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In a hurry this morning, spilled almost an entire bottle of spike-it chartreuse dye in my garage. All over my tackle storage, one of my rods/reels, my garage floor. You know that icey feeling you get when it quickly saturates your skin? I went to work with a glowing yellow hand and a strong smell of pizza shop. My wife refuses to park her car in the garage because the smell is so strong! On the plus side, it seems to be keeping the vampires away.

You have to watch the line very closely where it enters the water and look for anything out of the ordinary. Jumps, pops, twitches. Sometimes the line will swim off a different direction. Anything unusual set the hook.

Don't forget to include yourself in that elite group, cupcake.

I took a family photo this afternoon.

Rocks don't move! Tom

You may want to put up some barriers to keep out the swarms of hungry bass, pike, catfish, snakeheads, etc., that are bound to soon show up at the garage door, attracted by the attractive attractant. If they do get in, have some nets, ice bags, filleting knives, a frying pan, and the freezer ready!

Just checked my logs - haven't fished water with surface temp under 80 since 6/16. Pretty sure Oklahoma bass don't start sweating until water hits 94-95.

Punching pays off!!!

I would suggest messaging one of the mods directly instead of a public question.

Team Depends vs. Team Pampers

1st smallie caught on my replenished Flick Shakes and new spool

Never had either, haven't even heard of Krystal's. Lots of small mom and pop burger joints around here, you're not going to beat those places with a chain burger.

Congrats! Now, take that snap swivel off and throw it. Doesn't matter where, just somewhere you can't find it and have the urge to use it again. Then retie your frog straight to your braid and prepare to be amazed how much better your frog moves and catches.

I'm really shocked and confused by the guys talking about catfish or carp as weak. Hooking into a solid channel cat on something other than a telephone pole and winch gives a pretty hefty fight. And clearly anyone saying carp must be confused. River carp rarely take anything other than flies, live bait, or catfish-esque bread balls and are super flighty. Hooking one on a fly rod or light tackle can be a sprint down river. I've been nearly spooled by carp in current using light tackle. In my experience, walleye tend to be pretty lethargic fighters. Largemouth can be a mixed bag. Perch tend to be pretty light fighters and pickerel tend to be pretty light fighters once you get them pointed at you.

I had a 40+ pound flathead wrap my line around a stump during the fight. Didn't want to lose it so I gave the rod to a friend and swam out, following the line, untangled it from the roots and discovered the fish was holed up under the stump. Grabbed the fish by the jaw and went for a pretty good ride while it was thrashing around but managed to get my arm and legs around it's tail and drug it in. All that went down in the dark too. I doubt I'd do it again now that I'm not 17 anymore.

I know bass will eat them, but I've seen several occasions of bass following tiny turtles and then turning away, or sucking them in and then blowing them back out. They either seem to not enjoy the taste much, or maybe the idea of swallowing (and passing ), that shell is a turn off to them.

When I was 11 or 12 years old, I was wading a river with my friend catching bluegills. We were throwing trout magnets on 4lb test. I hooked a bluegill, and then a 20" largemouth came out from under a laydown and ate it. The fish then somehow managed to hook itself on the #10 light wire trout magnet jighead, then peeled drag heading underneath a log facing upstream/downstream. The fish was still fighting and jumping on the other side of the log, somehow not breaking the 4lb test, so I waded out, took the whole rod underneath the log, and continued to fight and land the fish!

Well, as much as I love chatterbaits in the stained river waters up here. A Mepps #5 in HFT-Y (Hot FireTiger with Yellow Skirt) has won me a few local pub tournaments hands down. I've caught crappie, bass in crazy numbers, and even muskies on this one bait. I think people perceive inline spinners as a joke compared to hairpin style. When's the last time anyone you saw on tv bass fishing was using a inine spinner? When reality, I love inline spinners bulging them under the surface over weedbeds. Smalies hammer them. I think its just another part of this fishing market scheme. Companies just want you to buy their stuff and if it means showing a pic of KVD holding a rage blade, you're darn right people will buy it! Seriously though, inline spinners catch fish.

Was pretty excited about getting one of the new Double Ploppers the other day. Only caught 6 on it yesterday, but didn't fish it hard because the frog bite was on. The biggest fish I caught on it blew up on it and missed it. But I stopped it and let it float and the fish came back on it.

Finished laying carpet and installed the rod holders. Took the boat out today, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The rod holders make a big difference

Acquired an old tackle-box yesterday, took a look inside and found 1970's Cordell Big-O's, Rabble Rouser Baby Ashley, Spence scouts, made by Strike King Also 3 Snatrix baits. The beginning of the ribbontail. Oh, the price,...FREE!....The person said, "gotta get rid of this stuff. Do you want it"? ....."YES!,...OF COURSE"! Hootie the Hottie

Always ask in private. The last thing the mods want or need is more peoples' 2 cents being added in if you just want to get brought up to speed.

The loooooong awaited Dobyns Champion 736CB Glass chatterbait rod arrived yesterday. It's very impressive in hand, but actual testing will have to wait for my boat to get out of the shop from scheduled maintenance... I've been happy with the 7'2" MH Zillion Glass I currently use, but it doesn't compare to the initial impression I got from this 736. This is my first Dobyns rod, but I had heard of the reputation they have for great balance. This rod doesn't disappoint in that regard, with the Core 100 its only very slightly tip heavy. Which is impressive considering it's a 7'3" Heavy/Glass....It's much better than my Zillion Glass with the same reel.

Setting jigs into rocks isn't cheap, if you don't snag it beyond recovery the hook point gets flattened. When I say rocks don't move, they don't. IF you learn to keep in touch with your jig it's easy to feel line movement when the strike occurs and it only takes as long as cranking the reel handle to initially start a hook set without moving the rod or letting the jig settle down between rocks. You will loose jigs by slack lining jigs in rocks or using too heavy of a jig that settles down into rocks before you can react. Keep in touch means knowing exactly what the jig is doing by controlling the line and feeling the line every moment...consentration is required. Tom

Hooklets are relatively cheap so set the hook whenever it feels different and you will quickly learn to distinguish a fish and the bottom.

Set the hook with everything you think is a bite. Eventually you will catch the fish and then you'll know exactly what a bite feels like. Most of the time if feel a tick tick tick of the bottom and wooomp of a bite. Imagine the fish sucking in your lure and it hitting the back of its mouth.

All braids bleed because the polyethylene strand the braid is made from is colorless and has very low surface friction. It is a filament of plastic, like monofilament or fluorocarbon, but stronger and slicker. Unlike monofilament line, it is not possible to add color to the polymer mixture before it is extruded. For braided fishing line, colorless strands of polyethylene are woven together, and the resultant braided line then appears white. Then the coloring is added. The dye is essentially added to the surface of slick plastic filaments. It is the little spaces in the braid that are relied upon to hold the dye. Unless you want a white braid, the coloring is simply going to bleed. To try to make the braid darker the manufacturers add extra dye, so it ends up bleeding more. That's the best the current technology can offer. But braided line is thin and low friction and strong as hell, so regardless, we're lucky to have braided line available to us for fishing.

Dunno... But, I can say this: When I fish a weightless senko (always on a 7' MF BPS Tourney Special), I don't feel much resistance from the worm either. However, I fish them on slack-to-semi-slack line, so I feel a little 'bounce' when I give it a little pop to move it.

That's why they call them "sliders".

If you hadn't wrote that it was a baitcaster I would have sworn you were talking about a spinning reel. I've had a dozen baitcasters and never had this problem.

^^^^^This. Its happened to me so many times I stopped fishing at lakes that allow unlimited horsepower motors. I'll stick to the TM only lakes. I've had jetskis, bass boats and one guy in a canoe with an outboard motor on the back almost ram me. Its scary sometimes.

While at Lake Gaston last week I saw boaters flying across the lake as night settled in. Some with lights, and quite a few without as we could hear them and occasionally see them as the moonlight hit them. Still, as a kayaker, I stuck to shorelines and coves and avoided as best I could any big water. I also came in by sunset. Quite a few knuckleheads disregarded no wake zones while looking right at me, some never even looked just figured the no wake buoys were for other people... EDIT: I don't mean to make it sound like everyone was like this. There were FAR more very nice folks on boats who struck conversations with me, and I with them. They were very courteous.

Just tie a good knot at the spool and stop worrying...

Go to Walmart, get a Strike King Bitsy Bug Jig in black and blue for 1.99$ then go get a pack of BABY rage craws in black and blue. Get a MH Spinningrod and throw the hell out of it at structure. This will be a huge numbers bite lure. You'll have a blast, then slowly try adding weight to see what situations you get bit on with heavier lures.

Be careful the squirrels and rodents don't get into it, you might have some mutant glowing mouthed animals running around. It'd look pretty cool! lol!

Gosh...wish more people would stay home when temps get high .... than I could have the lake all to myself!!!! I gotta tell those bass somehow to quit chasing bait up shallow....they're gunna stress themselves out.

I fish a lot of stained water where the strong vibration of the bladed jig helps the fish hone in on them. Never have done very well with the Snagless Sally, but a #3 Mepp's is a bait I throw when I don't care what I catch, just want to catch something.

I use a simple Uni - shouldn't matter much. If a fish takes you down to that knot, it will be irrelevant which knot you tied -T9

If I fished water than was 80 or lower, I would never get to fish here in Mississippi in the summer !!!

Awful nice front porch for a doublewide

I have three suggestions and I fish some of each brand. First Dobyns Fury rods run $110 to $120 and are great rods. Now up scale a little in your budget but well worth it is the Dobyns Sierra. The Sierra rods ( like the Fury's ) are light feel great and balance well. As you go up in the lines from Dobyns the components get a little nicer and the blanks seem to get a little lighter. I would look at several rods depending on you needs. If I was throwing light jigs all the way to 3/4 ounce jigs in shallow water out to say 20 feet of water I would be choosing between a 703 or a 734 Fury. In the Sierra line look at the 683, 684, 703,704, 733 and 734. If I was going to throw heavy football style jigs deep or flip and pitch then a 735 in either series would service me well. Sierra rods cost $160 -180 so they are just above your budget but well worth the pric. Next look at the Powell Max3d look at the 723 or 734 if you want a little beefier stick. My favorite is not on their website . You would have to call out and talk to them. It is being reintroduced. I fish an earlier version but I love their 683Max. That stick is my all around swiss army knife.Go read Tackletour article here.http://www.tackletour.com/reviewpowell683cxfast.html A Powell Max3D will cost $159. Lastly go to Irod. Look at the Genesis II rods. My choice would be either a IRG704C or an IRG 744c both are great sticks. I fish a IRG703cc for traps and cranks and love it. They run $149. There is not a bad choice in those. First decide if you are looking for a lighter jig rod like the MH 2/4 to 3/4 or the heavier rods like the 1/4 to 1 1/4 rods. Then the choices will be lessened but there is not a bad rod in those i offered.

That fan will now be fined 30k, and suspend for 4 games.

i thought that was your cereal bowl he was taking a dump in

I have that same bag and bought it 7-8 years ago and still going strong. I have replaced the boxes a couple times since I got it. May just order me one at that price.

only took me 6 different types of frogs over the course of 3 months to catch one. but thanks for the help everyone

I believe Ozark Trails is a Walmart branded motor, and from what it looks like, it's rebranded MotorGuide. So based on that, I'd look at a local Bass Pro or other shop for a replacement pin. I think Bass Pro's rebranded motor is also a MotorGuide, so this: http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Prowler-Trolling-Motor-Prop-Accessory-Kit/product/98211/ Or here: http://www.walmart.com/ip/MotorGuide-Propeller-Nut-and-Wrench-Kit/10982920

It's all about perspective, your problem could be worse my friend. You could be not catching fish to figure out how to best remove the treble hooks. I think many newbies would be thrilled to have your problems

If you are using a floating frog you can do what I did and bend the hooks out a bit. I had the same issue as you when the bass hitting it and letting go. i have not landed one on a frog yet but after I bent the hooks out I had my first hook up on a frog before he shook the hook.