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when i was much younger, i lucked up on what was considered the holy grail of fishing tackle at the time - a boron rod at a ridiculously low price at a store that was about to go out of business. to this day, i was more giddy over that purchase than i ever have been over any other expenditure on fishing tackle. and why not? i got a rolls royce for the price of a bicycle. boron rods were the "members only" jackets of the fishing world. and man o man did that rod ever catch fish. very quickly i became convinced that there were magical powers contained within that lightweight super sensitive boron awesomeness. sometimes i wondered if the rod was even crafted by human hands at all. perhaps it was left here by aliens who were watching from afar, conducting a bizarre experiment to see how a bumbling human would react to their advanced technology. in retrospect, i wonder if it could have shot lasers or somehow teleported fish out of the water into my waiting hands if i had only been smart enough to figure out how to harness its full potential. i cherished that rod like it was my only child, even down to polishing my fingerprints off of it after every outing. and i never, EVER let anyone else touch it. it was only natural for me to begin wondering if its powers extended beyond fishing. one day i decided to find out. i had met a girl that i was crazy about. and the kicker was that she actually liked to fish. i decided that she was the only human on the planet worthy of sharing a trip that included my precious magic fishing wand. this was the perfect storm. the girl of my dreams and the rod of my dreams on the same fishing trip. perhaps the rod's powers and luck would extend beyond the realm of fishing. initially, that hot summer day's trip exceeded all expectations with big fish after big fish reeled in, admired, and released. in my delirium, i proceeded to do the unthinkable. i handed her the rod to reel in a fish. biggest fish she had ever caught she said. she offered to go to the store to buy us a couple of cold beverages to celebrate. i wouldn't hear of her buying me a drink. "hold on, i got it, let me give you some money," i said. i laid down the rod and walked to the car, wallet in hand. "be back in a minute", she said with a smile that just made me melt. she turned the car around and headed for the store. too late, i saw it happening like it was in slow motion. she ran right over my precious boron rod!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! i screamed in a pathetic wail that was probably heard in the next county. not knowing what in the world she had done, and probably more than a little freaked out herself to hear a grown man scream like that, she slammed the car in reverse and headed back towards me at the speed of sound trying to figure out what the commotion was about - BACKING RIGHT OVER MY BORON ROD A SECOND TIME!!! i just fell to the ground beside the shattered rod and shattered dreams lamenting this horrible, sadistic twist of fate. why couldn't she just have run over me instead? it was over. it was all over. the mojo was gone. i just knew i would never catch another fish again. i have never felt such rage and betrayal. this woman deserved a fate worse than death. there was no choice. she HAD to be punished for committing this unspeakable act. so i married her. she has been paying for that rod for the last 25 years. and neither one of us could be happier about it.

Want to win a new G. Loomis E6X rod before they hit the store shelves near you? Then check back here on Friday - we're giving one away! Details on how to enter will be announced on Friday. See you then!

You guys need a crash course in the binomial scientific nomenclature over making sarcastic comments directed at someone that went to school for fishery management, lol. Macropterus salmonoides is the only described so called "largemouth bass." Macropterus the genus, and salmonoides is the species. There are at least seven other species currently assigned to the genus Macropterus , and the status of the members are in flux due to discoveries in DNA research arena. The genus includes spotted, Coosa, smallmouth, and a few others - all collectively known as "black bass" though all different species. I'll reiterate, in our lifetime, the Florida and northern largemouths will be given separate species. The current mode in scientific description seems to favor elimination of subspecies designations, as the splitters are having their way over the lumpers. DNA research bolsters their position. It's been like this for 20 years or so. Now, mind blown? About what? I can't make up this stuff. And FYI, "F1" is a designation to denote generation. Do a cross, and the babies from that cross are F1, or gen 1. Their babies are F2. And so on. You can make the same reference to captive raised fish. F1 could refer to the babies from wild caught fish. F8 would be the eighth generation of captive raised fish from wild stock. It's just a way of denoting generations. Without referencing what the source fish are (wild caught, cross breed, etc.) the Fx designation means nothing.

Yea but how do we know your scale isn't broken?

I'm not killing a state record fish if I can help it. I'll get it on a scale, take pics like I normally do and then release it. I'd rather keep my spot low key than simply have my name in a book. Those who know me and what I do will recognize and appreciate the fish, that's what would count to me.

Thanks Hootie but I'm sure there are more deserving folks on the board who could use a nice rod ! Thanks, but after the completion of the PQ 5-Year Challenge, I think my reviewing days are over...

But how many bowls would your regular cereal take to equal the fiber in one bowl of Colon Blow? Brian.

I won't tell.......but it's gonna run ya about $20. Brian.

A young guy from Abbeville, Alabama, moves to California and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job. The manager says, "Do you have any sales experience? The kid says, "Yeah, I was a salesman back home in Alabama." Well, the boss liked the kid so he gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did." His first day on the job was rough but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down. "How many sales did you make today?" The kid says, "One." The boss says, "Just one? Our sales people average 20 or 30 sales a day. You're going to have to improve considerably or look for another job! How much was the sale for?" The kid says, "$112,237.64." The boss says, "$112,237.64?! What in the world did you sell?!" Kid says, "First, I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fish hook. Then I sold him a larger fish hook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down at the lake, so I told him he was gonna need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a new bass boat. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that new Ford pick-up. I asked him how long he was going to be out at the lake and after he said 5 or 6days I took him down to the RV department and sold him slide-in camper for the truck." The boss said, "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat, a truck and a camper? "Kid says, "No, he came in here to buy a box of tampons for his wife and I said, 'Well, your weekend's shot, you might as well go fishing.'"

The Shimano Citica. It's an easy to use, get the job done reel.

Great story - The BEST Way to get into your own or someone else's boat is at the stern, put a foot on the lower unit (motor turned off) AND USE THE MOTORS TRIM TO LIFT YOU UP INTO THE VESSEL. A-Jay

Around here, the only rush of fishermen you see once spring rolls around are the local trout fishermen who go trout fishing for the first week of the season, and then they never go near the water again the rest of the year.

So many JDM choices now - and especially now with the favorable dollar/yen conversion rate. To help you decide - can you think of a technique that you don't have covered right now and associate a reel with that? OR, is there a technique that you really ENJOY the most and using a JDM reel for that technique might make the experience even more enjoyable? I think you have to narrow it down to what you want to use the reel for which will help you down-select all the JDM goodies out there. Of those you mention - if you really want to play with DC - I'd go Exsense. Want uber-light weight - the Aldebaran. Want the latest and greatest that combines elements of both - save a little more for the Met DC. Of course, being a round-reel fan...everyone should have a Conquest 50/51... Good luck in your decision !

That's it....I knew it was 2 minus something. Hootie

So many options... Im always gonna vote Conquest 50/51 because i think its the best reel they ever made. Plus, there gonna run out eventually, might as well grab one while there still somewhat available...

Met DC

For you guys that haven't seen it and would like the chance to get your hands on one of the new G Loomis E6X rods! http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/151519-win-a-new-g-loomis-e6x-rod/

I fish state ponds in the summer months that eventually get so weedy that I have nothing left but to throw frogs. My favorite baits to throw when there is some open water above the weedbeds are wake baits and my all time favorite is the 5/8 oz BPS 'The Egg'. It'll wake with the best of them, has a nose down hard wobbling action while diving down to 10'' or so and powers through cover like a super shallow square bill crank. The neat thing about the bait besides it's square bill esq nature is it's ability to be walked in a surface and sub surface action while also rolling side to side as it floats to the surface flashing it's colors at the fish. It is a very stable bait which means 2 things: A) it can be fished over weedy cover and have chunks of weeds stuck to the trebles and not effect the action of the bait while others would become unstable and blow out when burned as fast as you can turn the handle it will reach max depth and become unstable but just enough to begin to take on a form of hunting action while refusing to blow out and even when made to blow out it will very quickly recover on the surface and get back to work. There are 4 different ways to fish the bait that I have found will catch fish depending on how they want the bait. 1. slow wake 2. powering through cover on a steady retrieve like a big body super shallow square bill 3. walking the bait while transitioning from surface to subsurface in a classic walking motion with longer 'pulls' between pauses (it won't walk surface or subsurface alone) 4. burning the bait as it reaches ever increasing levels of instability at max depth resulting in a side to side hunting esq action The negatives are that the stock hooks suck and are hard to find replacements given the short distance between the hook hangars, although the hooks from an Excalibur XCS 200 square bill fit very well. Despite BPS' massive color pallet, the colors are limited for whatever reason. Purple Tiger is a favorite. The small size The Egg doesn't scale well and is not nearly as good as the big one so give the small one a pass. Guys in the know are paying good money for custom painted 'The Egg'. Anytime a $4.29 bait sells for $15+ in custom painted variations is when it is time to take notice. Just super sayin.

M.S. Slammer, either the mini, or 7", 3:16 wake jr./baby, but +3 on the BD Shellcracker G2.

Anything with small trebles. With the exception of jerk baits, IMO.

My home heating all starts with a Stihl MS 391 Farm Boss with a 20 inch bar ~ A-Jay

I use 20lb braid with a 8lb flouro leader and never use swivel. Just tie both lines direct. I like my leader to be a good 5' so incase I break off I can get away with not having to tie a leader again.

Hey guys I haven't been on in a while with work and college stuff and what not but I'm getting antsy... My dad and I are heading down to Florida next week and will mostly be saltwater fishing but will be guided on Okeechobee for a day, hoping to get one bigger than last year on O. Missin these fish..

reading through this, i have never wanted to go fishing so bad in my life. awesome catches fellas.

Here are some great ways to rig and use tube baits! http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/rig-tube-bait.html

Just One More Reason, added to the list of many, why Bass Resource is The Best. A-Jay

If you look inside your curado reels the part that wears the most and the fastest is the pinion yoke. You will find a piece of plastic who's job it is to hold in place (retrieve position) or move (cast position) a spinning piece of brass- the pinion gear- each and every time you push the cast button or reset it on the retrieve. And even when the reel is engaged and the brass pinion gear is spinning, it is spinning held in place by that plastic yoke and nothing else. When you have a brass gear with sharp edges on each gear tooth grinding on the plastic yoke every time you turn that handle what do you think is going to give? It is the plastic yoke. Like you I have curado reels. 8 of them. I have been maintaining them for more than 10 years. And the only part I have to replace more than any other is the pinion yoke because Shimano uses only a piece of plastic for the yoke. In other reels they make the pinion yoke out of solid metal, but even that wears out, and on yet other reels they try and compensate for this wear by placing either a plastic washer on the pinion gear itself to ride in between the gear teeth and the plastic yoke, or they add a metal steel collar to the plastic yoke to prevent the wear I am describing. So let me show you from my own reels. Here is a worn out yoke from one of my curado B series reels. The camera angle does not show the wear all that well, but the following photos should. In the following image I turned the worn yoke up on a brand new yoke below. Can you see the angle wear along the top of the yoke where the pinion gear rests? The new one below shows a perfectly 90 degree angle, while the worn one does not... Here is the pinion gear inserted into place on the worn yoke. I have circled in yellow the wear pattern under the brass gear. Notice it is no longer a perfect 90 degrees all the way around the yoke where the brass pinion gear sits. Now remember, this plastic yoke is all that there is in the reel to keep the brass pinion gear where it is suppose to be to mesh with the main drive gear and also connect up to the spool at just the right precise location. Worn plastic yokes allow that pinion gear to "float" around and find a new location to rest and worse of all wobble around in there possibly causing gear misalignments! Replace worn yokes! This is a regular maintenance issue. #1 on my list. Nothing else inside any of my reels wears as fast or as much as what you see here. Nothing. Here is the same brass pinion gear now inserted into a brand new yoke. Notice the perfect 90 degree angles different from the worn yoke above??? Here is a Penn metal yoke. Notice the wear??? This is a common maintenance issue and should be number one on anyone's list who cares about maintaining their reels to like new condition. Some manufacturers have compensated for this wear issue by upgrading and improving their plastic yokes with a steel collar designed to prevent the Shimano wear shown above. Unfortunately the JDM Shimano corporation has not done this, but the Korean made Bass Pro and Browning reels do have it! You asked what are the common maintenance issues with baitcast reels and this is one of the most important and probably most overlooked too. Not in my reels!

Just got the insurance. Full coverage on my boat, trailer, and also coverage on any fishing tackle or electronics I may loose. :-)

Doctor's Embarrassing medical exams.. As a new, young MD doing his residency in OB. I was quite embarrassed when performing female pelvic exams. To cover my embarrassment I had unconsciously formed a habit of whistling softly. The middle-aged lady upon whom I was performing this exam suddenly burst out laughing and further embarrassing me. I looked up from my work and sheepishly said. . .I'm sorry. Was I tickling you?' She replied with tears running down her cheeks from laughing so hard . . . 'No doctor but the song you were whistling was . . . 'I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener.' Dr. wouldn't submit his name.

Two little boys are going to the hospital the next day for operations. Theirs will be first on the schedule. The older boy leans over and asks, "What are you having done?" The second boy says, "I'm getting my tonsils out, and I'm afraid." The first boy says, "You've got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up, they give you lots of Jell-O and ice cream. It's a breeze." The second boy then asks, "What are you going in for?" The first boy says, "Circumcision." "Whoa!" the smaller boy replies. "Good luck, buddy. I had that done when I was born. Couldn't walk for a year."

Curado 200e7 is one of the easiest baitcasters I even used

Well, buy what you like then if she caves in.. You have a BC you like!

As long as it isn't one i regularly fish, i am ok with whatever is picked

Wish I had garage that big.

Remembering an Old Friend today ~ A-Jay

I never disliked them. Imo, if you like them, who cares what other people say

Sam, your jokes kill me...lol. How's this: An older gentleman looking to buy his wife a Valentines day gift was shown an extremely sheer piece of lingerie. $500.00 it was, but he bought it anyway. Upon presenting it to his wife, he suggested she take it upstairs and try it on. When she saw how revealing it was, she became a little irritated. I’ll show him she thought. So taking off all her clothes, she walks out of the bedroom to the top of the stairs, naked, and says, well how do you like it . It looks fine, he says. But you would think, for $500.00, they could have at least ironed the wrinkles out of it. Hootie

Fresh from my shower, I stand in front of the mirror complaining to my husband that my breasts are too small. Instead of characteristically telling me it's not so, he uncharacteristically comes up with a suggestion. "If you want your breasts to grow, then every day take a piece of toilet paper and rub it between them for a few seconds." Willing to try anything, I fetched a piece of toilet paper and stood in front of the mirror, rubbing it between my breasts. "How long will this take?" I asked. "They will grow larger over a period of years," my husband replies. I stopped. "Do you really think rubbing a piece of toilet paper between my breasts every day will make my breasts larger over the years?" Without missing a beat he says: "Worked for your butt, didn't it?" He's still alive, and with a great deal of therapy, he may even walk again although he will probably continue to take his meals through a straw.

10-4 --wacky rigged finesse worm, April 2005 10-5 --wacky rigged Trick worm, May 2005 10-6 --wacky rigged finesse worm, May 2006 10-7 --Chatterbait, March 2013--that was special since I caught a 9-9 about 30 minutes earlier with the same lure

Like this comment if you think Dwight should get a GoPro. I'd sub to your channel, man!

^^^^ awesome stories. Sounds like YOU are the one who's a good partner!

These were both good partners . Years ago I drew a partner for a small one day tournament who had his neck fused together . He could not move it at all. He had one "Fishin pole" a spincaster with about twenty foot of line that he could not cast and maybe two lures.It was early in the year and cold . I caught a keeper on a jig and pig and loaned him one. He could not cast it so he imitated me the best he could , lifting and dropping the lure straight up and down directly under the boat. We were in shallow water and he caught four keepers and won the tourney. I tried copying him but could not catch a fish. I drew another partner who only had one arm.His other arm was like a pair pliers, great for gripping fish. This was his first tourney also. We were coming upon a stump that I have caught nice fish on before , I positioned the boat so he could get a good cast. He was using a bagleys crankbait and made a perfect cast. A few turns of the reel handle and he says "I'm snagged". I could see his line moving off and told him he had a huge fish.He landed that fish like a pro and with the help of a couple of barely legal fish , he won that tourney. I have a picture of the most proud guy in the world that day.

Hey guys, I'm really excited to say that I fixed my Pro Qualifer that was acting up. It took me about two hours and I had to take it apart 6 times but I got it. Everything works like a dream now. Thinking about doing some boca bearing installs on all my reels now.

I have a bunch of different brands, but my favorite is Venom. Hootie

Add in the Mardi Gras color to the flukes and Plum Apple to the worms. A big ribbon tail worm on a Carolina Rig or texas rigged is doing well. Put a green pumpkin or black/blue trailer like a craw on the jig. Throw a 1/4 ounce swim jig slow around the grass lines and reeds and a heavier jig or senko near them as well. Black and blue Mega daddy craw or River Bug is doing good for the ones that want some bulk. Not sure about guides for artificial

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congrats on breaking the 5 lb mark! I got my pb on a black Jitterbug.

How true. Of course the odds got all fouled up when I decided that I would never run for political office in Chicago. Does that matter?

Super flukes should get you some good fish. Swimbaits and jigs are a good bet too. No advise on the guide service though.

yes, although most of these bites came on or very soon after the initial fall into cover. not sure about everyone else's experiences, but i am a believer that the initial fall is the deadliest part of the cast with any jig or plastic. that's why i try to envision where the bass are positioned on the given cover or structure so that i can hopefully make that initial fall go right past their nose.