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Ok you persons, I upped the limit a bit.

This is not mine - but it helped me quite a bit. A-Jay When we are wrapped up in a 'mid-life crisis' it is very difficult to think clearly, to feel consistently, or to act predictably. Those of us who have lived fairly adult lives full of adult commitments, hit some point in time when we wonder if there is something more to life than being the good person that we have been. We begin to wonder about what life would have been like if we had done this or that instead of what we have done. Choices are reconsidered, values re-examined, commitments questioned. Obviously, it can be a season of chaos for everyone close to the mid-lifer. Here are actions you can take to make sure you grow through mid-life into a higher level of maturity and wisdom. Keep giving yourself a lot of positive self-talk "This is a critical time in my life and I need to navigate it well. I need to re-evaluate who I am so that I can grow-up and move ahead. Now is the time. Maybe I didn’t invite this confusion into my life, but it is here, and I am going to take advantage of it to become a stronger and more well centered person. No backing down." Figure out what principles you will organize your life around, and then begin to manage your life by those principles. If you do this, you will grow through this mid-life crisis. If not, you will have missed the incredible opportunity this is. Commit to living truthfully. Be truthful with yourself, with a friend, with a Spiritual Leader, and with your spouse. The truth will set you free, because grown-up people face the truth and live truthfully with others. If you are not telling the truth, what fear is driving you? Examine it. You are probably trying to manage your anxiety, or someone else's. Engage your Lover in the process of self-examination by asking your lover to articulate their principles as well. Ask your friends and family to do the same. I‘ve seen this work powerfully in extended families. Instead of fragmenting and falling apart, everyone gets centered, strong and healthy. During the mid-life crisis one deals with the shadow side of one’s persona. 'Dealing' with oneself at this level is a heroic adventure. Do it. Be your own hero. Wrestle with the demons and awaken to the truth. Do not, absolutely do not, be harsh with your loved ones. They are not the cause of your problems. You are outgrowing your own skin. Focus on your own growth and be gracious to those who live close to you. Again I say: This is a powerful time of growth that is the gateway into a more integrated, whole, and mature life. Be patient with yourself, and encourage your loved ones to be patient with you as well. Remember, the greatest gift you can give your marriage is your attention.

Here's an idea: Release the lure exclusively to BassResource.com members for testing and review!

Just got done putting this reel together. Just a quick cell phone picture (which is not doing justice to this reel at all). This thing is sweet. I'll try and get some better ones tomorrow. On this one, I did a silver base coat to match the stock Citica color, black print over the silver, and then clear/clear on the top coat.

Heres the bottom line basics that WILL help you LAND more fish, ONCE YOU GET ON THEM. You say you have the basic stuff, so i might be redundant. Make sure you have plenty of QUALITY HOOKS, (gammy, mustad ect) both heavy and light wire hooks. Make sure to buy some QUALITY TREBLE HOOKS and replace inferior hooks on treble baits. I like using straight shanks hooks on my flipping pitching baits. QUALITY FISHING LINE -and type of line depends on your comfort level with different line types. I like sunline Sniper fluoro and Spiderwire ultra cast braid. TUNGSTEN WEIGHTS - they are expensive but i love the sensitivity and compactness you get from them. Tungsten and Braid were absolute game changers for me. SCENT -i always been lazy when it comes to this and used an inferior product. But about three weeks ago i ordered some MEGASTRIKE and ive used it everytime ive been out since and it is a gamechanger. Ive been fishing footballs jigs deep on ledges and almost everyfish i caught that way CHOKED that jig!! Im a believer now! Snaps or Speed Clips. I am a huge believer in them for my cranks. I Like the Berkley Duo Locks. It makes changing crank baits so much quicker Good set of Pliers, braid scissors and some Toe-nail clippers I know you mentioned that you are not a beginner and I apologize in advance, but when i think about stoucking a tackle box, i think about the little bitty details that help make use successful. Terminal Tackle is a Huge Deal to me!.. as for baitsm load up on some Seibert Outdoors Jig and Rage Tail Craws!!

MI - Resident Restricted (no Trout & Salmon) - $15 - Resident All Species - $28 Special "Snag an Encroaching Jet Ski" Tag - $2 (limit 3 snags per 12hr period) This permit must be prominently displayed by pinning it to your Forehead. Come On Person A-Jay

So go like all my posts now!!!! :eyebrows: Jeff

You Persons are messin' my thread up

I hate it when a real dog doesn't win.

To be politically correct it should be "Come' on Person" . Kinda loses the effect though.

I have drove two and a half hours to the closest BPS to buy something...but I called the store first and made sure they had it in stock. They even put it back behind the counter - imagine that!

I don't clean them right away. I will fish them for a couple weeks, then send them in for a thorough breakdown clean/lube. First it lets me know if there are any problems with the reel, and second, it sort of gives the reel a break in period. They do need to be done, even when they're new, though.

My handles always have and always will be on the left side, no matter what kind of reel. I'm just not comfortable with anything else.

As a person who has worked for Gander for 4 years I can shed alot of info on the particulars of their private brand label. First off their reels. The Baitcasters are Quantums. Most of them are stamped on the reel and if not the boxes are. The spinning reels are kinda split up. The Guide Series, Tournament, and Titanium Reels are currently produced by Wright McGill. Wright took over producing these reels sometime in late spring early fall of 2012. Previous to that the reels were produced by a company called Danco out of Florida. That was a short lived venture of about a year. And before that the reels were done by Pflueger. The only reel left still produced by Pflueger is the X-Factor Spinning. As for the Gander Mountain rods (As well as other retailers and even so called manufacturers) they are produced by the largest manufacturer of rods in the world GLV international. They currently are producing rods for just over twenty companies (Big Box retailers as well as a bunch of Rod/Reel companies which will remain nameless. http://www.glvint.com/index.html Gander has been using this company for three years. Previous to that it was A Bos Ltd. This doesnt downgrade their quality whatsoever, alot of their rods are high quality with high quality components. I personally love the GSX Elite II. They are light, excellant actions, awesome components, and a great warranty. The Gander I was at we took back any Gander brand rod at any time with no questions asked. I made sure my guys followed this to a tee. It had our name on it. I I never liked some of the rod companies warranties. (Send us a check for 50$ and we will repair or replace etc) So I made sure we took it back and swapped it out with the same or comparable rod. No do all stores do this Im not sure, some may stay strict to the policy (1 year, 2 year etc).. If your curious sometimes about who makes something for a company look at the first 4 digits of the UPC. That is the manufacturer specific code. Many times retailers will not change this for their system (more work involved) and some will. At Gander when we private labeled something it went under the 4000 UPC beginning. But some items were never changed and left with the manufacturer UPC index. PS incase you ask the Gander Mountain soft plastics are all produced by Big Bite Baits.

Well not in so many words. She said that I needed a vitamin D supplement. I took that to mean get out in the sun and fish.

You can keep it cheap but the itch never stops once it has been scratched. First a small outboard, then a little bigger newer outboard, then a cheap sonar but it doesn't work well so a much better sonar, comfortable seats, more tackle and more tackle is never enough tackle, a thousand here, a thousand there, then a bigger, nicer, faster boat, LOL You will soon get the picture. B.O.A.T!!!!!!!

No certainly not. I have a 14 footer (double wide) that is use for ponds and the roanoke river, i do not have a gasoline motor for it, just a trolling motor and there is really zero maintenence. Its like a big canoe. The only maintenence is the trailer (bearings) and keeping my battery charged,(it is on a tender in my shop) Now my bass boat is another story, not a headache, but you do need to stay on top of things. There are more systems and moving parts.

B - bust O -out A -another T-Thousand Nah, it isnt all that bad, just keep up your preventative maintenence and be meticulous. X2 on using two anchors, especially on a small boat. Congrats and Good luck with it, i hope you catch alot of fish in it.

Welcome to the wonderful world of boating. With a 14' jon boat you're starting small. That is a good size to learn on. The first rule of boating is that a boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into. Now you get to learn all the rest of the rules on your own time, at your own pace.

To be on the safe side when you do modify it, try to file the hook eye pin that is in the mold to sort of a point on both mold halves. This way when you put the Mustad 32786 or the Owner 5304 hook in the mold, the pin will at least hold both hooks in place whlle you pour. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

One out the front and one out the back. Without 2 the slightest wind will have you spinning around the single anchor. 10 lb mushroom anchors will hold you unless you are in a swift running river.

Perhaps if you Demo a couple from TW - that could help you decide. Nothing like try before you buy. A-Jay

No, that's not what is being talked about here.

Amazing how if a rod isn't $200, on these boards it has very little use or is crap. Same way with reels. Stupid.

The term Texas rig has lost it's original meaning; sliding bullet shaped sinker and a worm hook and soft plastic worm. The worm is rigged weedless by running the hook point into, then out of the worm nose, them back into the worm body. The sinker "sinks" the worm, the rate of fall dependent on the size of weight and worm. Tom

I would have to side with Shane on this one, not because of picking up dirt and debris causing excessive wear, but the fact that every single reel you can mention will run so much better with the proper amount and type of lube in them, they will not only cast better, but everything from the drag to the retrieve and the free spool performs so much better after degreasing and proper lubing! You pay good money for high performance gear, and like said, I want it to perform at high performance.

Hey guys telling me to float a senko under a bobber. "Ain't Noboby got time for That!"

Is there still a launch big enough for a startos to launch from along the turnpike? Heard that there was and it was closed. Just curious.

My thinking, too.

They should come out with models that have LED lights in them and automatically turn on the week of Christmas.

I've enjoyed Lindner's Angling Edge productions. It's clear which companies he has commercial interest in, but still there's much good information here. There are many seasonal techniques covered and the underwater photography is extensive and fascinating.

If it were me and I wanted to buy a another mold ( I already have a 150) of them , I would buy the Trokar Arky mold. Reason being is you can use Trokar hooks if you want to spend the money on hooks, but better yet you can use a whole bunch of the listed hooks if they actually fit. With that said, you can use your 5304, 5317 and then you can even use EWG hooks. Overall it is the best possible choice with a lot of options. Also an Arky jig is excellnt for skipping under docks, open water swimming and rocks. Its only drawback would be weeds. Not too good for weed with its broad head, however buy yourself a different mold for that, and you will be set for any and all conditions. As far as chatterbaits go, I would buy them from someone that makes them and call it a day. Not worth screwing around with opening up hook eyes. I know you will not open a 5304 hook eye as they are very hard and they will snap. Hope this helps. One other thing go to Tackle Warehouse they have the mold you're looking for and it is the cheapest price I've found anywhere on the i-net, and if you order over $50.00 free shipping. If you need any more detailed info PM me. No I don't work for Tackle Warehouse or am affiliated with them in any way.

Wow, had a great day. I went fishing alone and was on the water at 5:45 this morning. By 9 I had about 8 or 9 bass. All on topwater green torpedo. Saw a guy catch a 4 lb 14 oz bass on a rapala so I shifted to the rapala and caught about 6 bass. Around lunchtime shifted to pumpkin seed lizard and caught about 4 or 5 in an hour. Caught about 4 more on a red eye shad. At about 2:15 caught 2 crappie on my red eye shad. So I shifted to my crappie rig and slayed them. Caught about 50 nice crappie in about 2.5 hours within about 40 feet of each other. So at the end of the day, I would say I caught about 70-80 total fish. It was awesome. Hopefully this front won't turn them off.

I think you could rig a senko up with water proof road flares and still catch a bass.....

So your gonna show up after a sale has expired and complain and make a stink about getting "burned" if they no longer have the sale item? LOL. I do not miss working retail one bit.

Allen is correct, Manns makes that bait called the "classic" but the reaon you don't see a ton of baits like that is they lack versatility. That bait can only be fished slow rolled up a a modest speed, Hank Parker has to slow down with a 6.3:1 gear ratio to work the bait otherwise it lays over on its side, very unbalanced. I tried making them like that early on around 2000 or 2001 and since my bender isn't capable of twisted loop line ties I bought the wire forms with the twisted eye, some I left stock others I cut and rebent and tried making a similar bait that I use at higher speed, light wire, and held up. 5 straight years of tinkering with design and paying good money to have my molds machined to what I wanted resulted in 1 conclusion, the only way I can make the bait go a little faster was to either donwsize the blades which lowered vibration or leave move the head back using slightly heavier wire to balance out the bait making the twisted eye usless to me. It really is a game of balances, you need to balance head size with wire and blade sizes in order to get the bait to work the way you want. For me the pefect spinnerbait is a few different ones, I make one for burning that are horrible and anything else, ones for slow rolling deep and slow roll shallow and everywhere in between. Most want hard vibration and that kind of bait works but to get really hard vibration you need to give up durability, or balance, balance is what the Classic spinnerbait gives up, it makes up for durability by twisting the eye and keeping the distance from the line tie to the head extremely short. I like the Classic, it was always a great bait for me but I needed faster when I discovered smallmouths!!!

One of the major things you have too look at is the posters location. A guy in TX will not fish the same way a guy in MO will in the "Winter"

some of the best smallmouth fishing can be done using a float and fly technique

I love it when my brother calls them strike indicators. His way of feeling better about using a bobber, lol.

Look in your heart you know it to be true! Mwahhahaha!!!!!!!! I mean, more Vader breathing noises.

This is my next dog:

I'm not exactly sure of your price range but a Shimano Chronarch E5 is a real good crank reel. I myself use either a Citica E, Calcutta TE DC, or Chronarch B. Only the Calcutta has a 5 gear ratio, the other two are both 6.2 ratio's. I never have any problems fishing any cranks even 6XD's on either of the 6 gear reels. I use the Citica E a lot and it's great IMO so that's why I suggest either finding a used Citica or Curado E (the Curado E came in a 5 ratio the Citica E didn't) or if you're going new the Chronarch E5.

Pro Qualifiers in the 5.3:1 ratio are what I use for all of my cranking. They also have a 4.7:1 gear ratio but I haven't used it. When they are on sale for $79.99 every year they are hard to beat.

Lews makes reels with a 5:4.1 gear ratio, the Laser MG, Speed Spool, both under $100. They also have the Tournement MG which is $130. Very light weight reels, good quality too!

I have a pair of Costas. They are at the bottom of Lake Erie.

RW keeps posting the Rage Menace, so I'll have to give that a whirl and keith71 got my wheels spinning so I'll be trying this Seibert Outdoors lead free jig head and #4 Indiana blade:

A Rapala branded A-rig with Banjo Minnows on it.

Look into the Powell Rods. They run 150-170. They are very sensitive for the money and have good components. I have several of them and im hooked! But so im not impartial, look at the St. Croix Avids or Shimano Crucials, Dobyns Champion series. alot of guys on here rave about those rods. The new cumaras from shimano are supposed to be beasts too!

Quake is spot on. But I don’t blame these guys one bit. Every man needs to do a job to put food on the table. I do think it is disrespectful to come down on quake for voicing his opinion. Acting like 5 guys aren’t suddenly showing up to do product damage control is insulting. They are grown men doing their job. They aren’t made of glass…there is no need to defend them or require members to treat them with kid gloves. Let the conversation run its course. Maybe they will address some of the reviews. I’ve read the ink in the line bleeds. Guys ended up with it in their gear and boat carpet. Maybe that was the 1 or 2nd generation? Also that the heavier line is superior but the 10lb has a tendency to snap in a backlash—so maybe keep it off ur baitcaster’s and on spinning gear only? And yes, welcome to the forums guys. Glad to have ya.