T-Billy

Well said Andy. I'm 100% in agreement.

JDM Zillion HD. Accept no substitute.😉

Prayers for a successful surgery for you both.

Cajun muskie!!! 😂 I like it!!!

I had an awesome day on the water today. Ended up going 5 for 6. 3 for 3 on the crappie rig, and 2 for 3 on the A rig. The drag backed itself off on the Tranx AGAIN, and cost me that fish. 🤬 I wouldn't call 'em junk, but they have some issues.The Tranx offer 400 capacity in a 300 size reel. Aside from that, the Daiwa Lexa HD is better in every way. Anyway, 33, a pair of 36's, a 41, and a 43. I didn't take a pic with the 33" or the first 36". The second 36" got it's pic taken for being #90 this year. 36" 41" 43" She's a fatty. Should be interesting tomorrow. I'm taking a buddy with no baitcaster experience, and it's gonna be mid 40's and blowing 15-35. 😲😂 Ain't no way I'm trying to teach him to cast in that. We'll be trolling all day. I'm with ya brother. I took vacation next week as it's traditionally the best week of the year for the A rig bite. Now the forecast is calling for teens and twenties. Yikes!!! I think there's gonna be a hot bite going on, but it's gonna be painful out there. I'm guessing my guide buddy and I should pretty much have the lake to ourselves.

Somewhere in there is my bride holding her 13th muskie of the year. She's a trooper. It was low to mid 40's today and blowing 10-15. She bundled up, came along, and whooped me 1-0. It's only 33" but it's a fat fall chunk. She caught it on the rig, fishing an outside weed edge in 12'.

Sorry to hear Catt. Prayers for a quick recovery for both you and the Mrs.

😂 My three girls were all shooting 9, 40, and 45 by the time they were 10 or 11. They are all good students and became proficient with them very quickly. These service calibers ain't exactly hand cannons. Heck, my oldest had a ball shooting my uncle's .454 casull one day when she was about 16, and 120# soaking wet. They were all capable of racking the slides at that age too. Technique matters more than brute strength. That 100% applies to recoil management too. The only thing they struggled with was loading magazines.

Huge numbers and a new PB. Congratulations on an epic season Katie!!! I love reading your reports. Your joy and gratefulness for the experience always shine through.

I wouldn't count on them to live up to their rated strength.

I use rings rated at twice the break strength I think I need.

I became an owner fan over the course of this past summer. I'm running the standard 1x strong ST-36 in 1/0 and 2/0 on my 4" and 5" muskie cranks, and they're doing a great job for me. I've never had a fish open one up during a fight. They've bent a few when hung in the net, but at that point it doesn't matter.

I'll second that!!! They look good in the listing pics. They look like they were welded by a spider monkey on meth in person. On the other hand, the Dr. Fish hyper wire split rings I've bought on Amazon have proven themselves to be a quality option at a good price.

I didn't do much bass fishing, but I did pretty well when I did. I only got one over 5#, but was on solid numbers of 2's and 3's in the limited time I spent chasing bass. As usual, it was the flippin rig and my homemade chatterbait doing most of the work. On the other hand, I've had an epic year of muskie fishing. I've put 86 over 30" in the net so far, with a few weeks left to fish. Sitting at the top of the heap are a matching pair of thick 46.5" beasts.

Whoa!!! I can't agree with ya on that one. The crappie looks tasty though. 😂

Thanks, Dwight. It's been an awesome year already, and the grand finale is about to start. There are balls of shad scattered all over the main lake basins, and the muskie are scattered with 'em. Hopefully this big cold front that's blowing in tonight will be enough to get them concentrated into those giant schools. The A-rig bite will be in full swing at that point. I've learned so much this year, I'm already looking forward to putting the lessons learned from this years failures to work next year. As incredible as this year's been, I'm expecting next year to be even better.

Well done @Dwight Hottle. That's a beast. Congrats brother!!!

Does this mean I have to get a tattoo? 😂

It was an 8.5 hour grind today without much action, but I managed to add two more to the count. A 42" on a crappie, and a 37" on the rig. I only had a few other lazy follows the rest of the day.

I've been picking up a few green fish on the rig lately while fishing for the toothy critters that eat them. No big's. Most are about this size. Figgered I might should post one in an effort to keep my BR membership in good standing. It's been awhile since I posted any bass. 😁

Do you really want to risk losing the fish of a lifetime because of cheap 7# split rings? You can buy quality stainless "hyper wire" rings on Amazon plenty cheap. I use the Dr. Fish brand on my muskie baits and have been 100% satisfied with them.

Tough conditions today with light winds and bluebird skies. Rode the skunk for almost 6hrs, then had this purty 40" follow my rig in. It made one lazy turn through the 8, then turned off and SMOKED my crappie rig. That's the first fish to eat a crappie since last Friday. I was starting to wonder if they'd turned off of them in favor of shad. I had lots of lookers but no takers on crappie over the weekend, but went 2 for 4 on the A-rig. Today's fish is #84. Chipping away at 'em. Big cold front coming through in a couple days. Hopefully the rig bite will be on in earnest by next week.

7' give or take a couple inches, ML power, fast tip.

I've stored mine in an unheated garage for years with zero issues. Temps are not a problem. Gnawing critters could be.