Leaderboard

Weighed 6.7lbs Biggest fish on the trip to Patoka Lake in IN. Funny thing is my wife fishes with a St.Croix rod and a zebco 202 push button reel. LMAO She just prefers it for some reason. Its not the equipment, its how you use it..... (Also, what I tell my wife)

I guess the oddest thing I ever caught was the clap - twice, but I was in my twenties and I was fishing a for different species. Promiscuous? Absolutely!

I have no problems casting 1/4 oz crankbaits with a Curado 51E, but it's not ALL on the reel either. You need a rod that will load and cast those light baits too.

I would not trade good for something that is not so good. IMO there isn't much out there you can't handle with a spinning rod.

Why don't you ask Mike Sieibert? Just send him a PM and you will have a quick, truthful, and unbiased response.

Two of a few that I made, good way to pass the winter time lull

Yeah, you're right, bassbill. Lots of boats, but lots of fish. It's fishing tough right now from what I hear, but getting better now. Should be prime in the next few weeks, and I will be there! Gonna feel good to be in 80 degree weather, wearing shorts, Catching fish like it's May here. In the mean time... 1/4oz Scrounger head with Pearl Rage Grub

I know many times when someone outfishes me it is because they are a better fisherman.

Put a little behind your ears -you will get more fattys than you can count LOL

Hey guys, you might want to check your local walmart fishing section this week. When i went in they had three boxes full of stuff on the counter, i asked, the lady said a dollar a piece. She also said on the wall in the next aisle, all the clearance was last years stuff. Also, everything a dollar. Here is the breakdown of what i got. 2 bags paca chunk trailers 2 bags zoom super flukes 1 bag Kinami flash 2 bags Zoom finesse worms 2 bags Yamamoto Senkos 2 Rapala Husky Jerks 1 Rapala Shad Rap 1 Rapala Orig. floater 1 Strike King Premier Spinnerbait 1 Strike King Elite Bleeding Buzzbait All for 15 bucks. A dollar a piece. All the plastics were in the good colors, (green pumpkin, watermelon reds, etc...) I looked up the prices on the same items at Bass Pro, total came to 80.47. These are all great baits, and ones that i use often. The deals are out there. Few and Far between.

I have been checking out the switchblade jigs, and decided to come up with this. It's primitive for now, but I like the idea.

Just as well I would get arrested for OUI anyway on that thing

It has one but it's of no use in that weather. Using it brings out the real Molson ICE. But can you say ~ Flask ~ I can . . . A-Jay

No beer holder?

This helps . . . . . A-Jay

If bass are caught from clean cold clear water they are excellent table fare. I will keep a bass that is bleeding to eat because they are good firm white meat from the lakes I fish. My wife is from MN and grew up eating walleye, they didn't eat bass there because they were mushy, not firm meat. Now she is happy when I bring home a bass for dinner and that doesn't very happen often. Over crowding or over population of small lakes or ponds usually occurs when the larger predators are missing; big fish eat little fish. Some times the pond that didn't have a bass population gets planted with 1 year class bass and they over run the pond because there isn't any larger bass to start with. Good pond management requires several year classes of bass to balance the ecosystem. Tom

Tony you are predictably offensive in your responses. Your continued vitriol will undoubtedly get you the boot, with no loss to this community. That you are still here shows Glenn's patience with negative commentary. Happy trails...

I never quite understood why when people start using baitcasters that they run away from spinning gear. As others have said in this thread, spinning gear is absolutely ideal for finesse presentations. You'd have to take away my Shimano Compre worm and jig spinning rod after a very bloody fight. I'd keep the rod and get a nice reel for it and go finesse crazy.

Your gonna getmixed emotions. I personally think its garbage. The only Berkley line I like is the Trilene mono.

Nice bass! I fish a swim jig more often than a spinnerbait anymore, with great results. Some sort of "bluegill" is my fav

I really wish that they would bring the Classic to the Northeast part of the country. Maybe Champlain, Potomac, Chesapeake Bay, Erie? I'd love to visit the Expo! If it were a little more local to Pa....

A saltwater reel i got for striper fishing...penn sargus 4000. In the store they are $90. It's 44 online right now for no apparent reason.

I'll post this here since I'm not sure where else it would be appropriate. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Today I made a fishing rod rack to hold all my combos so I don't have to just pile them in the corner like I have been for years now. Here's the pics. I put rolling casters on it so I could wheel it out away from the wall to get to the rods in the back. It holds 12 combos. I fish with the 6 in the front and the others are loaners and my wife's little rod that she hardly ever uses. I didn't do a lot of fancy joinery. I wanted to but I was in a hurry to get it built so I just opted for simple butt joinery and brad nails and glue to assemble it. I just made it from white pine 1x6's I had laying here. I even had the casters here already so I spent no money on it other than the initial cost of buying the wood which I had done some time ago already. Later on, I will stain it and coat it with Varathane that I also already have here. That stuff is very durable so it will make a nice finish for this. I will also wood fill all the marks made from the brad nailer. I did sand everything to 120 with my ROS. That's good enough for this. Sorry the pics are so large. I've tried resizing them on photobucket but even though their site shows all of then resized, it will only let one show here in the new size.

Your legally caught fish is entirely your business what to do with it, throw it back, eat it or mount it. For the ones that have an opposite view, let them do as they see fit. I c&r as I don't like the taste of bass, wouldn't eat anything out of these Florida freshwater canals and as mentioned above mercury content, especially for pregnant women, and it just isn't bass, some saltwater species too like swordfish. If I'm not going to keep them I certainly won't leave them on the bank, sure I'll toss one to a bird once in while, just for the sake of thinning them out. I don't want the flies, the buzzards or any other critter coming to feast on them, that may be health issue.

It's all about the fish! There a various schools of thought and numerous articles about what's most important. More expensive rods may be lighter and to some that's important, do they really cast farther, more sensitive and handle bigger fish? I'm sure some will say yes, I would too just to justify spending $300, in reality I say no. Same for reels, does my stradic really handle a 8# bass any better than my $30 reel in a bubble wrap with the handle sticking out, to justify it to myself yes, in reality no. I don't mind spending a significant amount money for larger harder fighting fish. A good fisherman I may be not, but certainly not out of my mind, $300 reel and $300 rod to catch fish that average a few pounds at best and a few that might go 10+.

Given a specific budget I would give more money towards the rod. I have rods from $30Ugly Stiks, $50 BPS, $70 Clarus, $100 Premiers then mid $150 Smoke, Avid, LTB, then my highest-end rod a St Croix Elite will use any side by side on a given day. A couple things that I find with the mid to higher is you get a better sense of what the lure is doing on the bottom. I form like a picture veiw in my mind due to the added sensitivity of a rod like a senko amongst the weeds or rocks. I can feel the wiggle of the senko as I twitch it, as it just tip overtop a rock or falls out of a weed I dont get this with my under $100 rods. With moving baits you feel a difference in the crank even with the slightest bit of moss/weed gets in the hooks and changes the retrieve action of lure. If you are on top of or in the weeds the feel is better once again can sort of form a picture of the lure in those weeds. The best benefit, that I dont see mentioned much, is the fight with better rods. I get much more feedback and enjoyment of what the fish is doing, where its heading or direction its going like if its coming up to jump, nose down headed for cover. I can feel it rolling(catfish) can feel bass its body wiggling flexing substantially more vearing left to right. Just the fish's power is transmitted at a higher degree making the fight all that much better. This is my view on what a person gets out of better rods. I wouldnt say they are needed just something different that adds to the hobby of fishing.

Most guys go 2 /3 on the reel & 1/3 on the rod. On better combos I like to go 50/50. A good reel deserves a good rod.

Why Is My Partner Catching All The Fish? A quick answer: he´s fishing right and you are fishing wrong. The solution: watch closely what he´s is doing and imitate him, it´s obvious he´s doing something you are not.

i always opt for a heavier duty hook when possible. Its a confidence thing.

Hey tfultz, great vid and very sweet Pelican. Thanks for sharing! You are obviously a man of talent and detail!

Really? I've been a member for a while. I don't even remember when I last logged in to post on a forum or even browsed to see what's up. I check articles and videos and that's it. I'm in the market for a firearm and noticed the new (for me) forum and just with much of my fishing gear reviewed here, I figured "cool, new forum". First post I check there's some dude telling Glenn to put something somewhere. They run a fine site with quality information and a standard of conduct. If you don't don't like how it's done then POP OFF and don't come back.

i throw light cranks on spinning gear. pflueger president, pinnacle perfecta, med action rod, 8lb yo-zuri ultra soft

That's a fine looking kid you have there JF, but that fricken hat has to go!

I hope it is...I think that will give my buddy Aaron a better chance to win. He always does well in tough tournaments. If he makes it to the super six, I'm taking a road trip to OK. haha

WOW Sfritr!! Is that PB? How much did it weighed!!

<--------------------------------------------------- the wife

I hate to call you out, but I didn't actually write that article... Ike is pretty good too though!

PQ is a very durable reel. You cant go wrong with either, you will have to see how each feels in your hand. The PQ is gonna be a dual brake reel, and the Revo S is Cent. brake only. I personally would go for the Revo S (yes RC I said that) over the PQ.

Found the owner. They lived right across the road from us. Can't believe I'd never seen the dog before. They called the Humane Society and they gave them our number. Glad she's back where she belongs. The people seemed really happy to to get her back. I know my Aussie is glad she's gone. She was only here a couple hours and claimed his food, toys, the couch and me for herself.

I found several clips that you find when you look at kayaks and mods you find for these types of boats. i settled on pressure clips that allow you to store the oars without worrying about breaking off the clips. I will look around but i think i have a picture i can share of the set I used.

I find I use more bass lures in the salt than salt lures on bass, but I'll do it both ways. I've only had 1 fish ask me if the lure was "technique specific" before biting it...

Wow. I'm amazed that this thread is still going. I had to sell my tracker a couple of years ago and have been basically out of bass fishing since then. I've decided to start over by pulling my old 10 foot Pelican out and rebuilding her into a mini-bass hunting machine. I found this thread while googling a way to add a rudder to my boat. I read the whole thing from page 48 to page 1 before realizing that I was the first person to respond to the original question back in 2010. I haven't been on the site in over a year, but am glad to be back and am blown away by all of the mods that people have done to their bass raiders. Keep up the great work! I'm definitely going to be using some of these in my own design.

My local Walmart is more like a flea market than a superstore. Everything is hit or miss, and as far as fishing tackle, I probably have more than they do. Hootie

VMC spinshot hooks

I don't have a bass raider style boat (I'm a canoe kinda guy)...but just wanted to say that any thread that has OVER 100,000 views, and 690 replies, is VERY COOL. Just shows how much interest there is in economical ways to get on the water and that you don't need to spend $50k on a boat to catch some fish...

Commit yourself to learning the dropshot technique because it will produce in water 3 feet deep and 43 feet deep.

Smallies will come up through the water column a long way to eat what they perceive to be a dying bait.

i love fishing. my dads family believed women could fish and hunt just as well as men. ( i had a great-great grandmother who hunted until her late eighties ) i get a little shy at some of the lakes but i wont fish somewhere i dont feel comfortable about.

I'm from Portland, and I too have had a lot of guys treat me differently. the one thing I notice the most is the intrusion of my space when I'm fishing. I've had lots of guys walk right up to where I'm casting and cast to the same area or even worse across my line. The difference is I don't see that happening to other guys. I wish I could join a club too but when I've asked others about it I always get vague and evasive answers, too bad, I'm not a bad angler, and I want to learn more, why they don't want me as a member is their loss, not mine. Maybe we should start a women's fishing club, before long the guys will be begging us to join!