Tokyo Tony

That is amazing

I caught a couple bass on a wakebait in March, 46 degree water temp ;D Really tied it on for the hell of it - some other technique is always gonna be more productive, but it was fun.

Yeah the last two weeks have been crazy. Two weeks ago I was fishing Silver Lake with jerkbaits, inline spinners, and crankbaits. Now I'm fishing it with flukes and frogs. It was wide open 2 weeks ago, now it's all lily pads. Crazy - I never remember the pads growing in that fast.

Newbie. Lol, but now that post counts aren't displayed, unless someone clicks on our profiles, our names are the same color and we've both "been posting a long time". Score! ;D

Well, speaking of post counts...this is post number 1001 for me. This means I have attained the coveted blue color on my screen name. Score!

I do a lot of shore fishing during the week, in some open places and in some places that have a lot of shore-bound obstructions. For the tighter areas, I find it much easier to use spinning gear, and I prefer a 6'6" rod. 7' is good too, but personally I prefer the compactness of a 6'6". I use medium power (my M power rod has a lot of backbone though), but MH might be better. I think a huge benefit in shore fishing is using braided line. It's really strong and you can cast much farther than you can with flouro/mono of comparable strength. Sometimes while shore fishing that extra casting distance results in more fish, especially when you need to get the lure out to deep water. If you don't need to cast far and your targets are within flipping/pitching range, you can use a baitcaster, but personally, I find spinning setups much easier to use when there are obstructions. Hope that helps 8-)

If using bream is legal, you should PM hawg caller. I know he "calls" a lot of "hawgs" with live bream, so he should have good advice about how to rig and fish them. Another thing: why don't you just fish your worms with 17 pound test? No one says you have to use 4 lb test with worms...

Jigs, jerkbaits (hard and soft), weightless plastic (senko or kreature), and walk-the-dog topwaters (zaras and sammy's). For nightifishing, it's all about the black/blue chatterbait. I want to do a lot more rattle trapping and shakey heading this year, hopefully those two baits will be on my list by next spring, but I just don't use them enough to have confidence in them right now.

T-Rig, I usually use the size 8, occasionally use size 10. This year I'm going to try to use the size 10 more because the 8 does seem to catch a lot of smaller fish. Never tried the 12 - I don't know if I have the stones. P.S. That color is nice, but with jerkbaits I usually prefer something flashy. My favorite X-Rap colors are white, clown, and white with pink back. They just seem to attract more strikes, but I imagine that color you posted might be better on tough days when the fish aren't as active.

I tried it on braid and didn't notice any difference. The stuff is fantastic on my Yo-Zuri Ultrasoft, but didn't see any difference with braid.

When I'm throwing really light lures with baitcasting equipment, I go into freespool mode - no brake at all. Then I face into the wind, reach back, and swing for the fences. As long as the line you use is light enough (I prefer 2 lb test), the lure will go farther than you could ever imagine. Unfortunately, it won't be attached to your line anymore, but there's always a downside. That's right, no smiley faces in this post.

My favorite for spinning gear is 15 lb test Power Pro, and for casting gear (jigs and frogs) I've been using 40 lb test Power Pro. For spinning, depending on your cover situation you may want to use 10 lb test or up to 30+ pound test. It really depends on what you think you need. The lower pound tests cast amazingly well but also fray pretty easily if you're in the nasty stuff. I almost always use a leader, but it has nothing to do with visibility. It has to do with abrasion resistance and being able to break off a hung-up jig instead of damaging the spool mechanism on my casting reels or pulling the entire laydown off the shore, thereby ruining a perfectly good piece of cover . If you're fishing relatively open water, I'd argue that not using leader would be beneficial because of the improved action on your lure (thanks RoLo). I actually found the opposite of a couple of you - Power Pro casts better than Sufix, and is softer. I'd be willing to bet a lot of $ on Power Pro against Sufix in that respect.

I like Yum chunks the most. I think they're beautiful :-*

Looks pretty cool in the water, but even moreso, looks gimmicky. Has anyone on this forum even caught a fish on one of these? FYI - basing your lure purchases off of Bill Dance's show is not a great idea. I could poop on a hook, work it like a zara and catch an 8 pounder in the ponds he fishes. Nevertheless I respect him a lot...but don't fall prey to all of his endorsements.

I like taking pictures of all sizes of fish, not just the big ones. One reason is I like to have something that reminds me of the day, especially if it's a nice day out. Another is that a fish doesn't have to be big to be beautiful. Some of my favorite bass pictures are of smaller fish with great markings, or of smaller fish with a scenic background. It really doesn't take that long - just lip her, take the lure out (or not), have your fishing partner (or your free hand) snap a pic, slide her back in the water. Probably usually takes about 30-40 seconds if that.

Why should we fish? It's healthy, and when you're lucky, you get to see nature at its finest. Older folks: fish for health Middle-aged folks: to get away from the daily grind Young folks: keeps them out of trouble All folks: fishing makes you happy - we should try to be happy. Those are just some of the reasons why I think people should fish

That's my favorite thing about braid - I can talk the fish into biting - "Come on Larry, you may not be hungry, but just have a bite and try it out - it's delicious, trust me!" Seriously though, I don't think you're hearing the jig rattling from far away...it must be something else.

I know exactly how you feel, I'm in the same situation, thanks to this freakin' forum Seriously though, it's kind of a problem. I really can't afford to buy a bunch more good setups right now, so I'm limited to the few nice ones I have. I actually gave my brother all of my old stuff that's, well, inferior equipment. He isn't complaining about my affliction. Yes, I have become a snob in that regard, but not a super-high end snob (i.e. Steez, GLX, Stella, etc.)...I'm saving that for the future 8-)

15 or 10 pound test Power Pro with 12 lb test Yo-Zuri Ultrasoft leader

Black/blue chatterbaits. TRUST ME. This is a little-known secret of night bassin', both largies and smallies. I can't tell you how many times I've been night fishing, throwing everything at them, maybe getting one or two, then just catching fish non-stop with the black/blue chatterbait. The color is important too - needs to be dark.

I agree that a quality setup can help you catch more/bigger fish. Having a $1K setup won't catch you fish, but it can help a good fisherman be more effective. For me the difference is that I enjoy fishing more when I'm using quality gear. It definitely enhances the experience.

I think what he means is that although it's true you can catch a big fish on a little hook, using a little 1/0 hook on a 7.5 inch worm is not optimal. There's just too much bait with too little hook, and with a hook that small, even if the fish does engulf the part of the bait with a hook, you'll nab more fish with a bigger hook. I usually use 3/0 EWG Gammies, but have recently been using more 4/0, can't say why really. I just like that size a little more, even though the difference is pretty minimal. I recently bought a pack of Owner 11/0 hooks for my 7 inch Fin-S jerkbaits...those hooks are huge ;D

Those baits are a ton of fun, but I don't like the Roostertail brand - I've experienced some line twist problems with them. I hear Panther Martins are good in that area, and my personal favorites are Blue Fox. There's something awesome about catching a fish on an inline spinner. It's such a small bait, and you're using a simple, steady retrieve. Feeling the strike on an inline is one of my favorite sensations...you don't feel anything except the vibration as you retrieve it slowly, then SLAM! Love it ;D

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll definitely try a few out. The other day I was using inline spinners with 5 lb test braid, no leader. The line hooked under the blade so that each twist of the lure was a twist in my line...two casts later, the line was dead :-/ Lesson learned

Wow man, that's a GREAT northeast fish! That's actually my goal this year, 7.5 or bigger, don't know if it's gonna happen... Congrats