fishinwrench

Wheeew ! It's gettin' deep in here.

The day for that is coming soon. More and more fishermen every year are becoming bored with slinging hardware on 30# braid and winching fish to the side of the boat. A flyfisherman will be pretty darn stoked over a couple of 15" bass, and SO ELATED about a 5-7lber that he can't get the smile off his face for hours, whereas a gear fisherman will not. That's because the gear guy truly didn't accomplish anything awesome, and deep down he knows it.

If a bunch of guys want to put their stream fishing skills against one another for a cash prize then why not have a casting contest combined with a canoe/kayak obstacle course that includes shuttles, portages, and surprise paintball dodging from "landowners" ? Anyone can catch a nice bass, just roll the dice or flip a coin and call your winner. No need to kill or relocate a bunch of river Smallmouth. Bad idea, I hate it.

Can't tell you how many times I've broken fish off on WTD baits, crankbaits, and floating flyrod contraptions and had the fish come up and give it back. I actually wait for it after a breakoff and have seldom been shorted. Bass are really good at shaking an unattached (by line) lure off their face. Only problem is if it's a sinking lure you won't get it back....but he will come up, repeatedly if he has to, and shake it off nearly every single time.

Yeah, I'da bought it if he hadn't said pecan.

Lots of crazy experiences over the years but the one that still takes the cake and remains a mystery to me happened at Marshall Diggs lake in the mid-80's when 4 huge objects fell from the sky and landed dead in the center of the 15 acre lake. Each of whatever they were made huge splashes like what you'd expect if four V8 engine blocks were dropped out of a plane. The waves lapped back and forth against the banks for 15 minutes afterwards. There was no aircraft in sight (or heard) before or immediately after all the commotion. If that lake is ever drained I just have to know WTH that was, and how they could have landed right smack in the middle of the lake like that. Meteors? (What are the odds there would be 4 different chunks and all hit within 20 yards of each other? ) Military excersize? (Surely not! Because if someone had been out there in a boat it wouldn't have been good)

I'm very comfortable with snakes, poisonous or non, but I've had two 'too close for comfort' encounters with cottonmouth's. Both had me doing the cotton-eyed Joe while screeching like a girl. A fairly small CM was taking a nap under the bow of a jon boat and when I went to shove off the bank he gave me a 1/2 sec. warning then took a swat at my leg. The other time I was standing in the middle of a fast riffle as a rather large one started to cross just upstream of me, I hollered at my buddy to "check it out" and when I hollered the CM stopped swimming and the fast current swept him within a foot of me.

No joke, Gunner. A place on Pomme would be sweet!

Won't those fish hit crankbaits, spoons, swimbaits, ect?

Jet ski's (PWC) can go anywhere, and "boat-jerks" can go anywhere that "boat-cool guys" can go. But as a general rule things calm down above the free bridges.

Just curious. If it works on all fish, why did you settle on "crappie cradle" for a name?

Obviously a sister, daughter or mistress

#3. Trade the eggs for an 8-ball of cocaine asap, since possession of the latter will get you less jail time.

Enter the Bio-Clean bot.... Just in case you're serious; It's only "1 week old crud", dip a rag in the lake and just wipe it off.

Heck yeah Choppers still catch fish! They are a Winter bait for me here on the lake, when the bass wont eat a jerkbait I can.usually put together a solid limit with a 5" Chomper. I special order them without garlic though It's been years since I had a good spinnerbait bite going... that sucks too because I love to throw them. I guess my newest pet 'gear bait' is Stanley's Bull Ribbit, that thing is a freakin riot!

Ronnie, some folks freak at the thought of touching a fish. Yeah I know what you're thinking, but to look at it another way... I could totally get into hunting monkeys with high powered rifles (or a bow, or just about anything really) if I never had to touch one of the freaky little bastages.

Jerry, Seriously? If the success was even remotely favorable you wouldn't have to be reminded! I bet those old chartreuse bladed spinnerbaits are buried somewhere that you don't even wanna go, with rotten matted skirts laying under them. LMAO!

Well what's the hold up? Can't you catch a dang crappie for Pete sake? Good points on those plastic POS things, really. Anyone that actually uses THOSE truly should consider your product.

Experimented with that alot when Mark Twain (hands down the best SB lake I know of) was in its heyday... but it never paid off. Silver or Gold always, even though at one time I threw nothing but copper if it was a tandem Colorado model because I won a tourney using one during a time that everyone participating was throwing spinnerbaits..... which means less than nothing, but you know how things like that can control your mind. LOL

Excellent statement there! And that is probably why I caught more above average smallies in the muddy creeks up north than I have in the "real Ozarks". The good stuff isn't just everywhere up there.

LMAO! Don't believe everything you read or hear. NOBODY pauses a jerkbait for as long as they claim to. Including the guys that took your money last Winter

HJ, You should consider hooking up with one of the local bass clubs. Suffering through a few monthly meetings is almost worth it for a non-boater with the passion you seem to have. Or.... if you can scrape up 1500-2k there's some boats out there that will do the job and they are just waiting for you to take possession of them.

What's this I hear about barge captains terrorizing the fishermen around there? Someone was actually run over intentionally or something, and others being "shoved towards the bank"? I'm hearing some pretty crazy tales from a pair of customers that fish the MO/Miss.

I went thru a phase not long ago where I got a burr under my saddle and wanted to move my business and life more towards the TR area, but after some study and honest consideration I realized that I was exactly where I belong. The lower and mid-lake 'high use area' of the lake is not where I would want to fish even if it wasn't a "high use" area, (except for Winter) so I'm not effected by that at all. I was extremely stressed out over water quality problems here but I feel confident now that we've already survived the worst it will ever be and it will slowly (albeit VERY SLOWLY) improve in the future. I can't see it taking another nosedive ever.

I found a $50, a $5, and two $1's in the road at the highbank once and the temptation to pounce on it like a buzzard on a dead squirrel was more than I could bare. Since then I've had nothing but bad experiences there, they even placed a dammed sewer drain pipe and concrete casting deck right across from where I used to stand and highstick nymphs to sizable bows and browns. The Hindu's were right!