Scott F

I had that problem. You’ve got nerve damage in either your wrist or elbow. Mine was a pinched ulnar nerve in my elbow. It required surgery to repair. You need to see a doctor and probably a neurologist.

I’ve been carrying one in my tackle box for years

I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Thanks.

I got mine delivered from Amazon yesterday. It is less “substantial” than I thought it might be. I can see why others have said they’ve lost fish on it.

Diatomaceous earth sprinkled in the hole should kill them.

I fish from a personal pontoon and had been using a landing net perched between my knees. I really like this device. I just ordered one

The fountain is adding oxygen to the water. I’d be casting near as I could around the fountain. Throw whatever ever baits you have.

My dad had family that lived in Chippewa Bay when I was a kid. My addiction to smallmouth began there. I haven’t been there in 50 years. I don’t know anything about it lately, good luck.

Depending on how big the river is, you’ll be fishing relatively shallow water all summer long. The rivers I fish have little to no water deeper than 10 feet, most is less than 4. In summer, a lot of fish head to deep water in lakes which make them harder to find.

The biggest difference is current. Your lures don’t move the same, especially cranks. If your crank bait is moving with the current, you have to crank it really fast to get it to wobble. Against the current, you don’t have to turn the handle at all, you can just hold still and the current will cause it to wobble. Too much current or retrieving it against the fast water and it will just roll over. Another big difference is that fish can hold in ambush positions and wait for the current to bring the food to them. They don’t have time to inspect the bait. If they hesitate, it goes by and the opportunity is lost. It’s much more important to get the bait in the right place, than having the right bait. If you are using a boat, control is significantly more difficult. Being able to anchor in good spots is crucial. There is also the added danger of shallow water and lower units.

Maybe they know something…….

In my opinion, there is nothing at all wrong in fishing history. You need to visit spots where you’ve had success. It might be a spot that’s only good at certain times of the year but how will you know if you don’t go back? Once you’ve fished it enough, you’ll have learned what it was that made that spot good and when to not to waste time on it. Take that knowledge and look for places that replicate where and when you’ve had success in the past.

If you are floating downstream between “prime” spots, you can bounce a tube along the bottom while drifting along. When you get to a good looking spot, anchor or pull the kayak on shore where you can work the tube from a stationary position. No more difficult than using any other bait

If I’m a minimalist, I’m only taking one rod, a few EWG hooks, a bag of Senkos and a few Ned rigs. I don’t even need an average sized fanny pack. My stuff will fit in a pocket.

One of the great things about river fishing is that the only thing you need to consider about a bait is if it can be fished in the spot you are trying to fish. Heavy, sinking baits over rocky bottoms just get snagged. Fast current can make stuff like a crank bait hard. Even color doesn’t matter much. Current means fish don’t have much time to decide whether to eat or not. If they are hungry, they can’t afford to let a potential meal pass by. Get a bait, almost any bait, in the right place and you will have success.

When I bought my F150, I got an extra $750 off if I financed through Ford credit at about 4% higher rate than I could get from a bank. I didn’t care about the rate as I paid off the loan within days of driving it home. You never tell the dealer you are paying cash.

I’m older than the guy in the video. All men were not taught the things he was. A lot of other things that men were sometimes taught were just wrong. I was taught to respect others no matter what religion, sex or race they were. I was also taught the difference between right and wrong and might does not always mean right.

Low numbers in summers is not anything new. I switched to fishing where few anglers go years ago. In summer, small rivers produce bass. Almost no tournaments, little pressure and you can fish shallow. Small rivers have few places that get more than 6 feet deep. You leave the big boats in the garage, you don’t need thousands of dollars in electronics, and you can get bites on just a small variety of lures.

All of my personal bests have come from pre-spawn fish. I also do not find sitting and pounding beds to be entertaining.

I’m very familiar with the river and the algae that Otter17 is talking about. It’s not like the stuff that floats in the back end of still water ponds or the slimy stuff that is often bright green. The filamentous algae is long stringy stuff that attaches to and covers the bottom of the river. It often breaks off and flows with the current in all of the water column. If you are wading in it, it will quickly wrap around your legs. Out of the water, it’s like heavy wool. If your lure hits the bottom, it gets covered. If you keep the lure off the bottom or even on top, the line catches the algae and while you reel in, your line slides through until lure gets covered. When it is flourishing, the river is all but unfishable. You might find only a few days out of the year when high water might flush the stuff out, but it will be back shortly. I’m sure that suburban development with manicured, fertilized lawns and the runoff into the river is a major contributor to the algae growth. It does seem that certain sections of the river (my favorite sections) have it worse than others. The northern sections of the river and the East and West branches that feed into it had much less than the lower stretches.

I retired due to a back issue which required surgery when I was 61. I fish considerably less after retirement than before. My bad back has kept me from wading as I can’t stand up for more than 20 minutes without having to sit down. Hard to find places to sit in the middle of the river. Few people consider that by the time they reach retirement age that they may not be healthy enough to do all the stuff that they could do when they were younger. They also don’t know that they may not WANT to fish or golf or whatever every day either during retirement either.

I never wet wade no matter how warm the water gets. There is too much nasty bacteria in our rivers to take a chance. Also, while bushwhacking through the woods to get to and from my fishing spots, poison ivy, stinging insects and thorny bushes hurt on bare legs.

I can reel from either side with a baitcaster, but on a spinning reel, I just can’t cast with my left and reel with my right.

It was way to big a job for me to do it myself. I had a guy come and fill it in for me.

I removed a 30ft round pool from the yard in a house I bought in 2020. Ours took almost 30 yards of dirt to fill in the hole. I considered putting in a seating area and fire pit, but I put down sod and planted a tree instead.