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Poison Glorious 166L Hardbait Finesse and a Conquest 50DC.

Being an eagles fan the tears must be plentiful.

Not all the parts are in but here's how they sit now.

Good answer! Chase bronzebacks on the upper Mississippi ~ My dad and hero turned 87 two months ago and we celebrated by fishing for smallmouth on Mille Lacs - and had a great day. Fast forward to October and he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Who knows what next year will bring, but he elected to get out and fish one more time this season - and it was a great day with 35 fish caught, an average of 18 inches, and a couple at/near 20. A day I will never forget ~

I believe in products that don't come with an ingredient list. Like Apples & Strawberries for instance. Really cuts down on the confusion. Don't forget to wash them. A-Jay

Sorry for the late post it has been a crazy week. I fished Milford on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a fun day, it was cloudy most of the morning. When it was cloudy we caught them on 1.0 sexy shad crankbaits. When it became sunny in the afternoon the crankbait bite went away and the ned rig bite turned on. We caught our bigger largemouth on the crankbaits on any hardwoods we could find. The smallmouth all came on ned rigs and craw crankbaits in the cove next to the Rush Creek marina on the shelf on the right. We caught our bigger largemouth in School Creek. On Saturday my partner and I weighed in 3 fish for 5.97 pounds, we caught a lot of shorts that just wouldn't measure. On Sunday it was cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. The winds were so strong that the tournament director limited the area of the lake that we could fish, so we were not able to return to any of the spots that we went to on Saturday. We scraped our game plan and just started hitting the back sides of every main lake point out of the wind with crankbaits and ned rigs. We caught a few shorts and weighed in 1 fish for 1.86 pounds. Overall I got second place on Saturday in the Kansas High School State Qualifier and fourth place on Sunday in the Kansas Youth State Championship.

One final thought. Always look for the positive side of things your children do!

tears from all the crying about stupid stuff

This is a quick video of a nice Fatty that choked the Silver Buddy a couple of days ago. She went 4.25 and fought like a champ. I tried moving the camera up to the bow hoping to offer a wider and more encompassing view. Seems to work but with the wind (that ALWAYS blows here) it's a little hard to hear me, but you're not really missing much As the waters cools this bite should only get Hotter. A-Jay ​

Pretty sure you need a willing partner of the opposite sex to make kids..no worries about having kids for you..unless honey boo boo is fertile.

Was a bit chilly, but the bass didn't mind at all. Hootie

Bluebird.

A few years ago I tried a few Seaguar fc offerings, and then tried #16 sniper. I never bought any other fc after that. Great line for the money.

You do need to adjust the way you cast when fishing a swimbait with braid. When you reel your bait in, before your next cast, disengage the spool and pull the line off the spool a little at a time until it's all off the spool. Cut the line at the knot and respool with some copoly or flouro, 15-17 would work well with the S-Waver 168. Fishing swimbaits with braid is playing with fire, especially a sinking bait.

I use a 1000 size reel pretty regularly. In fact a buddy of mine used 1000 size Stradics to fish for channel cats and wipers. I was in the boat with him when he landed 4 channels over 20 pounds in a single day and a DD wiper on another trip on those little reels. There isn't a bass alive that pulls like a 20lb catfish. OP, if you're in the market, I actually have a 1000 size Shimano Symetre I never use if you're interested.

I call my friends kids birth control for a reason.

I guess it depends on what we consider high resale. In January, I bought a Ford Escape that had been on the road for 1 year and one week, had about 26,000 miles on it. The original owner paid about $36,500 for it...I paid $23,250. That's ~36% off a vehicle that'll last me years, $13,250 more for retirement and waaay less interest on the loan...and for a shorter period. Yes, it was a private owner, not an off lease vehicle. About a year and a half ago, a friend bought a new Crestliner Raptor 1850...by the time he was done, he had over $55K in it, The very same week, I bought an older Crestliner CMV with 3 hours, 34 minutes on the motor (verified by my dealer, not his) for $16,250. My boat was virtually unused and I paid less than 30% of what he paid. I did move my electronics over to the new boat, so we can add another $7,500 to mine...but still...that extra $31,250 in the Further North Charitable and Benevolent Fund, invested for retirement sure feels good. I honestly don't feel like there's any one way to do this that is better - everyone is different and they should do what works best for them and how they live their lives. I'm...ah..."frugal"...by nature and getting the best value for my dollar is a big deal to me - I enjoy it as part of the process. Other guys love that new boat/car/truck thing and that's what they should do.

Take a hot shower afterwards and suck it up.

the difference won't be just night and day. More like night and tomatoes.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

My wife and I were in SoCal for a week for her business stuff and I hit up several lakes while out there. The first of 4 trips was at Westlake which is a private lake. I fished it from the bank last October and caught a few 2lbers and saw two giant bass come from under a dock that wanted nothing to do with my roboworm. This time from a boat I was throwing small swimbaits and 4'' wacky senkos. Within a few minutes the first bass was caught on a rig walker swimbait. Soon after I switched over to a 4'' green pumpkin senko and was throwing it around the same dock where I saw the hawgs last year. I felt a heavy tug on the line and reeled in the slack and set the hook hard to feel a big bass peeling line off my reel. I worked her in to the boat letting her take line when she wanted. There was no quit in this big bass. When she finally surfaced near the boat I knew it was my biggest bass so far ever from Ca. It was 8 and a half pounds. I continued to throw the senko at docks and open water and caught 2 more hawgs. Another one over 8lbs and one over 6lbs. It was frustrating and insane to see 6-10lb bass swimming around various docks and ignoring the bait you threw at them. A bunch of 1-3 lb bass were caught on senkos also. The next day I fished Lake Sherwood, another private lake. Started off throwing poppers and it was very productive. Between senkos and poppers around 25 bass in the 2 and 4 lb class were caught. The next trip was a few days later at Lake Casitas. I fished it 2 years ago and the water level was really low but even worse now. Started off throwing a dropshot with a roboworm. The first taker hit it right away in 15fow. A chunky 2lber. The wind was breezy all day with off and on heavy rain with water temps that dropped 7 degrees in a short period. I switched between a dropshot and a chatterbait depending where we were. There were a few hits on the chatterbait that didn't stay hooked. Ended up catching a 5lber on the dropshot before calling the trip short. The next trip was an afternoon trip back on Lake Sherwood. The bass boil up on shad in the back near the dam in the early evening and I wanted to see what it was all about. After catching a few on poppers in the main lake area we headed back to the dam. There were blowups all over at a certain time like someone flipped the switch. You couldnt keep up with where they were going to blowup next but when I threw the popper in the same spot it usually resulted in a bass. Most bass were in the 3-5lb range with some 1-2's mixed in. I threw a walking bait and caught a bass the same size or maybe smaller than the bait. Not sure what he was thinking. That place is a popper factory. I had a few hours to spare one day before dinner with my wife and bank fished Westlake. I threw a small swimbait and worms. One small bass was caught on the swimbait. After watching dozens of real small bass follow my worm in but couldn't eat it I was ready to leave for my dinner plans. As I was organizing my baits I saw a nice bass come out from under a pontoon boat . I threw a rage tail cut-r worm right in front of her and could see her go down to pick it up. A quick hookset changed her direction right away. It was in the upper 4lb range. The whole trip was full of action and can't wait to get back in the area again. One of the 8's were barely hooked. Alot of hawgs roaming around under docks.

I'd like to be able to meet you guys at the 'Vern this fall. I've seen Brian and the Alumacraft around a time or two, but he was working. I'm taking the morning off tomorrow and am going down there to try the weekday bite. No tournaments to deal with! I kid, I kid.

Ya gotta exercise the muscles ya gonna use! I learned years ago to let my rod do the casting, it's way better at than me.

nah, we won 2 in a row so its all good....

The chunk bait is a pork rind frog imitation, just use the real thing #11 or 101 UJ frog. Tom

Give the points..packs gonna kill them.

About sums it up.

Not to beat a dead horse- but wear your PFD. I don't wear mine as much as I should in my two boats. I do in the Yak. And maybe this short story will tell you why... I was fishing out of my aluminum boat. Beautiful day in the summer, mid-day. Two guys around my age, 30, paddle by me in the yaks and make quick conversation about the fishing. I could tell these guys were having a good time. They move past me. I make maybe 5 casts and hear one of these guys cracking up. I turn, one flipped his kayak and the other guy is laughing his butt off about it. The one in the water (50 yards away from me) says I'm going to shore, tells his buddy to take his kayak. Perhaps 3 overhead strokes later and he is yelling for help, he is 300 yards plus from any shore. I pull anchor go and get him. The guy was loaded, was in pants and his shoes. His buddy wasn't initially able to get to him, and the guy erronesouly thought he could make it so shore. This guy was lucky to be alive. I have the deck of My ranger loaded with 14+ combos in all times. Yak fishing, two rods max and limited tackle. Keep a set of pliers handy too, in case you get a pickerel bite. It is a blast when you catch a decent fish and it takes you for a ride. The hooksett is difficult to adjust to, so do not be discouraged if you lose some fish. One thing I would add, I use shorter rods so it is easy to land fish, as a 7ft 6 inch rod is difficult to land the fish in tight quarters.

Agree with what everyone says about safety and PDF if you haven't kayaked before, especially on bigger water. Make sure you secure your items in case you tip over. I have (knock on wood) never tipped, but secure everything but the rod in my hand just in case it should ever happen. Let someone learning about kayaks try mine once and used there's meanwhile, and for some unknown reason it just flipped. On mine I've been in whitecaps heading home for short distances on main lake area at times and always still felt safe so a good kayak helps you also.

Bigbill mentioned hitting the gym. Being in good shape makes things work better, especially as we get older. Many of the issues that limited my time on the water no longer do since I started hitting the gym a few years ago.

Hahahahah!!! Maybe your right!

This is true in my experience as well.

I'm sorry if I gave the impression I think any vehicles these days are a POS...That wasn't my intent. I know people who drive all makes and brands of vehicles, and they are - almost without exception - well built, durable and long lasting...it's pretty hard to find a bad one any more (like outboards and boats). We really are in "the good old days"! Are there rare "lemons"" Sure. And there's a lot of problems caused by poor maintenance and general abuse. Bout a month ago I was following a car into town, and it had a blackened bumper and the distinct smell of a car burning oil...and the thought struck me that I could not remember the last time I saw one like that...when I in my twenties you couldn't go a day without seeing at least one or two like that....and I live in NW WI, in a fairly rural area where vehicles get used long and hard...and I still don't see many like that.

Cast more. A-Jay

That was my suggestion. He was not exactly open minded about it. The dude seems to be a bit more high maintenance than what I want to deal with. I think I'm gonna have to pass on this one. I'm thinking about posting labor rates in my shop. One price for labor double for customers who want to watch double again for those who want to watch and advise

I can not stress enough, much like everyone else, how important having your PFD is. I am not sure how the wakes are on the Indian River, if they are anything like what I experience on Lake Michigan, I would suggest getting a safety flag.

I would be going after those early morning strippers! PS- Welcome to the forums! Jeff

At least you know if they swallow one, it'll dissolve in the belly and not block up the stomach like soft plastics. It might help them get fattened up too.

If you fish anywhere that gets very cold then don't even think about it. I have a few rods with micro guides that I can't use when it's cold because they jam up with ice so fast I can't make more than a cast or two with them. Overall I like them though because they make the rods fish so much like just a rod blank and reduce the weight of the rod.

I caught a bunch of fish on a 168 S Waver and a Deps SS 175 last winter, couple on a 6" Bull Shad, even 1 on a 7" Slammer, all in Kansas. No big fish, but we don't have many of those anyways.

I had a fat Table Rock spot puke up a still wiggling and ticked off salamander in the boat once. Had a largemouth do the same with baby painted turtle also. I didn't try to give either of them back to the fish though.

Siebert Storm Series Brush head in 'Roadwarrior' color.

One of my rods has micro guides. After fishing with it for several yrs now, I don't find there is any significant advantage over regular guides. Save yourself the $$ and go with regular sized guides.

OP break the lake down into sections. That's what helped me the most. Instead of trying to fish the entire lake in one day I instead focus on small sections at a time. It wasn't until I applied this principle that I started to have any luck on bigger waters. Good luck!

New combo to replace a lost rod & reel. Custom St Croix 5C74HF-B expertly done by board member Scott Hovanec and a new Shimano Exsence DC.

20lb for baits under 8" and then 25lb if I'm throwing anything 8" or better.

I use 20# izorline platinum pretty good stuff have never broke a bait off even with those dreaded overruns it's held my line thru trout well Tight lines Andrew

Ive always used heavy braid with a 20 # mono leader. I think I remember Butch Brown saying somewhere he uses 15 lb invizx for 8" hudds.

If you mean 1/4 oz soft hollow body swim baits, I use 30lb braid in the shallow grassy lakes of Central and So Florida. And wouldn't change. If you mean those big, 3 treble, wooden/plastic suckers sorry I can't help you. Mike