Spankey

Thanks for the response. They were good kids. Not really blindsided by any means, family members that I only see a couple of times a year. At the diner we got to talking about them asking to be taken fishing at home. They are near tidal water. I like the sound of that. My niece and nephew are pretty easy going. All the kids have to do is ask their mom and dad. For awhile I felt bad about catching the monster. But that should be a learning experience also. I was praying that I do loose it. I wanted them to see it. That’s what I care about the most, whether they learned something or not. And hope they don’t stop wanting to go.

I never had any doubts about the drag on the NASCI reels. While bass fishing yesterday with a finesse worm set up I hooked into a 29 1/2”, 12 lb. Channel Catfish. That fish was all fight and gave the NASCI drag a workout. St. Croix 6’10” ML XFast Shimano NASCI 2500 SunLine 6 lb. SuperNatural Mono Gamagatsu 1/0 Light Wire worm hook 4” Berkley PowerWorm I let the drag do its job, tried not to do anything stupid, let the fish get tired. I wasn’t to sure how the rod was gonna hold up when the fish got its way under the boat.

Pretty often. I’m anal as heck about my line. I fish mono, good mono but I generally strip myself back to a tie knot so that I’m not taking the spool all the way down. After 2 or 3 outings on my setups I use the most. My crankbait rods get replaced the most often. Used the hardest. I buy my line in bulk. Cheaper and easier all the way around.

Sorry for being so long winded. They were good kids. They way of the world these day is kids don’t touch things like we use to. Maybe not all kids. Most of us here were fishing at a real young age.

When asked or approached about taking a kid(s) fishing or just a curious adult friend male or female as to what I’m doing out there on the water, I’m up for doing it. I put on a good show, generally don’t care if I get a line wet, I bring everything they need, put on a bit of an on the water classroom first, try to see if they are green as grass or not. I try to be a guide. Most times I’m told they fished before blah blah blah only to find out they never touched a rod or reel. But there is nothing wrong with that. Wanting to be there is the most important. How long their attention span is the next thing. Yesterday I had my sister-in-laws twin grandsons out. 9 year olds. Well behaved, respectful, listened and teachable. Weather cooperated but recent weather and water conditions has the normal bite off for a variety of panfish. Had my bases covered with live bait, I didn’t them to get skunked. Them catching is important for them to keep an interest. They caught about 25 fish apiece. A few large bluegill, sunfish, white perch and bream in the mix. I could not get them to bait a hook with that livebait. I tried like heck. They would touch it, would give it to me to put it on but they had no interest in doing it. I could not get them to un hook fish. I have all the tools for those smaller hook and showed them how to use them. I have them use Aberdeen and cricket hooks. Makes hook removal simple and easy. Fish don’t get injured. I didn’t want to press this lack of trying with them. Thought if I overpush it, maybe they would get turned off. They clearly were having a good time. I had them fish some soft plastics. The Bass are there and I wanted to see them hook one. My thought with soft plastic worms is you pretty much can’t fish them wrong. It took awhile but they started to catch on. They didn’t grasp on too well about fishing a tighter line but they finally got it. Got them to rig weedless. I fish with them awhile figured they would copy what I was doing. They did catch on to hopping, sliding and shakey worming and maintaining a tighter line. They were worn out and wanted to take a break and get into the snacks. I continued to fish on a bit longer with a worm. As much as I would rather have seen them keep catching them, in my head I wanted them to see a bass caught to show them what else is there for them. On about my third solo cast I had a solid hookup, what I perceived was to be a sizable greenie. A minute or so into the fight I had my doubts about a huge green fish. Acted more like a catfish. I had a full 10 minute fight on 6 lb. test and landed a 29 1/2” 12 pound channel cat. Finessed rigged PowerWorm. I wish they would have landed it. They could not have handled it. They would have lost my rod. I was speechless and dumbfounded. I never expected anything like that. Those kids were amazed, and so was I. They got to see a big fish. I tried to get them to touch it, hold it, unhook him and let him go but they wanted no parts of it. They wanted to leave after all that. Thought maybe that would spark them up. They wanted to roll. I guess they seen enough. We went to the Diner for lunch. I wasn’t sure how good a time they had. I had my doubts because they didn’t like to handle bait or fish. They had a great time and kept thanking me for taking them. They thanked me for landing that catfish. They never seen anything like that before.

Coke and Pepsi bottles frozen with water work real well.

Was back out yesterday morning fishing the same stretch. It was calm and water was like glass. No shenanigans took place on the water. I was glad of that. My 3 better fish were only 12”-14” taken an a couple of DT-10’s. Had some followers but couldn’t get them to take it. But was glad to see the fish interested. Switched to t-rigging some soft plastics a managed a few runts. If I had it to do all over again I would have fished the soft plastics in 13ft. - 17 ft. range. Who knows it’s all second guessing myself. Tomorrow morning I have an interesting outing. My sister in law asked me to take her two twin grandsons out. They are down for the week from Massachusetts. I think they are around 9 yo, I don’t know them real well and I don’t think they fish that often but by what I do know of them they are well behaved intelligent kids. Gonna keep it real simple by getting them to catch so varieties of panfish with livebait and grubs. Then try to teach them to fish with rubber worms for some greenies. My outing is starting at 8:00 AM, that’s late for me but I think everything will go ok. I’m hopeful they will do ok with soft plastics. I’d like to think I’m pretty good with kids and can teach them something. I’m not gonna fish. Be a guide service. Maybe fish some soft plastics with them. Gonna set them up UL and L for the panfish and ML for soft plastics.

That sucks and sorry to see that happen to you. I get squirrely with my phone on the boat. Alway trying to keep it safe. Only have it incase of an emergency. It hurts to be out like that, in time it will be a memory. Go catch a big one and take your mind off of it.

For where I live my PB Smallie and Greenies is no slouch. But I’m hunting for a 7 lb. Largemouth at the lake. I like to think that every cast is for that fish. I don’t know how to fish deep water real real well so this is a handicap for me. But I know she is not in deep water all the time. I don’t fish real large baits, I don’t think this is a handicap but it very well could be. River Smallies is where my heart is. That’s where it all began for me. Mother Nature has kicked the rivers ass big time over the last handful of years. Admittedly I guess I’m just flat out fishing for numbers but I’m in areas my larger fish were from. But these days I’m having fun fishing some new stretches. I’m certainly no expert and hope to never come off as one. I’m still learning at 64 years old. I come away with something new big or small (not fish) from river or lake every time out I guess. Good fishing, my next cast will be approximately 5:45 Saturday morning.

I’m rigged up a few different ways. I don’t have a big plan either. I’ll have a Shad Rap, Slider Worm setup, split shot worm rig and a grub or tube ready to go. I have confidence in these. But I like to fish light jigs, spider jigs and small spinnerbaits.

The wife had a field day with it. Was told it never would have happened if I had my skivvies on.

Glad a whole bunch of drama didn’t go along with it. I’m too old for that. It’s crazy I bet the center line dimension between those hooks isn’t more 2” on a DT-10. I think I’m glad the seat did catch half of the hooks.

I’m glad also. Those hooks have a nice size barb. I got lucky I’m glad it happened real early and didn’t ruin my fishing. We all have been stabbed by a hook. Freak situations most of the time. And didn’t hurt the lure at all.

Don’t know if you know what those Shure-Set hooks are. They are a treble hook with one of the hooks extended in length. Sort of like an offset. Rapala did use them as factory hooks on their DT’s. They don’t anymore but I like them. I don’t think they’ll cost you any fish. I believe they help on short biting fish. I tried to find spares of that hook but I think they were discontinued and only some red ones were around. I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of a hook I like so much.

My bass fishing season has not be a disaster even though torrential rains seem to be common every 3 days. I can’t catch a break on the good river conditions for a long stretch of time. So when not on the river I lake fish, I’m liking the higher (not extremely higher) water levels and the heavy stained conditions on the lake. If I were to wait around for perfect conditions I might not get out this season. Can’t let Mother Nature bring me down. I had a good day at the lake yesterday. Boated 10 Greenies and catching my largest of the season. 18.25” and 3.1 lbs. not a PB from that lake but I was doing the happy dance with that fish. Managed a few respectable 14”-15” fish also. Believe me I wish I had days of catching 14”-15” all day long. Along with some aggressive runts. The bad of the day was the wind. Wind was there at sun up. I hate the wind, it could have been a lot worse but I couldn’t fish the way I wanted to. Changing weather fronts and one day to the next nothing is stable. I used the wind to drift fish the bank and threw crankbaits and spinnerbaits. The Ugly, the ugly came first thing in the AM. Not first thing but early. The Rapala DT is one of my favorite baits. I’m throwing a DT-10 and some how I botched up my cast and the lure came around and get my in the butt and pedestal seat. Not bounced off, but both butt and pedestal are stuck together. Taking that Shure Set hook to the butt was like getting stung my 3 hornets at once. Hook came out of the butt real easy, but stuck in my athletic style shorts and the seat back. I could not just step out of my shorts my legs are too short. And to boot I have no skivvies on. So I unscrew the pedestal seat post to eliminate the height problem. Not a problem getting athletic shorts off now. As I stand there now on the deck naked from the waist down. Hopefully praying I don’t get seen. And at that point would it really matter? Got everything freed up. Shorts back on and lure out of pedestal. Finally got back to fishing. That was the good. Why no skivvies? At some ramps I don’t know how wet I might get. I found these Under Armor athletic shorts that the fabric dries super fast. If I have cotton skivvies on underneath they stay wet a heck of a lot longer. Not a great feeling sensation. So I ditch the skivvies for my lake fishing.

This is also my preferred way to fish finesse size worms. Along with splitshotting and with light bullet weights depending on location I’m at. I like to fish a variety of finesse size worms for river Smallies, PowerWorm is probably my favorite but RoboWorms, Yammy KutTails and Sliders are right there also. The Yammy KutTails are hard to find (not sold out, not stocked). But the BPS KutTails work very well for me. They might get slammed as soon as they hit the water. Bottom bounce them, slide them, shake them, there is no wrong way to fish them.

Maybe even try a Fat Albert Grub, lightly weighted as said above. Slide it around on top and when you hit a pocket do the giggly giggly thing while letting it sink. Rig it weedless. Don’t underestimate a tube or grub anywhere.

Weather patterns here in my parts of PA have been terrible. We went through the tornado watch and warnings again last night between the 6:00-11:00 PM slot. Got torrential rain but didn’t get tornado or the 70-80 mph straight winds in my town. Got windy yes but not big damaging. Have been lucky here more than once the last couple of months.

Happy Birthday. Enjoy your day.

Nothing wrong with that. But I take it that you’ve been at this game awhile, and not having to do the one lure outings. When I was a young guy I remember and did the one lure thing, only to force myself to use it. I had to break the live bait thing also. If you brought it along it was like a crutch. I just don’t fish with it for bass. Soft plastics were a big hump to get over.

Real nice chunk.

Been my whole season has sort of been like that so far. Looking for a couple of sizable smallies. I’m setting on a 16” as tops so far. Going tomorrow AM before a storm moves in. Gonna be a soft plastics day. Will force me to fish slower.

I don’t know those guys you are talking about. I’m a bit old school with my crankbaits. But have ventured into some 6th Sense and SPRO over the last handful of years. I like fishing the Curve 55 and have gotten some nice fish on them. Have always been into my Rapalas, Bombers and Bandits. I have to agree with you 100% on the DT’s. I’d be torn between that or a Shad Rap. I throw the 6 & 10’s the most. And have bought my best producers on the 08. The Gizzard Shad’s, Blue back herring and original Bluegill are my go to’s.

I think everyone has had a bait or two like that. When you get a day that is not going so well and fish are not cooperating, revisit it.

Over the years I’ve picked off some nice Greenies in the 15”-18” range on the river. You are correct in slower sections. But slower sections are a norm. These slower sections are home for some nice Smallies also. I’ve fished laydowns that I’ve caught both in the same piece of structure. Not a lot of Lilly pads on the river sections I fish but many big grass mats. I’ve found a few nice ones in there. I’m going out on a limb but I believe there is some in there 21” long.