Fishes in trees

As I recall - late 70's to early 80's Rebel had a limited line of plastics. I remember 4 and 6 inch ring worms with a little curly tail. I didn't fish soft plastic very much then, my bait of choice was a pork frog, basically because it lasted until you lost it.

I bring my electronics into the house for the winter. All other stuff stays locked up in my fishing shed. I've done this for the last 9 years or so - no ill effects. One exception - pork baits will get softer after gong through numerous freeze/thaw cycles. They are still usable and they might even be better because they are softer.

I don't think that top quality in a spinning reel is as important as it is in a bait caster. All of my spinning reels are towards the lower end in cost, but decent quality and I can honestly say that I've never lost a fish because of a reel failure. I've got a few of the Spirex models which were around $60 each. I've got a few Diawa reels - a Regal Z model which I got on sale at Dicks around 2005 for $40 each. I've got a few of the US Reels - Supercasters at around $40 each. The wide spool supercasters work great with braid and come with an arbor so that it doesn't take that much braid to fill them up. My tournament jerkbait reel is a 240 size Supercaster with 14 lb Fireline. I'm rambling and I don't need to be. My point is that, in my experiences, spending alot of money on spinning reels isn't necessary. I've been to the fishing tackle store and played with them, but I can't justify the expense. As spinning equipment goes, I think the rod is far more important to your overall success than the reel is.

I'm going to get me a sec chi disc by springtime. We all ought to have sec chi discs. When we're talking about water clarity, we ought to have a standard. Every lake I fish, no matter who I talk to, clear water means something different. This is something we all could fix with a minimal investment.

I was recently looking on the Cabelas web site. Their advanced angler bags are on sale in the bargain cave for less than $40 (no boxes). A good deal.

For banging stumps with square bills, I just use a similar set up to what I use for spinnerbaits, i.e. an abrasion resistant 17 or 20 lb line. For shallow cranking, I don't think that mono or fluorocarbon makes any difference. The rods I use for square bills are a little more tippy than what I like for my spinner baits, but I don't like the fiberglass cranking rods at all. As you get to cranking deeper, line diameter makes a difference. I've found that Nano-fil helps your cranks dive the deepest, just don'd rub it into anything - at all. It is NOT abrasion resistant - at all. My last few trips of the fall were on Truman Lake, and I wanted to get my Timber Tiger DC 16 a little deeper than 14 lb test would go. I got some of the new Berkley Armor coated line (which looks and performs suspiciously like the old Iron Silk line) in 10 lb test and it lasted a couple of days with almost no obvious abrasion issues. I threw around alot of deeper trees and bushes. I haven't taken that line off the reel yet and all my stuff is on the bench for a few months - due to weather. We will see how it performs in the early spring as I bounce some deeper cranks off of deeper rocks (12 -18 feet deep)

I have one of the Berkley line spooling stations and it works fine for me. I think the previous suggestions, i.e. that if you are continually getting poor results spooling on your line it is a level wind issue, is correct.

Are you setting up this bag for tournament fishing or just every day fishing? Are you co-angler or do you have your own boat. Makes a difference. When I was doing the co-angler tournament thing, I generally carried a few spare reels (easier to just swap out the reel rather than waste time getting a back lash out) and a few spare spools for my spinning equipment. A few candy bars or Lance crackers generally made it into the bag. Don't forget Handi-wipes. Pliers (needle nose & vice grips),scissors, maps, cigs (should you smoke), hand held GPS, etc. That bag will be full before you know it. The trick to a co-angler bag is to carry every thing you need while going as light as possible. It became my experience that two fairly light bags beat one very heavy bag. P.S., If you're doing tournaments, a rod bag makes transporting rods & reels much easier.

Don't buy cheap on bait casters, it isn't worth it in the long run, especially if you only have a few of them. If you like round reels, go Calcutta. If you like low profile reels, go Curado or Chronarch.

I have a few of the Shimano Spirex reels - in different sizes. I like the Quickfire feature and I've gotten used to the dual handles. They are pretty smooth and they don't eat line, as I recall they are around $60. I'm happy with them. I also have a few of the US Reels Supercasters in the 180 and 240 sizes - and I think those are OK reels too. Rogers Lures in LIberty, MO always has them in stock for around $40. I've fished them for several seasons now and they still work like new. If I had unlimited funds, of course, as a Shimano guy, I'd go with all Stellas, but I don't. My 2 cents.

It took me a solid year of practice to get even halfway decent at pitching. You've just got to practice. Practice in your yard. Be aware that practice in your yard is different than practice in your boat. Practice plugs fly different than lures. Be aware that you can pitch lures other than jigs or soft plastics. Pitching spinnerbaits or square bills through narrow lanes in trees without bringing your rod up over your head is a handy skill to have. Having a good smooth reel where the spool starts to turn quickly without alot of encouragement helps a lot. I didn't get any good at pitching until I got an 11 ball bearing Calcutta TEGT. That reel made learning how to pitch a lot easier and well as greatly extending the range of where I could pitch. Rods, I don't know, everyone has a different idea of what is or what ain't a decent pitching rod. Years ago, when Denny Brauer was first popularizing pitching, I thought that his signature pitching rod had too much tip for me. You'll have to experiment to find out what you like.

One reason for getting cramps is that you're not hydrated. Are you staying hydrated? Drinking a beer every so often isn't staying hydrated, that becomes pain meds - not the same thing. I often eat a couple of Alieve gel caps on the way to the lake, that helps me ignore minor aches and pains. I started wearing a tennis elbow brace this season, and it helped quite a bit with elbow pain. I invested in a much lighter, quality pitching rod this year and that helped the elbow pain more than I thought it would. I also found out that elbow pain was a signal that I was getting sloppy with my pitching technique, I was snapping my wrist too much and being sloppy about the follow through. I was trying to pitch at targets 60 feet away when I didn't have to, i.e. I could have moved the boat closer. Anyway, I think that as you get older you are going to get some aches and pains and you just got to deal with it. I think that I am lucky in that I haven't had any serious back issues.

Do your best to remember everything you might need, knowing it is probable that you'll forget something. My 10 most important might not be your 10 most important. This year I got stressed about leaving my church key in the truck, several minutes later I remembered that it was possible to open a bottle of beer with a pair of pliers. My boat has one pretty deep bin, I try to throw everything I might need into the bin. I used to stress about spacing out my fishing pliers and clippers, I'd use them and then drop them and not remember where I put them. I fixed that issue. I got 6 pairs of pliers and 5 clippers (one of which I wear around my neck) and I strew them around the boat before I start fishing. Now, no matter where I am sitting in my boat I know that there is a pair of pliers close by. But I digress, seriously, I think that a couple of spare drain plugs are important. I think that a few extra shear pins for my trolling motor are important. I think that a first aid kit is important. I think that a set of spare fuses for my trolling motor and electronics wiring is important. When I go fishing by myself, (which is most of the time) I carry 20 to 23 rods, rigged and ready to go. I think that carrying an appropriate lure kit for each of those rods is important. This is one of those questions that everyone solves differently.

I think these baits are a year round option. Any grass/weedy flat where there is room between the top of the grass and the surface, I'll try this bait, maybe not for very long, but I will try it nearly every time out. Every outsize fish I've caught on this bait has been on a straight retrieve, generally moving it along pretty quick. As mentioned earlier, I don't want them to get a great look at it, I want to whiz it past their nose and they either react or don't. For most of this year I tried fishing this bait on braid, but I think I get a little more distance using 17 lb mono, so that is what I went back to this fall. I'll likely stick with that next year. I've got a variety of brands and I try them all, but I keep coming back to the old, out of production Berkley Frenzy, in the 1/2 ounce size, in the shiny, thread fin shad color. Some of my buds tell me that I'm missing the boat by not throwing a red one in the spring, but I don't know.

The thermal cell works ok when you're fishing if you are stationary, anchored or something like that. When you are bass fishing and there is any kind of a breeze or if you are running your trolling motor any faster than a dead slow crawl, the therma cell is ineffective. The protection is literally blown away. I can't speak to the dryer sheet, never heard of it and never tried it. I'll probably try it new year. I keep dryer sheets in my fishing barn for various purposes. When I put the tarp on the boat for the winter, I put dryer sheets in every storage bin, as an anti- stink measure.

Next spring will be my 11th year with my Lower 2002 180WF. Virtually no major problems. I had the lower unit seals fail in 2007, other than that - nothing major. Every other year or so often I get a flat tire on the trailer. At some point I need to re-do the lights on the trailer. I swap out the batteries every other year. Other than the storage kind of sucks, (very limited under deck rod storage) I'm pretty happy with this boat. I've got to recommend LOWE for long term durability so far.

Short answers to your questions. Q - Is it ok to go above or below listed weight ranges on a rod? A - It is your rod - you can do whatever you want with it. Q - Is it smart to go over/under listed weight ranged on a given rod? A - NO.

Not to hijack this thread, but last week I bit on that Cabelas deal, i.e. the US Reels Supercaster Hibdon 800 SX. I haven't put line on it or anything like that, but just playing with it in my living room it seems like a good deal for $40. I'm planning on putting 17 lb mono on it and wearing it out throwing spinnerbaits.

I've read through this thread several times, now I've got to comment. You're what, 15 years old? My advice would be to save your money. Inflatables are a great option to fish out of. They are a pain when they are your only option. There is probably some geezer in your neighborhood who goes fishing a lot or who would go fishing more if they had someone to help load/unload the boat, etc. At 15 years old, that is the option I'd be pursuing. I just turned geezer this year (60+ is officially a geezer). Right now I don't need any help launching/loading the boat and hopefully it will be a long time before I require assistance. When that time comes, I hope someone like that is around, cause I plan on fishing regularly until I stop breathing.

What works for me is storing jigs in boxes, organized in different kits. Finesse jig kit, pitching jig kit, swim jig kit, shakey head kit, bubba shakey head kit and probably several others I can't recall at this moment. I just keep an assortment in each kit and all the spares are stored in the fishing barn. When I fished BFL tournaments, I carried a box of 10 or 12 jigs already rigged, to save time when re-tying. I don't do that so much anymore.

I'd go where I could catch some snake heads. I haven't done any serious meat fishing for a long time and I think it would be cool to come back with a cooler or two full of snake head fillets. If I was going to take a trip to go fishing (and right now I don't have the resources or the time) I go fishing for some species that wasn't readily available at home.

For a modest amount of money you can get an electric scale that will accurately measure to the gram. For some more money, you can get one that measures down to the tenth of a gram. (that level of accuracy seems like overkill to me) Anyway, several years ago, I had the same question, i.e., How much does this bait or that bait weigh? Spend the money, get the scale, then you'll know. As an additional bonus, should you ever spill a box of assorted weights, it makes sorting them out again go much faster. An extra additional bonus, should you ever decide to participate in the recreational chemical industry, an accurate scale is a necessary tool.

Do not lose that little tool that comes with them. They are useless without that tool. Do not get in a hurry with these weights, that little tool is easy to bend. You can bend it too much and then it is worthless. Given these caveats, I've found that they work ok as a tx rig pegged weight. They suck if you're trying to use them in a finesse carolina rig situation, in that they slide down the line more easily than you might expect. I've got some of these, I don't texas rig all that much, but sometimes I'll use the goop weights and sometimes I'll use the screw in weights, I think that they are interchangable and one isn't any better or worse than the other. Oh, yeah, one more thing, should you brain fart and install one backwards, the goop weights are more of a pain to fix, one more step.

Years ago - mid 80's I think, Bagley made a crank bait they called "the Dredge". It was a sinking crank bait along the lines of their classic DBII. It sank like a stone and you could fish it as deep as you could stand it. The issue was to get any decent casting distance or crank bait action, you had to fish it on lighter line - 10 or 12 lb test. Should you get it stuck ( and it was inevitable that it would get stuck) getting it back was problematic. Long extendable crank bait retrievers weren't readily available then and neither were the heavy hound dog style lure retriever. These days, you could fish that bait on 30 lb braid or so and have reasonable expectations of getting it back, especially with the other crank bait retrieval tools. Maybe put some break away split rings on the hooks.

In my workplace life, I deal with people a lot. For the most part I like my job. It is one of the few things in life I'm good at. Now, on my days off, I like to go to a place where I don't have to talk to anyone. I call it a mental health break. I generally fish during the middle of the week, so lots of times on the small conservation lakes I like to fish, I'm the only one there, the only rig at the boat ramp. Being the only one out on a 200 to 400 acre lake is cool. On the days that I do go fishing, I know that there are lots of other things that I could be doing, that would probably be more productive/constructive/responsible in my day to day life. I like the idea that when I'm fishing, I'm playing hooky from life.