Abe Mathews
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Zach-
On the reservoir that I normally chase stripers on, there’s a pretty limited window in the morning where the striper action is the best.
You can’t go wrong with a Mora knife. They keep a good edge (particularly the carbon steel models), are easy to sharpen (due to the scandi grind), don’t cost a lot of money, and they are often razor sharp right from the factory.
Love me some Moras.
Victorinox Tinker everywhere, and usually add a Benchmade Mini Griptilian.
Tinker is over 40 years old, and still going strong.
Both are stainless, which matters around water.
We’re like twins, separated at birth.
Zach-
I’m sorry you have to deal with this, man. I know you. You’re not a corporate shill. You’re a writer (a damned good one, I might add) and an enthusiast. I truly don’t believe you’re going to highlight anything that you don’t truly believe is quality gear. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t other other quality gear out there, but you’re not exposing crap as the second coming. I listen to your podcasts. I learn from your podcasts. I may not always be fond of the choices you’ve made in guests, but I always learn something.
What this review smacks of is something that I learned in about 1995, while I was in grad school. I was a sysadmin at a computer lab in the humanities department. Another sysadmin was a doctoral candidate, and his thesis was going to be on using anonymous internet chat software to (for the first time, in his opinion) truly be able to discuss sensitive issues of race, gender, and sexuality. He was convinced (as was I, early on) that this technology would truly enable open communication that helped solve difficult issues.
What his thesis ended up being was a study that showed a troubling side. What he ended up showing was that there was a significant portion of the population who could not deal with anonymity, and that allowing them to be anonymous turned them into, essentially, raving a$$holes. Even in small groups of like-minded people, giving true anonymity would change a couple of them into hateful troublemakers that acted out playground-style namecalling and crap-stirring. Alan’s thesis has stuck with me since then. I’m reminded of it often (including my brief stint on The Drake forums, which I thought did an exceptional job of continuing Alan’s work…).
So you’re dealing with a person who can’t handle being anonymous, and is reacting to you out of jealousy, or some hope that you’ll ask Lefty why he has a restraining order against him from Bill Dance (HE DOES NOT, at least not to my knowledge – it was an example).
Keep up the good work, and don’t let the punks get you down. As long as there is no repercussion for that type of behavior, it will always exist, unfortunately.
Thanks for doing what you do.
I demoed a few last year, including the Wilderness Commander, Native 14.5, Tarpon 140, Ride 135, and Jackson Cuda. For me, with intended uses of bass fishing on local reservoirs, striper fishing below TVA dams, and saltwater fishing for trout and reds in the Pensacola area and bones in the Keys, I decided that the Cuda was the “goldilocks” boat. Every boat is a compromise. The Tarpon was faster but not stable enough for me to fish standing up. The Ride was very stable, but felt like it topped out slower regardless of how hard I pushed. I wasn’t comfortable at all in the Wildy Commander (ergos), and I didn’t want to take a hybrid canoe across the bays in Pensacola.
The Cuda wasn’t the fastest, or the most stable, or the lightest. But it has an exceptionally comfortable seat, and a ton of features that are well thought out for a fisherman. While the boat is setup primarily for gear fishermen, fly rods fit in the two outside rod racks. There is some rigging that can be fly line wrap magnets, so you have to be aware and potentially make a couple mods. Here’s my Cuda getting ready to chase some bass:
If you notice the seat is in the “high” position, which makes for a much better casting platform, at the expense of distance paddling comfort. You can adjust this position on the water. Also notice behind the paddle on the right side, that’s a vertical Plano 3700. The Cuda has molded in slots to fit both 3600 and 3700 series boxes, so I’ve transfered my bass and saltwater flies to boxes that size (using Neal Osborn’s box construction guide). I’m very pleased with this choice. And it’s effective.
I’m currently getting it ready for the first saltwater trip – chasing reds and trout in Pensacola next week. The first place I paddled a Cuda was Pensacola, and it was an effective platform there as well. Can’t wait.
After 6 removals now, I’m amassing a pretty significant collection of Buffs, Tilleys, and Boonie hats.
In all seriousness, the gun is a workhorse. It was a police issue, so it’s durable, accurate and solid steel. That way, if you run out of bullets it doubles as a club. ;D If you read reviews online, most of them speak to it’s durability and accuracy.
I am eyeing a taurus .357 ultralight as my next gun. It would be an easy carry gun compared to the P89.
Matt – in all seriousness, the only problem with the Ruger is that it will never give you a real reason to replace it.
Is a Ruger centerfire auto really accurate enough to hit a belly-crawler even at a few feet?
With snake shot, absolutely. However, normal target shooting, it is dead on accurate. Maybe your problem was operator error? ;D
I’d considered that, but immediately dismissed it as a ridiculous possibility.
Catching up with old threads (I was in hardcore shooting mode last winter…)
As of now, I’ve spent a bunch of time tying on a Herter’s vise (looks to be a knockoff of a Thompson), a Peak (my workhorse for a couple of years), an HMH Spartan (my travel vise), and a Dyna King Barracuda Indexer.
I bought the Dyna King as an upgrade for my Peak.
Was good visiting with you again Zach. Even better getting confused with you and having people treat me like I was something special. 🙂
There were fewer vendors there this year, but I still enjoy having company reps there, even if you can’t buy directly.
