I think I’m doing OK and healing up; albeit slowly. Last night was the first night I didn’t take any pain medication and although I only managed an hour and a half of good sleep, I feel pretty good. The dull pain and burning sensation is still there but it’s manageable.
On the pain medication topic: Pain pills are hard to get these days in part due to the “opioid crisis” so I tend to use them sparingly. As long as I could take the edge off then I could manage the pain and slowly increase my threshold. With this latest episode, I only took the pain medication at bedtime as opposed to every 6 hours and to me, that’s a good thing.
Anyway, back to fishing! In January/February I managed to get a few rods that a good friend of mine was selling. The prices were phenomenal so I picked up a Palms Quattro 4-piece travel rod that I had been wanting as well as a Majorcraft fiberglass travel rod that was on my radar. I’ve been very happy with both so far. I also picked up two Yamaga Blanks Blue Current TZ Nano rods in 6ft 2in and a 6ft 10in versions. BOTH are outstanding rods that I had been interested in for quite some time. Lightly used and at a great price was a no-brainer. I’ve recently fished all 4 of them and can say it was money well spent and it helped out a friend.
For the record: I only had one rod and one reel on the purchase list for 2024. The rod arrived this past Monday and is the TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS-61LL. I bought one as a gift for my wife quite awhile ago and she was gracious enough to let me have a go with it for a round of testing. I liked it so much I decided to order myself one except they were sold out. After searching on and off for over a year, I finally managed to find one and it is now in my quiver of rods. I will say for certain that it was worth the wait! Oustanding rod for our type of fishing.
So far the rod has been great…in fact all of them have caught fish so I have no complaints. We have been trying to gauge if the bass and crappie are staging for the spawn and it has been hit and miss due to the highly variable weather conditions. One day it was 84F and the next it dropped to 31F. Not enough stability yet for the fish to fully become active or to establish a reliable pattern.
I’m probably pushing things a bit but it’s hard for me to be inactive for any length of time. I’m definitely much more careful and am moving slower than normal but I am making progress so I’m happy. Maybe I’ll hit the trout pond this morning at first light and get one last session in before the season ends on April 1st…time will tell. Take care and see ya soon.
Velox Seeker 