Leaderboard

Deadlifting a fish by the line is a huge no-no, especially if the fish's weight that you're lifting appears to be equal to the lb test you're using. To me, it's kind of like a catch in football. If you never had possession and control over the fish, it wasn't a catch.

Too bad you lost a fish. You may not really need a new partner. Your account of this event reads like a calamity of errors. I'd be looking in the mirror to help locate where they originated. btw - I fixed Number 1 for you. Better Luck next time. A-Jay

Some acquisitions from the land of the rising sun!

I love my wife. Knowing my ever evolving quest to conquer tri tip and 3 inch steaks, she bought me an XL Big Green Egg. Arrives tomorrow. They set it up and go over the basics of how to manage your flame. I'm really excited to cook in this thing. From everything I've read it has the ability to really maintain temperatures for extended periods of time. Also bought the teak table that goes with.

This is the forecast for our state beginning mid-week and extending well past the current 10 day outlook. Not good. Iced up waters are coming sooner, rather than later, along with the dreaded "Polar Vortex." Fortunately, I was able to get about 3.5 hours on Saturday afternoon. Water temps about 44.x degrees, light stain in most areas, but clearer toward the dam. Heavy cloud cover with a high temperature of 39 degrees for the afternoon, falling to 36 by the time I left. Wind out of the west at 6-9 mph and a steady barometer. Cold but very fishable conditions, and I was able to boat 35 largemouth bass. About 80% came on jerkbaits (which we've been talking quite a bit about lately) while the other 20% came on jigs. As for the jerkbaits, the "pause" is the best speed control right now, as important or even more so than the twitch, rhythm or cadence of the jerks. Here's a couple pics: Well, with deteriorating weather conditions and a work schedule that didn't allow me to get out on Monday, I got my last day on the water yesterday. I had to burn a couple hours of vacation to squeeze it in, but it was worth it. Temps go downhill from here through the weekend, then we have a forecasted 3-5 inches of snow on Sunday, and finally the polar vortex crap comes in mid to late next week and really chills things down (single digits and below). With 43.5 degree surface temps out there today, it won't take long before ice starts forming. Tuesday wasn't perfect weather-wise with a high of 43 when I launched, dropping to 38 by the time I took out 3.5 hours later. No sun, just heavy cloud cover. Winds were 15-21 mph out of the WNW with gusts all afternoon between 27-32 mph and a rising barometer. Perfect conditions but you have to take what you can get. Given the winds, there was no good way to fish jigs or other slower baits unless you moved to areas out of the brunt of the gale, in which case the bite just didn't seem as good overall for me. Fortunately, I had a Megabass Ito 110 FX Tour Premium jerkbait in the box (sounds like a bad PR plug, I know). That's the one with the hinged bill that they claim gives 15-20% further casts by folding in closer to the line tie during casting for a more aerodynamic profile. It at least seemed to work in those 30 mph winds. Anyway, I finished the afternoon with 20 more bass. Time to now relax and begin the long winter process of cleaning up the boat and tackle, reorganizing everything for next year, pulling old line and cleaning/oiling reels, etc. It's been another great year on the water. Hate to see it end, but there is always next year to look forward to. A few pics from yesterday:

Playing both sides of the coin.... My opinion: the ban is stupid. It doesn't stop anyone from using lead in NY. It doesn't save any extra loons from dying. I would look elsewhere than fisherman to affect some kind of improvement. The only reason we're "it" is because we're an easy target. Try going after some huge corporation. Oh yeah, they have lawyers and money....

@Bluebasser86 & @Tim Kelly Went through all of this with the lead ban on duck hunting! We can not shoot ducks with lead in rice & soybean fields because of the risk of lead poisoning...these are the same rice & soybean fields we shoot doves in with lead shot! The reported "scientific" evidence said tens if thousands of dead ducks & geese died annually but not a single photograph! As for mercury poisoning! There has been a consumption warning on Toledo Bend since the 70s. If you analyze the research data one would have to eat 3 pounds of fillets monthly per person!

If you ever go to Michaels you can print a 50% off coupon on their site. It's good for one item only. I was lucky to find one at a yard sale for $1 It's almost finished.

Picked up 2 RES today where the TW website didn't do justice to the colors. The Chili craw had red flake all over the bait which should give it some extra flash and the DB craw looks awesome and with orange being my favorite color I had to pick one up. Sometimes just getting out to a shop and seeing some colors in person, if they have them, really makes it an easy decision to pick up more colors.

Admission that lead tackle is the low hanging fruit....If the people/agencies/organizations actually cared as much as they would have you believe, they would go after the much bigger and more impactful problems. Wrong. Lead does offer benefits. It is widely available, cheap, and easy to pour/manufacture. You can melt/pour lead fishing tackle in your garage. This is not the case with Steel, Brass, or Tungsten...All of which require specialized production facilities as compared to lead. This statement is akin to claiming that by throwing one single 5-gallon bucket of water on a massive wildfire you are 'helping' the situation. It might be accurate in the most technical sense, but not in the actual fixing-the-problem sense. ------------------------------------ You have made your position quite clear and don't seem to be interested in actually considering other points of view, despite asking for them. I wish you luck in your research, although based on your responses it doesn't actually sound like that's what you're doing...I would call it bias confirmation.

No doubt the New York agencies described are respectable, and they want whats best for their state. And yes Massachusetts has come a long way. My point is watch who is being delegated to a decision making authority and why. Nowadays Massachusetts seems to be a testing ground for "new" and upcoming laws. example: fines for residents that dont have health insurance,..lol if ya cant afford insurance what makes you think one can afford a fine?,, and yeah massachusetts did it first, how do I know? Im one of the unfortunate that was working a temp job, with no insurance provided, and with kids on child support?,.. I couldnt afford the premiums, and was fined 1K each year. Back to the subject? OK,..the lead ban,.... if there is only a few nesting loons in the entire state,.. why is a lead ban "so" important to the legislature, that it passes a law condemning the entire state to use alternatives? They could of restricted certain areas,...why the state as a whole? There are some very competent and compassionate people in this state that do care about its well being, and the wildlife and fisheries management dept, is at the forefront of that concern. I've met some of them, and many of their rangers, every one of them a stand up person without any hidden agendas and that have shown nothing but care and concern for the states well being My above post is about the puppeteirs that pull the strings, the so-called "fat Cats" that "govern" Back when I attended the meeting in Boston? there was a well rounded and deeply concerned Board that was in jeopardy at that time. And the remarkable attendance that day ended said jeopardy,... Nowadays? I believe things have changed on the Board. Not just with the lead ban, the added saltwater licenses as well, removal of the broodstock salmon stocking program, changes in lobster regulations, groundfish regulations,..etc. I was born and raised in this state, Im 53,... and see some of the recent instances here,.. simply deplorable If you live in this state, and fish? you've noticed As far as your research paper reguarding lead and mercury contaminations? in New York? I had the train of thought that there most likely hasnt been a single state in the country that has not been greatly and meticulously tested, monitored, and well documented, for any contaminents, of any kind, ever since the bald eagles started disappearing many years ago. So the data? is out there. your questions? 1) no im not in support of a ban 2) other materials have been around for a while now, but,..the alternatives mold differently, Therefore, not providing a true replacement of lead 3) the aisles in any tackle shop or even bass pro shops haven't changed much at all, there are "some" alternatives, but again, they have been there for several years, even before the lead ban. Im done!

Both lead and Mercury occur naturally in the North American continent. The only lead that can be banned is man made products that contain lead. Paint was the first product, lead plumbing seals and shot shell pellets and bullets followed. California doesn't bother trying to use migratory birds and a excuse, the anti hunting fishing lobby is so powerful they just banned lead on all state and federal land. We can still buy and use some lead fishing products for the time being. Mercury is more problematic however the film industry went to didital, so no more film processing , the major source of mercury contamination. The fish become the targets for the anti fishing group and put up Mercury warning signs at every public fishing location, launch ramp, fresh fish retail store etc. There isn't any argument that both lead and Mercury consumption is dangerous to your health and some animals. More migratory birds and raptors are killed in large number by wind generators, don't see anyone banning those, in fact the same zealots promote wind generators for protecting the environmemt. Just depends on your goals what sceince you believe in. Tom

The document linked to above shows exactly that. But it was the lead that got 'em. There weren't enough deaths before the ban to draw any meaningful conclusions, but show a bunch of gross pictures to officials, present well prepared speeches about the dangers of lead, and talk about action to save the loons, and everyone's crying and passing laws.

I am not if favor of the ban for a few reasons. Number 1 is that they are a Migratory Bird... Bird eats a Lead Sinker in Georgia and dies in NY, it's NY's fault? That's irrational. It has to be an all or nothing sort of ban, this state by state stuff does no good. Lead sinker in a solid stable state sitting on the bottom (or snag) leach a miniscule amount of lead into the environment (FAR less than what gets washed into the rivers from eroding river banks). There are probably tens of millions of lead sinkers in the waters we fish collectively. So we ban lead NOW... there are still tens of millions of lead sinkers in the water... That's more than enough to poison all the loons. Lead is used in the paint on our baits too, that's not going away. Tungsten availability is expanding and the marketing of it is what makes it noticeable on shelves. Fishing is the only "hobby" that I can think of where you are constantly buying replacements, we even have the Tackle Monkey. What other "hobby" does that to the same extent? What I would be interested in knowing more about is more of a holistic view on the lead vs tungsten debate. Tungsten is a VERY hard material, how much energy is used to Melt and form them into weights? How is it gathered from the environment? (effects of mining it and the energy used) I think that a comparison of that vs Lead would show that on the whole Tungsten Weights aren't significantly better for the Earth than lead is. An example of this is Aluminum vs Steel in trucks. It's lighter and pretty strong, you get better mileage due to the lighter weight!!!! Less gas burned! Then go Google Aluminum Smelting. The amount of energy used (waste produced) to make Aluminum for the truck beds/frames is greater than the reduced waste created by having the Aluminum components in the truck.

47 bags of plastics, $64.

The effects of any animal ingesting lead is well documented. What I want to know is has there been a dramatic decrease in loon mortality due to lead restrictions? There has not. It's a bunch of bull.

John, if you want to try it, this is likely the spring: http://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/tu001003.html There is also another procedure you may like to try. Before removing the inductor assembly, make note of where, on the inner surface of the spool, where the nylon blocks ride on the spool. These blocks are what forces the inductor to move against the force of the spring. Polish the inside face of the spool in that area. You will also be polishing the spool shaft at the same time, if you use the right size felt wheel, or brush to do the polishing. i tried this after observing how the inductor moves when accelerated. I chucked up a spool in my Foredom tool, and accelerated it up to the point where it started to move, and decelerated to see when it would retract. I was just curious to see at what speeds these movements would occur. I found the movement to be very inconsistent. Not at all a smooth exrension and retraction. Rather jerky, in fact. I said to myself, self, you can improve on that. Thus the polishing experiment. After several disassemble, polish, reassemble and test cycles, I was able to get rid of the jerkiness. Also the speeds at which extension and retraction occured were much more repeatable. Dont know what the actual speeds were, but were well below the max speed on the Foredom, which is, if memory serves, 18000rpm. I have done this to three of my reels, one Zillion, one Fuego and one Alphas. I slight improvement was noticable, most in the Alphas. Not, I believe, due to any inherent differences in the reels, but rather, a difference in application. I use the Alphas reels on my lightest power rods, with lightest line, for the lightest baits. I havent followed this up with more reels. Reel tuning has definitely taken a back seat to rod building at this guy's shop. And, this is really a marginal improvement. But, this may be of interest to the truly afflicted.

My black friday haul

I blame the fish. If she hadn't been so darn slippery, you never would have needed to jump in the water. I would hire an attorney and sue the bass for loss of consortium. Start wearing a neck collar when fishing to gain sympathy from the other bass.

What difference does it make if you count the fish as landed or not? If you never weighed or measured it, you don't really know how much it weighed. The sad reality is that the only person that really cares is you. Because you have no proof of the fish, at least half the people you tell won't believe you even caught it. You know it's the biggest fish you ever got and you have a good story to go with it. Now go out and catch another one.

You guys need a drink

TW Order #1

I like trying to find them in overlooked places, which often leads to tough fishing until the fish are located. Finding tough fish is one of my preferred tournament strategies also because I know most guys won't bother with them. As long as I feel like I can get enough bites each day, I'm good.

Is it lead, or is it the mercury? Where is the data that says loons are doing better now that sales of lead in NY has been stopped?

For 25 years I paid good money (entry fees) to get the opportunity to fish in tourneys where I had NO control over the quality of the fishery, the status of the water conditions, or the state of the weather. As such, I've had more than my fair share of time on crappy fisheries, at bad times, during major floods and droughts, fishing in both frigid cold temps and snow, as well as thunderstorms and tornados, along with blazing hot heat and no wind in the back of some Ohio River creek with the smell of paper factories filling the air all day....and everything in between. So now days, I don't go looking for tough fishing - I fish when I want, where I want -T9

This might be particular to the lakes I fish in the winter but the bass I catch do not seem to be relating to "cover". They seem to relate more to "structural" elements in the winter. Given the option I will fish a creek channel over the best looking laydown you can find on these lakes. p.s. - in late December, January and February the grass in these particular lakes is all gone

Probably cracking down on idiots that put lead directly into the loons (shooting them) would save far more loons. Guys, be careful what you willingly give up. There are powerful groups with the agenda of shutting down any activity that in any way interferes with "nature". Plainly that means shutting down both hunting and fishing! Never mind that the conservation efforts of both sports greatly enhance the populations of animals.

Ummmm. did ya ever consider lipping it? And like mentioned above "catch then fumble" play stands as called on the field. Sorry, "resson numba one grasshoppah",...never grab the line

Catch then fumble. Previous play is under further review. The was no indisputable video evidence, therefore the play stands as called on the field

The real problems are too hard and/or expensive to fix, so those with an agenda to 'fix' the environment settle on the easier 'problems'...In this case it's lead fishing weights. I'm sure there are some adverse effects from lead if you look hard enough, however I'm extremely skeptical that it actually rises to the level where it would legitimately require this kind of attention.

Same over here. I do wonder where these people come up with their "scientific" evidence. You'd think the sportsmen out in the field week in week out would see a problem if there were one, but it doesn't seem to be the case. A lot of the evidence for a lead shot ban over wetlands here in the UK conflated wildfowl dying from the effects of being wounded by lead shot, and subsequently dying, with animals ingesting lead. Makes you very wary of scientific evidence and the motivations of those that use it in their cause!

Threadfin shad begin to fade at 45* followed by massive die-off at 42*. It's a good time of year for seagulls! Fortunately these baitfish are quite prolific and under the right conditions can spawn three times in one year. The Tennessee River never freezes and water temperature has no impact on the smallmouth bite...Current dominates everything.

We had a similar situation here in the early nineties with a few very vocal people claiming swan deaths were directly caused by fishing weights. They had x-rays of swans with lead weights in their gizzards, where they have grit to grind up their food before swallowing it, which had caused them to ingest the lead. While I'm sure it is not only possible, and that some swans died as a result of this, I seriously doubt it was a significant cause of swan or waterfowl death. Lots of swans are killed because they fly into electric power lines for example, and I'm sure you could find a lot more corpses under power lines than you would lead poisoned birds on the water. The trouble is, it only takes a very few, very vocal, people to start shouting and it becomes an issue. I would be inclined to resist all bans like this as they're not usually based on a significant risk to the animals they're aiming to protect. Many other human made threats are far more significant, but it's relatively easy to pick on something relatively minor and make the uneducated general populous agree that "something must be done". Politicians fall over themselves to line up with these type of causes, and so we end up wrapped up in pointless regulation and added expense which results in a few people feeling smug and very little difference to the animals!

From a quick search, Loon.com list 49% of loon deaths in New Hampshire from 1989-2011 were a result of ingesting lead fishing lures. That sounds like a lot, except 49% is 124 birds. Spread out over 22 years of study, it breaks down to 5.6 loon deaths a year. Are the numbers similar for New York as well? I don't know what the loon population is like in the NE, and we have very few in this area (they've actually just recently began appearing on some of our lakes where they've never been before), so I'm admittedly very ignorant on the subject. I'd be curious to know what is being done about these other major issues like the mercury and habitat loss due to development? It's only going to do so much to take away the use of lead if the remaining birds have no where to lay their eggs or if all the fish they're eating contain dangerous levels of mercury that are going to eventually kill them anyways.

1) The sport we love depends on healthy ecosystems. I'm in favor of anything that helps out Mother Nature. As long as the bans are based on fact (I assume they are), then I support them. 2) The industry is trending away from lead, but lead is so pervasive, I don't think you can say it's been significant yet. Most of the marketing around lead alternatives (especially tungsten) focusses on performance increases over "being green". I think this is smart... not all anglers will agree with me about the impact we make on the environment, but all anglers like the thought of catching more fish. 3) Tungsten is definitely taking up increasing shelf space, but it still makes up only a small percentage of what's available. Lead is going to be hard to get rid of. Not only is it cheap, but it's easy to work with. I'm just guessing, but I doubt there are a lot of folks that pour their own tungsten jig heads. Can you even do that???

Thank you Sir ~ I certainly appreciate that and would expect nothing less. and this thread is kind of making me hungry. A-Jay

That's Very Nice Robert ~ And once you get that son of a gun all tuned in ready to rock out those 3 inch steaks, We'll all be expecting an invite - And I like mine fairly rare - like a good vet could probably revive it. . . I could bring some local brew, some Dandelion wine and something is a mason jar that usually enhances just about any gathering. but it's gonna take me a couple days to get there. A-Jay

Only Dottie, she was caught 4 times between the weight of 19 to 21 lbs, the 5 th time was 25.1 lbs., the poster child for C & R. Tom

Boom ~ A-Jay

Amen...? How could you blame your partner? If you would have played the fish better, there would not be an issue. Im thinking he needs to find a new partner!

Bank fishing, ghost shad lipless crank. Sub 50 outside temp. No clue about water temp, which brings this question--why is this fish so light in color? Is it the water temperature? This is probably the lightest colored bass I've caught in recent memory(if not ever).

If I was going to do everything with one set up, it would be braid and swap out leaders to accommodate what you want

Good point but without any lures it will be hard to put that knowledge to use Texas rig is probably easier to start with than dropshot.. And I think you could use a 3/0 on all of those plastics and be fine. @Gillroid 9000 I think you have a great list there. If there's one thing missing it'd be pliers

That's a pretty good list. I would consider adding an inline spinner - they catch everything, are simple to use, and can be added for very little extra cost.

Nice !! I told my wife TW now sent a photo of your Order when it's being boxed to ship and wanted her to see mine. I'm now relegated to typing with my tongue, being she broke my hands.

I had similar problems with my curado on the smallmouth rod. Excellent rod but man was it annoying. Almost cost me an arrowana! I added a small piece of heat shrink tubing to the reel feet and shrunk them down to fit. Easy on an off with no gross residue.

New combo. Steez SV6.3R and MB Orochi XX fast moving special.

That's it for me ( I think). The boat sits in a heated pole barn, so it's always ready to go, but after this week, the river looks to be the only option. Geneoh's got me beat. Way to go. I watched a John Gillespie show over the weekend with them up around Iron River, WI last week and they were smokin the bass - numbers and size and a couple big pike most on lipless cranks. Got me fired up all over again. But, time to get some home jobs taken care of and get ready for ice. Got some nice bass through the ice last year sight fishing. I'll keep you posted.

Picked these up about a month ago. First pic is 2 Daiwa Zillions one 8' H SBR & one 8' MH R Glass CBR. Got them both brand new for less than the cost of one, $250. Next 2 is an NRX 894C and a Dobyns Champion Extreme HP 842C. Paid full price for the NRX and got the Dobyns w it for $50 bucks. The Dobyns is really nice, the aesthetics, quality control, cork and balance are all very good. It is heavier than the longer NRX, I think they add weight to the butt of the rod to balance it.