Fishes in trees

Fit on Guidewear is important. They make lots of different sizes. If you're going to drop four bills on a set of rain gear, I'd make sure it fits by going to the store and trying it on, likely wearing similar clothes to what I'd be fishing in. Yeah, you can do it on line, and they are extremely easy to deal with, but is all that extra time worth it? I dunno. Me, I think a couple of different sets of rain gear are necessary. For cold/cool weather, ( early spring - later in the fall) Guide wear is great. Late spring & summer though, not so much, it can get a little hot. I keep a set of thin Frogg Toggs for warmer weather rain protection. Also, for summer rains in Missouri, they are generally pretty strong but don't last long. I've been known to keep an umbrella in the boat and just wait out a short rain. What ever yo do, don't settle for a rain poncho. If you are standing in a crowd, ponchos are ok. Ponchos don't handle wind real well and are a pain to fish in. Don't get one unless it is your only, last resort.

I don't think you can have too many rods & reels. I like to have a rig for every situation I might run into. Besides bass fishing, this includes shore rigs for catfish, distance casting rigs, trout dragging rigs ( for fishing at Taneycomo), Paddlefish snagging rigs, crappie rigs, carp rigs and I'm not done yet. I understand that it is a habit, but it isn't necessarily a self destructive one. For instance, if I has a cocaine habit, all I'd have to show for it at the end of the day would be a runny nose. I stopped asking why I collect fishing tackle a long time ago. Instead, I ask myself questions like, Does it fill a niche in my collection? Is it an upgrade to something that I've already acquired? Can I afford it at this time?

Hey guys, this is August i.e. FISHING SEASON!! Isn't this more of a January or February topic? Just saying . .. ...

A few years ago, didn't Minn Kota have an automatic stow feature on their Genesis model? Anyway, where is that model now? I don't tournament fish, but I know that I wouldn't switch from a cable steer to an electric steer. Where I fish, it just doesn't respond quick enough. In less stumpy places it might work though. I remember in the early 90's (pre FLW) I got an advertisement in the mail from some people who bought the old Red Man mailing list. Anyway, they were pimping an auto deploy system. It worked great - until i† didn't. It could short out or you could just bump the button and while you were going down the lake it would deploy while you were on plane. Several guys had that happen to them - not good. I'm old enough to remember that (although I wan't a boat owner at that time) so I probably wouldn't get auto deploy on any trolling motor I'd buy. My current trolling motør is 12 years old and so I will probably be buying a new one next spring. When I do, I'll probably go with proven cable steer technology rather than electric steering and auto deployment. I don't see that the time saved would be worth the headache when it breaks.

Do you mean "where" instead of "were"? I sure hope so. Anyway, I think, like many guys, that I do ok, but my skills could get better. I thought I was pretty good at pitching, until I went down to Lake of the Ozarks and was reminded what a pitching nightmare those thousands of docks and tied up boats and dock cables represented. I hit where I was aiming maybe 10% of the time. I could sure get better at pitching and dock fishing in general. Question - How do you tell if the owner of one of those 40' or so cruisers is home? Answer - The second the you bounce a jig off the hull of his boat, he will come out and tell you all about it. If you bounce a jig off the hull of one of those boats and no one comes out to rag at you, they probably aren't home.

2014 BPS Master Catalog - pages 417 thru 421. Ignore the inflatables. They all work. Pick one. They all work. Me, I like my inflatable, because it is light enough and out of the way enough that I wear it.

Back in olden times, when the Lindners still owned In-fisherman, they had a couple of articles about throwing cranks on spinning gear. The articles were written by Tom Seward, the guy who designed Timber Tigers. They made a lot of sense at the time. (These were written prior to braid becoming readily available) Anyway, off and on through the years, I have experimented on using spinning gear for cranks - mixed results. For the most part, I like the extra distance I can get with spinning gear. I can get similar distance with bait casting gear, but I have to pay attention to proper technique and not cast into the wind and stuff like that. This stuff seems to go in cycles with me. Currently, I am back to using spinning gear. I'm using a 6'9" MH Kistler spinning rod (the blue one). It has a surprisingly limber tip for a rod labeled MH. I've experimented using different reels and for the moment I have settled on using an old Diawa 2600. It is a large older reel with a fairly large spool. I'm currently using 14 lb Fireline and a medium length (3'to 4') fluorocarbon leader. Generally 20 lb test on the leader. It works ok, and like I mentioned earlier I love the distance I'm getting with out the effort that making similar distance casts on bait casting gear involves.

Crankbait depth really isn't an exact science. Try to remember how deep you got bait X last time and under what circumstances ( rod & reel, line test, etc.) Over time you will build up a body of knowledge about how deep you can get each crank. I don't know about other brands, but the depth listed on all the different species of Timber Tigers are based on 10 lb mono. A phone call to the different bait builders might help as to finding out how them calculate their depth numbers. Many bait builders recognize that the TRUTH is a precious commodity and they don't waste it, especially where reporting an accurate running depth of their lures is concerned. Basically, you fish cranks enough and over time you will figure out roughly how deep you can get any crank in any given situation. good luck

Buy the new rig and take the whipping. After the pain subsides, you will still have a new fishing rig. Take it a step further, have your woman slap you, and then go buy a new rod & reel , more or less guilt free, after all you've already taken the beating for it… . . . .. glad I could help.

Is it wooden? Looking at the lip, it appears to be a shallow diver. Never seen a top water bait with a lip at that angle. Me, I'd call it a collector item and not fish with it.

I can understand you not wanting to buy a depth finder. I can understand most of the mental gyrations involved in justifying not buying a depth finder. However, I have seen in person and in pictures numerous kayaks with depth finders mounted on them. So apparently it isn't an insurmountable problem, it is more like a space issue. Just FYI - every fishing boat out there has space issues - some perceived and some real. Kayaks have space issues. I've got an 18' Lowe. It has space issues. My buddy just got a 22' Express. He is starting to experience space issues. In any boat, not just your boat, decisions are made about what stuff you take and what stuff you leave on the bank. It is the nature of fishing that you can't bring all the gear all the time. Where I fish, using a crank as a depth finder would be a pain. You'd frequently be dragging up weeds and you'd often get snagged. Cheaper and more practical to just buy a depth finder. Then you'd get a better idea quicker on where to throw your crank. JMO

You can buy O rings in bulk for a penny a piece or so. The correct size to get is 3/8" o.d 1/4" i.d.

Any rod that you might throw a spinner gait with will work for chatter baits. The ones I use are between 6'6" and 7'2" MH, with a little more tip than my pitching rods. If I am determined to fish a chatter bait in an area where there are trees to either side and overhead, I'd consider throwing them with a pitching rod.

Throwing square bills on 12 lb test is asking for it, unless you are throwing ones that weigh less than a quarter ounce and even then, be careful where you throw them. I prefer 20, maybe 17 for the abrasion resistance factor. I read somewhere that Berkley was bring back Iron Silk line. I'm aware that many people didn't like that line. It was originally marketed as a jigging line. I prefer using fluorocarbon for jig/soft plastic fishing. I found 20 lb Iron Silk to be the best square bill/rattle trap/spinner bait line I've ever used. If I'm throwing square bills, that is my line of choice. 20 lb Suffix is a relatively close second. This post started out about rods, didn't it. Sorry I got off topic. Anyway I find that most rods marketed as cranking rods have too much tip to be good square bill rods. I think a good place to start is rods that are marketed as spinner bait rods. I want a little bit of tip, but not a lot. Currently I'm using a BPS Extreme ETR74MT. It was originally marketed as a Woo Davis pitching stick, but in my opinion, it is a little light for pitching - too much tip. But if you are throwing square bills, I find that it has the right amount of tip for me. The nature of throwing square bills is that they will "work" on a variety of rod lengths & actions. How they work best for you is a matter of experimentation. Right now, the BPS Extreme mentioned earlier works best for me. Last year I tried an experiment using a Fenwick AETOS, 7'4" Med, with a similar action to the BPS Extreme. I liked it because it was lighter, and I liked the handle better and then I broke it doing something stupid after I got a square bill stuck. That is when I decided that I didn't need to be throwing square bills on a $180 dollar rod (list) Good luck finding a square bill rod that you really like. It took me several tries and several seasons and several hundred dollars to find one that I was more or less happy with.

I've got a couple of the micro guide carrot sticks and I haven't broken them yet. I'm pretty gentle on my equipment and I break maybe one rod a year old so. All my buds who talked me into getting the carrot sticks (I have two of the Wild Black ones) have busted theirs. Apparently customer service front he Carrot Stix people isn't the finest. My opinion is that they are very light and sensitive rods. The experience of my buds is that they are fragile. I haven't broken mine yet.

Hooks tear up baits. If you want to catch fish, there aren't a lot of alternatives to hooks. In my experience, the twist lock hooks preserve baits slightly better than regular worm hooks, but not a lot better. Just a fact. hooks tear up baits. Some alternatives include wacky rigging senkos using o-rings, where the hook actually doesn't go through the bait. Some guys who are big on fishing the ned rig use the elastech worms, that real stretchy plastic that lasts a long time. I'm not a big fan of those worms and I don't fish the ned rig all that much. Going through plastic baits and tearing them up is par for the course. If you want to go truly old school, you might try using a gorge. A gorge is an oblong piece of something, wood or metal, maybe half to 3/4 of an inch long. The idea is that you tie your line to the gorge and then wrap your bait around or impale the gorge into the bait and throw it out to where you think there might be fish. When you get bit, you wait a second or two and then as slowly and gently as possible, pull the fish in. The idea is that the gorge gets stuck in their mouth/stomach and doesn't come out. This is not a catch and release technique. The process of removing the gorge once you've landed the fish kills it nearly every time It does work. When I first heard about this when I was in grade school I had to go try it out at the nearby creek, using my Johnson Laker rig. It works on bullheads and sunfish for sure. I've done it.

I have both a regular seat and a butt seat/leaning post. If I am fishing out of my boat, I prefer the butt seat. If I am fishing out of some one else's boat, I prefer fishing out of a sit down chair, mostly because when I'm driving my boat, I trust my balance, but when I'm in the back of the boat and some one else is driving, I'm just more comfortable sitting down.

Keep looking and praying you never know when something will turn up. When I was a freshman in college, there was a guy down the hall who got an 8 year old Porsche for $400. It seems that some guy took his girlfriend to Cancun without telling his wife and she found out about it and in retaliation she sold his Porsche. Of course, even in 1971, insurance for a 19 year old kid owning a Porsche was expensive, somewhere around $1500 a year, in 1971 money. He only kept it a couple of months, couldn't afford it. He sold it to a professor going through a mid life crisis. Anyway, finding a steamed wife is an option, considering the karma involved probably not a real good option.

Back in the day, (early 80's) I had a professor pal who had a 15' Hayward Row Troller. It was a fiberglass V hull with 3 bench seats on it and it was the sweetest rowing boat I've even been on. Fully loaded, with 2 guys and probably 150 lbs of gear (rods & reels, gear, coolers, anchors, whatever) it rowed great. It tracked great and you could spin it on a dime if you wanted to. It was stable enough that you could stand up and take a leak when ever you needed to This guy was into drift fishing for whatever was biting more than bass fishing per se, so the boat had 6 rod holders that you could relocate anywhere along the edge of the boat to take advantage of wind, drifting, whatever. He was also the first guy I met who regularly used a drift sock to reduce speed when drifting with the wind. He acquired the boat when he was a grad student in Wisconsin in the mid 70's, and guys in that area taught him how to fish for whatever was biting. For the most part we used night crawlers or minnows, but sometimes when drifting for cats we used 4 or 5 inch live blue gills. A good row boat is hard to beat for versatility and carrying a bunch of gear. Later on, as we got more into bass fishing we acquired a transom mount trolling motor and used the oars from time to time to save the battery.

Hard baits - soft baits - terminal tackle appropriate to season. If I'm using spinning gear, probably a spare spool or two of line. Tools - when I was a bank fisherman needle nosed vice grips was about all I needed. Pack your stuff in plano boxes adds a little weight but protects your stuff better. Pack your stuff in zip lock plastic bags - less weight but doesn't protect your stuff as well and doesn't last as long. When I was a bank fisherman I used a combination of both. I was a smoker then, so a couple of extra lighters were necessary, as was a waterproof cigarette case. I was an occasional hard liquor drinker then, so I carried a steel half pint flask. Sometimes when the fishing vexed me, herbal remedies were in order, I had a waterproof kit to keep my herbal remedies available. If you are going cat fishing or other kind of still fishing, some kind of rod holders are a must or bring a machete and create a rod holder out of materials on hand. I was a meat fisherman then, and an optimist so I generally carried a couple of stringers. If you're a meat fisherman, have some extra garbage bags in your car or an extra ratty old cooler to transport fish home. At the time, there was a hippie vegetarian restaurant a few blocks from my house, so I threw all my fish guts and cleaning remains into their compost pile.

Save the pics. Don't bother. I'm glad for you. I can imagine what a custom spinning rod with a Stella on it looks like. Don't interrupt my reverie with genuine images. I'm kind of jealous but I'll get over it.

According to your profile, you're 22. I wish I knew as much now as I did when I was 22. OK, snarky comments aside, I know it seems counter-intuitive, but there are times when heavy lines are the way to go. Pappajoe222's post about using braid while bank fishing is extremely valid, more about saving your hands than randomly tearing up someones trolling motor down the line I've run into wads of heavy mono with my trolling motor and believe me, it doesn't take braid to tear up seals on the lower unit of your trolling motor or your big motor for that matter. Wads of line left in the water are more of an unthinking slob thing and less of an appropriate pound test thing. I work in the wagering industry and it would be my bet, that if you continue your fishing learning curve, by the time you are 40 you will have a boat and have a better take on the whole braid/light line/pound test issue. If you keep at it, continue your fishing learning curve, by the time you make geezer (60+) you'll be as ignorant as I am.

Favorite for what? Specifically? I'm not being snarky, just seriously raising the point that different cranks are intended for different purposes. So, what that means here is that my favorite for one situation probably isn't my favorite for some similar, but different in one or more aspects, situations. Favorites for cranking wood? . . . . cranking brush? . . . . . rocks? maximum depths? See where I'm going here? You need better perimeters to your question, provide that and you'll get better answers.

When I was a bank fisherman, I wore knee high rubber boots or hip waders every time, even in the middle of summer, just for that reason.

I don't think that those two words go together when the subject is scales. You can get a cheap scale. You can get a reliable scale. Good luck getting a cheap, reliable scale. I'm not a big fan of scales. They take all the mystery out of it and make it harder to lie with a straight face. That being said, I own a small hand held Quarrow model. It is accurate enough, give or take and I got it to make comparisons easier should I ever be in a position where I had to cull fish. That being said, I've never been in a position where I had to make quick culling decisions during a tournament. Maybe, if I hadn't bought the tool I would have needed it - who's to say?