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fyi - you're not going to see any new features, but it will be faster. This was a move to a new server with an entirely different underlying OS system. While I tested as much as possible, there's a chance you may encounter errors. Please let me know if you do. Thanks! Glenn

Oh gosh, you guys and gals are all waaay too kind. I couldn't accept anything like that. It's just not in my nature, even though I appreciate the thought more than words can describe. All of your uplifting words and messages in this thread is plenty!! Absolutely invaluable. I love you all.

I have if you consider the late Aaron Martens an Elite bass pro. Aaron had the ability to sense bass being nearby, amazing ability. He asked me to teach him how I fish a bass jig fish because it was the only lure he had trouble with consistently catching bass with. Aaron was deadly with finesse dart jigs but the bigger ones he wanted help with Showed Aaron at the boat ramp how I retrieved the jig and he could watch it move stop and go. That’s all Aaron needed to see and caught bass on that outing, fast learner as he already knew strike detection and hook setting, it was the movement he needed to learn. Tom

I am so very sorry to read this. As has been said, research any and all options. We received this news for our daughter when she was 6 years old - Stage 4. We met up with some research Drs. that had an experimental but totally untested option. They warned us that the treatments would probably be worse than the Cancer. After 2 1/2 years of brutal trials, she was declared Cancer free. She is now 44 years old and very healthy. Her treatment regimen became a standard for treating her type of Cancer for others. My thoughts are with you and your family.

AAaaaand we're back!

Not to be a buzz kill but if you have ever spent the day in the boat with an elite series professional angler, even the most experienced of us pale in their level of commitment, skill and knowledge. There is a huge gap between a good fisherman and a professional.

My heart feels good with all your well wishes. Surgery went perfectly & Andy has me back home safe, sound & comfy with my puppies. Lynn

I was on Yahoo, it just jumped out and bit me. I don't understand why Ryoga isn't Daiwa's most popular reel - to me, this palms better than any LP reel - maybe it's long fingers.

New addition to my team of modest bait casting rods/reels. Added to the jerkbait lineup. Initial feel of Shimano Expride B 6'10" Medium is pretty amazing. I can see why it's highly suggested. Paired with Shimano Curado DC. Long time before able to use, but pretty pumped. Expect the rod to be a performer. Hopefully the reel will be too. Kudos to Tackle Warehouse for super quick delivery. Ordered rod Tuesday and got Thursday.

I smell a @NorthernBasser Big Bass trip gofundme Let's Do It ! ! https://www.gofundme.com/create/fundraiser/category A-Jay

'19 SLPW Ryoga included gear upgrade to hyperdrive. There's one Yahoo seller with remaining new stock of these reels, lists another every few weeks, and they BIN within 1 day. The gears in my '18 Ryoga can be upgraded to hyperdrive gears from '21 Basara, with 7.3-gears available. (this is SLPW Zillion)

This is the only Daiwa reel that uses the so-called Hypermesh, a gear design similar to Shimano's MicorModule. Not sure why they discontinued it. I have the Crazy Cranker low gear ratio version, and it's quite smooth.

I've crossed over the bridge Tim. I no longer reach for the LP or the Strat. Nowadays it's the Tak. No longer is it Zeppelin and Skynyrd. It's Marshall Tucker and the Alman Brothers. My pants flappin days are past but YOU keep ROCKIN!!!!

This was hard on me, e-mail stuff, password stuff.. I’m calling my therapist..😂

Normal fall involves getting the duck blind ready, running the dog, winterizing the janky 25 year old above ground pool (and praying it doesn't collapse), swapping the mower deck for the snow blower on the John Deere, and moving the boat from garage down to the shop. I love the fall -- football, hunting, cooler weather, fishing, being outdoors. I had grand plans of keeping the boat up at the house, and working on my project truck this winter....but temps quickly dipped in to the teens...hard no. So the boat is down and the shop is winterized. It's been single digits for a few weeks here in Nebraska. Picture below from last winter...had to snow blow lanes in the grass...little dog's tiny little legs couldn't handle the snow. We have had only a few dustings of snow this winter. Bummer. I've been putting old equipment, hunting clothing, and random stuff on eBay this winter...made a little money...but burned it up with a Kuiu winter sale : ) Tough time of the year for me is after hunting seasons and football seasons are finished. Mid February in to early April are tough. I don't ice fish. Once the weather warms up, and the ice goes away...it's game on!!

Don't be cruel, my teddy bear!

Indeed. Oh, I'd care. I hate that stupid, stiff, knot-unwinding fluoro. I didn't take it that way, so no apology needed. I quite liked your post, except when you mentioned fluoro, which gave me the hives. Tom, I would have liked you coaching me that way too. I hate fishing videos where they focus on shoving their bass in your face. I already consistently catch bass. I don't need to see yours. I need to see your hands, to learn how you're working the lure, and to see the lure in the water.

I lay on the beach, watch the sun set, have a cold drink and day dream about ice fishing.

I learned the basics of fishing from my father and have pretty much taught myself all the rest. I research the heck out of everything, I try multiple things, and through trial and error I just build on that. It doesn't hurt that fishing is one of the biggest passions in my life. So I have really dedicated a lifetime to angling. I am not at a pro level obviously, but in doing so, I can honestly say I have reached a point now that there is no one I know in my personal life (not internet friends like here) that is a better angler than I am. But there are still plenty of fishing experiences that I am learning about. One in particular that stumps me time and time again is catching sea perch. No matter how much I read and try to follow what I read...I still can't catch one of those little guys and it drives me nuts. Sea perch is my white whale. 😄 Personal experience can be taught, and I am doing my best to pass that onto my son and daughters and whoever else cares to listen. But nothing will teach you fishing more so than trying and failing yourself over and over and over again. You can teach someone how to tie a knot. You can teach someone how to cast a lure. But you can't teach the drive to learn, or the want to be the best angler you can possibly be. Very few people I know could care less if they have 10lb mono vs 12lb fluoro spooled up, and probably wouldn't care to tell the difference or even ask why.

I'd also be happy to contribute. There's no way I could write any words that would help, or act like I can even understand what you are going through, but I'm with everyone else in that I care, will be praying for you to conquer this, and would love to contribute to a fishing trip for you if it even gives you a brief respite from thinking about this diagnosis.

I agree that a mentor, coach, friend, buddy, dad, uncle, or local alcoholic who's a great fisherman 🙃 are all solid options to learn. Personally, I learned the basics at a young age such as how to tie a knot, bass eat worms, spawn in spring, etc. Now that I'm an adult, I tend to learn from friends who are better than me and nice enough to let me tag along @Pat Brown, or people like my uncle who are older hammers and absolute beast with a couple of techniques (shaky head) and love teaching while catching. I do view a guide as a coach, in the same sense as a golf coach, meaning you can learn on your own the slow way, or you can pay a bunch of money and shave time off that process (maybe). If I had to learn a new body of water fast, I'd immediately hire a guide. But for fun fishing and relaxation, much more fun to go with friends/family just having a good time and picking up tips along the way from someone who is kind enough to drop tips or demonstrate techniques. Even though I don't throw a frog much, I've spent hours watching Pat do it and have learned more than a book could ever show you. Also he taught me literally hands on how to walk a finesse jig through a bed and get bit. Incredible. So I guess what I'm saying is, public thank you to Pat for being a great friend and mentor and very generous with his time and knowledge! A great coach as well, which is why Jake is an up and coming hammer for sure!

Gear ratio is 1 factor to consider as it doesn’t change. IPT constantly changes with line diameter, line capacity, spool size diameter and width. The reel mfr list IPT at maximum filled spool with unknown line diameter, unreliable data. The BFS reels with very shallow spools filled with small diameter braid line have more reliable IPT the a standard 100 size reel with deeper spool filled with larger diameter line. For example 100 size reel with XYZ gear ratio the IPT using .012 diameter line drop off about 40% after casting 35-40 yards. 8:1 ration will recover line faster then 7:1 therefore when casting lures 35-40+ yards the higher gear ration helps to control bass and recover line faster. Tom

7 or 8 speed, I wanna get that slack up as quick as possible. If I’m horsing them out of cover I’m using the rod and not the reel

The only one I've messed with is open G. DGDGBD Hello George and Keef!!! 😂 Thanks Katie. I do seem to have a knack for that.

@NorthernBasser, was talking with my wife about your situation. She's a nurse practitioner, used to work heart and lung transplant at the NE Med Center...now she's at the VA. She seen a lot of rough cases. Hang in there buddy! We are both pulling for you!

Went to WalMart in a nearby town and checked out the fishing dept. They had Rapala OG cranks for $2.50 &$3.00. my two fav. colors, Silver and Big Shad, too. Cleaned them out in one swoop. Mama wasn't too happy until I mentioned what they normally sell for. My guess is Rapala discontinued them. All the better. They could be worth something in the future, like next season!

I've had the pleasure to share my boat with Tom, and one day he showed me how he does it and what the jig looks like when it moves. When I saw the movement of the jig, and how the way he holds the rod puts you in a position to effectively set the hook the instant you sense the bite. . . . well, that was an epiphany. ===================================== Many excellent anglers have their own peculiar and unique aspects to what they do, but if there was a common trait that I notice the most, it would be their very intentional attention to fine details. And for professionals in particular, it would include efficiency and economy of motion. They have to make the most of limited time on the water, and some really short windows of activity. If I had to choose one or the other for myself, it would be the attention to details because I am not counting on my weight total to put bread on my table, but I do appreciate the latter trait. ===================================== If I were ever to hire a guide to fish, it would not really be to just go fishing, it would be to learn about something I feel they would be able to teach me, and that would be very clear up front. Basically a coach. I would consider being a co-angler for a tour event for the same reason, or even a marshal. "Monkey see, monkey do" IS my preferred learning style for most any subject.

Well said Pat. It's pretty obvious though, I'm still playing checkers while you're playing chess! Those are some classic axes! Not to mention the Fender Pro Reverb. Takes me back to another time. Back when I was rockin' the waist long mullet and had hearing! Both of those are gone. I've got a Tak nylon. Love it. Used to play it for church services before our church closed down a decade ago. I would crank it up over the church PA and man that sanctuary really sounded like heaven. BTW, you lost me when you went to "Open Tunings". I still struggle with EADGBE 🙂

I was lucky enough to have grown up around Toledo/Rayburn with that level of anglers as my teachers.

I think that the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar are very different tactile experiences and I thoroughly enjoy dancing backwards and forth between the two worlds. Much like topwater and bottom contact or spinning rods and casting gear 🙂 I like exploring open tunings more within the acoustic paradigm these days. I like how acoustic guitars ask you to dig deep and really find the intention within your playing. The electric guitar can also be very inspiring in this way - especially with low output pickups/low capacitance cables and high headroom amplifiers 🙂. I like how there's not only dynamic range, but sort of like expressive range that can be intentionally constructed with an electric guitar based system. Amplifiers and pickups and strings and speakers all kind of interact to create a system that is very expressive and reactive and it is a entirely different experience from playing an acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar is definitely capable of dynamic range that an electric guitar can't have without necessarily having the lateral expressive qualities. I don't want to have to choose! I really like how an electric guitar is sort of a modular system where you can play around with different elements and get it to do different things for you. I like how an acoustic guitar is sort of an imprint of the intentions and skills of the luthier (ideally). Because I build fuzz pedals for a living, I spend a lot at the winter time tuning fuzz pedals and playing them loudly! 🤷🏼‍♂️😎🎸⚡

But man, oh, man, you can strum muskies!

Not directed to you at all. I was just stating my experience working and fishing with upper level anglers. I had an elite series pro stay with me both in Florida and here in Virginia. When in Florida he was prefishing for a tournament on the St. John’s, I had just moved there and was just fishing a small trail. I set him up with some of my buddies who were really good sticks and his comment to me was that they didn’t show him anything he couldn’t find on a map. He was out the door before sunrise and didn’t come back until dark. Best I could do was cook his meals. I did fish with him a couple of days and that’s how I came to my conclusions.

The operational use of the maxxum/edge pedal is as simple and responsive as possible. There are very few moving parts, and it responds quickly, with minimal noise. Also, there are no electronics involved because it’s just cables attached directly the the head. Sometimes simplicity reduces potential problems. The powerdrive pedal I used for years growing up was loud and unresponsive. I cringed every time I tried to turn and a loud hum would emit from it. My parents have a new generation Terrova on their Warrior and they love it. They almost exclusively use the remote though. Very little pedal use. They are walleye anglers.

First trolling motor was a hand-held...then went to cable steer for 20+ years. Loved the ability to quickly turn, power-on, and power off. Would have stayed with cable steer...but my brother got an Ulterra. I did NOT like it at first. But it grew on me. Power deploy and stow has worked great for 1-1/2 years now (knock-on-wood). I use the remote most of the time...but the foot-pedal does come in handy. It takes getting used to, but overall I am extremely happy with this unit. For the way I fish, it's wonderful! Cable steer would be option #2 for me. Good luck!! I will add that spot-lock, cruise control, and auto-pilot have really been game-changers for the way I fish. Ulterra is networked to the Humminbirds...I can motor over a brush pile...mark on my fish finder...drop the Ulterra and say, "navigate to mark"....it takes me there, and spot locks right over the top. Or locks me a certain distance from the mark. And keeps me there, even in a strong wind. Wife claims this is "cheating." But honey, I don't even have livescope yet : )

I was going off from what @Johnbt posted. If that’s not accurate that’s good they are all aluminum. Tracker is known for being behind the eight ball when it comes to using wood.

Sorry to hear that, What I can say I pray for you ad I am asking you to fight it and stay on water as much as you can. Ive seen people with the same news and They made it 13 years as of today and we are all happy about that. I know it is too much and overwhelming but somehow I know a person with your character (as far as I know you here), Very able to fight it and stay positive.

I'm also in the southern crowd slowly losing their sanity. The lake behind my house still has snow on top of it, which basically never happens. I have a minisplit on my shop where I work and have home gym, but it can't handle this. I am getting a quote to add a wood stove, by the time I get it the winter will be over I'm sure though. Really need some sunshine though, we aren't wired for this down here

Great ideas, Alex. Galen, please give a big bass fishing trip some more thought. I'll likely never catch a DD, so you could go catch one for me!

That's a fact Jack! 😉 Fishing "coaches" that get paid are called guides

Very sorry to hear this Sir! You have had a very positive impact on so many here at BR and I know you have with friends, family, and more. I will never forget when you generously sent a couple lures to an anonymous member (me) when I simply asked a question. That simple act had a big impact on me and helped me be more generous with others. I hope you can reflect on a great life and the impact you have had to give you peace. I will also pray that God brings you and your family peace and comfort.

I've been sorting my sock drawer. Really stimulating stuff.

Having lived through this with my son I can tell you go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, nearest top hospital for you. You get 1 chance and remember you have the right to choose any trials now. Everyday is precious make the best of them with your family. Your BR family will be here and pray for you and your family🙏🏻. Tom

I was eating dinner this evening and the three stooges showed up. Haven't seen them in a while. You'll notice that I moved the bird feeder up about 3 feet so they can't reach it and empty that thing into their mouths (I'm fine with them eating fallen bird see on the ground).

Bass Pro Shop being built in my town. Set to be done by summer!

The gekka was designed for very thin braid, hence the low capacity. Many have proclaimed that the ray's studio sv (dynamic inductor) is one of if not the best "power" bfs aftermarket spools for the gekka, I have one in my alphas 800 and love it. The following link is for a thread that talks about it https://www.tackletour.net/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=89440&hilit=gekka

2 to the chest...1 to the head