Glaucus

You expect an Illinois lake that has frozen over to be thawed after 4 days in the 40s at the beginning of February? Take a break man.

I don't know why I'm shocked by how colorful and detailed this is.

I literally don't lie or cheat and I would fail a lie detector test 100/100 times for a variety of reasons. This is garbage science that's inadmissible in court and should never be used anywhere outside of The Steve Wilkos Show. My anxiety would destroy me instantly. So dumb. I don't fish tournaments because I tried once and the experience sucked all around. But primarily because tournaments defeat the purpose for me, which is something I immediately found out the first and only time I tried it. I fish for peace.

Our sport isn't like most sports where the best athletes make it to the big league based on pure skill. People who make it big in bass fishing are good at marketing and, nowadays, started with a lot of money and time to lose. Several pros have covered this topic in recent years. It's a money game. I'm very sure that there are many anglers not even fishing in tournaments on any level who would beat the socks off the pros on the water. Similar to my belief that almost every record has been broken, but hardly anyone is prepared for that event on the water, and many don't care to hurt the fish or the fishery by seeking to verify. Many probably don't even know they have a record. Meanwhile, in almost all other sports, talent and merit alone gets people to the top. Despite the random film here and there, there aren't really any phenoms out there not known to NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS/EPL etc etc teams. In sports like pool, nobody needs a lot of money. I used to play league. Perform well at the local level which costs nothing, advance to state which costs nothing, advance to nationals which isn't that expensive. I was never great but my dad was. He made it to Vegas on several occasions and it didn't cost much. Nobody gets into the big times in bass without tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fees, traveling, and equipment needed is insane.

Forgot to mention the crystals and swelling pressed on and irritated a nerve in one leg and spent a few of those days with uncontrollable twitching and kicking from slightly above the knee to the foot. It can get unimaginably bad. I've had bad flares but nothing like this. In the beginning the doctors thought my veins were swelling in the lower leg because that can happen during a gout attack from the inflammatory response and the increased blood flow to the region, but turns out I was quickly losing muscle mass. Don't skip those meds. I'll be lucky to recover without some kind of permanent joint damage. Hopefully muscle loss isn't a permanent thing and didn't damage anything. Oh that's another thing. If you can't move because a gout attack is severe, and you lose muscle, that continues to make the attack worse. Your body breaks down the muscle and you get flooded with purines and a higher uric acid level. It's like a never ending nightmare and everything is working together to destroy you. Most people don't have a clue how bad it can get. I pray you never get hit like this.

I just hope I'm back to health to even be able to fish in the spring. I have gout, and was hit with the most severe gout attack my doctors have ever seen despite taking medication for it. I hadn't had an attack in years. It destroyed my feet. Hit every joint imaginable, starting in one foot and moving to the next. Couldn't walk, stand, apply any pressure, or even move my legs for weeks. The swelling and pain was too bad. Any light movement made me nauseous. Wife had to adjust my legs slowly by lifting at the calf slowly. Atrophy is so bad that my veins are swollen and bulging. Right leg is half the size of the left from the thigh to the ankles. It's very weak and wobbly. That's the side that was hit the hardest. Doing some light walking and high knees around the house now. Feet are sore as hell in the joints, but walkable. Incorporating some light squats (no weight). It's a long road for me since I atrophied.

West back home, South for new adventures.

Starting to look like the Mayans were wrong again.

There's not a lot people willing to give up everything they know to strangers. In our sport, you can legitimately ruin bodies of water by trying to be a nice guy to selfish people.

Read the back of a shampoo bottle like every kid taking a poop before smartphones. That's what I'm gonna do.

I have a short memory. Most of the time a lost one doesn't even get a reaction. Not even a grimace. Nothing you can do. It already happened. Cast again.

Nope, can't understand a firearm becoming a thought while fishing just because someone gets too close. That's more animal than human, like a wolf bearing teeth because another gets too close to its kill. Lock him up.

I've order reels from Amazon. Never had a problem, and you can almost always get them much cheaper than you can from Tackle Warehouse. I've never ordered a rod from them though. My brother in law has worked at Amazon for 15 years or more. He's an engineer for them now. He told me to never order a rod from there. They're broken at an extremely high rate due to crap packaging, and Amazon takes zero care in storing them and they're often damaged right there in the warehouse. Amazon has no concept of rod care. And honestly, I wouldn't expect them to.

My top 10 or so biggest bass have been caught the same way: Hitting the same area or even spot again and again and again, sometimes with changes to lure and depth, until I get bit because I know they're there. Sometimes for hours. I learned to stay put on tough days because running and searching isn't leading to any better results, so I pound where I know they are or where they should be until I make them mad enough or get lucky and I'm still around for when they actually get hungry.

A different setup for every different bait. Believing that 7' moderate fast would have any noticeable differences over a 7'2" fast. Only a few techniques actually matter for really specialized rods.