the reel ess

The 2nd from the top is a JC Higgins brand, which was the Sears house brand of sporting goods. They ceased to use the name in 1961, so it's at least 62 years old. From what I can find online it may be called a Paw Paw. I was mainly asking about the bottom two. I think you're right about the Big O. But it looks like the line tie is a little further away from the bill than the Big Os I see online. The other one is not as fat as the pic makes it look. It's quite small with flat sides (top & bottom).

My sister in law told me to go look at her late hub's fishing gear and take whatever I could use. He was a bit of a pack rat so I took a pretty good bit, some of it vintage. I know the top is a Heddon Cobra, the next down is a JC Higgins (Sears house brand, not made since 1961)) S model??? But the crank and the Torpedo looking lure have no markings other than "Japan" on the bill and the propeller. They're both plastic so I doubt they're older than late 70s. The bottom one may be a version of the Torpedo. I also got a fly combo and his fly assortment as well as a bunch of other lures and bags of soft plastics.

For me, jigs, T-rigs and frogs, depending on the tip. I have a frog rod that's really too stiff for any kind of finesse, so I have a jig/T-rig rod too. In winter I'll use the frog rod as a second deep jig/T-rig rod for the heavy stuff like swing jigs and football jigs.

Warm and rainy here. Interestingly, some Facebook memories of late have us in shorts this time of year and in one was fishing from the kayak with bare feet. I remember once when I was a kid we went to my grandmother's (less than a 1/4 mile away) for Christmas dinner. It got so warm I walked back home and changed into shorts. It reached 90 that day.

I've caught one twice in about an hour. I know it was the same fish due to some very distinct characteristics. But for most bass I would say Hunger or reflex will betray them at some point. I imagine they mostly clam up for a few days. But they gotta eat and they don't have hands.

I'm not one who can be good at a lot of things. That's why I settled into bass fishing. That said I like to keep it simple as possible. I usually take 6-7 rods with me and almost never change baits. It is a thrill when you try something new and succeed.

I'm so right dominant I greatly prefer a RH BC to a LH spinning rod. My left just won't do exactly what my brain tells it. I also can't cast LH, so I use the LH spinning anyway.

You stopped short of reading my entire post. I did not forget that. I said the acquisition and disposal of battery materials is problematic. I try to see the whole picture and not cherry pick the points I want to make.

I think the PHEV would be the best of all worlds. I'd prefer one.

The agenda they're pushing is that hybrids work right now. If every car owner in America drove a hybrid tomorrow, the grid would not care. Power outages would not affect driveability. If every person drove an EV tomorrow, most wouldn't get to work and back many days.

Found it. It's not the cost for you to drive it. It's the total operating cost of an EV. this says $17/gallon. I've seen higher claims though. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/study-fueling-electric-vehicles-17-gallon Mind you, 92K is already high cost compared to practically, any ICE in the same class. So it immediately costs you tens of thousands more to drive it than a comparable ICE. Admittedly, I don't know what class of luxury your Tesla is in or comparable to.

I'm intrigued by the news of the future Ramcharger. It will have a 3.6L Pentastar engine, not connected to the drivetrain, but rather to charge a battery to run front and rear motors. Supposedly this is good for over 600 hp and torque and a range of 690 miles with a full tank. But having owned a Jeep Wrangler with the 3.6L, I'd bet it will have an engine code or two in the first month.

Full disclosure: I own a 2008 Silverado and a 1981 Z28. I'm not anti-EV, though I am very pro-ICE. But this truck looks much more attractive and capable than Elon's Cybertruck. I saw a few X (Twitter) posts lately about EVs depreciating as much as $40K in the first year. The battery is most of their cost. They're going to be disposable. Also the cost of owning and driving one, when all government subsidies are factored in, is comparable to driving an ICE for decades with gas at $18-20/gallon. As for the argument that they run off coal, that's an exaggeration. Coal accounted for about 20% of power generation in 2022. These plants are being converted to natural gas so that percentage is going down. EVs do in fact lower greenhouse gas emissions. Now the acquisition and disposal of the battery materials and their propensity to catch fire and burn down whatever structure is around them is problematic. I prefer he idea of a plug-in hybrid. Best of all worlds.

I love April here in SC. It's the spawn and it's also turkey season.

Good job, my man! Now you have a ton of fishing friends-people that are downright fanatical about it, actually. I'm the same about sharing my good catches here. Not many people I know really care. I'm a firm believer that if you can get a bait in front of a big gal she'll bite more often than not. I think bait selection is secondary to other factors. The trick is getting it presented to the right fish.

When it's really muddy I go shallow and pitch a black/blue jig or a nighttime spinnerbait to all the visible cover. You'd be surprised sometimes how far a bass can detect food in off-colored water. Living in the region I do we see a lot of off-color water in the year. Fish have to eat.

Every decade, whether it needs it or knot (see what I did there?) But seriously, It doesn't really go bad, just looks bad, unless you're around a lot of rocks. I'm not. Honestly, the looks are not an issue if you're using it for heavy cover, like a frog or jig, or you're using leader. I spool up the first half on my BC reels with 15 lb. Big Game mono and then finish with braid. Then, when that braid gets old looking I reel it onto another reel. Badaboom! I'm using the new end-new line for free. If you don't want to do that, but on the same reel, I keep a couple old reels laying around just for swapping the ends. So, if you subscribe to the "use it for 3 seasons" idea, you can now stretch it to 6.

I think the Zoom Speedworm is better at this approach. It also makes an awesome, subtle topwater when rigged weightless.

I like the Zoom "Finesse Worm" in 4" size when I can't buy a bite. I'll just rig it on a very light C-rig. It will get bites where you didn't even believe there were fish.

I bought a few a while back and they just flat out work. Caught a 3 pounder first time. They're far from weedless, which makes them a sort of open water lure for me. But if you use weightless or very little weight you can keep them off the bottom on retrieve. This is a variation of what we called a do-nothing rig in the 80s. That rig was not curled in the package. These will twist line so a small swivel is not a bad idea. EDIT: Take it easy on the hooksets and play the fish. These are small hooks.

One thing I like about the kayak is I can hold the fish in the water while I fumble around for my scale and phone with the other.

I try to only keep one or two when I decide to keep any. That way I go home and fry them up fresh with no leftovers. My wife and daughter will only eat crappie from the freshwater fish I catch, and not many of those. So I usually fly solo on the fish fry.

I've caught some 2 pounders on UL. My buddy landed an 8+ trolling Roadrunner jigs for crappie with 4 lb. test. He has caught several big bass doing this. He's also seen bass chasing the crappie he was landing.

I had a PB of barely 8 lbs. at one time on a War Eagle Gold Shiner double gold willow blade. I rarely try a single excpet in the dead of winter. Then it's a nighttime bait with a big Colorado that you can reel so slow it's like a jig.