Bankbeater

Last Saturday I was out in the yard, digging up a spot of ground, getting ready to plant grass seed. I looked over and saw a tick on a blade of grass. The grass is maybe 4" tall. I checked myself real good when I came back in the house.

Shimano 200 E7 Abu Revo - S 1st Generation Abu 5600 C3

I always bring a long a scoop or an manual pump. You never know when you'll need to start bailing.

Both anglers using the same bait, then the boater is going to be out fishing the co-angler, unless the boater is preoccupied with something else like the wind and waves in harsh conditions.

You scored.

There is a soccer park by my house with a retention pond that runs the length of it. During a flood about 15 years ago the creek that runs between the soccer park and a city park lake came up and made one large shallow lake for a while. When the water went back down we discovered that some bass got caught in retention pond in the soccer park. We went and fished it one Saturday morning maybe an hour and a half before the soccer games started. We got quite the stares from the parents and kids when we walked back to the parking lot carrying our fishing tackle.

About 50-55 years ago we had a vegetation choked lake around St. Louis. The thing was if you knew how to fish vegetation your could catch 5, 6, and 7 lb bass out of this lake. A lot of people griped about the vegetation, so the lake got sprayed. Then carp got added to finish what the spray didn't kill. Now the carp population in this lake is self sustaining, the only vegetation I've ever seen has been lily pads, and the water is muddy year round. Big mistake to add carp.

That is quite a collection.

Lipless crankbait or a swim jig.

Spinnerbait - 3/8 oz. Strike King Redeye. Jerkbait - Rapala Original Floating Minnow. Lipless - 1/2 oz. Cordell Super Spot. Jig - 3/8 oz. Strike King 3/8 oz. Bitsy Flip. Square Bill - Strike King KVD 1.5. Crankbait - 3/8 oz. Cordell Big-O Soft Body Swimbait - 4" Keitech Swing Impact. Hard Body Swimbait - N/A

My switch has been broken for a long time. I have a check list I go through before a trip to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

I don't seal the cork, but I'll wipe it down after a trip.

15# Big Game for the reels that I use for jigs, heavy Texas rigs, and big moving baits. 10# Big Game for the reels that get used for light moving baits, and jerkbaits.

Four inch plastic worm either weightless or on a split shot rig.

A few of my older spinnerbait lasted to around 30-35 bass. I feel I'm lucky if I can get 15-20 bass out of a new Strike King or Booyah spinnerbait.

Spinnerbait in the vegetation.

I don't know what you would see through the glasses, but it sounds like a good way to step off the side of the boat.

If the bass are still spawning I would try a small profile spinnerbait with a fairly good size blade. Maybe chartreuse or black. If they have finished spawning I would try a Texas rig around wood.

It is what keeps us going back on the water even when the skunk is present.

Around here some springs are memorable for the fishing, and some springs are memorable for the weather. The one constant seems to be that a nasty front will come through the day before a trip.

This time of year I fish mostly from the bank, and once in a while I will locate an area where the bass seem to be stacked up. The water is usually shallow, and the area is almost always around some type of dead vegetation. I'm not sure if I'm casting into beds or if the bass are going after forage in the cover, but by the amount of dinks in some of these lakes, I don't think I am hurting the population any.

Actually my wife reminded me of this one when she told me not to forget my keys. My friend and I were fishing a lake that is about 45 minutes from his house and about an hour and a half from my house. We were in his boat, and met at the ramp. We finished fishing around 4, boat is back on the trailer, his SUV and boat are parked up in the lot. I am unloading my stuff from his boat and putting it back in my car, and he asks me if I have his keys. I told him no, and we proceeded to take everything back out of his boat and SUV looking for those keys. After a while we gave up and I offered to drive him back home to pick up the extra set, but he said he didn't want to leave the boat and SUV alone since it was getting dark. He calls his wife to bring the second set of keys. She was fuming mad, but made the drive. She gets to the concession area and calls for directions down to the boat ramp. While he is giving her directions I find his keys in the car door handle of the SUV that you pull the door closed with. He took the keys and threw them up under the seat, and found them there after he got home.

Well that explains a lot.

On the first two I hit something behind me when I was casting out, and on the last one I did manage to get the tangle out of the spool, but not from around the handle.

Probably Mann's. Since they stopped making the One Minus I don't really have a reason to shop that company, also their customer service really went south since covid.