Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope everyone has a wonderful blessed holiday with their family.

Tis the season to get organized in the basement baitshop! When it’s too cold to fish, time to get organized and ready for Spring.

Barde rods update…my father in law and I spent some time with the rods and tried various baits. Had 15lb braid with 10lb leader on both reels. (Because these were the only two reels I still had line on, end of season for me)

Bushido - Ned, SMH head, wacky

GRB - light ned, crappie jigs, 1-2” jerkbaits.

Both rods preformed wonderfully. Really impressed with casting distance even with the smaller lighter baits. Going to be ordering my father in law the GRB for Christmas. Let me or Brian Barde know if you have any questions.

What is everyone’s favorite side and dessert on Thanksgiving?

So hopefully I can help someone else from making the same mistake. I added a couple graphs to my bow and wanted a bigger starting battery to handle it all. Current one wasn’t cutting it. I went with a bigger AGM battery which I didn’t know, older 2 stroke Mercurys can’t handle it. Mine is a 2004. It ended up melting the altinator regulator. The new Mercury 4 strokes don’t have this issue. Found this out while my boat was getting winterized.

Who’s up for earning an In-Fisherman Master Angler patch for 2025?

https://www.in-fisherman.com/content/master-angler/375360

Brian Barde Barde Rods have arrived!

Hey community, had to share my recent delivery from our own communities Brian Barde. He made me two spinning rods, they both resemble the Favorite BLat sick stick. I feel the GRB closely resembles the sick stick with the “MH” feel and action with just the right amount of ehhhh. The Bushido is a little on the lighter size. I feel it’s going to be great for smaller lighter baits like Crappie and Walleye. Saturday I hope to get on the water and do some testing with a variety of baits. If you have any bait suggestions before Saturday let me know. I’ll give them a try.

Went out for a few hours today. Tried to go deep, but didn’t see anything past 15feet. Had 2 smaller bass come to the boat but jumped off on a jig. Then fished shallow for Musky, had 3 follow to the boat with a big spinnerbait. Hopefully I can get out again before I need to winterize the boat.

What’s everyone being for Halloween?

Whoops! Bound to happen eventually.