SudburyBasser

Here's the problem with that statement: Beavers have been known to eat fish. In fact, not one hour ago I watched a video of a beaver eating a crappie. In limited circumstances, beavers have been known to consume fish. I've seen no evidence that they hunt for fish, but they are capable of consuming them in the right circumstances.

I was fishing with my brother-in-law this past weekend -- we managed near 20 smallmouth in under two hours so a decent day -- but an old argument flared up as we came up on an area where beavers had clearly taken down a few trees. My B-i-L is of the opinion that beavers are a negative for bass fishing, that their huts drive away bass and that predation of fish by beavers also influences them to go elsewhere. Before someone jumps up to say that beavers are herbivores, they have been known to eat animal protein in limited circumstance, though not in a way that supports his contention. My argument is that beaver huts and the like are a net positive and attract bass, and avoiding those areas is nonsensical. So I figured my first post on BR in years would be to entertain your thoughts on the matter.

Agreed. Nothing makes me hate the world more then a decent headwind when I'm shore fishing. I think I end up smoking and drinking coffee more than fish those days. Boat I don't mind wind... you can usually position the boat or move to deal with the wind.

I would rate mine as solid. I stepped away from tournament fishing last year, only was in one, because fishing started to feel a little like a job. I focused more on the spiritual aspect of fishing -- getting back to the roots of it. I had a great time and probably caught more fish than any other year on record. I'll probably go back into the tournaments this year but I'm happy that I made 2015 more about why I fish rather than that I simply fish.

I'm apparently the contrarian in the thread as aesthetics is far from my mind when I'm putting together a combo. Little too fetishist for me...

I don't overthink stuff. I always keep two rods and a backpack of trays in the Jeep and I go fishing. What you're describing sounds like the run-up to the Normandy invasion.

I feel your pain OP. I like to fish slow and deliberate and really dissect a target and I invariably get paired with a run-'n-gun power fisher :-) Like Ike said in the video, find a complimentary style to the guy in front. It's helped me a lot to understand the boat isn't going to slow down... I'd claim to have invented power finesse but Iaconelli wrote about it years before I started.

I used to grumble about $10 lures now I'm desperate to spend $50 on a box of 20 rounds of 6.5x50 Jap for my Type 38 Arisaka...if I could find some. Shooting is a money pit.

Rods for frogging are one of those area where you can safely cheap out in my opinion. As stated earlier, as long as its solid.

I'm going to serve as a bit of a counterpoint to most of the posts in this thread: I have felt the need to take a break from fishing. Up until this past winter I was, like most of you are, completely obsessed by fishing. The winter before this last one I was actually worried I was losing my mind because the winter never ended and all I wanted to do was fish. This past winter I sensed a bit of a change in me...I didn't have the drive to fish like I did before. I don't know why, it's just how I feel right now. Although I still fish regularly (a week rarely goes by that I don't), I only fished one tournament this year and I don't wake up Monday waiting to for the weekend to hit water again. Part of that has to do with my re-entrance into the world of target shooting -- the past 8 months has seen me buy more rifles than fishing rods -- but I think I just needed a break, not from the fishing, but from the obsessiveness for fishing. A lot of energy gets tied up when all you do is fish. I just ran out for a while.

I'm an admitted ***** for Shimano so take that into account with my recommendation: Crucial.

Rod Glove.

Truth.

Shin Fukae and Dave Lefebre .

Golden bass are rare and are hidden in five lakes around North America. If you find one you win a tour of BASS HQ.

I generally use Shimano rods and reels now so I don't imagine I have much a reason to change -- though if I was forced I could live with the Devil's brand of reel, Abu Garcia.

Say you use a Rebel Pop-R and people might think you inherited your tackle from your grandfather but I still use them and continue to hammer fish on them.

After successfully avoiding the tackle monkey for most of the winter I did give in on Friday and bought a Shimano Crucial MLXF rod that I'll be using for drop shotting. I wasn't really in the market but it was on sale for not much more than the price of a Compre so it was hard to say no to.

$80 for the year and each tournament is $25 but our classic is $100.

At $83 I would buy more than one

I'm proud (?) to say that I have bought virtually nothing in the past four months -- with the lone exception being a pack of wacky rig hooks to replenish my supply.. About the only thing I've added to the armoury are some pike flies I've been tying to get ready for the coming fishing season.

Another vote for this. I tend to be a junk fisher myself and I found the last two years of tournament angling have really taught me a lot. Thanks to my local club I moved from talented amateur to a more refined reader of water and chooser of techniques (though I still do fall back to finesse a little too often).

I disliked Aaron Martens for a long time because I thought he was a jerk but I finally got his style of humour and have become quite a fan of his. I'm sorry to hear about his father passing and that he's having trouble at the Classic with his equipment. I hope he does well (though I am rooting for my boy Shin Fukae).

I'm not all that into watching TV shows about fishing these days but I do enjoy watching the Scott Martin Challenge, Jarrett Edwards, The Next Bite, The New Fly Fisher and a few others. I don't need to ever watch John Gillespie or Karl Kolanka.

I might have agreed with you up until last year, but I'm coming around to the idea that there actually might be a thing as too much. I'm not an Elite Series/FLW pro so it's not like I actually need 20 Plano boxes of tackle with me when I fish. And I find that if I have too much stuff I tend to get trapped in indecision. Inevitably I'll fall back to those confidence lures I'm comfortable with and those untold numbers of lures that have never touched water remain safe in their little slot. So yeah, for myself I think too much can happen. Except ammo...you can never have enough ammo.