islandbass

@Catt: That is a great arsenal “magic” lures. With that much magic at your disposal we might have to start calling you Gandalf (One of my favorite Tolkien characters of all time), lol. Are they still pulling active duty or retired?

My findings and experience have been along the same lines you described. I’ve learned that lures identical in looks may still vary in productivity and effectiveness. Sucks but as such, this is life. One example is a Rapala husky jerk in rainbow trout I bought. I hooked into what was the biggest bass to back then, easily a 4-5 lb bass. Unfortunately, I lost that battle and that lure eventually. I bought the “exact” ones and none of them can even catch a cold. I still love Rapala but this indeed was interesting and fascinating and worthy of pondering over the winter.

You all are so funny about driving. On the contrary, our country and a few others, are the exception to the world norm that lanes are not always used or followed, lol. Personally, I don’t go 100% full noise cancellation on my buds (meaning only using one at a time) and the greater the potential for crap in a country to go down against me, the more I want to have one ear focused on paying attention to sounds around me. Americans can be deemed as targets. Easy money, so some tend to believe, and they know you don’t/won’t have much recourse. Heck, even now in some cities here, so what do I know, lol. Always be aware of your surroundings.

Nice! Learning to make one of these has always been on my bucket list.

@Drawdown just about, lol. I was in a situation of being forced to use what was in hand. The weight was unpegged.

Well, I need to give you the bait monkey answer. Get both. My motto in life is, “Better to have and not need than to need and not have.” Really! Just this season, I went a local shop to replenish my supply of baby brush hogs but I wasn’t paying attention and unknowingly bought a pack of tiny brush hogs. I know of brush hogs and baby brush hogs but I never heard of a tiny brush hog. Heck, I didn’t even realize until a few weeks later when I was fishing, nothing was working. T-rig and wacky 5” senkos, 3” senkos, drop shotted 3” senkos standard and wacky rigged and nothing. So I went through my bag looking for the baby brush hogs and discovered I had tiny brush hogs. Oh well. I T-rigged it with a 1/4oz weight and tossed it where I threw the other lures and bam. A nice 2.5 -3 lb bass smashed it in seconds. Hmmmm. Tiny brush hogs? You’ve earned a spot in my rotation.

Happy Bday and we’ll wishes to The Man!

@Ryanralston07: you sure got that right! One additional thing you might want to consider is getting arm compression sleeves. When I fished for salmon with heavy jigs and the like one day, my forearms were very tired and sore (akin to tennis elbow). The day was hot too. But I knew I still had to get out there the next day. The next day was overcast and cold and so I brought along my cycling arm warmers because it was too cold to fish without them and I didn’t want to were a jacket. I fished for about 7 hours straight and no pain or soreness even though I had pain and soreness before starting that day. I concluded it must have been those arm warmers had acted like compression sleeves. I was like, wow. Dang. And I thought that compression crap was junk. Not anymore. One other thing some people do is fish the opposite way when one side “gets tired,” lol. Many use spinning reels for that reason. I just bring an extra opposite handed bc reel. ?

@BrianMDTX: I asked Siri the same question earlier today and she replied: “Request denied. There are no fish in that spot.”?

First things that came mind to reading the thread title And no, I never cared nor liked the second song… ever. Cross my heart.

Nice pic! I am a huge fan of Bill and I have one of his hats signed by him. He used to have a forum similar to this one and a moderator sent to me on his behalf one of his hats for my contributions. I’m forever greatful. When I got into fishing in 2004, he was one of my first “teachers” ?

Wow. Jury’s still out I’m sure. I have a hissy fit buying an $8 bag of senkos and I’m immune to my bait monkey so I’m good. My wow is coming from KK’s boldness to try to get a piece of the high end reel market from Shimano and Daiwa. Ballsy. ??

@MN Fisher: Thanks! This is flat out awesome. ?

@MN Fisher: That is pretty cool. Would you mind sharing what the items are on the threaded dowel? I am seriously considering making one based on your awesome design. Thanks. I have a spooling tool and it works okay. It no longer keeps tension on the spool because I lost a part so I use s book or magazine.

@Tackleholic: I normally just crimp the barb on all hooks since I normally buy all hooks that are barbless locally. Because of where I live barbless single hooks are not too difficult to find. Heck, it never even dawned me to look for barbless treble so I could give myself a V8 for that. A quick google search shows that they are indeed available and from reputable companies like Gamakatsu, VMC and Mustad. I saw the mustad barbless trebles on Amazon, gamakatsus from their web page and vmacs at barrows. Also Cabelas and BPS appear to carry a brand I never heard of, outdoor brandz barbless trebles. I couldn’t figure out how to copy my search on google for barbless trebles on my phone, but all I did was type in google’s search bar, “barbless treble hooks” and you should see the same results.

Man that’s some scary stuff. When I was a novice I did have a few near misses. I wised up quickly and glasses are on 90% of the time, especially when it gets darker and with sunglasses makes it harder to see. Some of the things I discovered to minimize the chances of getting a hook in the eye are as follows: 1) When possible during a fight, I make a conscious effort to ensure my body is not directly behind the rod. You can maintain pressure at 45 degrees is many planes, to either side of your body. If you experience a break off and your rod is to one side or the other, the lure flying back toward you will NOT hit you. There is only one downside so your best best is to remain still and let it fly to your side. Even after it passes you, wait and remain still because you might still have to deal with a potential rebound or two. If you’ve ever played dodge ball on the playground you know what the downside is. Sometimes, when we try to avoid getting hit by the ball, we mistakenly walk into the ball’s path, lol. 2) Consider going barbless when possible. If you ever get hooked by a barbless hook, you will be patting yourself on the back and tell yourself how lucky and blessed you were that the hook was so easy to remove. Don’t get me wrong. There are times I want a barb but I’ve from being forced to go barbless by way of regulations, I don’t think I’ve ever lost a fish with a barbless hook. It also makes releasing them a breeze. 3) If your’re going to be alone in area not so much access, tell someone where you will be and when you expect to return. If something happen to you that you might be immobilized, your odds of getting help are better than if you didn’t.

Nice to hear from you, Raul. Been a long time! -ib

If you didn’t like the stretch of mono, then you’re not going to like the stretch of fluoro. Also, not all fluoros are equal. Some are limp in the lighter side (8# and less) and others wirey and stiff in those same strengths. I can tell you that invizx is limp to me and that is what I want when it’s on a spinning reel. And personally, I like the stretch of mono in my lighter and finesse stuff. While fluoro stretches like mono, it can be less resilient, meaning it might not bounce back to its original length and remain stretched and possibly weakened. May you not think grass is greener with fluoro because of stretch. I only know of and use invizx if I decide to treat myself (it’s price is a bit off putting when you fish rip rap as I can go thru a lot of line from break offs) to using it and I only use it on my 2500 or smaller reels in 6# test. Therefore I can’t speak to 8#. I bought 6# basix and so far I am very impressed and pleased with it.

I was expecting to see a new pb so this was truly a surprise. Hope no one got hurt.

@Skunkmaster-k I figured the @ thing by accident and started using it on occasion but I didn’t know it was called tagging until now.

Goodness gracious! People are still using quotes after Glenn’s request to not use them not too long ago? Let’s get it together, ladies and gents! Let’s comply. You can quote me on that. ?

I was raised in a military family so short hair was the law. And I mean Mohawk short. I even sported once a “technical” Mohawk when I was 3-4. Total shaved off hair on the sides and hair on top just long enough to cover the top. I grew up in the 80s where many girls loved that rocker long hair on guys and I kind of envied how easy those guys got girls so. Some of my buds were guitar players and that long hair was a chick magnet while, I also a musician by way of keyboards, looked like I was in the church choir with my clean cut short hair. I decided to grow my hair out around age 20-21. I was living on my own so no big deal. As my hair grew out, I discovered it actually got wavy/curly by the time it hit shoulder length, and I was kind of disappointed. Not only that, I caught myself on occasion wrapping those curls around my finger during class, lol. My odds did improve with the ladies, but I made a decision to remain abstinent no matter how strong the urge or temptation. The risk of stds, or getting a girl pregnant were not worth it to me. Currently, I am holding onto what little I have left, but I have been receiving hints that shaving and keeping it bald just might be the way to go. ?? For the time being, I think I will enjoy the Hal Jordan-like salt and pepper look I have. ?

They work because they need to eat just like us, lol. I am on the same page as @Captain Phil

Better late than never ?. I’m the opposite. If there is a manual, I will read it thoroughly before using it whether it is a reel or power tool even if I already know how to use that tool. There is sometimes a nugget or quirk about it that might not exist on the same tool from another manufacturer. Well, 9 times out of 10. I didn’t follow this tenet of mine when I got my first curado bsf. I just assumed all the brakes were on by default. Granted, I was mega excited and thought I was ready to go. This was my first low profile reel. An untrained and “green” thumb, pardon the pun, combined with a reel with no brakes on and newly spooled 30lb power pro braid? To say my first cast was a disaster is an understatement. Pat yourself on the back for finally figuring it out. That is a win. And you’ll never ever go through that ever again. It’s my experience lessons learned this way stick with you for life.

@gimruis: well said. We went through the haze and pollution very similar to what is happening now, smoke everywhere and the burnt smell, and the sun even looked like a far away moon sometimes a different color. Last year, we hit our 100 degree summer weather, which hits roughly every 10-12 years. And of course, I had to build a stupid patio in the back yard in that heat. I felt every ounce of earth I dug, and moved out, and every 50lb sack of sand I carried and poured and every 60lb bag of gravel. I think I only went fishing 3 times last summer, lol. I’d be so exhausted that I didn’t even feel like fishing and that is rare! Anyway, the pacific nw is fairly temperate weather and as much as I kind of like the rain, it can really get to you at times. It’s hardly ever a deluge, just a drizzle, gray skies for weeks. Slow enough that your regular wiper setting is too fast and the interval setting if limited like in my wife’s car might be too slow such that you have go manual mode on a freeway where you’d think people living here should know how to drive in the rain. Oh wait, they might be from sunny California ?. You can also liken it to that annoying mosquito that buzzes around your ear buzzing close then far away and every time you try to smash it, you miss and slap yourself. Drizzle for days on end can do that to you ?