Leaderboard

looks like a 3.5er to me. nice black bass.

Spinnerbait

Snap weights are a good option for extra depth so long as you have a couple of guys in the boat. Like fishing with birds, you need an extra set of hands to remove them as one person fights the fish as another clears the line of whichever or both that you're using. Since I've bought this boat I find myself trolling quite often for either trout or walleye. It was almost impossible to use a bassboat to do this so I ignored this type of fishing for years. It's kind of nice to just spend a day or so dragging lures. Especially when the wind is howling too much as there are a lot less issues for boat control.

I've rebuilt a few rods and Aplster is correct in saying that you can damage the rod blank if you're not careful. I would not be discouraged though, because you sound like you want to learn this. I would suggest using a rod you don't use or care for anymore and experiment/practice on removing and installing guides on it, then try splitting the grip on it. If you don't have a rod that you can do that to, then you can pick one up for around $10 at Wally World and use that as the ginnea pig. Just a thought.

Generally speaking, the closer the lines are together, the steeper the change in depth/height. The more spread out they are, the flatter the area on the map. You can go into some serious details on how to read a map with contour lines. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/Reading_Maps.html http://www.usc.edu/org/cosee-west/glaciers/HowToReadTopoMaps.pdf http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/lake_sonoma/topomap.htm

I think the only way to settle the debate would to start with a freshly cleaned and lubed reel with it's stock bearings. Make about 10 or so casts in a field and determine the average length. Then install the 'upgraded' bearings and repeat the test. I'm sure someone somewhere has done this, but I've never seen anything showing this.

It's a buy-sell-trade forum we have , I can't believe you don't see it.