Jar11591

I’ve never had a guide that fished while guiding. If I did, I’d probably ask to be returned to the dock. If we’re gonna fish like buddies in your boat, I’ll throw you gas money, but not a penny more. Guiding should be done professionally. The only “fishing” I think that is acceptable for a guide to do is a scenario where fish aren’t biting and they throw out a bait to see if they can get a bite, that way they can tell you what you may want to fish with. If they are fishing to catch fish, it’s no longer a professional relationship, so I won’t pay a professional rate. I’ll give the “buddy rate”, which is some gas money and that’s it. Having taken a dozen guided salmon and trout trips, and a few bass/walleye trips, I’m lucky I’ve never had a guide think it was acceptable for them to be fishing. Could you imagine if you bring your car to a mechanic, and the guy reclines the seat, smokes a cigarette, and takes a nap in your car, and then charges you for the privilege? That would be insane. I see it no differently than paying a guide to get you on fish, and then they kick back and drop a line to try to catch the fish you are paying them to catch yourself.

Brussels sprouts are probably my favorite. I cook them in a fry pan with some bacon grease. Not the healthiest but delicious. Also love broccoli any way you serve it to me. Cauliflower, cabbage, and most other brassicas I love as well. Honestly I love most vegetables, cooked most type of ways, fruit included.

Around these parts, perch make up the vast majority of a smallmouth’s diet. I try to stick to perch patterns when fishing smallmouth.

I’d say chain. The fins are more red than usual but I can see the chain markings and if this was a Redfin, you may have a world record on your hands!

Spring: Jig, spinnerbait, lipless, senko Summer: Popper, spinnerbait, ribbon-tail worm, weedless frog Fall: walking bait, spinnerbait, jig, popper

Looks like they make them in 3/4oz, as well. That extra weight will really help them come through weeds better and keep towards the bottom.

@ol'crickety the majority of the time, probably not. Maybe around 50/50. The type of grass matters as well. Broadleafed pondweed is a lot easier to fish through cleanly. Milfoil is a little harder, and hydrilla is the hardest. But the technique is effective enough to live with pulling weeds in frequently.

@ol'crickety I mainly use 3/4oz spinnerbaits which really helps getting it down and keeping it down, and I will actually fish my spinnerbaits right in the thick weeds. I’ll cast it out, let it fall until I know it’s on bottom. Then I give it a hard rip so it gets the blades spinning, and then every time I feel it hitting weeds, I rip it again. Ripping it through the weeds not only makes it come through cleaner, but can trigger strikes. So I cast, let it sink, rip it, then reel as slowly as I can until I hit more weeds, then I rip it again.

@gimruis took the words out of my mouth about launch time. Once the nights and mornings start to get cold, I am moving my launch time up a few hours. I’ve found frequently that as soon as the sun hits the cold air and the water gets smoky, the bite can turn on, but it’s often slow before then. It seems like sunlight can really activate them this time of year. And related to that, the bite windows are getting shorter and shorter. Busted leg is keeping me from being on the water at the moment, but if I was fishing your lake I would do pretty much what you did. Spinnerbaits and walking baits in shallow water. I also hit the timber with jigs this time of year because the fish return to the wood. During the summer the fish seem to abandon the fallen trees so I don’t spend very much time fishing them, but as soon as fall sets in the shallow water jig bite turns on again. I also change what kinds of vegetation I look for. Milfoil and hydrilla starts to die off, but the curly and broad leafed pondweed stays green long into the fall. And the fish migrant to it. But like every other time of year, spinnerbaits slow rolled on deep structure is the failsafe for me. It’s the closest thing to a guaranteed fish. Fall can have as many tough days as any season due to the unstable weather, so I often resort to this. Something tells me you’re gonna be slaying them all fall anyway, though.

Excellent!

Do ribbon tails count as curly tails? My favorite Texas-riggin bait in July. I have so many bags of Culprits. The ribbon tail is what my dad taught me how to fish with, and it’s been a mainstay in the tackle box ever since.

A few years back, I was fishing a small 35 acre lake in my boat around 7pm. I went right to the lake after work to fish the evening bite. It was a quiet, calm evening, until about 150 people descended upon the lake like a swarm of locusts, and launched like 2 dozen of those long boats and completely over took the water. I wasn’t even able to make it to the launch because it would be like trying to cross a freeway on foot. No common courtesy, no “excuse us”, just total annihilation of a nice fishing evening for the sake of rowing in circles over and over and over. It was so insane I could only laugh at what I was experiencing. Best part is, a big, wide, long river is right across the road from this lake, but this crew decided a 35 acre circular lake was better to launch 2 dozen boats on. It’s like showing up to the basketball court in the park, and instead of trying to join the pick up game or wait your turn, you start slinging water balloons full of ranch dressing at the hoop, completely ruining everyone else’s experience.

I love to camp, cook, garden, and in the winter time I play video games. Love baseball as well, although my playing days are over until I heal up, get off my ash and join a men’s league. I collect memorabilia, most of which is Atlanta Braves memorabilia. I want to get more into hiking, and start tying flies, pouring soft plastics and making hard baits. Photography, specifically wildlife photography, is also on the list of things I’d like to try but the cost of a worthy camera is prohibitively expensive for me at this point in time. And if I ever feel like all those things aren’t enriching enough, I’d like to give artistic cartography a shot.

NetBait Paca Craw

I enjoyed this and agree with every word of it. “Just dogs”:

If the fish doesn’t move, it isn’t a fish.

The 2 best poppers on the market are the Pop Max and Pop X in my opinion. I fish them on a 6’6” medium power, fast action rod with a 8:1 reel with 10lb nylon line. I have found that both are easy to walk, but the larger Pop Max is definitely easier. The thinner the line, the easier it should be to walk, theoretically. Apart from that, I don’t worry too much about the action of a popper, and I don’t spend much time walking them. I’ll switch to a skitterwalk if I’m looking for a fast walk-the-dog action. Not sure about the action of those rods you listed, but i definitely recommend something with at least a fast taper. I know some people fish topwaters on moderate or moderate fast rods, and I don’t know how. I don’t recommend it. The faster the tip, the more feel and control you’ll have.

When bass fishing, I usually only appreciate the fight after I’ve landed the fish. I don’t fish bass because of the fight, but it can be a nice bonus to a safely landed bass. If I lose the fish, I would rather it didn’t fight at all if it means landing it. If it’s not bass, I’m all for a fight. Some years ago, I caught a 20lb chinook salmon from Lake Ontario. It took about 20 minutes to land that thing, and that fight was a blast. Having a fish pull drag as if the bail is open, having zero control, numb forearms, cramped hands…so much fun.

Popper. Light bottom and dark bottom. Dont really care what the actual patterns are as long as a I have a light and a dark.

Done. My best wishes to yall in such a hard time.

Not much that is more comforting than sitting by an evening campfire with your people.

The old quarry I use to fish back in 2015-2016. Several deep, crystal clear ponds that were loaded with big largemouth, smallmouth, pike, and panfish. The fishing was incredible, but people also used it as a party spot, and eventually it was overrun with partiers that swamped the place, left insane amounts of trash, got hurt, and everything else. They closed off access to it eventually. People couldn’t respect the beautiful resource we had. I wish I could fish it again as it was.

Thanks for the well wishes, all. It’s truly appreciated. Hopefully that morning will be my worst for some time. I can go without another situation like that. @fin I don’t really know. I remember my foot giving out and realizing it was broken, then the stings started. It all happened so fast. But if I had to guess, I’m assuming I stepped on the hive and caved it in.

Short version: Ground wasps. Don’t mow over their hive. Storytime: So looks like I’m done fishing for the year. Remote chance I’ll be able to get out in late November, but I’m not banking on it. Saturday morning started innocently enough. Was gonna mow the lawn and then relax the rest of the day. Made the first pass with the lawn mower, and my left foot gave out on some wet grass and I went down hard. I look at my foot, and it’s facing the wrong way. Totally busted. I yelled some profanities, and started to crawl to get to my girlfriend inside so she can call the ambulance. And then I felt it. I looked down at my body, and I’m covered in wasps. Stinging me on my face and neck, legs, arms, in my shirt, pants, there are hundreds. I start to fade in and out of consciousness as my busted ankle and million wasp stings start to get to me. I’m swatting them the best I can, but with a totally shattered ankle I can’t do much. I ended up losing consciousness on my drive way as I tried to crawl across it. My girlfriend thankfully had heard my yells, and comes out as I regain some level of consciousness. I tell her not to come near me as I’m covered in ticked off wasps, and just call 911. She sobbing of course, and calls ambulance that would end up showing up very fast, in under 10 minutes. So they show up to a guy with a foot that is facing the wrong way, covered in wasp stings, huge hives, and wheezing so much I can barely breathe. They load me into the ambulance and give me epinephrine and some other stuff to stop the anaphylaxis, and some pain meds for the leg. At this point I’m completely delirious, and immediately admitted upon arrival to the hospital. They scheduled me for surgery that was completed yesterday morning to fix 2 broken bones in the tibia and fibula, as well as 2 in the foot. In the meantime they had me on a Benadryl drip to help curb the anaphylaxis, which had thankfully started to fade by this time. Surgery was successful, and the reaction to the wasps is gone besides hundreds of itchy welts. No more hives or labored breathing. I’ll be on crutches for 10-12 weeks, then a boot for some time after that. So that was my weekend. A bad situation that almost turned really bad because of wasps. If you see any wasp/bee activity along the ground, inspect for a hive before mowing. If I was highly allergic to wasp venom, I probably would have died as they stung me dozens and dozens of times as I could barely stay conscious. So that’s my story and PSA. Ground wasps, they suck.

They are picked and shipped before ripe so they are harder and don’t bruise. Then sprayed with a gas that turns them red but doesn’t really ripen them before they hit store shelves. At least that’s what I’ve heard.