bilgerat

Good grief, that looks like one of those bass mailboxes (that my wife won't even consider ;D)

Two carrots are crossing a busy intersection when one of them is run over by a car. The ambulance comes and takes him and his buddy to the hospital. After several hours, the surgeon comes out to talk to the other carrot. "Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is he's going to make it, but the bad news is he's going to be a vegetable".....

Dropshot. I wash my socks in the lake and hang them on my fishing line and watch them dry. It's just as exciting.

Definitely a WV sentence. whut skool did yu went tu ?

None. Most of my lost fish have been through either my stupidity or circumstances beyond my control; ie a fish wrapping around a submerged stump. I really can't remember ever losing a fish because of a drag failure. My Pflueger's drag never felt 100 % out of the box. It would have been fine, but I felt it could have been better. I saw the lapping tip on another forum and with being frozen in here, I have a lot of time to kill. I tried it last night and was impressed enough with the results to post about it. Are a majority of drag systems sufficient out of the box ? Probably so, but there's room for improvement. If you are going to spend time and money upgrading your drag, get the full potential. As I prefer light and ultra light tackle, a smooth drag is especially critical. As far as Shimanos go, I've had issues with them in the past (mostly bail and binding) that drove me away. There's Pflueger guys, Shimano guys, Abu guys, Daiwa guys. There's enough fish out there for all of us. I still have not ever had a fish pop it's head out of the water to ask me what brand I fish with. Or if your lapping your drag disk's..... 8-) ;D....but there was the time I launched a jig up into a tree and a 10 pounder stuck his head out of the water and yelled "NICE CAST WUSSY !!" before swimming away. What a basstard.

I'm sure all those who got screwed by the Big S for not addressing the bail problems a while back will find your experience very comforting to them. Don't forget the wet binding issue that many, many people experienced that they swore up and down didn't exist. It must have been a case of mass hysteria :

Matching employer funds in a 401K is the closest thing to free money you can get.

Undercover investigative techniques

Why don't you save up an extra $400 and get a Stella or a Steez ? I had to do it. Sorry One overlooked Pflueger feature is the Sure Click bail. One of the most trouble free bails out there. You can't go wrong with a Pflueger.

It aint junk if it catches fish.

What is the advantage of such a handle ?

I save torn up stick baits and cut the last 2" of the tail section and rig them on ball jigheads. I've caught many fish on this and I have no explanation why. There is zero action to it, but then again the Slider Worm's claim to fame is no action and there's no arguing with the success of that one. I seem to do the best with the dark color with the chartreuse dipped tail.

Truly one of the class acts on here. Keep him in mind when you hook up with your next fish....

None. Most of my lost fish have been through either my stupidity or circumstances beyond my control; ie a fish wrapping around a submerged stump. I really can't remember ever losing a fish because of a drag failure. My Pflueger's drag never felt 100 % out of the box. It would have been fine, but I felt it could have been better. I saw the lapping tip on another forum and with being frozen in here, I have a lot of time to kill. I tried it last night and was impressed enough with the results to post about it. Are a majority of drag systems sufficient out of the box ? Probably so, but there's room for improvement. If you are going to spend time and money upgrading your drag, get the full potential. As I prefer light and ultra light tackle, a smooth drag is especially critical. As far as Shimanos go, I've had issues with them in the past (mostly bail and binding) that drove me away. There's Pflueger guys, Shimano guys, Abu guys, Daiwa guys. There's enough fish out there for all of us. I still have not ever had a fish pop it's head out of the water to ask me what brand I fish with.

...think again. Try this test. You'll need a flat stone, such as a sharpening stone, and a Sharpie marker. Take your drag stack apart and put the felt (or fiber) washers aside. Take the steel washers and, one side at a time, color them with the marker. Now lay the colored side down on the stone and place your finger on the washer. With decent pressure, swirl the washer in a circular motion about twenty times. See where the marker has been removed ? That's the high spots on the surface of the washer. That's the only part that is making full contact with the felt or fiber washer next to it. Do the other side and you'll likely find the same result. Drag washers are punched out of a sheet of steel, there will always be a deformation of some sort, you'll never see it with the naked eye. I just did one of my reels (A Pflueger Supreme XT with factory carbon drag) and I improved it dramatically. I lapped each washer on both sides until the marker was gone. I then wrapped tape around a block of wood with the sticky side out and laid the washers on the tape. I then took my dremel type tool with a felt polishing wheel and some metal polish and finished the washers on both sides. Like I said, it made a huge difference. That was the first of my reels I've done. For those of you that have upgraded to carbon fiber washers or even if you have stock washers, you can greatly improve what you have.

This may not be too important to you now, but keep it in the back of your mind for when you get through school and get a real job. A friend of ours is an accountant and he HATES with a passion large income tax refund checks. Some (a lot) of people purposely fill out their W2 form to have extra taxes deducted so they get a bigger refund. He says it's basically giving the government an interest free loan. In the accounting world a perfect tax form comes out to zero; you owe them nothing and they owe you nothing. Realistically this will never happen, but you get the point. He realizes a lot of people do this to use the money for vacations, large purchases, etc. He feels by taking a little more home in your check and disciplining yourself to save that money and earn interest you'll be better off in the long run. My wife and I happen to agree with this, many don't and that's fine. It's just something to consider. PS about the 401K....DO IT !!! When you leave a job, find a financial advisor and roll your previous job's 401 into a private plan. You can't cash it out, or you'll incur big time IRS penalties.

Well done. Hope everyone is doing well. Now go and change that diaper...

You have no business catching fish like that on that wussy spinning setup. Shame on you.. :

Maybe it's just me, but having someone's name attached to a product or a certain person using a product is one of the last things to influence my buying decision.

No fair > we're still froze in up here.... Just bustin' your nads. Nice score. Very generous of them.

Those that have been lucky enough to hook into a 1 lb. bull bluegill on light tackle know the feeling. Pound for pound, there is no better fighting freshwater fish, except maybe a smallie. A lmb may as well be an old boot when comparing fighting ability.

I ripped this from another forum. I'm only showing what was said, I'm leaving the author unnamed. He's known to most of us here, so here goes: Save some money on the Mend It and go buy some clear PVC glue. Its the same stuff but Mend It adds Acetone to it and places it in an illegal container to sell. The Acetone evaporates in a few months and leaves the Mend It all gummy. The PVC glue will set you back $5 and will last forever. Don't buy the colored glue, just the clear stuff. Another guy chimed in on the thread and reminded everyone to get the CLEAR glue in the smallest container you can find as it will eventually gum up. Apply it to the torn bait with a toothpick. Don't leave it where it will be in freezing temps or it will be affected.

For Dan How come inventory and selection vary so much from store to store ? Of the 4 within roughly a 40 mile radius of my house, some are one notch above wally world and some are decent. What gives ?

I'm not going to deny that their is some truth to this. But here's just a few other things to consider.... In-Fishermen once did a study on this exact topic, and what they found out, was that fish with less red muscle (like Largemouth Bass) do not tend to fight very long anyway, regardless of the tackle, hence, they do not tend to build up a lot of lactic acid. In other words, Largemouth's are a great candidate for using very light gear with. Also, lets say one uses a flipping stick, and rips a big bass straight to the boat, before you can blink an eye. That fish is going to be VERY hot coming into the boat, increasing the chances of the fish hurting itself, by ramming into the inside of a livewell, or shaking out of the anglers hands and being dropped. Another thing I see, is anglers who either do not have much experience, or, who try to milk out some extra fight from a fish, by lightening up on the drag of medium, or heavier gear..... or, goofier yet, just not pulling on the fish, 1/10th as hard as the gear would allow. {if these guys want more fight, they need to catch bigger, stronger fish } Generally speaking, I believe people place too much emphasis on the gear, when it comes to wearing down a fish, while in reality, I think a much bigger factor, is the fish wearing itself down. All you have to do is stay hooked up, and keep even pressure The fish pretty much takes care of the rest Peace, Fish i dont see why people want to fight a fish longer even thoguh their gear allows them to winch it in :-? when i hook on i get that fish to the boat as realistically as possible. largemouth usually i can get in fast but those smallmouth never want to quit running every time they see the boat Some of us are in it for the fight. Water skiing a 2 lb. bass across the surface with 65 lb. braid aint my idea of fun and it aint exactly "sporting". If it's a tournament with $$ on the line, then it's a different story.

I've had no trouble at all using Sufix Performance braid on my spinning setups. I'm down to 10/4 (10 lb test, 4 lb dia.) on my ultra lite rig with zero issues. For what it's worth, Sufix claims it's engineered for spinning reels.