kjackson

I feel your pain, Ham. But I chuckle at the thought of you thinking you have too much fishing gear. In my older-than-dirt life, I've taken on my dad's fishing gear. Then, from my time in Washington State, I built up a supply of salmon gear, steelhead gear, bottom fish gear, kokanee gear. When I moved from the west side of the state to the east, I added bass gear and a lot of walleye tackle. I also built up my supply of kokanee stuff. Five years ago, we moved from Washington to NW Arkansas, and I expanded the bass and walleye gear. Lately, I've been adding some crappie stuff as we moved very close to Truman Lake a little over a year ago. I also have some redfish gear because of an annual trip to Venice. Currently, I have most of a basement and half of a garage dedicated to my toys. The boat and the kayak have to sit outside though. Because of what I do (I cover the fishing industry for several magazines), I get a lot of samples, and I keep or use most of them. I have stuff... Having said that, if I were youI wouldn't get rid of anything unless you are really, really sure you won't need it. As a good example, when we left Washington, I sold off most of my halibut gear, including a couple of rods that would be perfect for big catfish. Sigh. And kokanee hooks are good for dropshot use. Salmon sinkers will turn into crappie jigs. Also-- I'm a fly tyer and have been since I was 10. If you are a tyer, then you know the addiction. You never throw anything away, and when you see something like a piece of burlap or a sale on Christmas tinsel, you grab it, even if you're not tying at the moment, because sometime in the future you will. But trout fishing is somewhat limited in my part of Missouri... I've not tied seriously for six years when we moved away from the coast with its wonderful searun cutthroat and chum salmon runs. But last fall, I discovered that the local strip pits have some nice bluegills, and nothing is more fun than bluegills on a fly rod unless it's bluegills on a fly rod and popper. Besides, having seen some of Wrench's images of white bass taken on a fly, I"m thinking... BUT-- there are limits, right? Do I really need 50 or more baitcasters beyond what I'm using? I certainly don't need an additional 60 (or whatever the count is) rods... maybe it is time to thin the herd and get organized; it could be you've convinced me.

FWIW-- Ranger just added a bunch of deep-vee boats to their line. Some are still in the prototype stage as no photo is shown. If the new boats are built like pre-BPS hulls, then I've added another brand to look at this year.

I'm sure others will have more experience. I've not owned one, but I did have a loaner for a few months when I worked for Bass & Walleye Boats magazine. I also did a couple test runs on other models. My experience is very positive...Alumacraft is a top line boat in both design and construction. As I'm going to be in the market for a new boat, I'm looking at Alumacraft, Lund and Crestliner as primary brands. Lund will be the most expensive of the lot...

Do you have any pics of the boat without the grass? And where are you located?

This probably isn't going to be on your agenda, but for an excellent taste of coastal Alaska, I would recommend Kodiak Island. I've fished out of Sitka a couple of times and been to the Soldotna-Seward area four or five times. I've been on a cruise once with family as well. For the greatest variety of scenery and wildlife, Kodiak is it...granted, I've only been there once, but it beats the rest of tourist Alaska IMO. Not that I'm running down any part of the state, mind you, but... We stayed at a lodge in Port Lyons that has since closed. There is (or was) at least one other lodge in the area. We saw bears, foxes, herds or whatever you call a gathering of sea otters, foxes on the beach, bears on the beach and humpback whales feeding on krill. We fished near the whales, BTW and caught the stuffing out of cod. We fished the inside as the outside was rough (Alaskan rough water is not something you want to experience!), and we caught a much wider variety of fish than I've run into in other spots: Pacific cod, black rockfish, lingcod, halibut, coho, feeder chinook, and some fish I've never seen before, including one with blue eyes and the rock greenling in my avatar. I also did a flyout to Kodiak from Soldotna to fish for chinook in an estuary and have bear stories from there. However, if you're stuck in the Soldotna area, I would do a float on the upper Kenai for rainbows and skip bumper boats in the lower river or the Kasilof. The rainbows grow really big and make you think you've hooked a jetski when they run...

Pflueger used to make some pretty good fly rods. They were heavier than a top-of-the-line rods, but the actions were fine, and they stood up to abuse. I had a 10-weight that I used a bit for chums but went to an 8 spey style rod as the 10 seemed overkill and I like the added distance I got with the longer roll. If you can find one for sale, a Pflueger 10 should be well under $50 as I think they originally sold for $100 or so. It would be a good starter stick until you decide if these trips were going to be an annual thing.

If you're really interested, there is a lot of info on the Trapper hooks on the web, including how-tos on rigging. There also is another hook company that started recently using the same idea of reconfiguring the bend to hold better...and it so impressed me that I've forgotten the name. Zone maybe? I can't see myself using either when I have a backlog of EWGs and Tru-Turns.

I've used Vanish once and had a couple of long-distance releases on lures...dumped the stuff immediately after. I expected that Berkley would either fix it or drop the line. That didn't happen, although Pure Fishing was strong on doing running changes. As for Berkley's fluoro--the Professional Grade Fluorocarbon--I've used quite a bit of it and like it. It was my go-to fluorocarbon until Pure Fishing/Newell stopped doing vertical marketing. I was on a trip this past fall and was given some of the Seaguar mono in 12-pound. It seemed to be fairly good stuff and thinner in diameter than other "comparable" monos...so I spooled up a 2500-size spinning reel (it was the only empty reel I had) and fished the mono. It was great: nice and limp, no coil, good casting distance. The diameter looked to be smaller than 10-pound XL. I've not fished it enough to come to a firm conclusion, but it certainly looks good from here. As for the "vertical marketing" remark above-- Newell will run Pure Fishing with none. I think I mentioned in another post that the is only one person left in a 31-person marketing department, and he'll be gone in June. What I expect is no advertising, no pro endorsements and not a lot, if any, development of new products. The brands that don't perform will be sold ( heard that Berkley, Penn, Abu and Shakespeare will be kept), and products that don't make their numbers will disappear. The latest indication is Brandon Palaniuk being sponsored by Zoom. I'm sure we'll see other pros changing their jerseys in the very near future.

The sum total of my knowledge of hybrids in Truman is limited to one trip where I caught a catfish and a crappie...so take it for what it's worth. While I didn't touch a hybrid or a white even, I did see a nice hybrid caught by the dam where the guy was fishing upstream of the weir. I also marked several metric tons of nice fish in the same area. I did fish on a day when the dam wasn't pulling much current, and I've been told that water flow is needed for a decent bite. I hope to change my dismal fishing success this year...starting soon after it warms a bit, assuming I get some work done on the kitchen...

The square bill craze probably killed the Fat A. The Fat A was a crank bait made for wood cover. The smallest was the size of a quarter and kinda like the Ned Rig of crank baits. It would catch the fire out of just about everything. Ran across one when I was sorting gear the other day and started thinking about the series.

And there you have the place to fish the Wally Diver...

You don't need a title for an outboard in Arkansas, so it's doubtful.

The braid is fine; haven't done much with the fluoro. The mono seems to be a bit over in diameter but fishes OK.

Second pic is a Strike King XD ( think). Third (but no number)are Bombers. Fourth image, #3,is a Mann's Loudmouth. Fifth,#4, is a Cordell Wally Diver. The next is a Bagley's. Image 12 is a Cordell Big O.

The word in the trade but is that Newell will retain Berkley, Abu, Penn and Shakespeare. The other brands will be sold or shuttered. Shakespeare sells a ton of combos and kid kits, and that volume is significant. While it's too early to say what the "no vertical marketing" approach means, so far the company let go 30 of its 31-person marketing department (the remaining person will go in June), and pro staff folks are losing sponsorships. Given that the new owner says it will trim $500 million from Pure Fishing's operating expenses, I think the company will become not much more than a skeleton compared to what it once was. I imagine Berkley Bedell is rolling over and over right now. I can see Berkley products being sold in the big markets: Bass Pro, Cabela's, Wally World and maybe a few other big box stores but not a lot of other places. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how the holes will be filled.

That is a nice connection--the Cabela's bit. It could also be a fallout from the sale of Pure Fishing and the restructuring that follows. With the company dumping some of the brands and doing away with vertical marketing, the PF brands are going to have a lot less punch in the market. I'm guessing that will leave a hole in the marketplace. It's likely to be an opportunity for other brands to take up the slack. Daiwa is in a good position to do just that.

Your mileage may vary on this as this is from the Pacific Northwest. A guide buddy of mine prided himself on catching the first bass of the year by going out January 1--or close to it-- and locating a spot or two where springs kept the ice at bay. He usually caught LMB by casting to holes in the ice. He also would head out when the ice was leaving and cast a topwater in the open water between the ice and the bank. Another friend turned my onto a bite that I've played with on the east side of Washington state. He was from Iowa and said that he and his friends would catch smallmouth when the water temps were in the low 40s by using small crank baits. I played with it in the Columbia system and did very well fishing in late winter. The coldest water I caught smallies in was 34 degrees. The deal was to find areas where the bass would roam and feed. Ideally, it was a flat of some kind that would let you cast a long way and burn the bait back. The strikes when doing this were extremely vicious, bending the rod all the way to the cork. I got to fish Tenkiller once when it was cold--air temp was close to zero when we fished (-10 when we left the hotel in Ft. Smith). When we finally were able to get the rod lockers open, my friend fished a tube, and I fished a crank bait. We fished a flat between the overwintering area and the spawning area and did really well. We caught quite a few smallies in the 2 to 3-pound range with maybe a 4 thrown in. I'm looking forward to playing with this a bit this year.

I have one of Lew's Mach II Speed Spin reels in the 200 size. It is a very good reel from the little I've used it, much better than the previous Lew's spinning reels I've fished. MSRP is $79.99.

A Beaver guide uses them for stripers on occasion...

Pure Fising is in the throes of reorganization. When Newell Rubbermaid bought Jarden (which owned Pure Fishing) this year, it was obvious that some changes would be made. Now those changes are beginning. According to reports, the marketing department has been gutted, and it looks like some of the brands will be sold or killed. Apparently, Abu, Berkley, Penn and Shakespeare will be retained, but other brands--Spiderwire, Sebile, Johnson and Mitchell-- will go. I expect product lines will be trimmed so if you've got a fave in any of the lines, you might want to buy duplicates...

It's certainly a good time to have a knee done, given the weather. Heal fast, QB, and keep on the rehab!

Smart move. Drift socks rule...

Fished Truman for the first time. Launched at the state park and headed to the dam area but spent the first couple of hours dealing with outboard issues. I've not fished out of my boat at all this year, and despite a tuneup, it was running rough, to put it mildly. I'm reasonably certain it was due to crud in the carburetors. Finally, though, whatever it was burned up or passed through the jets or whatever, and the blinking thing ran fairly well and eventually seemed normal. I fished the weir area near the dam in the middle of a bunch of boats and didn't touch a fish. I did see one hybrid caught in a couple of hours. Headed back to the launch to check out some other areas and ended up hooking what I think was a good-sized catfish and landing one that went home for dinner. Also caught a 13-inch crappie--both trolling crank baits. I'm thinking that the next trip will be closer to home in the Grand River arm looking for whites or crappies in the back of some coves. We'll see....

Good read; thanks.

Interesting video, Quill. It doesn't go into the ultraviolet wavelengths, which many fish can see. UV does penetrate farther in the water column and is more visible to some fish in dark conditions--dirty water or low light or whatever.