Leaderboard

Not a lot of numbers today but 2 fish weighing almost 10 pounds will do The top one was 5 pounds 4 ounces the bottom one was 4 pounds 10 ounces.

You're not missing a thing. I, too, thought I had to try it because all the cool kids were using it. I got tired of bringing the rods inside the house the night before, spraying the spools the night before, tucking them in at night, spraying them 43.7 minutes before using them, having to troll the line out every 17 casts etc etc etc... All the rituals you have to go through just to use this stuff is unbelievable. And to top it all off I don't think I got a good hookset on a single jig fish because the stuff is like a rubber band. "Oh but fluoro is low stretch"... lmao I tore it all off and went back to braid/fluoro leader on everything and back to catching fish. The only thing that stuff is good for is leader material.

Chronarch MGL on Smoke rod using paddletail 3#7oz. Started fishing 10:00am didnt catch this bass, first/only, til 2:45pm.

I can't stand fishing with fluorocarbon line! I've tried it on two of my go to setups (baitcasting and spinning) the past two seasons and ended up cutting it off and going back to my tried and true Trilene XT! If I feel that I need to use floro I just tie a leader onto one of my setups that has braid on it. Am I missing something?

Got out on the Mississippi on Friday with my dad for our first trip of the year. Had a blast and was pretty happy with the results, being that I've never fished that pool of the river before. Boated around 20 in 6 hours and lost a handful of others. Hoping to head back tomorrow and learn a little more before our tourney this weekend.

Woa, I'm correct on something? Can somebody please tell my wife?

You can't be sloppy with fluoro. There's little margin for error, whether it's knots, backlashes, or line twist. Line is a very personal choice. If someone can't stand one type, and I like it, I'm not offended. I don't think less of the other guy for not liking it. There times one's choice in line makes no sense, but if it's working for them, great. When it doesn't, and they run into problems, that's we are all here for. Also, @A-Jay is a knuckle-dragger-leader-tying-braid-only-on-spinning.

The mother of all backlashes ...... where ? That can barely qualify as a regular one.

Start by walking out all of your line. Check that the arbor knot is tight and can not slip. Now reel the line in under constant pressure so it winds on tight and smooth. After that do all of what the others have said in order to set the reel up correctly. Lastly pick a lure that weighs somewhere in the middle of the rod's suggested lure rating. Go fish. Find out if the problem goes away. You may have to fine tune your reel's settings. If all of that does not help send it to DVT for a tear down, inspection, full cleaning and lubing. He will figure out if there is a mechanical issue or if it is something gummed up. Either way it will come back better than new. It will be working.

A couple years ago, I inflicted a walleye trip on myself...one afternoon, the guys on my boat need to make a stop on an island... I jumped out with a baitcaster rigged for pike to hit a little bay I saw on the way in, sure enough when looked in the water I could see a decent pike cruising the shallows... I ducked under a branch to get a better line on the fish and snapped off a cast...without noticing the spoon I had on had snagged on the branch... The backlash I got (50# Braid) made yours look like a backlash starter kit... I didn't even bother trying to undo it...had the line cut off and the the reel re-spooled ten minutes later.

Finished the newest combo. J-Dream and Dream catch.

Picked up the new boat last Thursday and finally got to break her in on the 15th of April. My Father and Father in law went with me, my Father in law has never really been bass fishing and we showed him one heck of a time. He actually caught the first bass of the day on his 4th cast! Luck! We nailed them, we ended up catching 50- 60 bass. Most of them were high 2 pound bass but we caught at least 10 over 3 lbs our 5 biggest bass totaled a little over 18 pounds. Cranks and jerk baits were the ticket but we also caught a few on swim baits. The new boat with I-pilot, Humminbird Helix 10, 2 12' Talons and Minn Kota Ultera were awesome! Boat topped out at 62 mph. The stars of the day: More More More BTW we didn't take pictures of all of them takes up too much time!

Mother of all backlashes! Was bank fishing on Sunday and had a couple of rods leaned up against my backpack lying on the slope of the bank behind me. Went to throw a cast and saw my spinning outfit go flying over my head and into the water. D'oh! Fortunately not so far that I couldn't retrieve it. The resulting backlash was so bad that I ended up having to strip and re-spool. Lesson learned!

We're often reminded that fluorocarbon sinks, but Sufix-832 braid also sinks, but how often do you hear that? The diameter of 20-lb Sufix-832 is 0.009", the diameter of 20-lb fluorocarbon is 0.018" (exactly twice as fat). Which line material will give your diving plug greater depth: fluoro or braid? It's no wonder why fluorocarbon knots cannot be trusted....how can you expect to tie a knot in a line-material you cannot see Well, whatever it is I'm missing by not using fluorocarbon, at least I never have to spray conditioner on my line and never have to spit on my knots. Roger

There's no perfect line, you're always giving up something to gain something else when picking between lines. You don't need magic sprays, the most expensive lines, or any other voodoo to make FC work for you, you just need more practice. Some FC's are more manageable than others, but even the cheaper ones are fine if you do your part correctly. The other line types are more forgiving, which means they will cover up for the mistakes you make...To the point where you won't even know you're making them if that's all you've ever fished with. There's nothing that says you NEED to use it, but if you do try it you would be well served to put in the time to get past the initial learning curve before writing it off. Even if you don't keep using it, if you become proficient with FC it will make you much better when you go back to mono/braid. It's not hard to get the hang of it, but it does require effort on your part...Remember when you learned how to use a baitcaster? Took practice, time, and effort to get it down but now it's second nature right? Same principle applies to learning FC (or anything for that matter).

A-Jay

Got one of my better backlashes of the year last year on this cast, but I have lots of practice and managed to save the line, the buzzbait was not so lucky.

I'm a patrol sergeant for a city agency. I submitted my letter of intent to retire two weeks ago.

I received this beaut earlier today. It was smaller than I expected, as you can see it next to my Steez. Now to find a rod to match

The way a fish's blood coagulates is opposite that of humans. We humans need air for it to coagulate. Fish, on the other hand, need water.

I'd love to hear some advice about investing. I've been doing a little bit of research about options and also learning about investing and financial choices through a personal finance course. Here's my situation: I'm 16, and I've managed to put a decent chunk of change (for me, at least) in the bank over the last two years. It's not much, I'll just say around 7k, but looking ahead, every bit of it is going to be sucked up in the near future unless I do something about it. I'm going to be paying for a car, insurance, and gas money in the next few months. I'm also 100% responsible for funding my college education. That's all coming up fairly quickly, and what I've worked hard to save is going to go down the toilet in the next year or so. Typically, the advice I've seen is to pay for your college education before starting any kind of investments. However, my thinking is that once I graduate college, I'll likely have some form of debt and a life to pay for - life out of college isn't necessarily financially easy. I won't have money sitting in the bank then like I do now, and I don't want to have to borrow money to invest. So, my thinking is it would be advantageous to start something right now while I can still make the investment. It would be a small amount, sure, but it would be a snowball type of mentality. I'm thinking about investing a small sum, say $1,000, into something that (1) prioritizes diversification, (2) is a low risk, long-term type of deal, and (3) something that I'll be adding to for decades to come. This is not something I'm thinking about as a get-rich-quick strategy. I'm seeing it as an investment in my future. Am I a complete idiot for wanting to do this at 16? Is that even a workable plan? Will investing companies laugh at a thousand dollar deposit? What advice from your personal experience would you have for me as far as going down this route? I know next to nothing about where I would go to invest this or what all my options are. The last thing I want to do is waste my money. I've talked to my parents about this, but they've had bad experiences with investing in the past and could give me very little guidance. I appreciate any help y'all can give me.

This guy has you beat:

I'm unclear if you were targeting stripers or largemouth/smallmouth bass? If it is the stripers you are targeting, we need to know that. For sure though, if they can see you, forget about it. The only way is to get them is to elicit a reaction strike. You'd have to start out by approaching the area, as has been said, very quietly and with a low profile. Then make a long cast with a spook-type top water bait and "walk-the-dog" back to you, or use a double propped top water like a Devil's Horse. But again, this is predicated upon them not knowing you are in the area. I don't know about stripers, but I know if you can see a largemouth cruising, your only option is leave the area and come back in stealth mode, making as long a cast as you can. Good Luck!

I am a Trilene XT fan as well. Probably has something to do with having fished with monofilament for decades before fluorocarbon arrived on the scene. I truly detest breaking off fish (still angry about a smallmouth that broke my 6 pound test back in 2002) and there are any number of ways to damage flouro. It is just not for me and would not offer any significant advantage for 95% of the fishing I prefer to do.

Yes, you're missing something - the art of casting. But if braid gets the job done for you, then go with it.

No, not in the decade plus of trying different fluoro lines. If you get hung and yank until it breaks, yes, the end will get deformed. Strip off a few yards, and retie. Never happened from casting. Get your hands on some KVD Line & Lure conditioner. Spray on when spooling and after every trip. The stuff keeps all lines in tip top shape.

I was hoping M.O.A.B. in this thread stood for the Mother Of All Baits...

Glenn's answer is the closest. Fish blood will clot in air also, but the clotting is 35% faster in water. Don't 'Do the Dew.' Simply release the fish back into the water ASAP.

same here,just never really could get used to it. Big Game is what I use. or braid.

So, I bought my brother his first casting reel for Christmas (200 size Curado he'll use primarily for striper fishing 3/4-2oz baits on the Chesapeake). He's never used one before and has since ignored every bit of good advice I've given him and bought a Med power Mojo Bass and spooled it with 10lb cheap braid. I cannot wait to see this disaster unfold.

Nice job Mike! I got to Hinkley's this afternoon to check the place out before Evan comes down tomorrow. It was so windy the pond had white caps, but I drove all the way here, I'm fishing. I paddled to the far end and found a little shelter from the tree line. A bluegill jig and green pumpkin/red flake ned proved useless. A yellow perch flavored shad rap shallow netted a pound-ish yellow perch. Got called back to the condo, but got back around 5:00. The wind calmed down so much I broke out a Whopper Plopper and tossed it along a shallow point. I made the right choice. 5 smallies, all between a pound and a pound and a half. No scale breakers, but I'll take it. Water temps were high 57.x - low 58.x. Let's see what tomorrow brings.... Forgot to add the highlight of the day: the bald eagle that flew over me and perched itself in a pine tree 100' away. You definitely don't see that every day.

Checking in, officially, for the first time, lol. I have been following along with this thread anonymously for a year or two I guess. First fished TB as a youngster with the grandparents, I'm gonna say 35 years ago, give or take a year. That went on for a handfull of years at the rate of 2 straight weeks at least once every summer. After that, it had been quite a few years that i missed out on and now for the last few years I manage 2 or 3 trips a year with my own family. Ive spent the last several trips really committing to learning the offshore game. I may not have much to contribute often, but will when I can.

My only fish! 6.3lbs So the story behind the fish Today! Saw it sitting pitched a 4 inch storm Shad to it! Bam nails it! Couldn't get around some brush so I had to walk through a thorn bush into the water to land it! It spits the hook at my feet! I dive in a grab it!

I am partial to Daiwa, so I will admit that up front. I have sold off all of my Shimanos and most of my BPS reels in favor of 4 Tatula Type Rs, 1 Exceler and 2 Tatula CTs. I prefer all of them even over my old Curado and Chronarch reels. For me they cast better and have great brake systems. I intend to change 6 more reels over to CTs and Tatula SVs in the near future. So my suggestion is pretty easy to figure out. I use my stuff to chase bass but also stripers ands big blue cats.

Just like golf clubs and hockey sticks, go with whatever feels best.

I see this come up all the time. An op who hates fluorocarbon and a bunch of other posters chime in saying it's impossible to manage. Honestly I just don't get it. I love flouro. I have no problems with manageability, even with some of the tougher lines like shooter. Obviously use what you want but if flouro seems like something you want to use,stick with it. Eventually you'll figure it out. To me it doesn't handle much different than mono.

Bill Dance says "you might just want to trade that one in"

I never ever use a snap swivel, just a quick clip. There are several good brands out there. I only apply them to crankbaits after the split ring has been removed.

Thought it was time to get in to the BFS game. Got these in January I believe. Don't really know why I haven't posted them. Megabass X7 Criffhanger and Megabass Kirisame both paired with Aldebaran BFS. The Kirisame is really cool. The blank is a solid piece of graphite, very unique.

The problem is , I cant tell a dink from a Mama so I have to duck the occasional flying bass .

There is a little one acre pond tucked away that I fish about once a week. There are a ton of 2.5 to 3lb fish. I've never caught of seen anything really big, but I know there is at least one pig in there. I absolutely crushed it tonight. I caught a good fish on a Ned, Neko, Split Shot, Senko, Drop Shot, and Spinnerbait. I cast a Senko, I let it sink down to the bottom and I left it there for about 20 seconds dead sticking. I feel two taps, reel down and hammer it home. It's completely solid. No head shake, just brute force pulling back. I'm telling my buddy I've finally got the pond monster on and right after it just goes limp. I'm standing there staring at the sky, my rod starts dancing again, a dink picked it up. I go put my Senko back on the hook and I notice my EWG's point is nowhere near the body of the bait. That fish had the hook point bent about 30 degrees out. In all of my years of bass fishing I've never had a fish actually straighten out a hook. I will land that fish soon and it's going to be awesome Still a great night though.

The bite was pretty good this morning, we caught 4 keepers, doubling the number we had caught in the past two days. I was lucky enough to catch three of them, and they just so happened to all be different species. Easter Trifecta

We can tell her, it won´t make any difference, in the best case scenario and in sothern style she we´ll say: "Gob bless your heart" in case you are right. "God bless your heart" in southern English is a very polite way of sending you straight to hell as fast as you can.

Its just you

Or a spinning rod !

Honestly, I was just happy that I didn't sling it out any further than I did. There is a very steep drop off just about another two feet from where it landed with the tip of the rod hanging just over the edge of the bank. I'd have gone diving after it if I had to!

Point well taken. In my case though, if she's a Hippo I'm going to back-off on the drag, which makes it extremely difficult for any fish to find freedom (It feels like cheating). Since I've been doing this for years, I should warn of the 2 disadvantages > Never reduce drag tension before the hog is out of heavy cover (sometimes that's never) > After every big fish you must remember to re-tighten the drag-setting (It becomes 2nd nature). Roger

A solid hook-set is a combination of Timing and Power. Mechanically speaking, a faulty hook-set is when the hook fails to penetrate 'beyond' the barb. It's vital to master the hook-set, because on a day when you only get 5 strikes, you have zero margin-for-error. It's no fun casting for several hours, only to experience losing a fish. Roger

Lol your first sentence.. I just pictured him setting the hook like that on a total dink and it goes flying out of the water

If youre fishing a crankbait, there isnt a whole lot of need to "set" the hook like you would on a jig or worm. With a crankbait, when you feel them load up on the bait, you simply reel faster, or you could try a sweeping motion that will dig the hooks in better. With a crank its all about pressure and keeping that fish pinned and the line tight. With a jig or worm, generally once i feel the bite or bump, i will reel down and see if i feel pressure. If it is heavier than normal, i set that bad boy. But just realize that sometimes fish are going to come off regardless of what you do. It is just a part of fishing.