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Back in the latter 1960's I took a shop class at P.H. Junior College (now S.C.C.C.C) that introduced me to various types of welding. And every now and then, I still put what I learned in that class to use and make myself some sort of contraption with my buzz-box to make my hunting/fishing hobbies easier on me and more enjoyable. I'm not a professional welder by any means, but the various projects I occasionally make for myself always stay together and do what I intended it to do. You could probably describe most of my arc-welds as, "the bigger the glob, the better the job". I know that sounds funny, but by golly, it works! I've never been concerned about pretty welds, just strong ones that never fail. I was raised on baitcasting reels and still use them extensively, but I am also fond of using spinning reels whenever that seems more practical. Shown below is one example of the many projects that I've made for myself over the years. It is a double rod holder for baitcasting rods and reels, both right and left handed. This holder is attached to a seven gallon bucket that will hold up to 56 lbs of water when completely full (water weighs 8 lbs per gallon). I've never hooked a fish that could move that bucket or pull my rod loose. I always use a 2 gallon bucket with a rope attached to the handle for the purpose of filling the big bucket after arriving at my fishing site. Over the years I've made both single and double rod holders for bank or pier fishing for every type of fishing rod and reel I own. These projects take a lot of time and patience to make, but I've found them to be worth it. I've also made myself a lot of C-clamp rod holders for fishing off the sea wall railings in Port Huron and Marysville. Shown below are just a couple of my homemade rod holder projects. And no, I don't sell them, so please don't ask.

 

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When Lake St Clair gets too warm in the late summer, (August usually), the bass there start migrating north for deeper, cooler waters. That picture was taken a few years back when we really had a real scorcher going on. I started fishing for bass after a skin diver came up to the walkway and told me that he just couldn't believe how many lunker bass were migrating north, most likely heading for the cooler waters of Lake Huron. I decided right then and there that those big bass were probably feasting on the millions of available gobies as they traveled. So I bought me some creek chubs (aka pike minnows in bait shops) that are quite similar looking to gobies, and a very hardy bait. Baby suckers work too. For two weeks during that hot weather system, I caught the hell out of big bass on those big minnows. I also hooked several tiger muskies that were probably following the bass, and landed three of them during that two weeks. The rest managed to cut my line with their teeth shortly after getting hooked. Seemed like there were quite a few muskies being sighted and/or caught from the wall around that same time period. Here's a picture of the biggest one I landed that summer, a 42 incher, weighing 15 lbs. The last couple of years, I haven't seen action like that (a notable bass migration) taking place anywhere along the wall.

 

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I got hooked on Ambassadeur baitcasting reels many years ago. Well worth the money in my book.