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The same thing happens on this site and all others that I have been to. "New rod/reel is amazing, so light and balanced. Much more sensitive then all my *insert previous favorite company here* rods. Best bang for your buck. Will purchase more. Cant wait to fish with it...." Then you get "rod broke on first cast, cant believe it. I emailed the company 5 minutes ago and no response. I wont purchase ever again. I will purchase something that matches my reel next time." Thats why I like this site. Even though posts like that still exist, there are enough people that participate on these forums to give you a good idea overall of just about anything.

HAHA I thought so. I'm going to try and fix it. I'm still trying to learn the site. I think I got the profile, face book login, and gallery set up. I just threw a pic for my background, wasn't sure about that. How's my avatar now?

The same can be said abou their rod reviews. I can't tell you how many reviews I've read just like this... "I just got back from my picking this rod up at my local BPS and it's gotta be the best rod ever made. I haven't tried casting with it yet, but it feels great and looks fantastic with my reel on it. I can't wait until the snow and ice melt so I can try it out on the water. I give it five stars!" It might break on their first trip out, but they still felt compelled to give it five stars.

Yes, this is just another PFD rant. It's just that every time I'm on the water, I see that the vast majority of anglers do not wear PFD's ? Why !?!? Do they think "it won't be them" who ends up drowning ? I mean, even if they don't care about their own lives very much, don't they have family or friends who wouldn't want to lose them ? Seriously, I see guys all the time, going 50+ MPH in high per bass boats, with no life jackets ? Then, on my Striper / Sturgeon waters, it's cold, murky, often with strong tidal flows, and again, I almost never see anybody wearing a PFD ? Why ? I'm a pretty decent swimmer.... but not in cold water, with full clothing, maybe a heavy jacket, and big, heavy boots ! And then, how could one tread water if they had been knocked out, or had a broken arm, or leg ? The modern, auto-inflatable PFD's are just too comfortable, and conveniant "to not always have one on" any time your on the water ! If you won't wear one for yourself, please do so for those that care about you. Drownings are such a tradgegy, and such a shame, when one stops to consider how such a large % of these accidents are so easily preventable ! PLEASE wear a PFD, at all X's when your on the water. Thank you, Fish

After the Sturgeon being almost non-existent in most of my normal fishing waters this year, I started putting some bits and pieces together, and geeeez ! Did I ever find them ! Tuesday I had the best Sturgeon fishing trip of my entire life ! The bite was just unbelievable ! Of course I was using my micro-lights. Now the thing is, normally when Sturgeon fishing, it's about like throwing big swimbaits for trophy bass. You might get 2 or 3 hits in a day, and if you are lucky, you might catch one. So using two rods usually helps.... but they were hitting so fast, that in retrospect, I'd have probably been better off to use only one rod, and just holding it the entire time ! I missed a ton of fish, while messing with the other rod. Another crazy thing > they bit any stinking thing I through at them ! I quickly ran out of pile worms, so I dug into my box of earthworms I had dug up, for split tail fishing. They quickly ate all of those up. Then I used up the rest of some old, funky, froze and thawed, froze again, and thawed Salmon roe. {hooked a monster on that.... I'll get to that in a minute } Then, when I was down to nothing but a large, dead split tail, from the day befores Striper fishing, I cut the belly out of it, and quickly stuck a very nice Sturgy on that too ! Okay, so here's what I caught... Started out with a couple fat, healthy, and very strong.... but not quite legal keepers (legal size is 46" to 66") of 44" and 45" ! Even with those, I did actually disconnect from the anchor, and chase them around for 10 to 15 minutes each. Then, at 1pm, I hooked one that I could just tell was BIG ! Seemed like it took this one a minute or two, to even realize it had a problem, as it just meandered around under the boat. Finally, it started swimming upstream, against the tide ? (very unusual). It did that for about 1/4 mile, before turning around, and swimming waaaay back past where I hooked it. I used Google earth to determine that I chased it for right at 2 miles ! It took me 2 hours and 25 minutes, but finally, at 3:25pm I landed that monster It measured 75", was VERY fat, and had an approximate weight of 130 lbs ! This is the biggest fish I've ever landed on a micro-light rod Whooo Hooo Caught it on my new Shimano Sahara 1000, with the aftermarket carbontex drag washer, and I have to say, that the drag performed flawlessly ! In fact, not once did I ever reach up to adjust it, during the entire battle ! So, after all of that, with my whole boat, in shambles, and my arm feeling like it might fall off, I was wondering, "What could possibly make this trip any better" ? Hmmmm..... Maybe a nice, solid keeper ? So by like 4 pm, I'm regrouped, and back on the spot. This is when I had resorted to cutting out the belly of the dead split tail I had in the live well. Took all of about 5 minutes. First I got a couple of tiny "warning bumps".... then the classic Sturgeon pulldown... Swing ! Fish on ! Turned out to be a beautiful, healthy, 60" keeper Now granted, it doesn't get dark until 7:30 or so.... but 1) I really didn't have any bait left anyway, 2) How was I going to top this trip ? 3) I had some serious fish cleaning to do, 4) my arm was all but dead as it was. So I called it a day. Now here's the thing, yes, I was on the water for 10 hours, but I spent 1 hour of travel (round trip). Next, I spent about 3 1/2 hours disconnected from my anchor, and fighting / chasing Sturgeon. Then maybe another hour getting the boat into position, poles baited back up, and casted out, etc. So as far as sitting with baited lines in the water, waiting for a bite.... maybe 3 to 4 hours, of the 10 hour trip. And in those 3 to 4 hours, between fish landed, fish hooked and lost, and bites missed altogether, I bet I had 20 Sturgeon bites ! Just unreal ! I can't wait to go back out next week. Couple things I will probably change though... 1) I will only fish one rod to start out with, and if the bite is even 3/4's as hot, theirs no need for two rods. 2) I pretty much know I can land ANY sized fish I hook on the micro-lights now.... it just takes a lot longer. That said, I think I'm going to use my swimbasit rods next week, so I can really feel the power of these monsters So basically next week, I'm going to see how many big ones I can land in a day. Honestly, I think I could land 12 or 15 of them if the bite was the same, and I was using heavy enough gear that I didn't have to cut loose from the anchor (in most cases) Can't post a photo of the 75"..... as technically, anything over 66" is not supposed to be brought onto a boat at all. Then how do you measure it you might ask ? The F&G says you can put marker strips of tape on the side of your boat, then pull the fish up to these markers to get a good idea. {the real reason for all of this, coming straight from a few of my F&G acquaintances, is that if they allowed people to pull these fish onto a boat, their would be people who had no intention of releasing them.... but then, if the F&G approached them, they would always say, "We were just fixing to release it". So basically, this reg gives the F&G a leg to stand on. I've also been told that in most cases, pulling an oversizer onto a boat, for a quick measurement, and snapshot, is not really grounds for enforcement. It's mostly when the "intent" to keep the over-sized fish is obvious.} Posting a photo of such a fish is a whole other situation, as then their is no proof that "one didn't keep it" ! Anyway, here's that really healthy, 60" (about 60 lbs) that I did keep. Just got done eating some more of it this evening ! Awesome ! Tastes like Pork chop. Can't wait to grill some on the B-B-Q'er Sorry for the epic ramble. I've just been stoked about this trip all week ! Can't wait to get back out there Peace, Fish PS > I have posted a post with more emotioncons than this forum allows ?!?! So what are they saying.... I smile too much ? Doh ! So how many smiles are allowed anyway ?

I am pleased to announce the unveiling of our new redesign. It’s still the center of the bass fishing community, and BassResource.com is again setting trends by bringing you the ultimate research tool at your fingertips. This completely redesigned site brings in-depth information about bass fishing through exclusive articles, feature videos and a wealth of other original content. In addition, you can now interact with other members in new ways previously not possible. Before I go any further, let me set the record straight: NO, I haven’t sold the site nor are there any changes in ownership whatsoever. You’ll still see the same familiar faces running the shop that you’ve seen before. What you’re seeing is a long-overdue overhaul of the site. We hope you like it! Here’s a quick rundown of some of the new features you’ll find on the new site: More New Features! Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, & Live ID Integration Our new site supports Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, and Live ID authentication, meaning you can join by signing in with your Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, or Live ID account. You can sync your Twitter profile background with your profile. What's more, status updates made by you can be posted to Twitter and/or Facebook - and your updates from those sites posted to your community profiles. New Status Updates You can update other users on what you’re doing right now. Updates appear in your profile, and in the new Status feed. Plus, status updates can now be replied to. You can sync your Twitter and/or Facebook profiles, and update your status in each directly from your profiles. Alternatively, updates on either site can automatically update your profile status here! Reputation You can rate posts up or down, earning the author of that post reputation points. Members can earn badges and titles for having a good reputation, encouraging high quality posts across the board. Topic Rating Topics can be rated one to five stars, so you can identify the topics that others rate highly - or poorly! Advanced Attachment Uploading The new forum features an advanced attachment uploader which allows you to select multiple files at once, then sit back and watch them upload, complete with progress bars. And for older browsers, there's the standard upload field to fall back on. Customize The Experience We’ve added many options to allow you to customize your experience, including hiding signatures and avatars, default filtering options for forums, display name editing, and extensive profile settings. New Comment and Share System Integrated Throughout BassResource.com Now you can do more than just read articles, read forum posts, or watch videos on BassResource.com. You can now add comments and rank the pages, as well as rank other comments with your Forum ID. So if you’re logged in here, you can comment throughout BassResource.com. We’ve also integrated Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other popular sites throughout all of BassResource.com. So you can also easily share content via your favorite social sites. Topic Preview The first post and first unread post in a topic can now be read right from the topic listing, with the new inline topic preview feature. New Content Search New content posted since your last visit can be easily found via a handy link available on every page. Content shown can be everything you haven’t read before, or just that content posted since your last visit. Rich Text Editing You can compose your posts using Rich Text Editing much like in word processing software. You can use colors, choose fonts, add bulleted lists and more, for rich content creation. Or if you like traditional editing options, BBCodes are available with a simply click of the mouse. Multi-Quote Multi-quote lets you reply to several posts at once, by selecting those posts before hitting the Reply button. The posts can be from any topic in the community – the forum will remember which posts are being quoted. Personal Conversations Personal conversations allow you to send messages directly to other members, out of public view, in a topic format. Other members can be invited to existing conversations - or remove themselves, if they so desire. Friends & Ignored Users Members can add each other as mutual friends, enabling quick communication and being highlighted in each others' profile. And, for those situations where problems arise, you can choose to hide all content from particular users by adding them to your ignored list. Profile Customization You can customize your profile page by selecting a background color or background image, with tiling options. Alternatively, you can choose to automatically import your profile customizations from Twitter and/or Facebook - and keep them synced. Profile Comments You can leave comments on the profile pages of other members for all to see - naturally, moderators and the profile owner both have full control over content posted, or can disable comments completely if they prefer. Activity Overview The profile page shows an overview of everything that member has done in our community, including status updates, recent topics, posts, comments, and more. Mini Profile Popup Just about everywhere a member’s name appears, it can be clicked for a handy mini-profile popup. Send a PM, check reputation or find user content - without needing to leave the current page. Privacy Controls We now allow members to sign in anonymously, hiding them from the online users list. Members also have the option to disable personal conversations and member-to-member emails, as well as ignore other members if necessary. Powerful Search The new update includes a powerful search engine that enables you to find the content you’re looking for. The forums, member’s list, gallery, and calendar can be searched individually, with specialist filters and ordering options for each. There’s a myriad of options that will help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Plus, there's a contextual search bar in the global header for quick searching. And it’s FAST! Content Subscriptions You can "watch" (i.e. subscribe to) interesting content you find in our community. The site collates all this content and emails it to you at regular intervals as an easy-to-digest overview - or displays it in you control panel, if you prefer. New Gallery! Yes, you can now upload your own pictures and videos just like Flickr, Photobucket, and Picassa! Publish your favorite photos online with one click. Create stunning online photo albums to share with friends and family, or public albums for the world to see. Get notified when your "Favorites" post new photos. The new BassResource.com Gallery feature makes it easy for you to organize and edit your digital photos and videos, then create online albums to share with friends, family & the world. Host all your images and videos for free, then share them by email or on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Easily search for videos and images with our new search tool. Make slideshows to share with friends. Plus, access your albums on your mobile phone using the mobile site. The BassResource.com Gallery offers: • Photo, video, and album sharing by email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phone. Friends and family don't need an account on BassResource.com to see your stuff. They just need to click the link you give them! • Group albums, which let you collaborate with friends and families and create an album of photos and videos that everyone contributes to. • You can create multiple albums, which keep your photos and videos organized neatly. • Robust searching and browsing to find the latest and best photos, images, and videos to suit your mood or entertain your friends. • A slideshow builder for posting and sharing on your Web site, blog, or profile. • Decide who can and can’t see your albums • Tell a story with your photos and videos and allow whoever you want to comment. • Add notes to explain or comment right on the photo or video. • Favorite the photos and videos you like best to easily find them later, and see who has favorited yours. • Add people to your albums for your reference, and so they can see what you've posted. • Add tags to categorize your photos and videos and to help others find them in searches. You can also: Add places Geo-tags are automatically added to a map if your digital camera records GPS information. You can also easily add geo-tags to your photos so that you can remember exactly where they're from using Bing Maps. Create beautiful web albums Show your photos at their best. View full-screen slideshows, see your pictures arranged on a global map, enjoy video playback, and more. Utilize Full Privacy Control Protect who sees your photos by designating them as 'family' or 'friends'. You can restrict viewing of any photo to only those you trust. Your public photos will still be accessible to everyone. New Member’s Map! The member’s map provides the opportunity for members to get together for a friendly fishing trip. Simply find a member near you, and contact them via the forums. Talk to whomever you're going fishing with and come up with a plan for gas, food, and time on the water, etc. Other than that, all the rules should be decided between the individuals involved (such as how much gear the non-boater should bring, how to split costs, and other simple courtesies). Don't forget the camera and have fun! Features include: • Google Map Support • Auto Center & Zoom on Locations • Show friends only option • Friends have green markers • Scroll Zooming, zooms to your cursor position • Notification for when friends update their location It’s easy to claim your spot on the map, just enter your city and state (or your address for a more accurate marker) and that’s it! All arrangements for friendly trips are strictly between the two parties involved and should be handled thru PM's or off site completely. Please note: Making arrangements are your responsibility. BassResource.com cannot, and will not, mediate disputes or complaints New Calendar! We now have an online calendar for your use where you can place recurring events, personal reminders and special events only you can see, or share for the whole world to see. And by popular request, we now show member’s birthdays on the calendar too! New Sitewide Search! The old sitewide search system has been replaced by a fast, robust, and feature-rich search engine. You now can use advanced filters to easily find exactly what you need, right now, right at your fingertips. There’s many more features for you to discover on our newly designed site (such as a new video player). So dive in, click around, and enjoy!

Im getting ready to buy everything i need, got all these ideas on paper just need to put them into action. Whats the best stuff around. hard plastic and soft plastic. any help would be appreciated. Also how do you make an internal rattle for a hard plastic.

Anyone using these? I might want to try a pack or two for some spring fish. Never really see much about them up here. Thoughts?

Thanks for answer to #1. If anyone can answer #2, please post or P.M.

Everything looks great. I like the new look and that everything seems cleaner. The search function is also easier to use. Thanks for keeping the site free of charge. Changes like this couldn't have been cheap.

In no particular order, a quality review requires these points: Detail - If an individual is going to take the time to provide a review or respond to a request for information take the time to describe, in detail, what distinguishes this equipment in a COMPARABLE category. Duration - There's nothing wrong a first impression of an item in the field. The longer a piece of equipment has been used by the reviewer, the more weight I will give to the review. Performance - pros, cons, what would you change, what did you like or didn't like. I don't care if you used an Fenwick ultralight rod to beat a shark into submission, how did it perform under normal conditions. Reputation - What is the manufacturer's reputation for quality components and customer service? What is the reputation of the reviewer? Does he continually praise a brand without mentioning negatives? Is there a constant knee jerk response or pat answer whenever a question is proposed?

Well, it got here. I'm addicted. I will be buying 2-3 more very soon. They just feel that good. I got the 735c, which is a flippin' stick and small swimbait rod. It will be great for pitching heavy jigs and t-rigs around tight spots in cover, and flipping in pads and weeds. It's definitely A LOT stiffer than I thought it would be. The details on this rod are amazing, the cork feels like God hand made it, it's balanced better than any rod I've ever held, and it just plain looks cool. You all should try one. It will cost you a lot of money though, as you will want to switch over to strictly Dobyns. Thanks David for the help.

Any one as determined as you deserves to catch fish !!!!!!!!

Seems to be all about popularity on you, your posts, reviews, and advice. So I guess if you offer a someone some good advice another member that agrees most likely click and give you a rep. The reps might be a way to one up the "been posting along time".I could be all wrong though.

took several attempts to log in today but finally got it to work. Whats all this rep stuff about anyways.

My opinions so far: I absolutely love the layout and design. The site is now much easier to read - it clearly looks more organized just because of the colors and font. Great choice with the overall design! Second, the new profile options give each of us a "home" and I really enjoy that I can get more details from a member's profile. I can see this being very popular! Third, I just want to say thanks to the Bass Resource staff. I know this upgrade wasn't easy, so thanks for getting it up so quick. Overall, this is impressive!

Yes you are.

I'm finally back on too. Couldn't remember my user-name or the email I used to sign up. the site looks awesome, still checking everything out.

Thanks! Yea I didn't read the 150 pixels part. Mine was way over that haha. I still don't understand the rep either. I thought it would just be a click here thing guess not. I even went to your page to see. haha I like how you change the fonts too. Just figure out the reps. I think. It has to do with voting the posts. You will see at bottom right hand corner of each member post a plus or minus symbol. Click the plus gain a rep click minus well.......... This might cause some trouble, hopefully it doesn't display names whole voting against you.

much better

You can find it in your profile: My Settings -> Profile tab -> 3rd section once the tab is clicked (Profile Information), "Member Title"

holy big avatar man .........any one know how to rep people yet

I'm just waiting for a final date, lol and I'll should have no problem being there. Also can anyone tell me if my avatar is too big?? I'm still trying to get use to these new settings.

This is AWESOME. As a web designer, I've long dreamed of seeing BR improved in both the aesthetic and functional sides. Much cleaner and I like the added features I've seen so far, especially the social media integration.

Let alone the filtering process, a big bunch of reviews are from people who just purchased the reel and haven´t tried it yet, you can´t make a great review on an out of the box reel, every new reel feels great out of the box, a few months later the story is different. I can´t comment on certain brands like Pfleuger, I´ve never owned one and to tell the truth, I´ve never even seen one in the flesh, they are not sold in Mexico. I can only comment on Daiwa, Shimano, AbuGarcia & Quantum, those are the brands I´m familiar with and there are things I like and dislike about them, if the likes overweight the dislikes then I can purchase one.

Looks awesome, Glenn! It's been torture without it these last couple days. Thank you!

This ^^^ You also need to be realistic in your expectations and honest with yourself. If you fish a dozen times a year, do you really need tournament-grade gear? I usually fish at least once a week, sometimes two or three times if I'm not too busy, and I've found that I'm perfectly content with ~$100 rods and ~$100 spinning reels. I prefer slightly more expensive casting reels though, and rarely look at models that retail for less than ~$175-200.

Unless you are spending more than $150 for the rod, expect to pay more for the reel. Yes, the rod is more important in the grand scheme of things, but let's be realistic....you can find a great rod for $100. You can only find a good reel for $100.

Sounds like a version of the BSX Fish Activator. Does it work? Don't know. Do the pros really use it? Of course, so they can say they used it in tournaments. Did it actually help them catch more fish? I doubt it. Will I get one? Nope.

Iv'e never fished with them...yet hahah. But one of the guys I work with met the Inventor at the Big Rock show and saw them in the tank on a dropshot, and said they looked AMAZING. Maybe another resolution? ;D

Nope - and you were only 5 weeks early. A-Jay

Can you stand, and walk around in it? Like stand up, and turn around without tipping or falling out? Standing is one thing, but standing and fishing comfortably is another. My friend can stand on one leg in a surf ski racing kayak, but that's about it. Anyway, to the OP, plenty of people fish from a sit in. If it gets you out on the water, then I'm all for it! It's just that sit on tops are simply better suited for fishing. There's a reason there are 1000 different SOTs for fishing, and about 3 SINKs.

I think your co-worker may have been misinformed or was thinking of another rod company. To my knowledge, their rods are only manufactured in their factory in Park Falls, WI and their factory in Fresnillo, Mexico. The Triumphs, Eyecons, and Mojos are all made in Mexico. The rest are right here in Wisconsin. Whets 8-)

Friday is Falls Day:

Rapala X-Rap Slashbait by nate.follmer, on Flickr

Yeah? Try living here. ;D The people who visit during the summer are not-so-affectionately known as "bullet diggers." ;D I avoid it in the summer If you look at my other photos, they all have snow in them I came down last winter right after that blizzard we had. It was fun walking to the monuments in 3 feet of snow Gettysburg House by nate.follmer, on Flickr

That's what we did last weekend, got skunked at the upper lake so we pulled out and went to the lower lake. I wouldn't mind lighting a grill in between fishing both lakes.

We have 12 that sell some form of equipment , how much effort would it take to ask each one ?

Can you stand, and walk around in it? Like stand up, and turn around without tipping or falling out? Standing is one thing, but standing and fishing comfortably is another. My friend can stand on one leg in a surf ski racing kayak, but that's about it. Anyway, to the OP, plenty of people fish from a sit in. If it gets you out on the water, then I'm all for it! It's just that sit on tops are simply better suited for fishing. There's a reason there are 1000 different SOTs for fishing, and about 3 SINKs. Actually I can and do. It was designed to be both a hunting and fishing kayak. It's wide and 14' long.

Why not ?

Oh crap we're gonna rate comments now?im skrewed hahaha

Freakin floridians think theyre so cool with their trophy holding canals and other little ponds and such within walking distance