ww2farmer

From the time I put the boat away for the winter till I get out again in the spring, I am always thinking about fishing. I ice fish a little, but it's of no help. I do have other hobbies, but none that I am as stupid for as bass fishing.

Yeah.....I have not used the 8.0, and probably won't. But the 1.0. 1.5, and 2.5 are mainstays in my box.

No, but they do offer it also in the 5 speed. I have the variable speed 70lb Maxxum on my Bass Tracker PT170, and would never go back to the 5 speed. It's more TM than that boat needs, but that's a good thing.

Strike King KVD's in all sizes. Storm Arashi's in all sizes. I don't use anything else, so there is no need to list more

Good luck and best wishes Dwight.

No it's not.............................don't be a neckbeard or a fudd. Plenty of AR options in NY....all safeact compliant. Feature less with detachable mag or full featured with fixed mag. Do some research before you start spouting nonsense. It all starts with a stripped lower, WHICH CAN BE LEGALLY purchased at many many gun stores all over WNY. I get mine from DD's Ranch in Alden, or K+K Guns in North Java.

We do turkey on thanksgiving, and ham on Christmas. Swapping then would be a crime against humanity, and both on the same day might kill me.

I like to support the local farm economy, since my livelihood depends on it. A lot of the locally grown potatoes go to Wise, so when I do buy chips (which is not often, despite what my avatar picture implies) I buy Wise.....plain old ridged chips with some bison french onion dip is pretty tasty to me.

And that's a year for me. Had a pretty good day last weds. Struggled this morning badly...........fogged the engine, and began the winterizing this afternoon. With over 200 days on the water this season from early April till today, I am comfortable with this decision LOL. Anymore nice weekends/week days off will be spent lighting money on fire from the business end of my assorted firearms.....till spring.

Look into the Berkley E-Motion rods..............thier 7' MH casting rod (labled as "general purpose" by Berkley) is a very VERY nice rod for $80....I like them better than my previous "favorite" $80 rod.....the Abu Vendetta.

I am a fan of the MHX rod blanks for custom built rods............lots of bang for the buck. Off the shelf rods, it's hard, for the money to beat Pure Fishing's line up..Fenwick, Abu, Berkley, etc.....all offer excellent performance for the $$. Are they the best made rods with top shelf components? No, but like I said, they are are, for the money, IMHO, tough to beat.

congrats.

Red Label is excellent, inexpensive leader material...............but sucks as main line, as IMHO, all fluorocarbon is. AbrazX is also good (if not better then Red Label), and I have used it, but I like to keep the costs of my fishing down, and Red Label hasn't failed me yet, so I have seen no need to go to AbrazX.....no exp. with InvizX.

I had one pulled about 10 years ago. In the dead of winter, during a brutal single digit to sub zero cold snap.....I was warned by the dentist to NOT go out and work for a few days in those conditions. I took one day off after the pull...................I should have took the rest of the week off. The dry socket is no picnic.

I fish lipless bait about 3 different ways. My #1 method is what I like to call the "reel and sweep"....I cast it out, let sink to the bottom, and start winding it in at a moderate speed, every couple turns of the reel handle I "sweep" the rod .....but not vertically, more of a sweep to the side, this gets the bait vibrating aggressively, and the then it shimmies back to the bottom as I catch up to the slack, but I am always reeling. #2 is the "yo-yo" ....let it sink, lift it up...drop it,much like you would hop a jig or worm across the bottom, the speed of the lift varies, but I don't move it "up" much, I don't want it coming way up off the bottom. And #3 is the "grass rip"...cast it into a grassy area, I use a steady retrieve to keep it in contact with the grass, changing the way I hold the rod to maintain that contact, and when it hangs....give it a sharp "rip" out of the grass.

I am still fishing, and doing decent.

For me the positives of a braid/fluoro leader set up out weigh the negatives...........by a huge margin. Positives: #1....Braid, as a main line handles much better (esp. on spinning gear) with zero memory/coiling/handling issues far longer than fluoro. #2....Flouro is much MUCH more abrasion resistant than braid, which is important to me fishing around things with teeth and zebra muscle infested water. #3.........Economy, like I said before, braid lasts a LONG time, and so does a spool of fluorocarbon when used as leader material. Negatives: None that I can think of, then again, I have never had issues with the connecting knot that were not my own fault.

I use 1/2 oz almost 100% of the time. It just works.........from the bank, out to 10' FOW. I have experimented a lot with 1/4 oz. baits over the years, and they just have no place in my box. Where I would typically toss the 1/4 oz. bait would be in ultra shallow water with a soft bottom....I didn't care for it, and found that a 1.5 sized squarebill is the better option...for me. I have also "tried" to use the 1/4 oz. sized baits where I would use the 1/2 oz. baits for one reason or another (they stopped biting the 1/2, post front, clear water, etc....) and found that the merits of doing so were not worth buying and carrying another size of lip-less crank....if they ain't on the 1/2 oz. bait, I move on to another type of presentation altogether, and it works for me, so again, no reason for me to have the 1/4 oz. baits. I have never played around much with any lip-less baits larger than 1/2 oz., for the simple reason that when/where I throw the 1/2 oz baits, when that bite is one, I almost have to beat the fish off of the bait with a stick because it's working so well, I never felt the need to change a good thing. And besides, the places where I would try a 3/4 oz bait, I have many many other go to techniques that work very very well.....so again, change for changes sake is not needed for me.

Man................terrible, 34 years old with two kids. Thoughts and well wishes for those kids, and the rest of his family/friends.

For me it depends on the water temp.................here in the N.E. water temps < 50 + dirty water = stay home. The bite in dirty cold water SUCKS.....especially in lakes that are usually clear. But if I just had to go...............the guys above me echoed my choices. Chatterbait, squarebill, and a jig.

My go to flipping baits (when I am not using a jig) are the pit boss, chigger craws, and yum dingers....yes yum dingers. Against all interwebz expert knowledge.

As a grown @$$ man, I don't need or want anything for Christmas other than my kids to enjoy the holiday. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the one time of year I look forward to a family gathering as it brings back fond memories of my own childhood, and every year that my kids get to spend with my grandfather (their great grandfather) is special, because I don't know how many more he'll be around for.

He's doing well, and actually...IMHO....tries to do too much at times. I haven't had to pick him up off the floor, or carry him around....But once he was getting a little stupid with us (pain meds. doing his talking) so I wheeled him out of the shop in his wheel chair, and locked him out so we could get back to what we were doing. Hilarity ensued....and he got the point....which was next time your all hopped up on the pain pills, maybe stay home and let it wear off before you come to the shop and start talking gibberish and causing mass confusion.

The Shock's, for the money, are hard to beat. I have moved into the custom rod world, but I keep the Shock's for backup, and pond hopping duty.

To the OP.........................Are you against having a rod custom built? There are many telescoping blanks available if you want to go the custom route. I have seen the "light" this year on custom vs. off the shelf stuff. It's not as expensive as you would think, and you can get EXACTLY what you want.