JediAmoeba

A lot of the soft plastic prices are crazy these days...especially when some days you only get a 12oz fish out of each bait. But the trade off is less fish in regards to the cheaper baits a lot of days.

I had access to a bass boat and pontoon boat for years and honestly didn't use it that much. Right now I have a canoe with a little minn kota a kayak and a John boat with a trailer(my Johnson finally died so I need to replace it). With 3 kids it's hard to find enough time to fish besides going to our local lakes and spending an hour or two throwing baits. Somewhere down the road though! Or I need better friends that fish.

That sounds like a best practice, however I am entirely too...uh, time efficient, to do that. Some may call it lazy. In late December I usually take all my reels off the rods, check them out and service the ones I used a bunch. Otherwise I just spray them down and stick them in a big tote leaving the braid on and throwing away all the fluoro and mono on them.

The other day my wife was making fun of me for the way I store my rods in the garage. I thought it was awesome and all it cost me was some pool noodles from the dollar store. This is a picture of the one corner of my most used rods/reels but I have this "system" all around the garage. How do you guys store your rods? BTW, don't mind the ugly rod socks.

But switching to Geico may.

I seriously started targeting bigger fish in the mid90's when I was 15 or 16 years old with a cheap (expensive to me) daiwa baitcaster I bought at Kmart that I mounted on a 6' ugly stick and spooled with spiderwire. I relied on using a few spinnerbaits and spoons and other lures from my dad's tackle box. I used this rod/reel for everything from bass and Pike to catfish, trout and suckers. It wasn't until I was 19 years old I got a 2nd rod/reel. I never even imagined at the time I needed different rods and reels for different techniques. I just adapted and went with it and caught a lot of fish.

I think he meant 3 OR 4 inch. I could be wrong though...

It's obvious the most versatile ingredient to bass fishing is a...............hook. ?

This stretch of river gets thousands of rafters, canoers, kayakers and tourists daily in the summer so the commotion doesn't seem to bother the fish. You are right though, I need to hone in on those areas that the fish are...I will look into a kayak but I believe they have those sit in ones that won't allow me to have extra stuff on it. I really want to take my kayak and go on the river but it's an hour away and I don't have anyone to piggy back with... The last time I went by myself on the river I had to wait 6 hours for my wife to show up and take me back to my car - it was a fiasco. So as much as I want to go on the river by myself it just isn't feasible. That's disappointing too because there are some great opportunities if you have a someone else.

I need some help, or maybe just a reassuraance... So each year, twice a year, some family and friends go on a river floating trip down the Delaware river for most of the day. That is coming up soon. If you know the area, we float down to Matamoras NY mainly relaxing and drinking on a big inflatable raft. The river through that section varies in size and but is usually pretty clear and relatively quick. I usually catch between 20-40 smallies but they are always dinks. For the most part out of 20 people I am the only one fishing and we have 6 or more rafts tethered together so stopping when you get to a good hole is rarely an option so you have to maximize your casts and hit the breakpoints dead on to drift your bait by... I usually use 4-5" Senkos wacky rigged and throw on some weight if necessary. I also take various jigs for when we stop and I can make some casts without blowing by the spot. I also throw some squarebill cranks but they rarely produce anything. The time I caught the most ever was when I used ballhead jigs with curly tail grubs. The forage is anything and everything as the shad and crawfish are plentiful so you can throw white or natural colors. I really want to catch one with size this time around. We have been doing this for 10 years and I experimented with buzzbaits and spinnerbaits but they didn't produce anything. Should I try something else? Upsize to a 7 inch worm? Try flukes? Large cranks? I feel I have started to get in a rut and want to get out and catch some fish with size. Last year the river was high so I threw bucktails all day for musky and was skunked...so I don't want to get skunked again. Or should I just go with what I have done in the past knowing I will catch fish?

Last choice is always finesse baits and plastics. Even when I need to throw plastics I try and get away with larger ones on baitcasters. Moving baits are way more entertaining and fun.

So many people disregard how brittle Fluoro is... myself included. The best way to tighten the knots is underwater or I spray it with Reel Magic. But still, any fluoro 10 pounds and below is going to break at knot.

Something everyone is disregarding here is upkeep costs and additional costs that come with a boat. Those are the questions I think are the most important. Are you going to use a boat enough to account for the cost of upkeep, storage and maintenance? You can get an OK boat for a relatively low price but upkeep is expensive. And when a boat breaks down, you have to remember the acronym. B.ust O.ut A.nother T.housand

I have caught a lot of perch on crankbaits over the years...but in swim jigs and chatterbaits, never. And I had a bunch of other hits from perch - I had one huge one come swirl at it right by the boat. Totally insane. I was way too far from the car and didn't bring anyway to carry them back...this place is over a mile back in the woods so it's plenty a struggle enough towing a kayak by hand.

I tried to throw a chatterbait yesterday without a trailer because the pickerel kept biting off the tails of the Zako's but it just didn't feel right and the action seemed off - I then realized I had never thrown them without trailers. For jigs, 100% of the time. Spinnerbaits it's about 50/50.

Jackall Gantarel and Gantarel Jr.

I have been looking at reviews and am not finding much on these guys. Anyone here have any insight? I have read it takes too long for it to get going, is this the case?

Bad news man...it looks like a Bagley Kill R' B. The old balsa ones that were fantastic! I have a few of these and am scared to lose them because the action is great. I could be wrong though, I realize the old kill r B's I have are round bill.

The perch were hitting everything and I also caught a 30+ inch pickerel out of the yak in an hour of fishing before the storm hit. Sadly I caught 0 bass.

Onerod, one of the original Googans always had the best content anyway. He is nice, does things like picking up trash and doesn't act like an egotistical maniac. As far as YouTube fishing goes I have always watched a lot of the BassResource videos, Realistic Fishing, 1Rod and Mad River Outfitters. Other than that I occasionally watch some Scott/Roland Martin videos and the In Fisherman guys but have always steered away from most of the Googan stuff because they don't teach anything and they try to be entertaining but aren't...

I have some muskie top water weagles and I have never had a bass hit it. Or a muskie for that matter. It does look very nice though.

Looks like a golden shiner.

I thought it was a creek chub lure?

Bust Out Another Thousand

https://www.fishingonline.com/pages/discount-fishing-gear# Not bad if you are buying a bunch of stuff.