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Can't say I have, but I've had some pretty vivid dreams of fishing, usually after a really good day on the water. I've scared my wife when I set the hook in my sleep more than once. It didn't just recently start though, there was a hole in the wall by my bed at my parents house from a particularly vicious sleeping hook set.

It's really quite simply! Let him enjoy what he loves! I'd give anything to enjoy a fish fry with my Dad again! What's more important a few bass or a friendship!

Here she is! This is the boat I'll be fishing the Bassmaster Opens out of next season.

the DNR have the limits in place for a reason. believe it or not, taking some home is part of sustaining a healthy population. so long as it's legal, i'm fine with letting each do their own thing....

Why not just use a lighter leader below the float? We do this float fishing for steelhead. Run a 10# mainline, and a 4# leader. Then you only lose the hook and leader, not the expensive float. A crappy, weak knot is unpredictable. I wouldn't want that. I think the best plan is to step up on the mainline, and step down on the leader. Well, maybe have them not cast too deep in the pads as well, lol. Good luck!

Got no baits but rather techniques! Texas Rig weighted or unweighted Jig-n-Craw spinnerbait & crankbaits top water

As long as someone is within the legal limits let them enjoy their catch and their meal.

Wait is finally over! Poison glorious 610M/Conquest 101DC and 610ML-BFS/Conquest 51DC.

You are asking if anyone has tried putting a senko on a jig head? Yeah, that's how I used to fish them for smallies 15 years ago. Maybe call that the Kev rig?

My first thought is that 12lb fluorocarbon is probably too heavy for your spinning reel. Go with a lighter line, and see what happens. I'm also curious as to why you would use a leader so long that it is the only thing touching the water. At this point, the fluorocarbon is your main line, and the braid is nothing more than backing. If you only want fluorocarbon in the water, go with a lighter line (try 8lb), and treat it with line conditioner. If you want to stick with 12lb, you may need a bigger reel.

You shouldn't be entering tournaments if you have no clue what to throw. Do you want people to throw out way points too?

The baits you're confident in and have had the most success with are the baits you'll want to be using in your tournament. There's no need in trying to throw something new for the first time during a tournament. Stick with the baits that work for you and you'll be fine.

Crusty Papadopolous.

Don't think it was. Hootie

Had a couple hours to kill this morning so I decided to go try to raise some of my new green friends in the Stick Marsh.. Caught 20-25 but most were dinks.. Only 3 were worth busting out the camera for.. Horny Toads in Junebug rigged weightless and a spinnerbait with the skirt removed and a 4" Pearl White MrWiffelure put on in it's place kept me bent all morning.. Man I just can't seem to break this 4-5lb mark... UGH! Still a blast though, even the small ones hit like a ton of bricks..

Found some footage from last summer that I forgot about. Most of the fish came on home made jig pitched around wood cover. Ended up with a few solid MN largies. Watch in HD.

No, the other BM, Bait Monkey ! Although, he does have a striking resemblance ...

Bob Marley ?!?!

here´s some ones added to the previously mentioned: Heddon Sonic Whopper Stopper Hellbender and Bomber Water Dog ( man we made massacres with them at Cajón de Peñas ) Heddon Bayou Boogie How come nobody mentioned it ? Heddon Torpedo Look at my signature.

.Got out to the big fish lake. Had a cold front move through...for az ppl that is 55degrees lol. The fish out here always eat good after a cold front which is weird to other places ive fished. Ended up with only 21lbs. I only say only because of the average size fish in here are up around 5lbs. I was there about an hr and another guy comes by and says "any big ones"? I said ya a 5.2lbr was big fish for the day. He says "meh average" lol thats when u know its a quality lake. Caught all my fish on a black 1/2ounce spinnerbait or deep crank in green gizzard. Lost 2 nice ones that woulda culled my smallest ones.

Caught this girl today on a pop max in 4 fow. Wind 15-25 mph, 60 degrees, 63 degree water temp, overcast

Those setups would be ideal! As for run-n-gun fishing this is by Larry Nixon from ***! Stroke it: Nixon keeps a close eye on his Lowrance for suspended bass throughout the year. If they're within a few feet of the bottom, he loves to stroke a Texas rigged worm to pick up a few extra bites. “I’m almost always hopping my worm—I’m not much of a dragger,” Nixon said. “If you hop the worm about two feet and let it freefall to the bottom, you’re going to cover water as fast as a spinnerbait angler. When you run across a piece of brush or a break line, that’s when you need to slow it down.” Nixon believes his ability to quickly fish a plastic worm is the driving factor behind his illustrious career. He purposely blazes through stretches of bank until he is able to put together a pattern. “When I’m looking for fish, I’m going to cast a worm into an area, hop it twice and move on,” Nixon said. “I’m just looking for a few key bites that will tell me where the fish are positioned. If a bass is there, they’re probably going to eat it. You’re looking to dissect open water and cover with as few casts as you can get away with.

Zara Spook

Fish it

When you see guys using a rod and casting a weightless worm on it, 99% of the time it is a 5" or larger stick worm or Senko, that worm in a 5" weighs 3/8oz by itself.

Oldest lure in my box... and I still use it. ***NOTE: Google Image. Not my actual JBug***

The 6' 8" M/F Mojo makes a great jerkbait rod, does that help Anyone complaining about St. Croix rods being tip heavy that owns a St.Croix, please send me a PM and I'll send you the address that you can send them to so you don't have to weighed down by these dead sticks Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough to tell the difference, but I know I catch plenty of fish on my unbalanced, tip heavy rods. I guess the fish are just lucky I don't use good stuff

Roadrunner, Beetle Spin, Roostertail, Mepps, Hula Popper, Jitterbug, Crazy Crawler, Pop R, Rattle Trap, Jelly Worm, Original Rapala, Wee R, lots of classics out there that still catch fish.

What's the point of having braid on the spool at all if you're not going to get any of the benefits of it other than your spool holds more line? 15lb braid is just fine on a spinning reel, I have 20 on a few and have zero issues (it's 8lb diameter afterall). The problem you're having is 12lb fluoro, from any company, is going to be too much for a bass sized spinning reel to handle. Knock that leader down to 5 or 6 feet and I bet your problems go away. I'd still suggest going to a little lighter leader though so you don't have a big knot clunking through your guides every cast. As for the pros using only fluoro, you might want to check again. They can say they use straight fluoro all they want, but all you have to do is listen to them fighting a fish on spinning gear, that whine don't lie. I have braid on all but 1 of my spinning rods, and I couldn't be happier.

It's not rocket science but each reel model has a "gotcha" of some sort. Like everything there's a learning curve and tricks of the trade that are hard to pick up doing a handful of reels here or there. I learn something every day.

Perhaps from time to time you should leave a hook in - squeeze down the barb of course . .Just Kidding. There's nothing wrong with eating a bass - I don't particularly care for it but I say let the man enjoy is catch. A-Jay

Comfort? Are we going fishing or laying on the couch watching a movie. I, sometimes think this comfort thing is over played. By the way, I don't like War Eagle spinnerbaits. The blades are so shiny that they hurt my eyes...lol. Hootie

Hey all! I finally decided to join the forums and make an account after coming to this website for a lot of questions I've had. The posts on this site offer a lot of very good information and the users are very helpful. I'm from Northern Virginia, I've been fishing for about 5 or 6 years now. I do a lot of river fishing for largemouths and bluegill, and i also go out on the Chesapeake Bay quite often. We catch a lot of spot, croaker, perch, flounder and bluefish out there. It's good fun! I look forward to talking about fish with you all.

Even though the wind absolutely sucked, i still got out for a little bit on Saturday and Sunday. Of course when the wife was gone all weekend and i had the green light to fish sun up to sun down, mother nature had other plans. I'll fish in just about any conditions except for brutal wind because in the kayak it just sucks. That said, i hit the pond not far from the house on Saturday and found the place to be pretty poor in terms of the water. It already gets over fished and no management, but now the water is so low i'm surprised to see any fish. so i hit the drainage pool on the backside that doesn't seem to get fished. Hooked up with 1 little bity guy that put up zero fight once hooked and came straight to the bank. That was all the action i had at the pond. Yesterday i hit the road early and got on the lake right at sun up. Wanted to get out there before the wind started howling again. It was cold, 37 degrees but water temps were about 57 when i put in. I paddled over to the other side of the channel from the ramp and hit the first few docks i could see and about the 5th dock i ran the spinnerbait right by the posts and nearly had the rod pulled out of my hands! one nice sweeping hookset on it and she was pinned. this beauty had ZERO intentions of coming in the kayak though. the fight was as good as any i've had in quite some time. i'd get her just close enough to lip and then she'd have the rod nearly in the water taking another run on me. she even head butted the kayak one good time in an effort to shake the bait, but i finally managed to bring her in. 4lb2oz on the digitals, but felt like it was a DD all the way til i got her in! couldn't believe the fight in this one! ended up being the only fish i caught as the wind started to make life miserable yet again, but man was it worth it! like i said, 2 polar opposites!! skinny guy, no fight: prize fighting heavyweight champ (look at that tail too!):

About to go fishing crazy! On the water for the next 3 days, then off to BBB next Thursday morning for 4 days of water time!

Having been in the Army for 19+ years, I'd say I've eaten about as many MREs as anyone. I just finished what should be the last field problem of my career, and with any luck, I'll never eat another MRE in my life.

My only tip since it sounds like you're back boating is make sure you have lures to match the boaters speed. For example, if he works the boat slowly you have a lot of freedom in what you throw, but if he keeps his foot on the trolling motor all day you'll need to be throwing a moving bait.

Just go fishing and pay attention to your partner. Every tournament will be a learning experience, But only do it if you have money to throw away. Have fun and the fish should be really shallow when you go.

I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their thoughts on the matter. I'll be keeping a few more this year so that I can enjoy the fish fries with him as he can't really get out much to fish anymore...old age happens to us all at some point and he's not a young pup anymore. Again, thanks to everyone for voicing their opinions.

Don't worry about it.My dad's idea of catch and release was catch and release it into his ice chest.

I have to tell about my customer service experience with Lews. They deserve this. I had a 5 year old tournament pro lock up on me.....as in the sideplate would not slide off. Kind of caught be by surprise, and for the life of me, could not get the thing off. Yet everything else functioned perfect, to include the spool. I kind of jacked up the side plate a little trying to pry it off. Anyhow I gave up and sent it to Lews. I was very forward in my accompanying letter. I fully acknowledged the damage to the sideplate I had done, told them my issue. Also admitted to not registering this reel for the warranty. I expected to pay something. Fast forward to today, and after one phone call, they repaired the whole reel for free. Sideplate is new, and even repaired the thumb bar, saying it was sticking, which I never noticed. I was already sold on their reels, even some rods, and now, after my first experience with their customer service, I'm sold on them completely.

One reason I like Calcutta's is they fit my hand. Now I do not "palm" my reel per se, my index finger & middle finger are in front of the rod trigger & my thumb is over the top. My wife bought me a Chronarch when the first came out, used it once & returned it for a Calcutta 50!

Love this topic...heck, who wouldn't love topwater fishing? So when I fish for smallmouth, I would run straight 6lbs Stren. Caught some big fish but not so many numbers. Then one year I decided to try a different line and went with AbrazX, straight 6lbs test. I caught more and bigger fish. Then 2 years ago I thought I'd try something different and went with braid and an InvisX leader...I had the best topwater season ever and never once lost any fish. I also noticed that while my topwaters sat a little lower in the water, they were definitely still sitting on top of the water and I saw each and every strike as it happened. My lures of choice were both poppers (Skitter Pop mostly) and walking baits (Spit N Image). I'll be experimenting this summer with more lures this summer and am again going to change my setup to run just a straight braid for both poppers and walking baits. If it doesn't work over the first couple of weeks, I'll revert back to my braid/fluro combination which has worked well for me. Hope this helps!

KVD tore them up.That old dog can still hunt.

By far my favorite fishing show ever. Love the format.

Hello all! This is my first post to the forum, but I've been visiting for a while. Recently I picked up a new Bass Raider from Dick's. Fresh off the show room floor we strapped her in the pickup and headed to the lake. It's a great little boat in it's stock configuration for sure, and very stable. The thing is, it's a great platform to be improved and the little boat is just begging for it... The Bass Raider is small enough and light enough to load up into my pickup easily with two people. After using the boat a few times with two people, gear and a 45lb thrust trolling motor in the back, we tried it in the front. The motor does work better in the front, but the tail likes to swing a lot more with the motor pulling instead of pushing. To resolve this issue, I scavenged an old trolling motor my brother gave me and made a rudder/keel of sorts like some of you have. I also used the bottom of the shaft to mount the transducer for my Humminbird Helix 7. I haven't used it yet, but it seems like it will work well. With the rudder and transducer taken care of, it was time to figure out how to mount the sonar screen to the boat in a fashion that would be usable in a number of configurations without having to drill a bunch of holes in the boat. To accomplish this, I constructed a little table from PVC and wood from ideas in this thread. I haven't tried any of this out yet, but it looks like it will work well with one or two people in the boat. If it's just me in the boat, I'll have the little table up front. If I am with someone, the table works well in the middle of the boat so we can both use the table as well as see the sonar. I added a second shelf on the bottom of the frame to hold the little gel cell battery and counter the leverage effect of the screen when it is leaned out. It seems to work well and keep some of the wires out of the way. It also adds some storage rigidity. After I use the table a little bit, I'll get a better feel as to what I would like to add to it, like shelves, other storage, etc. Only then will I take the time to finish it with a bit of sanding and paint. When I get some of that done, I'll be sure to post the progress up here. Until then, happy fishing everyone, and thanks for having me. -TRM

If shimano painted them Rayburn red they might be worth $500!!!

I started using the San Diego Jam knot last year and will not be going back anytime soon. I think its easier than a palomar knot and I can tie it faster with just as much confidence. I think when you are tying your knot, you are burning the line making it curl, don't cinch it before your tag end is tighter if you want to keep tying the palomar.

In case you were wondering, this is how it goes from square to round.

Lol...it's just fishin....