the reel ess

Do they float? I have a habit of losing good pliers off my kayak. I need a lanyard with a float to hold every tool I carry. That way I either carry them all or forget them all.

I tell them if they want it, catch it their @#$% self. Don't ask me for a trophy you didn't earn. I can't even understand wanting that. Now maybe if I had a cooler full of bluegill, but not just one.

The thing to me that makes fishing so much better than hunting is that you can "score" at fishing without killing the prey. In fact, you and others can score repeatedly with the same prey in different ways. You can't do that in hunting.

Good video. It looks like you have the bullet weight pegged. Do you recommend that normally for T-rig or is it mostly for pitching presentation? I have lately come to appreciate the tungsten weight and a glass bead before the knot.

YES! I get that from my kayak buddy. He used to get so angry at me that he couldn't just "let it go", pun intended. But he recently caught his PB while fishing with me and he wanted to release it even though I had a stringer! I think he's got the fever. There's a mentality out there that if you didn't eat it, you didn't catch it. My wife told me to stop bringing them home, she's sick of fish.

Yeah, agree with the two previous statements. But I know regulations are not set up to discourage people from taking trophies out of bodies of water, thus increasing overall average size. They are set up to provide the most people with the most bites possible, be they small, medium or large fish. However, if I catch a 10 lb'er, I don't know how I'm going to react. Catching 5-6 lb'ers is becoming normal to me at one the places I fish a lot. So, of course, I'm looking for the real trophies of the reservoir because it's not a big deal anymore to get a 5 lb'er. I just need to get a good scale and a GoPro so I have a permanent memory of it. I've been fishing this place for almost 3 years and it just keeps getting better and better. And I credit keeping the dinks and mid-size fish and leaving everything over 3-4 lbs. AND LOTS OF AVAILABLE FORAGE OF DIFFERENT KINDS. Probably the biggest factor. Shad, gold shiners, sunfish, craws, frogs, etc. Anyway, I just want to protect the fishery-it's private, so there are no limits.

This time of year: Chug Bug or Chug'n Spook, Jr. Frog T-rigged Zoom Speed Craw

I'm on my second pair of Calcutta Steelhead amber. $22. I can buy them 4 times and still come out ahead.

If you're missing only two you should be OK. I only use 2 after getting used to my reels. I start with 3, then practice.

I went to BPS at Myrtle Beach and asked for whatever trout, redfish and flounder will bite. They walked me over to the Johnson Silver Minnow in gold and then to the Gulp mullet. I caught two flounder on the spook with the mullet grub as a trailer.

Let's not be elitist. The smaller the body of water, the more important it is to keep some small ones. But I was NOT about to give the three jon boat guys a 5 pounder they didn't even catch..

ding_ding!!! I went last night to a reservoir that not many people have access to. I was in the kayak as I usually am. There were three bucket brigadiers in a jon boat keeping any and everything. I caught a bass well over 5# (no scale, no camera) on a topwater in plain sight of them. I unhooked it and admired it a few seconds. I heard one of them say "You don't want that fish?" I ignored him and let them see me let it swim away. It makes me feel so good to watch a big fish swim away.

Drag a C-Rig around until you get the feel for the bottom contours. And of course, you'll catch some fish in the process, which will tell you a lot about where you need to concentrate your efforts.

Sometimes I'll take a bait that's been on the rod a while and put it in a bag of new baits to get that anise scent back on it. Zoom Trick worms don't have an oil on them, but they taste like salt. I know this because once the first half inch of the worm gets damaged, I'll bite it off (and spit out) and re-thread what's left of the worm back on the hook. I think that salt impregnation is more effective at getting the fish to hold it. They sure don't seem to ever spit it out. BTW, I think the worm actually has a better action after you bite that little bit off.

I love the Chug Bug. If you don't already have one, get a Chug'n Spook or a JR. Depending on how you work it, it can be a Chug Bug or a Spook. I like to just give it short rips. It'll chug and walk. I'm trying hard to make my 2 best lures a frog and another frog.

Pad crashers are awesome. They work great right out of the box. First time I used one fish were all over it. I got the best fish of the night right after it hit the water.

Yeah, Lunnkerhunt. I really wanted to like this frog because of the natural looking legs. But so far, no good. You shouldn't have to fix an $8 lure so it works as advertised. I also have to pocket size that I haven't used yet. I actually got it first mail order. I should've tried it before wasting $8. I'll give it a try sometime on spinning gear. Maybe it'll work better due to being much smaller. Why does this site think Lunk_er is a curse word?

As with cars, just because someone has a $250 lure or a $60K boat doesn't mean they're better off than you. Usually, quite the opposite is true. I draw the line at $50 for what I'll spend without notifying my wife unless it's a gift for her. I don't have to, I just do so I can maintain my self-respect as a hubby and dad. I don't recall her ever saying to me "Don't buy that!" I also agonize over big $$$ purchases so long the urge to buy it usually passes.

I had a good size bass blow up on a Chug'n Spook the other night and miss it three times, even coming out of the water. Then I caught a 5 lb'er on just one of the hooks of the trebles under the jaw.

And someone can always catch 'em. I don't know of any tourneys where no one catches anything. But then I'm not in a local club. Maybe it does happen. But I take the opposite approach and fish a place I can cover in a day. That way I KNOW there's a captive population of bass and that some of them will see my bait. That solves one part of the equation. Then if it's getting really hard, I can play my ace in the hole and go to a place that's overpopulated (stunted). They're almost always hungry.

No

It looked like a good quality frog with realistic legs. It even appears to be swimming with a steady retrieve. And you can tell there is quality in the design.

5 LB 1 OZ on a Chug'n Spook Jr, frog pattern from the kayak. It was almost dark as you can see from the photo. It only had one of the 6 trebles, under the jaw. I had to wear it down to get it lipped without wearing those hooks.

Update: I mentioned this on LunkerLure's official YouTube channel and they responded I should superglue the nose and the plastic button that seals the body underneath, but not the hole where the hooks exit the body so it'll collapse when I get a bite. I'm going to try to go tomorrow evening and give it another shot, but it's on a short leash.

Buy them. He doesn't care. He's the problem, not you. I worked at Wally World for a year when I was a teen. My buddy worked in the sporting goods/automotive dept before the days of the Super Walmarts. He always had a list of what was going on clearance. I would ask him to take the rods I wanted off the rack when he put them on clearance and put them with the damaged goods. Since I had to wait for payday, I couldn't just go get them. I got three nice ones on clearance minus my employee discount that way and used them for years. Still have one and just sold 2 5'6" pistol grip "96% graphite" rods at a yard sale. To be clear, I wasn't asking him to make them damaged to cheat the company. I just had him hide them for me until I could buy them.