Stripernut1

I am glad to see those involved are being held accountable. I see people benefit from what Mass Save does daily, saving lots of people a whole lot of money. The inspector that came by your house is there to cut down on fraud. I am sure that new rules have been put in place to help avoid the same sort of thing in the future. No organization is without its bad players. I judge an organization by what it does when it finds rotten apples in its barrel, do the so-called good players work to cover it up or does it learn from it, find ways to improve, and move on?

No self install this year if you want any rebate, you have to use one of the installers on the list. It is not about money (they make no money on it) it is about making sure the right units are installed. With the $10,000 rebate many homeowners (smaller houses) are getting the whole system installed for free. For anything over $10,000, you can use an interest-free loan, that just about anybody can get. That is if your house is up to "snuff" with insulation. If you don't want to do the whole house there is still a $1250 a ton rebate that adds up fast. If you need insulation they cover about 75% of the cost.

Did you go for the Mass Save redate? I work with them all the time and I tell most people to turn off the Mini Splits at 25F and below, that averages out to 4 months on the heat pumps and 1 with your other heating system. For most people, big savings, and then they are much cheaper for cooling than standard units...

I have not fished those models, but I own both maker's fly rods and have no complaints. If it were me I would use the faster 9wt, but I like throwing big flies, and if you are going to be fishing the surf most of the time, many angles like a little longer rod. Not that a 9' rod won't work just fine.

Great fish, Congrats!

Welcome! It is a big help if we have at least a general idea of where you are from or are fishing. As to your plugs, it is what the fish think that is important...

Yes hundreds, but I have not bait-fished for them in decades. Casting hardware at the Chu and vertical jigging at the Q, is what I do. And yes I understand how big a mouth the lakers have, but their teeth are conical, so unlike a bluefish, they do not have a sharp edges, just a very sharp point. that would normally take some pressure and a little time to cut a line. If the circle is setting in the corner of the mouth, as it should, it should be rare (but not impossible) for it to cut the leader. Are you using offset circles?

You could go with a small circle hook and a light leader, the hooks most often end up in the corner of the mouth and fish can't bite thru...

Surprising, it is not legal to fish or boat NoTown...

We were in a canoe, the water was dirty and I could not see what it was. I knew it was not another nice smallmouth and I kept thinking it was a carp the way it was fighting. In the end, we had to beach the canoe to land it. It was a great night of fishing! I also (more often than cats), get walleyes on top water...

I don't target them, but the last big one I landed was over 9lb (big for MA) I got on a JitterBug at 1:30 am, an epic fight on bass gear...

It's called an "Ear Worm"... Last one I had was I was watching the grandkids and got "Baby Sharks" and wanted to shoot myself...

That is an impressive bunch of great info above, thanks! One very simple trick you can try to continue using your damaged lure is to loop on an assist hook to the middle hanger and rubber band the hook to the tail. I am sure that with little effort you could find the "right" balance and the fish will stay hooked even better than before... I would use a single hook, but if you wanted you could easily go with a treble hook.

Get some sharks and tuna on my new 14wt fly rod... Get the grandkids fishing more this season. More fishing of course, but if I can do those 2 things it will be a good season.

When I was a kid I learned to use the anti-reverse and used it often as the reels back then did not have the smooth drags that today's reels have. A nice fish pulled hard and you would slowly back-reel, still keeping pressure on the fish but not putting too much strain on the mono we used back then. Don't really need it anymore and did not notice at first that it was going away. I would sooner have it than not, as it is one more tool available if needed, but not a great loss... I don't do enough bait fishing to worry about selling hooks.