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rage menace for me today, first fish i have caught on the menace and will fish the menace much more now instead of always going back to a senko.

They were still chomping the rage tail menace, this one was 19”

The nutjobs who live there put them in charge.

Quick 90 minute bank walking excursion to the largest pond I have access to produced 22 this afternoon, including this one that was pushing the 5 pound mark (but not quite). Midwest finesse scores again.

Nothing special but pip squeak saved me from a skunk lol, on the full size abrogast buzz plug in the black color.

My Major Craft Finetail Stream Glass finally came in yesterday, 4'10" glass blank with a nice deep bend which I love, the recovery is lightning fast too according to my yard casting experimentation with a 5g weight. I'll have it on the stream this weekend, look out trout!

I feel bad for ya, but I don’t blame them. Blame the nutjobs in charge of CA.

With the water levels so low here in minnesota and being a bank and wader fisherman i had to go all in and wade out into the lilly pads and give it heck. I threw a green pumpkin rage menace t-rigged with a pegged 3/8 bullet weight and I dipped the tails in yellow spike-it and let it rip out into the thick pads. I crawled it on top untill it would fall between the pads and boy did they hit it. I stood in the same spot for an hour and just casted all around me and when they hit it was a real struggle to get them out as the stalks of the pads were like casting into a full grown corn field underwater. I caught 7 bass and each one i had to at one point grab the line by hand and pull them through the pads as my pfleuger supreme 30 on a ugly stick carbon medium fast 7 ft with 30lb braid and a clipped on 30 lb fluoro leader to the hook didnt have the muscle to reel them in on their own but at least my line, clips and knots held up fine along with my arms and shoulders. This was the most fun i have had this year wading and the first time i caught fish on a rage menace, senkos t-rigged couldnt come through the pads without hanging up, rage craws didnt do well either but i will pull off 1 claw next time to make it more compact.

yes sir you are 100% correct, i had a great day wading in the thick pads today and was the best day of the summer for me and they were 3 to 5 lbers i was gettin out of this mess.

This was so interesting I have to share. https://igfa.org/2021/02/26/hearing-in-the-underwater-world/

My son at his club’s scuba dive

Feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on your line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in your line. To the average angler this makes no sense at all but the worm/jig angler it makes total sense.

Hopefully the boycotts go even further. That disaster state needs a reality check.

I know people who cant even get video game computers shipped to California anymore. I try my best to not start politics but California must be run by insane people and people living there need to speak up if they are not agree with these things or else everything will be taken from them.

The place down the street from me is weeding in good but i didn't want to deal with the down and up hill launch and load to get in and out on a tweaked knee so i went to another place with an easier drop. After 6 hrs. Only got 4 two-ish lb. Bass i cashed out. Couple hrs later i decided to hit the 1 spot where you can do some punching from shore on the place down the street. Only 1 bite but it weighed 5-7 on a skirted punch rig big bite baits yo mamma.

Well, yesterday was nearly a stinker of a day, they've been destroying any and all baitfish imitations, and I definitely went to sleep on it, spent a couple hours down on the river and snagged a single pound and a bit fish off a handful of baits, was about to give up when it struck me that I had not tried anything to imitate a crawfish yet. Tied on a tube and it was on like donkey Kong from the first cast, probably landed 8 fish in 15 minutes, but I definitely wasn't listening to the fish yesterday, I should have been on that tube an hour before I was, next time you start getting frustrated at not getting bit, try listening to the fish, it sure saved my day.

It’s cause they’ve reached “ herd” immunity! ?

Aw heck. It only takes 1.5 beers to get 40 lbs in the tire

I've started carrying a lot of skirt material. Adding more all the time. I also sell just my jig heads to go along with it. Skirt materials

The lure is pre 90’s by Crankbait Corporation ran from 1967-1987 in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Luhr Jensen bought their company and did continue to make and sell this lure into the 90’s. This lure was called the Super-Dawg.

I got out on southern Lake Champlain mid-morning yesterday. My third cast to the outside of the weed line with my BFS outfit produced the first fish: a 4lb. 5oz. largemouth. It hit a Z-Man TRD TicklerZ on an Owner finesse ballhead while it was sitting still. The outfit was one of my very inexpensive BFS rigs consisting of a KastKing Zephyr reel spooled with 4lb. test mono on an AceHawk CU Double UL rod. I later got a large bullhead on that rig/bait... you never know what will hit those little things. Other fish came on conventional gear (Kistler KLX/Lew's TP) and a 4.5" Megastrike Mega Bug on a light belly-weighted hook worked across the top of the weeds and allowed to drop into the openings or a T-rigged Pit Boss worked around a big beaver hut. A slow but enjoyable day on the water in this summer of rain here in upstate NY. I wish we could send some of it to the West.

Cool! What a great hobby. Encourage him to keep a log book with some commentary and photos besides the usual tech details. I got my YMCA Bronze certification the summer after I graduated from high school in '79 and an advanced open water certification several years later. I haven't dove in years but love to get out my old log book, look at the photos and read about the dives.

Not even these?

TW Shipment, all of it to go with the above jerkbait rod. I’m excited to try those Keitech jigs I’ve heard so much about. They only had the 1/4 oz size in stock, but it should work fine. I’ll use them in a tournament this weekend, hopefully they work well! The jerkbaits also look amazing, happy to have them

The dedicated rod is the gateway drug to purchasing ridiculous numbers of combos.

The fish is nothing special size wise, although the special part is that it’s my first swim bait fish. Jackal gantrel jr in bluegill spawn color, well if we don’t count the turtle I caught on it before lol. That’s not a fish though anyhow. I woke up a little bit early before work and was setting on my deck starring at it and I just couldn’t shake the feeling to go throw it in the lake. Working 3rd shift and having a 3 month old makes it hard to go fishing, but I still manage to get it in and my son is so worth it. I am hopeful that he will grow up to like fishing also but that will be his choice when he gets older.

One of the reasons I wanted to move back to Virginia from Alaska, beside bass fishing, was to search for Civil War relics with a metal detector. I had started metal detecting for gold nuggets In Alaska and did okay finding nuggets as big as a Lima bean. But what really caught my interest was Civil War relics; I was making yearly two week trips to Virginia to search for them. I have found thousands of bullets, some of them where worth $300 apiece, uniform buttons (both Union and Confederate), belt plates, sword belt plates and other accoutrements.

Then they grow up... I had just put my boat in the water and parked my truck. While walking across the parking lot I ran upon this adorable little baby crock... Then I remembered what they grow up to be!

What's the wench going to do? Bring you a couple of beers while you try to get unsnagged? ?

Works on foot holds too. After one critter in there and loads the spot with scent, a 2nd catch in the next 48 hours happens a lot.

This could be totally superstition but I swear it works. I accidentally catch a lot of stray cats. I think a long time ago I let a cat out of a trap and didn’t have anymore bait but I reset the trap anyway. The next day a skunk was in the trap. So now when I let a cat out of a trap, I never rebait the trap, just reset it. No clue why but by golly there’s almost always a skunk in it the next day. Case in point, got a cat Wednesday and a skunk today in the same spot same trap, no bait on day Wednesday night after the cat release

When I was young and strong I could air up a flat tire with one of those in less than 2 hours. ?

Even that’s controlled. As soon as you let go of the spool and jerk your rod up, you can slowly drop your rod down with just enough slack in the line in case you see your line jump, you won’t have as much line to recover in case you need to set the hook. If you drop all line down at once you may not have enough recovery time. My opinion/way of doing I guess.

The only time I will have slack in my line is when fishing 15' of water or deeper. I'll make a cast & as soon as the lure touches down I take my thumb off the spool & lift the rod straight up & behind my head. Then I replace my thumb on the spool & whip slack in my line. Depending on depth I may even strip 3-4 arms length of line. I'm wanting that lure to fall straight down & not pendulum back towards me. With this technique you had better be paying attention for slack line bites.

Mama fishing spider trying to raise a brood below the gunwale of my boat...

I'm happy with my fishing shoes but the ones with the bass on them would make good church shoes. ?

Good night Irene.

The Vanford 500 is the Soare with a facelift - it has locomotive drive, and is only offered in USM (JDM already has Soare). The Vanford 1000 is worm drive with the longer spool pitch of Stella in the same sizes. Each worm-drive Shimano reel introduced since '18 Stella swaps parts with '18 Stella - - '19 Stradic and Vanquish, '20 Twin Power and Vanford - they all share Stella's overqualified roller-bearing clutch. They all share the same labyrinth seals as Stella. (they all share Stella's sucky line roller, which can be fixed with a great part made by MTCW) Stella has stainless steel drive. The other reels all have alloy drive. Stella has magnesium body and rotor. Vanquish has magnesium body and CI4+ rotor, and shares titanium bail with Stella. Vanford is CI4+ body and the same CI4+ rotor as Vanquish. Vanquish is the lowest-inertia reel ever made, Vanford is the lightest by 10 g. Stradic has aluminum body and a different (heavier) CI4+ rotor. Twin Power has aluminum body and rotor. Stella and Twin Power both have lower rotor deflection (strain) than the others. Stella, Vanquish, and Twin Power are bench-assembled with parts-matching in Japan - they each have BB metal spool (magnesium/alloy) and BB worm-gear pawl. Vanford and Stradic are assembled on the Malaysia line - they have bushings in the spool and worm-gear pawl, and CI4+ spools.

PSA for the day, don’t hit fire hydrants! ?

?Are these ponds square with a fence around them ?

Controlled or semi slack line is subjective. So let’s define slack line that is objective. Slack line is line floating on the surface or so much loose line when you move the rod you don’t feel anything. Controlled slack is having a blow in line between the rod tip and waterline and you can feel lure or line movements. Feel is subjective and we are all different in how we interpret feeling line movements or changes in line tension. Lots of time programming your brain to knowing the difference between strikes and everything else. Tom

The only time I use a slack line presentation is with unweighted wacky rigged Senko’s. Otherwise the bottom contact works, jigs I use “controlled” slack so I am in contact with the lures movements. I feel line movements and watch it closely. I find soft plastic worms more forgiving regarding being rejected by bass. Tom

When you are told there is a LITTLE water damage, that can be fixed in a day ???

Wrap line around my pliers and pull until something gives.

Almost got skunked today if it wasn’t for this little guy. Back on my old stomping grounds in Cossayuna Lake. Lots of memories, very few bites!

Cheaper than VMC in the 25 packs? Go cheaper than that and you are asking for problems IMHO.

Right now I use straight Braid for Punching, some top water, buzz baits, spinnerbaits, A rigs, and chatter baits. Mono for crankbaits, some top water, and floating jerk baits. Floro for jigs, swimbaits, and T rigs. Braid to leader at times for everything. Ask the same question next week and I'm sure I will have changed my opinion. Line is one aspect of fishing I always have very strong opinions about, but have been known to reverse my opinion often. Both braid and florocarbon have made me a hypocrite more than once. If there were only one type of line, I would choose mono, or copolymer.

Wood dowel . wrap line around and pull.

In all seriousness, with 50+ lb braid, you can cut your hands up pretty badly, even 30 lb can be tough (I'm almost always with a leader). The places I fish with the heavy braid I bring an entrenching tool (folding shovel for non-military types) or a baseball bat. They're not necessarily just to break hung braid - they're used on any snakeheads I catch too.

Break out the wench cause my palomar knots don’t break?