Friday, March 17, 2023
Full Size Rain Ponchos
I’ll be the first to admit that plastic rain ponchos aren’t as good as a proper rain suit, but they’re pretty darn close and they have other uses. They make a dandy tarp to protect equipment in a pinch. You can use them to carry water. Snap two of them together and string a line and you have a halfway decent shelter. They’re cheap, compact, and they used to be everywhere.
I know. I know. I’m not going to melt if I get wet, but if it’s really coming down like it was here the other day it’s not all that pleasant to get soaked like somebody turned a water hose on you. I was working in the shop and decided to call it a day when the rain just busted loose like a dam failure. I started to make the dash from the back door of the shop to the back door of the house when I thought, “I’ve got a couple rain ponchos under the seat in The Tin Can.”
I pulled out the first one and I had to stretch the hole in it to get it over my head. It was tiny. I don’t remember rain ponchos being such dinky little stingy pieces of plastic. I pulled it back off and tried the second one only to find it was the same. What the heck happened to plastics rain ponchos?
Big enough to snap two together and make a shelter for two men is not something I heard. It’s something I’ve done. The first time I recall doing that was on a canoe trip down the Mohegan River with my Uncle Paul. The first night we camped out on a small island in the middle of the river, strung a cord between two saplings, and drapped a couple of rain poncho snapped together over the cord. With a few sticks driven in at key points and some cord wrapped around the hoods to expand out the sidewalls we had an acceptable shelter from the rain when we slept. It certainly wasn’t perfect. It can’t compare to a quality tent with a rain fly, but we slept through the night and we weren’t miserable.
Where in the heck can I get THOSE rain ponchos?
Drop me an email if you have the answer.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
CLUB-O You should really check it out.
You should really check it out. Its may be the most versatile bait mold I make.
It started out long before I was in the mold business. I wanted a stick worm that wasn’t just another Senko ™ knockoff. Its turned into one of my universal fall back baits. I make it with heavy salt and fish it a bunch of different ways. If I could have only one soft plastic this would be it.
* It punches heavy cover texposed or texas rigged like a champ with much less weight than just about any creature bait. It is a killer flipping bait.
* It fishes weightless as a cast and drop bait. I’ll put it head to head against any other stick worm even though it isn’t just another stick worm.
* It works well as a swimbait on a weighted swimbait hook. Sometimes just burning it through the water produces violent strikes other times a lazy jerking retrieve does the trick.
* It gets some massive blow ups with the rod held high to wake it along the surface. Yep. I sometimes use it as a topwater too.
* Drop shot
* Ned head
* Wacky rigged
There is 4+ inch and a 5 inch version, and a customer recently paid me to make a 6 inch version. If you want a mold just place your order and I’ll add yours to the cut list.
… and now for the finesse guys there is even a 3 inch version.
A&B Tackle and Tennesse River Tackle among others sell most (all between them) sizes. If they don’t make your color or your weight formula. Just ask them.
If you want to keep your colors secret just buy the molds and make your own, or if you have a tackle business feel free to sell as many as you can make.