Fishes in trees

I generally just eyeball it. My goal with bait casters is to get the spool as full as possible without over-filling it. With spinning reels I leave a 1/8"to 1/16" gap between the end of the line and the lip of the spool. If you are using the spinning reel to throw cranks, there isn't any issue to filling it up right up to the edge.

I've got one of the Cabelas "trailerable" covers and it works ok. It doesn't fit perfect - but it fits well enough. You need to leave enough room in the straps so that it is adjustable, i.e. maybe I have the pro pole in the front and maybe the sit down seat. Maybe I have the seat installed in the back deck and maybe I don't. You can tighten up the straps so that it fits very snug. If you let it sit in the motel parking lot all day, when it is raining too much to even go out, there will be some puddling issues. A little electric pump takes care of that. Deal with the straps flapping in the wind by duct taping them against the hull. Works for me. The farthest I've ever trailered the boat under these conditions is around 200 miles.

What hp is the boat rated for? Is it a 2 stroke or 4 stroke motor? If it floats and it gets you on the water and the motor works ok and stuff like that and it is the best you can do right now - go for it. If you are on bigger waters and running any distance, you will find that the boat is a little under-powered, that's just my opinion, anyway. For putting around on smaller lakes, it would be ok.

Draw a picture - or describe it - or mention some link where I might see it - please.

I own a few Fenwick HMG rods and Aetos rods. I have never been disappointed by their customer service. Over the past couple of years I have broken a couple of HMG rods and one Aetos rod (all of them my fault, doing something stupid) and Fenwick has replaced them each time for $10. One time they did have me ship the rod to them, which cost a few dollars, but overall I am a big fan of HMG and Aetos rods. That's where I look first when I feel like I need a new rod.

I didn't like the stuff for jigs and stuff because it was green and I fish clear to mildly stained waters more often than not. I prefer fluorocarbon for that duty. I thought that the abrasion resistance of that line was outstanding and so I liked it a lot for throwing trap style baits and square bills. I'm glad they brought it back. It wasn't a bad spinner bait line either. I found routine treatments with KVD line treatment or the line magic spray worked well to keep it manageable with very few backlashes, and I was often winding up and throwing rattle baits with it as far as I could. I mostly used 17 and 20 lb test.

If you are ok going over a hundred dollars for a bait caster, go $180 or so for a new Shimano Curado or Chronarch. If you insist on a round reel go Calcutta. Whatever you do, buy quality. No matter what brand, a couple of steps up the line is generally considerably better than the "starter" reel.

I experimented with jika rigs quite a bit last year, here are my thoughts. I don't think that the hook resting in the little niche created by the split is a problem, I never had a split ring open there when I got rigs stuck and I got them stuck some. Leaving the hook in the niche, you had unlimited left/right flexibility and enough up and down flexibility, at least for me. All the ones I fished last year were 3/8 oz and bigger, mostly in the half ounce, 5/8 oz size. I don't see the need to ever go smaller than 3/8 oz. One of the points of the rig is to drop down and get to the bottom asap. If you are looking to get bit on the initial drop, I think that there are better baits to use. I fished my jika rigs a lot on deep weed line edges, I made my rigs as slick as possible, with nothing "sticking out" unnecessarily. I wonder if the snap would attract more weeds/moss. You can build jika rigs with the weight very close to the hook or an inch or 3 away from the bait. I found a modest distance, around an inch between the top of the weight and the bait, worked best for me. It could be that that is the model I fished the most. Any more distance than 3 inches, you might as well fish a drop shot, which is another way to think of the jika rig, i.e. a drop shot rig with a very short distance between the weight and the bait. Jika rigs have become my first choice for presenting baits on the bottom deeper than 10 feet.

I think that it is a good idea to have your own. That being said, I generally have a couple of extra ones in the fishing truck.

I want a Yeti, but I can't afford one right now or in the foreseeable future. Getting into the "popular priced" coolers, I own a few Coleman and Igloo ones. In my experience the Coleman ones hold ice longer than the igloo ones do. I own an older Coleman Extreme model, one of the silver grey/white models. In the middle of summer, it keeps ice for a day or so (I know they say 5 days, that's a lie) and beverages will stay cool enough to be drinkable for another day or so. Longer in the spring and fall. I keep trying to talk myself into one of those retro-styled steel belted coolers, but I'm having trouble getting past the C-note price.

No, lets not cut him any slack on spelling & grammar. Son - spell better. Know your homonyms, and other aspects of grammar. You're 14 years old, according to your posted info, so you ought to know better. I'm fairly certain this stuff was covered in 4th, 5th and 6th grade grammar. As you get older and communicate more electronically, poor spelling and grammar leave an impression that isn't easily corrected. This being said, I am aware that typing mistakes happen. Now that I'm finished being snarky, I wonder who that fishing guide cribbed that old saying from. In the spring of 1980, at one of the old Bass Fishing Institute seminars, I heard Billy Murray bust out with that saying and that wasn't the first time I'd heard it. I'm thinking the first time I heard it was an old Gadabout Gaddis show and he obviously heard it from someone else. Also, be mindful of the flip side of that saying, i.e. "If you have so much time that you can fish all you want and then some, you are either retired or unemployed." Speaking from experience, I've had extended periods of unemployment and fishing wasn't any fun then. One, I felt guilty spending what limited fiscal resources I had on fishing. Two, there wasn't any sense of "playing hooky", getting away from work, which I think many of us would agree is an important aspect of fishing. And that concludes this rant.

You just got to try different things. Club fishing might help - but there isn't any substitute for choosing a technique, acquiring appropriate gear & baits and trying it out for a while. Thinking that you can learn by observation will only take you so far. Any fishing technique known to man - there are articles out there explaining it somewhat. You've got to fill in the blanks with your own experience. A few questions. Got a boat? There is a fairly significant learning curve to learning how to fish from a boat as opposed to the bank. Buy a boat or find a buddy or acquaintance who has a boat. Option B would be to find a private lake where the owners keep a boat on it and ingratiate yourself so that you can fish that lake and borrow the boat. This is what I did when I was transitioning from bank fishing to boat fishing. It is all a matter of research, experimenting and fine tuning your gear. Nearly any gear issue can be solved by throwing money at it. After all this, if you are looking for a place to start - I'd recommend a Ned rig. There is a bunch of information out there as far and what is and what isn't a ned rig. Pick and choose. More questions. Is there a fishing tackle store near you? Go there with the intention of striking up a conversation with whoever is there. I've gotten access to really nice watersheds through idle chit-chat in the Walmart tackle aisle. What kind of community education resources are in your neighborhood? Nearly every college has a communiversity program - most junior colleges do as well. Maybe the high school has a continuing education program - maybe there is a high school fishing team. I don't know what resources are in your area, but if I lived where you live, I'd find out. The links section of this forum shows 10 different bass clubs in Indiana and I'm guessing that isn't an exhaustive list. Just some stuff to think about and maybe help you out.

Over the years, I've found when I was going to commit to the buzz bait and throw it for half an hour or so, the best buzz bait trailer for me was a larger pork frog or one of those pork lizards. It adds to the weight of the bait, so you can throw it farther and it creates a drag so it is a little easier to keep it on top going a little slower. Color really doesn't matter I don't think, because all you're really doing is creating a shape for the fish to focus in on. Brown or green/white spots are probably the most readily available. I'd probably throw a half ounce buzz bait. The extra weight might get you a little more distance and distance = covering the water and that is what is important with a buzz bait more often than not.

Son, you are young and you are in Kansas. Learn how to fish the Ned rig. Get a medium of the line rod & reel and it will last you the rest of your life. There are several guys on the Central States forum who fish the Ned rig quite a bit. Some of them live in Wichita. Good luck.

A long time ago, when I started learning on a bait caster, there were a few articles here and there in fishing magazines, but I really didn't have a teacher or much instruction, I had to figure it out on my own. Coming from spinning gear, as my spinning casting skills improved, I was more and more able to deliver "line drive" type casts, straight to the target. Casting with bait casters, you've got to lose that "line drive" mentality and visualize your casts in curves and arcs. You have to learn how to feel the rod loading. If the rest of your casting process isn't in synch with the rod loading, backlashes will happen. A switch to straight handle rods was a blessing to me, because it let me cast with two hands easier. For me, especially in overhead casts, where I am going for distance, two handed casts are critical. For me, the instant you feel the rod want to go forward, it is a coordinated push/pull/ thumb release movement. The back cast loads the rod. (two hands make a sharper, more forceful back cast ) The instant you feel the rod want to go forward, you help it, by pushing with your top hand and pulling with the lower hand, thumb releases the spool, and if done correctly, lure sails in a modest arc out toward your target. I don't know how to explain it any better than that. With the exception of pitching, where I start out with one hand on the rod (with thumb on the reel) and my other hand holding the bait, most of my casting is done two handed, using some variation of the push/pull motion. You can do it sidearm, three quarters more or less over wither shoulder, directly overhead, whatever. Some rods are easier to load and to feel than others, but the principle is the same no matter what power or action of rod you choose. At this point I think that you just need to practice some in the back yard and find a technique that works for you. Buy a bulk spool of cheaper mono and you won't feel so bad about backlashes. You are going to get back lashes in the learning process.

My current favorite, for soft plastic presentations other than wacky senkos, is a 7'2" Fenwick Aetos MH with an extra fast tip paired with a Curado 50E. I've got other rigs that cost more money, but this one is my current favorite

Should I add a second set-up? What a silly question. You should only buy as many rods & reels as you can afford. Now that I'm done being snarky, seriously, another rig or two gives you more presentation options. For me, fishing gear, rods, reel and so forth can be bought, but fishing time cannot, I only get so much fishing time each year. For me, saving time buy not having to stop and tie knots, just pick up a different rig for a different presentation, that is worth it. You get to decide if it is worth it for you. You don't have to buy them all at once. Buy a good new rig once a year, take care of your stuff and in a decade you will have lots of options. I've got half a dozen bait casters that are more than 10 years old that work perfectly, actually they are better than new because they have been well maintained properly oiled, greased, etc and now that they have been used for a while, they are "broke in" and have a smoothness that just doesn't happen for a while with new reels. Don't ever feel like you have to buy all the gear at once. Your fishing habits will change and evolve and your gear choices and purchases will reflect this, over time.

What kind of storage do you mean? In boat? In truck for transport? In your fishing room/garage/ man cave/ what have you? For me, prior to upgrading to a bigger boat, (circa 2001), I built a bigger garage so that I could keep my fishing truck and boat hooked up, most of the time. For years after that, every time I saw shelving get down to $10-12 bucks, I would buy another shelf. A couple of times, the heavy duty plastic shelving got down to around $30, so I've picked up a few of those shelving units. If you have an unheated garage, anything you can do to avoid storing stuff on the gravel floor, you do. That is mouse proofing 101. Soft plastics need to be sorted. Every time plastic shoe boxes got on sale at Walmart for around a buck, I bought a dozen of them. My guess would be that I have more than a hundred of them right now, probably less than 200, which seems like a lot, but over time isn't that much. Storage extends down both the 40' length of the north & south wall of the fishing barn now. I have a number of the larger plastic totes, to store stuff like extra fishing bags and other stuff that won't fit into plastic shoe boxes. The most important think for any storage system is labeling. You can waste a lot of time going through different boxes and totes, looking for something, time that could have been saved through proper labeling. I've tired numerous labeling system. Sharpies and colored duct tape make the best, least prone to fading and falling off labels that I've found. Stick on paper labels are not very dust resistant, if you keep all your stuff inside, that isn't an issue. Keep all your stuff in an unheated garage and it is an issue. I think that it is important to realize that how you store and organize your gear is an ongoing issue that is only solved, if it is ever solved, on a temporary basis. There is no way that I could ever be as neat as some of the storage pictures posted demonstrate. Just not wired that way. One more thing, as you are making attempts to organize your storage area, make sure that it is easy to get to your ghetto blaster and cooler. I find that storage issues are easier to deal with when I've got the tunes blasting at a decent volume and I have easy access to a cold one. Have a few cold ones, and your serious storage issues don't seem so pressing, at least for a while.

I don't have a choice. I have to have prescription lenses. I have my indoor glasses and I have a set of polarized lenses for outdoor wear. In prescription lenses, dark grey or dark green are your options, I went with the dark grey. If I'm outside, I've got my sunglasses on, I get a headache if I don't. Polarized prescription lenses cost me on the order of $500 more or less. I get the highest tech ones available, with the spring back frames, the largest tear drop size available and whatnot.

That is an interesting design. I'd be more inclined to fish that natural brownish color in clearer/ lightly stained water, but that is just me. There isn't a good reason not to use it in more stained/muddier water. With the two in-line hooks, I would try to rig up some sort of trailer. Nose hooking a Zoom swimming chunk off the rear hook seems easy enough. They make longer trailers. Maybe something like a cut down paddle tail worm, nose hooked through the front of the worm and tex-posed through the body with the second hook. That would add something flopping off the back of the spinner bait and give the fish something soft to chomp down on, which might give you a second or two more to set the hook. You could do something similar with a boot tailed worm, like a swimming senko or one of the clones of that style. You got lots of options. Just my opinion, if I was throwing that bait, I'd rig some sort of trailer on it.

Right now, I can't count how many different sized tackle bags I own, most of them picked up as close outs from Walmart, Cabelas, where ever. That isn't a bad size bag. And it is kind of on sale, which is a plus. Not being on sale is never a reason not to get something. The best rule of thumb is to get the size you want when you want it. If you can afford it - get it - or wait til you can. When I was fishing tournaments, I carried a couple of smallish day bags for tournament day/practice days, filled with stuff I was planning/ might use that day. One bag had hard baits, terminal tackle, spare reels and I was pretty careful where I put it in the boat, usually strapped to the back seat with several heavy duty velcro straps. The other bag carried soft plastics and stuff that didn't matter if it got stepped on and that got shoved up under the console. I found that carrying two bags minimized the time I spent looking for something compared to having all the stuff in one larger bag. I knew lots of guys who got by with one bag, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. In my fishing truck, I had two Cabelas Magnum sized fishing bags and before that a couple of larger sized gym bags. This carried all of the back up tackle that I thought I might use or need to restock between fishing days. Another option for back up tackle storage is the soft sided airline carry on bags, which go on sale at Walmart for around $10 or so a couple of times per year. These stack better in the fishing truck, compared to the Cabelas Magnm bags. No matter which of these soft sided bags you use, when you first get them, it is a good idea to use skotchguard inside and out and then give it time to air out. They will be a little more water repellant and stain resistant after the treatment. Hope this helps.

For me, all used plastics get thrown into the rear passenger corner of the boat. Every few weeks, I will run into my buddy who is into remelting and molding plastics. Then he gets a gallon zip lock bag half full of used plastics. Some brands re-melt better than others, apparently. A couple of times, in the parking lot over a beer he took the time to pick out all the power baits, saying that they didn't melt down well. Other times he's just taken the bag without comment. So, that's what I do with my used plastics, I recycle them, I just don't recycle them personally.

I don't flip very much, so I can't speak to that. I pitch quite a bit. I think that it is all about practice, the more you do it the better you get. I will pitch at an object if I think I can hit it. That varies from day to day, 30 to 40 feet is common. The conservation lakes that I fish in are relatively clear water so I don't want to get too close. In muddy/seriously stained water, I think that you can get closer. The maneuver I work on most now, is when the bait hits the water, usually a little long ( on purpose ), then I drag it on the surface to where I want it to drop straight down. Then let it drop. Flicking the spool with your thumb to pay out 6 or 8 feet of line and then stopping it again to avoid a backlash, while allowing for a directly vertical drop, as much as possible, is a constant challenge for me. Some days I do a good job with that maneuver, others I am picking out backlashes every few casts. Seems like a heavy weight helps, the jika rigs that I pitch to deep weed lines are half ounce, minimum. I pitch wacky senkos quite a bit. The weighted, weedless hook I use, o-ring and senko, all together weigh right around 3/8 oz. I find that bait relatively easy to pitch out to 30 or 40 feet. Longer distances are a challenge. If I need to go longer than that, I'll pick up my spinning rig, with braid & fluorocarbon leader and throw a tx rigged stick bait, fluke, tube, whatever. I generally start out with 5 or 6 rods rigged for pitching and then another couple of spinning rigs. A couple of the bait casters will have similar jig/soft plastics combinations, but different line weights. One is always rigged with 10 lb Abrazx for throwing a 1/4 oz jig/soft plastic combination. I always carry a couple of similar weights jika rigs with different line weights. Then there will be a dedicated wacky senko rod. The Fenwick AETOS with 15 lb Abrazx and a lighter rod with the 10 lb abrazx will see most of the action, but I like to have the others rigged and ready for back up. I understand that many rods is overkill and when I fish as a co-angler, or have another guy in my boat, I cut down on the number of rigs somewhat.

All bait casters are easy to use - once you learn how to use them. Catch 22. No company sets out to make a bait caster that is difficult to use. Some are easier to use than others. There is a learning curve to using any bait caster. The notion of getting a reel that you like, mentioned by a prior poster, isn't a bad idea, if she does't like it, at least you've got one you can use. I would avoid getting any "starter" reel, any reel that has fewer features that the one you've got. That would cause more problems than it would solve. My advice is to be a nice guy, bite the fiscal bullet and get her a nice one. I'd recommend the Chronarch 50. The smaller size would fit her hand better, it is a little cheaper to spool up. I think I spend around $180 for the last Chronarch 50 I got.

Every fish is different. My advice is to try to pay attention and not hurt yourself. I carry a hibernet, a long shaft fish gripper and a shorter fish gripper in the boat and use which ever is appropriate. I bring all 3 every time because I know if I forget one, that will be the one I need. Any fish that I think I can swing into the boat, I swing into the boat. Once, when I was fishing a BFL I had a boater try to swing a 3 lb or so fish into the boat - rod broke – broke rod cut the line - fish lost. I felt bad but also I felt that he could have called net, and maybe I would have netted the fish and maybe I wouldn't have, but in either case, his $300 more or less Loomis rod wouldn't have busted. So the point of this post is to use your best judgement, try to have the correct tools for the job on hand, and try not to do something dumb.