the reel ess

I took a buddy out once when I had a bass boat and we were throwing jerkbaits. I tried to tell him how to use it, but he just reeled it in. I shut up when he caught a 4 pounder.

No plug, didn't know the kill switch was pulled, went kayaking with no paddle, twice. Got a trailer wheel off a steep boat ramp and got stuck. Towed too much boat with too little truck to too steep of a ramp. It took me 3 runs to get outta there.

I use a jig or T rig and pitch to targets. It's a way of fishing slowly quickly. Drop it in there, bump it a couple times or work it through cover, then yank it and repeat. You really can't burn this presentation.

I like active, informative fishing. I mean I like to know where you are, what you're using, season and conditions. I HATE when a guy wastes 5 minutes of my life driving to the spot before sunrise. No one needs to see that. I LOVE topwater explosions! Topwater is my favorite way to catch a bass by a wide margin. I get through cold winter weekend days rewatching BamaBass's frog videos. I like watching pike and smallmouth fishing like NDYak. And I like Everglades and Fellsmere fishing. I like Mex trophy lake videos. I love peacock bass videos. I even like ice fishing videos because I would totally do that if I had to endure harsh winters. I like those small stream fishing for anything videos because I did that as a kid (and adult, LOL). And, of course, I like the kayak fishing videos because that's my bag, man.

In very early 90s I was fishing from my dad's boat and a warden approached me. I went for my wallet and couldn't find my license. I swore to him that I bought one but couldn't find it and even told him the store I bought it from, which he was familiar with. He wrote me a big ticket (for that time) in the county across the lake. He told me if I brought the carbon copy, which the merchant was required to save for a year, the ticket would be forgiven. I went to the store and the owners said "Aww, I throw those away." I was stuck. I was going on a 7 day shift so it was going to be hard to get to the magistrate in the other count. So I mailed it in. I traced my steps back to a pool party in which I fell in with my wallet in my shorts. We threw them in the dryer and my wallet was still in them.

I thought I wanted to make YT videos. Then I tried it and it was a pain and got in the way of my fishing. I'm grateful that others do it and it has taught me a lot. But I just don't enjoy fiddling with electronics whilst trying to catch fish.

Don't forget the plug. LOL. You don't want cold water in your shoes. Disposable hand warmers in your pockets is pretty nice.

My dad always said he could catch fish on any color worm as long as it was purple. For the longest, he wouldn't fish anything else either. I'm that way about black and blue.

My buddy made me a believer once and I bought a couple and started throwing them weightless on a M spinning combo with good success. He has a 9+lb. hanging on his wall from 10 years ago caught on a 4" 2-hook one.

I cut the tied loop off the worm and tied a small swivel, no snap, to it. That way I could tie my main line to the swivel. I remember when I was really young my dad would rig worms like this with 2 crappie size Aberdeen hooks. But then along came the offset worm hook and that was that. Progress.

It's pointing to the bottom. LOL

The bass bite has been incredibly slow lately. So I was in the hardware store and saw these worms. I know they're bass catchers so I bought a couple. They're packaged curled up. Should they be straightened a little? Upon retrieve the lure corkscrews. When you pause it curls back up. I did get bites anyway and lost about a 3 pounder. I stretch it straighter but it won't stay. I don't really want to dip in hot water because it's rigged with 17# mono. Ideas? Besides the obvious swivel, which I'm already using.

Maybe not a bad thing. I was fishing with a friend once with hot dogs for catfish when one of his dogs ate a piece of hot dog with a hook in it and had to go to the emergency vet that night. Our dog is a Morkie, half Yorkie, half Maltese. She's 11 years old and less than 6 lbs. She's afraid of everything. We had a cat take up on 9/11 as a kitten that has grown to 8.2 lbs. He wants so badly to play with the dog but he's too rough.

My dad told me the worst part about getting old is going to the funerals of family and friends. I'm starting to feel that way and I'm only 52.

I worked with a guy who sounds similar. He was incredibly socially awkward. He wanted to leave work early every day. He was obsessed with talking about metallurgy. You couldn't turn his mind from a wrong direction. And he made the same drafting mistakes every time, which I had to correct. I told my wife who's a teacher and she said it sounds like kids she has taught with Asperger's Syndrome.

It really did start to resemble NASCAR around that time. WFN was awesome when I had Dish. They took it away and I complained thinking I might get it free for a while. They said no and I quit them and cut the cord. But there are several online channels with tons of content. I would mention one by name but last time I did my post disappeared before my eyes. Suffice it to say it's the one that Brian Latimer is on. My daughter is into writing and wants to do it professionally. She still gets some quarterly literary mags. But many of them are online now too.

I quit for a bit in my late 20s-early 30s. Then I got divorced. I wasted years not fishing because my ex didn't like for me to have fun by myself. I believe she felt it was a form of cheating, but she didn't want to tag along. When I met my current wife and we got serious I told her I was going to go fishing regularly and that was all there was to that so be prepared. My wife has gone once with me when we were dating and I baited her hook and she caught all the crappie until there were only catfish left. But she admitted later that she didn't want to go and it was alright that I do.

It's straight 30# braid for me for jigs/T-rigs. I've tried braid to 15# leader. It works, but you have to keep a really good check on the leader. I've never broken straight 30# or higher braid. I don't fish very rocky places, mostly wood and some weeds. It's usually at least a bit stained water around here.

What I didn't like about mine is, to avoid being turned around by wind while paddling alone, I had to paddle from the middle seat, the widest part of the canoe. It was also pretty heavy compared to a kayak.

On our first date my wife asked me a lot of questions. Two of the questions were "What's the last book you read?" and "Have you ever been arrested?" I wouldn't say she grilled me. But we did talk for 3+ hours. She told me later that she had made a list of 10 things she'd like in a husband and I filled all but one of them.

You can spend as much as you want, but you won't find a more durable, effective frog than the Booyah Pad Crasher in my humble opinion. I also like the popping model. They're still around $7. I like a soft bodied frog when fishing on a mat. But the toads seem to me to work well if the vegetation is more sparse. Use a good, strong hook with them because you'll probably have to yank the fish out of cover. One of the cool things about the toad is if the fish misses you can kill it right there and it sinks. Or you can let it drop off the edge of the mat.

I watch when I catch it on TV. And I watch a lot of their YouTube videos because I can always learn something. But I don't really care about any tournaments.

I dusted off some of my dad's rods and reels and used them after he died. It was fun to catch fish on his stuff. But it really felt like tying one hand behind my back.

Goes without saying. I know mine. It's a very common practice here. And I fish a private reservoir most of the time anyway. I could take 100 fish if I wanted to. I hardly want to take any though.

But I've thrown back many I caught bass fishing just because I was too lazy to clean them.