Functional

Every year I consider a liftetime license and then I think "nah what if I move for a better opportunity or family in the next 10 years". Then the year passes and I think about it again next year. Been doing this for 7 years and would almost break even soon if I had done it from the start. $25 for inland $41 inland and coastal $53 sportsman (non coastal) $61 sportsman w/ coastal $530 sportsman lifetime (non coastal) $716 sportsman/coastal lifetime $5 convenience fee for online. I dont go in person because I hate dealing with people.

I use 3 knots and thats it. I've yet to have a break at my knot and I can tie each of them well and quickly. Why try something new when I wont gain anything? SDJ - FC/CoPoly/Mono Palomar - Braid FG - Connection Knot

I take an old drawstring backpack. I have one small box for hooks/weights/etc. and one small plano for some hard baits then just toss in a few packs of plastics for whatever I conditions I expect im fishing for that bank trip. Light, simple, cheap.

I use the accu cull mini as well. I have a lanyard on it for when I use it on the kayak (tie it up with some slack so the fish stays in the water before a pic or measuring) and use the other hole for hooking onto a scale. Grips great and does no damage up to the 7lber I've clipped it on.

Just came here with a screenshot about this. Again no idea where I saw it but there was a "commercial" about the future that had a guy wearing sunglasses that when he looked in the water showed the under water topography like he was seeing through the water. That's tech I can get behind. Like mega 360 on steroids, I'd like to see the bottom but I don't necessarily need to see fish... just bottom and cover.

I do exactly what @MN Fisher does and have an android as well. No issues with that method.

Agreed. 75% of my spinnerbaits are Booyah of some flavor. I've had most luck with double willow but try a few blade and blade color combos and see what works best. I've caught quite a few 4 and 5lb bass along with pike, cats, gar and stripers and I'll typically get one hung up and cut before it gets beyond repair. Most times it just takes a little bend of the wire to get back running true. I personally throw it in thick heavy cover, places you would throw a jig and work it out. Have had a lot of success with them. Down here a shad pattern color works best but I recall shad and white worked great in upstate NY as well.

Not only depends on state/region but lake as well. @Pat Brown says the crawfish he sees are near black while I'm maybe 2 hours east of the lakes he fishes and mine are clay in color (orange/brown). Even with my home lake having orange/brown crawfish I have had zero luck last season when I made it an effort to fish red/orange in the early part of the season. I'll give it another go this year (home lakes temps JUST got above 50) but so far red/orange has caught me more times than its caught fish. Like most posting from central NC I've had much more luck with shad colors in just about every form of hard bait/spinnerbait/chatterbait.

That many screens gives me a business idea but I need a software tech because I have only 20% of the skills needed to pull it off. I can see 4 screens MAX (2 at helm, 2 at bow), anything beyond that and I'd be way too concentrated on screens and not enough brain power left to work a bait properly.

My father is still on spinning reels only but constantly has the anti reverse switch on his older reels off all the time. He sets the drag tighter than most and says if he feels he needs to he can back reel. He loses more fish to what I'd consider and improperly set drag than he will ever admit to but hes set in his ways. I've messed up his reels enough times when I've borrowed one to never want and AR again.

I love the bites when it feels like suddenly your line was cut and it goes completely slack......except when that's actually what happened and you start cursing toothy fish.

back in the early part of my career I had to research and install a hydrogen generator in one of our power plants. There is a hydrogen blanket around certain parts in a power generation turbine and its near impossible to get a 100% seal so instead of having as a maintenance item we installed a hydrogen generator that trickled hydrogen back into the system. Anyway....on the plant tour of the hydrogen facility there were a lot of promising things but it does take quite a bit of power consumption (at the time). However, if I remember correctly they were able to pull moisture from the air to transfer into hydrogen but it was a SLOW refuel process meant for secluded/remoter self serve refile stations. That was probably 10-12 years ago so I'm sure tech has advanced. I'm not sure its quite there for sole fuel source but if they did a hybrid like the natural gas / fossil fuel trucks that are "common" now it would go a long way to increasing mileage for the engines. All that said, I agree that we are just replacing one environmental impact for another. Similar to back in the day when we had paper grocery bags and everyone cried save the trees and we got plastic bags. Now everyone is screaming save the oceans and land fills and we have re-useable and paper back. From the classes and experience I've had in the power industry the lease impactful in my opinion is Hydro. You get some impact from fish but that is mostly manageable. Wind, solar, Nuke (although I love nuke) all have some fairly nasty biproducts. IF we could find a good use for spent nuke fuel cells that would be the ticket.

Might need a different edge angle on the Rapala knife. Too fine of an edge and you will dull it fast, need a higher angle or different edge profile in general (apple seed). Harder metals will (should, with the right edge) dull less quick but take longer to sharpen. Softer metals will dull quick but can sharpen easier.

Thurston Howe III Throw out to Gilligans Island and you can change the I, II, III for whichever boat you change to.

On the bright side....you knocked out just about every way to have a bad day on the water early in the season 😅

A lot of soft swimbaits but there are a few on hard swim/glide baits. https://www.bassresource.com/fishing-lures-articles?field_tags_target_id=152

Not trying to push it but the Lowes down here delivers it in raw material form and either you or them can assemble it on site. Takes less than a day. Really no idea how big the path is so it still might not be doable.

Thats a really awesome accomplishment! Really happy for you and glad you finally get to go in a boat that wont put you eye level with the fish if you sneeze wrong! As for storage, this might have some of my personal bias here, but why not one of those Lowes/Home Depot prefab wood sheds for a few grand? One that you could store a few of those essentials and possibly throw a fold down bed/table, small propane grill/stove and maybe a comfy chair? I know you said its only 5 minutes from you but I think it would be really nice to have a small bare bones quiet place to get out to for a night or 2. Small enough not to be a big disturbance to the scenery but enough for you to survive a day or 2.

Theres a lot that could go into how bad it turned out. Some metals if I recall correctly form kind of a barrier when the surface layer is eaten by an acid that significantly slows down any reactions unless you routinely clean it off and put it back in the acid. Acid can also absorb water from the atmosphere and dilute itself over some time (no idea how long. Your best bet if you wanted to check is get a gauge to measure. Ultrasonic would be best but you can probably slip a caliper through the drain in the back and get 1 or 2 measurements. You could take a rubber mallet and smack around a bit, should give a better indication the "bumb" way. Either way I'd make sure you have a good working high flow bilge pump JUST in case.

we used biodegradeable BBs back when I did airsoft (requirement of some Gov properties). For fun my team threw some in water and some in soil to see how fast it would biodegrade. Well after 5 years they were still there when we stopped playing for various reasons. unless its a paper bag I consider biodegradeable a gimmick. Best chances are take your trash with you if you can help it.

This is why I keep old empty line spools. I just put a bolt through the hole in the line spool and attach it to a drill with pressure when I lock it down. Turn the spool tension up, click the button and then run the drill to strip the line. I'll guide the line and even it out on the line spool. Put a piece of painters tape with the make/# line and use it whenever/however you want. No issues over the last few years.

I typically notice that I get in to a lull of 1-2 fish on my outings for a bit but then a resurge comes in hard and I'll catch some good quality fish. Sometimes I change up what I'm doing that trigger it, sometimes its just a string of bad timing / weather.

Its a reaction bait...they arent sitting there examining it, they see it wiggle by, MAYBE realize its a color they have seen and go for it. Their life is to reproduce and eat and if its in the water and can fit in their mouth its edible.

Sometimes I wish I was like a lot of you. My interest never went away but I have/had/love so many different hobbies that its impossible to fit them all into life. My biggest struggle is focusing on 1-3 and having to temporarily cut the others out for a while or forever. Fished all the time with my father until 14/15 and took a few years off. Then got a buddy at work who loved to fish and wed go out all the time for a few years. Then college happened and I got into racing dirtbikes/airsoft and fishing took a back seat for a few years (more like 10). Moved south and motorcycles and airsoft stopped but I got into shooting competitions HEAVY for about 8 years. Wife and I moved into a community with a lake and now I'm back into fishing during the good seasons. Now I'm just down to fishing, shooting and hunting. Some winters I'll throw in a model to build when everything else is slow. Through all of that a few other hobbies have come and gone, always competing for time. -scale model building -rc car racing -painting -restoring motorcycles -street bikes -knife making -hiking -Jeep rock crawling Its life and it changes constantly with how the truly important things to me have evolved. Finding my wife, marrying her, relocating, having a daughter (and a son in 4 weeks!), buying a house, etc. Regardless of that its still very important to have at least 1 hobby that relaxes you and takes the stress away. You are no good to your family burnt out, depressed, etc. Just make sure its in proportion to those that matter to you.