Neil McCauley

I have a goodluck rock. That is all.

One of the first bodies of water I ever dropped a line in, as a 5-6 year old, no idea how to fish it though. I know it gets some heavy pressure.

I really don't think absence of classic appearing arcs is a reliable indication of a bad fish finder. I've seen a few on mine at most but I can identify many other fish because that don't appear as arcs. What does suggest a bad FF to me is when I'm not marking anything and yet am catching lots of fish trolling a single rod.

Nice fish. Funny to think of a bass species big enough to cut steaks from.

Probably not. One of the downsides.

My sunglasses were fogging up with just a plain buff, so I added an N95 mask underneath. I used a hot glue gun to attach it. These masks are designed to be somewhat airtight, so by cutting a hole in front and some slits in the buff I was able to give my breath a place to go and keep it from going up under my sunglasses. N95 masks are like $15 on amazon for a box of 20.

Legit hawg smallie. Congrats.

Genes take a long time to change through evolution, but fishing is similar to our most ancient roles hunting and food securing. Probably all men are predisposed to fish since for most of the last 2 million years getting meat by catching wild animals was key to survival and involved being away from home and physical challenges/dangers in the wild. We're also more inclined to use tools, which first began as weapons. Some of us are more predisposed to these things than others, but it doesn't always lead to fishing. It might get directed separately to things like sports, careers, other hobbies. The culture and experiences you have growing up matter a lot more imo. For me, it wasn't much, just a few early childhood fishing trips, some family I looked up to who were into fishing, and spending a week every summer at a lakefront house. By age 7 I was doing everything on my own. Interestingly neither of my younger brothers got into fishing.

Here are some traditional sonar ones with my first little FF. Some lake trout: Fish diving down? Boat was moving. Maybe it came up for the lure I was trolling then went back down. Pretty sure a weedbed. Caught tons of SMB here. Boat sitting still, just released the fish on the right. Boat moving again, no clue what this is. submerged buoy anchored to the bottom?

I take a picture of the sonar and navionics map screens for every fish I catch. The most important things to log for me are the location, depth, time and water temp, which are all shown in the pics. Next day I go through them and make a log for the day in a little composition notebook. For this to pay off it takes a few years and a lot of time on the same lakes but it's helpful to look back at.

The composite rods, fluorocarbon line, etc we have now is great but are there any tackle products that are actually worse now? Things "they don't make like they used to"...

I live right by a river upstate with stripers, very curious about trying it out. Is it at all like freshwater bass fishing?

Awesome fish. How deep did you catch it? My lake has had similar temps lately. There is just nothing like Spring Lakers. I caught one last weekend when it charged my crankbait right next to the boat. To my lifelong bass fisherman's eyes these things look like monsters when they do stuff like that.

DEET makes everything greasy and melts anything plastic. I don't really bother anymore. Avoiding bugs while fishing is like avoiding STDs from sex...only two effective solutions- abstinence, or barrier protection.

Koppers River Otter, Spro Beaver, MS Golden Retriever....

Only really works with a spinning reel so the line can snap free suddenly. And strong enough line that you can stretch it tight as hell. what the...

Got mine today. I like it, but it fogs up my sunglasses like crazy. Seems like no matter how I position it my nose is either crushed or uncovered or my glasses get fogged up. I think I am going to glue one of these inside, and cut a few holes in the bottom.

The above is no joke. I am sometimes the one doing the procedure to remove those chunks, they are very common. Higher incidence than that of all other cancers combined. People underestimate UV damage and think "skin cancer" is just the rare and scary melanoma. But basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas are the common ones. Half of Americans who live to 65 will have one, almost always at sun exposed areas of the head, especially tops of ears, cheeks, nose, lips.. they are easy to ignore too long. Even a fellow physician I know didnt recognize one on developing on his face, kept putting cortisone cream on it. The excision ultimately required left a nice 6 cm scar. Once you have a history of heavy sun exposure getting these is almost inevitable. If you fish outdoors a lot you WILL get them, period. So, with buffs, I have just come to realize that for people who spend serious time on the water sunblock isn't enough. Need an actual physical barrier to obstruct UV radiation from your skin.

Ordered mine! Still want a FF sonar pattern one tho...

Rare but still happened about 8-10 times to me last summer. Rocks at the bottoms of lakes here in the Adirondacks/New England are literally ancient, rounded smooth and some the size of cars, dropped in big piles by glaciers. Plenty of places for lures to get wedged in.

For cutting deep hooks, seems like some of the ortho surgery instruments could be helpful, like the Ruskin-Liston bone cutters below. Anything better you could think of?

In the interest of not losing $100+ worth of hardbaits this season I'm in the market for a lure retriever device. I've seen a lot of different ones, and different designs. Seems like the most common is the weight with two rings and a rope that slides down the line. Has anyone found one in particular that works best, or that there are different types for different situations? How often do you still fail to retrieve a stuck lure? Traditional sliding weight style: Chain type: Spiral stick type: Most of my hangups are from lures wedged between irregular basketball+ size rocks and boulders. I can get about 90% fo these back by backing over the lure and pulling it free backwards. If that fails, I can get another 5% of them snapping the line from tight to slack by tightening the line as much as possible, pointing the rod tip at it and releasing the bale. If a few times doing that doesn't work they're usually goners. I'm hoping a retriever/knocker would help get more of these back.

NOT bad...

There needs to be a hickok45 of fishing. I have yet to find one.

My old Quantum SX3 finally broke down, no longer locks reeling backwards. It has been such a solid reel for me for almost 20 years I'm considering getting the same one, but it is on ebay for >$70 and I have a feeling bidding will be over $100, which is a little absurd since I think I bought it for $30.... Are there better modern ones anyone could suggest? In the $100 range... Should be light spinning, rear drag, trigger casting. Thing I will miss most about my old reel is the balance of the reeling handle and how solid it just was reeling against heavy resistance. I could use it with very heavy tackle if I wanted. I am afraid they "don't make them like they used to" in this regard. Hopefully I'm wrong.