Leaderboard

My order came next season is set up nicely!

All those bass in clear water lakes that eat A-rigs with thick wire and snap swivels everywhere, but braided line is too visible

I rarely use a leader with braid on my casting rods. Putting a leader on braid in the dirty water in the lakes I fish is a waste of time and effort. Putting a leader on braid when flipping heavy grass is completely defeating the point of fishing braid and just asking for heartbreak.

Bad Parrot A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John threatened the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior." John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, "May I ask what the turkey did?" And you thought there were no clean jokes left! Happy Thanksgiving _____________

You need to do some research before stating controversial opinions / statements. This topic has been beaten to death. There are times when a leader can be helpful and times its completely uneccassry.

Whichever one I'm fishing at the moment, even more so if there happens to be a fish putting a bend in it

My favorite is this Zebco ZS1 5'6" light action rod and reel. My mother bought this for my birthday about 16 years ago, and it has been my "ace of spades" on several occassions, and espcially so this year. She died 6 years ago due to cancer, and this rod and reel will always be special to me. It has seen a good share of bluegill and crappie over the years, an ccassional bass here and there. And then this yesr, caught several nice bluegill on it, a handful of bass, hang a 4lber on it last month that snapped the line as i got it halfway up thr pier. And for some reason ive done far, far better with it then either of the two new light/ultralight set ups i just got recently. Only caught one drum on the new ultralight, and absolutely zilch on thst new light action rod. In fact that day I caught that bass I just asked "what does this bass weigh" in different section of this forum. Very first cast with that rod that day I caught thst 16" largemouth. There Is just SOMETHING about that rod that seems to make me do much better.Maybe im just so used to it is one thing, but its hands down caught a lt more fhan the fwo new ones.And now it has a fresh spool of 4lb test, so it is ready to go again.

Went to Olathe after work yesterday with the intention of fishing my new Pinnacle Optimus reel and Pinnacle Perfecta DHC5 rod. I was really planning on mainly fishing and not doing much catching but the 42.7 degree water at the ramp was higher than I expected and gave me a little hope. I ran straight to the high rock bank on the far north end because I know it has the deepest water in the lake and the sun was already shining on it. The rod and reel felt great, I could really sling my 7/16oz finesse jig a long way even with it being spooled with 20lb fluoro. I'd only made about a dozen cast when I felt what I assume was a limb or brushpile in 25-30' of water (I was impressed I could still feel it since my fingers were already numb). Just like I had been, lifted slowly and it was mush, then an ever so slight pull downwards that I immediately met with an almost straight up and down hookset. Just an average Olathe fish but it was 1 more than I planned on catching I was momentarily sidetracked while trying to retrieve a spook that someone cast into a tree that was a good 30' away from the waters edge. After another 30 minutes of casting with no luck and the wind blowing way harder than the 6mph they forecast, I started just casting out to deeper water and drifting down the bank, fishing uphill and looking for baits as I floated. Right about the time I started to hit the curve in the bank, I drug my jig on one of my first pulls after it hit bottom and got whacked. I set the hook and nailed a limb Irritated that I'd missed the fish, motored out to my bait to try to get it back. I was snagged in about 19' of water on the edge of where the bottom begins to climb up to the 15' range when all the sudden my depthfinder was spotted with fish everywhere I had a feeling what it was and after quickly switching my jig to a War Eagle jigging spoon, it hit bottom and I got all of 2 hops in before I felt the telltale "tick" as it was fluttering back down. The line getting ripped from the spool was a pretty dead giveaway, the broad white side and stripes just confirmed it. After that it was on like bing bong Jack! The last one was my biggest at 5lbs 10ozs and bigger than my 22" board. She was a real fighter who had beaten another angler at some point. Quite a workout for it's first time out and both the rod and reel performed flawlessly. Got the reel dialed in really fast so it was easy to cast even with frozen fingers, then the drag got way more work than any bass will ever put it through and it never missed a beat there either. Loved the combination of power and sensitivity of the rod. Not what I'd typically use for a jigging spoon but it's what I had and it worked just fine. I actually got to use the Quickflip button on one of the fish that hit my spoon on the initial fall and it worked just like it should. Obviously not a real thorough test but if yesterday was any indication of what I can expect, I'm going to really enjoy fishing with this setup

Haha a lot of jigs and a whole bag full of random stuff. Fact Mike threw in a t shirt and a sticker, once again shows Siebert jigs are the only jigs that I'll ever tie on.

After a few visits to the local donut a fellow realized that if he ordered a raisin muffin, the good looking girl with a very short skirt had to get on a ladder to reach for it.As he was catching an eyeful, another guy comes in to see whats going on,so he orders a rasin muffin too. While she was up the ladder an old guy walks in and she looks at him and says "is yours raisin too". He says " no ,but its tingling a little bit" C22

I'm gonna catch it out of banks lake georiga Saturday.

Wife picked up invoice as I posted this I got slapped in the back of the head 3 times lmaooo

Let's face it, guys, we are all suckers for new baits and tactics. Livingston has two types of baits now, the old ones in the red/pink packages and the new ones in the blue packages. The new ones are about $5 more than the original ones. If you want to have some fun take the time to watch the TV and print ads for fishing tackle and boats. Note the colors, backgrounds, statements, print size, what the pros say and don't say and have some fun. Marketing is a science and when you guys end up in college may I suggest taking a marketing class to study what advertising companies do to hook you like a big bass. I love marketing. Just watch the backgrounds of car commercials, only and you can see the subliminal colors and suggestions. Now go out and each of you buy some Livingston lures for around $16 to $17 each and make the Bait Monkey happy for Christmas.

Start the day off as I always do fishing saltwater, yesterday it was the beach. Nice groundswell coming in with about 15 mph wind, needed a kastamaster to get out to the trough. I pop about a 10# jack right after daylight and gave me all I could handle, the surf can make it a tough catch. Follow up with couple 3-4 pounders, bite went dead and I was wacked out. About noon I go out for my daily bass fishing, the canal was beautiful with no floating grass or high weeds, fished a jerkbait. 4 or 5 small bass then I get hit what felt like a barracuda, lol, pretty nice fight. Was the highlight of my day, don't actually hook and land many of these, just get strikes.

There's some monsters in Olathe. I know some guys do well trolling for them, I usually target them with topwater during the summer time and fall with traps, this is the first time I've gotten on them with spoons. If someone had a boat with good electronics I think they could really get on them and catch some big ones. I talked to one guy a month or so ago that had a picture of his wife with a 13.5 pound wiper she caught slow rolling a 1oz spinnerbait at Olathe this past summer and I've heard rumors of a 16lb wiper that was caught on chicken livers this summer as well but haven't seen any proof.

I will see if I can dig up some of my old baits and try another 1. It is fun to look back at some of the old baits and their craftsmanship.

The lamiglas INF735C is a excellent jig rod for casting jigs like football in 1/2+. The problem is the OP doesn't like stiff tip rods and this rod doesn't fit his preferences. The NRX series also are stiff tip rods. Mt personal custom jig rods are very similar to the INF735, except they have split handle and short fore grips with micro guides. PM for details if interested about $250 each for ALX. My average cast is about 90' anywhere from 3' to 40' deep, targeting bass over 10 lbs. Tom

Don't worry about ordering from rakuten, ive ordered several reels and a few rods and other things. Anyone that accepts Paypal is trustworthy. Since its only a reel shipping should be around 15 dollars. They send you a shipping quote before you pay so you can see how much it costs.

After one season the Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 made my go-to list of baits for clear water smallies. You must be a patient angler and retrieve this bait slowly and steadily - if running and gunning and throwing reaction baits is your style the Spin Bait is not for you. Also important to success with this strange looking lure is a precise balance of components: a 7' ML rod and 6 lb. fluoro. (I used Sunline Super FC Sniper.) will give you a presentation that maximizes this bait's effectiveness. You may be interested in this post from last year: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/140083-clear-water-smallies-on-the-first-day-of-summer-62114/ Here are a couple of photos to further whet your appetite:

Gene Larew..

someone got it right

You need to try bacon wrapped walleye. I can't tell if the bacon makes the walleye taste better or vice versa. All I know is it's deeeelishus. Wish you a happy thanksgiving also and I hope momma and kids are doing well.

Keep in mind these giant bass live a maximum of 15 years. The Kurita WRB was caught in July 2009, Dottie was found dead in May of 2008. The big bass Kurita referenced are long gone and no bass over 19 lbs has been caught anywhere since 2009. The rumors that 30 lb LMB live in Cuba have never been authenticated, in fact nothing over 15 lbs has been actually weighed in Cuba, they eat the bass down there. No LMB over 19 lbs has ever been officially weighed in Mexico, again the locals eat what they catch, except Raul....and that could be another rumor! Tom

Used Lew's Tournament w/ a used St Croix Triumph. Good Spinnerbait setup. Has enough back bone to drive a hook home, while being light enough to fish w/ all day and be very sensitive.

Sorry to hear about your mother, that's a beautiful gift she gave you. I don't really have a sentimental rod and reel, but this is just my favorite. Lews TP 7.1:1 Powell Endurance 714

The "least common denominator" would be: habitat quality. Just how that sorts out will depend on the particular pond. Most basically there will be three location types: winter, spawning, and feeding. In such a small water, some of these may overlap. Winter is often oriented to survival, mediated by environmental parameters like oxygen, temperature, lack of current, cover and, lastly, food. Spawning keys are temperature, substrate, and depth. The rest is all about food and here you are looking at prey species and places and times that provide vulnerable prey. These are the pieces to the puzzle in a nutshell. Am I missing anything guys? The other possibility, and not an entirely unlikely one, is that the one side is favorable to the way you fish.

Jacksonville has some killer fishing holes. St. John's river is one of them and connects to an inlet I have fished at whiteys fish camp when I have visited that area.

What side do they spawn at?

Man I bet a lot of girls were bummed when you got married! Said no one. Ever. J/K, love ya! Congrats!

Where? California or Japan Why? Cause aint nowhere else producted a 25 lb bass!

Same to you all! It's snowing like crazy here right now. Dreaming of warmer weather days already!

Largemouth are more territorial than smallmouth. In lakes where there are only smallmouth, they tend to occupy prime real estate that a largemouth normally would. There are VERY few lakes where this is the case though. When both species are present, smallies either wander, or occupy the next best location, often deeper and cooler. Some wander sop much, they key on baitfish, not structure, so you have to learn how to read super structure, and how huge schools of bait relate to it. The notion that largemouth are a larger species isn't exactly true, either. Northern largemouth bags are often overshadowed by smallmouth bags when smallmouth are accessible. On the Great Lakes, while there are smallies in the warmer protected bays, they are dominated by largemouth, while the open water lake, and it's huge schools of pelagic bait are the domain of the smallmouth. I'll tell you this much about growing up on Port Bay, Lake Ontario: while I love largemouth fishing more than just about anything, if the weather cooperated, I'd leave the bay, and look for smallies in the big lake.

Look into the Lamiglas Infinity Bass 735c. Its 279 and you should get money off with Black Friday. The rod does it all and is rated to 1.5ozs. Better buy IMO than my NRX 894.

My uncle prefers drum over anything else. They eat mainly shellfish, craws, and baitfish and have a very firm, white fillet. They are closely related to the red drum (redfish), black drum, and croaker that live in salt water and are all very popular food fish. The ones I've cleaned have zero red meat in them either so cleaning them is simple.

I don't do either, I do have a 20" and 25" mark on a couple of bass rods just for curiosity. I C & R everything, even slot snook, I fish strictly for the fun. I'm sure I've caught some really nice bass here in Florida as well as some great saltwater fish, just not hung up needing to know a fish to the tenth of an ounce.

Went to Olathe after work yesterday with the intention of fishing my new Pinnacle Optimus reel and Pinnacle Perfecta DHC5 rod. I was really planning on mainly fishing and not doing much catching but the 42.7 degree water at the ramp was higher than I expected and gave me a little hope. I ran straight to the high rock bank on the far north end because I know it has the deepest water in the lake and the sun was already shining on it. The rod and reel felt great, I could really sling my 7/16oz finesse jig a long way even with it being spooled with 20lb fluoro. I'd only made about a dozen cast when I felt what I assume was a limb or brushpile in 25-30' of water (I was impressed I could still feel it since my fingers were already numb). Just like I had been, lifted slowly and it was mush, then an ever so slight pull downwards that I immediately met with an almost straight up and down hookset. Just an average Olathe fish but it was 1 more than I planned on catching I was momentarily sidetracked while trying to retrieve a spook that someone cast into a tree that was a good 30' away from the waters edge. After another 30 minutes of casting with no luck and the wind blowing way harder than the 6mph they forecast, I started just casting out to deeper water and drifting down the bank, fishing uphill and looking for baits as I floated. Right about the time I started to hit the curve in the bank, I drug my jig on one of my first pulls after it hit bottom and got whacked. I set the hook and nailed a limb Irritated that I'd missed the fish, motored out to my bait to try to get it back. I was snagged in about 19' of water on the edge of where the bottom begins to climb up to the 15' range when all the sudden my depthfinder was spotted with fish everywhere I had a feeling what it was and after quickly switching my jig to a War Eagle jigging spoon, it hit bottom and I got all of 2 hops in before I felt the telltale "tick" as it was fluttering back down. The line getting ripped from the spool was a pretty dead giveaway, the broad white side and stripes just confirmed it. After that it was on like bing bong Jack! The last one was my biggest at 5lbs 10ozs and bigger than my 22" board. She was a real fighter who had beaten another angler at some point.

Love me some T3s! Also got me a Rarenium Ci4+ 2500!!

Oh yes I say 8 is definitely a good estimation. That fish has it all, length girth, belly, 8 lbs is definitely in the equation on that one. Well done!!

In the crowd of smallie fishermen I hang out with, NOBODY weighs fish. A quick length measurement is about all anybody does. No tournaments or competitions are held so even length measurements aren't held to exact standards. We all wade or fish from kayaks, canoes or 'toons in rivers. A "20" is everyone's goal. If it's under 14 inches, our "man laws" dictate you aren't even allowed to post a picture of it.

Having fished tournament for years, there is always a bump board sitting out on the deck of my boat. Very quick and easy to measure and release as I still count the number of "keeper" sized fish I catch on each trip. And in all those years, I've never seen the day when my Golden Rule had dead batteries!

Put those polarized sun glasses on under your cap and hit anything and everything that looks promising. Just relax and have some fun. Some of the best fishing I have done is without any electronics - just hitting the laydowns, cover and structure that I saw or thought was there. Now go out and have some fun!

weights vary with scales... length is more uniform between anglers. oe

Master Angler certificates are awarded when fish of a certain length are caught. Length determines if a fish is a legal catch and if it can be kept for consumption or used in a weigh in.

Nice catch! I was in Jacksonville for work training a couple years ago; ate at Clark's Fish Camp which is next to a creek off the St. John's river and saw a bunch of those. "Are those pike?" I naively inquired. Strange looks from the natives.

Jerkbaits and jigs when it's really cold. If you get an extended warming trend then I'd add a single Colorado bladed spinnerbait and a trap to the mix. Probably 90% of the time I'm fishing a suspending jerkbait though. I really like the Erratic shad when the water gets really cold. They have almost no roll on a slow, soft jerk that the big girls like when it's cold!

The description alone made it your best. Also how I eat bratwursts.

This is the best report I've been able to post in about two months. Enjoy. Got 45 minutes free and went to Mize yesterday as the front rolled through. Caught a couple small ones on a jerkbait, but no good ones. Had one follow right to the bank and watched him destroy the bait. He ate it like a kid eats a hot dog with both ends of the bait sticking out of his mouth and still didn't hook up . Pretty cool to watch though.

Dallas may make the playoffs but that'll be it.

my socks dont even match

I use a BPS PQ on a 6'6" bps Extreme Rod spooled with 20lb Power Pro Slick with about 8ft of Fluoro leader for my main rig. Total combo around $200. I've never thrown a high end BC on a high end rod. I may upgrade someday but then again, I may not. This gives me everything I've needed up to this point and I love it. Like Hootie I throw 1/4 oz jigs and such on it all the time and with the distance I am typically looking for. Am I slamming high end gear? Not at all...I would LOVE to give it a try. I'm just saying that I love what I got and don't really have a "Tackle Monkey". The Bait monkey takes up too much room. Buy the best you can afford and love what you got.