Josh Smith

I lost two bass today. One pulled hard. We've not been fishing a lot the past couple years. There's just a lot of other interests we have, and the kids are getting older and are busier with school. My 9-year-old daughter and I finally got the chance to go bank fishing this evening at a place where a creek flows into the reservoir. I chose a chartreuse willow leaf spinner to start. A few casts in and boom, this little bass, 9" or so, hits the spinnerbait. I almost yanked it to shore on the hook set. It came out of the water and flopped off. Dammit. Oh well. So I cast up the creek, and on about the fifth cast up that way, what felt like a huge bass inhaled the bait. I set the hook hard. After fighting for several seconds, this one jumped and spat the bait. I reeled the lure the rest of the way in to sharpen it, and discovered the hook had no barb. Apparently it was one of the spinners I modified for use by my then-young little girl several years ago. Dammit. We had to pack up and leave shortly after. ?

I've never caught a bass out deep. Haven't really put in the time, either. I love casting to cover I can see, and picking it apart. Seeing structure on a sonar screen and dropping a jig or pulling down a deep diving crankbait just doesn't excite me.

Her: "Can you tell I've lost weight?" Me: "You're not as fat as you were at our wedding." Luckily, I'm mildly autistic. It has gotten me out of a lot these past 15+ years we've been together. She's only dumped me once.

My wife works in home health and used to vape. Once, she walked into a client's house -- a sweet, dementia-addled old lady -- and her vape's lithium batteries choose that time to come shooting out of her purse like rockets, landing on the floor and setting the carpet alight. The little old lady got up from her knitting, grabbed a vase with water in it, and doused the fire. She said, "Well, that takes care of that." Then she walked back, sat down, resumed her knitting, and promptly forgot the entire episode. ?

This is what I was after. The reason I didn't want to go with a more powerful trolling motor is because running them at low speeds produces that waste heat. I have no problem running a PWM controller. I just wasn't aware they made them for trolling motors (though I guess it only makes sense that they do,) nor was I aware that PWM messes with sonar, though I suppose that also makes sense. I'll look into the PWM motors. Not after anything real expensive, so we'll see. Thank you!

I've acquired a canoe. I plan to primarily use paddles, but would like to find a low-powered, light, efficient trolling motor for longer trips. The one I had in mind was the Minn Kota 10 with 8lbs of thrust, figuring that, with today's electronics, it would sip electricity. Unfortunately, it appears it's not been made in some years. What's today's equivalent? I just want a lightweight stick-controlled transom mount trolling motor with around 10lbs of thrust. Thanks!

I've been looking for a collection of Tom Mann's stuff. Haven't found much on YouTube or anything for order. I suspect this is all copyrighted, but there's not enough perceived interest to release it.

Smallmouth, because they're my favorite. Followed by Rock bass, because they're feisty and get no love.

When I was a kid, there was a small lake I loved to fish at. Caught all sorts of bass, and especially large sunfish. Today, the bass are still there but smaller, and the sunfish are all really small. Part of the problem has been vegetation that prevented the bass from hunting the sunfish effectively. Another part, I'm sure, has been overfishing. Lakes do go through stages. I have a couple books that describe these stages. Artificial lakes, if I remember, are faster to change. Haven't read the info in a while, so could be wrong on the details.

AT&T ticked me off. They claimed my new phone wouldn't work after they switched off ? 3g. I knew it would. Argued with them for months about it. They sent me a new SIM card and a junk phone with VoLTE. They weren't supposed to disable my old SIM card, but they did on the shutoff date. No biggie; I ran through activation with the junk phone so I could switch SIM cards. Except mobile internet didn't work on the new phone. They had entered the wrong friggin APN settings, and I couldn't fix this without rooting the phones. I swapped the SIM cards anyway, and went without 4g internet while I researched new carriers. Ended up buying a Moto G Stylus, which is more powerful than my Samsung A10s and allows me to run most of my business from it. Specifically, it has more RAM, which I needed. Because AT&T ticked me off several times over the years, I specifically went with Sprint/T-Mobile, through Patriot Mobile. While I'm sure the marketing hype for Patriot is largely a gimmick, I had a code that kept me from paying setup and switchover fees. So far I'm happy. I'm not getting unsolicited marketing texts from AT&T anymore, and only the occasional political text. I can opt out of these any time, too, if I get tired of them. Performance in this area isn't any better or worse than AT&T. They're shutting the Sprint towers down very soon, so we'll see after that, but I anticipate no problems.

That sucks that they're so fragile. I'm hoping the hidden hook will let me swim it in seaweed, but the hook isn't terribly well covered so I'm unsure.

These look like they'll fit my style of fishing. Any experience with these?

Yep, Francho. Watched Dad go through it. The other issue is I've gone through my life without ever being knocked out, and the thought makes me nervous. Josh

Dude, F society. I'm 42. Every year older I got was marked with either indifference, or accomplishment. If you're doing what you need to do and are happy doing it, then that's all that matters. I started my business in my mid-30s. Got married a little later, and have a couple great kids I spend a lot of time with, as I can make my own hours. I carry a little extra weight that I have to lose, but I overall take care of myself. I do have arthritis in two of my fingers in my non-dominant hand, and a bit in my left jaw. But, if it bothers me at all, I take ibuprofen. It's not a big deal at all. Honestly, the only thing I'm not looking forward to is a colonoscopy. I'm late by a couple years since my dad had colon cancer. That's really the worst part, for me. Overall, I feel as good or better than I did when I was 18. Some things are worse, but most things are better. There's a net gain. Turning 30 is only as bad as you make it. Josh

I used to go by size, but I've been fishing so many diverse bodies of water lately that I've come to rely more on the health of the fish, and its spunk. To me, a 12" fish that takes a while to land is worth more than an 18" fish that just comes in almost willingly. The one that my daughter caught on my recent thread was a nice one -- bigger for that body of water, and very healthy. However, it didn't fight too hard, maybe due to being spawned out. Didn't really check. Josh