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Its interesting. I miss a hook set here and there, but i never miss a stump, rock, or tree limb.

Senkos............not many people have heard of them, or use them. They are expensive you know.

Thanks for all the prayers well wishes. Surgery went good, only have about a month recovery. So all in all went better than expected

Thanks for the fantastic writeup, and congrats on the money. The one part I don't like is #4. Losing hooks to docks means you've pretty much put a whole bunch of people in danger, whether they walk on it now, or when they put away the dock over the winter. The usual etiquette when I do it is that if you were to make a bad cast into someone's dock, break off only if you can get the hook back without your line. If not, you're out of commission until the other person is done picking through that dock and you guys can go in and retrieve it afterwards. You might be thinking - oh it's ok I'm fishing for money right now, but hearing people's children getting hooked by big 5/0 hooks doesn't settle well in my stomach.

Not to get off topic either, but this post is the 1000 post on this thread. WOOOOOHOOOO YEAAA NEW HAMPSHIRE

They didn't have technique specific rods back in my youth. Or else I was ignorant of them. It is often suggested that a 6'6"-7' MH or Medium Fast is the best all-around rod. I bought the Fenwick Elite Tech 6'10" MF Smallmouth rod last year. I threw whatever I felt like on this rod. My 7'2" MHF Cumara is listed as a Senko/Fat Ika rod. More often than not it has a spinnerbait on it, but I have thrown the occasional jig and crankbait on it. Rod manufacturers would have you believe you need a specific rod for every technique. Why not? More money in their pockets. EDIT: I have more rods than I need because I don't like changing lures while on the water. I would much rather grab another rod and start casting.

First off, they're young. 23-24yo. Anyway, they're both pretty much broke. They qualified to fish the championship at KY Lake. The boat needed some carb work done and livewell pumps before they went. Kid who owned the boat wanted the non boater to help with some cash. They split everything else 50/50, and he felt repairs should be shared as well. Non boater didn't help and apparently they argued the entire week in KY. It's of my opinion, the boater should be responsible for all the maintenance and repairs of his boat. I guess some people feel differently.

and another toad fish...

Sasquatch........... Definitely Sasquatch

Center County Bassmasters in combination with the PA Fish & Boat Commission & DCNR last night put 20 new man made structure boxes into Sayers Dam. The commission and DCNR brought the materials, the club built the boxes and then took them out on commission boats and offloaded them into the lake. Each box is roughly 4'x4'x4' with 6 cinder blocks inside. The lake also received a lot of stone this winter redoing a few shorelines near the beach. There are plans in the future to drop trees as well. This is a three year project that will continue to have work done. I will add some pictures later.

Heres a video of Dean Rojas talking about it but if mods choose to delete it thats understandable. Other than the video there are no pics. Looks extremely easy to walk.

This was my second day fishing the 8" Huddleston Deluxe Swimbait and I got to say I have so much confidence in this bait now. I heard that it takes a while to get your first bite so I didn't even want to throw it but I bit the bullet and said the hell with it. I was fishing a drop off which goes from like 1-2 feet almost straight down to 10-10 1/2 feet. I knew there would be a big one there because its the deepest part of the lake and the drop off is next to a spillway which has moving water and rocks all around the banks. Everything added up. Third cast at the spillway and I got it hung up on a floating branch from the most recent storm that had a tornado and about 70MPH winds and just pulled it off and waited till it hit the bottom. The water temp was 84.7 and lower at the spillway so it was also the coolest part of the lake. Partly cloudy, exactly 7:43pm. Rod: Okuma Guide Select Big Bait Rod, Reel: Lews Speed Spool, Line: Mainline 65# Power Pro Braid and 25# Berkley Big Game as a leader. It wasn't a giant but man was it fun getting that first hudd bite. I haven't posted in the fishing trip section in a while. Its not that I haven't been catching a lot of fish and some big ones I just didn't have the time to post. My Season is alright so far. Several 4+ and at least 90-100 bass so far. Not including some crappie bream and a 6 pound catfish. I'm going to go try the spillway again since we just had a good rain last night. Hope to get another one today. And here is one that I caught on a jig head with a custom skirt and a rage craw. Jigging trees in 5-7 foot of water. Had another one on and he jumped and shook loose at the boat.

We've gotten ridiculous amounts of rain here in RI lately and the lake is sooo flooded. I'd say it's up a good 1.5-2 ft (223 acre lake) so everything is flooded. With the spawn recently over, and the water so high, all these fry and baitfish have scattered. We began finding the bigger fish out in the flooded grass islands that have deep water around them as opposed to the flooded banks, etc Fun day in the rain tho with 6 fish over 4 lbs

EDIT EDIT EDIT 6/18, 8am: I originally thought this was 8lbs, but due to a faulty scale, it is only around 6.5lb. Thank you everybody for your inspections and comments.! Hello everybody! Been reading stuff on this site and forum for a while now, and now I have something to share! New PB!! Caught this 6.5lb 21" bass on Lake Wingra in Madison, WI on 6/17/2013. Was fishing on the end by the dam in the water on a boat, water was only a couple feet deep. Fought hard with the lilly pads. After catching it, I was so excited I trolled the boat to shore and a kind lady snapped a picture for me. Bass was let go to fight another day. I am not sure I will ever catch a larger one in WI, the state record is 11lbs 3oz and that was 73yrs ago... Equipment I used: 7' St.Croix mojo bass plastic rod Quantum Escalade HD reel 30# power pro braid line Lure: Strike king shim-e-stick worm on 3/0 gamakatsu wacky hook, fished wacky style.

Simple Green or Dawn and hot water for all but the bearings and acetone with an alcohol rinse for those.

Very soon, Tackle The Storm Foundation is going to announce a huge undertaking involving possibly 100's of children, young adults, and their families. It will be our largest donation of rods and reels to date and for the last couple weeks I have been scrambling to stock our warehouse in Alabama with as much fishing stuff as we can get our hands on, but we need money to do that...so after dinner tonight Barb walked out the front door to take Riley for a walk, and was shocked to see a very long skinny box leaning up on the porch. The universe works in mysterious ways because inside the box, were one of a kind fishing rods...one of a kind made by Adam Murray and the kind folks at CastAway Graphite Rods. CastAway went out and created a very, VERY limited edition of Tackle The Storm Foundation rods, beautifully done, and then had their four Elite Pros,Marty Robinson, Bill Lowen, Russ Lane and Todd Faircloth autograph a rod each. As soon as I get back from the Elite Tournament in Wisconsin I will put these rods up for auction on Ebay,, and every dime raised will go to buy the things we need to help all the children we have pledged to help. These rods could not have found a better time to be sitting on our front porch...then they did today. CastAway Graphite Rods...you rock guys,

First of all, if any of your jigs have pinholes in the raw lead or actually holes from pulling sprues or from not filling fully, it is pretty hard to cover these up. I used to break off sprues back in the day off of just poured jigs. When you do that many times you will get holes in the head behind the sprues. Now I cut the sprues and file them. With that said, unless you can control your own pouring of jigs, any imperfection in a poured jig only makes it worse by painting over it. So this is my advice and you can try this. Before you paint your jigs take a look at all the heads by looking for imperfections in it. If there are any, then try to file it smooth with a metal file. Now many of you may think that this is a bit too anal, but I can honestly say that my finished jigs are flawless. I'm not here to toot my own horn, but if you are going to paint jigs do it right or don't do it at all. And yes I know the fish don't care, but when you spend so much time in something it should look good really good. Just my two cents on this. One other thing, if you want to remedy the problem that you are having, paint your jig, bake them, and come back and repaint it. The second thin coat will usually take care of all the bad spots. Just remember not to burn the paint the second time around. If you need more help PM me and I will give you step by step help, or I'll call you to let you know how to hopefully solve your problem.

Caught a bass with a swimbait hook in its cheek a few weeks ago, and several times before. I've also caught bass that were missing an eye. Never caught one with a hook in it's eye though. On a side note... last summer I was fishing an area that I frequent for snakeheads. I was fishing a horny toad and a snakehead bit the foot off. A few weeks later I was fishing the same area and caught a nice snakehead. When I took the fish home and fileted it I also checked what the stomach contents were, and found the missing foot from my horny toad.

http://clipnation.com/open-beer-ultimate-compilation/?icid=mensmoreonlink

I agree, and I'm kind of a stickler for not leaving anything on others' docks. This particular lake is mostly permanent docks on wooden or steel pylons, and even some old docks built on rock filled cribs made out of old railroad ties. As they slowly deteriorate underwater, they become snag magnets, and typically encrusted with razor sharp zebra mussels. Not exactly something safe to be climbing on or around, child or adult. But your point is important, and well taken, and to elaborate, even in this situation, never, never, never leave a hook in a mooring line or on the top side decking of a dock. That's an accident waiting to happen. In the 20 years or so we had our cottage on Port Bay, only a couple times did we ever find a hook in the dock. Says a lot about local anglers, I guess.

SNAP-SET When you detect a bite, lower the tip of your rod and reel the slack line up QUICKLY. Snap you wrist upwards without moving the position of your hands or arms relative to your body. All the energy sould then be transferred to your rod tip. This is all the force required.

I still lay the wood to them with braid but I use a softer rod to compensate

you dont have to swing for the fences like with mono really any jerk big or small will set the hook unless you use dull hooks....i dont set the hook very hard and dont miss fish often and my friend rips lips and doesnt miss fish very often lol if you use braid only for a while and try mono youll know why you need a huge hook set for mono lol you can feel every single bit of stretch it has over braid

OK - I like your choice of winner but can we ease up on the OT's ? ! ? ! ? ! A-Jay

That's how Danny Bonaduce got so big. Megastrike shots in the buttocks.

Found a close up

Avoiding gut hooks is one of the main reasons that they made the circle hooks.

i have caught both bass and catfish with hooks in them, but never one in the eye. with the bass its usually in the throat and i will use the through the gills method to remove it. with the catfish a couple of times i caught them with hooks coming out of their ummm "waste hole"...

What I do in practice and I what I feel about my rights or anyone else's are 2 different issues. Just about everything I catch get's released, I don't care to eat or mount them. Any fish legally caught by me or anyone else becomes personal property and with it the right to eat, mount or release it. Statements on one's own morality regarding on what should be done with a fish do not supercede the law.

I fish for fun, and for me, that means topwater. So that's become my go to...and a Sammy is probably my favorite, that or a buzzbait.

If someone thought of me as "grumpy" I would take it as a compliment, it's far more nicer than the usual "a-hole", "d-head", or " d- bag" I usually get.

When size doesn't matter I go to.... Wait that's a trick question. Size always matters!

Did pretty good this weekend, caught 3 today in the 4-5 lb range.

Well said.

Well i went out today and had 0 problems with the new line. no breaks,memory,nothing. i will be leaving it on this time. thanks for all the replies once again guys. and as a few people have stated, always have an open mind. everything doesn't work on the first try. i still like my stren, but if trilene happens to be on sale i won't think twice about picking some more of it up.Tight lines everyone!

Yes, it's a home made jobber but same thing. The fluke was the champ of the day. What would have normal been "pickerel territory" was now big bass real estate with the rise in water.

When it comes to suggesting a do it all rod my recommendation is MH MF, that's a medium heavy power moderate fast action. Its not ideal for anything but top water. Its the most versatile power, the action will allow u to do just about anything, not so fast that it pulls treble hooks free, not so slow that it impedes regular soft plastics. Brand I would consider would be Shimano, anything above the Convergence line has lifetime over the counter warranty. No shipping it back to the factory, just walk into a store and walk out with new rod.

Game 2 was Wild ~ I hope the B's learned from that dismal first period and don't repeat that 20 minute performance again. It was pure survival mode. But it seemed like once the Bruins were able to get a bit of the physical game going, they were able to generate some positive energy. Coach Julien's move to put Tyler Seguin on the third line with Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille was brilliant and the turning point in the game. Can't wait for Monday night and game three - should be a good one. Go Bruins ~ A-Jay

I always peg, I don't like the weight separating from the plastic.

I only peg when i'm fishing nasty cover where there's a risk of the weight separating from the bait. You don't want your weight hanging on a piece of vegetation or tree limb leaving your bait floating. Pegging allows your bait to penetrate all the way through whatever it is your fishing. In open water, I don't normally peg.

I've had snappers three times really starting to get irritated bout it snagged a carp while working a swimbait a bull frog on a Texas rigged craw a pumpkinseed on the tail of a shaky head and last but not least a sock on a crankbait

I must be really bored to post this stuff.

Then bass fishing would be as boring as golf.

Here are pics of the rods....

Try the Blue Hills reservoir a little further up Chickatawbut road. Keep going through the Blue Hills towards Granite St in Braintree. You can't miss it. It used to be a stand alone reservoir that the State rebuilt with lots of our money, but stocked the pond when they finished their project. Took a 2+ lb largemouth out of there in May. Good luck with it.

Nice fish man how big u think it is? Fish has nice color

Using both split rings lets the bait move more freely

Just keep a light colored wacky rigged senko or nose hooked super fluke rigged and ready to cast. That usually seals the deal. They are slapping at the bait in an attempt to injure it. Throw some plastic that resembles an injured bait fish and you'll get them.

Like Glenn said, confidence that the spot holds fish is huge. I tend to spend little time in a spot and move around, covering a lot of water. That's just me, based on my own thoughts and opinions. But I do the same as Glenn, I leave when I have no confidence. However, I might lose confidence much more quickly than some others. There's no one right way, you have to follow your own instincts.

I started my younger sister out on a zebco 33 and one of my old st.croix rods. For bait I gave her a gambler big ez which is a soft plastic swimbait they are completely weedless this is important and all she had to do is chunk it out there and reel it in slow. At first I gave her a senko but after the 3rd gut hooked fish I could tell she couldnt detect the bites there is no missing a bite with a swimbait. Keep in mind you probably wont be doing much fishing yourself keep the mindset that you are guiding her and not there to fish. Staying patient with my sister was the hardest part but it payed off. Watching her catch her first big fish was more rewarding then catching a 10lber myself. This is the 5th bass she ever caught on her 2nd trip with her zebco 33 she uses a bait caster now. 6#10oz