Bankc

I think only you can answer that. Here's my take. The older you get, the harder it is to make new friends. So if you're a social person, then you'll likely suffer pretty hard from social withdrawal after you retire, unless you currently have a bunch of friends outside of work. Even better if they're retired too. However, for most people, when they hit the age at which they can retire, there's usually not much more than a tiny window of time where the still have the strength and stamina to get out and do things like fishing. So retiring early gives you the opportunity to actually get out there and do the things you love, before you're too old to do them. You could work a reduced schedule. That might be a good compromise. However, when the next economic downturn hits and your company has to trim the fat, the guy who doesn't work as much is going to be the low hanging fruit, as they've already proven to themselves that they can get the job done with you not there.

You could get a hole saw bit, drill an access hole, get a waterproof access port cover, and install that into the hole. Then you'd have access to the interior to mount everything. Or you could run a trolling motor off to the side, just behind you. I did that for about a year and half. All in all, you might be happier with a jon boat in the long run. You can probably find a used one for not too much money, compared to a new powered kayak. That'll likely last you longer, as it'll have better balance and better seating (with an upgraded seat). So it won't wear you out as much and you might be able to keep fishing in that thing until your mid 70's or so. Most any car should be able to pull a kayak or small jon boat. You might have to install a trailer hitch, but they're not hard to do (or that expensive to have professionally done). You'll want to check out your car's maximum towing capacity, though if you're not towing long distances or at high speeds, I don't see how going over that would be a big issue. But most cars should be able to tow 1,500 lbs or so without any issue.

I'd wager that daylight length has more to do with it than actual temperatures. Just look at the bugs, birds, and trees. They tend to come around in spring and go away in the fall around the same time each year, regardless of how hot or cold the current trend is. Sure, the temperature can slow down or speed up their cycles. But they won't completely prevent them.

Pretty much all I fish are highly pressured lakes. Pretty much all I fish are power fishing techniques. Now, truth be told, the waters here are pretty stained. And I think that has a lot to do with it. And sometimes finesse fishing does work better, regardless. But I wasted a lot of time throwing finesse baits due to the idea that the lakes were pressured. I started catching a lot more bass when I stopped listening to the online fishing experts and started listening to the fish. I'm not saying the experts are wrong. I'm just saying that there are about a million factors that go into what, when, where, and why a fish bites. So trying to parse one factor as if it were the only factor will likely ruin your day.

Get a two-piece rod. I can go fishing in my wife's Miata with the top up! Most of my rods are two-piece. Up until a couple of years ago, all I had owned were two-door cars, and it's pretty much impossible to fit a long rod in those without rolling down the window and driving with your rods hanging out. The two-piece rods of long ago gave the new ones a bad reputation. All of the ones I've owned have been just as good as their one-piece counterparts. And while you theoretically might lose a hair of sensitivity and add a hair of weight, you'll have to fish them back-to-back and pay close attention to actually notice the difference. In the real world, they'll seem identical in your hands. I will, however, say that moderate slow is about as slow as you want to go. Fast is even better. A fast action two-piece rod acts just like a one-piece, as the point of bend is well above the ferrule. If you need a moderate rod, then you're stuck with a one-piece. Even moderate-fast is going to be pushing the limits. Three and more piece rods are a no go. Two is the magic number.

It's been going on since mid February. Even on cold, wet, windy days I've seen a lot more people out on the lake than normal. Then again, I have been hopping around the local lakes based on water temperatures, so maybe a lot of other people have been too, and I just keep picking the same lake as everyone else.

Slabs and spoons are very popular on that lake. Probably more so for the stripers and hybrids, but they'll work on largemouth too. A good choice to hedge your bets if less concerned with largemouth and more concerned about feeling a good tug on your line!

First, and this is really important, you tie on a spinnerbait and leave the chatterbait at home. Then you bang the spinnerbait against any wood you can find. Lastly, you reel in your catch. I know others will argue differently. But I can't buy a bite off a chatterbait if there's not grass around. I tried for years before finally giving up. If there is grass, I'll often fish it with a straight retrieve, like a weedless crankbait, or if it's deep grass, yo-yo it off the bottom like a blade bait. You want just enough lift speed to get the blade to engage, and kill it right after it does. Sometimes I'll try other things, as it's a pretty versatile lure. But those are my primary options. Maybe I need to buy some jackhammers or something. Everyone's saying they can get them out of wood, but not me. Then again, I'm usually fishing them around branches, not giant logs, so that might be part of the reason.

If the water temperature is below 55°, I head deep and work my way shallow. Once it gets above 55°, I head shallow and work my way deep. Look for steep changes in water depth and bends in channels and fish along those. You're looking for the bass highways that they use to travel from main lakes to their spawning areas, and just fishing along those. It's basically a game of spot hopping until you find fish. Once you find fish, look for other areas similar to where you found them. Try a little bit of everything until you get a bite. That goes for bait selection too. Prespawn and postspawn bass can change behavior rapidly, so it's all about finding what mood they're currently in as quickly as possible, and then figuring out the patterns from that.

Dogwoods started blooming last week here in OKC. The problem has been the weather won't stay constant. So the bass keep pushing up and dropping back. Depending on the lake, the spawn is somewhere between in the early stages, or weeks away. Unfortunately, the lakes are more crowded than usual this year for some reason. And me, in my kayak, can't really claim the good spots. By the time one opens up, and I start heading there, a power boat beats me to it, every time. I've talked to a few anglers at the dock this year, and everyone seems to be complaining about it. Who knows where it all came from? But no one is happy about it.

It's been a while since I fished Texoma. And when I do go, I mainly target stripers, as that's the main draw of that lake. But I remembered it being fairly stained, especially by California standards. And there wasn't much vegetation. It depends on what time of year you come out, but I'd opt for moving baits like crankbaits and spinnerbaits that make lots of commotion. It's a big lake and unless you get a guide or someone who knows the lake, you'll want to cover a lot of water and at a lot of depths. You can try some soft swimbaits. Sometimes they work. But I'd typically gravitate towards something a bit more aggressive and noisy. Or, pitching a jig or T-rig directly on top of cover is always a good option. They're not loud, but you're putting it right in their face, so they don't need to hear it to hunt it down.

I'm dead on accurate. That bass in my avatar weighed 28lbs, 17oz. I didn't even need a scale to know that. Seriously though, I think I pretty consistently, exactly 1lb. over on my estimates.

Slow sink for me. Almost a suspending action, but not quite. I frequently fish them around 3-6' below the surface.

I don't think we have any private pay lakes around here anymore. We did, many years ago. There was a Sportsman club that had a few in the state. But I think they shut down before I moved here. The lakes they had were all purchased by either private companies (to use the land, not the lake) or local governments. As such, some are now open to the public (for a small fee) and maintained by the city/county/state, or are no longer open for fishing by pretty much anyone. One of them is a pretty nice lake with a healthy bass population (still costs around $12 a day to fish with a boat). But I wouldn't pay country club prices to fish it. There are good lakes and bad lakes around here, but they're all subject to the same weather and watershed. So I wouldn't pay country club fees to fish there as there are plenty of other lakes in the area that are just as good. Plus, I imagine a private pay lake, in order to stay in business and make enough money to keep up with maintenance, would have to be pretty heavily pressured. That being said, I do buy an annual city permit to fish the local lakes near me. It's about $70 a year for both fishing and boating (they have daily permits too). Not too bad when most other lakes run about $5-15 a day. And they're very well maintained. Just stocked with too much of the wrong fish (catfish and white bass) and very heavily pressured. Really, the only totally free lake I know of (beside state permit fees) is a lake owned by a power plant that uses it for power generation. It's a pretty good fishing lake. Especially in the winter. Pretty much every other lake at least requires a small fee, usually cash in an envelope placed in a drop box. Though I can't say as though I've ever seen anyone check to see if you actually paid.

You can certainly do parallel or even series battery configurations (parallel to increase amp hours, series to increase voltage). There are just some drawbacks to it, especially if you have one bad battery in there. Also, though less common with parallel batteries, it's possible to have one bad battery cause an explosion when you hook up more than one, due to the heat buildup. Not likely, but I've witnessed it before (though with alkaline batteries). Which just goes to show that knowing better doesn't always equal doing better. But yeah, it sounds like your batteries are shot. If you went with a lithium, you could probably buy a lithium charger and splice the SAE style adapter to the charger. Though, I don't know about charging multiple batteries in parallel with one of those. It might work fine, but lithium batteries have a BMS circuit (battery management system), that regulates the battery's charge and discharge to keep them safe. Some might let you run three in parallel, and some might not. It depends on the battery and it's BMS. You'd want to research that before making that commitment, because there's not a universal standard there. And you might have to contact the manufacturer, as I don't often see that information published. The cheapest solution, is to find some replacement 12v 8ah AGM batteries, or maybe a single larger battery. And try not to drain them past halfway and never store them without at least an 80% charge. It's good practice to always start recharging them as soon as you can. The longer they sit uncharged, the more damage that will be done to the battery. If you look online, you should be able to find some cheap ones. Probably just need two, as with a 1A draw, you'll get around 8 hours off two 8Ah batteries (not draining below 50%). Or maybe look at single 20Ah or something around that size and see if that'll fit in your box.

Never run more than one battery together, either series or parallel, if they aren't of the same type, brand, and age. What can happen is, if you have one battery that's weaker than the other, the good battery will waste electricity trying to charge the bad battery. Only it doesn't have enough voltage to actually do so. So you burn off electricity as heat. It's better in that scenario to just switch out batteries as one dies down, and run one at a time. Second, if you leave a lead acid battery uncharged for a long time, the plate can undergo sulfation, which is lead sulfate crystals forming on the battery's plates. This will reduce the battery's ability to produce the correct voltage under load. Hence they'll die quicker. There are chargers that have a battery repair setting that can help to remove the sulfate crystals, but they don't work all that well. In your case, it would be better and cheaper to buy new batteries. There's the possibility that you've got a wiring problem. If you have a short somewhere in the wiring, one that's not a total short where you have zero resistance between poles, that could explain why your batteries are draining faster than they should. But, that would be rare, as usually if you get a short, it'll be near total, and then the fuse will blow or the sonar just won't turn on. Still I would be a good idea to double check everything. But my money is on bad batteries. And then you could have an issue with the sonar units themselves. I highly doubt both would be faulty, so the way to check would be to just run one at a time, and see if the battery drains quickly with one, but lasts as long as it should with the other. There's probably not much you could do if that's the problem, unless it's under warranty. So you'd just have to do without or buy a new sonar.

I just use JB Weld and split shot weights. Not the easiest or most convenient to apply, but it's stuff I already have on hand. I use wire clippers to get the weight down to the right size and epoxy them to the belly. Try to go for an ever-so-slight rise, as the JB Weld will add a bit of weight as well.

Try taking your glasses off. That works for me! As noted, some phones have this ability programmed into them. I always do this on a computer using Photoshop, but you could use Gimp, which is free. If you don't have or want to use a computer, there are probably some apps that you can download on your phone. I don't know of any, but I have seen some sites where you can upload a photo and they'll make some edits like this for "free". I've never used one, as I've got Photoshop, so I don't know how "free" it really is.

It's funny how if I'm bank fishing, I'll always hit up the ramp (if it's not busy). Yet from a boat, I almost never think about it. Oddly enough, I thought about it last weekend when I took my kayak out. It was the first nice day of spring and everyone in town turned out to the lake. It was as crowded as a Memorial Day or 4th of July. So I started searches for places that no one else would think to hit up, and I remembered the ramp! Didn't catch anything, but I was at least proud of myself for finally remembering to fish the ramp while in a boat!

In your situation, no. AGM wouldn't be worth it. If you wanted an upgrade and needed to replace the charger anyway, I'd go lithium. Lithiums can also be mounted sideways or whatever way you want. If you can't swing an upgrade to lithium, I'd stick with traditional lead acid. If you want quality, commit to quality. If you want saving, commit to savings. Trying to compromise between the two will get you neither.

Yeah, what the law states and what the TSA agent does don't always neatly line up. I'd say just bring the PFD with the CO2 cartridge not installed, that way if they do have a problem, they'll probably just take away the cartridge. But it might be best to just buy a CO2 cartridge once you get to your destination. Unless you don't think you'll be able to find any where you're going. If that's the case, then you could ship the cartridges to your hotel separately. Just call the hotel first and ask them how best to go about doing that. I've had to ship many things to and from my hotel while on vacation in the past, either because I couldn't get it on the plane, or I didn't trust the airline with it.

I wanted a micro pole for my kayak, but the cost made me second guess it. So I made a DIY, manual one out of an 8ft. fiberglass tree stake and a PVC T-connector. All stuff I had on hand, so it didn't cost me a dime. What I discovered is that in the lakes I fish, I almost never fish in that shallow of water. Our banks dive too steeply. So I rarely bring it with me anymore, and have no desire for the power pole. That, and most of the shallowish flats I do fish will have at the bottom solid rock (almost like shale) with about 2-3" of soft silt on top, which isn't enough to get a good bite and hold my kayak, or loose sand, which needs about 2 feet of penetration to hold a kayak in a stiff breeze. My point being, before you get too far invested in this, it might be a good idea to try out a manual or DIY one, and see how useful it is to you. An 8ft. fiberglass tree stake, PVC T-connector and some PVC glue, won't cost you more than $20 and might save you $500. Even a ready made one won't be more than $100. Or at least the next few times you go fishing, take note of the areas you'd want to use it and how deep the water is in those areas, as well as the bottom composition to see how often you'd actually use one. Depending on the lakes, it could range from "all the time" to "never".

There is no replacement for time on the water. Think of it this way, would you rather have an operation performed by a surgeon who's done it 100 times before but never read a book on it, or a surgeon who's read 5,000 books on it, but never cut someone open before? But learned information is still helpful and better than nothing. I'd take either of those surgeons above over one who's never tried it before or read a book on it! Basically, what I do with information is take a lot in, filter out what interests me, and then take that with me to the lake to experiment. You can't learn how to actually do a new technique online. But you can learn about a new technique online, and then take that information with you to the lake to learn that technique yourself. Understand most of what you read or view online will either not apply to you or be some variation of flat-out wrong. There's no shortage of self-proclaimed experts, and even the real experts might be telling you things that won't translate to the areas you fish. So don't take their advice as the definitive answer. Take their advice as the starting point and inspiration for you to launch your own self-education.

Check out Amazon for lithium batteries. They have a bunch on there. Yes, they're all name brands you've never heard of from China. But, the truth about lithium batteries is that just about all of the components, and certainly all of the cells, are going to be made in China anyway. I'd also recommend checking out Will Prowse's YouTube channel, as he tears down a lot of these batteries and shows and discusses their guts and helps you figure out which ones are good and which ones should be avoided. That way you can get the price down to something approaching the value of a lead acid battery, as lithium batteries should last for 7-10 years. Even 12-15 years isn't unreasonable. A deep cycle is only rated to last somewhere between 200-800 cycles. A LiFePo4 lithium battery is usually rated to last 2,000 to 5,000 cycles. So double the lifespan should be expected, and even triple or quadruple is quite possible. You won't get the product support, some of the features like bluetooth monitoring, or much of a useful warranty with the cheaper Amazon batteries that you will from a brand name, but chances are you probably won't need any of that. Plus, with the Amazon batteries often being less than half the cost of something like a Battle Born or Dakota, you can buy a replacement battery should yours fail prematurely, and still save money over the big-name brands. Plus, ordering a replacement off of Amazon will probably arrive sooner and with less hassle than fulfilling a warranty. As for a charger, look into the Noco Genius chargers. They do lithium (and lead acid and AGM) and they're fairly affordable and of excellent quality. This is the route I took. I got a 50Ah Weize LiFePo4 lithium battery and a Noco Genius 5 charger for my kayak trolling motor. And since lithium batteries can be drained to about 90% of their capacity, versus only about 50% for a deep cycle lead acid, it's more or less the equivalent of a 100Ah lead acid battery, while only taking up half the space and weighing about 65 lbs less. Even a 100Ah LiFePo4 battery only weighs about 30 lbs, which is about 50lbs less than a Group 31 lead acid.

Nope. That describes a lot of lakes I fish, and lipless cranks rarely do me any good. I find that blade baits tend to do better if you're going to yo-yo a lipless. Or balsa crankbaits do better if you're planning on a slow retrieve. But who knows? Not me, that's for sure. Obviously lots of other people have had different experiences with them. So give it a go and see what happens!