Johnbt

My wife doesn't like the snakes that come up to the house to shed in the sun. The lower end of the house has a strip of woods with a little creek that runs down the center. It goes under the road and eventually into the James River.

Bad, but not as bad as the HK catalog cover from 10 or 15 years ago. The catalog with the $5 price on the cover. Look at the magazine in the corner.

Sure, we're only a third of a mile from the tidal James River below Richmond, but we're 90 feet above sea level near Chaffin's Bluff and Jimmy Dean's place. And the Henrico boat landing fwiw. You can't see the two inches of standing water covering most of the backyard. The water in our shallow well is 20' down and the soil is all clay and silt with poor drainage during a downpour. But the deer, turkey and eagles love the deer woods and the yard. The hawks and eagles love the rabbits mostly. This is a first.

I still like Trilene XL. And Yo-Zuri Hybrid. And Spyderwire Invisi-Braid. And Tatsu. All about equally, although for different things. Trilene XL was getting a little expensive a few years ago, then Dick's had a sale - 1000-yd spools for $5 each and about 50 cents each for S&H.

I've been hosing rods and reels off in the driveway - shower setting, not hard stream - for many decades. If that's not available or I'm at the beach and the outdoor shower is turned off or it's near freezing out I'll just carry the rods and reels to the shower. Seriously, am I the only one who fishes in a hard rain?

I've been using Spiderwire Invisi-Braid in 10, 15 and 20 for decades. Some of my friends bought thousand-yard spools and the stuff fishes great and lasts forever. On spinning reels mostly in the lighter weights. I even use it in the surf for the lighter spinning rods with up to 3-ounce sinkers. Now I see they sell something called Spiderwire Ultracast Invisibraid-Translucent. It's always started out white and quickly turned blotchy camo-stained green in the water we usually fish.

I see a store at that address and there are rod-length boxes in the trash. The image capture on google maps says June 2024, but those dates can be years off (example: our house image says 2024 but the pic has 3 decks that were torn off, redesigned and rebuilt in 2021.) That's all I know.

"I am a firm believer that a fisherman should hold the rod with their dominant hand and reel with their non-dominant hand." I don't feel that way. But I'm righthanded and I've done it that way since lefthanded casting reels became reasonably available and affordable. I wanted a lefthanded casting reel in the '50s, but got by with what I had. Fwiw, my first spinning reels were for saltwater fishing in the early '80s. "I’m left handed but bat and golf as a righty." My father was right handed, but golfed and batted lefty. I write, throw, bowl, and usually bat from the right side, but putt better from the left side. Whatever works is good.

"they all look extremely ugly and ancient?" You probably wouldn't like any of my Conquest rods either. They are simple, functional, and I think quite attractive. They're fishing rods, not fashion statements. __________ You say 1994 like that's really old. That's cute. You're funny.

Quit overloading it and making the top bulge. I'm speaking from experience.

"Izzat like a 64(ish) Galaxy convertible in the background?!!" It's a 1964 Olds Jetstar 88 2-door convertible with a 330ci V8/245 hp. It's big and slow. It was an Olds for poor people.

I took a new 2012 Grizzly 1648, added a hinged deck on the back supported by 2"x2" aluminum angle I cut with an angle grinder, some glued down indoor/outdoor carpet, two screwed down battery boxes for the Maxxum 70. I have a 9.9 for reservoirs, but usually use an Endura Max 55 for all the small lakes we fish. The Endura Max and the fish finder are run off a third battery by the transom. The Polar Kraft in the background is my buddy's antique 1648. All of his homemade decking is framed with aluminum and decked in plywood.

Does Simms even have stores? I've only seen their products in stores.

Never fished one. It's been 40 or 45 years since I got interested in largemouth fishing, so I guess I never will fish a tournamet. The guy who taught me to bass fish for big fish used to fish tournaments and after a few years even he got tired of it. Fishing is relaxing. Tournaments aren't. Ever see a guy in tournament sitting there watching a bald eagle dive for fish? Or watch a great blue heron stalk a fish? Me either. We decided to concentrate on catching big bass and fishing where we wanted and when we wanted.

"Boron rods made in the 70 & 80s were nothing special." Compared to the metal rods I had that were made in the '50s they were great.