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I eat them and pretend to be a bass

38 lb lake trout 32 lb pike

Getting a word in edgewise with my wife, is like trying to thread a sewing machine with the motor running. Hootie

You've hit on every keyword to trigger automatic banning from northern moderators, lol.

Don't quit your day job!

Still don't get it.

Spinnerbaits for me are a more clear water or faster retrieve bait or when fish are feeding on smaller baitfish. I fish my bladed jigs extremely slowly, just fast enough to keep the blade vibrating, even bumping the bottom if possible. In lakes that see lots a spinnerbaits, a bladed jig is a good replacement. They also shine in stained or dirty water or around vegetation because the strong vibration helps the fish hone in on the bait. There are times I will fish them faster (over vegetation for example), but 9 out of 10 larger bass I catch on them will be during a very slow retrieve. I've had good success with them using a stroking or pumping retrieve, letting them settle to the bottom then lifting the rod quickly before letting it settle again. I think 2 of the biggest mistakes I see guys make with bladed jigs are, 1. fishing them too fast and 2. not recognizing a bite. Like I said, I like to fish them slowly. The issue then becomes that a big bass can lazily swim up to the bait, inhale it while maintaining a similar pace, then spit the bait out without it ever feeling much different. I can't count the number of big fish I've caught on them where it felt just slightly different. Sometimes it feels like the blade has quite working, other times like I've caught a leaf or piece of weeds. I think the common notion is that since it's a moving bait the strikes will be vicious, which they certainly are at times, but more often than not they're much more subtle than I think most fishermen expect. I first realized this by fishing clear water and actually seeing bass strike my bait and noticing that I felt very little despite the bait being almost completely inhaled on a couple occasions. I thought back and realized I'd felt similar strikes lots of times before but never realized they were strikes. Once I started setting the hook on those little bumps and when the blade just wasn't vibrating as hard, I was amazed how many fish I was catching that I didn't even know were there before. Lastly, it's always possible that they just aren't a good tool in the areas you're fishing them. If you fish anywhere with stained water and vegetation though, I'm 100% certain there is a time when they will shine for you.

Harbor Freight sells a few different colors of powder paint way cheaper than Pro Tech. The black is a matte finish that I use on a lot of my baits and is very durable.

How Bass See Color as Seen Through The Human Mind!

Don't bother trying guys.......I bought everything they had in their warehouse....there is nothing left.

That Pike is Amazing, but that Lake Trout is out-of-this-world!!!!

That's a nice northern, Dwight! Mine looks tiny next to yours This isn't the biggest one I've caught up in Northwest Ontario, but it's close ....and the only one that I have a picture of.....that I can find. Never done any salt water fishing.

I didn't read this John, I didn't read this, I didn't read this. Hootie

The Hookup Tackle has the Rep Sample 804GLX for $299.00 w/free shipping. I would be looking for change in between the cushions on the couch and under my truck seat and selling one of my wife's handbags to come up with the $99.00 to buy the GLX over the new IMX.

HOW TO MAKE WOMAN HAPPY It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be: 1. a friend 2 a companion 3. a lover 4. a brother 5. a father 6. a master 7. a chef 8. an electrician 9. a carpenter 10. a plumber 11. a mechanic 12. a decorator 13. a stylist 14. a sexologist 15. a gynecologist 16. a psychologist 17. a pest exterminator 18. a psychiatrist 19. a healer 20. a good listener 21. an organizer 22. a good father 23. very clean 24. sympathetic 25. athletic 26. warm 27. attentive 28. gallant 29. intelligent 30. funny 31. creative 32. tender 33. strong 34. understanding 35. tolerant 36. prudent 37. ambitious 38. capable 39. courageous 40. determined 41. true 42. dependable 43. passionate 44. compassionate WITHOUT FORGETTING TO: 45. give her compliments regularly 46. love shopping 47. be honest 48. be very rich 49. not stress her out 50. not look at other girls AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO: 51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself 52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself 53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes IT IS VERY IMPORTANT: 54. Never to forget: * birthdays * anniversaries * arrangements she makes HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY 1. Show up naked 2. Bring beer

I don't get it.

As others have told you, just leave it in the pot, I'll give you some other tips to keep in mind. Moisture, that is what will cause an explosion, 1 bead of sweat in to a mold cavity caused a blow up that if I wasn't wearing safety glasses, well I don't want to think what would have happened. To get started pouring with your pot, put the lead you are going to melt inside the pot and turn the thermostat to 5 and place you mold on top of the pot, this will melt the lead slower but it will do so in a manner that will cause any moisture on the lead to evaporate before the lead melts so it will be fine, plus with you mold on top, it will be heated so that your pours will come out better right from the start as you have to have a hot mold otherwise the lead freezes to fast and you end up with an incomplete pour.

As a rod builder, I better know what rod action means. lol An X-Fast tip can still be comparatively soft model for model, that is what I was recommending. Lure weight rating is important as well. That's part of the reason for discouraging using one rod for all three of these techniques. A moderate-fast action is another way to go, especially if you're fishing the top water quickly like a sppok. I find a little faster tip easier to use making short jerks with long pauses on the popping baits.

Easily They have a pretty big bill on them and will easily get down deeper than 5' on 20lb test. I'm using copolymer, but wouldn't be surprised if they do hit 10' with fluoro. You can kind of get an idea how big the bill is in this side by side picture of an 8.0 and 1.5 size squarebill

I love fishing a bladed jig around wood and catch tons of fish on them. They will snag more often with a standard open hook design but there's ways around it. When I'm in the really heavy stuff, I break out one of my bladed jigs that I use a swinging football head and Owner Twistlock XXX hook so I can T rig my trailer and it'll go anywhere a jig can while producing the strong vibration of a bladed jig. I really have little use for a swim jig because a lot of our lakes are dirtier and the fish have a difficult time locating one. I've been trying to incorporate one into my arsenal whenever possible though and have found some very specific situations when they are better than a bladed jig, which ties back into the OP's situation where, even though I much prefer one to the other, one isn't better than the other 100% of the time.

2 St. Croix LTB's from their bargain room for $115 apiece.

My winter fishing aint about lure size, it's about slow! 7" worm is my normal & I rarely go smaller

Here's my boat. :-( Tight lines, Bob

Do yourself a favor and don't buy a GL2, I bet 90% of the people on this forum would agree. For The $200 mark you can get the New Shimano Crucial or the New St Croix Avid X (Both in the ball park of 6'8-6'10 ML/XF or F), as for reel any 1000 sized Shimano will serve you well. My main DS setup is a TBS610MLXF w/ 1000 Saros paired with 10lb Yellow PP and a 6-8lb leader of Invisx - I can haul in big smallies all day.

You got it A-Jay. Ain't no if. If a man speaks in the forest, and his wife isn't around to hear him, is he wrong anyhow? Hootie

Hera ya go! Edit-Wrote 300, meant 200lb...

There is no way I could do that. I am like a child looking at his baseball cards. I get bored and reorganize my stuff just so I have an excuse to look at it. I already have too many things that never see the water because they are pretty. I did do that with my tools though and next thing you know I had a beer fridge a radio a woodshop and an ex wife. Kept the woodshop best upgrade ever.

It's more of an enthusiast upgrade. Flushing and adding 1 drop of a lightweight oil to each stock bearing will be a great improvement. Anything over abec 5 is not necessary and even those aren't really needed. It's a relatively cheap upgrade but honestly a professional deep cleaning and/or super tuning would be money better spent. As you will see soon, you'll get people saying they're worth the money. For me they aren't but I still buy them because I like to waste money on dumb stuff.

Spent 45 years welding. Thirty two of those years building fire trucks. When I was young, I always said I wanted to be a doctor or a welder. Knew I would make the wrong choice. Hootie

That's when it's time to break out my patented "Around the World" cast Usually after my bait whizzes by someones ear a time or two they get the message. I also like to move to the spot they just left and catch a fish, that'll really make some people mad. This spring I was catching trout one after the other in a small pocket on a little lake when I saw a father and two young boys walking along the bank. I yelled for them to set up their lawn chairs by me and directed them to the exact location they needed to cast their baits. Moved my boat to play blocker from some other guys that were coming to barge in on the kids fun. My catching pretty much stopped but I had way more fun watching his kids fighting trout as fast as they could get a line in the water than I was having catching them myself. I don't mind sharing a good spot sometimes, but it helps a lot when someone asks nicely before they elbow into my personal space.

hey all Like it says first and best for me! I've been trying jigs off and on these past few weeks with No luck. I've been reading and came to a conclusion I'm doing it wrong lol I had been tossing the jig beside cover and stumps and Logs in the creek here with no luck Today I walked to the deepest widest spot I knew Threw it in the upper middle and let it sit 40 seconds gave a solid jerk and let it sit Began a slow twitch drag back to me The saying that practice makes an angler is true I have learned to distinguish the feel of a rock or a twig Hitting my jig When this fish bit it was dead center of this hole. The jig was slowing grinding and bouncing across the bottom And then it got heavy, there was no hi frequency vibration I associate with a stick or rock hang up So I gave her a solid jerk and held pressure Nothing Nothing Nothing Then old girl pulled back So exciting

Congrats! You'll really enjoy it, I think. And when you dig out a birds nest, the line doesn't kink as it does with mono/fluoro which can weaken the line. I can only recall one birds nest so bad with braid that I had to cut it out. I've had nasty ones since, but each and every one I've been able to resolve.

Just wait until you try SX1!

Agreed... but if you buy a $1000 jig setup on sale for $750, and you tell your wife you spent $750 on it, don't you then at least mention the $250 you did not spend?

The lakes I fish tournaments on in Illinois are really tough. We've had more than a few where 6lbs wins it. They are small lakes that get pounded and the weather around here is so screwed up the fish don't know what to do.

Only people I report INSTANTLY are a group of usually aliens with 30+ rods set out. Game warden first. State police next. Immigration Control last. Word travels faster than a warning. NEVER NEVER Even look like you are interested in the group. Just call the agencies.

Yes just add a leader if you feel line visibility is a problem.

get the smallest reel that will balance out on your rod that has a smooth drag. i'm a big fan of 1000 size stradics. I'll echo what Jezihog said. The GL2 you are interested in will be a let down for its price point. The st. croix avid 69mlxf is under 200$ and will blow the GL2 away. My DS/SH set up is the Xtreme 69mlxf and a stradic 1000. Love the combo.

Bent rod pattern is a strong one. Hard to ignore.

d**n, now I have to tear out the wall in the laundry room exposing the studs and say to my wife...."hey honey...."

Use braided line and rip it clear with a semi slack line. Throwing a half second of slack in your line really lets you rip them clean pretty easily.

The swing jig is effective, too.

Glad it worked out for you. I've managed to pare my gear down this year to just a Cabela's Super Magnum with 12 3700 trays, 9 magnum worm binders, and a deep 3700 size box full of swimbaits. I can say with confidence that I have more in single 3700 boxes than you carry total That's one of the great things about this sport, you can make it as simple or complicated as you want.

I like to buy nice things, but I like finding values too. If I can buy a nice piece of equipment for less that I feel performs on a level with more expensive gear, I'm all for it. Even on higher priced stuff I have a cutoff of around $200. I just feel like the difference is very minor in rods and reels once you get above that ceiling in everything except the price.

I caught 6 off a grassline today in a small lake. Throwing a PBJ jig that i made. I didn't have time to really try anything else. But they had it down in their mouth. Im gonna try and throw a red eye shad tomorrow. But the retrieve is the biggest thing. Find out what the fish want. Get a good cadence going. Sometimes you gotta fish painfully slow to get them to bite. Just gotta find out. On top of that. STAY CONFIDENT. Don't leave because you don't catch a fish quick. They're tough to figure out when its cold sometimes but when you do, its usually a consistent bite.

Small sinking prop bait fished on light fluorocarbon in clear water. Very effective on pressured fish.

Bass Resource Road Trip 2104 to Wilson Lake in Alabama. Deep cranking right near the water discharge and all of the sudden my crank stopped. Then took off. Figured I had a massive striper on as we even had to crank the motor to catch up. About 3/4 mile down river, we finally saw it surface, and oh my! No official weight, but with length measurements, and going off others that have been caught in the same length range we are figuring somewhere around 100lbs. Here is the thread: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/136364-shattering-state-records/ Jeff

Won my first Non-US fishing tournament last week. Fished an open the hotel we were staying at had in Jamaica. Caught 23 "Jamaican black bass" (What the guy from the hotel called them, they looked like dark colored goggle-eyes to me) in 30 minutes for the win. Allen

A woman takes a lover home during the day while her husband is at work. Her 9-year old son comes home unexpectedly, he sees them and hides in the bedroom closet to watch. The woman's husband also comes home. She puts her lover in the closet, not realizing that the little boy is in there already. The little boy says, 'Dark in here.' The man says, 'Yes, it is.' Boy: 'I have a baseball.' Man:'That's nice' Boy: 'Want to buy it?' Man: 'No, thanks.' Boy: 'My Dad's outside.' Man: 'OK, how much?' Boy: '$250' In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in the closet together. Boy: 'Dark in here.' Man: 'Yes, it is.' Boy: 'I have a baseball glove.' The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, How much?' Boy: '$750' Man: 'Sold.' A few days later, the Dad says to the boy , 'Grab your glove, let's go outside and have a game of catch.' The boy says, 'I can't, I sold my baseball and my glove.' The Dad asks, 'How much did you sell them for?' Boy: '$1,000' The Dad says, 'That's terrible to over charge your friends like that...that is way more than those two things cost. I'm taking you to church, to confession.' They go to the church and the Dad makes the little boy sit in the confessional booth and closes the door. The boy says, 'Dark in here..' The priest says, 'Don't start that **** again; you're in my closet now.'