basshat22

Two fellows bottom bouncing called me a snagger as I was fishing spawning Chinooks with J-13s and glowing spoons.

Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? I was popping and twitching my rod now and then, but I don't think I would be using a $10 lure to snag a fish. Was I trying to piss off spawning salmon by cranking my lures with a nice and slow retrieve? Hell yes! And I pissed a couple off enough to strike.

Maybe that is an unethical way to fish spawning salmon?

Don't know how bouncing marshmallows and roe off the bottom while sitting on lawn chairs can show any more skill in this situation.

I managed to get a gouge in a rod guide. Is there a tried and tested method that anybody has to repair it? I want to ask those who know what they are doing before I steel the old lady's nail polish and files to try and refinish it that way.

Thanks!

Had recently put some money on an Abu Garcia medium-light spinning combo. 6'6" rod and a size 20 reel. I love it. Use it mostly for small trout and pan fishing.

But then I look in my closet and see my trusty Zebco that has caught me plenty of speckles and pan fish for over ten years. A cheap, $20 light combo from Canadian tire. 5'6" rod with an ultra-light size 5 spinning reel. Even though there are snoopy reels with better anti-reverse and dora-the-explorer rods with better guides, I just can't seem to bring myself to retire it. If I am not having any luck with the speckles using the Abu, I bring out the Zebco and start hooking them. I can feel a speckle fart 10 yards away on that pole.

So it stays in active service, strung with 4# waiting to hook more speckles. Go little Zebco!

I love fall -- a great time to fish off docks. Nailed huge crappie off the Chippawa. The largest being just over 12.5". Catching them that size on ultra light tackle makes for a fun Saturday afternoon. Squirt tubes were the soup d'jour.

I use 30# braid (Spider Wire) and find that after a few trips the coating comes off and it starts to clump and knot -- which then I have to re-spool or else suffer major bird nests!

Just curious what everyone else spools up with? I've been thinking of trying some 20# fluorocarbon, but I am to understand it has its own set of quirks like buoyancy, memory and of course, $$$.

Either way I'm blowing $$$ having to put on a 100 yards of new braid all the time. Life was simpler when I just used 12# mono.