ww2farmer

It would take me days to list them all. Some of the highlights include: Causing repairs to be made to the trolling motor by going on 100 into the bushes to retrieve a $6 lure. Smashing multiple console graph screens with vigorous, yet poorly executed casting techniques. Launching the boat multiple times when I have forgotten to hook the rope to the trailer. Launching the boat multiple times with the plug out. Missing bites/hook sets on fish as I stared at scantly clad gals on shore/docks/etc..

I accidentally brushed my teeth once with Megastrike.

I will only talk negative about an item I have personal experience with and it failed me or my expectations. But even negative reviews I give must be taken subjectively, as my experience with such and such a product might be uncommon. I will not refrain from telling people about stuff I used and didn't like... that's what an open forum is for. Anything else is nothing more than echo chamber advertising. People who blindly bash based on zero experience are generally insecure idiots.

This ^^^^ Just go fishing. You'd be surprised how well they bite sometimes when its supposed to be tuff, but it works in reverse too...sometimes you think it's going to be on fire and it sucks. You never know until you get there and try.

Yesterday was NOT last Sunday, t least for me. Fished from 7am-10am when the heavy rains came and chased me off the water. In those three hours I had three bites. One got off, the other was a pike, and only one fish made it to the boat, a 4lb smallmouth.

The monkey got me hard today. 2 new Dobyns Furys (703 casting and spinning) Shimano SLX 151HG $100 worth of Zman stuff while Field and Stream has a buy 3 get 1 free thing going on for Z-man products $200 TW order.

Hook ups are great with those. Better than any wire weed guard equipped hook that rest on the point of the hook when closed.

Stock hooks and rings on SK baits are about worthless. The hooks rust, bend, break, get dull in short order. The rings are not much better. Randomly you ill get a run of baits with SUPER strength split rings that dampen the action of the bait and you just about need dynamite to spread open to change hooks...then also randomly they will come with rings with the strength of a wet noodle, that a stiff breeze will split open. I had ZERO confidence using the stock hardware on those baits. I did, but only in a pinch. As for the baits....they are mehhh to begin with. When they first came out quality was good, and it's gone WAY down. The last bunch I bought 2-3 years ago, I had MORE problem baits than good ones. Stupid stuff ...like lipless baits that leaked from the first cast, rattles that were stuck in place and caused baits to run funny, body halves that were not glued together straight. It was comically bad.

What a lot of people don't take into account with inexpensive baits is the stuff you have to change out on them. For example: Strike King KVD 1.5 square bill = $6 @ TW Good quality replacement hooks ~ $1 to $2 EACH Good quality replacement split rings ~ $4 -$6 a pack Your $6 bait is now an $8-$10 bait.....with hit or miss quality control...OR you could just buy a Lucky Craft LC Squarebill that's ready to go out of the box for $7 I used to buy the SK stuff...now I buy baits that I don't have to fuss with to fish, or worry about duds...even if they cost more.

These are the times I struggle for largemouth and typically target smallmouth instead. #1: right now.... just after ice out until the water gets into the upper 40s. A largemouth or two a day is the norm, but usually have moderate to excellent success with smallmouth. #2: the summer to fall transition......they just seem to scatter for a while and putting patterns together is tuff. Everything caught this time of year has to be worked for, and it's all junk fishing. Smallmouth are often not that willing this time of year either. It's possibly my least favorite time of year. #3: late in the fall.... when water temps get below 45, largemouth fishing stops for me and I target smallmouth exclusively again until I call it a season.

Depending on how long I live, I might never have a better first day on the water for a season on Silver as I had today. First 45 mins I had a 20lb bag of smallmouth on a blade bait...all from one spot. My buddy Aaron showed up, I ran in to grab him. In the next two hours we put a dozen more 3.5-5lb smallmouth in the boat between us, often having doubles...THIS NEVER HAPPENS HERE. I did all my work with a blade bait, and he was using a deep diving Vision 110+ jerkbait. It slowed down for a long time mid-day for us, so we took a ride to the swamp to check on water temps, etc...when we came back out it was slow, but picked up again late afternoon and was on fire until dark. This time on football jigs and tubes. I caught 20+ quality smallmouth and my buddy added another dozen. Three days after ice out...it's was above and beyond expectations.

I want to fish more and work less....there fore I use "budget" Dobyns Fury rods, and $100 Daiwa Reels. I do all right with this "junk" out of my leaky tin can with dual hamster power. I know many many guys with the finer things in life that have no time to use them, because they spend it all working to pay for it. You only get one ride on this rock, I'm not wasting it working. If that means I have to make due with lesser gear...so be it.

Boat is ready, tackle is loaded. Tomorrow the 2019 season begins for me.

One of my best friends, and tournament partners has only one hand.....lost the other in an accident. It's tuff for him to fish moving baits on casting gear, but he fishes slow stuff (jigs, plastics, drop shot, senkos, etc...) fine on casting gear. He fishes frogs on a 7' H BPS Bionic Blade spinning rod and a 3000 sized reel...he does just fine with that. He does just fine PERIOD....one hand or not, he is one of the best guys around here and wins a lot of tournaments.

Used to be a big fan of the Strike King line...KVD square bill's, Red Eye Shad's, all the XD's....then I got sick of changing crap hooks out of the box, culling 1/3 of the baits I bought because of defects right out of the package, mystery paint schemes, etc... Switched to what some would call better stuff a few seasons ago and have been happy with these: Lucky Craft LC 1.5 and 2.5 Square bill's Spro Fat Poppa's...both deep and shallow Spro Little and Fat Johns...both deep and shallow Spro, Jackall, and Damiki lipless cranks Spro Rk Crawlers ima japan beast hunter, bill lowen square bill, suspending lipless cranks, roumba, and shaker I don't have a favorite color...but have lots of bluegill, perch, craw, and shad patterns.

As someone who has multiple Fury 735c's ..1 3/8 is a bit much for it. The sweet spot for that rod is 1/2-3/4. It will fish down to a 1/4 and up to 1oz fine, but not ideal.

00dale....Are you a Dale I know? Have you stood on the back of my aluminum boat before in a tournament? A tournament we didn't do so well in, but I almost pulled a rabbit out of my hat with some late heroics in the marina on a frog? Do we have a mutual friend named George? If so, you know who I am. If not, sorry for the assumption, and questions.

For weighted wacky I like: Zappu Inchi wacky heads for spinning rods/light line Revenge Flippin' Wackers for casting gear/heavy line Unweighted I like: Gamakatsu B10 S stinger. 1/0 for 5" senkos. Not weedless but 1x strong and really cheap for a Gamakatsu. I don't care if they are weedless and I lose them a 25 pack is $7

This ^^^^^ Except I won't even monkey around with the ones that are not locked. @bclark7B and I were bed fishing one day a few springs ago, and I was tuna hauling them BEHIND guys fishing for them who were not getting bit. All it takes is a little more than a pulse to catch locked on ones. I have no idea what these idiots were doing, but there were 1/2 a dozen or more boats with two guys in them just not catching anything while being right on them. At one point in the day I wanted to get Ben a good one, so I pulled up to where I knew a 4lber was, had him cast to it, and it broke him off. I told him not to worry, we'll come back in an hour. We did, and he caught it. Another time I bet a good friend of mine that I would go behind him and catch a 20+ bag in an hour on a strip of drop shotted beef jerky. I gave him a 200 yard area with A LOT of big bedding fish in it, kept my eye on him, watched him for an hour while I just fooled around with rock bass. After his hour was up he, seemed pretty sure he was going to win the bet because he could only manage a few small ones. Hold my beer and watch this......I didn't even need the full hour, but I did run out of jerky. He's been mad at me ever since LMAO

War Eagles for me. The 5/16 oz finesse has re-ignited my spinnerbait fishing game that I let fall by the wayside a while back in favor of swimjigs and chatterbaits. Sometimes there's just nothing better than a good spinnerbait bite.

The blacking out of the blades is to cut down on the flash in clear water. Stuff too flashy is said to turn bass off in clear water. I have seen it work both ways. Some days they want it flashy, some days they don't. If your not getting bit on a silver or gold blade, I am of the opinion they are just not wanting a chatterbait AT ALL that day. If your getting short strikes, follows and only small fish on a flashy blade...that IMHO is the time to try a subdued blade. I fish subdued blades in very clear water (more than 5 feet of visibility), and or cold water (under 55 degrees). I will also use them if a lot of other people are using bladed jigs. The rest of the time I use a silver, gold or copper blade, and only switch if the fish are doing what I said in the previous paragraph.

I entertained myself by watching the time lapse webcam on the south end of Silver. It went from ice covered at 11:44am yesterday morning to mostly open water today...at least in the view of the camera. Good chance I will be on the water next weekend.

Rage products are great, I like the ones I use, and I'm happy they are a sponsor here.....but at this point, I think they could put a rage appendage on a cat turd and you'd claim it was the greatest thing ever. I say that half joking, and half serious. Nothing beats a Keitech...including a Rage swimmer. I have tested, and neither pay me to say so.

I have used their warranty service on rods I bought used/2nd hand....no problems. I sent them the broken rod (Avid) and the check for the return shipping. They called when the rod was inspected, and offered me a free replacement of the same rod, or for a small fee an upgrade to a higher end rod. I was happy with the Avid so I opted to just replace it with the same. A week later a new Avid was in my hand. They are one of the best as far as warranty issues go.

Yes, no an maybe. With beavers, even though they seemingly sometimes all look similar different ones do different things. For example: Yum Wooly Bugs vs R.I. Sweet Beavers....both look almost identical, BUT the ribs on them face opposite directions giving off a different "disturbance" in the water. Which one is better?? Who knows, it might not even matter...most of the time. Then take the Yum Bad Mamma....that bait falls like a tube even though it's a "beaver". Spiraling and seesawing down, where as most other beavers fall straight down or "glide". I will say one thing for "low action" beavers. I catch more and bigger fish on ones that have some kind of ribbing/secondary water displacement feature than ones with "slick" sides. Zoom's beaver style baits come to mind as ones I don't care for much.