Fishes in trees

I don't throw the lead away. Once it is used I throw it in the bottom of the boat. Every so often when I clean out my boat I pick up the used lead and I throw it in a jar with all my other used lead and every other season or so I give it to a guy who pours jigs. Every little bit helps.

update to hitting deer: yes, insurance will cover it. yes, it will cost me $500 plus time. no, I wasn't speeding. yes, it was part of a herd, I saw most of them, it is the one you don't see that is the issue. I was slowing down, hadn't slammed on the brakes, and it literally came out of the shadows and ran into me. Basically, Missouri is one big deer crossing and I think that the deer herd, the conservation department and the body shops are in cahoots. This makes deer #5 (or 6 depending on how you count) for me. On further review, I don't think I did anything wrong, just one of those things. Part of the cost of living in a rural area of the Show Me state. I'm going to do some more research on the deer whistle thing. Overall, right now, I think that they help more than they hurt. I don't know if they wear out or not. If they are something that should be replaced every so often, well, deer whistles are pretty cheap, compared to a $500 deductible.

Long story short, I was going fishing last Wednesday, left house pre- dawn and hit a deer. Deer did a significant amount of damage to my Explorer, but I still had headlights and no fluids were dripping from the engine and it didn't overheat and to I continued on to the lake I'd chosen to fish that day. Anyway, my Explorer was equipped with the anti-deer whistles. They were going on a couple of years old. Can these wear out? Can deer get immune to the sound? Obviously, they didn't work this time. I am curious to hear about other guys experiences with the anti-deer whistles. Do they work for you? How can you tell? Do you think that they wear out? Who would you talk to to find out answers to these questions, other than the anecdotal evidence?

Buy any of those reels mentioned, quality wise, feature wise they are all pretty similar. If after numerous reels at this level, you desire to upgrade in quality, buy a Shimano. JMO

What do you mean, risk? I've never "risked" my boat. I do smack into stuff with my trolling motor from time to time. I do smack into stumps when I am idling with my big motor from time to time. I've never fallen out of the boat trying to get a lure back - came close but never actually fallen in. Changing the subject just a little bit, make sure you've got all the gear that you need to get a lure back as easily as possible. You need both a sturdy extendable pole and a heavy "hound dog type" lure retriever that you slide down the line. Sometimes one works better than another YOu get better at using these tools with practice. Pay attention to the wind, sometimes you can use it to your advantage, letting it blow you close to your lure while you are using one of your retrieval tools. Me, I've got a 5 minute rule, i.e. if I can't get the lure back within 5 minutes of starting to mess with getting the lure back, it is stuck. Most of the time, after 5 minutes ( less if we're talking a jig or tx rig or a senko) I'm ready to cut my losses. When you are using braid, that is often easier said than done. What I do in this case is to wrap the line 5 times or so around the boat cleat and back off with my trolling motor This always solves the issue. Either the lure will pull out, the hook will straighten or the line will break. When I'm at the point to where I am wrapping the line around the boat cleat I am ok with any of those outcomes. There is a slight probability that the lure will break through whatever is holding it an d com flying back towards you quickly. Be prepared to block or duck. Basically, I'm not following the term "risk" in this situation. Getting stuck lures unstuck is a fishing skill, a skill that can be improved through practice. Hope this helps.

If you want to organize fishing stuff in your garage, step A would probably be to build a bigger garage. My fishing shed is roughly 30 by 40 and if I had the funds to do it again I'd built 90 by 150. Every time you are in Walmart and you see the plastic shoe boxes on sale for $$1.50 or less, get some. Every time you see shelving on sale - get some. Every time you see totes on sale - get some. Keep going until you have more than enough, trust me, sooner or later you will fill them all up. Invest in a roll of duct tape and a sharpie and keep it handy in your shop. Be sure and label everything. If you change what you put in the box - change the label. Don't ask why I know that this is extremely important. Invest in a roll or two of cheap plastic wrap. There are some things that you don't use very often that don't fit in totes well. ( Like spare trolling motors, to use one example) Wrapping them in plastic wrap will keep dust off of them and preserve them better. Once they are wrapped, be sure and label them, don't count on your memory to remember everything you've wrapped. Every so often, at Walmart, cheap lawn furniture goes on sale. Folding tables make great temporary work surfaces for larger sorting projects, among other things. 5 gallon buckets are cheap at home depot & Lowes. Buy the lid and they make great waterproof storage containers. Remove the lid, invert the bucket and they become a seat, which will support all but the greatest lard ***** among us. You can't have too many 5 gallon buckets with lids. Invest in rat/mouse poison and be liberal in how you spread it around your shop. Don't invest in mouse traps unless you like removing dead mice from said traps. Get a few of the XL size glue traps. You will be surprised in that might walk into that glue trap. Invest in decent locks. Have adequate insurance. I'm sure that there are lots more tips on how to organize your shop, but these will do for now.

If you fish brushy/woody cover, there isn't any substitute for the Wordens Timber Tiger. The DC 4, 5 & 8 cover most square bill situations. If you want to fish deeper woody/brushy cover. The DC 13 will get 13 feet down fished on spinning gear - 30 lb. braid and a short (foot & a half max) 20 lb fluorocarbon leader for abrasion purposes. If you want to go with a bigger profile I get the DC 16 down maybe 10 feet or so on 17 or 20 lb mono. Give the Timber Tigers a try, you can throw them into woody/brushy cover and bring them out better than any other square bill I've tried.

There isn't any one definitive textbook. There are lots of books out there, of varying quality, all of which offer some insights into fishing. Some that might strike me as exceedingly elementary for me right now, might be full of insights for you, depending on where you're at in the bass fishing learning curve. So, have at it and start reading. You probably want some reading suggestions so here are some. Nightcrawler secrets (I think that is still available through Fishing Facts magazine) Buck Perry's books on spoon plugging and structure fishing, any of the In-fisherman Fishing Secrets handbooks. Charlie Brewer's book, On Slider Fishing, Roland Martin's first book - 101 Bass Fishing Secrets (Be aware that he doesn't always make sense and even back then, he was always selling something) If you can get your hands on any old In-fisherman magazines, from back when the Lindners owned it, every magazine was a fountain of information. Be aware that their information was presented in a multi-species format, but most of that stuff translates into bass fishing. That's enough to get you started.

When I was in college ( the the first few years out of college) I had similar budgetary restrictions. (Granted this was the 70's but the principles are the same). I became an expert in fishing golf course ponds within walking/hitch hiking distance from campus. Many colleges have one large pond off to the side of their golf courses that they use to pump water to all of the other water hazards. I made a point of finding out which professors and other university personnel fished. It didn't matter whether they were in my field of study or not. Actually that is better, it expands your system of contacts, and these professors come to respect you more as a fisherman than as a kiss-ass student that they are responsible for. I couldn't find a fishing club, so I started on through the university communiversity. The club only lasted a few months, but I made enough acquaintances for the remainder of the years I lived in Columbia so I had lots of places to fish. So my advice to you is to get creative. If there are places to fish near where you're going to school, believe me when I tell you that someone at that university already has that figured out. Your chore becomes finding out who those people are and find ways to go fishing with them. You are young. Be prepared to lift & tote & do yard work, handy man stuff, whatever. My very best fishing contact came from a friend of a friend of a friend. Seems the woman who owned this fabulous lake front property needed some help for her annual summer BBQ (where she fed & hobnobbed with 200-300 people. I showed up early and stayed late, and was butler, parking valet, BBQ helper (helped cook 500 chicken quarters) server, & clean up & storage helper. 12 hours of hot, sweaty work got me access to fish an ultra-private 90 acre lake, for the next several years. Of course, over the years I had other chores I performed for this woman. After a while I had friends of my professors friends call me up to take them fishing on this ultra private lake that I had access to and they didn't. I found people around campus who had old jon boats/ v hulled row boats that were going bad. A little bit of repair work, sanding & paint and they had a workable boat and I had a new boat to borrow from time to time. Bottom line is to be aware of your surroundings, be creative and you can make fishing opportunities for yourself.

Once I had a trailer that I was going to do that to. A knowledgable welder told me that if I touched that trailer while it was still under warranty, it would void the warranty, was I sure I wanted to do that? By the time the trailer was out of warranty, I had learned the nuances of backing up and maneuvering that particular shot tongue trailer, so I never did extend it. It is sad to report that skills acquired learning to back one short tongue trailer don't really translate to skillfully backing up other short tongue trailers, especially using different vehicles. There isn't any substitute for practice in this area.

Be religious about following the break in instructions. Sometimes that takes a while.

I liked Iron Silk line and I was sorry it was discontinued. I thought it was a great reaction bait line. The new Trilene XL Armor Coated seems like virtually the same thing. I never had any good results with P-Line.

You match your line according to the quality/quantity of the cover you're fishing. Heavier cover necessitates a more abrasion resistant line - not necessarily a higher lb test. To try to go with a one size fits all line is to unnecessarily handicap yourself. Don't do that, fishing is hard enough. Line issues are one of the few fishing problems that you can solve by throwing money at it.

Aren't you relatively close to a Bass Pro in Florida? A place to start would be to go there and see many different brands side by side. Now for my sales pitch, for a bit more money, look at the 50 sized Shimano reels. Look at the Curado 50 E or the Chronarch 50 E. If you need a smaller reel, but like a round one that sits up on the rod a little bit more, look at a Calcutta 50 sized reel. Several of my Shimano reels are going into their second decade of service and they are just broke in and are working great with minimal maintenance. In that same period of time, I totally wore out a couple of Quantums and an older Ryobi that I got at the Walmart bargain counter. I am sold on Shimano quality over the long term.

I'm all for drug testing for everyone. As people go about their daily lives they become set in their ways, for the most part. Take me for example. There might be some mind/mood altering drugs that I'm currently running a consumption deficit in. A drug test would catch that and my drug consumption would improve. Back when I was in college, I firmly believed that if everyone smoked 3 or 4 joints a day, there wouldn't be any more wars. Just for sport, try selling that idea to the prof.

To echo the other posters, there is a learning curve to bait casting reels. I'd lead off mono for a while, until I got the hang of it. I don't know if I'd go with the cheapest though, cheap mono is gnarly and often difficult to work with. As far as how far do you fill it, that is up to you. Me, I fill mine up to the top for reels that I'm using reaction baits on, (cranks, chatter baits, spinnerbaits) When I do this I'm looking for as much distance as possible and I know I'm taking the chance that a back lash will happen. For "feel" baits like jigs & soft plastics I don't go quite a full, I leave between 1/8 and 1/16 of an inch below being completely full. Have fun figuring it out.

WRB is correct. Deal with your back issues sooner rather than later. My pop has been dead for a long time now. The last few years of his life, I watched him deal with degenerative bone issues in his hips. It got a little worse every day. His primary reason for not dealing with it was a fear of doctors. He had health insurance. For the most part he chose to self medicate the bone pain with scotch. By the time he had reasoned with himself enough to go see a doctor about his hip condition, other age-related health issues occurred and soon he was dead. He was 59. In retrospect, I can understand that he had some deep rooted fears about growing old. The point of this story is that, in my opinion, it is better to confront health issues sooner rather than later. Understanding and dealing with real health issues is easier and more fruitful than dealing with latent health fears about what could be and might be. Good luck & stay strong in your head. This advice isn't coming from a know-it-all, but rather from a guy who's had health issues ( physical & mental) most of his life, so take it any way you want/need to.

If you are bank bound, one of the most helpful pieces of equipment you can get is a pair of hip waders. One, this makes your more fearless as you are crashing through brush and tall weeds on the shore line. Two, getting off the bank even a couple of feet will allow you much better casting angles, especially in the spring time when paralleling the bank.

What an interesting topic. I am firmly in the more is better camp. Bass Fishing, I'm more or less into technique specific stuff. The last time I counted, bass specific rigs, I had less than 30, not counting "borrower rigs", which is stuff that I'm ok with lending out when someone is fishing with me. When I go fishing, I can carry 25 or so rigs in my truck, although I carry fewer than that more often than not. When you are talking different combo's, be sure and take different species into account. I don't go bank fishing for catfish very often, but when it is time to go, I've got 3 good, decent combos that I feel could handle any fish I'm likely to run into. Plus a catfish bag stuffed with hooks, weights, floats, etc. If you are going to throw slab spoons into dam tail races, you often need to be able to throw a hundred yards or so. I've got a rig that will do that. If you're going to crappie fish, you need different rigs for that. If you've ever seen guys that are into carp fishing, you can go way high tech in carp gear if you feel like it. If I ever got the chance to go muskie fishing, I've got gear that could cover that. I just like having lots of fishing equipment. Some days when I can't go fishing, for whatever reason and I've got a few hours to kill, I'll just spend it in my fishing shed, messing with gear in one way or another. Frequently the stereo is cranked. More often than not barley pop is involved. I can respect anyone who wants to go "minimalist", as far as tackle goes, but I don't really get it. Why limit yourself in that way? Fiscal responsibility isn't my strong suit. Pretty much any time I want a new fishing rig, I go buy it. I'm the guy who, when my garage got to small and I wanted a bigger boat, first I built a bigger fishing shed. Should the time come where I outgrow my current fishing barn, (not likely, but possible) I swear the next time I'm going to build 90'by 160'. Back to what was the question, oh, yeah, how many rigs do I really need? That isn't a fair question. Define "really" Define "need" The previous post wrote that half the fun is getting new gear. The argument could be made that it is more than half the fun. I'm not the guy to determine what that percentage is, though. Thanks for putting up with this 4:39 AM rant. Who ever started this thread, if you need another rig or two, wander by my fishing shed on one of my days off, when, for whatever reason I'm not out fishing.. Bring some beer. I'll probably lend you a rig or two out of my borrowers collection. So far, we've just ranted about rods & reels. We haven't even started talking about how many "spare" baits we "need"

In-fisherman magazine has written on this subject several times over the years. From what I recall, the formula works well on average fish, not as well on above average fish. In-fisherman went so far as to vary the formula for different species, walleye, pike, muskie, perch, etc. Before you re-invent the wheel - contact In-fisherman about this subject.

Bass Cats are basically very good boats. Like any used boat, it depends on how it was maintained and cared for.

75 feet with a quarter ounce bait, didn't say what kind of reel, I'd say that was decent to great distance. Does that bait really weigh a quarter ounce? Bust out your digital scale and find out. My first guess would be that it is heavier than that. For instance, the old Wiggle Warts were listed as a 3/8 oz bait. The original Pre-rapala ones that I have, stock hooks and all that, weigh in around 13 grams, which is closer to a half ounce than 3/8. Not busting your chops at all, just saying that knowing the correct weight of your baits helps the whole decision making process. Nest question: are you achieving this distance with a wind up or a pitch? If you can pitch a quarter ounce bait 75 feet, that is phenomenal. I've got good spinnerbait & crank gear, and I have issues pitching a quarter ounce more than40 feet with any accuracy. With a wind up, more standard cast, I will go a little farther, but I'm a fan of pitching whenever possible.

Whenever I get a strike, it happens quick enough that I don't get a choice of how I'm going to set the hook. My reflexes just aren't that finely honed. With tx rigged baits, (mostly the jika rig these days) I try to go as vertical as possible, but I can honestly say that no two hook sets are exactly the same angle. With a tx rigged bait and a slip sinker, my hooking percentage was bad enough that I don't fish that type of bait very much any more. I'm finding the jika rig much more reliable.

There is no such thing as a "starter" bait casting reel. There are different levels of quality. For your first bait caster, buy the best one that you can afford. If you go cheap now, you will have to upgrade later. Right now, Curado G's are being phased out and can be had for around $100. Some Shimano guys would argue that the G series was a reduction in quality compared to the E and D series Curado. And in some ways they have a point. The other side of that argument is that the G series is still a Shimano and it is several steps above a "starter" reed and right now it is available for around $100 give or take. If you are looking for the best value right now, that is the way I'd go.

Palming the reel is just holding the rod/reel so that your fingers can touch the line. Some guys feel this enhances their sense of feel. I don't know, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, so I haven't any preference one way or another. I do KNOW that if you are palming the reel, using braid, and you get a violent, unexpected strike and you react with a quick hook set, you can get a cut in your finger due to the braid burrowing quickly into your skin. I haven't done enough research to know if my blood in the water is a decent fish attractor or not. No fresh water sharks were attracted to my blood in the water. That being said, even now, sometimes I palm my reels equipped with braid and sometimes I don't.