Tokyo Tony

Awesome fish man, congrats! We have almost 5 months until the bass start thinking about moving shallow for the spawn. T-Rig - at least your lake is ice-free.

Welcome! Nice story - very well-written Makes me want to go night fishing...after ice-out :-/

Born in Tokyo, Japan, where I lived for the first 4 years of my life. I've been back several times, and although the people are very nice, and the food is sublime, I could never live there. It's too big of a city, too much pollution, and too crowded. The Japanese countryside is really beautiful though.

Sounds like you did all you could do. If you miss them with the frog and they don't hit the follow-up senko, I don't know if there's anything else you can do...maybe a t-rigged plastic in the pockets?

Nice fish man That's a different kind of peacock than I'm used to seeing. What's the name of that species?

You have to respect the unbelievable amount of brainpower and workmanship that goes into creating a machine like that. Amazing.

I don't understand why we would want to grow the sport. That just means fewer bass for the rest of us right? Relax, I'm kidding

Pretty crazy stuff, but I hope that guy never catches another 8 lber if he's eating them all : I'm kind of skeptical too - how could a ring that was lost 21 years ago end up in an 8 lb bass? Did a bass originally eat it, die, decompose, then another one picked it up off of the bottom, etc.? IMO, it's likely that the story is not true.

The family will definitely win.

New England SUCKS. I'm not changing my mind until April.

Bass fishing's done in CT. All of my favorite ponds are mostly, if not fully, covered in ice. I'm in for a long winter of trout and salmon fishing. Sucks.

Nice fish there I'll have to try going for koi sometime.

Judging by all of these posts, I guess it doesn't matter Personally, I always use rattles. I don't have confidence without them.

That's all I use - Power Pro with a flouro leader connected by a double Uni knot. IMO, the double Uni is the best all-around knot for this application when considering strength, small size, ease/quickness of tying. I've tried over 10 different brands of flouro for leader, and Berkley 100% is the best, IMO. Very abrasion resistant, low stretch, and almost 100% invisible. 8-)

Yeah, but to my knowledge, the only size they have left is the 750, which may be good for a small trout :-/ If you guys can find any retailers that still have the 2000 to 3000 sizes, please let me know! That's a real steal. Out of curiosity, are they coming out with a new line again? Back to Pfleugers, stugoldstein - you shouldn't use the Supreme in salt water because it has a magnesium frame. I'm surprised it hasn't melted yet

Have you guys seen this? http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/02/wounded-deer-attacks-hunter-who-shot-him/ Don't read the blog at the bottom unless you want to be p'd off

Thanks guys fishizzle - these are the same types of fish that were jumping around at Crystal lake that day. Let me know if you want to join me this weekend - I'm heading back to the river.

Definitely tackle. Last Christmas I bought my brother a tackle bag, a bunch of lures, and a Cabela's gift certificate. It was at least as fun for me to put the stuff together as it was for him to receive it Of course, he still uses all my stuff. I don't think he got the hint.

Crap! The one I wanted is out of stock. I've been wanting their 7' ML F spinning rod for trout/river smallie fishing for a while now, but looks like I just missed it

People whose shorefishing gear includes a bucket. You know those d-bags are keeping every single thing they bring in. A bucket fisherman once tried convincing me to give him my little smallmouth while referring to it as a trout. Freakin' idiot. When people say, "Everything happens for a reason." I know it's a compassionate thing to say, but it's total B.S. What's the reason that little innocent African children starve to death every day? What exactly was the reason for the Holocaust? Your family member was brutally murdered - really sorry to hear that, but everything happens for a reason. Right. People sitting in the passing lane, not passing. This behavior shows a lack of giving a crap about people other than yourself, and it's infuriating. On the other hand, people riding your ace when you're going 40 in a 35 because they want to floor their spiffy little specially-painted, "sponsor"-covered, whiny-sounding, low-rider Civics through the neighborhood. That's a definite way to make me hit the brakes. Wow, my heart rate is definitely up.

That's not an excuse not to drink - it's a very good reason to drink ;D

Beautiful fish! What'd you use to trick her?

A friend of mine was telling me that he's been catching a bunch of Atlantic salmon lately about 45 minutes from where we live, so I figured I'd go check it out today. We fished for four hours or so, I caught one fish, he caught 3 or 4. But the biggest two we caught were an absolute blast. It was really slow fishing, but that one fish made it a great day. I tried jerkbaits for a while, but I had to cut off the trebles and use a single hook - that's the rule for this river. No luck, so I tied on a chartreuse Blue Fox inline spinner, #3. I was sure the fish was gonna get off because it was a single barbless hook and this thing was a tank. It took me a good 2 to 3 minutes to land her. First I felt the lure stop, and I knew it wasn't a rock, but it took a second to register that it was a fish until I saw her about 15 feet in front of me. She started thrashing around near the bank, then went deep, swam straight upstream and pulled drag (I was using 15 lb Power Pro) about 30 yards and there was no stopping her. I turned her, and she proceeded to thrash around some more on the surface, and then headed downstream for a little run. When all was said and done, she was 13 lbs of pure muscle - a really beautiful fish. I might be doing more salmon fishing than trout fishing this winter This was my buddy's biggest fish today, a 12 lber. He got all of his on an 8 weight fly setup: Any of you salmon fishermen have advice on what types of lures to use, or even baits?

Cranking isn't usually included in the "general purpose" category because you usually want a cranking rod with moderate action instead of fast action. I think the reason people are pointing you in the direction of the cheaper cranking rods is because sensitivity isn't a priority when cranking, as it is with jigging or worming. As for the reel ratio, general wisdom says to use a low ratio for cranking because it doesn't cause as much fatigue when you're cranking all day, and you have a little more power and control when bringing a fish in. However, that wisdom is more of a preference. Some guys like KVD prefer a high ratio so they have the option of burning their cranks. You can always slow down a high ratio reel, but you can't always speed up a lower ratio reel. That's just general info - sorry, I don't have much knowledge about specific cranking rods, but the previous advice looks good

Fresh: smallies & peacocks Salt: tarpon & snook If I still lived in South Florida, largemouth fishing would probably account for about 5% of my fishing as opposed to 95% up here in the state I hate from November to February.