Equipment List

Last weekend while driving to the the Garden show, which (as usual) was a little more fun than expected. We happened to drive past a very old driver. I said that if I ever get that old I'm taking the boat out to the middle of the ocean and calling it quits. I then said to foxy that she would have to BURY one of my fishing poles instead. She thought I said MARRY, and agreed to it. So now she's stuck marrying one of my fishing poles if I die before her. She decided that it would be easier to be married to a fishing pole than a man, I suppose I can't argue with that. Anyway, here is my fishing arsenal for her to choose from.

Boat
1987 Bass Tracker w/ Mercury Classic 50 (45HP)
--MinnKota 65lb 24v bow mount Trolling motor
--Coming soon Eagle 502c color GPS/Fishfinder combo

Baitcasters
St. Croix Premier 7ft Medium Heavy w/ Quantum Accurist Reel spooled with 20lb fireline-- Flippin/Pitchin stick

Fenwick HMX 5'6" w/ Pinnacle reel spooled with 10lb Power Pro-- Tube/worm rod for fishing cover

GuideSeries 6'6" Medium w/ Abu Garcia Torno spooled reel spooled with 20lb Fireline -- Spinnerbait/crankbait/buzzbait rod

Star (custom) 6'4" Medium Heavey w/ Abu Garcia C3 reel spooled with 60lb Fireline -- Musky/Northern Rod (This was my flipping stick, but I broke about 6" off the tip, went to Dorn's and had them put a new tip on it. I really don't use it much, but maybe this spring I'll try and land one of those elusive Muskies I've heard so much about.)

Spinning Rods
Fenwick HMG 7ft Light w/ Guideseries 8bb reel spooled with 8lb Pline (flurocarbon) -- Jigging, wacky worm, finnesse rod

Guideseries 6'6" Medium Light w/ Okuma Avenger reel spooled with 8lb Pline -- This is a new rig I just created, I think I might start using it for bass techniques, and using my Fenwick for walleye/pan fish and other finnesse techniques.

Southbend Phaser2 6'6" Medium Heavey w/ Shimano Sidestab reel spooled with 10lb Fireline -- This is going to be my crankbait/spinnerbait/grub rod. Picked up the rod at the fishing show and moved my Shimano to it, it is somewhat unique in that it is a medium heavy spinning rod which are not too common, it's also IM8 graphite quality.

Guideseries 5'6" Ultra Light w/ Guideseries 5bb reel spooled with 4lb Pline -- Pan fish rod, works good for walleyes too

White River Fly rod/reel 8' 5/6 wt -- I don't know much about fly fishing, I've got one trout on this rod and have used it fairly extensively for gills. Someday, maybe I'll learn how to fly fish.

Misc. Equipment
Cabelas Advanced Angler Backpack Tackle system -- I got this before I got my boat, I used to do a lot of shore fishing and figured this would be perfect. It is pretty nice, but space is limited and I am running out of room. I may look for some sort of insert I can put into one of the front compartments to store additional plano boxes.

Plano, Waist belt type tackle system -- Foxy got me this and I really like it for taking to Columbia, ice fishing, or just a quick shore fishing excursion. It holds enough stuff and frees your hands up.

I am not going to list all my lures individually, but here is a general sum of what I use, Scum Frogs, Spinner Baits, Crank Baits, Buzz Baits, Tubes, Worms, Plastic craws, Bass Jigs, Plastic frogs, Gamakotzu Hooks (been starting to use red).

I use a lot of top water because our lakes have lots of thick weeds, I also use a lot of texas rigged worms and tubes. Tubes work great for Small mouth on Mendota.

Something special I use are "Grandpa Jigs," my Grandfather has been making jigs for 30 years or more. They are extremely nice deer tail hand made jigs for walleye fishing. I will post a picture. He has mostly stopped making them now, I REALLY need to go down and learn how to make them. He has about 1700 that he will spread through our family, then no more grandpa jigs left. I think he would be extremely happy if one of us 5 grandchildren picked up the hobby.

I have an Okuma Spinning reel without a mate, I may pick up a new spinning rod at the fishing show. I am also very disappointed in my Abu Torno, so if I find a new reel at the fishing show for a good price, I may replace it. I think I might sell the old one to celly or chris, it's a decent reel, but I just get a lot of backlashes with it and it annoys me. I suppose I could try mono on it and see if that improves the castablity, or power pro for that matter.

So thats the arsenal, look bass here I come!!!!