Bazoo

Thank you kindly! My buddy caught a couple of bass on it, then lost it due to a bad knot. We are hoping we'll come across it again since he said he slung it out in the lake.

I have this cheap 5'6" Zebco rod that has come apart and I'm looking for some tips. The rod is in good shape and was given to me by an old man at church who said it was his dad's before he got too old to fish. While I have 2 quality casting rods (one thanks to @Dan N), this rod being fiberglass and short serves me when I bank fish up creeks with heavy cover. I can get a dandy roll cast with it. I don't actually fish with it that much, and since it isn't my normal rod, it serves yard practice duty a lot with my boy. It appears the epoxy is still well stuck to the rod blank, but has let go of the seat. I want to repair it, but I do not have any rod building specific supplies and only a little knowledge. Will standard 2 part epoxy from the hardware store suffice? I think I could get away with roughing up the old epoxy instead of trying to remove it. I don't know that I could remove it, as I picked at it a bit and it's solid. I can probably work a piece of sandpaper inside the seat to rough it up though. I still have the butt cap which I removed to see if I had blank through handle construction. I'm thinking I will remove about 3" of the foam from the rear, and add a length of 1" dowel rod to extend the grip about 3" past the rod blank. I want a longer grip portion to brace against my arm, and for aid in casting. I appreciate any suggestions and tips.

I found a very deteriorated Paw-Paw What-A-Frog a while back. It was a hard decision, as I considered keeping it as is, but the hardware was in surprisingly good condition so I decided to go for it. Here it is after final fitting. now to find hooks and figure what color I want it to be. The wood is Red Cedar. I used my pocket knife for much of the work.

Howdy, would you be willing to expand on this comment further? Are you saying that with a boat that has wet foam, water will eventually drain to the bottom of the foam? My bass buster has wet foam if I feel in the drain holes. It also has a livewell access hole. If I feel there, the foam is less wet, as I always allow it to rest at an angle with the drain holes towards the bottom. Also from the access hole, the foam that is higher in the hull is dryer. This leads to me to believe that I could stand my boat on end, with the drain holes down, and it would eventually drain out. I've been researching how to handle this issue, since my boat is a bit heavy. It's not so heavy it cant be moved by men, but heavier than it should be. I am considering various things, including disassembling the halves and removing the saturated foam, as a last (wintertime) resort.

I've had a lot of success with the Spit'n Image in the past. I haven't had much lately, though the same is said about most things fished on the heavily pressured public lake I attend. I've never fished an actual spook, but I found one earlier this year and got it cleaned up enough to use. I think I tied it on once. I've been intending to give it a fair chance though, but other lures previal. One of the things about the Spit'n Image, is it will go below the surface very slightly and still walk a few feet, then it'll pop out and make a splash and will jump out of the water.

Cool, thanks for sharing. I don't have cable so I don't have any way of keeping up with the classic anymore.

I went to Freeman Lake today, with intent to fish into the rain that was forecast. I had one nip on my buzzbait, but it was pretty slow for a couple of hours. It started raining right before I was going to pack it up, and wham a 5lber decided it was safe to come out for the buzzbait.

Thanks @fin, thats actually how I came across a possible for strike king, a google search. No the hooks are not chrome, they are blackened, but I'd bronze wire brushed them to clean them up. My buddy caught a couple bass on it, and then, lost it again unfortunately. Here's a screenshot of the only pic I found that matches. The description and link takes you to Strike King, but the current Strike King pics do not match. I'm thinking perhaps it's a very old strike king squarebill?

Looks like it's a Strike King? Pretty decent hooks, though they were rusty. I used a bronze brush on them and they are still sharp enough to use, with a little bite to them. My buddy caught a bass on it already.

Found this squarebill, cleaned it up, and gave to a friend. I haven't been able to ID it yet though. There are no markings on it, and I looked through Tacklewarehouse at their SBs and couldn't find a match. Anyone know what it might be?

I am over 30 pages into the thread now. Not really getting answers to the questions I posed yet, but I plan to go through the whole thread as there is plenty of good info there. I haven't tried drying my foam with a hairdryer yet, but I have doubts as I've seen other people saying they removed the foam and put in front of fan and it never did dry. Though... it may be that this is different foam than theirs. It's hard to research because I get lot of people talking about regular boats and not these bass busters. I'm considering breaking my boat in half, removing the soaked foam, and replacing it with the spray foam in a can. I would use plastic bags to capture the foam, and separate it into smaller sections. That would keep it from taking on water plus allow only sections of it be replaced if ever needed again. My boat is put together with rivets around the seam guard. I don't know if it's stapled below the seam or not. If I do take it apart, I'll use machine screws or Chicago screws to put it back together instead of rivets. I am, however, not going to do anything right now, as I'm still using the boat currently.

I've always thought that my short game was decent, but I realized the other day that it is better than decent. All that yard practice really pays off when you're fishing a bankline that is covered with brush from 30 feet. I was able to get right at the edge of the brush or under it and my fishing buddy was casting in the middle mostly.

Well, I'm up to page 32 now. I decided to work on adding some anchor locks to my Buster boat. I think I'll have to add some metal plates for them to attach to, which might become handy for other things as well. Here's what she looked like a few weeks ago.

I don’t get one every year. But I get one sometimes. I have some in the freezer from 3years ago. Learning how to freeze without freezer burn was a big thing for me. I learnt from a book called Game Care and Cookery by Sam Fadala. My boy and I both like it. I never found a way that I liked loin but I like meat well done. My boy likes it any way he can get it. I like roasts and stew and ground when it’s in helper or spaghetti. I wish I could figure out how to make deer sticks. A co worker had some years ago that were amazing. He had the processor make them.

Thank you! I just finished it, very informative, and good to hear again the things I already knew.

Thank you for that link, that is a good read.

Congratulations, on a nice one! I like roast.

Congratulations. Pretty awesome!

Just reading about the cookies has me hooked!

Wow, what a horrible shame, she was a beautiful old fish. Thanks for sharing with me, I'd not seen that. Second link; third picture is heart rendering to see her just wanting to go back home. I couldn't have done it. I'd have had to let her go.

Thank you for sharing. That's good info to know. I'd like to read about that study, do you have a link to it, or an idea of the name or people involved?

I don't know the Lake Erie SM record story. Do you hold it? Or, do you just know the story?

Thanks for sharing, that was pretty informative. I've never gotten into burning spinnerbaits, but I will have to give it a try.

Pretty wild man! Thanks for sharing. I have a friend who saw a bass grab a bat that was skimming the water for bugs.

That's sad news that in some places there is no way to catch, record, certify, and release a record fish. Not sure that I'd want to kill it. I'd probably take some video of the measuring and weighing and then release it, and use the video to draw attention to the issue. I'd have the "unofficial" record, and with a decent video perhaps enough attention to be able to get the laws changed to prevent the killing of record fish. I wasn't sure about the legality of transporting live fish in Kentucky, as I'd never thought of that aspect before. I did a search and found this https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/301/001/125/ section 2 gives exceptions, and includes sport fishermen that have caught fish. So I believe Ky anglers would have a chance to keep a trophy fish alive through the process.