desmobob

Interesting sights at the state fair...

I back off my drags when I put my gear up for the winter but I'm sure I forget on a few. The best thing that ever happened to my reel drags was me spending a few bucks on a little tub of Cal's Drag Grease. (Mine is in Okuma brand packaging, but is Cal's.) Like with most everything else mechanical, proper maintenance using the right products makes for reliable performance.

Enjoying the clover, tender and lush from all the rain...

Some lakes have large populations of fish like Blueback Herring (Blueback Shad), which are schooling fish and plankton eaters. They grow to 16" long, so a large school of them will look tempting on the sonar, but they're not interested in anything in your tackle box or bait bucket and you can waste a lot of time fishing for all those fish the sonar shows to be under the boat. [Since they aren't typically caught by fishermen, lots of folks don't know they exist. Lake Champlain had a massive die-off of these fish a few years ago (it seems to happen about once a decade or so), and the locals called the news media because nobody seemed to know what they were or where they came from! ?]

Hazy, hot, with some smoke from Canada... Southern Lake George, NY:

Over the years, I've tried Oakley, Smith, Costa and Maui Jim. I've stuck with Smith (ChromaPop lens) and Maui Jim (HCL bronze lens).

One more foggy/hazy one from this morning...

Thanks! Here's some spooky fog the wind is pushing over the frozen lake just before ice-out...

Me too!

Nice Bronco! I just bought a new Maverick. I think the trailer is a great idea. I outfitted my old Subaru Forester with a combination of Thule and Yakima components to make it able to carry two canoes or two kayaks. I had the extendable loading bar, etc. The whole set-up was fairly expensive. After two shoulder surgeries on my right side and problems with the left side, loading boats onto the roof rack hurts me enough that I don't tend to do it very often. I wish I had spent the money on a trailer. Something to think about if you're past your forties... ?

A nice morning on Pleasant Bay, Chatham, MA (on Cape Cod) during my annual Spring striped bass fly fishing trip...

I hope to be out on the very southern end of the lake soon. I just got home from a striped bass fly fishing trip on Cape Cod and still don't have my boat ready to go at home... life keeps getting in the way. Rain and T-storms are in the forecast all week, but I hope to get everything ready to go.

I haven't had any trouble. I prefer an FG knot for braid to mono, but I find it much more difficult to tie with the small diameter mono and fluoro I use on my BFS stuff, so the Alberto gets a lot of use.

Gotcha. It's a favorite quote of mine... "Pizza is like __x. It's all good; some is better than others."

It hit 91˚ here today, smashing the old record of 82˚. ? If the ice isn't off all the ponds in the hills by this weekend, I'd be pretty surprised!

? My favorite small lake for bass is still iced in. Probably will open up by the end of this week...

My boat is still covered up in the yard! I'll probably be doing a couple of weeks of float tube fly fishing in Lake George before I launch the boat in Lake Champlain for bass fishing. Sometimes I don't get out bass fishing until I'm back from an annual Spring Cape Cod striper fishing trip in May. Great idea for a regional report thread for our area! I'll be pleased to participate. Bob

I have that reel and I enjoy it a lot. Like previously mentioned, be sure your spool isn't over-filled. I use 5'10" and 6' UL rods with it. Maybe the L rod is contributing to the issue?

SEVERAL years. Easy.

I fill it every time and I never let it get below 1/2 full (and rarely let it get that low) unless I'm on a highway road trip.

I used to do a lot of bicycling. In those circles, coffee/caffeine is known as the ultimate legal performance drug. Every so often, I try decaf but just can't be happy with the flavor. What brand do you like? Sometimes, if I want a cup later in the day, I'll fire up my espresso machine. ? (There's really not too much caffeine in the very small serving.)

The first thing I do in the morning is put on a six-cup pot of 1/2-caffeinated coffee. That fills up my small Yeti tumbler twice and keeps my doctor from complaining too much.

I launch at the southern end of Lake Champlain (NY/VT). I could possibly be 120 miles from the boat launch, but I'll always be within a mile or two of shore. ?

Exactly. I had never even considered trying to do it while out in open water. I always figured I'd head to shore and stand in shallow water to change it.