mllrtm79

The gf and I were able to slip away for a few minutes on Wednesday and wet a line... Her first fish with her new rod and reel, and my first whopper plopper 90 fish:

as a co-angler I have backed 3 different boats with 5 different vehicles over the last couple of months, you would be surprised how much easier it was to back with my buddy's Nissan Rogue than his Silverado lol. Once you learn mirror backing it's a lot easier to go from one vehicle to another and feel (somewhat) comfortable. I still get nervous sometimes, but if you're in someone else's $50k truck backing up a $40k boat... You can customize your trailer as well, giving yourself a reference to use such as a flag off the rear or a mark on the fender/rail for lining up straight. You'll notice that some semi trucks have many more lights down the side of them than others do, this makes them much easier to maneuver at night due to the extra reference points.

"Hooksets are free" is a common line. That being said, if your line moves (soft plastic), reel down and set the hook. You will get a feel for different bites on different lures as time goes on. There are some great videos on the bass resource youtube that can help a lot to explain different techniques.

the older of the Bassets... protesting that mama left him and he is so alone. He refused to be consoled for a good three minutes, then forgot what he was protesting and went to torment his brother. Who needs teenagers when you have drama queen dogs

X2 on the MJ's

We are using plastic rack shelving along one wall, and a peg board (with metal hooks) on the other over top of the work desk in the spare room. I still haven't gotten into sorting out the bigger of the two sheds for storing tackle, but that will probably need airtight containers due to critters. My future father in law has hooks on the ceiling to hang rods, and that works, but it's only an 8' ceiling. He also has a rack which holds about a dozen 3600 boxes, which is plenty enough once he loads the boat for the season. My father still has a bunch of old filing cabinets from a school sale in the early eighties that work well if you keep things organized. If you find a store going out of business and can get a few of the pegboard style stands they are awesome (but you have to have the space for them)

"if I act like I don't hear them, maybe they'll go away"

I will share, with most of the guys I fish with. That being said, on the interwebs I will not really know who will understand "if you go up the deep creek fork just past where the clam factory dock was, there are docks and a bulkhead on the right side. When the tide is low the fish pull back into that area because of the mud flat on that one bend. Fish that from Mike's dock up to around the next bend where there the 4 laydowns are." @Lendiesel22 and a couple of others that have fished the Nanticoke may be able to find it, but I doubt they'll hurt my fishing the next time I'm out there. (even though they probably won't know Mike they might find the area)

My only keeper from my buddy tournament yesterday. My partner did put 2 in the live well. We had a good bite going until about 830, then the wind picked up and catching just stopped. Only caught 3-4 dinks after that. 20 1/4" 4.14 lbs, was good for big bass on our pond, but 4.98 was lunker of the day. (6 pond tournament). She really looks bigger than that, but is skinny from just having spawned.

So far no one seems to know. They are liquidating inventory, but from the news reports even the employees haven't been told yet.

I had a thought the other day (just one). What kind of chaos would there be if people had turn signals on but didn't turn as often as they turn without using one. I for one, don't trust other drivers/vehicles, I have enough of a time controlling my own. I will even catch myself looking both ways crossing a one way street.

I still am a little nervous when her father asks me if I want to go for target practice...

I have a couple that came in a LTB a while back, they haven't even seen the water yet, but I will get back to you...

this is what happens when we are at her mother's house and have any kind of snack.

if LMB aren't terribly different from Pickerels then yes, they will bite again. A couple of weekends ago my fishing partner had a Picky fight him and break off, went back in with a creature bait and pulled him out 3 minutes later, the hook and senko were still on his jaw. I would think that (especially guarding a bed) they will return to what they were doing and could be caught.

so, it ended up being 4 packages, but since one of them is UPS Ground, and they all were in the same hub this morning, I got this notice on the 3 that were surepost: We'll be in your area and will deliver your UPS SurePost® package instead of the post office. WIN! I don't know why that extra day for USPS annoys me so much.

the soft plastics on my order all shipped together, but the remainder is still processing. Free shipping and UPS is great, and another reason to love living in Delaware: No sales tax

about that... was only going to get the 4 packs of chigger craws, but: Order Subtotal $41.26 Estimated Shipping and Handling FREE Estimated Tax $0.00 Estimated Order Total $41.26 couple spinnerbaits, a chatterbait, a WP90, and a VMC swinging jig later At least I can rebate the soft plastics lol

as previously mentioned, the Abu's have some decent rods for their prices. I have two casting Vendettas myself, M-F, and they are pretty good for a wide range of tactics. Check your local Bass Pro shop (or Dick's Sporting Goods, Cabella's, Gandar Mountain, Acadamy, etc) they usually have ok combos for that price point. http://www.basspro.com/Abu-Garcia-Pro-Max-Rod-and-Reel-Spinning-Combo/product/2336035/#desc-tab I don't have any experience with the pro max series itself, it's just an example.

I'm not sure how it works on a mobile platform, but on desktop when you upload a pic into a post there is a "insert into post" + button that will appear on it before you submit

On a even better note, she just called me. The mortgage modification that she's been waiting on since September got approved yesterday, so we'll be able to keep the house! Now it's on to find the next stress lol

It turns out, this is all that was needed (for now). She felt left out of the decision to fish, not the actual fishing. But we did decide that she will go along to a couple of the club tournaments, since my boater has a big G3, and she can lay out and read or whatever while we fish. My boater and her have known each other for years, so it will be a fun time. Thanks for the (varied) input, I just needed a sounding board I reckon. All this is new to me, but she did put a boat on the short list of things to buy once we get settled into the house... Amazing what a earnest conversation and a bit of compromise will do. I mean, this is the woman who brought me home a soft side camo RTIC 30 a couple of weeks ago, she is an amazing person, I just need some coaching lol

For the attention deficit I will ask the question first, then get into the situation: How do you balance out time with family, partner, hobbies, work, and fishing? I have recently gotten back into fishing, and become more serious with it then ever before. I have been in bowling leagues since 1999, some years as many as 6 nights per week, now I am on one winter league (33 weeks) from late August to mid April. I have been on at least one APA pool team year round since 2005, as many as 3 nights a week in one session several times. I shot many tournaments with both sports, including regional singles several times, as well as multiple state championships over the years (I won the state 9ball title in 2013). In January 2016 (at pool league) I met the woman who has changed my life for the better in so many ways, and in a way is responsible for my getting back into fishing... This summer I have dropped all of my pool leagues and am spending more and more time with her. She has started to get very jealous of the time I spend on the water, almost every Sunday from now until mid August with a club and a buddy tournament series. I have offered to take her fishing with me, but without a boat of our/my own it is difficult to get the same experience (or pre-fish with her along). How do you guys do it? I love her dearly, but like the song says I love to fish. I'm 38 years old, my only child is 18, and have not had to answer to another human being about my hobbies (or anything else really) since I moved out of my folks house at 19. We can afford to do things, we just don't seem to have the time anymore. I suddenly have all of my weeknights free, and now it's Sunday mornings that she wants. She was married to a man who really was not a partner to her other than sharing the house, she seems scared that I will become the same way. I am at a loss as to how to find a compromise between spending time with the woman I am planning to spend the rest of my life with, and spending time with a line in the water. You guys (I'm sure) have all kinds of experiences with this... Bestow your wisdom upon me I know, I try to keep things light and fun, but it's been bugging me lately

I also have had problems with the site's embedded emails on chrome (pc) but not on the youtube channel. Seems to be a flash player issue on the latest update of chrome for me, as I've seen it on other sites as well.

Update on the Stealth: I used it a little in a tournament on Sunday, and for a few hours on Tuesday. Unless I was trying to overpower the cast I had no issues, smoother is better with any BC... I used it with buzzbaits, spinners, and rattletraps so far, and so far the reel is performing well. I am looking for a 6-8 lb pig to really test it out with, but so far only dinks with it... Maybe I can get out and look for stripers on Saturday, that would test it's strength