Leaderboard

We're done. It is a flat out lie. We aren't a venue for this type of rubbish.

Have your significant other limit your budget, works every time, unless your single then your screwed.

I would rather see them fight thru a slow day than see fake "reality tv" crap. Learn a lot more seeing the real thing instead of watching someone catch fish.

Everyone takes things so personal these days. Got to be like water off a ducks back. You'll lead a much less stressful life not caring what other people, especially those on the internet, think about you. You do you bro, but hopefully you dont leave.

This accusation is so untrue, everyone knows that if Bill Dance were to reach over the side of his boat to retrieve caged fish, he would inevitably fall in the water and his hat would end up in the cage. By posting this rumor, you are giving it legs, even if you declare that you are not believing it. It would be akin to someone posting that the rumors of you being a pedophile and having kidnapped a couple of children are just not true. Those methods of smearing folks belong in a political campaign, not a bass fishing website. LOCKDOWN!! (oh wait, I am not a moderator...)

I've butted heads with a few people on here ... It's what guys do ? Honestly there isn't one person on here that I would say I "hate" or strongly dislike... Lighten up bud... You don't have to leave ? Just focus elsewhere !!! Keep doing what brought you to the site.

Obviously a stuttering problem...

This is a foolproof method for controlling that binge buying. Go to this website and just start throwing everything and anything you have ever wanted into your cart. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/ No, wait a minute, that seems to have the opposite effect to what was intended.

Wise wisdom above - start with one, eventually go to two. Beyond that, the definition of "necessity/need" starts becoming a little more vague

... but will repeat it on the internet for thousands of people to read oe

IMHO any bass fisherman regardless if you walk the bank, or fish from the front deck of an $80K boat only "needs" two combos to do most anything. Will these combos be perfect for everything? No, but they will do most stuff excellent, and the rest "good enough" until you can afford more. The two "must haves" for me are: 7' Medium power fast, or moderate fast spinning rod with an appropriate sized spinning reel, spooled with 8 or 10lb line of your choosing. I prefer braid w/fluoro leader, some guys like straight braid, some guy like straight fluoro, and some guys like straight mono/co-poly. It's all good. The other is a 7' MH power, fast or moderate fast baitcasting combo with a 6.something:1 ratio reel. Again spooled up with the line of your choice. 15lb fluoro or mono, or 30-50lb braid is a good starting point. FWIW, I tend to lean towards moderate fast rods as I use braid as main line on everything, some one who uses fluoro, or mono as their main line may want to go with a fast. Berkely Lightning Rod Shocks are excellent budget freindly "all purpose rods" , and for a around the same price and a few bucks more, the Abu Garcia Vengeance, and Vendetta line of rods are pretty good rods to get into on a tight budget when you want to start branching out to more technique specific sticks.....HTH

I never tighten my drag 100%, usually around 75-80%. Once set I never move it again until I clean my reel.

@RoLo & @Mosster47 "Past genetic research focused mainly on the female but the ShareLunker program is showing the equally important role of the male's genetics. 2014 Nacogdoches Texas, a lake record of 12.54 lbs was caught on Lake Naconiche; genetic research showed some interesting facts. The mother was ShareLunker #370; 14.28 lbs from Falcon Lake. The grandmother was ShareLunker #187; 14.05 lbs from Lake Fork. The great-grandmother was ShareLunker #9; 16.13 lbs from Gibbons Creek. Plus ShareLunker #305; 14.67 lbs from Lake Fork. All 5 were from the same father; an almost 8 lb male." ShareLunker research shows how rare a 20 lb plus bass really is!

4/18/17 Here's a pre spawn smallmouth from Quabbin Reservoir. I'll post about this trip in the near future, but right now this bucktail jig and I are headed back to the Q.

Unless I get an invitation from a fishing buddy with a "Quabbin" boat (Quabbin Reservoir is highly regulated.), you'll find me riding a rental. I know a number of my fellow BR members are trying to learn the ways of this big New England water so let's have a look at how I set up one of the 14' boats you'll be renting: Starting from the stern you'll note a large dry bag. It contains three Plano 3600s, a portable camera mount which I clamp to a gunwale for fish pics and room for my down vest and fleece as the day warms. The swivel seat is greatly appreciated by my aging back and butt. See my stationery store tackle box on the floor. It could be a portable file holder for taking work home from the office but it's of much greater interest to sort through six Plano 3700s for just the right bait. You'll find miscellaneous support gear in the utility carrier: marker buoy, sunscreen, bug repellent, needle nose pliers, clippers, small boxes of weights and hooks, scent and dye. Early season when the lake trout are shallow, you want fish grippers so they don't wriggle out of your grasp. You recognize the other items on the rubber mat on the middle bench seat. Out of this photo and as close to the bow as you can get 'em are lunch cooler, 12 lb. river anchor with approximately 75' of 1/4" braided nylon and, yes, a chunk of granite. Why the weight in the bow? Because if you go solo at full throttle the bow is going to point heavenward at a 45º angle. You must balance the boat for running. Alright. Let's go fishing. Hey! Here's the first smallmouth of the season and the first one I've caught on an Underspin. Wish I could tell you about the presentation but there wasn't one. See, as soon as I lifted the rod tip, the fish was on. From what I've read about retrieving Underspins, you want to work it slowly, steadily, feeling it tick the bottom. And wait until the rod loads before you set the hook. These are 1/4 oz. models from a Do-it Herring Head mold. The top two baits are dressed with Z Man's Swimmin' Trout trick, the bottom a Super Fluke JR. Willow blades are size 3 but I'm going to try 3.5 because master bait maker smalljaw67 says he likes that size better. Blade baits are the #1 go-to for many Quabbin smallie guys when the water is under 50º. Buying "body blanks" from Barlow's I get to choose the hooks and I've been experimenting with arrangements for three seasons now. I started with a pair of split shank doubles and found I could hang these in the rocks as easily as trebles. Last year I used a single treble in the rear and that worked okay. Over coffee and conversation in my tackle room with Crestliner2008, he insisted that a 1/0 Siwash was the way to go. Two improvements over split shanks or rings and trebles are obvious at a quick glance: the Siwash hook is much more substantial than the others and there's no need to mess with split rings! Great tip, Crestliner2008. I don't hear too many smallmouth fishermen in these parts talking about using plain, old-timey, bucktail jigs in these parts. That's fine with me because that means fewer fish will have sore mouth and will eat eat the undressed bucktail I will be throwing! Another? Okay. I love molding, painting and tying these jigs. It's a winter hobby that gets me focussed on something productive rather than sitting around and obsessing unhappily about the hard water season in Western Massachusetts. If you're interested in jig making first try a variety of "Search" terms on this forum - there's a fair amount of info to be found - and I also urge you to subscribe to smalljaw's YouTube channel. Smalljaw has posted many very good tutorials. For now, have a look at my tying bench setup:

Had a week night tournaments at La Cygne last night. Typical evening at swan. Fished pretty slow but cracked a couple good fish. Biggest was 4.40lbs and was caught on a shaky head 15 min before the end of the tournament. @micahthorlawson caught just about every species in the lake on the ned including a good fish right away in the first spot. Some day well get that lake figured out.

How do you all control yourselves when on a buying binge? say What? u jus gettin started. u cant just by 1 Megabass. how man 110s you got? we ned gets u at least a rainbow. next, u forgot PopMax...u gotta hav a popper or 3 i'm her 2 hep...we ned 2 talk bout custom rods?

Right now your upset,you will get over it.If I wrote that post and used your name instead of B.D.you would be offended, no? I'm sure some on here think I'm a moron, that's ok. Years ago my drill instructor said "You always have your ten percent". Now put on your big boy pants and get back in the game.

I've begun some video production myself and have had to consider how to entertain viewers long enough to get concepts across and the best ways to demonstrate things that are not often easy to see. I understand the use of "artistic license" but that's a potentially slippery slope -esp where there's ego or money and advertising involved. The use of private or other guaranteed fisheries to look like a "big time fisherman", to sell a product, or even demonstrate a concept -without acknowledging that the viewers "results may vary"- is disingenuous in my mind. Nobody likes to feel duped, or BS'd. I think the popularity of reality shows and Youtube is the authenticity, while many canned shows are becoming less appealing. We all are curious and want to learn, and we all have BS meters wired in. So, at least for me, the trick is demonstrating content while maintaining authenticity. I would never be comfortable pretending, much less cheating or lying. Hey, I know a big budget show has to produce fish, but private managed waters, guaranteed fisheries, or fake catches, don't necessarily, or even often, address the fishing most of us do. They can, but an important part of that demonstration is often conveniently left out. I will use "artistic license" for illustration purposes. In a piece on fishing a swim jig I catch a large bass on an acceleration in the retrieve. I edited in a clip of the same jig underwater, paused and then accelerating way from the camera -a bass's eye view. Now, that jig shot was shot a few days later. I'll also use artistic license "to take you there". A neat part of 1st person video fishing is feeling like you too are there. An example was in a piece during which I talk about choosing where to make your first cast, and cut away to a bass underwater holding in a brush pile. I cast to a brush pile and catch a bass. Not the same bass, even the same brushpile, but the cutaway breaks up the scene and makes it more interesting. Gotta balance content with entertainment or viewing interest. I enjoy watching vids of people fish, but must admit that viewing can get a little slow watching someone casting and retrieving from one angle for very long -the time it takes to catch fish, much less a bunch of them. I like to show retrieves -how I'm retrieving a lure and why. So the viewer has to watch one or more complete retrieves at times. And I want to show a number of fish caught, to show that the technique or circumstance is not an anomaly. Can't make everyone happy I guess. There are those who want the details and those who just want to be entertained. It's tough -or takes extra work- to do both. But for me it's important to honestly address the reason viewers are watching in the first place. If that's pure fantasy entertainment, they can always flip the channel.

We just left Gaston's White River Resort in Northern Arkansas. We hit our limit of 15 rainbows early on, and spent the rest of the day catching and releasing. After spending about 8 hours on the river we popped over to the little pond on the resort. I lost count after landing 8, hooked into I don't know how many. They were biting the second the plastic worm hit water.

It is a beautiful 74 slight overcast here in eastern Kentucky standing on the front of my triton one foot on the trolling motor 2 hands on my new lews reel and mojo bass combo zebra spook tied on covering water looking for that top water blow up then I see the swirl around the bait and about the time it starts to blow up the the phone rings and I snap back to reality and realize im at work ...and im sure my 2 days off will be thunder storms and rain lol mother nature hates me!!

Welcome to the forums. When you lock down your drag, it becomes a useless feature. It's purpose is twofold. First, to allow line to be fed out under pressure in order to fatigue the fish that's fighting at the end of the line. Second, to eliminate or reduce the possibility of the line breaking under excessive pressure. Even when using 65.lb braid for catching 4lb. fish, some drag slippage is necessary to prevent damage to your gear, especially the rod and to reduce the possibility of straightening out hooks and thereby loosing fish.

Found these in the archives and thought everyone could use a good laugh.

Finally things lined up and I was there when it was on fire today. Started with smallmouth and had a good in the first 5 minutes, but then I went awhile with only a small keeper after that. So I bailed on them and went looking for largemouth. Found them to be in the biting mood today. I stopped counting at my 20th one over 3lbs, with the best five that I hung on the scale being 4-10, 4-7, 4-4, 4-1, and 3-12. Still haven't cracked the 5lb barrier yet this season, but it's early. I usually have a couple by now, but some some years the big ones seem to bite better in cold water, and other years they seem to bite better the warmer it gets. The jury is still out on what this year will be. @rmcguirk.........Water temps as of today on Silver are 49-54 depending on the area, and what end of the lake your on. Largemouth have been shallow for the most part. I have caught quite a few in as little as a foot of water. The smallmouth have been just outside their normal spawning areas in 8-12 feet of water, with a few random ones a little shallower, a few a little deeper, and still a few yet very deep in 20+ feet.

A Zillion on a Lightning Rod?! I imagine that rod is going to feel a lot like Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman with a reel like that on it.

I use my 7ft MHF Lightning Rod Shock for just about everything.

I have a 7ft MH shock and it is my crankbait rod. Ive never wanted to spend a ton of money on rods. I couldn't tell you what a specific crank rod feels like but I can tell you I catch plenty of fish cranking that shock rod

I crank all the time with Lightning Rod Shocks. They are excellent, and have no problem using them right along side more expensive store bought rods, and custom made rods that I also use. The 7' MH is a great rod for 2.5 sized square bills, 1/2 + 3/4 oz. lipless cranks, and SK series 4, 4s, 5, +5xd sized cranks. IMHO it's a little "too much rod" for 1.5 square bills, series 1, 3, and 3xd, and 1/4 oz lipless baits. I tend to use the 6'6" M Shock for those. I sure wish they would make a 7' M casting rod in the Shock line, and I have had the crazy idea of buying a 7' M spinning Shock, taking it to my custom rod builder buddy, who works for beer + jigs, and having him re-wrap the blank with casting guides, and redoing the reel seat with a casting/trigger seat that I have off of a broken Shock rod. I don't even know if that's possible, but as a braid fisherman, I really really like these blanks/rods for reaction baits. IMHO they can't be beat in their price range, or for that matter, even for $50-$75 more above their MSRP you will be hard pressed to find a rod that fishes reaction baits as good as these.

Need? Just 1 rod 1 reel should be good enough to start your fishing journey. I would start with medium spinning combo. WANT? That up to you or your parent finance situation. A lot of ppl here including myself buy many setup just because they can afford it and it satisfy their want not need.

I believe I read that same article a couple days ago. It didn't make sense to me either. I think I set mine too tight a lot of the times especially with treble hooks and light wire hooks but I don't see how you can have it always locked down. The guy in the article said that he preferred to press the thumb bar down and use his thumb as drag when a fished surged...claiming it was more reliable for him to do that than to rely on a mechanical drag that could fail/lock up. I just shook my head because no matter who you are we all have reaction times and by the time you realize a double digit bass is surging, you react to it, and then manually press down the thumb bar...you've already bent out your hook because the drag was locked down. The whole article seemed highly illogical to me but the guy claimed it works great for him. More power to him, I won't be trying it, ever.

Zoom makes a Sungill Super fluke that is an excellent bluegill imitation. Also the honey candy colored rage tail menace rigged either on a texas rig or on a swimjig as a trailer are great choices depending upon depth and where you want your bait in the water column. Lots of good bluegill/bream/pumpkinseed swimjigs out there. Northstar, Siebert, Dirty jigs, 6th sense, and Lockjaw all make some superb patterns.

That's definitely a coelacanth.

Don't take this wrong...but the day I begin to worry about matching my line color to my rod and reel...I hope my fishing buddies clunk me over the head and sink me in deep water...

It is my understanding that a lead jig with a skirt can still be used as well as all spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, etc. I also think that a painted lead jig can still be used as well. No lead sinkers for sure. Tungsten is better anyway. Most of the water is I like to fish in southern and western maine is open. Saturday will be my first day out. It will be great to be on some nice fish again.

I've got 50 lb braid on right now and I can set it on full and won't break my line. But I typically leave is backed off just a bit. If I do happen to hook into a big one and I'm not risking him running under some lay down I don't have a problem with him running a little bit of drag. Like really, who doesn't like to hear a hog rippin off some drag

My best guesses are: 1. Folk art (home made lure) 2. Pflueger (pal-o-mine) 3. Sea Hawk 4. Arbogast (hula popper without skirt) or knock off 5. Jim Strader Diamond Rattler 6. Dalton special 7. Southbend minnow 8. Mirrolure 9. Bagley 007 10. Heddon Zara Spook 11. Smithwick wooden wheelhouse popper 12. Paw Paw Aristocrat shiner 13. Dalton special 14. Bagley 007 15. Wright & Mcgill Miracle Minnow 16. Heddon river runt 17. Bagley bang-o-lure 18. Southbend minnow maybe? 19. mirrolure 20. jointed floating rapala 21. older Rebel minnow 22. Dalton special 23. Smithwick water gator 24. Grandma Minnow maybe? 25. Old rapala minnow 26. Cordell Crazy shad 27. Smithwick Devils toothpick 28. Dalton special 29. Jim Pfeffer orlando shiner 30. Paw Paw little shiner 31. mirrolure 32. Paw Paw little shiner

I've been using Smackdown for over 2 years now without any issues. No digging, nothing "wearing off" nor any discoloration except for minor fading near the end of the season. Hope that helps!

If you use 65lb braid it does not matter. Most people who fish like you are referring to punching and frogging where you have enough hook to jack them right out of cover and ski them back to the boat

out come could've been very different if they weren't.

Wow, that's huge, and it's also a shame. Now the naysayers are going to call our next 7-pounder a 'ladyboy' Roger

My answer is very simple. I wish you good luck with your job situation and please do what you gotta do to keep fishing. You will need that time more than ever for stress reduction. Can you put a Zillion on a Lighting Rod? Yes. It will catch you some fish and help keep you sane.

Vision 110 for smallies ? Yes Please. A-Jay

Got a yellow Heddon Sonic that has been killing bass for 3 decades.

So what is wrong with BPS making a double prop version, which isn't really a novel idea either. Lets say they had made the blades out of metal, would you have ripped them for copying a topraider or other metal bladed topwater, or is your issue specific to R2S baits? If I were R2S, I would be more ticked that somebody thought of it before they did, not at the company that did it. If JFrancho is right that there is no patent on the blade, then there is no issue here at all.

Send me a PM with your real name and mailing address.

New toy! G Loomis Glx 844c MBR. Pairs up quite nicely with the Chronarch D7. Can't wait to get it out on the water!

Caught a big crappie on a Ned rig my first cast Thursday. Then a new PB wiper on a jerkbait later that day, 11.2 pounds.

If you want some tackle help give me an e-mail direct to fishnkamp@comcast.net. We can meet up near my house and after a little help on land, we can launch my boat for a little on water practice (read as fishing). I live in Middle River, near Martin State airport, so I can be in the water in a few minutes. Make sure to bring your equipment, but you may need to use mine, depending on what you are trying to use.