Team9nine

Growing up, the 3 I remember were Ivory soap bars (cut up), those cheese injected hot dogs, and Velveeta cheese blocks. The latter were my favorite, and I would simply mold a piece of the block around a small treble hook and then fly line (weightless) on a spinning outfit. Worked great for eater sized channels.

KenDammit28/Raul: Paul Roberts: Tufts Lab video and description (need to watch in YT to access written explanation):

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab: He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

So many variables at play, it would be hard to determine. Short term and with immediate release, any affect should be minimal with just a brief recovery time and likely just show up if you sampled blood parameters. Temperature difference from the surface to 20 ft. if often a lot less than many would imagine, since all the water above any thermocline would be heated pretty consistently. Even so, all water bodies vary, so hard to generalize. Add in the health/condition of the fish before capture, length of fight, how long out of water, how badly hooked, etc., etc. It happens.

1. Picture? Suppose it’s possible, but I call it questionable. 2. False …just my initial thoughts

Open Access write-up MS Crappie study article

I actually credit them (MS) for trying to protect what is widely recognized as some of the best trophy crappie lakes in the country based on their study data without restricting access, tournaments, overly complicating rules, etc. Waiting for the data showing that the trophy fishery crashed, and THEN reacting to it, is a bit foolish. Lots of write-ups mentioning some of their findings as the reasons for the change. Like I mentioned earlier, there is a much deeper discussion that needs to take place beyond what the vast majority of Internet discussions entail.

Bardin is a good dude. FFS and fish populations is currently being argued and viewed in a very limited sense, though, including by most biologists and related reports I've seen. There’s a much deeper dive yet to be had instead of the ‘one size fits all’ argument most Internet/forum positions seem to take, including in relation to a lot of studies that never get mentioned in these arguments. He also seems to be waffling a bit on the WR bass/recent species separation controversy, so still not 100% certain where his thoughts align there.

In the "old school" world, Craig Powers was considered one of, if not the best, when it came to casting accuracy. You can find quite a few articles on that subject with him if you do some searching. May be a video or two out there, also. More recently, the names I see mentioned most often in this regard are Jacob Wheeler and Andy Montgomery (skipping - docks, etc.). Pretty easy to find video on both of them. Several other really good skip/casters out there including Gerald Swindle, among others. Again, those videos easily available through searching.

Good point. Terry tackled that one and he believed it was basically a tie, both introduced the same year. Action Worm or Ring worm?

No - just a regular variation of a curly tail or ribbon tail worm depending on your perspective. Rebel is typically credited as the company that created the ringworm back around 1975. They came in both straight tail and curly tail, but it was the pronounced “rings” on the body that gave it its name.

Would have never guessed those from your description. Rattlesnake was like a generic house brand at Wal-mart - or at least that was about the only place I ever recall seeing them. Glad you found them.

Zoom 4” Dead Ringer?

I’m not certain. Larew held the patent on salt in plastics for many years, but they did license it out to other companies. Zoom wasn’t one of those, as they bristled at the idea of a salt patent. That’s why a lot of their packaging had a “better than salt” label on it. Once the patent expired, that opened it up to all companies, Zoom included. If he thinks it’s Zoom, they did make a 4” C Tail worm (pictured below) that kind of fits the description. Zetabait/Gillraker also had a longer ‘double action’ curl tail, but I’m not certain about their salt content. BPS also knocked off about every popular plastic, and they added heavy salt externally to a lot of their baits.

That sucks. Glad insurance is doing you right and no one was hurt. Almost looked into that area when we started our retirement home search (Beaver L, Branson to Mountain Home area). That area does seem to get a lot of severe weather, though.

More summer critters spotted around the house. This time night flyers.

Agreed (in bold). You can literally take the actual breaking strength in pounds for each knot in each line type, average the breaking strength across all 3 line types, and you’d get the exact same ranking, just as “ave. breaking strength” in pounds instead of “percent efficiency,” whatever that is. That would be a bit more meaningful and relatable IMO. They just tried to get fancy with the data by adding in the rated strength component and creating some fancy category name. But the answers remain the same regardless, so as long as you understand what you’re looking at, that’s all that matters.

I believe WRB’s point is that that data/results you linked to is incredibly misleading. The Knot Wars data is solid, but this site took that raw knot break strength data and compared it against the ‘rated’ strength of the line. Of course, almost no manufacturer rates their lines breaking strength anywhere near its actual value, so the data becomes worthless. There is no such thing as 100% knot strength, let alone 110, 120, or 130 percent values. Lines don’t get stronger when you knot them. Stick with the actual Knot Wars raw data, which can be found with a little searching, as well as some of the actual brand breaking strength data (also available online), and you’ll be able to make a much better assessment of knots and lines vs. what you linked to.

So I’ve pulled off the BR Trifecta? 😎

Yes 👍 Dobsonfly above is a male (long mandibles). Here is a female that visited around the same time.

Well, I hate to say “I told you so,” but… Also, remember that Platinum Equity was the one that bought out Genmar (Ranger, Triton, Stratos) in 2010, then promptly sold them off 5 years later for a tidy profit. This is how the game is played, and GSM (and all their outdoor brands) will be no different.

Really 😎 Just about everyone I can remember that has ever spent a day in the boat with me crappie fishing ended up going home and stripping off all their old line (nylon/copoly/fluoro) and replaced it with braid. If you’re a live bait or bobber guy, it’s not near as critical. But, if you’re a jig caster, it makes a world of difference.

Largemouth 👍

Critters from around the house this summer - water related bugs

When I use a trailer, the old school Zoom split-tail has served me well for over 30 years. Same for buzzbaits. Does everything a trailer is supposed to do, and nothing it’s not 😎