MontanaBasser

I picked up a spool of Berkley Forward in 8lb at the beginning of the summer and put it on two reels. Garbage IMHO. Most knots cause it to fray badly. Can't use an Alberto, FG, Fish n Fool, nor Pitzen. I haven't tried a SD jam. I'll be buying some of the G-soul to try. I've never heard of them before.

I have a soft spot for lures that are truly multi-species. OG Rapalas are a great example. Bass, walleye and trout will all strike a rapala. I just started trolling them this season and caught a few rainbows near the the surface. Thursday I'm going to target walleye by trolling them behind a bottom bouncer. Most of mine are a trout pattern of one sort of another.

@Crow Horsethank you! Way to go above and beyond! One of my favorite cheap Amazon purchases in the last couple of years is this little wind up "trash can" for tag ends and pieces of line. In the boat it normally blows and on the bank there's no good way to keep tiny trash from escaping. But, with this I'm GTG. Ninja Crap Trap: https://a.co/d/b8bq8hM

100%. He's transitioning from bass fishing to grievance farming

My fishing season ends way earlier than I would like because of my cold hands. As a young man, I had hot hands. I would ski most of the winter in a spring weight glove. They could be full wet and as long as I kept moving, my hands were fine. This morning it was mid 50s and cold hands drove me off the pond. I have heated glove liners I use but they are magnets for hooks and still don't allow me to tie knots, operate clips and the like. So, let's hear it. What are your cold hand strategies? Arthritis strategies?

He has at least one video where he says ignorance of the rules isn't an excuse.

What's Ray's Studio?

That's what I thought initially as well.

I purchased everything from this eBay seller: https://www.ebay.com/str/sdscustomreels He's in Ukraine and this was before the import rules changed. I've purchased two different things from Ukraine in the last few years and they all come speedily. But, because it's small and light, he's going to want to use the postal service and many countries have suspended postal service to the United States. So, YMMV but he's a good seller with good products.

I did a BFS conversion on 3x cheap lews speed spools. Are they as nice as a Curado BFS? No, not even close. They struggle with anything under 3 grams and when they blow up, they REALLY blow up. But, including the new spool and bearings I'm at $50 per reel and they preform WAY better than that. They feel better than a $150 reel.

I own a couple shipping and receiving centers. We have about 600 private mailboxes so I've gotten a birds eye view of about 5-10 inbound internationals since the change. We haven't seen any internationals with the postal service as the carrier. That makes sense because many foreign postal services are refusing all international package shipments. With FE, DHL and UPS things are consistently inconsistent. Almost all customers are receiving phone calls from the carrier. Those that weren't contacted didn't have a phone number provided by the shipper. They had to call into the carrier to get the package released. At least twice customers were told they had to pay to get the package released but then the package showed up anyway. From talking to the drivers, UPS theoretically will accept a paper check handed to the driver but YMMV.

Gas station on the trailer is my preference. But, we purchased a battery powered transfer pump this summer and it's a game changer. So much less spilled gas.

You could turn the first one around and use him as your bait. 😄

Read in Bubba Gump voice: Bass will hit a spoon. Trout will hit a spoon. Walleye will hit a spoon too. Pike 'ill hit a spoon. Panfish 'ill hit a spoon. Lakers 'ill hit 'em. Stripers will hit 'em. Redfish too. Superior Whitefish will hit a spoon. I've even heard of catfish hitting a spoon. Spoons have caught every species of gamefish in North America for over a century. Why wouldn't you throw a spoon? You don't need to jump straight into big fancy flutter spoons. I love spoons and I just picked up my first big flutter spoons this season. My first bass ever was on a red devil so there will always be one in my tackle box. Acme Kastmasters and Little Cleos are a bank beaters best friend... Next you're going to tell me you've never thrown an inline spinner!?!? My indignation is fake, but you should throw spoons.

When it comes to cutting braid, some form of micro serrations seem to be the key. I think they stop the line from slipping in the jaws of the scissors.

My "sport wagon" holds 12 rods comfortably.

I'm skeptical. But, I also know if I hear the bluegills popping that's a good sign. What do y'all think? Snake oil or new technology?

You made it farther out than I didn't on Friday. I ended up cleaning up the boat and fishing the marina because it was too much. The water is drawn down for winter and waves were breaking left to right across most of the marina mouth. I have a "new to me" 21' deep V multi-species with a big engine and wanted to see how it handled some bigger waves. Not that big!! I'd misread the water. I thought it was 2-4 and it was 3+. Just trying to get out the channel and faced into the wind I had two waves break right into the side of the boat and in a trough I was only in 2’ of water. I made it out far enough to get back in safely and called it.

An anchor trolley and quick clete are a nice addition.

Yes. I do this.

I would have agreed with you until I spooled up a reel with daiwa J4 10lb. The stuff will knot up in the blink of an eye and no amount of picking will get it out. I won't buy a 4 carrier at that weight ever again.

Yes, this was spooling a new (to me) reel. However, I use a Piscifun spooling station like this. My worry was that it was a problem with the reel. It is an old reel, but I had it serviced when it came into my possession.

I'm not familiar enough with round reels to know why this happened. There is 6lb mono backing underneath that is symmetrical. Should I pull it off or can I use it as is? What caused this and how do I fix it?

The reservoir near me has a decent population of cutthroat trout. When they are feeding on the surface they are relatively easy to target, but it's the dog days of summer and by the time I get on the water they're in 20-40 ft. I've been trying different Kokanee and walleye trolling techniques but haven't had any success deeper than 10'. I don't have down riggers. Right now I've got one rod rigged with a 3 way, one with a dodger and one with a bottom bouncer. I'm going out tomorrow. Right now I'm planning on trying 2-3oz on the three way rig with either a walleye worm harness or a Kokanee harness with cocktail shrimp. If I can find my drop jigs, I may try that as well. I've tried heavy underspins, blade baits, lipless cranks, spoons, deep jerks and flukes with limited to no success. What has worked well in shallower parts of this body are dropshots with live crawlers.

Johnson Outdoors is sending a replacement control head for the TM. When I tear it down I will relube the connections and hopefully that'll fix it.