Winter boredom kicking in now

[Finessegenics]

It’s been rough for me already. It’s been about 5-6 weeks since I decided to end my season but it honestly feels like months. I’ve already reorganized all my plastics, hard baits, lines and just about anything you can name. 
 

Only thing I have left to do is clean my rods which doesn’t take long, and give my reels a good cleaning.

[Koz]

6 minutes ago, Finessegenics said:

It’s been rough for me already. It’s been about 5-6 weeks since I decided to end my season but it honestly feels like months. I’ve already reorganized all my plastics, hard baits, lines and just about anything you can name. 
 

Only thing I have left to do is clean my rods which doesn’t take long, and give my reels a good cleaning.

 

Let me get this straight - the guy with "the tug is my drug" motto says he's going to be polishing his rod and that it doesn't take long.

 

The comedy here just writes itself ??

[Finessegenics]

8 minutes ago, Koz said:

 

Let me get this straight - the guy with "the tug is my drug" motto says he's going to be polishing his rod and that it doesn't take long.

 

The comedy here just writes itself ??

I gotta admit, that is clever of you!!! ???

[Koz]

1 hour ago, Finessegenics said:

I gotta admit, that is clever of you!!! ???

It's all in good fun.

 

But I have to admit that as I was typing that I was actually laughing out loud.

[Sphynx]

3 hours ago, islandbass said:

As in Pacific Northwest? 
 

To the topic, reorganizing for the sake of making the passing of winter faster is ludicrous. Ridiculous. A freaking waste of time. Lame.  We all know the definition of insanity...

 

I can’t believe it’s snowing in the Seattle area right now, as I write this. Somehow, some way, earlier today, I bought two plastic storage containers. Now sure why, but I did. You’ll all need to excuse me. I have some reorganizing to do. Man, is April a long ways away. ?

Yes, as in the Pacific Northwest, if it weren't for mostly man made issues, it would be a paradise on earth. 

[islandbass]

8 hours ago, Sphynx said:

Yes, as in the Pacific Northwest, if it weren't for mostly man made issues, it would be a paradise on earth. 

You got that right! Well, it still kind is a paradise. My sister occasionally asks me, “Why don’t you move to AZ?” I visited her once. The only green you could see were saguaro cacti and lawns were pretty much rock gardens, for which the only benefit I could see was that you no longer had to mow the lawn. Lastly, since I live in the land where salmonids are king, I have all the bass to myself, lol. I still target salmon once in a while. 

[Junk Fisherman]

Cabin fever has been hitting me pretty hard.  I did go out last Saturday for lake trout but didn't catch anything.  I can catch a trout while late season smallmouth fishing but the last 2 times when I was trying for them, I couldn't catch anything.  At least it was fun driving the boat and visiting all my smallmouth spots.  Wish my favorite spots would be so void of fishermen next May.  Water temps were anywhere from 38 to 44.

 

Weather is going to be in the 40s this weekend.  Thinking hard about hitting a cooling lake but it's a lot of driving and I am not too optimistic about catching much.  We have an excellent cooling lake that opens on March 1 so I have a little over 2 months before I can really start catching them again.    

[Sphynx]

1 hour ago, islandbass said:

You got that right! Well, it still kind is a paradise. My sister occasionally asks me, “Why don’t you move to AZ?” I visited her once. The only green you could see were saguaro cacti and lawns were pretty much rock gardens, for which the only benefit I could see was that you no longer had to mow the lawn. Lastly, since I live in the land where salmonids are king, I have all the bass to myself, lol. I still target salmon once in a while. 

I have lived, been stationed, or spent a significant amount of time for one reason or another in every major region of this country, I would be open to living in multiple areas of the country, the NE and California are just too dang overpopulated and I would never be ok with the lifestyles there, but I enjoy the south, the Midwest, southwest, the north, but my favorite region is what I call the "western 11" region" with the notable exception of California, they have the widest diversity of fish and game species, the second best migratory fly way, incredible diversity of geography, countless cultural and social and economic activities to keep a person interested for a lifetime, I don't care for much of the political landscape in the region, but that is easily the most likely to change with the times as it always does...overall this region is still my favorite. 

[BassNJake]

On 12/20/2020 at 8:49 PM, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

I’m gettin away from fishing this winter. I plan to learn how to play golf the whole winter until spring. I spent all my Christmas allowance on Golf equipment, lessons and golf net. I hit about 100-200 balls every day in my front yard lol. Hopefully I can hit some balls before my crappie season start.

 

Best lesson I ever learned about golf was to count how many shots it took to get to 50 yards and then how many shots it took from 50 yards and in. 

Most people work at their long game instead of working at shaving strokes off their short game.

I bought this book Radical Golf and it changed the way I looked at the game.

My score went from 115's to mid to high 80's(public courses) as I adopted this new approach.

 

Radical Golf- Amazon

[Sphynx]

37 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

Best lesson I ever learned about golf was to count how many shots it took to get to 50 yards and then how many shots it took from 50 yards and in. 

Most people work at their long game instead of working at shaving strokes off their short game.

I bought this book Radical Golf and it changed the way I looked at the game.

My score went from 115's to mid to high 80's(public courses) as I adopted this new approach.

 

Radical Golf- Amazon

I used to stop by the local golf course for a bucket of balls and about half an hour on the putting green before work every day, the biggest thing I found is that becoming confident in my long game allowed me to relax and not worry about distance, the putting shaved more strokes than the long game by far, probably averaging 10 strokes a game being capable of consistently sinking puts from much further out than I was before I did that.

[schplurg]

On 12/20/2020 at 11:08 AM, Catt said:

Each day is one day closer to pre-spawn ?

 

 

 

Heck ya! It's almost January, which is close to February, so it's practically February now really. And February only has 28 days next year! March is right around the corner.

 

I'm working on a bed for my minivan so I can do some overnighters for trout this winter too. 

 

Tackle - I could use some terminal, but I stocked up on baits. I have a whole box of cranks, some 2 or three the same. Of course I threw a crank only once this season as a result LOL. <and the Bait Monkey grins, slowly turns and walks away>

[Mr. Aquarium]

Drinking, tying jig, organizing tackle, video games, research,  get me through winter. I try and fish in winter, even if it’s for an hour after work before sundown, fish or no fish, just being out in the woods. Makes me feel good.

 

also skiing helps 

[TcRoc]

54 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

also skiing helps 

Wish I could still ski.. that’s all I did years ago.. Slalom raced for years.. at just 48 ripe young years (lol) it’s not worth more knee surgeries... I’ve had more than enough of them.. and know I’ll need more. 

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, TcRoc said:

Wish I could still ski.. that’s all I did years ago.. Slalom raced for years.. at just 48 ripe young years (lol) it’s not worth more knee surgeries... I’ve had more than enough of them.. and know I’ll need more. 

Ya, I haven't downhilled since the 80s. Last time I cross-countried was...15...20 years ago? Can't remember.

[schplurg]

On 12/24/2020 at 6:39 AM, Mr. Aquarium said:

Drinking, tying jig, organizing tackle, video games, research,  get me through winter. I try and fish in winter, even if it’s for an hour after work before sundown, fish or no fish, just being out in the woods. Makes me feel good.

 

also skiing helps 

 

Thumbs up!

[Crankin4Bass]

On 12/22/2020 at 1:21 PM, BassNJake said:

Best lesson I ever learned about golf was to count how many shots it took to get to 50 yards and then how many shots it took from 50 yards and in. 

Most people work at their long game instead of working at shaving strokes off their short game.

I bought this book Radical Golf and it changed the way I looked at the game.

My score went from 115's to mid to high 80's(public courses) as I adopted this new approach.

 

Radical Golf- Amazon

@Bass_Fishing_Socal I haven't read this book, but working on your short game is great advice. Back when I played competitive golf, I spent many hours at the practice green and practice bunker working on all kids of shots. After you get some basics down, a fun thing to do is throw balls randomly and hit all kids of shots with just a sand wedge. You will learn to get up and down and save par quickly. 

 

Get yourself a shag bag or tube to make collecting balls easier.

 

Back in my day Phil Mickleson was the man when it came to the short game. He is one of the all time greatest at the short game. Check out this video:

 

 

Another tip is to film your full swing. It will help you fix flaws quickly.

[JustJames]

@BassNJake @Crankin4Bass @Sphynx

Thanks, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind. I’m still suck at swinging a golf balls, started about a month ago. I don’t want to complete just good enough to not hold up the line or in the group, but I do take it seriously, paid for lessons and bought golf net to practice at home. My first couple weeks was pretty bad because I went driving range with two of my 10 handicap friends. Now I settled and tried to get used to with all the irons at my own place. I’m trying to get the right impact point at this moment and after this I’m gonna start practicing pitching, chipping and putting. 
Im only follow Danny Maude, since I like the way he teaches, easy to understand and easy to follow for beginners like me.

I started to like golfing more and more, this might be only way for me to spend less time fishing lol.

 

 

 

[Hammer 4]

Ahh, Golf, my second love..

[PhishLI]

Spackling a wall that needs spackling is one way to pass the cold weather time. But why paint an entire wall when it can be covered with pegboard instead??
 

 

[Bankbeater]

I thought up another way to organize my tackle.  This will be the second bag reorganization.

[BassNJake]

On 12/27/2020 at 12:33 AM, PhishLI said:

Spackling a wall that needs spackling is one way to pass the cold weather time. But why paint an entire wall when it can be covered with pegboard instead??
 

 

Thats an impressive line up!!

[MN Fisher]

On 12/27/2020 at 7:45 AM, Bankbeater said:

I thought up another way to organize my tackle.  This will be the second bag reorganization.

Oh don't remind me. With two Advanced Angler II bags for plastics - I have to decide which bag gets which type. One's tagged 'Cabelas' the other is tagged 'BPS' - so long as I remember that, it'll be fine.

I've already organized the rest - Plano Z 3700 gets Jerks and Cranks, BPS Extreme Qualifier gets everything else.

[soflabasser]

On 12/21/2020 at 10:52 PM, MN Fisher said:

We've got a couple places here that rent ice-shacks by the day or week. Already placed...you just haul yourself and your tackle to it.

That sounds fun, maybe one day I will give ice fishing a try. From what I have seen on YouTube people catch muskie, walleye, pike, trout, bass, and many other species of fish while ice fishing.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, soflabasser said:

From what I have seen on YouTube people catch muskie, walleye, pike, trout, bass, and many other species of fish while ice fishing.

On Tonka - walleye, muskie, northern, crappie are the big four. No trout in the lake, bass are infrequent through the ice. Sunnies galore though.

[soflabasser]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

On Tonka - walleye, muskie, northern, crappie are the big four. No trout in the lake, bass are infrequent through the ice. Sunnies galore though.

For me ice fishing is the polar opposite of the type of fishing I usually do which is why I would like to give it a try. Have you seen the Youtube videos of people ice fishing for burbot in Minnesota? They can grow to over 10 pounds.