Basseditor

BASSWEST magazine That was very helpful. Thank you.

I couldn't log in under my old account so I made a new account. I was basseditor now it is bass editor. I took that name decades go when I first got into websites because I was the Editor of a bass fishing magazine.

I've been retired for just over a year. I fish less now than ever. What I dislike are the two hour drives to the lakes round me. I wish I could afford a lake house so I could just go for a few hours. My wife doesn't like that I go alone, so she insists on going but she doesn't like fishing. She just reads or spends time on her phone. I'm capable of handling being alone but with several major surgeries in the past, she thinks I'll keel over at any time. I also have 9 grandsons who I enjoy being around. I take them out, but I can really only take one or two at a time in order to give them a better experience. (For them and me.) But they are too young to help me with the boat so my wife has to go too. I've spent an inordinate amount of time tinkering with my boat. All new components, electronics, etc. I really enjoy that. My family wants me to sell some of my stuff. They don't seem to want it. I still hang on to hundreds of rods and reels — plus, totes full of new-in-the box/bags of crank baits and plastics. Many of these are expensive items that still have great value and are hard to find.

Yup. They didn't help my Fantasy Fishing picks.

Cabelas is closer to me than BPS. I've had some good experiences lately regarding customer service. First to make a long story short I was on vacation in Green Bay last summer when they had their occasional 10% off sale. I decided to get a Livescope but they did not have any in stock (the store said they had some when I checked before I drove to the store). I ordered one to be delivered to the store. They said 5-8 days. I was going to be there for two more weeks so that should have worked. It didn't come of course. On my way back to Texas I swung by the store to see what could be done. The customer service dept. said it would arrive the next day. They said they could cancel the order, but with how scarce they were at that time, I didn't want that option. I couldn't stay another day so I went to the parking lot and called the corporate office. A nice lady went through the options and then decided to call the store manager while I was on hold. She comes back on and says to go back into the store and talk to the manager. He looked up my account and said he would personally get my Livescope when it arrived and send it to my house at no charge. Plus he gave me extra club points for the hassle. The unit arrived the day after I got home via FedEx. Some other time I'll tell about the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal I got on Garmin 126s.

There may be sleeper lakes around the country that get little pressure. A known big LMB guy who catches giant largemouth (O H Ivie guy) made a trip to a reservoir very few people know of and caught several over 8 last summer. They're documented on his Facebook page. He was not there at the optimum time. Having said that it's not easy. I've caught hundreds over 5 pound and 50 over 6 and a handful over 7. I lost one well over 9 one year because I didn't get a good hook set — as soon as I set the hook, she pulled me on my float tube about 5 feet. One jump and she was off.

I have the Cabelas Card only so I get points to use on stuff down the road. Plus there are occasional 10% discounts when you use the card online or in store. I manage all of my cards very carefully to get the best deals or more cash back. I pay off the cards every month except when there is free interest — for example I bought two 126s and other stuff on Cyber Monday. I got 12% Rakuten cash rebate (it just came) of about $600 and an additional 450 points or so from Cabelas. And no interest for 12 months. That's about $1000 off on a little more than $3000 in purchases.

I worked as a salesman at a marine dealership in the 80s. When we had to increase the sales price on a new bass boat to $15,000, I thought we'd never sell another one. (At 15,000 we only made 10% margin.)

I grew up in WI, but never fished Hayward. I may need to head that way this summer. It's a long haul from TX, but now that I'm retired I try to go up north every summer.

My bad for not reading all of the comments before chiming in. The $2000 was mentioned several times. OH Ivie is about 3 hours from me. I'm going to start hitting it regularly from mid-Jan to Mar. 1. There a few other lakes that have potential this year too. Three years ago I wrote an article about Ivie and predicted it was ready to break loose. Here we are now. You have to give these guys credit who are consistent. There can be 100+ boats on some days, but only a few of the top guys are catching.

Kistler 7'6" Heavy (5 power), 20 or 25lb Invisx on a Daiwa P/F reel

He bumped his Jan-Feb rates to $2000/day. Sold out Jan. in a span of a few hours.

Kistler 7'6" heavy (5 power) Zbone. I catch so many fish on that rod. Luckily, I have 3 of them.

I caught two 10+ bass in 100+ degree heat: one shallow and the other very deep.

I appreciate the responses. Good stuff.