Turkey sandwich

Also as a heads up, the bigger boats (Big Rig, Lure 13.5, ATAK, etc), while they have a ton of space, features, and can hold a ton of weight, can be pretty rough to get on top of a car/truck if you're heading out alone. I bought a heavily discounted Lure 13.5, and while it has some awesome perks, getting it onto/off of a car easily is not one of them.

I've never fished it, but any smallmouth river I have fished, the old standards are excellent confidence baits. When in doubt, 3-4" grubs, tubes, and in-line spinners will always produce. A 3" popper in low light or overcast conditions probably ranks right behind those three. If you can describe the section of river you're fishing, I might be able to make some more specific suggestions.

Nice fish! I've actually hear quite the contrary.

Congrats! Good attention to detail. Cool catch on a Shadow Rap, too. 85-90 degree water, it would not be the first thing I would have reached for.

What type of contracting do you bid? I work for one of the largest home remodeling companies in the country and may be able to help you out a bit in terms of dealing with the inefficiencies. PM me.

It's been a long time since I've taken a hook (knock on wood), but I think it was my dad who was responsible for hitting me in the head with 3/4oz of lead last year at what felt like 300mph. Luckily, I didn't get the business end, but it definitely sucked. I guess burning super easily is a blessing in that I keep myself pretty well covered.

I've had terrible sales jobs and have been lucky that for the past 7 years have found an amazing and supportive company to sell for, so I know both sides of the coin. My suggestion is to find someone in management you trust, put your ego aside (can't stress this enough), and have a rational discussion about your situation. Ask questions, but don't do it in meetings. Do it privately and politely.

I'm not big on snap swivels, but I do remove key rings and use snaps for crankbaits. It allows the same free action as the rings and allows for quick changes. You can look at the pound test ratings of snaps rut on the packaging. I typically use a 40lb test snap.

Wow. This is exactly why we fish.

Welcome to the forum! This place is a pretty killer resource and through using the search function or asking, you can get pretty much anything fishing related answered.

I'm a little confused about some of the marks, also. What are the squiggly lines, and what are the squiggly lines surrounding broken parralel lines?

Lesnar is still a monster and can toss or blast double pretty much anyone. I kinda figured that fight would have gone that way... Or Hunt would have KOed him. Kinda the only possible outcomes. The scoring on the Aldo/Edgar fight had me a bit baffled. I watched it with no sound and had it really even. I was expecting 47-48 cards, and a split decision. It was a great fight. It's a shame seeing Johnny Hendricks falling apart. I guess he changed trainers/nutritionists and who knows what else. I never thought Travis Brown was that good. Most of his wins came from fights where eye gouges should have resulted in DQ. Saturday night he looked terrible. If you have that crazy height/reach advantage and try to rely on looping counter hooks, you're going to have a bad night.

I also have a BB1 that I use for Crankbaits and it took a minute for me to get used to, but I've grown to love it. It casts extremely well and is a surprisingly smooth reel for less than $150.

All knots can fail, the trick is getting good at one of the better ones and learning to tie them quickly on the water. Palomar, improved clinch and uni are all good knots with advantages and disadvantages. If you fish with leaders, improved clinch has the huge advantage of less wasted line than the other two. As for the number of wraps in both uni and improved clinch, more doesn't necessarily equal better. It's all relative to line size. Smaller lines = more wraps.

Pfleuger President's and Shimano Sedonas are great value spinning reels around $50 and they last.

Congrats and welcome to the club. Once you go brown....

That's a fun wading trip!

Nice! Looks like he had a blast! To piggyback Bluebasser, I'd also suggest the basics for fishing tubes and grubs.

@fishnkamp is spot on. I don't typically use leader floro. To me, using a super tough copolymer like CXX, Yozuri Hybrid, etc makes way more sense when I'm around rocks and toothy critters. I keep spools of Sniper and InvisX around for when the water is super clear or fish are finicky and really require a stealthier presentation. The Idea of simply going up a line size to improve abrasion resistance is not necessarily true. Fishing rocky rivers, I'll retie 12lb InvisX 2-3x as often as 8lb Hybrid. Unless I'm fishing a dropshot or need to get super stealthy, copolymer leaders are way better in the snaggy stuff. And cheap. d**n are they cheap.

Frogs, Jigs, punch/T-rigs, etc are all in play. Some folks might suggest pitching Senkos into the holes. I'd rather drag a lightly weighted worm over the top, allowing it to fall into the holes. Bottom line: most of your weed less soft plastic options are in play. I might suggest fishing all of the above on either straight braid or braid with a heavy floro or copolymer leader. This is where 40-80lb braid shines.

You can do really well during the rain, just like any other condition. Lure selection is still based on what you're fishing, just like any other time.

This bait is way more versatile than it's given credit.

Spool it with 40+lb braid so long as the rod isn't overly fast action. The braid is more manageable, cuts vegetation, in green isn't that visible in the thick, and you can always add a floro leader later if you like.

Where are you located? The location, water clarity, species, bottom composition, etc play into this. For example, that lake in Florida fishes a bit differently than that lake in Minnesota. Still, look to identify a creek channel and whatever other structure there may be. In shallow lakes, a 6" to 2' change in depth can mean a lot. Shallow flats or points with close access to 10' of water? Good start. Submerged weed lines near there? Even better. Keep lure selection simple. Texas rigged 6-8" worms, square bills, spinnerbaits, etc are all good places to start. Everyone neglects to mention the curl tail worm these days, but they're still unbelievably productive and simple.

Football head is better than most, but I don't know of a perfect solution. Most of the rocks I encounter are in rivers and football, rugby, or swinging rugby have been the best solutions for me. That said, current adds a whole other element to fishing rocks. Learning to fish these kinds of areas means you're going to lose some tackle. I'd also suggest stocking up on these things while they're on sale and to make sure you're using a good abrasion resistant line to keep from breaking the bank. Also, WRB's note about working any jig up hill in rocks is spot on.