the reel ess

Notice how often the shows that feature touring pros are really 30 minute infomercials for the latest innovative new bait? The same bait that will be on clearance at Dick's at the end of the season.

I cooked burgers this evening. One thing I can tell is you need to cook on lower heat than a conventional gas grill. They were well seared and appeared done, but were still a little raw in the middle. Had to microwave them, which really isn't the idea with any grill.

I just bought a new Char Broil gas infrared grill. These two words sound like an oxymoron to me. I lit it today just to see how it all works. I turned all burners on high to see how hot it gets. About 520 degrees. Then I turned off two burners and left one on low. It didn't get much lower. Are you supposed to cook everything on a high temp with an infrared grill? I've read that IR is good for putting a sear on beef and not overcooking but not as good with chicken. Does anyone have one that can give me tips? Thanks.

Gama4Life But you can't go wrong with any of the premium brand hooks. I have some Eagle Claw Razor Sharp spinnerbait trailer hooks I've been using and reusing for years and they're still sharper than the baits I'm putting them on. LOL Rattamahatta

I just can't get my left hand to cooperate. It's stronger than my right due to years of clicking a mouse for a living. But it's plain dumb. I can't cast or pitch with it, but it's also not very good at reeling. I'm a tad handicapped with a spinning rod as well, but I force my hand, literally.

I've always been partial to the Carolina Skiff for an all around fishing boat. Big enough for some chop, shallow enough draft for getting in the weeds for bass or inshore. No carpet or fancy furniture for time to destroy. It has lots of room inside to walk around, hold coolers, baitwell, etc. Maybe one day.

I really have no idea because I've been fishing longer than my memory. So probably on a minnow or worm on a cane pole. That was my first rod. We mostly crappie fished when I was coming up. Later I got a Zebco 33 and an assortment of Mepp's Comets, Rooster Tails and "Shysters". I caught a good many bass on those that I remember as well as crappie and white bass.

A crappie jig under a float. The original float n fly. And you might get some action from panfish or catfish too.

Take at least 4 (sometimes I take as many as 7) combos and try them all every trip. In general, read up and watch videos for the type baits to use in each season, then try a few. You can't fish everything you own in one trip. If you did, you'd never gain confidence with any.

I will eat bass from time to time. I fish one place where they're stunted. The average is under a lb. I keep everything there. But I'll usually leave all of them in my buddy's basket. It's a private pond and the water source is a spring that comes right out of the ground. It's clean. The bass from it taste better than crappie from most public lakes.

Going to work instead of fishing.

My dad had a pontoon boat we used to crappie fishing. After losing a few anchors to the brushpiles, we took to using cinder blocks. If you lose one, you're out less than a buck. We got ready to leave a spot and took off, but the pontoon just didn't seem to have any power. My dad said he was worried something was wrong so we chugged back to the dock to check it out. Got close and felt the anchor dragging along. We forgot to pull it up. My dad and I were out in my F&S and got ready to move to another spot. Turned the key and nothing. Not even a click. I checked the battery connections and they seemed fine. There was a guy near enough to see what was happening and gave us a tow back to the dock. I worried over the boat for about 6 months and was just about to take it to a mechanic. My dad called me up one night and asked me if I'd checked the kill switch. ? That's what it was. I didn't suspect it because I wasn't wearing the cord and it had never happened before.

I got a gift card to Lowe's several Christmases ago. When I went to spend it they didn't have anything I wanted (go figure). So I put some money with it and bought my daughter a kayak and surprised her. She was 9, I think. So we go out a few times and she says I fish too hard and long. Last time we went, we launch and I'm slowly paddling along trying to fish when she starts beating the inside of her kayak with the paddle. I said, "Are you trying to ensure I don't catch a single fish?" She said, "But there's a spider in my kayak." I've told this story many times on here. My dad, his buddy and I were trolling along the bank and came across a guy in a bass boat. He told us to leave this particular spot alone because he had a tourney the next day and it was a good one. He left and we caught all we could off it. We came back later and did it again. My best friend isn't much into fishing but he's incredibly competitive. We went once and he caught a nice 4 pounder about halfway around the reservoir. He sat down in my back seat and talked smack to me the rest of the way, texting pics of it to everybody he knows and drinking beer. He was satisfied just to beat me. I caught one bigger right at the boat ramp. I told him to let that be a lesson. You can't outfish me without a hook in the water.

This was going to be my answer. The CC Super Spot is the best lipless where I fish. Soft plastics is a good way to keep it cheap. Zoom and Berkley have me covered on most plastics. A jig is a very cheap bait that catches big bass. Get a wire tied one and it might last you a season or more. Maybe the all-time underrated lure is the Rooster Tail. I find Big Bite stick baits to be a more durable alternative to the Senko, so it's cheaper. If you're one of those guys that doesn't buy into colors, there are almost always some oddball colors on clearance at the local Academy. I used to buy off the bottom shelf at WalMart when i was a broke newly-married guy. Now the most expensive lure I own is the SPRO Rat. Most people have an upper limit pain threshold for baits. If I have a hard time justifying a bait purchase, I usually won't make it. Or I could go to Dick's in the winter time and buy the ducks, beetles and bats off their clearance rack while they start pushing the next season's fad.

Absolutely. I was competing with the big boys with expensive toys over mostly dinks on the big lake. It's hard to beat the feeling of playing a fish that's turning your boat. And it's exercise, to boot.

I have launched my kayak a few times from regular boat ramps. Were I this guy, I would have carried the kayaks over to the grass on the right and lifted them in when ready to take off. If they don't have a regular boat, they don't know the etiquette. But they'll learn quickly. You'd have to sleep on the lake to beat powerboats out on our local lake. My family had a house on lake Wateree. I would trailer the boat over, launch, run it to be sure it was good to go and dock. Next morning, I would get up an hour before sunrise and go straight to the spot I wanted to fish. There'd already be two guys in the cove. If there was a good spot, you'd have to stage to fish it on weekends. That's when I decided I'd had enough, bought the kayak and started looking for private places to fish. Now I have 3 places I can come and go as I please and a couple more that I have access to.

I think they prevent some hooksets, but if you use a jig the way I do, you'll need them to not be hung up on every cast. Set that hook like you think that fish defiled your little sister. You really can't set it too hard if your line is good.

If I paid $30K or more for one, I'd probably want to fish some "clean water." Now I don't fish from the kayak anywhere boats can run gas motors. Some of the places I fish, if you put a boat in, the water level would rise. For me, that's the point of the kayak to start with. These are like two different sports to me. I actually have an older boat but don't like to use it. I do encounter some boats using electric motors. Some ask questions about the kayak, some wave, some ignore me. No one has ever said anything rude to me about it. On the other hand, when I used to fish from the boat at the local big lake, plenty of other boaters did and said rude things. It's amazing what they'll do and then tell you it's a big lake. That's why I got the kayak and sought out smaller waters.

I never just throw them out. But I have given some to a local kid and I've given some to the local charity thrift shop. I just would never have used them. This thread has encouraged me to try to fish with one of every lure I have in bags that I never use.

I mostly fish shallow and usually I'm using either a 3/16 or 1/4 oz. That's just what I'm used to. I think 3/8 is a good middle of the road, all-purpose size.

Most bites on the jig, if you're casting to a specific piece of cover, will come on the initial drop. I don't usually feel them. What usually tips me off is the bait moving sideways. You'll get better at feeling the bite with practice. But bass won't usually drop the bait when you feel them. If they want it, they'll give you a little time. I use the T rig differently. It's more of a cast and retrieve type bait for me. Sure, they'll work in the same places. But to me the jig is a scalpel and the T rig is a knife. To me, these aren't the same technique.

I bought some from @cadman that have been very durable and have caught a lot of fish. You don't need custom jigs, but wire tied is a plus and a good quality name brand hook is a must. My second favorite jig is a plain weedless Arky jighead with a plastic craw or Yamamoto Hula Grub. This will actually get you more bites in my own anecdotal experience. A way of downsizing your jig.

In a smaller fishery like a pond, you would want the bream to eat some eggs. You want the bream to be as nourished as they can be so they in turn spawn better and more often so they make more fry for the bass to eat. Then you should have fewer, but larger bass. How many times have you fished a place and wished the average fish was bigger? That would be the result if more people took bass off the beds or just took more bass in general. Of course, there are many factors that determine size. But the number of bass competing for the same forage is certainly high on the list.

I use a stringer at my buddy's pond because he likes for me to keep everything and put in his basket. I have yet to have a turtle eat any off the stringer, though i've heard of it happening. My buddy used to give me his basket to use, but it put a lot of drag on the kayak. It felt like I was paddling twice as much on one side. And when i would paddle, the door would open from the drag of the water and fish would escape. The stringer is less cumbersome. I would add that I usually only drag fish around his pond once before i take them off the stringer and put in the basket, especially in summer. When i've returned a few days later, they're almost always still alive.

This comes up every year. Why do so many people think it's wrong to do this with bass but perfectly acceptable with crappie? And they keep the crappie to eat. Why are crappie the stepchildren of the fish family? Crappie Lives Matter! This is like the argument that it's unethical to shoot deer with a .223 AR, but acceptable with hogs. Hogs didn't ask to be born hogs. If you actually decrease the numbers that hatch, and I don't believe you do because only a small percentage will anyway, you would probably just be increasing average size. Maybe it can have some negative effect on fish populations in the north, but it never seems to matter one bit here. Add to that, most "sportsmen" around here are hunting turkeys during that month anyway. I'd say, overall, if you think catching fish and releasing them any time of year is unethical, you might want to rethink sticking hooks in their mouths and dragging them from their habitat, just to maybe get a picture. To each his own.