Functional

Out of curiosity is there any real difference besides the 1" of length and a slightly pointier head on the Zinker? Either way I'll pick up a pack, sometimes a smaller profile does better in my waters...or at least with my style of fishing.

Typically I dont do it but its mainly because I have enough rods I dont need to. This week's trip I'm limiting myself to 2 rods and youll be guaranteed to see a leader rigged up every now and then. If I did this regularly I'd have a hi-viz like you are wanting to do. FG knot has never been an issue on any of my rods eyes including micro. Put a leader length the length of your rod and you dont have to worry about it running through your reel guide, T-wing or not. 6' of leader is plenty to retie a few times.

If the weeds arent resting on the top of the water you might be able to snake in a wake bait. Ive tried the Mann's version but prefer the action of the Strike King 2.5 wake. You can fish it slow and have a nice wake action on the top of the water and it floats. If weeds are closer than 2 " from the surface it will likely pick up a lot of slop though. Same scenario you might be able to run a buzzbait. Also depending on how thick the weeds are it sounds like a great spot to do a swim jig.

Well...I should have stayed home or gone fishing. Shot the Hoyt VTM and Mathews Phase 4 against my Elite Enkore. I wanted to love the hoyt because of how sexy it looks in their bourbon color but it didn't do much more than my Elite, little better draw cycle but not enough to drop the money on one. The Mathews though....blew me away honestly. Everything from draw cycle, how it felt on the shot, how well it holds, weight,... everything did it much better. I feel like the mathews fan base can be rabbid and it's always turned me off to the brand but I get it now. Absolutely zero remorse on this purchase. Phase 4 29 Ambush Green.

I did not know those things about dragonflies! Pretty cool. Might have to take a road trip to TN haha! Really nice setup you have.

i use dirty jigs 3/8oz and just about exclusively use a FAT impact keitech. Ive tried a few different trailers but the FIK gives me the best wobble and action. The trailer can really make or break this lure. As for Matt Allen Ive tried a few of his combos and lures and never felt impressed by them. Just my experience but nearly everything I've gotten from this site has worked much better.

Awesome! I took a pond management class about a year ago and another benefit of plants is it draws dragonflies to your area/pond. Dragonflies eat mosquitos and some other insects youd rather not have. Looking forward to see how this does for you!

@gimruis the crossbows they produce now are almost as good as having a rifle in the woods. They are absolutely nuts. I'm not personally a fan of them (my tune will change when I can no longer draw a bow back in the future) but there is a lot more that goes into hunting than the shot. Not only that I'd much rather someone put down an animal fast with a crossbow than suck with a bow and have wounded animals everywhere.

Already started getting excited for deer season and started going through my stuff. Started getting the itch for a new bow. I currently have an Elite Enkore with comfort mods and a PSE Ferocity (my first bow) as a backup. I believe I prefer a draw profile that builds as you draw rather than stiff evenly throughout but I'm going to (for the first time ever) go test bows before I get something. Going to try a Hoyt VTM and Matthews Phase 4 this weekend and see how I like them. Really love the look of the VTM in bourbon but really need to feel the draw cycle. Anyways...Curious what you all shoot and experiences with them?

Lighting rod was my frog rod. Worked great until it snapped. I was very upset honestly.

If the weather looks good in the spring or fall I'll give my boss a heads up I may not come in if it holds and make the call the morning of. I'll Make sure any meetings are moved or just have them via teams from the boat if I have to. Back in ny when I knew I was leaving my job and the stripers were running up the Hudson I called in sick a lot. We'd hike to a secluded spot next to the Hudson, setup a makeshift campfire and grill on it and make some makeshift chairs and spend the night fishing for them. Worth every single sick day. The one benefit of having significant health issues and risks is knowing what's more important and taking the time that's more valuable to your life. Same tone you gotta do it in a way you don't lose your job ?, or find a job that gives that flexability.

@Blue Raider Bob didn't realize it was a plastic base! If that's the case you'll want pants that fed from the water column. You can get root feeders in flooded bins but that won't do much for your nutrient surplus. From the looks of it and the fact it's plastic lined I don't think you'll need to go nuts with plants.

We've had no algae issues to date. I asked the civil engineers that when we were designing the pond and they said as long as it was kept densely planted it would control any algae for it. The pond is about 8 acres and we spent $75k in plants back in 2019 dollars. No fish were introduced....senior management vetoed my petition on that one. Feared all the guys on their lunch break would be on the sides with their fishing rods...already had to kick one of our guys out who put a few trail cams in our undeveloped 20 acres. Aside from what I said I dont know much about pond management BUT you should look into planted fish tanks. A significantly smaller scale than what you have but the principles are very similar. At the end of the day it comes down to balancing nutrients, consumers (plants) and light. When you have an overabundance of light and nutrients you get algae. Since you cant control sun and you have fish and uneaten food adding nutrients (even if you dont fertilize) along with leaching nutrients from the soil you really should add plants. There are species that are more nutrient hungry than others which may be a better choice if you dont want to kill your views or get too dense with plants in your pond. Also to keep in mind there are plants that are root feeders (pull nutrients from the soil) and stem feeders which pull nutrients from the water column. You should have a variety of both ideally. In aquariums, there are no fish that will eat the type of algae that blooms from a nutrient/light abundance. I dont know much about grass carp but only way I'd add one is if you get a fast growing aquatic plant to control the algae and need the grass carp to control those plants. From your posts you seem to know a lot if not most of this but I think its worth a dive in. I believe there is a lot you can apply to your pond.

I've seen and heard from plenty of successful fisherman on the lake...if dinks were my target. Need to define what success is, I'm not interested in catching a bunch of 1-2lb bass all day. I want something that makes me question if I need a net. I'll usually keep a smidge of that information in the back of my head for a day when I'm really struggling and just need to change up how I approach fishing that day. I've yet to hit anything on the "tips" i've got.

Not the same but when I built my companies new operations center we had to include a pond to offset the impermeable ground we paved/rocked. We are only in year 3 and it took 1 year for the frogs and turtles to move in, 2 years to get geese and in this 3rd year we started getting cat tails and other plants we didnt plant along with nutria and a curious beaver. Like you no other water has access as we are at the top of elevation for quite a ways away. I'm guessing some were carried over on the nutria and/or beaver that came from a flooded stream about 1000ft away. Other than that the cat tails could come from their flying seeds but not sure on the rest. Love these Pond Observations.

I thought those were what live down by the ocean in Jersey?

@gimruis that's crazy. The investment in lead control and air ventilation I didn't think it would be worth doing for a range that short. Any indoor I've been to has been 25yrds to 50yrds and one went out to 100. The 25yrds I shot this at was outdoors. My parents have 12 acres. Took a few shots at a 2/3 ipsc steel target at 100 and hit 2 out of 15. Ammo was crap though, aluminum case.

Yup 25yrds/75ft. Sure your indoor isn't 15yrds? 15ft is really close. Realistically most engagements youd get in would be within 15ft though...I think the statistical average is within 3yrds.

A few years back my glock 19 was stolen from my house and I've not replaced it. Cost for side cuts, stipple work etc prevented me from dishing out close to 1k again. PSA has their dagger line and I got sucked into their 4th of July sale and ordered a compact in gray with a ported barrel for under $400. I hate curved triggers on glocks so I or a polydat trigger shoe before I even got my dagger. Ripped the dagger apart and mirror polished all the trigger parts before even putting a round through it. Pleasantly surprised by it. It fits the hand better than a glock but still retains all the features that make glock glock. Accuracy was excellent, I'm easily the weak link but at 25yrds I kept a mag within 3". The rmr cut could be tighter compared to my jagerworks cut po7 slide but it's perfectly usable. Trigger was a smidge gritty out of the box but would smooth out with use, polishing it felt great after. All this to say if you are looking to try one go for it. I only have 300rds through it at this point but I'll be running it hard to see if it goes into CC rotation. Any of you have some builds with theirs?

What was the water temp? With a 65deg air temp starting I'd have started shallow at feeder creeks where there is typically more clear/fresh water and warmer and worked my way to down to areas (still shallowish) that have quick access to deeper water late in the morning or afternoon. Depending on veg/cover I'd have thrown a swim jig/minimax chatter/1/4oz spinner until I found something hitting and worked it until I got few bites and went worm/jig/creature. still, with that little visibility I'd have tried any feeder stream I could find to get clearer water.

I've over doubled the number of fish I caught on a jig this year so far...a total of 5! My home lake has a fairly silty bottom which I believe contributes to it but its a hard lure for me to entice fish with. I always have 1 or 2 tied on but what I've found is downsizing to a 1/4oz bitsy bug profile and some type of rage bait has increased my catches. Although as seen above its nothing to write home about.

Every southerner i've fed Northern style bbq has hated me. And northern sweet tea is not sweet tea, not even close. Lived in NY for 27 years and nearly 10 in NC, there could be a civil war over these 2 topics alone given the right push. Based on safety training I received in a past job you can become more accustomed to heat to tolerate it but you still need to hydrate and take the breaks. Youll just feel less miserable when adjusted, which takes I believe 7+ days of outside work to really be adjusted. Works the other way to the cold also.

NC has been near unbearable lately. Between travel and it being crystal clear skies and 97+ outside when I am home I havent put a line in the water since mid June. Hopefully will fix that this weekend but will be early morning or evening like you. Its fishing...but its just fishing. Dont end up at a statistic.

I set it according to garmin. TVG: depends on the depth and the image. it helps boost return signal brightness if you tend to get a weak return. The lower the setting the less boost, the higher the setting the more boost. If I'm struggling to get a decent image I'll play with this a little to get a better return. Typically I'm on Low. Interference: Adjusts for any electromagnetic interference. According to garmin you should use the lowest setting possible to eliminate any interference. Should show up as lines in your imaging. Below is an example, you can either fix the problem or play with this setting to hopefully eliminate it. I run mine on Off with my setup.

I typically fish the same depth and in but you can still fish "off shore" in 20FOW and less. Sonar comes in handy finding the drops and target areas (including bait fish). Its rare I see bass on my sonar but weeds, bait fish, brush, etc. I use it for often. Even fishing shoreline it comes in handy, there are places that transition from 3-5FOW down to 10+ very quickly. Many times you can tell where it does this by looking at the shoreline but there a few sneaky spots and those typically dont get hammered as much as the ones you can tell by land features. I've nearly hit catfish when fishing in 3FOW with my sonar running, it may effect the fish but I dont think nearly as much as its hype up to.