Lures'n'Liberty

Seeing you're a Steeler fan, I'm thinking you might be from Pittsburgh. If you are, you're eventually going to want to have an assortment of pretty heavy rods with oversized dual drag baitfeeder reels. My "broom handle" for bass is an 8 foot King Kat/Salt Striker baitfeeder combo w/ 60# braid. I mostly use it at night on the 3 rivers flathead fishing, but as a not nearly enough weekend bass warrior that rolled pennies for gas this week, the budget's tight. You might make a better choice on the rod, but if you don't have 3 baitfeeders (PA allows use of no more than 3 lines in the water) and you're on a budget, swapping that oversized president for a baitfeeder will open a few more doors and give a bigger bang for your buck. The second drag doesn't bother me a bit when I'm flipping and pitching, and it's the bees knees for monster catfish and carp.

Jerky. If you're fishing for the day, you need to bring enough Jerky for everyone, preferably cured at home and from an animal that you killed yourself. This is a kind gesture that will start a conversation and a friendship, while stimulating the taste buds. It's 1000 times better when 2 people who meet for the first time start by exchanging pieces of jerky. Going back to the O.P., I believe the clear definition of a co angler giving an angler money at the end of the tournament that non boaters are eligible to compete in is called a tip. Calling it exactly what it is, a tip, should clarify a lot of thinking here. If tournament rules say co anglers kick an extra $50 for gas and the co angler doesn't pay, then there's a complaint. If the rules don't, then sorry, that's the rules of the tournament that the boater chose to fish in, perhaps they should choose to sit that one out next year. Now that we're on the subject of tips, let's talk common courtesy. C'mon, man, if you just kicked up $500 in tournament fees, you're carrying 5 top of the line (or even middle of the road) rod/reel combos at $750 a piece, your tackle bag looks like Bass Pro Shops should be buying gear from you to stock their shelves, and you can't kick in a few bucks for gas and an extra sandwich, you're probably best described by words that mods will yell at me for saying. If this sounds familiar, I hate to break it to you, but you're "that guy." Don't be "that guy" and you'll find that your life can be so much better when you're not finding subtle ways to push people's buttons. The same applies if you're the boater, your angler has a couple of hand-me-down rods, old lures, and he had to stash a little cash in his tool box for the last 15 paychecks just for the opportunity to get out and fish one tournament that year (even though he might be the one most likely to feed and tip you, and he's not likely to be anywhere with a $500 entry fee). You are, however, in a tournament. This tournament is a competition with rules, and like any other competition, competitors are free to utilize every advantage and disadvantage in the rule book. Don't like the rules? Don't fish the tournament, don't join the club, whatever it is that you're prepared to spend the next 3 months whining about, just don't. If there's no tournament and you're just out fishing, if you planned to fish the tournament together and there's no random drawing, if you're angler and co angler are in a team tournament, if the boat's a cabin cruiser and there aren't any fishing poles, or quite the number of similar situations, then we're on the subject of a conversation that should have been had before you were anywhere near the water.

Keep an eye out at thrift stores, yard sales, pawn shops, etc. Chances are very good that you'll find an ultralight rod for $5 or less to fit the bill one day if you get the extra cash, that will really help a lot. A lot of great tips above, and I know we all want to catch on lures. If you wind up totally unable to cast the light baits but still want to catch trout and crappie, you should have no trouble floating bait. All the equipment and lures in the world can't make up for the sheer number of kids who caught their first trout on a worm and a bobber with crappy 20# mono on an over-medium Zebco that's probably about as stiff as your Fenwick.

Is there by chance something in the shed with a hitch ball on it? You can probably see it pretty well on the quad or the tractor.

I've wondered a few times if I should throw a telescopic rod and a couple lures in my golf bag. If I could get a couple casts in every time I put a ball in the water I might catch a lot of fish.

1988 F-350, 460 cubic inches. Wanna keep your kid close to home? Make sure they have to stack a cord of wood before they can borrow the car. Oh, if the "car" gets 4 MPG, never has gas in it, and the kid works part time on a farm for less than minimum wage, this is an effective strategy. Bonus points if the gearshift sometimes breaks off and you have to limp it home by using pliers to put the nub in 3rd gear and going slow. Bass Turd that flag pole looks pretty perfect, if it's not rated for highway speeds i'd bet the ones for ATV's and dune buggies are. In Boston you should be able to get the neon reflective stakes that mark the edges of the driveway in a snowstorm for the plow's first run, too.

PVC has the advantage over threaded rod because it won't scratch your boat. Threaded rod has the advantage of being stronger and I'd imagine it to be easier to work with depending on the skill set and tools.

My buddy lived in Boston, you're absolutely right! Mass Holes can be a real concern. Do you have access to any fiberglass flat bar? https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=46304&gclid=CjwKCAjwr-PYBRB8EiwALtjbz3u0iNAwQzJ0ujbigtyKxhlwWTHpvQyygm3RYYtgqzyCV_rRqawHdRoCGgwQAvD_BwE - google found me that. I'd bet that you could drill it out in such a way that it could share at least one bolt with a taillight and stick straight up. Reflective tape for bonus points. My old man had a firewood business when I was a kid and my first car was his dump truck, which often had a log splitter attached. For anyone who doesn't know, a log splitter is pretty much a 6 foot long I beam with wheels, definitely hard to see, impossible when the view out the back window is the front of the dump bed. He put a fiberglass whip antenna on the engine guard in such a way that you could just see the tip of it out of the drivers' mirror. Words alone cannot describe how much such a small reference point helped to back that thing up.

None of this would be an issue if you name your boat Jim.

Do you have a stern light for your 'yak? Do you have something lying around that might fit in the rod holders (broomstick, old fishing pole with a little flag on it, etc.)? Maybe you have an old magnetic CB antenna or two that you can pop on the fenders with a little flag on top (or can find one for $5 at the flea market)? Just a couple things that popped into my head while looking at junk lying around the shop, take it for what it's worth. There should be quite a few videos on YouTube that will show you how to make some pretty decent guides from PVC that don't cost much or really take a lot of effort to make. If you have a fishing kayak and you do go out and buy a 10' length of 2 inch PVC for this project, I also STRONGLY recommend finding some of the videos on kayak fishing crates before you head to Lowe's. Assuming you don't have one because you'd probably see it in the mirror. The 3 things that you will need for this project will be - the leftover PVC from your new guides, a milk crate (2 is better), and a pack of zip ties. This extremely simple & Pinterest worthy DIY crate is awesome.

I used to drink a lot, and so did most of my friends. We've spent many a night on the riverbank flathead fishing, and even if you never caught a fish, it was nothing to catch 12-15 beers while a mason jar of something got passed around. One summer, losing rods became such a common occurrence that several friends started carrying "after midnight" rods and reels like the $14.99 Shakespeare Tiger so they could switch out from their high end gear when they neared the point of being "too drunk to fish." Personally I've never lost one to a fish. I lost a Daiwa featherlight while bicycle fishing a river trail, it must have fallen from the holder that was behind me when i was looking forward. I've also had 2 fall victim to the dreaded tailgate slam that we all fear.

I'd drive all of you crazy. I'm in love with the ease of a spincast and I've got a $5 flea market Daiwa Goldcast with $3 worth of ebay bearings on a $300 custom rod and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

3 8' heavy spinning w/baitfeeders & 50 lb braid 1 4'6" ultralight spinning combo with a couple spools 1 6'6" MH spincast, 20# braid. Sorry, bass, you lose to the bottom feeders.

I'm not sure the exact payment or time frame. While I will admit that I exaggerated the term length a bit, my point was that it was really long. Calling him to ask after seeing this comment, it's actually $1200/mo for 8 years, as he was upside down in his last one before he bought this one. Do trucks even last 10 years anymore?

Reading the past few, you're right. I digress, though. 2018 Ford F-250 Platinum - MSRP starts at $62,600 2017 Nitro Z21 Z-PRO - MSRP $52,495. That's $115,095 before tax. $115,095 plus tax can buy a lot of quality items. Should an individual choose to spend, say, $25,000 on a quality used truck and $15,000 on a quality used boat, there's $62,095 left over to spend on bait, tackle, rods, reels, guides, gasoline, hotel rooms, outfitters, guns, quads, motorcycles, snowmobiles, a building to put them all in, tools, beer, and if you plan wisely, you might even find a semester or two of college tuition for the kids or a gift for your wife! OK, so maybe you can't buy all of that stuff top of the line at that price, but you can certainly pick and choose some quality goods and services with that kind of budget.