OCdockskipper

This is huge for me. When I am out on the water, I want to fish (or at least have the choice to either fish or check out the wildlife). I don't want to be forced to work on tackle or the boat. The prep that goes on the night before is all time saved while out on the water. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy tinkering with tackle, just not at dawn with a short-lived topwater bite going on. It is similar to golf. The time to practice is the unlimited time when you are at the range or putting green. The time to play is the limited time while you are on the course.

i would love to answer you, but I can't find a question in your post. It is just a bunch of statements pushed together like leftovers from Christmas dinner.

I keep hearing about how it is impossible to beat the Saints at home due to the noise that the opposing offenses have to play through. I would disagree, it may be tougher but not even close to being impossible. Heck, the Saints were fortunate last night, the Steelers self destructed with bad coaching calls and turnovers late in the game & it had nothing to do with the crowd noise. Don't get me wrong, the Saints are good and it would not be a surprise for them to make it to & win the Super Bowl. However, this year every team in the NFC playoffs is capable of beating any other team. None of these teams are dominating on both offense & defense, yet all are very strong on one side of the ball and not devastatingly weak on the other side. There really are no patsies. As a Rams fan, I am glad that they have been generally dismissed following their losses to Chicago & Philly. It will let them fly under the radar for the next couple of weeks. Their offense has been mistakenly compared to KC or the Saints, when it is actually a different animal, much more dependent on the run. Gurley had been hurt since the KC game and picking up CJ Anderson was a great move to allow Gurley to heal while still keeping the run first offense effective.

Any chance it could be "Dock Talk"? In other words, is it possible the guy you met is indeed an excellent fisherman (as the photos show), but he is just pulling your leg in regards to the specifics of the technique?

For Spinning, I pretty much stick to Shimano because they are the only one that still manufactures a model that has some old school features that I want. Plus there is a Shimano factory facility minutes from my house, if I ever have issues with a reel, it is quicker to go there then any retail place. For casting, I have Shimano, Abu Garcia and a couple different BPS models. No issues switching from one to another, but I did find that each has characteristics that lend themselves to certain lure weights & techniques (for me). Oddly enough, my first setups for both spinning & casting were Daiwa (40 years ago). I really liked both and like the looks of current Daiwa products, I just never have pulled the trigger on buying another.

I'm glad someone made this thread. After seeing the article where Hank Parker recommended it, I naively thought that I would have to give that a try. After all, why would a bass legend give bad advice and that advice then be featured prominently on this site? I almost convinced myself that my concerns about the guides was self paranoia...

Again I would say it is positive. The bass are of varying size (i.e., not stunted) and they are hungry (i.e., no stunted bluegill). The difference between you and some of the homeowners is they may be casting a 3/4 oz spinnerbait that scares the bass in the pond instead of attracting them ?. The Ned rig you are using can catch every single sized bass in that pond.

My experience makes me agree with the OP. On my home lake, there are a dozen or so association areas where people can fish from the bank. Nearly each home (about 300) on the lake has a dock as well, albeit that most homes don't have a large waterfront presence. Before I had my boat, catching over 15 bass in a day was something I only did once or twice. With a boat, my average is nearly double that with dozens of days over 40 fish. It is just a matter of access. In regards to smaller bodies of water, I have a sister in Georgia with a pair of ponds on her property and another sister in Texas who lives by a section of the Blanco river. I love fishing both of those, but am limited to bank fishing. The Georgia ponds have a lot of brush on the shoreline & a few gators, so bank fishing is less productive than it would be out of a boat. The Blanco river section is small enough that I can cast from one side to the other, so in this case, a boat wouldn't be that much of an advantage. The OP is correct in general, although it does depend on the body of water.

Since the bass you caught was keeper size and just slightly thin, it may be a good sign. For ponds that have no shad population, bluegill are the main forage for bass. If there aren't enough bluegill available to sustain the bass population, then you typically won't catch a bass like you did. All of the bass will be stunted, in the 8" -11" size range with the exception of 1 or 2 really large bass that are the queens of the pond. If the bass in that pond had been stunted, you would have caught one every cast and probably never caught one the size you did. Now, if the bluegill population was stunted, the limited number of bass in the pond would be fat & happy. They would have an enormous amount of small sized (stunted) bluegill to feed on. The bass you caught would be able to feed to his hearts delight and most likely would have had a pot belly instead of being slim. So again based on the fish you caught, most likely the bluegill population is not stunted. I would wager that there is a healthy balance in that pond. The bass will range all sizes, but not too many will have pot bellies. The only bluegill you will catch will be the over sized ones, too big to fit in the mouth of all but the largest bass. The number of smaller bluegill is sparse, for they are constantly being eaten by bass like the one you caught. A tip & a suggestion. The tip is that the Ned rig & other small baits will produce well in a pond like this full of northern largemouth. That matches what they are used to eating and doesn't look out of place. A big giant swimbait may catch the queen of the pond, but is a bit of a unicorn as for as matching forage. The suggestion is in regards to the health of the pond. If the homeowners want more bluegill & crappie around for the kids to catch, recommend that they do a couple of stockings of crayfish. The bass will often choose to eat the crayfish over the bluegill and if they establish a large enough population, the bass will back off decimating the bluegills so that a decent amount of mid sized bluegill end up surviving (to be caught be the kids). And don't worry about the Koi. He can be the pond mascot, he won't affect the wild fish population.

I missed this thread the first time thru, so my entry may be disqualified for being late:

It sounds like the reason your grandfather didn't catch any fish was because he was fishing at a dairy farm.

Would you be willing to explain? I ask because I have never met Aaron and while I see that he can be socially awkward, from afar he never seemed rude. It sounds like your experiences with him are very different than my image of him. Ironically, of the pro's that I have marshaled for, the ones that seem the most charismatic and personable came across the opposite when 1 on 1, while those that you thought might have the personality of a dead fish were enjoyable to be around (David Fritts being the notable exception, I envisioned him as a bit of a curmudgeon & he kind of was - not rude, just disinterested). I think part of it may come down to the difficulty in being in a solo sport, where you spend so much time alone and there isn't much need to develop the ability to be socially adept and are then thrown into a situation where a stranger is on your boat with you for 8 hours. I tried to be friendly yet not interfere with what they were doing, but I have to imagine that some marshals are a nightmare to have aboard. To come up with a joke answer to your question, I had to imagine a far fetched scenario. Amart goes out the first 2 days, finds a secret location that only he knows about & catches a couple of 35 lb limits. Meanwhile, the rest of the field is struggling to catch limits and are all in the 10 - 20 lb range for 2 days of fishing. Our hero totals 12 lbs after 2 days, slides into 25th spot by 1 ounce and takes a look at the standings. He knows he has no chance of catching up to Martens, so he sets his sights on 2nd place and offers Aaron a date with Stormy Daniels in exchange for letting him fish the secret spot. It was funnier when I didn't have to explain it...?

The angler who barely makes the cut, is 60 lbs behind a runaway leader on the final day and needs $49,000 by weeks end or else he loses his house ?

It used to be, years & years ago that only old folks like you and I were around for. ? Now everyone gets paid, last year it was at least $10,000. Make the cut for an additional $3000 with more pay bumps at the 15th & 10th spots. Runnerup was a sweet $50,000, which is more than the Classic winners used to make the first 20 years or so. The current winner take all mentality is due to the lack of Classic qualification points that are part of each Elite event.

Having a good defense playing well in the NFL come playoff time is like a NHL team riding a hot goalie or a MLB team having a couple of ace starters, it can pull an otherwise average team over the finish line. The most recent example was the Giants Super Bowl win over the Patriots when the Pats came into the game undefeated. I don't think it is unfathomable for the Bears (or Cowboys) to have a similar type run this year. I know it may sound funny, but as a Rams fan, I have more concerns playing against the Bears & Cowboys (& kinda the Seahawks) than I do the Saints. The Rams have shown they can win in an offensive shootout and the Saints have shown they couldn't hold a 21 point lead against them at home, but the Rams have yet to show they can beat a really good defensive team in a cold weather environment. Even with home field advantage, if they get a rare So Cal rainy day with a sloppy field & temps in the high 40's against the Bears or Cowboys, the Rams will have to do something they haven't yet shown they can do.

With the 52nd & last spot for the 2019 Bassmaster Classic now filled, B.A.S.S. just did a photo article about all of the entrants. I did a quick count and found that: 36 of the contestants (69%) will be fishing the MLF tour by the time the Classic kicks off; 11 of the anglers (21%) will be from the 2019 Elite series, 4 of whom will be fishing the Elite series as rookies; 5 anglers (10%) will be from the Nation & College series. Statistically, there is a really good chance that the 2019 Classic champ will be someone not fishing any 2019 B.A.S.S. events (Elites or Opens). Should that happen, that means that the 50th Classic in 2020 (which will probably be an extra large production) will have a defending champ who hasn't fished a B.A.S.S. Elite or Open since 2018. If B.A.S.S. could write a script for the 2019 Classic, it would probably be Seth Feider winning the event, with guys like KVD & Edwin Evers getting passed the final day. Feider is already a fan favorite, for him to grab a Classic from those who left the Elite ranks would really boost his appeal to B.A.S.S. diehards. The next best scenario would be Jordan Lee winning a 3rd straight Classic, and then announcing from stage that he made a mistake and would love to come back to the Elite Series if B.A.S.S. would have him. I think I watched too much pro wrestling in my younger days... I wonder if the anglers are going to split into two camps (B.A.S.S. vs MLF) as far as sharing information & water. If Mike Iaconelli is leading the last day and his boat breaks down heading to his best spot, will Chris Zaldain just wave as he drives by to camp on it & stop Ike from catching a winning limit? Will anglers discard some of the unwritten rules if it affects another angler from a different camp? I can see how possibly a "this is our house" mentality will emerge from the B.A.S.S. anglers, especially since they will be a minority. The weigh-in, from crowd reactions to on-stage speeches, will be worth watching.

Its funny you mentioned that, yesterday I tied on the only Natural Ike I have left. It is the smaller size than the one in your picture with the bass pattern imprinted on it, circa 1978 or so. I find it effective for about 6 weeks starting in December, our winter as far as the bass are concerned. There are some Natural Ikes available on Ebay, some are priced fairly, others are too high. I keep telling myself to buy a couple before I lose mine...

It seems like the NFL is broken into 3 types of teams: A - Teams with high scoring offenses and average defenses; B - Teams with solid defenses and average offenses; C - Teams that aren't going to make the playoffs. The A's can beat the B's and the B's can beat the A's. However the A's tend to dominate the C's and end up with better win/loss records than the B's, who often struggle with the C's. Why? My hunch is effort. So much defense is about continued effort for the entire game. It is easy to understand how the Bears focus was much higher last night against the Rams than it was a week prior against the Giants. The B's don't have much room for error and lapses on defense can cost them against an inferior opponent. Against those same non playoff teams, the A's can have a bad quarter or two, but still pile up enough points to typically put the game out of reach. I am a Rams fan, but know that anytime a defense like the Bears or Cowboys plays focused for an entire game, we can be beat.

As said above, it is not the size of the water, but traffic & wind patterns that limit where to use them. I love my Pond Prowler, but would only recommend using it on an electric only lake, no wake areas or areas where winds won't commonly create whitecaps. It is the wrong design for rough waters where waves can easily break over the low bow.

Just to double-check, are you casting the lures you mentioned into the water or somewhere else?

Glenn, I don't think people are saying they don't like it, we are just questioning its practicality. One of the benefits of this forum is to get insights on products prior to buying them. Since you are pitching this product, I guess you probably have interest in it succeeding. Just look at our comments as market feedback. We have already established that if you suffer from tremors and change reels alot while fishing from a kayak, this would be a very handy product. Make that your target market.

In that case, it would be handy

I'll take that bet. How often do you need to re-thread while on the boat? For me, less than once a month. Retie, change leaders, stuff like that I do all the time, but having to re-thread is a pretty rare thing to do. Therefore, there is no way that the RTD is going to be stored someplace where you can immediately grab it. It is going to be tucked away with other things that you use infrequently. So in the 2 minutes it will take you to find and assemble the tool, I'll be fishing. Plus I'll have money in my pocket for lunch later ?. I am a subcontractor and own the business, so I am involved in both sales & using tools everyday. The sales pitch for the RTD is weak, it is like the gold plated shoelaces referenced in every marketing book read in college. The whole purpose of a tool is to make doing a job easier & faster, which the RTD won't because it will take more time to find and assemble the tool than to do the job by hand. That said, I can see where you having one will be a lifesaver for you. However, it will not be a mass marketed success so I would suggest getting a couple of them for yourself now because they will not be around for more than a year or so.

Side question, was the Dead ringer available 25 years ago? I ask because I remember in the late 70's, Rebel came out with the Ringworm. I fished them all the time and still have a few at the bottom of my worm bag. When I came back to the sport about a decade ago, Rebel no longer made the ringworm, but the Zoom Dead Ringer was in fact a dead ringer for the Rebel Ringworm (pun intended). I don't know when the Ringworm died & the Dead Ringer was born, they are very similar.

@J Francho As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not making light of those with disabilities, I'm glad that you can cast & catch fish. Glen brought up disabilities, including people who couldn't even tie a knot, as an example of those who could use the RTD but not the Fuji tool. So again the question, if one can't tie a knot, doesn't that severely limit their ability to fish, at least by themselves? Further, if that is the target market of the RTD, isn't that a very limiting one? Please don't miss the point of my post, it is no way negative towards those with disabilities. Rather it is whether the RTD is really filling a need in the marketplace or is a niche device with not a very large appeal. Considering the fact that the Fuji tool can do the same thing as the RTD for 99% of the fishermen in the world at a fraction of the price, I would bet that it falls into the 2nd category (not to mention the thousands of anglers who choose to use no devices at all & just thread their rods manually). In summary, some of us are making a case that the RTD is a solution in search of a problem.