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Stuck a good one pitching, only fish I managed to land for the day.

Truth be told we're all getting between 400-500 yds each cast. This is why everyone is so reluctant to tell you and talked more about accuracy. You have some catching up to do. Hope this helps. ?

Spent a very nice last 2 hours of the day on the water . Perfect temp. and wind. The fish are back on the beds again. Got this skinny 4.12 on a pumpkin zoom lizard. Caught a few more on zoom trick worms.

I would step her up to a Berkley Lightning Shock rod. For a good all purpose rod look at a 6'6" medium moderate action. Pair it up with a Pflueger President reel in a size 30. This may be more than you were thinking of spending, but if you ever want nicer gear yourself and you want her to enjoy the hobby with you, then this is what I would do. Over thirty five years ago I knew a guy that owned an Orvis dealership. I learned how to flycast as well as many important life lessons from Bruce. One was to THINK about what type of gear I got my then girlfriend if I wanted to help her to learn to enjoy MY hobby. It did not matter if I was fishing with a $20 combo or a $200 Orvis fly rod, make sure she fished with the same good equipment. I believe he was right. My wife and I have spent 40 years together and she is a smallmouth fanatic. She fishes with her own dozen rods, some G Loomis, some Dobyns and two Berkley Lightning Shock rods. Guess what reels are on the Berkley rods. Lastly, help her avoid the frustration of line twist. I recommend putting some 10 pound Stren on as backing, then filling the reel with 14 pound Original Berkley Fireline. That stuff casts beautifully. If you fish clear water you can easily add a 5 foot long copoly leader in say 6 or 8 pound test. That is a setup she uses all the time. Lindas biggest fish include big stripers, several 6 pound smallies, some 5 pound plus largies and a 34 1/2 pound flathead catfish. She is my main fishing partner in life. I hope you can have what we have, a life long marriage and the ability to really appreciate going to pretty places and sharing memories together. I love it when she is fighting a big fish, even more than when I am. There is a little child that I get to see in her eyes every single time.

Many anglers assume being versatile means being able to master every technique available. What we NEED to be versatile at is fishing our strengths in various weather & water conditions!

Went out night fishing tonight, threw a spinnerbait a little bit but switched over to a zoom curly tail junebug worm. Fished for a good while and caught a 12 incher but didn't seem to be getting the response I was hoping for so I switched back to the big black spinnerbait and moved further down the bank. I was just rolling it along, not burning it but not slow rolling it either when at about 5-8' out from the bank it felt like my spinnerbait was just sucked in....well I loaded up on her and here we go!! I clicked my head lamp on and when she got close to the bank and I saw her I was scared to death I was gonna lose her! It didn't actually take long to work her to the bank and I was able to lip her. She went 9.44 lbs. 23" long and 20.5" in girth. I tried to make the pics snappy and get her safely back in the water where she swam away strong! Man what an awesome night!!

USMC 6 years, Army civilian 34 years Field Artillery Center

I'm picturing something like this..... Only with baitcasters.

"We often give to much credit to the lure & not enough credit to the angler!" "If there was a bush in the back of a cove with a 5# bass in it & Denny Brauer went by he would catch it on a black/blue jig. If KVD when by that same bush he would catch it on a spinner bait & if Rick Clunn went by that same bush he would catch it on a buzz bait. It was not the lure selection but location of the bass!" Gary Klein, Bassmaster University

I use them a lot. They will get down about 10-12’ on a cast with 10 lb braid and 15-17’ strolling with more line out. Very effective on suspended fish in deeper water. I have a rebel spoonbill minnow in clown that is lights out. Walks the dog under water in 180 degree swings. When it is hot it outfishes everything. Both baits will get you bit if you use them when the fish are deeper.

Over the years, I superscribed to many theories. As my fishing (for several species including bass) has evolved, I have come to believe that one theory in particular has quite a bit of merit. Additionally this theory often improves the chances of some of my 'other theories' actually working out. Fishing in bodies of water that hold numbers of above average fish, improves the opportunity to routinely catch above average fish. That's my theory, and I'm stick'in to it. A-Jay

Headed out on the river here at WVU for a couple hours this evening to try and get a couple walleye for dinner. The bite was slow out deep where I normally catch them this time of year, so when the light started to fade I made my way to some shallow rock and picked up the trusty ol' no.7 shad rap. Things got ugly pretty quickly . My little Calcutta 50 got quite a workout, but boy is that thing perfect for throwing a shad rap!

The only problem with that strategy is you could only do it once or twice in a lifetime. Plus there is a chance the entire group of fishermen you are approaching would be dead by the time you passed them.

via Imgflip Meme Generator

I just joined feels like it was the right thing to do now.

I have a friend with only one working arm. He uses those reels all the time. To watch him fish is impressive and inspirational.

Opening up a whole can of worms when it comes to how organized bass tournaments handle fish at weigh ins or how anglers handle bass caught and stored in livewells. Bass post mortality rates are a direct result of ignorance, poor handling practices and poor livewell management techniques. The Classic Ike melt down throwing the American flag into the water when he discovered his limit of bass were belly up due to a livewell pump failure shouldn't of happened. If Ike knew that 1/2 cup of 3% over the counter hydrogen peroxide mix into 15 gallons of livewell water would have saved the day. Gene Gilliand the fish biologist that bass hired down played competitors using hydrogen peroxide as a livewell additive based on problems with fish transport trucks having issues using 20% solution hydrogen peroxide to add dissolved oxygen in the water. Comparing 3% to 20% solution was misleading and his advice not to use it was simply wrong. Under Bassmasters giudelines the fiasco to Falcon lake event weigh in took place with one of the highest post morality rates ever recorded occurred. Big bass in confined small livewells with poor management, water temps too high and DO levels too low, was the cause. I would hope everyone reading this thread take the time to watch Sure-Life livewell management vedio's and educate yourself so misleading statements can be avoided. OK, I will get off my soap box, this topic tends to wind me up! Tom

Long casts are not brute strength. The key to a long cast is loading the rod correctly. Trying to muscle a long cast is where a lot of your backlashes will come from. It’s no different than the sweet spot on a tennis racket, baseball bat or golf club. The grunt is secondary to the proper form.

There’s no way to avoid a wet tackle bag when you fish in the rain. Once you open it to get a lure it’s wet. You put wet lures back in the bag and it’s wet. It sits on the floor of the boat and it’s wet. When I go as a coangler, I have a portable bag made by Plano that is a fold over top and has a rubberized bottom with the rubber coating coming up about an inch on the sides. The material the bag is made of is also waterproof. With all that being said it still gets wet inside. After a trip in the rain, I always take my boxes out of the bag and open them up to dry. For my hooks and weights box I will give them a squirt of wd40. For my cranks, I use some pieces of sidewalk chalk or desiccant packs in the boxes. I do this even when fishing from my own boat and my boxes are out of the bag. It’s amazing how much condensation can accumulate even if you are not fishing in the rain.

Crimping being discribed as being smooshed gets a grin. Suggest the OP look up Berkley 7Strand wire leader and crimp sleeve information. Being a salt water big game fisherman, crimping is a common rigging technique for both wire leaders and 200-300 lb mono leaders where tying knots are bulky and unreliable. Crimp sleeves are usually annealed bronze with a black oxide coating and crimped onto the leader using a compound plier tool designed to squeeze (smoosh) or swag the soft metal tube or sleeve. Adding stinger hooks to swimbaits using wire leader and "crimping" is a common technique with bass anglers. Tom

Just remember professional anglers are paid to promote. Lure manufacturers want to sell baits. Many times new baits are just a tweak to an existing bait or technique. How else are the bait manufacturers going to get the consumer to buy what they most likely already have? I tend to categorize my baits into what technique I want to offer. Top water, crankbaits, spinnerbaits or plastics. The multitude of baits in those categories can be overwhelming. I always go back to what Gary Klein once told me......if I can find the fish there is never less than 5 different lures I can catch them with.

Sprite...it's usually Mountain Dew that gets the nod as being a fish life saver. As A-Jay correctly observed Sure-Life Labs are a creditable and reliable source for fish protection livewell products Catch & Rekease and Please Release Me to specifically to help bass survive. The proof is in the statistics of C & R tournaments and not 1 professional tournament organization promotes pouring carbonated water, Sprite or Mountain Dew in a livewell or into a basses bleeding gills. Tom

A-Jay, if you arent a spokesperson for Sure-Life, I think you need to call them and set up a meeting. That was one heck of a sales pitch

I used to use Gulp! spray all the time and actually felt like it did help quite a bit at times. I spilled a bottle in my boat once and stopped carrying it after that.

http://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1066_2694_2696&products_id=12666 This is going to be my next dsr and i dont think the loomis will have anything that this rod does not except the bigger price. It has a lot more style and the handle looks a lot better. I have no idea why i like it so much but the looms does not have the character for me. Match that up with daiwa certate 2004ch and call it a day http://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/product_info/language/en/products_id/27935/cPath/21_39_40_3285/certate/daiwa-2016-certate-2004ch-free-shipping.html

I'm 30 miles north of kc. Today caught 50 crappie in 2 hrs bank fishing a large farm pond. They are not right on the banks but staging in prespawn areas.It should only get better if the weather stays on track

I have green pumpkin, bluegill, sexy shad, and black/blue - for those of you mentioning the black blade for the green pumpkin in clear water - have you ever noticed the bass getting spooked by a silver blade but like the black blade? I actually bought some black powder paint to paint some of my blades, but haven't gotten around to it yet. If you were to go with one color...I would go with the sexy shad personally (basically white/chartreuse and some other accents like green), as I've had it perform well in clear water and it would be better than green pumpkin for dirty water. I used a chartreuse grub for my trailer and bass will attack that thing sometimes when nothing else is working.

We "remember you" Glenn. You're the guy that runs this forum.

Perfect ~ and I see he is effectively equip with the Max Towing Package as well. A-Jay

Bass fishing can as simple or as complex as you make it and that is why it's a popular sport. Understanding basic bass behavior will improve you ability to catch bass. How important are lures? When was the last time you used that hot must have lure you bought 5 or 10 years ago? The bass haven't changed over that time period, you have! I tried to simplify basic bass behavior back in 1974 by making up my Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar, it's so simple that apparently only I can understand it! For me I like using a wide variety of different tackle, lures and presentations to catch bass because it keeps it interesting. When targeting big bass my lures and presentations are reduced to only a few that have proven to work at specific locations. That is my theory. Tom

I was one of the first to research and write about this, and the best answer, recently supported by a fish physiologist (Dr. Bruce Tufts), is that it's the carbon dioxide in the drink, which means it doesn't matter which brand of cola you use, as it simply could be carbonated water. The higher the content, the better. Regardless, CO2 is weird in that in nearly all cases, it acts as a vasodilator in people. The one exception is the lungs, where it acts as a vasoconstrictor. The belief is that the gills in fish are acting like the lungs in people, and the blood vessels feeding them immediately constrict when met with high CO2 contact. This is the best "scientific" answer I've seen, though no one has addressed if there are any negative consequences to the practice.

Caught this 9.44 lb Hawg night fishing with a big black and blue spinnerbait!

Traded in my (4) Exsence 3000's for (4) new Stella 3000 FJ's this week and wow.... They're like a Rolex, can't feel a single gear and smooth as butter! Just got to spool up 8lb Tatsu on them and they'll be ready to be broke in up north this spring on some smallies...

In my quest to become a better angler...I have came across someone passing on the teachings of Buck Perry. Don Dickson is his name, he has a website with a blog and a few YouTube videos. https://www.facebook.com/DonDicksonFishing/ http://dondicksonfishing.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOkkcQIDRcdm-f4al4iCcA It appears as though his online presence is a new creation as of 2018...but has taught spoonplugging for years...he even has a video of him with Buck Perry. Just thought I would pass on this tidbit of knowledge, in the hopes that I can help guide someone else to become a successful angler...it's a great feeling.

Dorado, that's a whopper cat! I've had 2 cats hit a need rig, biggest was 3 pounds. I could only imagine that fight you had

That tells me you like shorter rods! Tom

I broke the tip on a 7'mh cut it off at the next guide and turned it into a 6'9 heavy. Made an amazing frog rod.

9.5 for REM orange crush

I excel at that. You heard about the guy that was so lazy he married a pregnant woman?

7 inches here since this morning and up to 2.5" more expected. Weird. Southern IN is 36-40 and rain, and north IN including as far N as Chicago and Detroit is 40 degrees. Only a thin band in the central part of the state is below freezing and getting snow. Sucks to be us right now...

Only got 4 of them?! I'm disappointed.

You might try taking the line out and reeling it back in under pressure with it held between your thumb and finger. I stopped line twist by using a barrel swivel and a leader on my spinning rods.

8.75 I'm throwing this out there just because it's my moms name.

10 big time. Love Velvet Underground. My favorite version of Sweet Jane.

No hating on pink!

Sounds like an original Rebel Minnow: https://www.rebellures.com/rebel-minnow

It’s the mag heavy on the side with 60 pound braid .)

When your new Ci4 has a bad bearing but the forum pushes you in a different direction. Its not as free spinning as a Stradic (the sealing is much better at the handle and main shaft on this one) but when you turn the handle you can feel everything just matches up better.

For what this is worth, I bought my husband one in 1980 or 1981..(Married 38 years)...A 7' 6" Medium Action spinning model with a cork handle and cork above where reel seats in..Part of the rod will sink into the butt handle (about a foot) for easier transportation..He has a cast counter, so if you're wondering if they'll hold up - try this on for size...Married 38 years with him fishing probably 51 days per year minimum, casting top water (rigs a worm weedless and walks dog popper style with it) at least 600-750 times per day, he has to have a minimum of 1,162,800 (one million, one hundred sixty-two thousand, eight hundred) casts on it..His 177 IQ makes him get bored easily, so he keeps track of all he catches on it, plus sizes/lengths/girths...More than 51,000 with a weight in excess of 200,000 lbs. of Large Mouth Bass, approx. 24,000 Small Mouth with total weights of 47,000 lbs., approx. 700 Channel Catfish with total weights of 12,400 lbs., at least 550 Blue Catfish with total weights of 5,100 lbs. (largest 55 lbs) and Crappie that probably would go near 25,000 at least, with an average weight of 1-2 lbs. each..So if you wonder if it is durable, he's living proof...If I told you how much he has been offered for that rod, you'd call me a liar!

BUSTED!!!!