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I picked up 3 of their new colors last time I was in Academy. Their new bluegill, gold/black back, and a ghost minnow color all looked too good for me to pass up. Gold/black back has already been doing work

Today, I did something that I've been trying my hardest to do for two months: catch a jig fish. I fished it and fished it (not exclusively, but often) for that time period without even getting a bite. Imagine my exuberance today when I finally caught a jig bass! Did a little dance move and whooped in the air......May many more follow!

I feast upon the souls of my tournament competition, er...I mean, I like beef jerky.

Coffee, bran muffin, Coffee, peanut butter sandwich, Coffee, Granola bar, Coffee. Hootie

How strong are your arms? oe

Owner stinger treble hook ST-36. TW has them. That is what I use.

Roboworms, Iovino products and Upton's Customs are all good finesse worms and available from TW. Tom

The green fish have really big mouths that is why they call them largemouths. The brown fish have small mouths that is why they call them smallmouths.

The FB group is We Who Loves The Abu Ambassadeur. Guys from all over the world sharing their reels, and passion for all things Ambassadeur. Check it out,you'll be amazed at what you can do with an old Ambassadeur

I always take one or two Granola bars. I almost always forget that I've brought them. Unless I'm fishing with someone else who reminds me, I generally forget to eat anything.

Really? You might like this "healthy addition" to your menu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese

Live bait

I just remembered that old show "Supermarket Sweep" where you raced someone to try & spend as much money as possible in a set amount of time in a shopping market... I bet that show would KILL if it was revamped as a fishing show. Too bad NOBODY could afford to send me thorough that place haha... One trip down the GanCraft or Megabass aisle and studio execs would have repo trucks showing up to take their cars before the episode was done being filmed.

Nice reel selection hootie All the good jdm retailers have been mentioned, add hedgehog for tuning parts, cant go wrong with any of these places. The yen is dropping and some of these reels can be had at an awesome price I was telling my fishing buddy the other day, with all the money ive spent over the past few years buying and selling jdm reels, i could of just bought the d**n plane ticket to japan. Bring an empty suitcase and go wild at each tackle shop, lol.

Yep, smallmouth. If you close the mouth and the jaw line is in front of the eye... smally. If the jaw line is behind the eye... largemouth and if the eye and the jaw line matchup... it's a spot.

For 20 years I've fished a private 40 acre strip pit in Southern Illinois that used to produce a lot of 4 to 5 pound bass. Eventually the old guys that used to catch and fry bass quit coming around. Soon we quit catching those big bass, then we stopped catching anything over 2 pounds. Something had to change, so about 4 years ago we decided to aggressively harvest the small bass that we caught. This year we caught a great variety of healthy bass in all sizes up to 5 pounds. The lake is back, and we continue to catch and keep bass under 14".

The young grandson walks up to his grandfather who is siting in the recliner watching TV and he asks his grandfather, "Grandpop, can you make a sound like a frog?" "Well," said the old man, "I guess I could but why?" "Because, grandma said that when you croak we can all got to Disney World."

I haven't been dropshotting much of late, but I have a MF spinning and a ML-F casting Carbonlite rods. Both have been fantastic in light line applications, the ML, a tad better paired with a Chronarch 50e. I wouldn't hesitate to drop with either. I split/shot with both, among other soft plastics applications. I've dropped with my previous-gen Compres and they do fine, but honestly, for the same $$, I've found the Carbonlites to be more sensitive, and when on sale (like during Spring Classic for like $70), impossible to beat. Before Shimano changed their lineup, I would drool over the Crucial drop shot rods. Man were/are they sweet.

I like the tassels hanging off everything.. Nothing screams "IM A MAN DAMMIT!" like little tassels and ass-less chaps.

Snake River Canyon? Is that his nickname for the wife or the girlfriend?

Got a pretty awesome text from my dad the other day to brighten my dull work trip in Texas. Got the "new" motor all hooked up on my boat for me. Just need to bolt on the trim and tilt and it's a done deal. Thought I'd share with y'all (yeah, it's kind of sticking). Looking forward to running her when I get back!

What about a rainbow?

This thread made me want to modify an old 5000, so I got a nice one from a friend and did some work on it. I did all the normal stuff, bearing cog wheel, dual bearing level wind, replaced the bushings on the spool with bearings, replaced the crankshaft bushing with a bearing and upgraded the drag washers to carbon tex. I also replaced the stock handle with this 100mm carbon fiber job. I polished, oiled and cleaned everthing, took it outside and made a few casts with a 3/8oz weight on 12lb test P-line CX, and it blew my mind how smooth and how far this thing was capable of. The rod I was using is an old St.Croix 6'6" Pro Glass MH/M. Anyway if anyone else is sitting on the fence about these mods, I highly recommend them.

I don't have a favriot. I like umall. Hootie

I thought it was implied.

I'm done buying Shimano rods too, unless I find the old gen cork Crucial or Compre. I bought a Clarus for my daughter to use for slinging senko's and it's just.... not a good choice for what I paid for it, plus she hates it.. I think Shimano's entire line suffered in those EVA models and gave up a lot of the good value that was present in the old gen cork models. I don't know anything about the new models, because I no longer care I guess.

I agree with what DarrenM says. Go Crucial for a Dropshot rod. Especially if you can find the previous Generation with cork. They are freakin' sweet.

Do you use any of the Carbonlite rods to dropshot, If so how do you like them for that application and what power/action carbonlite are you dropshotting on? Sorry, buying news rods makes my head spin, So hard to choose a new rod when there are hundreds of choices....

I was a Compre fan - specifically the previous models with cork handles. But if I were looking at Shimano rods for drop shot, it'd be Crucial. All that said, and I may draw fire for this, I'm probably not going to buy another Shimano rod. Honestly, I went in because they offered a lifetime warranty, and this year all that went out the door, and no rods were grandfathered in. Don't want to bash the brand, because I love their reels. Just that I'm happier with other rods at this stage. Specifically, BPS Carbonlites. Comparing the new Compres to the current Carbonlites, the latter beats the former on lightness (in my hands) hands-down. Compres are lined up next to the Crucials at Bass Pro here, so I have compared them a lot. The new Compres are a lot more tip-heavy to me, something I do not like. To see what I mean, take the same length and action Carbonlite, even Crucial and compare. Both are lighter tip-top than the Compres. That's something I personally prefer. You may not care, so just stating my thoughts on your Q.

I might pick up a shiny black daiwa. I have a question, does the daiwa laguna have the free floating spool design like the zillion?

haha, yea that was me. Ive wanted one for 2 years now. With the yen dropping i was close to picking up the hedgehog though... Ive been on a shopping spree this year, hoping i enjoy this reel. It will put me at 4 casting combos. Was going to use the money for either a custom finesse rod build or twin power/vanquish spinning reel. Who needs a spinning reel though, i have 4 finesse spools

Are you the one that outbid me last night on ebay? Lol, I'm glad I didn't win it because I really didn't need it...I just lusted it. I need to be done for a while. In the past 4 months I got: 2 tdz r+, pxl r, curado 51e, curado I, scorpion xt, 2 tdz hl and my most recent acquisition a steez 103hla. The only thing I need now is a finesse rod. I'm actually trying to figure out what to sell because my goal is to narrow it down to 6 or 7 casting combos.

My winter reel was either going to be the new brenious, new ktf pixy, or conquest 51dc. Well, its a td ito 103HL Have my list of parts ready to order, handle, gears, drag, hedghehog bearings & parts, all i need is to figure out which spool ill be using... megabass finesse megabass honeycomb IS steez sv 105 decisions decisions...

My favorite too, but I'm out. I heard somewhere they might bring it back - hope so!

I have not regretted it. Those heavy power rods were just the ticket. Matter of fact, I just recently purchased an IMX heavy. Not the new version, one of the old ones. Yeah, there are still some out there. Hootie

It's a what ....5 hour drive ? Not bad, I've driven 10 hours to purchase and pick up fishing stuff.

This is my experience as well, especially for deeper/heavier cranks.

Glad you had a good season. I'm on the lake until it freezes. If we are lucky it won't!

Where as self improvement through introspection is generally considered a good thing, there often comes a time when a man may realize that when dealing with the outdoors and nature, the vast array of unseen and unknown variables makes complete control unattainable. Some look at this as the real beauty of it. A-Jay

Lighter fluid works great. It is the best for bearings and it breaks up all the oil and grease on gear or whatever. It all pretty much just falls off with no scrubbing and works far better then Alchohol.

The limited purple/gold color was more effective than I thought it would be.

IMHO, If the Mudfish bite is on, then you didn't get skunked because I'd be happy catching Mudfish all day!

Wow...I didn't know reels were tuned like cars hehe. Thanks for sharing the site. BTW, prefectures came from the old fief system from feudal japan, The old provinces ruled by the daimyos basically became the prefectures of today.

Ive bought most of my jdm stuff there..never been ripped off and always get a deal.

I agree with some of the posters. Use whatever cast is good for you and the guy your fishing with that day. You should have a whole repertoire of different casts for different situations. I overhead cast quite often, but I also roll cast side arm if that side of the boat is open. It is very smooth, effortless, casting method, and much easier on the old body parts. From the bank I roll cast a lot with overhead branches in the area. I occasionally back cast and pitch. Whatever is good for that particular situation is what I use. I would never tell someone they have to fish a certain way to be in my boat. That just sounds un-American, and not very friendly! The secret is to go out and have fun for the day, without a lot of restrictions.

I never thought about what cast you can and can't do. No one has ever told me what's right and wrong, either. It's pretty silly, if you think about it.

Every type of casting motion has it's time and place. Overhead is fine if you're bombing away for distance. Not so much if you are trying to land a lure right on top of a fish holding spot.

Getting the new Zillion would be sweeet