Bankc

Pattern fishing is the best way to catch fish.... assuming you know the right pattern. If you're fishing a pattern that's wrong, you're better off pitching your bait to any and all areas. Often times fishing at random can lead you to the pattern that works. So both methods have a time and place. A smart angler knows when to rely on each.

I just bought some ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene stock for use in a sliding track on a project, and honestly, I think it would make for pretty good bushing material. It's pretty durable, dense and slick. It would be interesting to see what this could do in a reel. Or any other number of the new materials science is coming up with these days. Which is kind of the interesting point about this discussion. "Back in the day" your choices were either ball bearings or brass (and maybe nylon) bushings. But they've developed so many new materials in the last 20 or so years, that I wouldn't even know where to begin. I mean, they could build reels like they do fancy Swiss watches and use actual jewel bushings. We can grow rubies and sapphires in a lab now, so it wouldn't be ridiculously expensive. I'm betting that the only real limitation to what's possible is the willingness of the market to accept change. I mean, you say you replaced ABEC-9 ball bearings with UHMW-PE bushings and even if it was an upgrade (and I don't know if it would be), I think most people are just going to hear you replaced metal with plastic and get upset about it.

In my experience, a well cleaned and oiled bushing works just as well as a high-end bearing, when we're talking about fishing reels. There's really no difference in performance. If anything, the bushing might actually be able to perform better, with the appropriate lubricant, due to its ability to achieve tighter tolerances. However, where ball bearings have the advantage is you can go longer between cleanings and relubrications without sacrificing as much performance. They're much less reliant on perfect conditions. Honestly, it's not a huge deal either way to me. I've played around with upgrading bearings and swapping bushings and bearings in reels enough to feel like it just doesn't play a significant factor, unless you're replacing a broken or worn-out part. So long as the parts are clean and well oiled, they tend to work better than they need to.

50% of the rods I've ordered online have arrived broken. There are a lot of things I'll buy online, but I've added fishing rods to the short list of things that I'll only buy in person.

5lbs is a good weight. Though, a lot of how well an anchor holds depends on the bottom composition and the anchor design. It's not so much the weight of the anchor, but how it grabs the bottom. And different anchor designs work best with different bottom compositions. If you're fishing shallow, like less than 6ish feet of water, then I'd recommend a stake out pole. In my opinion, those tend to hold better than traditional anchors in shallow water. But, again, it depends on the bottom composition. It it's loose sand, you need to be able to set the stake out pole pretty deep to hold. And if it's concrete, shale, or some kind of bottom a pole won't penetrate, then it just won't do anything. They make purpose made stake out poles, but I prefer the fiberglass tree stakes you can find at most big box home improvement stores. I just glued a PVC T-adapter to the top of an 8' one and use that. It was a lot cheaper to get into that way, and works just as well as the more expensive, purpose made stake out poles. Though it taught me that in the lakes I fish, there are very few places where one would be useful. So I rarely even take it out with me anymore.

I differ in that I like to try weird things. I'm a "why not" kind of guy by nature. Like I've tied a crappie jig with a Palomar knot, like you would a drop shot, about a foot ahead of a crankbait. The idea being that my bigger crankbait looks like it's chasing food and too distracted to notice that bass, making him an easy target. It hasn't really worked for me though. Or I've tied a 3-way swivel with a jigging spoon and a crankbait to get the crankbait to dive deeper. That worked to get the crankbait deeper, but didn't really catch anything. I've also tried sliding a worm all the way up a hook, so that when bedding bass nip at the tails they'll still get hooked. And I didn't have much luck with that either. I've also made a bunch of molds out of Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty for pouring soft plastics. So far, my best, and probably only real success, is a mold I made from a masonry bit that basically is just a fat, spiraling senko. But I've got a plan to make one look like a trilobite. The idea being that there's something like 300 million years of evolution baked into fish's DNA where trilobites were probably their main food source, so maybe they'd still like to eat one. And I have an idea for a paddle tail-like curled up worm that when you drag it, the paddle tail (more of a parachute, really) drags the back end to straighten the worm out so it can curl back up into a ball again at rest. Watching worms underwater, they tend to curl up and squirm, so I'd like to replicate that action if possible. So I guess I differ in that I think I'm smarter than the fish, but am determined to prove otherwise.

I'll fish crankbaits from the bank, but I don't throw my good ones anywhere near vegetation. I still might lose a couple on rocks and timber, but it's really the weeds, especially reeds and water willows, that will eat them. I tend to find a lot of old crankbaits and throw cheap hooks on them and fish them from the bank where I think I might lose them. Also, Ozark Trail crankbaits are good for this. And then sometimes I'll throw shallow diving cranks or lipless cranks and just speed them in so the don't get down deep enough to get hung up. I really like the BPS The Egg for this, which is kind of a wakebait type of thing. Also, floating jerkbaits can work. It kind of depends on what your dealing with. But it can usually be done, so long as you plan ahead. I tend to use them more in the winter months where there's less vegetation and the plants that are there are dead or dormant and more likely to either let me rip free of them, or rip them up and drag them back in with my bait. In the middle of summer, I mostly switch to Texas rigged worms, jigs, and topwaters.

I like bank fishing, and do it more than boat fishing. But they're completely different animals to me. Bank fishing is all about simplicity. I'll usually just bring one rod, one or two baits, and walk the bank and cast anywhere I can get to the water's edge. Most of our lakes are surrounded in brush, so there's usually not much that's accessible from the bank. So in essence, most of your decisions are made for you, and you're just there making lemonade. In a boat, and especially my kayak, there isn't hardly a spot I can't get to. So it's all much more complicated. Rods, lures, depths, locations, it's non-stop decisions. Add to that the fancy electronics, and you're stripped naked, metaphorically speaking. You can't blame a bad day on anything but yourself and the weather. And I like a healthy mix of the two. If nothing else, it keeps me from feeling like I'm missing out on that proverbial greener grass. They both offer something unique.

It's up to you what's more important. If you need the money now, then I'd sell them locally and post on Craigslist or FB Market Place as a whole lot. You might only take 1/3rd their total value (or even less), but you'll save yourself a ton of time having to sell each one individually online on something like eBay. However, selling them individually on eBay would net you the greatest return. But it could take months or even years to do. If you want to make more money than selling them as a lot, but not spend years selling each one individually, it might be wise to bunch up a lot of the lesser valuable lures into bundles of similar lures so that you cut down on the number of sales you actually have to go through. And you could take out a few of the most valuable ones, sell them individually online. Kind of strike a balance between the two extremes. What I would not do is sell them in a single bundle locally and take out all of the best ones to sell online individually. The reason being, it'll be a lot harder to sell the large bundle locally if there aren't any valuable lures in the mix to entice a would-be buyer. If you can showcase a few valuable ones in the bundle, people will be more inclined to want to buy the whole lot, knowing that there are at least a few that are going to be worth getting. Otherwise, it's just going to look like you're trying to offload a bunch of junk.

I mean, yeah... but, to be fair, the angler isn't imparting the action on tons of presentations. Drop shots, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and lots of other techniques can be cast and steady retrieve or cast and soak. Either way, you're letting the bait do the work.

I think trolling is banned more out of tradition more than anything else. At one time it was seen as unsportsmanlike. But I fail to see how trolling could be considered that and today's sonar not. In any case, it is what it is. Personally, I'd have no problem with pros trolling for bass, so long as they were limited to one rod. I troll all of the time. Much like the OP, it's because I've got to move from spot to spot very slowly in my kayak, so why not get some fishing in while I do so? Doing it well takes skill. Skills that I don't possess. So it doesn't have a higher catch rate than beating the bank at random for me. And to even get to that point takes consideration of lure selection, speed, bottom contour, and distance. It's only mindless and boring if you make it mindless and boring. Because let's be honest here, the only difference is casting. And I've been casting since I was probably 4, so casting isn't hard, especially in open water where you'd be trolling.

Bad decisions. Before I hit the water, I carefully formulate plans A, B, and C. I get fixated on plan A for far too long, and it rarely produces. Then I move onto plan B and it may or may not get me a bite or two before I quickly abandon it. Then I wander around and just waste time trying whatever crazy idea pops into my head. Finally, after wasting the whole day, I remember plan C and discover it actually works, but I'm out of time and have to head in. Rinse and repeat.

It depends on the price bracket. I'd take a $30 rod over a $30 reel any day. But I'd take a $300 rod over a $300 reel. Really cheap reels are often garbage. And while really cheap rods aren't great, they're usually of better quality than really cheap reels. Once you get up in price, maybe around $80ish or so, then more expensive rods tend to start edging out comparably priced reels in their usefulness.

You know, I see a lot of women fishing. But they all either young enough to be there with their parents, or old enough to be there with their kids or grandkids. Now, I don't see a ton of men in their teens to twenties fishing by themselves, but there are a few. Enough that I pay it no mind. And knowing what I do about some of the lakes I regularly fish, I wouldn't think most of them would be safe for a young lady to be out there on her own. And it's really in those early adulthood years that we define who we are what we like. So I'm beginning think that might play a role in why we don't see as many women anglers out there. Maybe it's just not a safe hobby for most of them to pursue, so most lose interest. I know as a young man, I loved getting up early or staying out late to fish all by myself. It was not only connecting with nature but connecting with yourself and learning to be totally self-reliant. And if you always need someone else to be there with you, then I don't see how you develop that. At least not easily. One thing's for sure, talking to my mom, grandmother (when she was alive) cousins, and aunts, they all definitely enjoyed fishing and have fond memories of fishing when they were young. And in most cases, fond memories of fishing with their kids and grandkids. So I don't think it's the act of fishing itself that's pushing them away.

Sounds like a lot of fun! I've never been, but all I have to offer, having flown oversees a few times, is fly first class if you can. 12+ hours on an airplane is beyond medieval torture. You'll survive it in coach. But there will be many moments where you doubt that. And a little trick I discovered from other oversees flights is to stay awake for around 24 hours before you board the plane. That way you can more easily sleep on the flight. And your body's internal clock will be so messed up, it'll adapt to the time shift more easily and help mitigate some jet lag. I've got family moving it Okinawa soon, so I plan to make it out that way when they do! So I'll be looking forward to anything you learn about visiting there!

There's an old saying: "It's called showbusiness, not show friends."

Some of those bearings in the Tatula are hard to remove. At least for me. So I'd try to locate the bad bearing and not shotgun all of them to potentially save yourself some money and effort and possibly damaging the reel. But I'd just replace it with whatever decent bearing you can find. I once upgraded a very old reel from plastic bushings to ceramic bearings and discovered no increase in distance, so long as the plastic bushings were clean and well oiled. The reason being, you quickly hit a point where the bearings work too well, and you get a backlash. So you have to increase brakes or spool tension to slow them down and find the sweet spot, kind of defeating the purpose of high end bearings. So, from my experience, upgrading bearings isn't money well spent. Also, ceramic bearings are noisy. I didn't realize how noisy and how much that would bother me until I tried them. Now, I'm not saying to buy the cheapest bearings in the world. But something middle of the road should work as well as anything else out there in a fishing reel. There's a time and place for high end bearings, but I'm not convinced that fishing reels are one of them.

The Lifetime Teton isn't really made to stand up in. I guess some people can do it, but it's not really designed with that in mind. So I'm not surprised you're having issues. I have the Lifetime Yukon, which is identical to the Teton Pro, and it's not too bad. It's one of the smallest and cheapest kayaks designed to stand up in. As for most stable, you're probably looking at something big and slow. Which means you'll probably want a peddle kayak, or something with a motor. The more stable a kayak is, the harder it is to push through the water, usually. So something like a Hobie Pro Angler 14 or Jackson Big Rig or really anything around 13' long and 38"-40" wide. Your Teton is only 10' long and 30" wide. However, these bigger kayaks will weigh probably twice as much (and have a lot more capacity). So be prepared for that. My Lifetime Yukon is 11'6" long and 32" wide, and that's pretty much the borderline for what I'd consider a standup kayak, as it takes some balance and experience to get used to, but I can fish standing up from it and in four years, have never fallen out of it. However, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

I've got a lot of old rods, reels, and especially baits that I'll continue to use. My theory is, if they worked back then, they'll still work today. Evolution is a slow process. Technology has definitely improved the performance of most things. Maybe not the durability... But I typically reach for the old stuff just to relive old memories or try something different. And as an added bonus, it serves to remind me that the reason I'm a terrible fisherman is that I spend too much time buying gear learning new techniques online and not enough time actually fishing. When you can catch just as many fish on an early fiberglass rod and baitcaster with no brakes, it's pretty obvious the problem is you and not your gear.

I like the Rapala OG Slim and Berkley Frittside. Though, in conditions where people like to throw a flat sided crankbait, I often find myself gravitating towards a Shad Rap, which also has a really tight wobble. The shad rap is a little better around rock and rip rap, and the OG slim and Frittside a little better around wood. Shad Raps are hard to cast, but they're also hard to beat in cold water.

I'd pick up a battery charger that was designed to work with LiFePo4 batteries if I were you. They're not that expensive (unless you get a big one) and LiFePo4 batteries aren't super cheap. And with the right charger, they can last a really, really long time. So you'll might actually save money in the long run. LiFePo4 batteries like a charging voltage of between 14-14.7 volts. If you're old charger has an AGM function, they tend to charge between 14.4-15 volts on the AGM setting. The regular lead acid setting is usually between 13.8-14.4 volts. So on the lower end of the AGM function, you might be near the higher end of the lithium battery tolerance, and the higher end of the regular lead acid charger is near the lower end of the lithium battery specs. So there's some overlap between them that could make it possible for it to work. But it's not guaranteed. And while it still might work out of range, it could result in either damage to the battery or incomplete charging. The Noco Genius chargers get a lot of love, as they're both really good and really affordable. For a 12Ah sized battery, a 1A charger should be fine. That'll still most likely be able to charge your battery overnight, unless you're really pushing it.

I've got a Weize 50Ah lithium and use it for the trolling motor (MK Endura C2 30) on my kayak. I've had it about a year and a half now and have no complaints. Well, I did replace the stock bolts on the top with SS wingnuts to make hooking it up easier. I guess it would have been nice if it came with those. But that's about the worst thing I can say about it. The 8,000 cycle rating is for draining to 50%. The 2,000 cycle rating is for draining to 0%. So in theory, under normal use you'll likely land somewhere in between. But who knows where they dig up these numbers and how accurate they truly are? The 50Ah sized battery has a max continuous discharge of 50 amps, so it should be fine with smaller trolling motors. But if you're using something like a 55lb thrust motor, it's going to want to pull around 52 amps at full speed, which is over the limit for the battery and will probably cause it to shut down. Which is probably why it's not recommended for trolling motors in general. The 100Ah version is rated up to 100 amps of continuous discharge, so it should cover all trolling motors without issue.

Either, or. They both have their pluses and minuses. My advice is to try them both out in a store, if you can, and see which one you like better. I don't think either one would disappoint you as they're both excellent choices. As a general rule, I feel like Daiwa makes better value reels and Shimano makes better quality reels. So usually if two reels are the same price, the Daiwa will often be the better reel. But if the Shimano is on sale and the Daiwa isn't, like I think it is in this case, the Shimano can be the better reel. And the usual price difference between a comparable Shimano and Daiwa isn't huge. Neither is the quality difference. Personally, I feel that the Curado K is a better built reel that will last longer. But the Tatula CT has the better braking system and will cast better, especially in the wind. That's just my opinion though. And it's not like the Curado K doesn't cast well or the Tatula CT won't last a really long time. So the differences are small enough that I wouldn't worry too much either way. So I'd probably lean towards whichever one feels better in your hands.

The easiest way to lose weight is to get one of those old, analog bathroom scales and turn the adjustment knob on bottom. I lost 25lbs in less than a minute doing that! It made the wife so happy she's considering lifting the chocolate embargo, which means I won't have to spend so much time in the garage this winter.

I lot of people like moderate action rods for jerkbaits, because they believe they keep the fished pinned better with those treble hooks. I don't have issues with a moderate action rod and jerkbaits. You might have to jerk a little harder or alter your snap to get the same action, but it's doable. You might consider switching to braid (with a leader if you prefer), or a thicker fluoro or mono if you have problems getting the action you desire from your jerkbaits, to lower or eliminate the stretch of the line and help make up some of the softness of the rod. But ultimately, it's a personal preference thing. There is no "best" rod for any technique. It's all what one person or another prefers. The most important thing for me is how well a rod casts the lure. If it can cast the lure properly, I can deal with the other faults and make it work. In all of my years of fishing, I have only experienced one scenario where the rod was unusable for a given technique, despite it casting the lure well. And that was with a 5'6" medium/moderate (maybe even slow) rod I tried with deep diving crankbaits. On long casts, I struggled to set the hook. Between the rod's short length, soft and slow bend, and the elastic 10lb mono I was using, I couldn't get enough leverage to overcome the stretch and get good penetration. Switching to braided line fixed my problem though. As a kid I fished bottom contact lures with dead fiberglass rods on mono line that wouldn't let you feel a thing. That's okay because I kept a finger on the line. I learned that if a rod is too fast, you can still keep the fish pinned with a properly set drag and good technique. If a rod is too long for jerkbaits, just twitch it more to the side than straight down. Just about any problem you can run into, there's a solution for. It might not be ideal, but it'll get the job done.