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Champlain's fall bite has started. Fished a team open today. My partner and I got 2nd with 24.15lbs all smallies. Jerkbait, Spybait, and Carolina Rig. The killer part is that we thought we had it in the bag. Then this older gentleman comes up... 27.77lbs... largemouths all before 10:30.

I use braid as backing and love it, I also use mono as backing and it works well too

If you are not tournament fishing there isn't any reason to fizz bass and put them in a livewell. You get a 8 oz torpedo sinker, clip onto you line, put the sinker into the basses mouth as far as possible. With the weight into the basses mouth/throat, lower the bass down to the depth you hooked it and lift up quickly, the bass will swim away unharmed, no fizz hole to heal. Smaller bass add a large size 4/0 hook with the point cut off to the sinker and put the hook point inside the lower lip and lower the bass down, takes a little practice. Tom PS; Don Iovino products has fizz kits.

Just fish it. You'll figure out what to use it for afterwards.

Earlier this year I was fishing a hollow bodied frog in and around lily pads in 2-5 feet of water. There was a lot of surface activity, sunfish slurping down bugs, dragonflies and other bugs flying around as well as swallows skimming the surface eating bugs. The fishing was great. The frog bite was on and I was catching a lot of fish over 3 lbs and some bigger fish over 5 lbs. I had made a cast and was keeping a keen eye on my frog. As I was watching my frog, way out beyond it, further up the shore, I watched as a swallow that was skimming the surface disappear into a massive explosion. I couldn't believe what I had seen and thought for sure I had just seen an 8 lber eat a bird. A bird. I remained somewhat calm and after a couple minutes I meandered over to where I had seen the swallow get swallowed. I cast my frog just past where the explosion had been. Plop, Plop, wa-bam, a huge surface strike. I set the hook hard, like my life depended upon it. The fish felt big but not huge. After it jumped a couple times and putting up a spirited fight I slip the net underneath it. It weighed in at 4 lbs 12 oz. I figured it couldn't have been the same fish, but it was in the same exact spot. As I released the fish I noticed something float to the surface and start quivering half way between where I had hooked the fish and the boat. I motored over for a better look. It was a swallow, quivering from just being eaten by the bass I had just caught. That bass had just eaten a bird and he still wanted my frog. I had figured it must have been a giant bass that had blown up on that bird and it was a fish that didn't even weigh 5 lbs. That is pretty wild. I guess you never know what will happen on the water.

I took the 2nd spool and placed 1/8" foam around it to make it shallower. Now it's closer to my 1000 size

This is exactly what's happening. It's happened to me before more than once. Mullet so thick the fish can't even see your lure. Best chance during times like that is to anticipate when a fish is going to crash a school and try to cast into its wide open mouth.

you're*

Nice reels guys ^

I regretted selling my CU50E so I bought another one a few weeks ago.

I ran into this a while back - my solution was first to let my wrist rest by fishing with spinning gear for a while. Then I rigged up two jerk baits - one on casting gear and one on spinning gear. This enabled me to spread / share the workload with both wrists. Fish one rig for a while, then switch to the other rig. Kept me fresh, allowed me to fish all day and most importantly I didn't hurt anything. Good Luck A-Jay

The article claims the Rodman Reservoir record was only 6 years old. That would explain why the technique used of trolling right over him would catch him, when giant bass are normally more cautious and reserved. Could a fish that young really reach that size even in a perfect giant bass producing area such as Central Florida? It seems far fetched. That said, big names in fishing handled the fish. What do you think. Makes you wonder if there weren't so many people who live in and travel to FL, just what could be grown down there. The fish does look very young. Interesting read. http://www.rodmanreservoir.com/Bass/bass.htm Edit thread title. It was 17 pounds 2 ounces, not 17.2 pounds.

I'm in the Outer Banks this weekend, and I will do a full post soon.... Water was rough today and we could only make it to a wreck about 8 miles out for an hour or so, anchoring wasn't an option so we couldn't target seabass and triggerfish. We decided to do a few drifts over the wreck before heading back in. I dropped down a 3" live spot to see if anyone was hungry. Soon as my rig hit the bottom something thumped it and I swung into a solid fish. After a 15 minute battle I got this Amberjack to the boat. But the best part is the rod I caught him on...a 7'6" flippin stick w/ a diawa millionaire 250 spooled with 40lb power pro. Those who have caught AJs will understand! He almost spooled me 3 times and I don't know how/why he didn't take me into the wreck. I ended up with a bruise about the size of a golfball where I had the butt of the rod jammed against my stomach.

10/11/14, Alligator Alley MM39 north side, 8:00 - 11:00 AM, Blue Bird Skies, water temp 84*, stained, water level high, wind east 10 - 15. Went out this morning with Steve Johnson. We got a late start and it was dead still to start the day. I started throwing a hollow body frog with no interest back in the pads. I switched to a senko and picked up a long skinny bass in the 3 pound range. This guy did not look healthy. Picked up a few more chunks. Something strange happened today. I caught a 12 inch bass and while removing the senko I noticed what looked like another senko sticking out of its throat. I got my pliers and pulled out a 9 inch section of a partially eaten water snake. The snake had to be as long as the fish when whole. It makes you realize how prolific killers these guys are. Like a little wolf pack. The Southside canal is totally blocked with floating cabbage for at least a mile, just west of the MM 38 bridge. It must be bunching up at the weir down the canal. There is a lot more blowing in from the east with these steady winds. We finished with 6 bass for the morning. There were several chunks in the 3 pound range. We had the canal totally to ourselves, and beautiful weather. The wind to our backs put us in stealth mode all day. Easy fishing! I want to give a shout out to an old friend and a long time fishing and hunting partner Pat Burns of Miami. He is a professional boxing trainer and his fighter Jermaine Taylor won the Middle Weight Championship for the second time in his long career the other night. Way to go Pat!!!!! ^

Come over to the Southern New Hampshire or New England threads.

If you have a BPS, Cabela's, or Gander Mtn., near you, take a ride to the store and handle the rods in your price range yourself. Whichever one 'feels' best to you is likely the best one for your needs. Specs can get you in the ball park of what you want, but overall I'd say rod performance is very subjective. Good luck with your purchase!

I wasn't planning on stopping until ice-up, but my boat motor (2014 Mercury 40HP four-stroke) took me out of the game yesterday. I'm hoping it's a minor issue and I'll be back on the water soon! I have the week before Thanksgiving week off as my usual rifle deer hunting vacation. I've been having so much fun bass fishing, I just spent my bow hunting and duck hunting vacation doing it. I'll probably be fishing instead of hunting next month too! Tight lines, Bob

Fished Pleasant Lake in Deerfield today.What a tough day.It just confirms what i already know.I suck at smallie fishing.Water was 59 deg.On a good note ,on the way back to the launch i decided to troll over to one of my smallie spots during the hardwater period.A deep grass bed in 25+ feet of water.Sure enough my fish finder lit up like a christmas tree.Schools of fish everywhere with some baitfish pods.I'm starting to think that Pleasant smallies never come shallow except to spawn.Think i might take a day off this week and pound the heck out of that grass flat.

That is the funny thing about jerkbait rods, the flex need for fighting the fish is not good for working the bait and me and a few guys have done this experiment over and over for years. First of all, if you are using a 7' rod for jerkbaits, you are either 6'8" tall, hitting the water when ripping or you are using the sideways sweep which means you aren't getting the bait to work at its maximum depth. When you rip a jerkbait you want to do it on slack line, that is what gives you the most erratic action, when you do this with a cranking rod, you rip the bait, the rod flexes and since you already have slack in the line it causes the bait to move slightly forward with little sideways movement. In order to get it work more erratically, you end up pulling the bait on tighter line that when you need with the fast action rod so now you are just moving the bait forward with the nose pointing a little left and then right instead of the bait darting and diving, trust me, you can fight the fish better when hooked up but you will get less than half the strikes that you would normally get with a properly worked bait. The only time the cranking rod is the most effective is when the water temp is in the low 40s and you need long pauses with short pulls with little action, that is when the cranking rod really does a good job. In 2004 we used a few different rods for jerkbaits as there was a big discussion in our club about which kind of rod worked better so we stated an experiment between 4 guys starting in early fall with floating jerkbaits, into early winter with suspending jerkbaits, and when using the fast action rod for the floating versions there was no comparison, number of strikes and number of fish landed was better the 4 to 1 versus the cranking rod. When we hit late fall and into the suspending jerkait bite, the numbers got closer but the fast action rod was still better than 3 to 1 in strikes and 2 to 1 landed because you are going to loose more fish with the fast rod, that is the bad part. When we got into the really cold water when jerkbaits were still working, that is when the cranking rod was much better, strikes were the same but fish landed was 3 to 1 in favor of the cranking style rod and at that time of year you often get "nippers", the fish that just nip the back end of a bait and get 1 point of the rear treble in their lip, the cranking rod was good at landing those fish while the fast rod would loose all but a tiny few that were hooked like that.

FALL IS HERE AND WALLEYE ARE ON THE CHEW! Tomorrow is football fish dry day. FINALLY!

Sounds like you found a really cute girl to run behind!

I increase my hook-up ratio with Offset or EWG hooks by "Tex-Posing" the bait.

Nice, nice fish ! There isn't much out there to rival an AJ, I've caught many of them.

I have not noticed a difference. The 5" will sink faster which may make a difference I also say that Big lures reduce the number of small fish bites but dont increase the number of big fish bites.

Unlike flipping houses where there is a substancial profit to be made, flipping a used reel leaves very little room for profit. Consider this; You purchase a used reel for $50, shipping is another $4, you add new bearings $12 and do a little super tune polishing of the drag washers and spool shaft. Not considering your time (you should), you have $66 invested. If you sell it for $75, you've made a whopping $9 and that's if you can find someone willing to buy it. Even if the reel you originally buy is a high end reel, the cost of the parts will be more expensive. Also keep in mind that most anglers want what's new and even new reels that are last year's model are difficult to sell at a discounted price. My advice is to only buy a used reel and fix it up for your own use. You'll have the satisfaction of knowing what you have and what you paid for it. That's providing you don't want what's new and improved this year.

Did you fish the drop off ?

PP super slick 10#

No fish is worth a life not even a fish of a life time.

I have both reels. The Lew's TP seems a bit more refined and nicer looking. It's smaller and lighter. Some folks might prefer its combination of centrifugal and magnetic brakes and broad range of adjustment. It casts wonderfully with a wide range of lure weights. The Daiwa Tatula is solid... not heavy or bulky, but has that solid "built like tank" feel. The brake uses centrifugal force to make in-cast changes to the magnetic braking so, although it has only a magnetic brake, it is "centrifugally enhanced." :-) It feels very smooth and casts very well. The brake is easy to adjust and effective... no need to take off the side plate to make any adjustments. It adjusts in very fine increments. I prefer the Tournament Pro, but considering the costs of the Tatula (I got mine for $93), I'd call it even. I'm extremely happy with both of these reels! Tight lines, Bob

The "what" tables??? Astro? LOL - Went today and caught 54 bass in 5 hours. Imagine how many I would have caught on a good day with, like, 80% efficiency or better -T9

I don't stop until I can't get my jig to break through the ice on a cast any longer. Right before that happens, you usually get a couple days where you can cast up on an ice shelf and pull your bait off the edge and let it drop into open water. That's usually when they hit it -T9

Marabou jigs for crappie, but you can pretty much catch anything on those

I also use leftover / used braid as backing. Put a half inch of electrical tape on the spool so it doesnt slip. My reel holds 120 yards of 12 lb line, so I put about 50 yards of braid on. I don't like having too much fluoro on at one time.

Nice! Sounds like a great trip.

I use braid for backing on a few of my reels.The idea is lighter lines will make your spool spin better. I always end up with some 20 yards or so left over braids so I use whatever I have. Braids too expensive to use as backing and you can't do much with 20 yards unless it's a pitching reel only. As far as telling the difference, well I honestly can't tell the difference but I started doing it after watching some of Amarts videos. Does it work? I'm sure it can help but like anything in the realm of enthusiasts the cost vs results will never be even. If you're thinking about it just do it.

Once my casts start to bounce ~ I'm done. A-Jay

I like yo zuri. Very manageable, abrasion resistant, and much stronger than it's rated.

Hey I have a challenge for y'all. Hopefully this gets your fishing brain going.here it is: 1.Pick 3 baits that you have or have not caught fish on. 2.analyze this bait. I want you to think about A. What are you trying to imitate with this bait? B.what similarities does the bait share with the real thing? C. Differences between the real and fake? D.what situation would you use it in,and this is key-Why!! Here's an example,and this is my opinion,so I'm not claiming I state facts Plastic worm with a curly tail 1. Imitation- a fish,particularly a Bluegill. The reason I say Bluegill and not a shad or minnow is because of the Bluegills large flowing dorsal fin. I don't think a ribbon tail depicts a minnow or a shad because those fish have more subtle fins 2.similarites: tail(fin) has lots of action and is always moving. Has slender shape. 3.differences: bluegill has a large body compared to any worm,yet is still thin. 4.situation-when bass are not actively feeding and the Bluegill are active(or are at least in the area). I think a Bass could be resting but if he sees a Bluegill just sliding along just minding his own,his natural instinct is to strike! However I would not use this bait when bass are active because they will probably be focusing on the surface or what's right in front of them,no what's on bottom(which is where I would fish a worm). Ok think hard about this!

1.Pick 3 baits that you have or have not caught fish on. Jig Soft Swimbait Squarebill Crankbait 2.analyze this bait. I want you to think about A. What are you trying to imitate with this bait? craw minnow bluegill B.what similarities does the bait share with the real thing? profile & action action action & color C. Differences between the real and fake? none taste & subtle motion subtle action D.what situation would you use it in,and this is key-Why!! rocky bottom cover more than structure active feeding

My man, it´s the other way around !

You can certainly do it, but IMO, braid is an awfully expensive filler unless you have some laying around, unused. Better to fill with cheap mono, then fluoro, IMO....

Duo realis spybaits and a some jackall cherry 0 footers

If I were you I'd set a new precedent and buy a brand new Calcutta TE or Curado 300e and tell her sorry but that ring will have to wait now

I can bet your just a pleasure to be around.

Instead just buy a Fat Ika!! And just some advice...I would never use my guide as a bait keeper.

An ultralight with a small curlytail grub or marabou crappie jig will catch anything that swims.

Poppers are for fishing targets like stickups or stumps. Walking baits are good for covering water and when fish are really chasing shad and baitfish and clear water. Buzzbaits I like in dirtier water and around heavier cover. Prop baits are good target fishing baits as well and seem to excel when bass are feeding on bluegills.

The difference is drive gear technology in the Tatula reel series is state of the art, Lew's isn't. The Tatlua R offers 8:1 ratio, Lew's doesn't. Tom

Its Hard to get tired of the Lanier. I can't wait for the summer swimbait and topwater bite! Thats when the spots show their true colors.

Fished Lanier on Saturday wth my nephew. Early in the morning we had some success with white spinnerbait and Yamamoto crankbait. Later in the day we landed some with flukes, jerkbaits, and buzz baits.