Drawdown

Perhaps Maine will experience the OOS interest its turkey hunting did, recently.

Started the morning at a pond in Georgia, got a 1lb-er to hit a small black buzzbait what seemed like only 3-4 feet from shore. Then later in the afternoon on Chickamauga, caught this nice one on a bone bullet pop. Totally took it under the water with one strike. Fought hard back to the boat. That back treble is 2/2 so far! Because the sunset action was so furious, we took in the twilight later. Purely sublime.

In Tennessee at least they’ve done long-term panel studies tracking consumption and health outcomes. Results were decidedly inconclusive even among those who consumed regularly, above recommended amounts.

Before you do anything, put one or two passes of black electrical tape around your spool. Will keep the braid from sliding on the metal by giving it something to grip onto. Even when spooled well, things don’t seem to settle in until you’ve cast it a couple times. I wouldn’t personally go heavier than 20lb. And 15 is much easier to handle, I think.

Checked the Cabela’s website, and it seems like they now market Mean Eye jerkbaits as a walleye jerk bait for some reason. Or they’ve discontinued a “bass-specific” model. Wonder if they’re the same lure as the “walleye series”?

Plastics: Zoom Trick Worm Zoom UV Speed Craw Zoom Z-Drop (my favorite drop shot bait) 5” BPS Stick-O Worms and 3” Stick-O Minnows (like a weightless mini soft jerk bait/topwater) Hard baits: Berkley Bullet Popper (80 size) Booyah Buzz Baits 1/16 or 1/8oz Jig head + “crappie” curly tail grub (catch literally any freshwater species on multiple trips for less than $5 in lure costs)

Several weeks ago I bought quite a few lipless cranks for just over $2.00 apiece, and some shallow divers besides. Sadly, the topwater selection by the time I got there was limited to whopper-ploppers. The H2O buzzbaits (unless I’m misremembering and they were another brand) weren’t really discounted. I’d bet they’re doing a package re-design and therefore liquidating all current stock.

Don’t know how casting distance compares to mono, but I know when I switched my Carbonlite 2.0 combo from 14lb fluoro to 40lb braid, my casting distance seemed to go way up.

I haven’t seen his whining, yet. But I think I saw there was an episode named “Randy is ANGRY about the future of tournament fishing” or some such. Haven’t listened to it. Maybe that’s who BLat was responding to complaining about whiners. Of course, he doesn’t hardly believe in building home equity or savings as long as one has a boat. So I suppose getting a FF unit wouldn’t be an impediment to him even if he weren’t as successful.

I was struck by how even writers for local papers used to have fantastic prose (see below). Seems like English departments around the country got in an arms race to out-Hemingway Hemingway himself when teaching students, who went on to become editors. Combined with the social media-fication of writing, you end up with the ICBM metaphor above (wish it were hyperbole, but it hardly is). https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/nu-fishing/

There’s so much fishing media out there now, it’s hard to come up with something that isn’t redundant. I will say, my favorite format has been the Fish the Moment podcast—(Randy?) Blaukat on there is especially good, and so is his YouTube channel, Intuitive Fishing. Johnny (forgot his last name) sets the agenda and pace very well. Like he makes an effective outline for the episode before they dive into it—gives a thorough spiel of his own, then hands the ball off to Randy for awhile. They seem to go through things exhaustively—but Randy somehow manages to blend comprehensiveness with simplicity. But, the FTM podcast seems to have run out of things to talk about, since they publish rather infrequently these days (lots of “Encore” episodes). My point is, having a strong focus on a specific topic (“fishing bass in high current rivers,” fall patterns in highland reservoirs,” 1.5 hours discussion on fishing a glide bait, etc.) is waaay more interesting than being general (“best summer lures,” “fishing the spawn,” “topwater”). You can have video on a YouTube channel, with the audio posted as a podcast. But keeping the ideas flowing could become a challenge, eventually.

In some parts of Central Europe, trout fishing with a fly rod was the ticket. Knew a guy from Montana who was very into fishing Czech streams in the north of the country and felt right at home. Everywhere else in Europe I’ve been seems to be a carp show. But Europeans not only tend to know how to catch carp, they also know how to cook them. Believe it or not, carp is the Christmas menu item in lots of Central Europe. They literally have massive pools on the sidewalk full of live carp to pick out for home cooking that time of year. Best way I tasted was either in spicy Hungarian-style soup (paprkikaš) or sliced into U-shaped steaks and then deep fried on the bone.

First time catching a fish on a popper for me! One of those deals where you are walking back to the car, but decide to make “two casts” to some submerged structure you noticed walking in. “Two casts” became five, and that’s when the action began. Missed the first strike, but the hits kept coming on that same retrieve, so I waited till the rod loaded to lean into it. Hooked this nice spotted bass on the back feather treble. Funny enough, the other time I caught a bass on Allatoona, it was on a buzz bait. Something about a topwater in that clear water! This one had a fat belly. Felt like it weighed about 2lbs or just shy of it.

I like trying new things, and catching on them. It’s not that I get tired of catching them how I’m used to.

I’m so stinking pumped!!!!!! Been dreaming about getting one.

The more I look at this pic, and think about where I caught it…I think I caught a Coosa Bass!

Did some creek fishing with panfish jigs in N Georgia. Got this lovely blue-hued dink. Plenty of longear sunfish, too. Also my first warmouth.

Places like that, you have to name your firstborn Skeeter to pacify the gods.

Did quick research of sub-$10 frogs on the rack at Cabela’s, and these seemed to have some of the better reviews. Can’t wait to use them!

“It’s the size of the fight that counts.”

Getting ready for the topwater bite at the end of the month and beyond (and all the creek fishing in the meantime).

Your friendly neighborhood dinkmaster.

A pond combo that’s been money for me whenever there’s cloud cover or lower light has been a Junebug colored Zoom UV Speed Craw, Texas-rigged with a 1/8 oz weight and 2/0 or even 3/0 hook. Stained or clear water. It has a fantastic ability to swim or have a compelling appearance of a craw running on the bottom. So it’s good where you’ve got craws, frogs, and bluegill. Either constantly doing light bounces on semi-slack line, reeling just enough to keep the same semi-slackness after each little pop—or (especially if there’s a little breeze) a steady retrieve with jerking the rod tip. Strikes tend to be subtle with the former approach, not very subtle at all when they like the latter.

That’s cool! Glenn’s got about as much twang in him as cream of wheat. So I’m guessing that’s not where he gets it. ? My dialectically uneducated money says someone in his lineage cheers for the “Stillers” on Sundays. ?

My, what a beautiful pattern on that dink!