MontanaBasser

This winter is off to a STRANGE start. We have had ice and lost it twice already. I caught a nice 'bow on Christmas day which was surreal. It then froze up for a week or more and as of this afternoon, we are back to open water in the center. So, I guess ice out was December 22nd and January 5th.

Eh. I've caught bigger.

I have a few and as a guy who grew up on spinning gear they're nice to have. I still have to think and pay attention with a BC. Yes, I give up some casting distance, but I can focus more on the actual fishing than casting. Another reason I like them is for handing to more casual anglers. My brother owns one basic spinning setup. He finds bait casters intimidating. I can hand him a DC reel and give 30s of instructions and he's good to go.

Get a minivan? One of the advantages of transporting kids all the time is the rod storage it allows. I can fit rods up to 8'6" assembled and rigged. Plus, Chrysler knows people think of a minivans as dogs so they put a pretty aggressive stock tune on the Pentastar.

I have a few bags from the last two years. I'll look at them and let you know. I know they made a Jr. Edition that's smaller.

I agree, but then I found a deal on a zillion.

This conversation has been illuminating. Thanks Everyone. I think I'm going to make a separate bag for all my small and mini stuff and then go back to sorting by type.

IMO, Johnson Thinfisher in 3/16 is a better bait than the bigger weights. It starts up really fast, allowing me to use short strong pull and drops that trigger strikes. Another one that I like is the Reef Runner Cicada. The thump is different than other baits. FYI, the stock hooks on the cicada suck.

Scissors, bobbers, jars of powerbait, bandaids, a metal stringer, sun screen, backup sunglasses, bug spray, a matchbox car, a copy of my boat registration and the years fishing regs, three rotten rubber bands, the wrapper from a pack of hand warmers, small tube of dielectric grease, the remains of a toothpick used for pinning a float, crappy rusted pliers... It's like a junk drawer for the boat.

For those of you that sort by type, don't you find the variety of sizes makes that unwieldy? For instance, I have craws from 1" micro finesse to 4" flipping craws. The situations I use them in are so different I found myself constantly either overwhelmed by baits I couldn't use in the moment, or missing something that I'd left behind.

What do you do? I originally sorted by style but quickly realized there are few times when I want every craw style bait from finesse to magnum. Most often I'm choosing my soft plastics for the day by size and so now I have them sorted by overall length but that has its drawbacks too. Namely, the middle of the range gets too crowded. It also means that as I aquire new soft plastics I have to make room for them in the middle of a case. Next, I think I'll add mesh bags inside the bigger container to sub sort by style. What works for you? Ziplocs inside Ziplocs? Take them out of the OG Packaging?

It would be so easy to swap over a reel from something else when I travel but then I wouldn't have a reason to buy more reels. 😁 Follow up question: Which mid/high tier casting reel would you try from each of these brands; Daiwa, Okuma SeVIIn?

I agree about Okuma. I only have experience with their spinning reels, but my Okuma reels out preform my similarly priced Shimano and Daiwa.

Everything froze for a couple of days and then thawed back out. Should I approach the fish like it's late fall winter or just after ice out, lol? It seems like the fish are lock jawed from confusion. On one hand, I like that my fishing season has made it to December 16th. On the other hand I'm itching for ski season and concerned about fires next summer.

Scheels Ebisu series casting rod was white last I checked.

Just as dangerous can be the clothes you have on. Many ice fishermen have drown because their gear filled with water and weighed them down. The old sourdough I fished with as a kid didn't like boots that tied. If you can't kick off your boots then you're stuck in your bibs.

The fly fishermen will just shake their heads, lol.

It doesn't HAVE to be, but I'd like it. I'd even go longer. I'd love to try a 9 or even 10.

I broke a rod I liked and it seems like Scheels isn't making that length and action any more. The best part about the rod was that you could whip tiny light weight stuff way out there. I use it for panfish and trout. Maybe a crappie rod company? Budget is $150

All this new tackle from black Friday and no open water for months!?!?!

It'll all come down to financing. I'm sure there will be a willing buyer, but finding a bank that likes that buyer is a harder nut to crack. In certain cases you can do a partial owner carry, but not when they want that money to retire on.

Quick question: Do you guys have Prime? I noticed that after a haul purchase Amazon added those savings to my "you've saved $x.xx with Prime this year" ticker. I didn't think you needed prime to access haul.

I picked up a couple 1/8 oz mini buzz baits on black Friday - a strike king and a booyah. Any experience with them? What trailers?

No mention of VMC Moon-eye Jigs or Northland Deep-vee yet. True, neither is a true ball head, but in walleye land those two are very common.

Yes. I have Googan Squad stuff. Getting back into fishing their price point - especially on the resale market is attractive. They have been great when I want to try out a new technique and know I'm going to screw up a lot or don't know if I like -- like A-rigs. Their hook mystery bundle did a great job of fleshing out my library and at this point in my fishing life I'm not experienced enough to be picky. I've found I like their mini cranks and the dart (their fluke). They have been blowing out last years sun shirts and gloves and both are very comfortable. The fishing gloves looked a lot like Fish Monkey gloves my buddy was wearing. As for their reputation, I'm ambivalent. I don't like Ben Milliken at all, but I have two of his rods and a bunch of 6th sense stuff. Maybe it would bother me more if I was around it more, but I try not to sweat the petty stuff or pet the sweaty stuff.