galyonj

You just can't reach some people, you know?

That's a beautiful smallmouth, dude.

Yeah, dude. That was the a-side to their debut single. B-side was "The Way I Walk."

Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing?

That is my second favorite version of that song, behind the one the Cramps did in '78.

I have one. Medium/moderate that I use for treble-hooked stuff. It does the job. If I knew then what I know now about how I like to fish, I'd have gotten something else. I will say it's been a tough rod, though.

That makes a lot of sense, and I noticed it earlier when I did a couple more practice knots. I needed something to do with my hands while thinking through a work thing. I could hear the faintest whisper reeling it through the micro guides on my spinning rod, but at its fattest, it's still significantly smaller in overall diameter than the GT knot I would normally tie.

Ever been apart?

It's about time for me to start firing up the smoker. Just sayin'. Ooooh. All-Clad, you said?

If they weren't there to hold it down that stuff would've floated right out of the trailer.

Is that reel new?

That does look like a pretty short shank. I'm a believer in trimming skirts in any case, but I definitely would trim that one.

I've never used anything from Dirty Jigs, but from what I can find it uses a 4/0 hook. Are you worried about missing fish or the hook not being able to take the abuse?

Thank you for asking the question I didn't think to.

You're welcome! If you can, see if you can return a couple of those spincasters and recoup some of your cost. I'm gonna tell you something that might come in handy while you're reading these forums: Everybody here got bit by this real hard. And a lot of us spend a lot of money on the endeavour. You don't have to spend a boatload of money to get a piece of equipment you trust and enjoy using. A $50 spinning combo spooled with halfway decent line will do you just fine for a long time. I'm unfamiliar with your split shot issue, but I also don't use split shot. A #4 hook ought to be fine. #6 might be a little better. Panfish have wee little mouths. For panfish and white bass I like a 2" paddletail or curlytail grub with a 1/16 or 1/32 oz jighead (head shape doesn't really matter, but panfish jigheads are usuall ball-head or aspirin-head, and that's just fine). Cast it out and just swim it back.

Right on. I'm not at all concerned about the holding strength of the GT knot I usually use, but it worries me to hear my leader knot slapping through the guides when I cast. Even though I use a leader knot as a designed failure point, it's not like I want to hasten that failure, you know? If the FG has more clearance (and, thus, a gentler journey) through the guides, I think it's worth me investigating. Makes sense. Thanks for the advice.

Yes! I've been lazily looking for a good plancha to use on my gas range.

There are dozens of us!

This mirrors my experience. Light braid on a baitcaster is more trouble than it's worth, in my experience. And for exactly that reason.

It is sad. I don't know why people are so insistent on being trash. The big industrial-looking items are a whole different conversation, I suspect, but the trash I saw those people picking up on the bank just...made me mad. It does every time. I keep garbage bags in my gear just to clean up, and I'm mad the whole time I do it because there's no excuse to leave a spot looking like people do here. A vignette that took place not long ago: I was out on a mental-health break. Dude down the bank was just dropping **** everywhere. Normally I wouldn't say anything, but my impulse control wasn't great that day. When he packed up to leave and that stuff was still sitting on the ground, I hollered over to him "Hey, bro! Your mom fish here?" "...what? Why?" "Because it looks like she's still cleaning up after you. Does she still clean your room for you? You really just gonna leave all that **** there in everybody's way? Get us all hassled by the cops? Between all the junkies and people like you, I don't know which is worse." It got a little heated after that, but he cleaned up his mess.

I didn't even know it was a thing, but I wanna help next time if I can. I pick up enough trash when I'm beating the bank as it is.

I believe you, I just...

Yessir. Late winter/early spring rains always blow this place out. For the locals, did y'all see the cleanup got almost 16,000 pounds of trash out of Fort Loudon and Watts Bar?

I'm with Brian. Let's get this dude on some fish. @randdmart, fishing, in my experience, is riding a knife edge between a really crappy day and a really awesome day. Yesterday, for you, was just a crappy day. And you know what? It's all good. With context, we learn from our failures. The wind was not your friend yesterday. To mitigate that, you change your orientation in relation to the direction of the wind and/or you change the angle of your cast. Problem solved. The location, with those erosion nets, wasn't your friend either. So you move to a better spot, or you change your presentation to keep it off the bottom and out of the netting. Problem solved. I will say that you've given yourself a harder row to hoe with that spincast combo. The casting distance is never going to (comparatively) be very good They are hard on line, and problems at the spool can get beyond saving before you notice because you can't see what's happening on the spool The components are generally of (comparatively) poor quality and are thus more likely to fail -- gears strip out, burrs on the spool, burrs on the cap, etc. If someone came to me with no gear and no experience, and said they wanted to learn to fish, I'd suggest a 6'6" to 7' medium or medium/heavy open-face spinning combo, because that's the path of least resistance. The less time you spend fighting your gear, the more time you spend fighting the fish.

I haven't because I don't fish for catfish, but I know there are some bigguns in there. Few years ago a kid caught a 78lb flathead downriver at a park in Lenoir City (before Fort Loudon Dam). There are also some great big striped bass in here.