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Hmm... I fish with friends. They can use anything I own without any obligation. I know they respect my gear, but pooh-pooh happens. As for rods & reels I don't expect a problem, but for lures and baits I bought them to be fished and that means losing a few. I encourage friends to try some of my jigs with the expectation of losing them, just like I do.

Lol I'm glad I'm not addicted to senkos like a lot of people... Now rage craws... Those things are why I'm always broke....

I remember fishing Santee Cooper (the bigger of the 2 lakes) and a guy had one of those pulsating water sprinklers hooked up to a motion sensor. If someone was too close to the dock the motion sensor would energize a water pump and the sprinkler would drench the offending boat that got too close.

This is the silliest thread I have every read. Good night Irene. -Kent a.k.a. roadwarrior Global Moderator

http://www.delawarevalleytackle.com/ Mike delivered my new rod on Friday. He will contribute the techical aspects of the build later on this thread. My part is simply a fisherman's take on the build. We have been working on this for a few months and the finished product is nothing short of spectacular! The stick is a 7' foot spinning rod mounted with a Stella 2500 FB. This was designed and built as a dedicated tool for soft plastics or what some would refer to as a "Senko Rod". Mike will provide the details on the components used, but from my perspective he was given free range on the construction of the rod. I sent him the reel for a complete breakdown and cleaning. More importantly, I wanted him to have the reel for custom balancing on the rig. The blank is black, silver guides and gold trim. I consider the rod to be Medium Heavy with an Extra Fast tip, but Mike may correct me on this. My initial thoughts were "Too heavy for weightless plastics", but was I wrong! My reel is spooled with Yo-Zuri Hybrid #4 (8.5 lb breaking strength). The set-up absolutely launches a Senko. I'm anxious to hear what Mike has to say, so for now that's all I have. Thank you buddy, I am VERY pleased! -Kent

I think this statement carries a TON of weight, even past the confines of a single day. (Sorry to be nitpicking Bill, but niche ) Catt has dedicated a great portion of his fishing to learning how to fish jigs effectively. It's his comfort zone or niche. He's found success with it so naturally, for him, the best option is likely to be a jig. I fish jigs. I really like fishing jigs. I have not had the success with big fish caught on jigs that Catt and many other guys have. I've dedicated the better part of the last 8 years or so to fishing swimbaits. It has become my niche, my comfort zone. I feel confident with a swimbait in my hand and I believe that lends itself to fishing intently in high percentage areas for big fish. In my personal fishing, bigger baits have equated to bigger bass. The way I fish a lot of swimbaits, a jig is just not a viable tool for the job. Fish your comfort zone. YOURS, not someone else's. A jig, swimbait, spinnerbait, drop shot....none are a magic bullet that work 100% of the time and they surely all require time and patience to master. In the right hands, I do believe bigger baits equal bigger fish. I also believe that in the right hands, MANY different baits can equal bigger fish.

The more you read the more confused you will be, just buy something and go fishing. There is such a fine line between rods and reels given a certain price point, it doesn't make all that much difference.

Got out yesterday afternoon for the first time in a while. Fished for an hour and only got 1 bite, but luckily it was the 1 bite I was looking for. Got it in 8 feet of water on a chatterbait with rage rooster trailer. This was the first time I have seriously disagreed with my scale, which said it only weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces. Still a satisfying catch.

Locked in the trunk?

So I've gone through about 11 packs of Senkos this year with the help of my brother and friends. At about $7.99 a bag that's $87.95 in Senkos and 110 indivual Senkos. I've found that Walmart has them cheapest standard price which is $6.99 and that sometimes Dick's Sporting Goods has them on sale for buy 1 get one 1/2 off. Either way, it adds up. So, I tried some tips from here on how to save some Senkos. I've tried the O-Ring with O-Wacky tool, surgical tubing, Zip ties, heated shrink tubing, O-Rings crossed over each other, different types of hooks including Skip Jack Hooks, and Finesse Wide Gap Hooks, and others. Nothing really worked. Sometimes you'd make your first cast with a Senko and see it launched off into space, or you'd land on a dock and recover your hook but the Senko was still on the dock. It was extremely frustrating and expensive, although I'm sure that Gary Yamamoto would couldn't be more pleased. UPDATED: Well, I finally found a solution and it is a cheap one. I didn't come up with the zip tie idea nor the vinyl tubing idea. "thebig1" is the one who showed me the tubing idea....and to give credit where it is due, I know someone else said something about it before in another thread. I've tried it on 5 trips now with other people also using it and it's worked extremely well. It's a combination of a 5" Senko, Gamakatsu 1/0 Offset Shank Worm EWG hook, and 1 small 3/4" inch piece of vinyl 3/8" inside diameter-1/2" outside diameter tubing (the kind you get at Menards or aquarium tubing). **** I've found that anything less then a 3/4" inch piece of vinyl tubing doesn't seem to work nearly as well because it probably doesn't have enough amount of friction to hold the Senko but anything longer then 3/4" is too long and makes the worm heavy which causes it to sink funny and bend unnaturally. If your Senko isn't bending correctly when you lift it up to look at it you probably have too long of a piece of tubing. **** After making this thread the "thebig1" posted that vinyl tubing works better and that he's had the same Senko for 8-9 years. Well, I tried his method for 2 trips on my own and then a guys fishing weekend. We all used 5" Senko's with the vinyl tubing and worked even better than the method I had tried before with the zip ties. We caught 94 fish over the weekend, bass, northern, sunnies, rock bass, and perch and did not lose 1 Senko. I still have the Senko from that trip. All of the components: 1 Senko, 1 piece of vinyl tubing cut 1/2", and 1 hook of your choice. And the other secret....buy Senkos in bulk! lol. From some helpful posters on bassresource.com I learned that you can buy Senkos in bulk 100 packs for $54.82 at Tackle Warehouse during one of their 15% sales and get them for $46.58 which makes them $46 cents apiece versus the normal $79 cents apiece. The only sad part is that I had to order them in green pumpkin, my favorite color is cinnamon brown. The 3/8" inch vinyl tubing cost $2.86 for 10 feet. Enough to last a lifetime. Now that the "thebig1" showed me how well vinyl tubing works, I don't know what I'm going to do with 100 Senkos. I bagged them up into 7 original packages. I already gave away a pack to my friend. So that leaves me with 6 packages left. At the rate I lose Senko's with the vinyl tubing I guess I will be giving the other bags to friends and just keep 1 or 2 for myself. Thanks "thebig1"!!!! I've come to the acceptance that Senkos are like livebait and gas, you buy them and to get used up. It's just life (Unlike a lifetime lure like a KVD Sexy Dawg, that as long as you don't lose, you can just keep sharpening the hooks or replace the hooks and have the lure for nearly forever.) I hope this helps some of you save some cash. Good luck and good fishin'. Try it out, it's only a $2.86 gamble and I bet you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

cull???? i've not had that problem this year. I've caught 10 fish since june lol

For the lakes I fish 99% of my big fish are deep structure in 15-20 fow draggin the jig on the bottom.

Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble.. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock. Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, 'When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.' The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news.. She walks into the telegraph office, and says, 'I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home.' The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, it will cost 99 cents a word. Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word. After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, 'I want you to send her the word 'comfortable.' The operator shakes his head. 'How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable?' The brunette explains, 'My sister's blonde. The word is big. She'll read it very slowly... 'com-for-da-bul.'

Plumworm, when I was in school, you had to learn in order to graduate. By the time my kids were in school, all you had to do was show up to graduate. I think now, all that is required to graduate is to turn eighteen....lol. Hootie

For Idaho, not a bad fish

Personally, I hope fewer and fewer guys throw swimbaits.

Yelp! While y'all are weighing & tagging I'll be catching! If ya caught one don't ya think repeated casts to the same target would be smart?

I would start here. There is a listing called "Best of Bass Resource" that has been extraordinarily helpful for me. As far as a second rod, assuming you are on a budget or don't want half a dozen rods to start with, I would get a MH F or XF rod just for versatility's sake. Also, I have no idea if you are looking for a casting or a spinning setup. If your current setup is a spinning setup, I would get a casting setup. If you already have a casting setup, I would look into a spinning setup. Spinning gear is useful for dropshot and other worm techniques as well as those lightweight crankbaits. The casting setup would be more useful for just about everything else with a MH rod. Again, refer to the starting point at the top of this post and the "Best of." Hope this helps!

Everything will eat those little marabou crappie jigs, I've even caught a little muskie on one. I used to fish them on a super ultralight rod with 2lb test for whatever would bite. It's always fun with the number and variety of fish I'd catch and some of them would be very good sized.

Here's a simple answer: I like to purchase tackle, it's as fun as fishing.

Excellent. I love hearing stuff like this. So you mean to tell us you actually caught DD bass on Green MONO ? How can this be ? Couldn't they see your line ? That's just crazy - You should switch to fluorocarbon line right away . . . A-Jay

Berkley Big Game the real Mean Green! All 27 of my double digit bass were caught on 15# Big Game!

I grew up fishing the Delaware for smallies and was gonna come up for the event to check it out with my dad but I will be in the outer banks instead I am definitely excited to see how it turns out. I did see that the event will be shown on ESPN2.............August 31st lol

Somebody call mike rowe, We got him a dirty job to do!

If bigger baits meant bigger bass I'd be throwing 4' worms!

They are locked in his Kia - and it's in there too . . . . A-Jay

A-Jay

That is the biggest lie I have ever heard.

EBA here with another bass fishing report, Went to lake pardee on the 1st of Aug, Temperature highs reached 108 degrees. HOT!!HOT!!!HOT!!!. We were told fishing conditions would be difficult for bass due to the heat. Despite the fact that the heat was against us and our boat wasn't anchoring well we still managed to Catch & Release 16 Small-mouth bass & one large-mouth bass. Biggest fish being around 3 1/2 pounds. Most of the fish were around 2 pounds. For go pro video and pictures click the link below, Enjoy

You would have a very tough time convincing my wife that she does not need cake from time to time. A-Jay the way you represent the Coast Guard is a credit to all who wear the uniform. Enjoy the cake and the day!

Uh, what Raul said, I haven't used anyone else's rods/ reels/ since I was 12.....or Tools or their women, well maybe their women! No, no... Never ever their women... I am playing......

THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITOUT PICS !!!!

Unless it's a state record, a nice, printed photo is all I need.

I'd hang a photo of me holding it wearing a big toothy grin and Mother Nature looking over my shoulder. oe

May I suggest everyone contact their respective state game and fisheries department for their input on fishing private docks. There are legal actions regarding water rights all over the country with different rulings and outcomes. In Virginia you can legally fish any dock, pier or boathouse, etc. However, you cannot throw a wake if you are within 50-feet of any dock, pier or boathouse. I personally have encountered only one individual who did not want anyone fishing in front of his house. This is on the hot side of One Fish Anna. The guy releases his two labs and then throws sticks to them in the water, having them dive in to get and retrieve the sticks. He does this all year long and it is fun to float past his house and watch him run out with the dogs. What he does not understand is that no one has ever caught a fish off his breakfront so it is a few minutes of entertainment for us. I have had a friend threatened with a shotgun on Lake Gaston by a landowner. The local sheriff went to the guy's house and had a heart-to-heart talk with him and so far no more problems. We speak with people on their docks as we fish around them and have not found any jerks so far. We have also not encountered any topless ladies but we are still hopeful our luck will change one day.

Mimics a dying shad fluttering down. I've heard of people hopping it and stroking it. I recently got a 4in flutter spoon I intend to try out from lake fork tackle.

I always cover up with long sleeve shirts and long pants combined with a wide brimmed hat whenever i head out to go fishing, My mom just had merkel cell carcinoma removed from her face along with several lymph nodes taken from her neck. Thankfully, her tests came back clean. Please take skin cancer seriously and cover up.

Hawgtech and get the color anodized to match....ohhhhhh yea. When getting a swept handle, make sure it fits around the sol's straight star drag which the hawgtech swept handle does.

A starting point would be the Tackle Trap. Lots of goodies there - including a kit to convert your Sols to a clicking drag adjustment if that floats your boat !

I fish a lot of docks... Even if there are people on a dock as I'm working down a row I'll usually continue on fishing it. I've never run into anyone who wasn't friendly. I've even caught fish from a dock with people on it a few times... The thing is, when I see people on the dock I'll say hello and ask if it's alright to keep fishing through as I come up on it. Nobody has ever said no. I've had a couple encounters with people that came walking down to 'chase me off'... A quick apology and I move on, even when they are rude. No sense in dwelling on it. I usually hit the prime docks early anyway, so the people aren't awake to get mad even if they do care .

Its also quite possible you waited too long. Recently if I dont crack them as soon as I feel anything they are gone, sometimes I am just not fast enough.

I fish docks whenever I come across them, BUT, if there is one or several docks in a row with people on or near the docks I simply continue on around them...It is only courteous to do so.

Check out our very own "Fishing Flea Market"... with only one cut, the spool must be a 9/10. oe

I never 'but' lures like the title says, I BUY lures. lol

I finally got all the pieces to start my build this morning. This was not a kit I purchased everything individually so I could get what I wanted What do you know it at least looks like I remember what I'm doing. Lol. It next to the plainest M4 I could find

Bass never hide near bassboats any way...cmon people Noe pontoons on the other hand is a different story...

X2... Check the bail clicker spring RD7466 ... Tight Lines!

X2 .Victory: Bet the engagement slots in the pinion have rounded off, and the yoke springs have compressed some. Found these 2 things in all the old Silstar' we serviced in the 90's. Tight Lines !

I'd do the measuring and pics. then send them off to get a repica made. Let them live another day.

Nitrofreak did I detect a light going off? All lakes have it? Answer: despite what some believe - structure