck would be nice, if I only used it for fishing. But for all of the other things I need a vehicle for, a truck is a bad investment for me. I went with a compact SUV. I doesn't do anything great, but does a little bit of everything, and since we use my car for everything (my wife drives a Miata), everything is what I need out of it. I'd hate to have to choose between a truck and Miata for a two week road trip. Plus, I have a personal aversion to trucks. They're fine vehicles if you need one. I'm not against the truck itself. But the prices people charge for them are absolutely ridiculous these days! Trucks are among the cheapest vehicles to make, even cheaper than most sedans, but they often cost twice as much! The markup on them is insane! I refuse to reward that kind of corporate greed. I get how capitalism works and I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed to charge what they do. They have a right to ask whatever they want. But it's also my right to say "enough is enough" and not reward such behavior. So I just have no desire to own a truck at this point in time. Or, should I say, buy a truck. I'd still be mighty thankful if someone gave me one!

I'd rather see them. It's more information I can use to improve my fishing. How close I got or what I lost doesn't matter to me. Either way, it's a lost fish. And it's much easier for me to swallow the loss, if I can learn something from it.

I think FFS is best used when the fishing gets tough. The old ways work better when the bite is good. FFS can often cause you to get tunnel vision and locked into bad patterns if you're not careful. Think of it more as a backup plan, rather than plan A. If the old ways are working, then stick with the old ways. Don't try to fix what ain't broken. But if it's not, then go to the FFS and see what it tells you.

Get something to shade them. I keep mine in a tackle bag on my kayak, and leave the cover flap over them. The sun's UV rays are powerful and will break down just about anything given enough time. And some plastics don't react well to heat. Whether or not you actually experience any problems will depend. For the most part, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But figuring out some kind of shade, even if it's just a towel, shouldn't be too hard, if only for peace of mind. Or don't worry about until you actually run into a problem. Then you'll know. Either way, it's not like you run the risk of the sun destroying all of your lures in a day.

I wish I could use mine more. But Jitterbugs aren't much use with all of this Oklahoma wind.

Sufix Promix. It works and the color lasts a long time. There's not much more I could ask for, to be honest. Though, I usually buy it because it's cheap and easy to find rather than because I'm looking for it. I tend to not worry too much about braid. I'm not saying they're all identical, but I've yet to come across a braided fishing line that either failed to meet or exceeded my expectations. Now, fluorocarbon is a different story...

With the price of cryogenic freezing coming down, probably very. That's assuming, of course, you want them to wake you the next time the Titans make it to the Superbowl! 😜

Motorcycle license plate says "Montana". The YouTube video comments say it's "Alpine Lake". According to Google, there are 4 "Alpine lakes" in Montana. That's assuming he didn't trailer his motorcycle to a different state. You could email Todd Moen at Catch Magazine and ask. Apparently that video is at least 10 years old, so maybe he wouldn't mind giving up his secret spot now.

I tend to focus less on what's going on above the water, and more on what's going on below the surface. I focus more on cover and structure than sun and weather. Now, if the wind is really high, and it often is around here, I'll try to either find a spot out of the wind, or find a spot where the wind direction will blow me parallel to the bank so I can just drift and beat the bank. And in the winter I might look for sunny spots, and in the summer I might look for shady spots. So I'm not saying they're not factors. They're just factors that are much lower on my list of priorities. More of a tie-breaker between two otherwise identical spots.

Yeah. And the thing about sea level rise, is it isn't linear. Right now, sea levels around Florida are expected to rise 10-12 inches in the NEXT 30 years. However, scientists just discovered that the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica is melting much faster than predicted. And this isn't the only glacier to show that trend. So the official predictions are probably more conservative than what will really happen. source: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html Now, that doesn't mean central Florida will wash out into the ocean. Well, it will eventually, but definitely not within our lifetimes. That's hundreds if not thousands of years away. So don't worry about that. But how that affects a homeowner is: Florida's insurance rates have more than doubled in the last three years (103%). And it will likely double again in the next ten years or likely less. This isn't just due to the environment, but also due to a combination of Florida's laws which allow for the most lawsuits against insurance companies in the nation, and a number of insurance companies pulling out of Florida, reducing competition. And at some point, new homeowners just aren't going to be able to afford to finance a home (because you need insurance to finance a home), and old home owners aren't going to be able to afford insurance. Which means with every hurricane that hits the state, more and more properties will go up for sale (people can't afford to rebuild) and less and less buyers will be competing for them. And that will depress home prices while raising rent prices. My point being, Florida is in a situation where the cost of owning a home is likely to increase significantly, year over year. However, the value of the home itself is likely to fall (at least against inflation, if not more so). In other words, Florida is one of the worst places, from an investment standpoint, to buy a home right now. I'd even stay off the coast of South Carolina. You don't have to go real far inland. Just stay off the barrier islands (for buying a house, it's a lovely place to visit).

I want to say umbrella rig. I like the idea of saying "I got one! Now I've got two!" But that's never actually happened to me. I also want to say glide bait. They're just the most fun to fish, in my opinion. And they catch big fish. But I tend to catch more catfish than bass with them. So maybe I'll just go with a popper. They're a lot of fun. Or any kind of "walk the dog" topwater.

Big city water reservoirs. So they spray for weeds to keep the filters clean and they're over crowded. Recreation and fishing isn't a priority.

Fuel stabilizer is just to help keep old gas from going bad. Gasoline has a short shelf life. About 3 months. Now, that doesn't mean it stops working after 3 months. Just that it stops working as well. And it depends a bit on storage conditions as to how long it will last until it gets to the point where it stops working and causes engine trouble. I've used gas before that was over 2 years old and didn't have any issues. But I'd say if you plan on the gas sitting for longer than 3 months, then add fuel stabilizer to it. Just in case. Fuel additives like fuel system and or injector cleaners are different. They're meant to clean out buildup that can happen over time. I typically just run this stuff through most engines once a year. Twice a year on engines that only see seasonal use (once right before storage and once right after storage). It helps a little, but doesn't work miracles. Eventually, any motor will need a good clean out. So I wouldn't waste money adding it to every tank, unless the manufacturer recommends that. But it can definitely work to push more costly maintenance work several years down the line, if used occasionally.

The thing with wire gauge on a boat is the length of the run matters as much as the current draw. It's not like house wiring where you have to pass sometimes arbitrary codes. That's why trolling motors themselves usually have pretty thin wire on their prebuilt leads. The electricity isn't running far through them, so they don't need heavy gauge wire to be effective. 8 gauge wire should handle 55 amps so long as it's less than about 13 feet of wire run. If you need a run longer than 13 feet, then I'd step up to 6 gauge, which would work up to around 19 feet of run. Beyond that, and you'd need even thicker wire. If the wire is getting hot to the touch, that's a good indication that you need to go up a size in wire thickness. Also, it's important to consider the connectors and make sure they're suitable for the amount of amps you push through them. That's something a lot of people overlook. Usually it's better to go with a thicker wire than you need, just to give yourself some leeway. But the standards that were developed were developed with some leeway in mind, so there's generally no harm in sizing it just right. And technically, you can go too thick. At some point, you'll be introducing more resistance by going thicker. But at around 55 amps, you're probably not going to run into that problem. That's more of an issue with running something like 10mA through 2/0 gauge wire or something.

I wouldn't worry about it. Cologne doesn't last long. Plus, it's on your rod, not your lures. And even then, bass often don't care about smell. I've heard bass are turned off by smells like gasoline, bug spray, and sun screen, but I've caught plenty of bass with my hands covered in all of that stuff. So any affects smell have, either positive or negative, can't be huge.

I've never tried having a professional repair done to vinyl seats. But I've done enough DIY attempts to know that there's no way to not make it look bad. Now the repairs can work in that they stop the cut from getting larger. And if you're really careful, you make it not noticeable if you just glance at it right quick. But get up close, and you'll see. It's extremely hard to match both the color and texture and feather it out to hide the edges. But if it's tearing at the seams, then either the vinyl is UV damaged, or the threads gave way. If it's just the threads, you might be able to remove the vinyl and resew them. It also might be possible to get a curved, upholstery needle and resew them without removing the seat coverings. I've done that before and once it looked good as new. The other times, it worked well enough that I didn't throw it out. The hard part is tying it off at the end. But if the vinyl is UV damaged and ripped, then I'd just replace it. A repair might buy you a few more months, but once vinyl starts to go, there's no going back. However, if you just need one seat replaced, there are specialty shops that can do just the one seat. It never matches exactly, probably because you're mixing new and old vinyl. But it can be darn close.

I don't generally mess with the stuff. I've used it on and off for decades, and I haven't noticed any difference either way. Now, I've heard people say that bass have an extremely sensitive sense of smell. And if that's true, masking agents probably won't help much. I mean, drug mules are always trying to mask the scent of drugs with coffee or whatever, and drug dogs are always finding them anyway. So I think this whole masking idea really only works on animals with a really poor sense of smell, like humans. And speaking of dogs, some dogs can smell cancer. And most dogs will bury their noses, deep into a yard sausage, and sometimes even roll around in it. So whatever animals are smelling, it's probably nothing like what we're smelling. Which is why I don't think our understanding of scent and animals is very good. I'm betting a hunter's use of masking agents is less about covering up their smell to hide it from the deer, and more about telling the deer, that yes, there was a hunter here, but as you can smell, there are other deer here too now, which means the hunter has gone. Or something like that. My point being, when I do use a fish attractant, it's usually whatever's handy. I'm pretty agnostic to its benefit, so I'm also agnostic to the brand or variety. At the moment, it's Bang Garlic.

1. Jerks. I can handle the taking forever. I can handle sharing the water with pleasure boaters and skiers. But I can't stand people who are just mean to other people. And sometimes these jerks are nice to me, but mean to other people they're with, and I don't like being around people who are mean to others. 2. Wind. I don't mind a little wind. But it's often way too windy to be fishing here. 25mph is my cutoff. And this time of year, I don't get many fishing days due to the high winds. 3. Loading and unloading. It's no fun. It's a lot of physical work for me (car topping a kayak). And it takes a while. 4. Other people playing loud music in their boats. And it's less that about the music being loud, and more about their taste in music. There's an inverse correlation between volume and substance, both in music and the spoken word. 5. Getting locked into bad conversations with strangers. I understand being lonely. We've all been there. But talk with me about something pleasant. Don't lecture me on politics, religion, or what I'm doing wrong. And try asking questions. If you want to talk, try letting me talk too. BONUS: 6. Every time I forget to get out my scale, I catch a large bass worth weighing, but can't find my scale. Every time I keep scale handy, I get skunked or only catch dinks. And every time I purposefully don't keep my scale handy to push my luck into catching a big bass, I get skunked or catch dinks. The bass gods aren't stupid and will not be manipulated by a mortal.