kaiboshi

Weather underground/the weather channel, apparently they are the same. Also Windfinder. Windfinder has been hugely helpful for wind forecasting. The premium version gives you hourly wind forecasting which in my experience has been pretty darn accurate. It has allowed me to plan/execute some really excellent pre-front trips while staying safe and dry. Of course you always want to plan for the worst but so far Windfinder has been a real winner. There are a bunch of apps that do similar things to Windfinder and from what I've heard their accuracy can vary based on location. Try a few of them out and see which one works best for your area.

In. God bless and merry Christmas!

^I can confirm that they are extremely nice, I have a few of them now. I've searched for alternatives, haven't found anything mass produced that is identical and cheaper though I have found more expensive and less suitable solutions. You CAN DIY yourself something similar pretty easily with plastic downspout and a cooler bag but I don't know if I'd trust standing on it (in hindsight I guess it depends on your weight, the cooler bag you choose and how handy you are with reinforcing your DIY version. so possibly a valid solution). The ability to stand on the Lakewood bags was kind of a big deal for me as the bags I have are the same height as my deck so I stand/fish on the bags all the time. They serve as both a big bait storage solution and a deck extension. If you do plan to pick up one of their bags you should sign up for their email list and take advantage of one of their sales.

Supposedly it's the shape of the line that causes more vibration. Mono and FC are round and smooth whereas braid is made up of multiple fibers so while it may feel smooth it's not.

The citizen has been my go-to soft plastic bait for a few years now so I was already stocked up. I did purchase some more when I saw that he added the "is dead" bit to the citizen banner in the emails just in case he never brings them back. I certainly hope he sorts out the durability issues he ran into and brings them back. I haven't had too many issues with durability but I'm usually running the recommended sized hooks/weights. If he doesn't bring them back then it's time to find alternatives. I'll finally be forced to use those scottsboro fatty's that I bought a while back lol I think you're right about the investment cost in ramping up production so I imagine he'll work on finding a solution to bring them back to market. Different plastic blend maybe? I don't expect a solution to materialize quickly, anyway.

I have a few of the lakewood soft sided cases as well and while expensive they are also awesome. They hold a ton of gear and you can stand on them. A couple of the cases that I have are the same height as the front casting deck of my boat so they double as a casting deck extension next to my console. I wouldn't recommend them for just storing baits in your house because of the price but they can be a really nice thing to have in certain boats for storing big baits.

One day early into my boat ownership a few not-so-impressive factors combined with my lack of experience with the area I was fishing and I almost sank my boat. I was fluking in Delaware bay. The wind was about 25 sustained but I expected the direction to mitigate the chop that Delaware bay is known for, less fetch and all. It was already pretty shitty but fishable so I ran out about 15 miles from sheltered water. I thought I would make the "smart" move and run out during slack tide to fish a spot I had confidence in once the tide changed. Normally the concern is wind against tide but in this situation the wind and tide were supposed to be separate so I thought I would be alright. I didn't know that the wind was going to shift to the same direction as the tide which would add to the tide once it got rolling. When we first arrived on the spot I wanted to fish the chop was doable, like 2' but things went down hill very quickly and suddenly I was caught in a very tight, very big (for my boat) chop. The "big" wave of the sets was around 3.5' but they were so close that I started spearing the chop with my bow and taking on water. At this point it was scary, obviously time to head home so I got up on plane but I was spearing every dominant wave in the sets, taking on water like crazy. I couldn't head straight for shelter bc of the wave direction so I had to zig zag to try to minimize how many waves I was spearing. It took me about 45 minutes of spearing waves with my bow before I was in the clear, bilge pump pumping away the entire time. If my bilge pump hadn't worked my boat would have sank for sure. The funny thing is aside from the bad water conditions it was a relatively comfortable day. If I were in a much larger boat I would have been fine.

It depends which one you're talking about. The Mustang PFD's with the hydrostatic inflator (HIT) are pressure sensitive. From their site: "This front entry PFD automatically inflates when submerged in 4” or more water pressure", "The exclusive Hammar® Hydrostatic Inflator Technology (HIT) deploys only when submerged and not when hit with rain, spray, or humidity." I have used a Mustang HIT inflatable PFD for 5 years now without issue. No accidental deployments from rain/spray/humidity so far. I don't even realize I'm wearing it.

I've tried this with 20# seaguar tatsu FC main line to 50# seaguar blue label FC leader when fishing around a lot of pike and pickerel. I wanted to keep my baits deep without donating too many. Since I was only using a short length of 50# (not going through any guides) I tried going with a double uni knot. I wasn't happy with it though. The heaver leader material kinda mangled the main line. I didn't trust the knot so I didn't use it. I went with a swivel on some setups and straight FC on others. So far so good but that luck is not going to last long term going straight FC. I'm curious to see if anyone has a good knot solution.

I ordered 3/13 and have yet to hear anything outside of the initial order confirmation. I emailed them yesterday about it but no response. They are often slow but not usually THIS slow, at least in my experience.

This is what I did. https://fishshop.shimano.com/

Wow, that thing is wild lol

Not just bass fishing, it's a game changer across the board.