J Francho

Crosstail Shad in Ayu. Drop shot - what else?

Congrats! Funny part is I will be a grampa in March. Everyone is hating on 2020, and so far it's pretty good to me.

Big? Erie. Cold? 48 degrees. Deep? 38’. Big bass? PB 5-12 SMB.

I can only dream of a day when I can just ring a bell… No, have a 4 month old.

Diapers.

It needs to fully dry after application per the instructions. This way, any rods I used are ready to go anytime, without any prep.

She's good too.

I'm thinking Dr. Espilon is more appropriate.

The whole loon thng makes no sense. No one can prove to me less loons died after the ban. Maybe no one has caught it yet. There were a few chain stores selling lead here years after the sale ban, then all of a sudden they disappeared, and there was a sign stating they cannot sell lead under 1 oz. in NY. I bet someone blew them in. I wonder if selling is still allowed in Mass, just using it isn't. Sort the opposite of NY, lol.

I have a ton of gear, so I would hand down a trusted reel mounted to a new rod, spooled with fresh line. That way, it would be easier to teach the youngster. With my oldest, a 6-6 medium/fast Avid with a 200e and fresh 12# mono was the ticket.

You bubba shot guys: do what @TnRiver46 does, and use a bullet weight. Rig it point down, and it’ll punch through the weeds. I tie it up with a tiny split ring at the end, and point down. You can also peg it and skip the knot, if you’re feeling wealthy. Some like it that way since you lose it on the hook set, and there’s no weight pulling on the hook to unbutton the fish. I’m only 10% made of money, it’s not for me.

There are no domestic facilities that I know of that produce their own tungsten. As for purchasing tungsten, I recommend Siebert Outdoors. It’s also about legality. Lead is not available for sale here, though use not banned. It’s somewhat cost prohibitive to drive out of state To purchase. If you want to use lead here, you have to make it yourself, or go out of state. I’ve heard of some ordering from out of state, but that is actually illegal as well.

That GPS data is less important to other anglers than the data in your selfie posing with your matching Gucci slippers and purse.

Interesting tidbit: elemental tungsten itself is very toxic. Tungsten carbide (used to make sinkers) is less so, though the powder can cause problems. I'm glad it's not made domestically. It takes a great deal of pressure to create the heat necessary to mold it. There's a cool data sheet on the CDC site if you want to read more: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=804&tid=157

Initially, the industry was looking for and marketing a more PR/Eco friendly material. Brass, Bismuth and steel were tried, but they lacked the density, though you can still find these materials. Tungsten was more dense, but was much more expensive to produce. Marketing shifted touting it's smaller size and better sensitivity to convince anglers it was an advantage worth paying 4-5X as much. On hard bottom, you do feel more. Whether that means anything that translates to more bites is hard to prove. It does give me a feeling of confidence in what I visualize the bottom as, so I guess that's something. I will say this, I'm just as good with a drop shot using lead, since I abandoned expensive tungsten weights. I still use tungsten for bullet weights, simply because I like size profile. I'll also use steel if I'm using a large plastic and a very light weight since a tungsten would be too small. I don't feel like there's any advantage with jigs, and I really don't feel like there's any difference between the two. Maybe it's the hook transmitting the bumps on the bottom? Bottom line, it all feels like mush when the bottom is mush.

Flow seems to have the biggest effect on the bite in shallow rivers.

You can also get GPS from EXIF metadata on many formats, including jpeg.

All I catch with a "poop jig" is yellow perch and rockies. A drop shot on the other hand is responsible for my PB smallmouth and few checks. Nice work!

Why does Isaac Hayes come to mind? Nice job. Can you get a close up of the stripes?

Buy lefty gear, or practice.

I use KVD L&L after each trip when I put the gear away.

Never underestimate small ponds. This pond had some ice in one of the shady corners. The pond was really small, maybe the size of a city residential lot, certainly far less than an acre. My buddy caught it on a jig n' craw.

It’s confusing because I don’t feel the hype is there. SMB are a little more erratic, but they don’t really fight harder to me. Can I name a tougher FW fish? No, I can name a bunch I’ve caught. Steelhead, browns, lakers, coho, kings, northern, tiger, musky, eel, dogfish, carp are a few that fight harder. Some of those fish, the catch ratio can be somewhat low, especially in the case of steelhead, which I consider the gamest fish around here. I still prefer to fish for bass, specifically LMB.

Anything less than 12’ feels like a cramped toy boat to me.

They’re pretty portable if you mount the head to a track mount and use a deployment arm for the TD.