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As many of you know, I was diagnosed with colon cancer back in 2018, survived surgery and chemo and came up clean. Early last summer, my final symptoms of chemo faded as the weather got warmer and have not returned as it's now cold. Yesterday, I had my medi-port removed, which marks the end of this saga of my life.

The only tackle I've bought in quite some time. A few things are still on backorder. Also got over 600 hook bonnets from Amazon (and used the vast majority of them, yikes). Tackle prices are outrageous!

Redundant threads are plentiful in the winter. Total myth! ?

Bait monkey has been off my back for a long time but he recently saw the Stradic C5000XG on closeout with only one left in stock so, yeah, you know the rest. I've used my original one for schoolie stripers in Maine/NH salt water rivers for 2 seasons and love it. Two Chasebaits Mudbugs crawled into the cart (these are new for me), plus a bag of Yum 4-inch Swim'n Dingers in watermelon / pearl 2-tone. Last season these Yums have been my go-to on a ML/F spinning setup on the lake, rigged on a small jig head, and late last season even better as a trailer on a finesse skirted swim jig. Thank you, bait monkey. Now get off my back already

Queen Frost and King Groot on their throne.

11"!!!! I remember when I was really new to bass fishing, I'd go into the store and see those 11" bass worms or swim-baits and think, a bass isn't going to to be able to eat that! Then I caught a 9lb bass, and realized that a big bass could eat a tractor tire if they wanted to.

? I just finished doing a small update to my profile. It caused me to take a good look at this website, and particularly the forum. I frequent a few specialty forums. Some are well done while others are a nightmare to post to and navigate. One good one I use a lot is lumberjocks. Of the ones I use, that one and this one are particularly well designed and organized. Adding links, graphics, resizing them and a bunch of other stuff is 'obvious'. You don't have to hunt forever and never find out if it is doable. Whatever features are here, if they are part of the program, you can see them right away. They are quickly useable. Very refreshing in the tech universe. Beyond that, the compact organization is refreshing also. Some forums have dozens of categories that you have to navigate through to get to what you want. The organizer of BR seem to recognized that consolidating and limiting topics makes things easier. My thanks to those who make this resource available and maintain it.

35 feet, although I do have 3 steps to navigate...

I like throwing a big worm. Sometimes it makes me feel like I’m doing something. I’ve also caught lots of 8”/10” bass on the 10/12” worms.

Nice to hear the success stories. Almost 5 years now since my right eye was removed due to a melanoma - last 4 checks show no new cancer anywhere.

A junebug or plum Ol' Monster is pretty money for me in summertime.

When Dicks chose to take such a stark side with regards to firearms, they lost their outdoors customers..both hunting and fishing since both are heavily intertwined. When I mention our Dicks stores are not doing well in Texas I am referring to both Dicks and Field & Stream.

Maildude came with my latest @Siebert Outdoors order. Dang these are pretty. It'll be a shame to ding them up like I do.

I make my own and color code them by weight. 1/16..brown 3/32..green 1/8....red and so on I know one guy who says chartreuse is the color head for small mouth and walleye.

First of all, I've been discussing this a bit in this other thread, the Fake Amazon Reviews one. Oh cool it put up the screenshot! Anyways, I don't know if this is the correct sub-forum. My intent with this thread is to mainly discuss fish behavior and how I can apply it to a realistic fishing simulator that we all can play as it's being designed. I think feedback from the BR community would be awesome. Usually when I design a game I hang out at gaming forums. Not this time! For those who play video games, I am sick of games trying to steal my money. I don't design games that way. In short, video games suck now, by and large. I'm old school - I only want to buy your game once dude! And these days, not even that most of the time. I've played Bass Pro Shops: The Strike and think it's "okay", but I want much better. Better looking, better fishing areas (pads, grass, beds, laydowns, everything), better and more realistic fishing, and easy and enjoyable to control and play, especially for non-gamers. And no underwater cameras. My goals for the game I want it to be beautiful. I want people who hate video games to turn on the game just to see the peaceful cove, or the still waters and birds chirping and frogs croaking. A swirl from a bass or a boil of bait fish. I want people to be able to apply their real fishing knowledge to catch fish in the game. I want it to be enjoyable, peaceful, and realistic. I want realistic casting, reeling, fighting, bait actions, but most of all, fish behavior. Here is an older game I designed just to show I'm serious: The graphics aren't very good in some parts of the above game. I'm thinking someone else can do graphics at some point. But I can do good enough to make working demos we can all play. I really don't know what I expect from people here, I'm just seeing if there's any interest I guess. I've already had some great and indepth advice in the other thread. Bass Behavior The main thing that will make the game realistic is bass behavior. Incorporating sun angle and brightness, weather, time of year - you know, all the stuff we talk about here every day - will all affect where bass will be, and if they will bite. And maybe they won't be where you expect (like real life). For programming the fish "AI" I have variables for fish behavior - you know like a football game where you have attributes for your players like speed, stamina, aggression, strength - well the fish have them too. Speed, age, sex, aggression, hunger, fear, schooling tendency, maybe even a favorite color or style of food. Plus much more. Right now I have a bass that will swim around, change its behavior at certain times of day, avoid obstacles and even react to a vibrating bait like a crank. It's all very very basic, but it works as it should so far. No big problems. I think I'll keep this first post "short". If anyone is interested please read any relevant posts from the thread I mentioned above to get caught up on what's going on here. Or not, doesn't matter really Finally, I have no idea what I will do with the game. I've made free games and I've made two commercial ones. I want to make it playable for everyone here as it is designed. I'm thinking I'll make a basic sim, then if it seems good I will build a game around it. Well not really a game...a sim! Both. I am no longer in the gaming industry, and when I was I worked alone. I don't really play games anymore but I would play this. Electronic Arts agreed to publish my last game and I signed a deal with them, but I cancelled it because I didn't like what they wanted me to do to monetize it. Probably why this game made zilch but oh well. That experience really turned me off to video games. Some goals with the game: - use real fishing knowledge to catch fish. - make it look gorgeous. I want it to look so awesome that people will pull their kayak into their living room to play in on the big screen TV! Maybe there will be yaks in the game? - fun for non-gamers and old dudes and women. - fun realistic casting, retrieving, fights, and nice looking fish. - no in-app purchases. Maybe if one day I add like a 5 lake expansion pack to the game, but no BS like paying real money for lures, gas, broken line or anything like that. So freaking stupid. I actually have no idea what I want to do with it when completed. Right now I have one big pond. It is somewhat unrealistic because it has parts that are 30 feet deep, but I need a good yet small testing ground with everything in it - deep water, shallows, docks, structure etc. One more thing - I am pretty new to bass fishing so I don't have all the answers - well nobody does, but especially me! I learn fast though and I have done a lot of studying for this game, not to mention for fishing. Okay that's enough for now! If anyone is interested let me know, maybe this will be an interesting thread.

I use an Abu Garcia Ike Delay casting rod for Jerkbait. I really enjoy it I have used a 6'4 inch version of this rod. I enjoy a shorter rod for jerkbaits. I can still cast a great enough distance with this rod. I also like the price point at $149.

Is this directed at me? If so, you are seriously misreading what I am writing. I'm just having a conversation and giving my opinion/perspective on it. I thought that is what forums were for. Not invested in it other than being a bass fisherman. If MLF becomes top dog or goes belly up, it won't affect my life.

As far as line is concerned ? I use 15-20# braid with short FC leader to prevent treble romance, that's what I call it. Lol Straight braid will often wrap the front treble, more pronounced with spinning tackle. Imo

Lol. Glad you can have fun with it. Watch out for falling iguanas.

That the world record tie was caught in an oxbow in the state of Georgia.

The book, Destroying Bass Fishing Myths by John Mark Warren is excellent and it smashes many myths of bass fishing. Some of the topics discussed include: Moon Phase or Moon Farce Educating Bass Currently Windy Fishing Line Fallacy Forage Foible The Bass Aren't There The Creation of Color Bass Migration If you can find a copy I think you will enjoy reading what John Mark pens.

Yep - I've some Delongs 18" that 14" bass will eat.

I made the mistake of thinking about what categories I didn't have covered, and learning more about color choices. This absolutely required me to fill in the massive gaps. To that end I picked up some more Z-Man TRD's in a few sizes, so I at least have light and dark in each size. Did the same with some of the other plastics I already had. Then I got some spinnerbaits, again in light and dark, but I kept that to just one of each for now. Googan Zingers just because they were the only one on Karls with closed off eyelets and I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm sure I'll try a few others once things warm up a bit. Two sizes of the VMC Rugby jig, one regular one finesse. A dark GS Blooper to go with the lighter pair I had. Light and dark Jenko buzz baits. (the original motivation to go browsing, I didn't have any buzz baits and was thinking about options to cover a fair bit of top water quickly, these better catch a few fish after all the money they just cost me. lol) Then a couple (yup, light and dark) Z-Man chatterbaits. I went with the Elite model based on reviews. Basically, any item I had but didn't have at least one light color and one dark color I filled the gap. Then I added the spinner, buzz and chatter baits.

Ouch!! That is the problem with living in the northern part of the country, it gets cold most of us have to do something to scratch the fishing bug. So why not buy more tackle! lol

I too love the alpha . Impulse Zell Rowland Signature Series Casting Rods Is a top water that I think I use for jerks and is awesome. The jerk bait special can also be had for a similar $$$

No joke . I use to buy them by the hundreds and used them up quickly . They are Dynomite .

Bait monkey been mean to me lately. New fishing gloves, several spools of line, some parts to fix a reel, 100 pack of yo mommas, $180 worth of jig heads and skirts, a dobyns 745 extreme hp, dobyns 735 fury, and a couple pfg hats. Im sure i missed a few things. That's all in a couple weeks. Think im done for awhile, I think.

OK Mary Poppins

I actually could have got it out possibly as soon as the end of 2018. I waited until this year though for two reasons. First, the chance of recurrence is higher for two years and then drops significantly after that, so I'm nearing two years now and second was simply due to insurance purposes. I have to have annual colonoscopies for the rest of my life, so I do them in early January and late December to stack insurance and this was the on year They didn't even give me the option to keep it -- or to keep Pubert in a jar (what we named the tumor).

Congrats to you! 17 years cancer free next month for me. When I had my broviac removed, the nurse before the procedure asked if I wanted to keep it as a momento or to destroy it (apparently some do) I said “hell no, I’m done with this and not looking back!

Dick's has always been a letdown to me here in Indy since they bought our local sg retailer, Galyans back in '03 or '04. Galyan's was an institution around here that really catered to the outdoorsman.

If I had a nickel for every bass I landed using a Blackberry Jelly Worm, I could buy Wall Street. My PB was landed using a Jelly Worm.

DSG is the K-Mart of sporting goods suppliers.

I'm one of those supporters that refuse to step foot in another DSG. When they destroyed those AR's as political move that was the straw. Hope they bankrupt. Good riddance

They haven't been relevant in years, in this area.

Im not sure if that will be good for brush pile but i got less snag when hook this way. The problem is lead head and hook seem to come loose after using awhile, and the hook is pretty soft, bended easily not brittle like Zman. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Eagle_Claw_Lazer_Sharp_Weedless_Pro-V_Finesse_Jig_5p/descpage-LSPVWJ.html?from=gshop&gclid=CjwKCAiAgqDxBRBTEiwA59eEN800_N6VY88jlMDvjSTTjm2h3dWOtCYG-gm40bTGYkNhOXkZ8CNqHhoCMYoQAvD_BwE

I would bet that was probably touted as a big win for “conservation” back then

I believe either of these two offerings from Owner could accomplish what you're looking for. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Block_Head_Offset_Jighead_4pk/descpage-BLO.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Ultrahead_Bullet_Rig_4pk/descpage-OUHBUL.html A-Jay

First of 2020. My goal this year will be to fish more. It needs to warm up though.

The view outside my front door. The lake is 4 1/2 miles long and varies 1/4-1/2 mile wide. We renovated an old family camp to a year round home upon retirement and live here. A bit of heaven in southern Maine. The lake is semi clear and goes shallow to deep, up to 90 ft. The fish aren't huge but the fishing is often good. Bass I catch average about 1 1/2-3 lbs. Some trout and salmon and huge crappie among a few other species. So, my boat is tied to the dock from approx April/May to Oct/Nov. I'm out almost every other day. Sometimes dawn and dusk. I grew up here and know it like the back of my hand. I've snorkeled all over it as a kid. It's.... Comfortable. So fortunate.

I don’t think river smallies care about Ned Rig head color. They don’t seem to care about jig head color on a Power Grub or Kailen or Zoom Grub either.

Finally received the news. Diagnoses is partial seizures. EEG would abnormal brain activity in my right frontal lobe. I am now medicated (Aptiom) and can't drive for a month until cleared by the doctor to see how the medicine does. I will back on the water and road (hopefully) very soon.

I must admit that I am suffering from cabin fever badly right now. I have been planning on getting kayaks for myself and the boys (my oldest wants a SUP) and I have largely figured out how I'm going to rig those up (the only thing we're undecided on is which SUP) and also how I'm going to build my harbor freight trailer. It's going to be a lot of fun. I just ordered a frog rod and another reel, so I can fish a frog and jig concurrently on heavy rods with braid. I feel like a little kid at Christmas right now waiting for the lakes to thaw. Next I will start booking camping sites for the spring and summer, and I have two extra weeks of vacation this year as a one time thing due to a change in my employers vacation policy (a one time thing). I can use a total of 8 this year and 6 in the summer. One of my closest friends is even considering renting a storage unit so he can buy a kayak and join us (he lives in an apartment complex). If not, we will shore fish a few days and go to lakes we can rent a canoe from like we usually do. The thing is I don't have a winter replacement for roughly 5 months of the year. I want to go fishing so bad. It almost makes me want to move south, but come July I will remember how much I hate the heat too -- at least you can catch them up here in the middle of the summer and I can survive the heat on the positive side.

Awesome..!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't provide any input on the specific rods, but I have read the 704CB glass is very good for those lighter cranks. I will say I own the Daiwa Tatula glass rods, both M and MH which are heavier and I have not had a problem with the extra weight. I had the first gen MH rod, which I sold to a friend and got the 2nd gen with the medium at a great price (for the same handles for matching feel) and the first gen had more tip and I will say that was actually a very sensitive rod! I could feel any bottom structure, just everything was slightly muted. The new ones aren't too far off but have more bend in the tip, which doesn't provide quite the same input. I would say if you like the 705CB glass and don't have issues keeping fish pinned on larger crankbaits then go ahead and get the 704CB glass.

You might consider going to a 3-power instead, as it will flex more than a 4-power, so it should keep fish pinned. This would allow you to go to a graphite rod for better sensitivity, but it would have to be a ~ModFast action if you really want a lot of flex like a glass rod. A high power fast action rod is going to be stiff and unload easier than a slower rod or a rod with less power. There are so many rods out there that I can't tell you what's right for you, but if you're planning on throwing 1/4oz-3/8oz lipless and chatterbaits, a 3-power should get the job done, and keep fish buttoned up better than a stiffer/more powerful rod. At least, that's my thinking. I currently don't own any glass rods because I don't do enough cranking, and my LMH/MH Helium3s are soft enough that they've worked well for cranking and chatterbaits/spinnerbaits so far, so I haven't wanted to seek out a dedicated cranking rod. Hopefully this helps...

You're old, I was a kid back then!

That's the same type of smile our Min Pin makes right after he craps in your shoes.

Yes sir! I'm lucky. The doctor even said partial seizures are much easier to manage and deal with than being a diabetic which surprised me. Very happy! Getting my buddy to take me this Sunday fishing and I will be sure to show off my fish as I haven't gone since that incident on December 18th. I wasn't sure what was going to happen but I thought I lost my license for 6 months to a year. Just glad I didn't hurt anyone or myself and didn't do much damage in the process. Glad to soon be back on the water and driving again.

You should get a $500 loomis rod. Also the StC legend is very good.