Fishes in trees

The primary function of my windshield is to hold some rod clips, so that on the driver side of the deck the rods are angled off the deck and easier to grab . My windshield is low enough that I don't need to look through it to see where I'm going.

I'm similar to the prior poster, except my bait casting reels have to say Shimano on the side. I'm not going to throw Ned rigs with a bait caster. I won't buy reels through the internet (or rods either) unless I'm replacing one I already know or just getting another one, so my local fishing story where I buy all my reels has to have it in stock. It makes a difference what I'm going to use it for - reaction baits or "feel baits". I'm pretty set on reaction bait reels with Calcutta 250 TEGTs. I have a couple of Curado D's ( long out of production ) which had a wide spool and are great for throwing square bills and cranks. This year I upgraded my spinner bait act with a Curado DC. Primarily though, my bait casters have to say Shimano on the side. I don't think you can go wrong with a mid-range & up Shimano bait caster.

I fish stumpy lakes a lot. Go slow and run with your engine tilted up some. If you have a hydraulic jack plate, use it to lift your motor up as far as possible. When, not if, you get hung up on a stump, most of the time you can back off, or spin off. Powering over it is a last resort. I've torn up enough transducers, that I installed a Vexilar Alumaducer - which can send a signal through an aluminum hull just like a fiberglass one. I carry a push pole and 100' of rope. I've never gotten so stuck that I had to try to use the rope to get someone else pull my off a stump, but I have pulled other guys off stumps, who were high centered and their trolling motor & oars couldn't get them of. Point here is that it is better to have it and not need it than visa versa. If I had got to do it all over again, I'd get an Express, or some other boat where the reinforcement is placed on the inside of the hull, and the outside of the hull is smooth. My Lowe has external strakes and while they help with steering, they also serve a stump catchers. My buddy's Express slides off stumps much better than my boat does.

I'm a big fan of the Timber Tiger. My first choice when I tie on a square bill. They very seldom get hung up by the hooks, they very occasionally get wedged, happens when you throw into a V at odd angles. They come in various sizes. I'm a big fan of the DC 16 when throwing at trees and you're looking for a major horizontal limb about 10' down. For throwing at laydowns, I'd start with the DC 8 & 20 lb line, so you're maybe diving 6' max . These are plastic baits, not balsa. The DC 8 weighs half an ounce, so it is easy to throw. You can get a DC5 which is kinda thinner and weighs 3/8 oz, more or less.

It depends on where I'm throwing. Currently on my dedicated 10" power worm rig, I'm throwing 17 lb Abrazx. On slightly lighter rigs, where mostly I'm throwing 5' stick worms into cover, 15 lb Abrazx is where I'm at right now. On my bubba drop shot rig, which I occasionally tx rig baits, 20 lb fluorocarbon gets the nod right now.

Plano makes 3600 & 3700 size crank bait boxes that will hold jerk baits. They are cheaper than the Shimano boxes. Be mindful that those Shimano boxes won't fit all jerk baits. Purchase one ( while you're at the store, size it up to your brand of jerk baits to make sure they fit. ). I generally put one bait per slot. Fill it up. Repeat (buy another and fill it up ) If the box you get has large enough compartments to put 2 baits in, use plastic hook bonnets to ease the tangling issues. I looked at the Bass Mafia jerk bait coffin, but I didn't like how it would fit in my boat bin. The 3700 & 3600 sizes are much more predictable.

Cheap/Expensive are relative terms to me. I know that since 2002 (when I first became aware of them ) no stick bait has compared favorably to a senko to me, when it comes to drifting down wacky rigged next to an object. Use o-rings and then last several fish per baits, at least they do for me. I don't find them expensive when considering the results I get. Tx-rigged stick baits are a different story. My experience has been that many brands work just as well as senkos when tx-rigged and thrown into cover, or at an object, so there are cost savings to be had there. Hard baits? I don't know. I know that where I fish the prime pre-spawn jerk bait time only lasts a few weeks, and I almost always want a Lucky Craft tied on. In my experiences, they just work better. I base this judgement on trial & error. For a few years, I was seriously into collecting jerk baits, I don't know the current count ( likely more than 90, less than 150.). For me, the Lucky Craft baits have been more reliable than Rogues, or Long A's, or Husky Jerks, or Redfins, or any number of other sets of jerk bait that I've purchased. Also it seems like on days when the Pointer didn't want to work, the Staysee did. So, as far as jerk baits go, Lucky Crafts have been more reliable for me, making the cheap/expensive argument moot. Lipless cranks - I've got a few of those also. Seems like they all cost around the same. The old Berkley Frenzy works best for me. Long out of production, I've got 4 left. Billed cranks - these seem more like baits that I collect, rather than fish with. I've got hundreds of them. 90% of them time, it seems if I'm throwing a crank, I'm throwing a Timber Tiger of one size or another. Once upon a time, these were considered a "premium" crank, price wise, at least where I buy stuff. These days, they are unavailable, I haven't seen any on shelves for several years. For several years the BPS in Independence and Springfield dedicated end cap space to this brand. On the subject of the big square bills, I've got to admit that I've found some bargains at Academy. A couple of years ago they put their version of the Strike King square bill on sale at 2 for $5. I've got a nice set of them now. Had to buy a couple of Plano crank boxes to store them in. Got no complaints about those baits, when they work, they work good and they come through brush & trees much better than I thought that they would. I guess the point of this rant is that I don't consider cheap/expensive very much when purchasing fishing gear, baits in particular. If I want/got to have it - I buy it. I understand that I'm somewhat addicted to purchasing new gear and that I'm leaving an interesting issue for any heirs that I might have. Rods & reels are a different story - nearly all of my rods & reels are mid-range to low end expensive and I've only paid full retail for a couple of them. I shop for bargains/close outs/ and some of the stores I frequent will deal on reel purchases. So, the cheap/expensive issue comes into play when buying rods and reels, at least for me. Terminal tackle - I can remember times when you couldn't convince me that lead sinkers were just as good as tungsten, I mean really, how much difference can the modest differences in size & weight make? Then I tried tungsten and these days I only carry a small box of back up lead worm weights, tungsten makes a big enough difference to me that it is worth the cost difference. So, that's my opinion of this matter, currently.

I have a Leatherman Wave in my back pack and it goes everywhere I go. Every time I'm in a place where I need to pull it out and actually do something with it I am reminded that it is a compromise and just a kinda ok substitute for real tools - even the church key.

Try it and see. There is generally a "fudge factor" built into the recommendations of what a rod can and can't throw. However, if you want to get a rod that can absolutely, positively handle a 1.92 oz crank, get a Muskie rod. I won't tattle if you use it fishing for bass. I've got an old 7' Team Diawa (late 90's vintage) Muskie rod, and it turns out that it works out great for throwing A-rigs.

I genuinely sucked at bass fishing until the mid 70's when I came across Fishing Facts magazine. An article about Brewer Sliders piqued my interest and I got into a light/finesse style of fishing. Then I tried to adapt everything I read in Fishing Facts to my particular situation. That became easier once I gained access to a boat. Then I bought another spinning rig, so I cold throw Rapalas & light cranks parallel to weedlines. Then I bought a bait caster and other techniques became accessible to me. Now I have dozens of different bait casting & spinning rigs, not to mention trout & catfish and tail race gear. I've found that collecting gear can get very addictive, but it doesn't weird me out or anything - seems like everyone is addicted to something.

I know several local pros & semi-pros who keep a clean jersey, colorful, with all their sponsors on it, and don't bust it out until it is time to go to weigh in - as one buddy told me, "These things cost too much to fish in them and get dirt & dye & fish guts & blood on them. They are pretty obvious about getting tied up after they check in post- tournament and if they have fish, put on their jersey prior to going to stand in the bag line. The vast majority of the tournaments I've fished in Missouri, you don't bring your own bag and if you do bring fish in your own bag, you've got to wait in the bag line and get a tournament bag prior to weighing your fish. This is when you want folks to see your in your jersey - unless you've got a camera man in your boat or something like that. The pre-tournament meeting is also a good time to bust out your jersey. College fishing - I don't know. I can see the advantage of looking like part of a team out on the water, but I also know that is where you're going to get it dirty, and a dirty jersey, at the weigh in or at the next tournament ( because you couldn't get the dye stains or the fish blood out) doesn't impress anyone. Classic case of pick-em.

Leading off, rod wise - anything is a step up from an Ugly Stick IMO. I own numerous spinning reels, from low end to mid range and for me, the primary thing that a spinning reel does is hold line. As long as the spool isn't stuffed or scratched, casting distance is very similar in the reels I own (from $40 Diawas & Pfluegers ) to $120 or so Shimano & Diawas. As you go up money wise, the overall quality of the reel ( gears & drag ) improves, but they are still mainly line holders. If it were me, I'd keep the reel for now and seriously upgrade the rod - Fenwick HMG or something similar. I have a St Croix Mojo spinning rod that I like, also an old Kistler & Diawa LT. Upgrade the reel later. If you can swing it cash wise upgrade both at the same time - being mindful that the point of this whole exercise it to accumulate as many rods & reels as you can during your lifetime. You should have lots more time to get lots more gear.

Every boat has a total weight number - be aware of that total weight number. I used to own a 10' by 4' Water Buster. It was heavy enough that it came on its own trailer. You could launch it on gravel ramps, but concrete ramps were easier, and I grew to like the 50 to 200 acre conservation lakes anyway. Anyway , on my boat, that number was a hard number in that it handled great until you got close to the number, but get close or exceed that number and capsizing was a real possibility. If you fish with 2 guys I don't recommend standing up.

If I'm bouncing around rocks, I find a football head works best. I have some 1/4, 1/8 & 1/16 oz football heads in my creek fishing bag - made by Strike King - forget the hook size right now. I don't creek fish very often but I carry a variety of jig head in my creek fishing bag (In addition to the Ned gear - which comes in its own bag )

I haven't figured out a good way to ask them, however once I figure that out I'm pretty sure that they know there are different days of the week, have reasonable knowledge of when dawn & dusk are likely to happen, are knowledgeable about what turns on and turns off baitfish and other prey, and they are pretty clued in to what season it is.

I like ones I found at Walmart - 1/16 oz - size 2 hook - decent bait holder - mushroom head - made by Arkie - reasonable price. An alternative is a Brewer Slider Spider head 1/16 or 1/8 rigged tex-posed.

What I would do in this situation is to buy a reel with a gear ratio that you like better. 7-1 gear ratio is more of a pitching reel than cranking. Me - I like a Calcutta 200 TEGT for throwing cranks and mine has a 5-1 gear ratio. No matter what gear ratio reel you've got, I think it is a bad idea to purposefully take 20 years of line off of it prior to fishing and I wouldn't do it on purpose. If I somehow lost 20 years of line while fishing, I'd probably keep fishing it - Who am I kidding - no I wouldn't - I'd grab one of the 3 or 4 back up reels I generally carry in the boat. Changing the subject - if the original poster has a 7 SPEED reel, with 7 different gear ratio choices, I want one. I have an old Shimano Beastmaster 2 speed reel and it worked kinda ok. A 7 speed reel would be fun to play with.

I have several different brands of 100 size reels. I've used 20 lb braid on all of them - or 14 lb Fireline -e or 6 or 8 lb mono. No issues. I use a 1000 size Pflueger President? ( I don't remember the name) on a MH Fenwick HMG rod and I just lock down the drag. I generally throw a Neko rig or a wacky rig senko. Never had a situation with a fish where I had to seriously back down on the drag.

I like my Falcon Buccoo Trap caster. One of the few rods that I've paid full retail price for. Saw it as Walmart, liked it, bought it. I believe that it does have micro guides, but I haven't fished it in cool enough weather for that to matter. I use either a Calcutta TE or a Calcutta TEGT or an older Curado D and 17 or 20 lb test on this rod. With any of the 3 reels mentioned, it can throw a half ounce lipless crank a long ways. Prior to that, BPS used to market, in their Extreme series, aWoo Davis Special. Woo described it as a pitching rod, I tried it for that and it had WAY too much tip for me for pitching. However, IMO, it makes a great square bill/lipless crank/ buzz bait/chatterbait rod. The handle on this rod is "funky". I think that it is specially made not to fit anyone's hand. Using bicycle handlebar tape, I was able to make it fit my hand very well. Just happen to have a 2019 BPS Master Catalog close at hand, here at my desk and it doesn't seem like the BPS Extreme series is offered anymore. At the $180 level, it seems like the Johnny Morris Platinum signature series, (the red ones) have a 7'4" listed that has similar stats to the BPS Extreme I mentioned earlier. Have to go touch it to know for sure & don't have any plans to go near BPS any time soon. (BPS is in a different part of the KC Metro area than I normally frequent, so I have to make an effort to drive to that part of town, or drive south to Olathe.)

Son, lead off with one question at a time. Your posts has hundreds, if not thousands of questions in it. It is pretty easy to get off track - like I'm going to do now. First, to echo a prior post - I never drag a senko. I throw to an object ( what ever that might be in my mind at that moment ) and let it drop. That's it, no twitches, flips, anything like that, just let it drop. I liken it to throwing a knuckleball in that after you turn it lose you got to trust it. When it hits the bottom, I let it set for a short while, then pull it up quick. I might stop half way back for a second or two, might not. I have had days when the pause at the half way back retrieve was the ticket. Other baits, I'm not very good at spinnerbaits, although I upgraded my gear quite a bit this year in an attempt to get better. All I can tell you about retrieve speeds is that if I can see the bait real well, I'm unlikely to get bit. If I can't see the bait at all, I don't get bit very often. My best retrieve speed with spinnerbaits (I generally throw half ounce) is when I can very occasionally see the flash of the blade. I generally fish in relatively clear water, with a secci disc reading of 3' to 5.5' most of the time.

. .. beer tastes better out of a Yeti . . .Son, it is a joke, and a self-deprecating joke at that. He spent $400 more or less on a cool toy that is ultimately kinda inconsequential, during his mid life existential crisis. Pretty much every guy goes through one - or two or how ever many, you might need to stay conscious & relatively sane. If I spent 4 bills on a Yeti, you can bet that I'd be telling myself that beer tasted better out of it too. As mentioned previously, the only reasons I can't personally confirm that theory is (a) I don't own a Yeti and (b) we don't have the same tastes in beer, so my tasting his beer out of his cooler isn't a fair test. (That's a joke also )

I got the nickname because I fish around trees a lot. If buds show up to a lake after I do, then they pretty much know where to find me, because much more often than not, I'm fishing around trees. That being said, my handle isn't "Leaves baits in Trees". I'm glad Brett's daddy found a decent bait - however, shame on the guy who left it in the tree when it could have been easily retrieved. Probably the spiritual cousins of some of the guys that fish the lakes I fish, who leave balls of used line lying in the parking lot and hanging from trees & bushes. I've got very little use for those guys.

Last fall, I was towing my boat and somehow a crosswind messed up the lid to the cooler that I keep bungeed to my boat. Stopping at the next Walmart I came to, I found one of the Lifetime coolers, on sale for less than I expected. I was on vacation and had some spare money, so - what the heck - I'm now the proud owner of a Lifetime cooler. The one down side to the cooler is that it is HEAVY. Filled up with water, a few beers & ice, I can't lift it by myself up onto the rear deck of my boat - so I put the cooler on the deck first and then stock it with the beverage selection of the day. I haven't been fishing very often this year, health issues & whatnot, so I've been using the cooler as a beer cooler in the back of my UTV. I think it works great as a beer cooler. A 20 lb sack of ice lasts a couple of days with no pre-cooling at all. If after a day or two you need to re-stock the cooler and put in new beer with what is left of the already cool beer, a 20 lb sack of ice lasts for 3 days or so more. My buddy - who has a Yeti purchased during his mid-life crisis a few years ago, swears that beer tastes better out of a Yeti - I wouldn't know, mainly because we have very different ideas about what is and what ain't decent beer and the beer he purchases wouldn't taste decent to me even under the most pristine serving conditions. I would like to have a Yeti 65 and test out his hypothesis about beer tasting better out of a Yeti personally, but I really don't see the cash available for that purchase in the near (or distant ) future. I can testify that beer tastes ok out of my imitation Yeti cooler and pre-chilled or not, ice lasts longer in it that it does in the multiple Coleman coolers that are strewn around my garage & fishing shed. The rest of the story - turns out that the lid that I thought was destroyed was actually fixable with new hinges, much longer screws and spray in foam insulation. One more thing - the drain on the Favorits can let water seep around the threads and make a little puddle of water in the bed of your UTV. Plumbers thread tape fixes that.

If I really had to have an answer to this question, I'd call up War Eagle and ask them.

I came in late to this party so I really don't care who puts what on a fishing jersey. If you're willing to be a walking billboard for free - good for you - I'm not a big fan of that so I don't. I own a few SPF 50 fishing hoodies and I wish they didn't have any logos at all. Now, referring to the previous post - Volzfan 59 - check with your state grand lodge - I don't know about Tennessee, but in Missouri, the grand lodge won't let a lodge put the Masonic square & compasses logo on a boys or girls baseball or softball team shirt that is sponsored by the lodge, so I'm pretty sure that putting the Masonic square & compasses on your fishing jersey is a bad idea - in Missouri. Your state grand lodge may have a different opinion, but I'd check first prior to putting it on a jersey. Probably no issue wearing a Masonic pin or two on the jersey, I don't know. I do know that I'm a Mason and I wouldn't do it. I'd get an informed opinion from someone in your grand lodge prior to purchasing the jersey. Masonic grand lodges can get pretty pissy about where they put and don't put their logo. So I've heard - or at least that is what I heard when I was in charge of purchasing the T-shirts of boys & girls teams that my lodge sponsored.