I use my lighter to cut it, melt it, and finish off my knots. It works.

Two years ago I tried it up at Weber lake with no luck. We caught fish otherwise so I’m guessing it may have been too much. My rig had 6 on the out side and one trailer.

That should read, “PROSSER CREEK”

Late stream season on the truckee river just above where prissier creek dumps into the truckee, I was fishing deep water under the highway 80 overpass with a night crawler. Wasn’t paying much attention when I got a big strike. Doubled over my rod, stripped a bunch of line l, maybe 30-40 yards of line. I got real nervous and figured it was a big brown rnanreal big bow. Up n back two or 3 times. Just as I was taking in some line I started looking for this fish when this huge beaver comes up out of the water, slaps it’s tail about 15 feet I front of me and soaked me to the bones. Completely embarrassed and all wet, I simply broke my line off & walked to my truck with my tail between legs. My pops told this story to my grandparents and my grandmother for Christmas that year gave me a bunch of big heavy tackle that I’ll never use. However, if I did hook a beaver again with that tackle she gave me, I’d definitely have a chance of a land and release. By far the best practical joke my grandmother ever pulled on me or my brother or my sister. We all got a good long laugh that Christmas.

Nice bow Mike. Girthy, healthy and looks heavy. What bait were you using back there in WV?

A childhood friend of mine works for Disney as a fishing guide. Yep you can fish there but I’ve no clue on their regulations and access. But if you purchase a guide, I guarantee you’ll catch and be taken to their prime spots. Request Kevin N. And tell him Uncle Mo said, “Fishon!”

Now that’s staring down the barrel of a shotgun. Hope you and your buddy didn’t have too take a tomato juice bath. My dog got sprayed recently right about dusk while hiking out of one of my spots on the middle fork of the feather river but that was her fault, rather mine for I lost track of her. But since we are talking about trash and my dog, I’d like to let the braided line fishermen in on a terrifying day on the river involving @ 40 yds of probably 10lb test braid, a treble hook tied to it and my beautiful chocolate lab Mashie.
Mashie likeS to go fishing with me. When I’m wading, she stands in my eddy and patiently waits for my success. Well somewhat patiently, she tends to begin whining after the 3rd or 4th cast which to me says move a little or head to the next hole. As we are wading across I feel my foot get stuck under what seems to be a stick or limb and I yank my foot up unstuck but Mashie only 3 feet behind me starts to cry howling uncontrollably and tries to get away but can’t. Only in about 15-18” of water I try to calm her down but that didn’t work. So I start dumping my gear, tossing it ashore and start feeling under Mashie where she seems to be stuck for I think she is empaled or something. I find a treble hook in her front right shin only in her skin but it’s beginning to tear away and she’s bleeding good, enough for me to panic. Not thinking very well, I had thrown my vest ashore where my knife n pliers were, I go grab my knife and try to cut her away but it’s that damn braided stuff and my knife is a 20 yr old junker pocket knife that hasn’t had an edge in years since I began practicing catch n releases post college and trust me, a perfect razor blade is sometimes no match for braided line and my knife is doing nothing to it. So I go back to my vest for the pliers where I’m planning to cut the treble with my multi tool leather man thing, Mashie still attempting to pull away. Multitasking at its finest, I’m failing miserably and now wet head to toe I stop and gather myself which seems to calm Mashie down. I take a few deep breaths, and watch as the water begins to clear away and expose the seemingly huge ball of line wrapped up in several sticks plants and the treble hook, about size 2, exposed itself and I now see how to get her out. Using the pliers I cut the hook freeing her, the tip of in still in her leg she takes off for shore Ann’s starts licking her wound. I get the tackle out of the water, gather my gear and head for home, then the vet to get mash stitched up. I don’t know how that fisherman lost his line, I couldn’t even cut it but both hook n line were so overkill for that river that I really appreciate the newer fisherman that ask questions on this website and hope the understand when blogs like this come up, it’s not just for their education but also their safety and that of their loved ones, in this case my Mashie girl. Had she been swimming not wading like me, I’d have lost her or she a good amount of her shin skin, fur, who knows maybe even leg.
Alls well that ends well right? Happy to have her freed, I headed home, changed, grabbed the check book and head for the vet where $300 bones later, 23 stiches, a few antibiotic shots and one unhappy Mashie with a lampshade on her head got to sleep on the couch that night.
If in the situation that you lose tackle, break a line, or don’t know what happened when you snapped a line, please where practical and safe to do so, most situations I in deed tans are impossible, but for the health of our ecosystems, the fish we fish for, and others and their pets that use the same grounds, please make an effort to retrieve anything you see or come in contact with around our water ways, someday it might be you cutting your pet out of the river. Keep catching, try releasing, and you’ll get to catch it again when it’s even bigger. Much love peace out.

Just to throw in my two pennies, I agree with the above responses whole heartedly. I mostly trout fish streams but the golf course I live on has tons of spotted bass. When I fish those ponds, it’s always top water hollow frog or mouse/rat. My technique is to walk back n forth, jerking seldomly trying to get a reaction bite here n there, but most, if not all of my top water bites in these ponds are either the moment the frog/rat hits the water or when I let the frog/rat pause after walking it 5 feet or so. The more I pause, the more strikes I’ll get. Top water for bass is very exciting because you get to see the entire take. And as a tip, yes the bass pound that floater but give it a solid 2 to 3 seconds( I say my full name slowly) “jumping jack flash” before setting the hook for ive been so surprised and excited after that hit that I’ll pull it right out of the spots mouth before it gets a chance to clamp down on said frog/rat. Like they mentioned, try every type of retrieve you already know, create your own, but whatever you think is too slow, slow down even more. My last opinion on this topic is, don’t get sucked into paying 12, 15, 20 bucks for one frog. I’ve tried all of them and the one I’ve caught the most with is a legless one that has just fringe that barely touches the water and quite possibly is less life like that most others I’ve used. Beyond that, to each their own.

Do you really carry a tooth brush when you fish ‘back there’? I never knew the fish cared for freshly brushed pearly whites. I figured my brilliant smile might spook the fish. Maybe that’s what my papa meant when he said to make sure to spit on the hook? My vest is typically filled with minimal tackle for the type of fishing I’m doing that day, typically I say.
1- I agree with bassman57, magic white erasure will make them look nearly new.
2- as for the hooks, maybe the stainless hooks will survive a heavier fish but the size of those lures and any rust, you are likely to lose a good sized fish and if so, damn fish will probably need a tetanus shot or it might die , I’d replace anything rusted. This is from experience. I don’t know if the fish died but it ended up w 2 of 3 treble hook tips in its face when I used a lure I found on a log while bass fishing a local pond.
3) from the looks of the lures, I don’t think you need to look for a body. Not one of those lures was purchased later than 1980 it appears. Not only has the body decomposed, but the skeleton has likely be strewn about the area by coyotes, cats, Bear, or the native tribe. ( much respect to our American Indian forefathers and their lands we continue to litter with our fishing gear by not packing out what we pack in. ) yes I’m speaking to you beer drinkers, smokers, Coffee drinkers, plastic bottle water drinkers, worm fishermen, plastic bait tossing, spent line tossers, and yes, tackle box leavers. Joe Schmoe, nice find, I agree with everyone about that, but I don’t see the tackle box. Tell me something else positive, you did make sure that it found the trash can right? And the rest of the tackle that was in the box, specially the lead weights, hit the round file right? I’m just saying........let’s make sure we all do our part and teach our young to pick up as much trash along or rivers and lakes as reasonably possible. I recently saw the 3.5 mile floating island of trash in our beautiful ocean that’s soon to be 4 miles long. Ok, off my soap box and rest assured, that’s one reason I carry minimal tackle in my vest along with a backpack with my snacks emergency gear.

Thanks for reading fellow fishing enthusiasts. Wish all of you that long slow tug at the end of your doubled over rod for this holiday season. To you and yours, hoping you catch a few PB’s in 2020. Looks promising. Much love peace out.

Light lures work and cast quite well with light line, light reels, light rods. Baitcasting light lures or any light tackle takes(and in this order), 1) patience
2) practice 3) practice 4) patience. Anything less than a 1oz, personally, I like my spinning reels for distance casting. I try to match the lure weight with the line weight. For instance, if I’m needing longer casts instead of precision, with a 1/16oz lure, I use 2-4 lb line, if it’s a 1/8oz lure 2-6lb line, and a 1/4oz lure will get 2-8lb line. I fish for trout in a medium sized river mostly and longer casts can be achieved with wind or river current. I do use a bait caster occasionally but typically, my baitcasters are set up with 12lb line or heavier and I find that I rarely use anything lighter than an ounce baitcasting. Whatever you do, if it involves a baitcasting reel, your two best friends will be patience and practice.

Hi 5 a buddy in that moment, I think they are very lucky that they aren’t high 3 1/2-zings. I’d be paddling back to the car with a large brown stain in my chones for sure. Brave brave women, I’m impressed.

You mean, just the way you lure .....

Hands down, the old slithering serpent, the night crawler. Not a creek fish alive that will turn down a night crawler. Guaranteed to out fish any other bait two fold. My opinion and I stand by it with a full creel.

“Don’t forget to spit on the hook.”
This is what my grandpa used to tell my brother and I. My interpretation of what he was actually saying is: Pay attention to your surroundings when casting. Pay attention to your rod while your bait was in the water. Pay attention to others line when reeling in. Pay attention to your equipment when traveling, hiking, using it, even putting it away, it’s fragile. But most of all, pay attention when someone is teaching you something new, because you probably asked the question. Spitting on the hook never actually caught fish, but I paid attention to all he said otherwise and I normally caught fish when he took us to the water. My grandpa was a hoot to hunt and fish with and always approached life lessons from the humor side so we could learn with a laugh. Thanks papa!

Floating weedless frog or mouse. Shake it for about half a minute then retrieve as slow as possible. They’ll be fighting over your offering.