wnybassman

Trying fishing with your 5 year old kid on the deck, you get used to bending eyes back. lol

Typically, my wife and I don't buy each other anything for Christmas, but do take advantage of the sales during the couple months leading up until Christmas and just buy ourselves what we want. This year she bought herself a front load washing machine like she has wanted for years. Yeah, I know, but she really likes it. I bought myself a Vexilar 7" color underwater camera. I have been talking about getting a camera for years and it just seemed like the right time (not to mention the right deal). From my dad, I got a pressure washer, which will be great for late season fishing trips to blow the road grime/salt off my boat and trailer.

Last couple years it has been a Zell Pop for me. That popper walks like a dream. Second to that is a Super Spook.

I have had heavily salted plastics "sweat" in cold damp conditions, but that's over a long period of time if in their original packaging. If in open bags or plano boxes it seem to happen much quicker. Everything of mine is kept in a small heated room in my barn.

Same here. Well, not grew up with, but the first bunch of years bass fishing was with the TX's. Caught my first several hundred (or thousand maybe?) smallmouth on Lake Erie with one. Since then I have "upgraded" to Synopates, Solstaces, and a couple Saharas I got at the right price. If I pay more than $50 for a spinning reel, I get all nervous and jerky. lol

I have no experience winter fishing on the bar, but have had good success during the summer and fall. Water temp is key there during those times, and I imagine during the winter would be even more critical, too. If the water coming down the river is colder than the water of Ontario, they probably won't be stacked on the bar, and if they are, it may only be for short feeding bursts, then back off to warmer waters. I'm guessing the river water would be colder seeing Erie freezes (most years) and Ontario doesn't. If the fish moved off the bar and dispersed into the lake further, good luck with that. Smallmouth fishing has been much tougher the last 6 or 8 years compared to years ago, and that is during much better times of the year when they should be easier to find. If I were to try though, I'd be dragging a tube, or darter, or dropshot. I use the term dragging loosely though, because it is more of a lift and drop drifting along with the current while maintaining bottom contact. Spoons and blades would be good too, but not all that easy with the current. Be safe out there if you go.

I powder coat all my dropshot weights I pour. I don't like shiny lead in extremely clear waters.

I don't end my season based on water temperature either. I usually go as long as I can until I see the onset of real long lasting winter weather coming. Two reasons for this. For one I don't like hauling the trailer around on salty roads as it really eats them up pretty good. I have followed enough plow trucks to the launch in the morning before to know what kind of mess that makes. And the second reason is I store the boat in a friends barn and it is lawn getting to the door. Too much snow or soggy ground and I won't get it in there, or will make a mess doing it. More often than not I call it quits the last week of November or the first week of December around here. If I had to pick a water temp, based on what I have experienced over the years, I would call it at about 40º to 42º. Although I have caught fish in the upper 30's, it becomes kinda far and few between. 44º to 52º is my favorite range in the fall.

I wouldn't hesitate to contact a local club to see if they could donate a member or two, and a scale for the day. Sometimes clubs like a little extra exposure, plus you'd have people at the weigh-in to make it go smoother, thus better for the fish. The worst they can say is no.

I have tried many different fancier more expensive gloves over the years and have always come back to the basic brown jersey gloves. I can buy a 12 pair pack for $10 and take several pairs fishing in the cold weather, and just replace as they become wet, and they will become wet, but even damp they keep my hands pretty warm. They are easy to fish with on, and many times I will even tie knots without taking them off. Get home and throw them in the laundry and they are ready for the next trip.

I get a little interference with a H'bird 798 and 788, mainly on very rocky bottoms in more than 25 feet of water. They will tend to "fade out" a little. Pulling the trolling motor or stopping the other will correct it, although I have not found it to be a huge problem.

John spent a half a day in the back of my boat back in 2001 during a get together on Keuka Lake. You will not find anybody that fishes a Slider Worm as good as he. He was plucking largemouth out of areas I wouldn't have even bothered casting to. Just deep plain looking nothingness.

I'm waiting for the End Of World tackle sales from all the online retailers. Gotta be some once in a lifetime deals!!

This is another really funny editing quirk as well, but I'd rather not say it here. lol

Did you happen to catch the one shot where the console is on the wrong side of my boat? lol

The story behind that is...............I had caught a couple fish on a particular drop, but couldn't get bit again. So I dropped a buoy and moved off the spot giving it a rest. Soon we hear hootin' and hollerin' and look back and they had moved onto my buoy and were whacking fish! lol Made for a good show anyway.

I have a small collection of older and newer "Highroller" topwater baits. The bait idea was conceived by Blake Gills many years ago, who eventually sold them through the Smithwick brand. Somehow the ties were lost with Smithwick and a company was born called the High Roller Fishing Lure Company. I think Blake was hooked up with this company for a period of time, but somehow left or was asked to leave. Can't remember the full story. Anyway, about a dozen years ago I was in contact with Blake for a while and he sent me a matching pair of large and small Highrollers custom painted and signed.

I just picked up this rod during the St. Croix sale as well. This fall it made a great blade bait rod for me, although during the summer months it will likely become my heavy cover dropshot rod.

I like the episode "The Curse Of Lunkerville" :whistle:

I've only passed one stone and had the same experience. When moving from the kidney to the bladder it was pain beyond belief (I literally thought I was dying) but when it made its exit it actually kind of tickled.

Nice job! I quit smoking about a dozen or more years ago now, but still can't shake my poor eating habits.

Do you grow tomatoes?

Roll it into buying more tickets...............feed the addiction.

The number one reason I put my boat up during the late November/early December time frame is salt on the roads. Road salt just plain eats up boat trailers. Fishing gets tougher at this time of year on most lakes, but we have several larger bodies of water nearby that offer good to excellent bass fishing well into December (and beyond) because the water temp is still a fair amount warmer. I know several guys that boat all winter long on a couple of the larger Finger Lakes that never freeze.