NYWayfarer

I found a spot I call “Pickerel Point” at my local river. Plenty of small baitfish in this cove during the fall. Pickerel love ambushing them and any lures that pass their face.

In that price range my recommendations would be the Abu Garcia Elite Max 20 or the Lew’s Speed Spin SS20HS

Just the angle. Makes the power knob look huge as well.

Love my Lew’s, love my Abu’s can’t really go wrong with either. My Abu Black Max is the most trouble free reel I own. Casts great and hard to backlash. My Revo X is one of the farthest casting reels I own. As others have mentioned the only problem I have with my Revo X and Revo SX is the side plate. You have to make sure it is locked after making adjustments. This is more of an issue with the SX and accessing the dual brakes. Lots of reviews of people losing their side plates due to the manual lock. I have come to love my Abu spinning reels more than my Lew’s. They cast better IMO. Farther casts and better line lay on my Elite Max and Revo X reels over any of my Lew’s.

Early Birthday present arrived this week. My first JDM purchase, the Abu Garcia Roxani spinning reel. Looks great on my Denali AttaX rod

It’s the time of year around here for catching huge Fallfish on Bass lures. This one hit a swimbait.

The windows at my office have a mirror finish on them. Birds fly into them and get stunned or worse, killed. A small bird slammed into my window yesterday and broke its wing. While I was looking at it on the ground a huge red-tailed hawk swooped down and made the bird his breakfast. Two minutes and all that was left was feathers.

Back to my normal routine of fishing before work on remote days and weekends. Fall has been decent so far at the river. Wacky, Ned and T-rigs are getting it done.

I fish at dawn until noon. Later if I am on the kayak. Regardless of how good or not the fishing is there is less foot and boat traffic earlier in the day.

Nice crisp, foggy fall morning launch today. Plenty of action on t-rig, wacky rig and finesse fishing. Two best fish were a 2 pound Largemouth and a long skinny Chain Pickerel. I lost 3 rigs to those snot rockets razor teeth

I have come to the conclusion that catching Pickerel in a sit in kayak is no fun when they flop off inside of the cockpit.

I enjoyed a week of kayak fishing during my vacation last week. The bite was definitely on fire. I was averaging 30 Bass a day, mostly Smallmouth in the 11” range. Some nice Brown and Green Bass mixed in

I caught 4 Largemouth Bass kayak fishing yesterday. This was the best one.

I caught my new PB Smallmouth Bass kayak fishing today! The dam at my local section of river was closed so I decided to fish the upper river. I am so glad I did. I caught a nice Largemouth early in the trip on a wacky rigged Senko. I figured she was 4lbs so I reached for my life jacket pocket to get my scale… I forgot my dang scale. Oh well I thought. Won’t be a problem unless I catch a PB… Less than a half hour later I put away the Senko and reached for a Texas rigged TRD TicklerZ. I found a current break between 2 downed trees, cast just inside and felt a thunk. I reeled up the slack and set the hook. The initial run told me this is something big. Then she jumped… I thought she was a Largemouth at first and was going to give my 5.26 Largemouth PB a run for the money. Then she jumped again and I got a better look at the brown coloration… This was my PB for sure and my “don’t come off, don’t come off” mantra kicked in. She wrapped my line around my rod holder and bashed herself jumping by my kayak before I could net her. The reality of the no scale really hit me when I lifted her up. My old PB Smallmouth was 4lbs exactly and I know this fish was more than that. Exactly how much I will never know. I took a bunch of pics and some video and released her. When I called it a day and got back to shore I was packing up my kayak and took out my removable seat. While folding it I noticed the brand new Wilderness systems pouch on the back and in the pouch was my scale… I had it the whole time. I forgot I moved it to the pouch from my life jacket.

The river hasn’t given up any monsters lately. Just a steady supply of these guys

Esox attack! The Chain Pickerel in my area are very active this past week.

Favorite is running a 50% off sale on a good number of rods Its in the special offers section of their website.

I ponder these things as well. I carry way too many tools. I realized it yesterday while going through my fishing tackle bag. I had a jig eye buster tool. I make sure to clear all jig eyes before they go in the bag, why do I need to carry the tool?

Good read, thanks for the info. I replace the stick hooks on my Rebel Pop R’s. Love the bait hate the hooks. Usually the get brand new VMC trebles. The rear one is the hybrid with the flashy spoon.

Texas rigged TRD TicklerZ strikes again. They wanted it hopped along the bottom in the strongest current of my local river. Caught a bunch of Smallies under a pound before getting this stout girl.

I thank God for another opportunity to go fishing.

My local stretch of river is super clear water with a sandy bottom, some rock and little vegetation. I am able to use 12# Berkley Vanish for my T-Rigs with no issues there. I use a Palomar knot and I am careful to wet the knot before cinching it.

Other than being filthy, all my Lew’s Winn Grip handles and knobs are holding up well. I clean them off with a wet rag after every trip. Sometimes with a drop of Dawn dishwashing detergent. I keep them out of the elements when not in use. I prefer the grips on my Lew’s TP1 Black. It has black Winn Grips. They don’t show dirt like the neon colors of my other rods.

I am fishing between Tropical Storm Fred and Hurricane Henri. Henri is going to dump more rain, that we don’t need tonight into tomorrow. The river is very high right now and that makes for good fishing in the shallows out of the current. Got some nice river Smallmouth including a chunky 15” girl on my $39 Black Max. That reel has been lucky for me. Still no backlashes and I hooked a plant on the back cast. Ripped the leaves right off and no birds nest.

55 when I caught my PB Largemouth Bass 5.26 pounds. Broke my last PB caught over a decade earlier. PB Smallmouth of 4 pounds in my avatar was caught when I was 53