Issue #2

A quick word before we get into it

Last Friday I sent the first one of these out with no idea what would happen.

A thousand of y'all signed up. Some change over that now.

I sat there Friday night reading the replies and I'll be honest with you, it got me a little choked up. People telling me where they hunt. Where they fish. A few of you telling me you'd been following since the beginning and you weren't about to lose me over some Facebook nonsense.

That's the whole reason I built this thing. So thank you. I mean it.

Now let's get to work.

— Dwayne

ON THE WATER

I want to show you something this week, because a lot of folks are fishing for smallmouth exactly wrong.

Here's the deal. Most people come to a river and they fish the banks. I get why — they grew up fishing lakes, and in a lake that's where the fish are. So they pull up to the river and throw right at the shoreline.

Smallmouth don't live on the bank.

Smallmouth love the rock bars. Out in the middle, on the current, sitting on structure most people float right over. This time of year, July, our water's up a little and running dirty, and they'll stack up right above the little shoals feeding.

That's where you throw.

My go-to is a fluke. Four inch, and I make my own because I go through a ton of them. One octopus hook, nose-hooked, no weight, on a spinning rod. That's it. When the water's clear and it's calm, that nose-hooked fluke is deadly — I caught one on my first cast filming this, wish the camera'd been rolling.

But here's the part that actually helps you.

When the wind kicks up, that fluke's too light to fish. It just blows around and you lose all feel for it. So when it gets too rough for the fluke, I switch to a Ned rig. Zoom makes a bait called the TRD — I run the peanut butter and jelly color on a little finesse hook.

And here's the trick nobody tells you. A regular Ned rig gets hung up on every rock in this river. Drives you crazy. So I hook the TRD so the tail stands straight up, barely coming out the back, pushed all the way up the hook. Rigged like that it bounces off the bottom instead of wedging in the rocks. It's the only thing I've found that doesn't hang up all day.

So there's your week. Nose-hooked fluke when it's clear and calm. Ned rig when it's windy. Bounce it off the bottom, keep it jiggling, work it back to you.

Twerk it a little, if you will.

They'll hit it. Get out there.

THE RUT REPORT

Nothing's changed in the deer woods since last week, and that's exactly the point.

We're still in the dead of summer. Bucks still in their bachelor groups, still eating, still growing bone. If you did your homework from last issue and got eyes on a food source, you should be building a picture by now of who's in your neighborhood.

Keep watching. Don't hunt them, don't push them, just keep a log. Every evening you glass, you're learning a little more about where these deer live before the pressure ever hits.

The work you do in July is the tag you fill in November.

CARRY REPORT Gun safety, tactics, and conceal carry.

This week we're not even talking about a gun.

We're talking about pepper spray — because the truth is, most situations you'll run into don't call for a firearm, and the smartest thing in your pocket is often the one that stops a threat without anybody getting killed.

Here's what I carry and why. Something small, something that fits in the palm of your hand and conceals easy, and something that sprays a wide cone. You want that cone. When things go bad you're not going to have time to aim a stream.

And I'll tell you why I like pepper spray better than mace. Mace mostly gets the eyes. Pepper spray does more than that — it takes the vision, but it also hits the breathing and brings on panic. That panic is the whole point. It buys you the seconds you need to get away from your aggressor, and getting away is always the goal.

One more thing, and this is the part people skip. You need to feel it before you ever need it. Get some on yourself on purpose, in a controlled way, so you know what it's like. Because if the wind kicks back or you catch some of your own while you're spraying, you can't afford to panic. The person who's felt it before is the person who keeps their head.

The goal was never to hurt somebody. The goal is to go home. Anything in your pocket that gets you home without firing a shot is a win.

Know your state's laws before you carry anything. They're different everywhere and they change. That's on you.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

This week we honor the brave men and women of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

We see you. Thank you.

THE LAST LAUGH

My wife asked me why I keep a loaded gun by the bed.

I told her, "In case of intruders."

She said, "What about the twelve fishing rods in the garage?"

I said, "In case of intruders that fish."

Wear the brand

Full Rut hats and shirts — $25 at fullrutnation.com

NEXT WEEK

More from the woods and the water, and part three of the Carry Report.

Hit reply and tell me where you're fishing this week. I read every one.

See you Friday.