ww2farmer

I use Yum dingers. Are they better than Senkos?..............NO..............but since I have a dazzling set of angling skills, it makes up for it. If I used Senkos, it just wouldn't be fair for everyone else.

I talk to myself often. It can look and seem strange to the untrained eye, but since I am a local, and consider myself the authority on any and everything around here...........who better to talk to?

Through the hole on the bottom where the hook is.

If I have posted it once, I have posted it 1000 times............my goals going into ANY upcoming season are: #1 Don't fall out of the boat and drown #2 Take my kids fishing as much as possible #3 Have fun................it is just fishing #4 Don't break anything expensive #5 Spend the least amount of money as possible on crap I don't need #6 Spend as much time on the water as I can, it's better than sitting around the house The fishing always takes care of itself.

I am a figure it out on the fly kind of guy. Especially in the fall. Things can and do change quick, sometimes daily. If this tournament is on a lake your not familiar with, looking around the week before will help, but often, getting hung up on something that worked tuesday afternoon but might not be the deal on tournament day will bite you.

If they were good before, than no. I unhook mine and pull them out of the boat every winter after the final charge after the last trip (making sure they are full of water before they get charged the last time). But they stay out in the cold/unheated storage area all winter. They usually don't see the charger again till 2-3 weeks before the season starts and I have never had any trouble with them. In fact.............the one year I pulled them out and put them in the heated shop at my work over the winter on a trickle charger for several months was the only time I ever had issues out of the gate, and they were not "old" batteries either.

Well since I was wrong about the slide lock..................are you "riding it' with your thumb when firing? I know this can be a problem with a new 1911 shooter after shooting glocks or other pistols that have tiny slide release levers/buttons. I have several 1911's that have been bullet proof reliable for me, yet I have one co-worker I often shoot with that is slide stop riding, limp wristing fool and has trouble with my own guns that never give me issues.

Megastrike works for them too. And gulp juice is like crack to perch and bluegills.

Plenty. About the only time I ever get close to using a ton of line off a spinning reel spool is when I am dragging tubes or drifting with a drop shot over off shore stuff smallmouth fishing, even then I just let off enough line behind the boat to maintain bottom contact for the depth/conditions I am fishing and unless it's been a long time since I have respooled I am rarely down to the backing.

I lied................for fishing them over heavy mats, I add a rattle and stuff some used yum dingers in the body. It helps the frog "push down" into the mat better, making it easier for the bass to hone in on, and before I started doing this once in awhile on a cast that I whipped out over the mat with vigor, the frog would land upside down and the tiny little bit of gap between the hooks and the body would snag cheese on the top of the mat. I used to carry a 2nd frog, the SK sexy frog, just for fishing mats, because it didn't do this. But the Booyah is cheaper, the better frog in anything but the thickest cover, and since I have rattles and plenty of used yum dingers..............bye bye SK frog, the extra space in the boat for booze and cigarettes was needed.

Yes.............but only for special people. I get 60% off everything on Presidents day, and free hot dogs. Although by the time the hot dogs make it to WNY from CA, I wish they would have just thrown in a hat or some thing.

Depends. I have come full circle in my theory on cranking rods. I started with fast action...........it was never a problem, but like so many I thought a "cranking" specific moderate action rod would be better. For some it probably is, for me it is not. Why???? ...................Grass. It was absolutely frustrating fishing cranks in, around, and through grass, which is the predominate cover in my home lakes with a moderate action rod. Instead of getting clean rips and pops free of the grass, the moderate just loaded up and dug in deeper, cranking with braid helped little if at all. So I went back to fast action a few years ago, and my grass ripping woes are gone. I don't lose fish or pull hooks out, or pull the bait away or have any of the other issues some people do with fast action rods and cranks. I will say this though...............not every fast action rod is ideal for cranking. I look for ones with a little tip but don't load up very far down the blank. When I am cranking, it's probably 80% of the time in grass with a lipless, squarebill, or mid depth diving crank, 10 % of the time in shallow hard cover like wood, docks and rock, and the remaining 10% of the time deep cranking along outside grass line or over hard offshore cover like rock piles, and sunken debris. The times I deep crank with a standard cast and wind retrieve perhaps a traditional cranking rod would be the better choice, but since it's a limited part of my rotation, I make do with the rod/reel/line combo that I do the rest of my cranking with and get along pretty well with it...............especially since a lot of times I am deep cranking, I am long lining to get max depth, and max time in the strike zone. Trying to set the hook or turn a fish when you have 100+ yards of line out is undesirable to me with a moderate action rod.

I have poked several holes in my hull over the last 10 years doing stupid stuff. I never had to take the deck off or remove any foam to fix them. I have a local welding shop that has fixed them all from the outside. The welder told me that sometime the foam in the area he's welding gets "hot" and will drip into the weld area making a mess...........I told him if it did that........grind the weld off and start over, I wasn't too worried about paying the extra labor. My boat is in the water 4-5 days week often for 10-12 hours at a time. And I get about a quart or two of water out of it after a long day............sometimes...........other times nothing. In fact the only time the bilge pump will even pump any water is if the boat is higher on the nose heading up the ramp. There is a million ways water can get into a hull and unless it's gallons and gallons at a time I am never going to worry about it. If it ever comes to me having to keep the boat on the water, I will reseal all my through hull fittings with new clean epoxy, and sleep well at night..............unless I go down to the dock and get wet feet LOL.

30lb braid tied direct to the bait when fishing grass. I add a fluorocarbon leader when I am fishing wood, docks, or rocks.........or the pike are chomping. While not "bite off" proof, with a fluoro leader I least have a 50/50 chance of getting my bait back. When tied straight to the braid when the pike are active............well I might as well take a crank right out of the package and toss it into the bushes on the bank, at least I will know where it is.

I don't do anything with them except for trimming the legs.

yup

Check out the stuff on TW from Boss. Get the heads you want, then the skirts you want and put them together in combos you want and it's much cheaper than buying a pre-made factory jig, and Boss's quality is top notch.

Whoops..............I assumend the MkII was the same as the Mark I/Standard I had......well in that case.............pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. LOL

Change your extractor. Some Rugers will run forever with the factory extractor, some will need to be changed out of the box to run at all. FWIW, the bolt is not supposed to hold open on the last shot. I have Mark 1 made in the 50's and it's never given me any trouble. The mark 1's, 2's and 3's use the same extractor as the 10/22, and I have seen first hand this extractor issue in 10/22's as well. My 10/22 runs like a champ with the factory extractor, my buddies would not. He changed the extractor and solved the issue on one of the two he has, but even after an extractor change the 2nd one was not acting right. I gave him a like new take off barrel off of my 10/22 after I upgraded the factory barrel and it seemed to get better. The notch cut in the barrel for the extractor to "grab" the rim on his barrel seemed to not be made to spec. You can always send it back to Ruger, they have fantastic customer service and everything the make and have ever made carries a lifetime warranty. But I'd change the extractor first and see what happens. Also, I know most people run 22's "dry" with no lube, but a couple of drops of CLP on the bolt guide rod/recoil spring will make a difference. I have seen guns go from not running at all, to NEVER having an issue when a little...............A LITTLE................lube is placed on that guide rod.

I carry 6 rods with me on the boat, and depending on the season and or conditions this is what will be tied on each one: Casting: 7'3" H power/fast action: Flipping and big football jigs, Punch rigs, T-rigs , C-rigs 7' H/F: Frogs, swim jig, or chatter bait 7'3" MH/F (with a soft tip): Blade bait (silver buddy) squarebills, lipless cranks, mid-deep cranks. 7' MH/F: Power wacky, bubba shot, jigs/T-rigs around light cover Spinning: 6'8" M/XF: Wacky rigs, shaky heads, jerkbaits, tubes/grubs, weightless plastics 6'10" ML/XF: Drop shot, flick shake, split shot rigs,

Welcome. I'm on Silver just about everyday from ice out till ice up..............I'm the fat guy in the tracker that's glad he doesn't have a ranger LOL. There is a standing offer for any WNY Bass Resource member to hit me up for a day on the water........................except for J.Francho, he's a Cowboys fan, and he'd probably steal my wallet. LMAO.

For me...............if the water is wet (IE not frozen) and I don't have to work, or have other family commitments I go. Things that keep me off the water: #1 Extreme wind chill.............I'll fish in the wind, but if it's already frigid, I am not going to torture myself. #2 Insane holiday boat traffic.......I try to avoid fishing in the middle of the day on the "big 3" summer holidays of Fathers day, the 4th of July, and labor day. I'll go early or go late on those days. Most of the rest of the summer, even on weekends it's not that bad in general...there is always that idiot or two, but I have learned to deal with it. #3 Lightning.........not worth it. I never get an idea in my head based on current conditions that the fishing is going to be bad, or great on any particular day. Some of my best days have been when they shouldn't have been biting by the "book", and I have had off days when the "book" says they should be biting. I go when I can, adapt to the moment, and usually do alright.

I used to NOT eat during an 8 hour tournament at all, but over the last couple years, I find it's a must. Especially since I started doing it my energy levels are up at the end of the day, and other assorted things like a headache or losing my concentration during a tough grind are gone. I usually have a PB&J sandwich, some beef jerky,a granola bar and/or a small bag of nuts like roasted almonds,and I really like a little fruit mixed in, my favorites are the little "Halos" manderian oranges, along with plenty of water, and at least one bottle of Gatoraid if it it's hot out. I avoid drinking soda on the water, but I keep a bottle with my along with some tylenol in case I do get a headache. I try to make sure I have ate BEFORE we start too, a quick bowl of unsweetened cereal before I leave the house in the morning usually does the trick. That 8 hours of fishing is only part of the day for me, most tournament days for me are 12-14 hours since I run most of the tournaments I fish in. It's not good to be active that long with out something to eat...........even though I have plenty of "reserves" LOL.....still have to put gas in the tank.

I have a love/hate relationship with deep cranking. It's one of those things that if it's not "on" shortly after I start, I am not going to commit to doing it............but on the flip side, I can toss a frog, swim jig, squarebill or lipless crank for hours on end for a handful of bites. Another thing about deep cranking is.............it's just NOT the most effective way to catch them on my home lake. It has a time/place, but like I said before it takes a commitment to do it that I just don't want to have. I have had some great days deep cranking, and caught a ton of big fish on them, but on a scale of 1-10 of things I like to do it's about a 2.

I like the Havoc Bottom Hoppers, and Yum Sharpshooters........in both 4" and 6" sizes.