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Its not lead -its tin. Tin ECO Friendly It has more mass than lead -its just not as dense -Its cost has skyrocketed in the last five years -about 12 dollars a pound for what we are using compared to 2 bucks a lb for lead.- We were green before everyone elase was.

Wait a minute? He's fishing for crappie when it's the best time of year to catch them. Probably using live bait and a corky too, huh? Someone needs to introduce Mr. Pot to Mr. Kettle.

Offering unsolicited advice on fishing styles, techniques, presentations, equipment, etc. should be avoided. Asking advice on any of these things is fine; telling a grown man what or how to do something unasked is what wives are for.

The length and width isn't the issue, the bass' throat is round, much like the shape of a smaller bass. The shad is much deeper or taller than the longer bass would be. A 14" bass will probably only be 5 or 6 inches from belly to back and the belly will also be able to be compressed in if a larger fish was swallowing it. A 12" Gizzard shad is very deep or tall, probably at least 7-8 inches and they have a much more rigid rib cage than a bass does that will compress a lot less than a bass' would. They can't eat as big of a shad much for the same reason they can't eat as big of a bluegill. Their anatomy just doesn't allow them to swallow something that tall and most likely they would never be able to even get it all the way to their throat to attempt to swallow it.

Suspending jerkbaits would be my first choice.

If fishing with a buddy and you loan him a lure and he looses that said lure on a fish no appology needed. If he looses it in the trees or brush he has two options, replace it or go get it.

Put the canoe in Crooked Pond in Loudon for about 3 1/2 hours earlier. Managed to land 3, couple of 3lbers and a beautiful 6lb LM. All came on a 1/4 oz swim jig w/ a baby rage craw trailer. Also had a couple nice hits o]n a shakey head, but wasn't able to get either one in the boat. One of the 3lbers 6lber

Last fall I was stuck on small fish, after a few posts about how I could produce some bigger bass Shane J said something like" just think big bass, fish like there is a big bass around" Within a week I caught a 4# and my PB 5#11oz... Whenever I go fishing now I play those words in my head... Be confident...

I use a Powell Endurance 712 with the 10lb braid and 6-8 leaders. (I dont fish for smallies, not many smallies here) love this rod. Powell did not make this rod as a drop shot specific rod, but i did, and i absolutely love it, light and sensitive. I have it paired with a Stradic Fj All of the brands you listed are fantastic rod builders. If money was not a variable, I personally would shoot for the G Loomis NRX 822DSR. Alot of the brands you mentioned make Drop shop specific rods that will have line and lure ratings that your set up will fall into.

I should name my boat after my wife, then she can't say I don't spend time with her. Ha.

I set the hook with elegance and seductive splendor, so Ill never break a rod on a hookset. I do bump the heck out of them on roofs and other objects. I yell every time.

Hijack!!! DUDE WELCOME BACK!!

hey another florida guy im in south florida palm beach i use a couple size power pro from 30-65 on my light fresh/saltwater rods and 80 and 100 on my larger salt rods for freshwater i really never break off and i rip them out of everything 30lb when there is a lot of open water and 65lb when im around lots of structure and yeah definately braid is a must in florida haha

Braided line is almost a must fishing here in florida a lot of grass n trees in water n the first thing a fish does once he eats the bait is wrap him self up in that stuff better have some strong line to muscle him out!65#braid on my worm n frog rod.

There are times when a lot of bites is just what the doctor ordered, especially if I am taking some of the younger members of my family fishing. However, most of the time I am looking for bigger bites. Five big fish in a day is not a grind. The excitement from each one of those fish will carry you much further than the excitement of a whole slew of 1 - 2 pounders. How many of you have caught a huge fish and found yourself shaking afterwards with excitement? That doesn't happen with the little fellows.

I agree with Mitch, a lot different when there is no ifformation on a small lake going against someone who has fished it for 20 years but it also depends on the pro. Did you see the classic? How many pros could not fish cold water, I was amazed at that so don't think for a moment that a pro would win hands down in that situation.

Got some good news.......my sons 8 pm baseball game was postponed due to scheduling conflict I think! I don't care about the why.....just that it got postponed. Now I can get 6+ hrs sleep instead of 3 or 3-1/2 hrs. Will make the drive down much better! I guess it is just a sign that we were meant to attend the road trip this year.

If you're not in rock or wood, go with braid. Add a leader if you'd like. My $.02

I fish a pond absolutely FULL of dinks, and I mean about ten fish every 30 square feet. Catching them is so easy and gets tiring after a while. Yeah it's fun, but it gets old after about 10 fish. I easily catch 20-30 in a few hours and I'm starting to look for other places to fish. There are no big fish in the pond. I checked the biologist's report a while ago. 228 fish from fry-1 pound 356 fish from 1-2lbs 42 fish from 2-3lbs 30 fish from 3-4lbs 16 fish from 4-5lbs 6 fish from 5-6 lbs. This is a gigantic pond that takes 20 minutes to walk around.

I've been fairly pleased with my 2 stradic fi 4000, a lot of guys down here complain about the stradics. I've been lucky with mine, a few not too serious problems. The 4 and and 5000 fj are identical except for line capacity, on a different rod it would be a nice set up, 10.8 oz is lighter than I wanted I was at BPS this morning, checked out the saragosa and spinfisher, both pretty nice. Wound up buying a Quantum, I'm happy with my purchase.

In my humble opinion, there is no way to prove this. I am sure that people think it matters but I don't know how you could prove it. Maybe in Hook 'n Look We do know that to have a leader: - you have to have a knot. That is one more opportunity for a failure - Knots are weaker than the line - the leader is almost always smaller than the main line. Thus: Your true line strength is the strength at the knot of the least line, which you now have two of. So, why not just spool up whatever your leader is? Fish hit Buzz baits. That does not resemble anything in a fish's diet. a Jig doesn't really look like a crawfish. Come on. Worms do look like worms, I will grant you that. But in general, we give fish too much credit for intelligence and stuff like that. And , this is all just my dummy opinion, so by all means, use the leader. ALot of people do. Even Glenn May!

#1 rule for me, if you need to pee tell the man first so that he does not think his sump pump has kicked on for some reason only to turn around and see something none of us should ever have to see. #2 make sure you dont get it on the boat or you will be cleaning it at the end of the day, and how you clean it will be at the descression of the boats owner.

Never, ever look anybody in the eye while eating a banana.

I learned 20 years ago, to shut the motor off and approach what ever your target is to be extremely stealthy, no wake or noise from the boat. Try a lizard and put it directly on the bed, they won't be able to stand it. Lizards eat a lot of their fry. They will try to move it off the bed or kill it.

http://youtu.be/AF_nfazQaek

yeah but just because you see pros doing it doesnt mean the fish cant see it....read the how to get a sponsor articles and they say that its not how good you can fish its how well you can sell the sponsors product

abu rods are constantly breaking. i love their reels, but would not even consider their rods with all the people that have said they have broken them...

gotta love BPS no questions asked return policy.

Reminds me of this

I won't tell anyone how to set their reel, we are all different and every reel even the same model is different. I have tuned pairs of reels and they will both be slightly different and have their own "attitude", with that said, I have found I set my spool tension with my rod tip at a 45 degree angle with tip upward and a 3/8 ounce weight, I let it fall freely with less than a half turn overrun. I then turn 1/2 my pin's on and turn them off till I have control with very little need for my thumb till at the very tail end of the cast, on all my Lew's I am using one or none, of the centrifugal pin's, and spool tension is free to fall with the 3/8 ounce weight. I only find I need to change this setting when I go with very light or weightless plastics, I add spool tension if I am throwing 1/4 ounce or less. I only use Magnetic control if I start throwing in the wind, the heavier the wind the higher the mag setting. Saying this I found 2 pins my normal settings when I was using Shimano reels, Calcutta 400's to Chronarch 100's, just seems to be the standard for that brand of reels. I am casting farther than ever since going with the Lew's reels, and can control them better with less breaking. One thing I do pay attention to when I need to make an extremely long cast, I make sure my line guide is centered and not off to one side of the spool or the other, this way it has less friction thru out the cast on the line paying out. Most times this is something I pay little attention to, and concentrate more on accuracy, as I seldom need maximum casting distance anyway.

If it's 30lb braid you will be fine. 30lb monofilament or copolymer is too heavy for most lures 3/8 oz and less.

I think it is a 3 year limited warranty. I have 4 of them and have nothing but good things to say about them. I do check all the guides before purchasing after reading threads on here.

Thanks for the replies and dot worry about the schedule we"ll get to fish soon. You guys need to get down here at SouthLake I wanna see what a good angler can pull outa here. I'm super excited that I e caught fish on both my spinner and now my baitcaster. While "practicing" my flipping and pitching technique that last guy just latched on and I may have been over eager with the hook set since it took me about 5 minutes to dig it out of his skull I felt bad. No serious damage done and he swam off all happy and easy so that makes me happier Thanks for all the help guys I will keep posting my progress and always give open invitations to join me wherever I may be. Fishing with a buddy who can Whitness you land a monster is twice as sweet as doing it alone. It's hard to high five myself haha!!

1.5 squarebills are a good choice in shallow water

I agree most anglers under utilize the eye sight and hearing when bass fishing from a bass boat. Most bass anglers rarely look beyond the lure. The angler looks for good targets to cast at, watches their lure action a little and miss totally any bass following the lure or movement as the lure hits the water, unless they are sight fishing for bed bass. They have no idea that several bass looked at the lure during the retrieve, then turned away...simply put; blind fishing.Some angler will hear a big splash from a jumping fish, often believe the fish to be a bass without seeing it. The hear a sound but don't see what made it, they see water movement and have no idea what made the water or aquatic plants move. Musky anglers pride themselves with the number of rises or follows they had, because they now know where the musky lives. Few bass anglers bother to look into the water and see what is below the surface. Tom

How can you love a rod you keep breaking? Sounds more like he loves the warranty/BPS service.

That's almost as bad as the McFadden comment. Two words for ya. Baltimore Ravens.

And hey, atleast your catching fish... I would much rather catch a few dinks while on the water than zero, you learn something from every fish you catch..

Im still convinced they use divers on some shows!! but

You have to love TV. I shouldn't be surprised but I did learn something new today. I wonder how many of those catches are also "real" sometimes. I know photographs can be edited quite significantly. My wife is a professional photographer and is a whiz with photoshop. One of these days I am going to ask her to photoshop me with a "50lb" Largemouth the size if a baby tuna. LOL

Emergency drag changes are never good, I will sometimes loosen a little it once the fish is away from cover. Nothing worse than having line snap when the fish decides to make one last effort to get away. A quick shock on the line with only a few feet our does not work out well usually. As suggested before I use my hand to provide more resistance if I need to. I don't leave it lighter normally because I want to hookset and initial get out of cover ability.

I always like to post this pic. This weekend I caught a bass almost the size of my jerkbait...

scored a shimano antares and a scorpion mg.

In this case to the origional post about pro's coming to your local lake that only has a 9.9 hp restriction, I would definately give the advantage to the local guys. the pro's are really good at what they do, but on assumingly a small lake and little to no major tournament information the pro's would be fishing more or less blind. They may stumble on to some area of the lake that has been overlooked by the locals but that is a big "if" given the size of the lake. The defigning quality of a pro is to be versitile and be able to compete in any situation they are put in. that being said I think they would be competitive, and out of 100 trials they would probabily win about 40. Mitch

The most underutailozed resource in bass fishing is the brain! The difference between a good angler and a great one is knowing when and how to use knowledge. knowledge is not found in a book or in a video, but in the exceptional understanding of anglers on the ecosystem, and seasonal patterns of their target species. the key is knowing when to stay and when to go, when to finnesse and when to power fish. fishing the past might help you get a starting point but relying on yesterdays success is a recipie for failure today. Mitch

!!!!!!!! no humor allowed !!!!!!!!

The Scrounger w/ Rage Craw catches fish like a BOSS! I just put this combo together for my wife, and that's exactly what I rigged up for her. She might just smoke me with that setup.

That's kind of what I figured. Thanks for coming on here. The only thing I could add, is that Tyler's situation sounds unique. Many parents see fishing as a "distraction, " and don't support them. Others young anglers are looking for handouts. that's where some of the cynicism lies. Advice for Tyler: stay humble. Listen to your parents. Work hard, both at school and your jobs. Make the most of your time on the water. Life circumstances as you get older often limit this time. Fish hard.

The stage is set with a mountain man trapper and a misty valley. He's kneeling down in a stream setting a trap near a beaver lodge with his faithful white horse grazing nearby. With a drizzling mist in the air. He stands to his feet and looks at the canyon rim and sees three indian silhouettes. He instantly whistles for his faithful horse and the horses ears perk up. And he takes off for the opposite canyon rim. Next thing he knows, everything goes black. He wakes up groggy to find that he's tied to a tree with the indians placing sticks around the bottom of the tree to start a fire and burn him to death. He begs to one of the indians, please please just let me talk to my faithful horse one last time. The indian responds, "yeah that's fine, you're going to die anyway". So he whistles for his faithful horse. The horse comes over to him. And the mountain man whispers quietly into the horse's ear and the horses ears perk up and the horse instantly takes off down into the canyon. Some time elapses. The mountain man becomes conscience again and looks down to see the yellow glow of a small fire starting with a pillow of smoke coming up. He looks up and sees his faithful white horse riding up the canyon with a beautiful naked blonde, hair blowing in the wind, and body parts bouncing with the ride. The horse rides up and the indians ****** the lady and tie her up. The man says, "Please please just let me speak to my horse one last time." Now after seeing what the horse brought back the first time, the indians respond with "Fine!" He whistles for his horse and the horse comes over and he whispers quietly into the horse's ear. Instantly the horses ears perk straight up and he takes off down the canyon. Everything goes to black and he loses consciousness. And time elapses once again. He wakes up to find smoke and sweat in his face and through it he can see his white horse coming up the canyon with a beautiful unclothed brunette this time. The horse pulls up and the indians pull her off the horse and tie her up. The mountain man begins begging to the indians, "please please let me speak to my horse one last time." The third indian says "heck yeah". The mountain man whistles for his faithful horse and the horse come over. . . . . . . . And the mountain man screams at the horse, "I said POSSE you **#@#* horse!!!"

So a grandpa and his grandson are out fishing. Grandpa pulls out a beer and begins to drink. Kid asks, "Can I have some of that grandpa?" Grandpa asks, "Can you touch your D to your a-hole?" K: "No..." G: "Then you cant have any" Grandpa pulls out a cigarette and begins to smoke. K: "Can I have some of that grandpa?" G: "Can you touch your D to your a-hole?" K: "No..." G: "Then you can't have any" Kid pulls out some cookies and starts to eat them. G: "Hey, where'd ya get those?" K: "Grandma made them for me!" G: "Can I have some?" K: "Can you touch your D to your a-hole?" G: "Why yes I can!" K: "Then go f--- yourself, these are my cookies!"