jbmaine

To me it's about using gear based on the average of what I expect to catch, and the baits I normally use. In the past I've mostly thrown weightless or lite weighted soft plastics and medium lite to medium rods worked fine. I want to start fishing heavier baits ( jigs, larger swim baits, etc) and picked up a MH and H rod to do so. I guess what I am trying to say is I use the lightest set ups I reasonably can for what I am throwing because that is the most enjoyable for me to use. I like the fight. Do I worry about breaking off a fish? I spent many years fly fishing and learned to let the rod and drag do the work. Do I worry about leaving a bait stuck in a fishes mouth? It happens on rare occasions . Try fishing in waters full of pickerel and never have it happen. If a fish is hung up in weeds, branches, I will make every effort to get it free. But ultimately if my overriding concern was to never hurt a fish, I wouldn't be out there in the first place trying to stick a hook in it. Jim

Thanks for this post, it brings back a lot of memories. When I was a little kid ( back in the 1950's ) I would sit on the end of the dock with a worm and bobber, and stare at the bobber waiting for the first twitch. As I got older I moved up to spoons ( dare devil ) and some kind of spinners. I still have the old tackle from when I was a kid. ( I'll never use it ) and every so often I take it out, just to reconnect to those happy days. Jim

I grew up in Rye N.H. Back then it was pretty rural, still had a couple of farms with milk cows, chickens, etc. I had the best of both worlds. We lived close enough to the ocean to smell the salt air, and had a camp on a lake in Maine. Spent every minute I could fishing until fall, then tramped thru the fields and marshes for duck, geese, and pheasant. I moved to Maine some 20 yrs ago, but still go to Rye to put flowers on the family cemetery plot. It's gotten so grown up and high scale now I have trouble recognizing most of it. Jim

I played trombone in our HS marching band. We must have been pretty good because every 4 yrs we were invited to the cherry blossom festival in D.C., and once every fall we were invited to Boston to play the halftime show at a Pats game. I remember one game the pats were playing the jets, and as we were finishing the jets were coming back on the field. Joe Namath ran past us and smiled at one of the majorettes and the poor girl fainted right on the spot on national television. Jim

So I am outside with the leaf blower cleaning the last of this years leaves out from around the house, and my wife comes out side and says " I just ran some stuff thru the clothes dryer that had a lot of lint. I cleaned the trap but was wondering, since you have the leaf blower out maybe you could use it to give the vent a good cleaning." So I go inside but can't get the leaf blower at a good angle. My wife says " could you try it from the outside?" I said " sure, just make sure the door on the dryer is closed" So I go out side to the vent, My wife gives me the thumbs up from the window, and I let her rip. A few seconds later I hear a pounding on the window, I look up and my wife is looking real mad and signaling me to come inside. She is standing there in a cloud of fine lint. Apparently when I turned the leaf blower on it blew the dryer door open as she was standing in front of it. I guess Mistake # one was using the leaf blower. I'm thinking mistake # two was laughing, and I'm pretty sure mistake # three was offering to use the leaf blower to get all the lint out of the house. I'd love to say I made this up but sadly it's all true. Jim

We use somewhat lite gear so pulling the fish in usually involves some sort of fight. I don't know if it's worse on the fish to waterski them in at Mach 1 or fight and tire them out. In all honesty if our number one concern was not to hurt fish we wouldn't spend all this time, effort, and money to stick a hook in them in the first place. I also agree with everyone that LM usually don't fight as well as other species of fish I caught. ( such as 3 lb Salmon in a fast moving river on a 5 wt. fly rod.) but bass fishing is something my wife can participate in and bass fishing waters are close to us. Jim

I've seen the same thing. Last year we went into a small cove. Another boat was already in there so we hung back until they fished it and came up with zip. As they moved out we moved in. Threw a swim'n caffeine shad right where they used to be. Big hit and miss. Tossed it right back and hooked a 4 lb LM. The look on their faces was something to see. I never hesitate to rethrow a coffee/ caffeine bait again and again until the hook sticks. Jim

Pearl with flake and bubble gum Senkos have always worked for us. 7.1 LM on the pearl Senko Jim

You could be right, but I know my wife's technique didn't change that day, only the bait she was using. All I know for sure is wasn't catching anything until she switched to a coffee tube then she was pulling them in every 5 minutes. Since then I've caught a stupid amount of fish on coffee scented baits. Would I have caught the same amount on non coffee scented baits ? I don't know but last year I fished nothing but swim'n caffeine shads ( that is all I used ). I kept waiting for it to stop producing but it never did. From April thru October I never got skunked.

Let me start out by saying I love to drink coffee, every day, all the time. My wife on the other hand can't stand it. So when Strike King came out with coffee tubes I bought a pack, mostly to bug her. A few weeks later we were out on the lake going thru an area we called the " bowl", an area around 25 ft. deep, flat and smooth, no rises, humps, anything of note. The fish finder started picking up fish, just off the bottom. I have no idea why they were there, but they were. I dropped the anchor and as it was a really windy day we both cast off the stern using, I really don't remember. No joy after 20 minutes. For something to do I tried a coffee tube. Caught a fish, then another. told my wife to try a coffee tube. Said " it must be the coffee!, I got a dirty look, but she dug thru the tackle bag and found non coffee tubes, same size shape and color., and tried them. After I had caught 7 fish to her zip she finally broke down and tied on a coffee tube, and started catching fish. I'm not saying coffee flavor works all the time, or for everyone, but that day we had the same line, hooks, technique ( letting the tube rest on the bottom slowing twitching it in) and were fishing within feet of each other, and the fish ignored the non coffee tube but devoured the coffee flavored one. We ended up with 18 fish from that one spot, LM, SM, and Pickerel. From that day on I have used coffee, caffeine, flavored soft plastic with great successes. The latest being the swim'n caffeine shad. This is the only bait I keep tied on full time. I caught my first fish on it this spring, my last one on it this fall, and many in between. As I said it might not work for everyone, or all the time, but for me at least 90% of the time coffee, caffeine , flavored baits are my go to, get er done, high confidence baits to use. Note: in the interest of full discloser I have never caught a bass holding a cup of coffee in it's fin, but you never know. Jim

With all due respect I believe it really helps.

me too, been using just spinning gear for 50 yrs. now. Jim

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the heads up. Jim

I'm from Maine and I mean just hooks, I fish a lot of soft plastic's and have hooks for every occasion, and then some.

I'm sorting thru my tackle and my plano box that I keep my hooks in is stuffed full. I need to add more hooks and there is no more room. It made me realize I'm a hookaholic. Hooks are one thing I can't pass up whenever I shop. Weighted, unweighted, worm, swimbait, wacky, dropshot, shakey, jig, the list goes on, and on, and on. They look so innocent hanging on the racks in the store, but as I pass by I hear their little voices say " buy me! I'm new and improved, I'm soooo sharp, you won't catch anything with out me! I'M SHINY, BUY ME!!!!. I'm sure I need help, but there's no time. I'm off to buy more hooks. Jim

To me the best is a Copolymer line. It's mono only better. Jim

me too

Thanks for the ideas. I'll see what I can come up with. A-JAY- I would always want the rod on the bottom Jim

Hi all, The new boat I'll be picking up in the spring has a rod locker (my first) and I'm assuming the rods stay in there full time. I've got sleeves to go over the rods but what is the best way to secure the rods, not from theft, but to keep them from bouncing, sliding, etc, mostly during trailering the boat. I'm thinking maybe Velcro strips or a bungee cord, but I thought I'd see if I could get ideas about what others have done for this. Here's a pic of the rod locker. Thanks Jim

Received my order today. Everything looks great! Thank you so much Jim

Great Post-- Thank you My rules I try to follow. Fish as often as possible and catch as many fish as possible. While doing so don't be rude, crude, mean, spiteful, hateful, selfish, greedy, annoying, antagonizing, demeaning, and generally a pain in the butt. Try to help others when ever the opportunity presents itself, be patient with others ( especially at the boat launch ). Do everything you can not to hurt yourself, others, or the environment. AND ABOVE ALL- I really, really hope some of the @#$% jet skiers we run into all the time read these posts and follow them. Jim

TW sale-- per what the TW rep told me-- the sale applies to everything except Min Kota ( bummer dude ) and mega bass. I bought a Shimano reel and was told the discount would be applied when it was shipped. per their contract Min Kota will not allow them to be discounted. Jim

Nope, I just called them. Minn Kota's are not on sale!!!

TW sale excludes Min Kota!!! For months now I've been lookin to buy a MK Ulterra. Everyone has said wait for TW black Friday sale and buy it for 20% off. The sale comes up and they have excluded MK. I'm really disappointed. Any one know where they might be on sale?

TW black Friday sale starts at what time on EST ?