Simp

Check out this great story. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220924/Fisherman-reels-monster-6ft-perch--battling-CROCODILE.html These things look so much like a LM bass it's crazy. I wonder if Big O has any Giant Rage Lobsters? ;D

I love the above guy in cold water paired with a War Eagle Heavy Finesse jig. When in warm water 55 or above I almost always go with a rage tail. When I want a small profile I cut down a craw to a chuck size. Meduim sized jigs get close to a full craw. So of course when I want a big jig I go to the Rage Lobster!!

So now are you going to change your name to JigAlways? ;D I fish a 7'8 heavy and love it but there are times the added length works against me. With that said the added length helps with picking up line on deep fish. Not to mention the power to lift a fish out of cover if you have to. Personally I find myself wanting to upgrade my 7ft rod to a higher quality one because I find myself preferring it for tubes and very light jigs. So depending on the actions 7 1/2 should be fine honestly.

It could also be a DNS issue with the service provide. I'm also in Southern IL but I have Mediacom as my internet provider and the sites plenty fast.

I don't know if I'm going to invest in MAG yet, but probably won't. I'm a videogame nut but I'm playing less and less and that mostly has to do with fishing more and more. I still have Killzone 2, Gears of War2, and several other games to finish before I really consider buying anything else. Well that is except for Modern Warfare 2 that is. The other big game that I plan to waste probably YEARS on and I'm not kidding here I mean years is KOTOR online. I loved the other two and I'm a Star Wars nut so there going to get my 15$ a month for a very long time. It doesn't come out until sometime until 2010 but I can't see myself investing in another MMG when I'm waiting on that.

I agree 100%!

Your right on with this one. Just think of a senko for instance. When un weighted like normal it fall slowly horizontally. Now if you would add just a small worm weight to the nose to the senko. Then it falls in a vertical position and very fast. It's a great way to trigger reaction strikes along a deep weedline. The higher weight wasn't the key but rather the less water resistance. As a former swimmer I can tell you water resistance is VERY big deal when your dealing with any type of speed in water. Swimmers don't shave their legs to loose the added weight. They do it because the hairs interrupt a smooth flow of water

;D ;D and the OPs last post was in 2005! I demand a ending chapter to this saga that's taken five years so far. ;D

Per your original question we seemed to have ignored ,sorry about that BTW. [ch8226] Shakespeare SP 348-1UUL 4'8" ultra-ultra-light spinning =Panfish [ch8226] Shimano RX2500 5'6" ultra-light spinning=Panfish [ch8226] Berkeley H21 5'6" light spinning=Panfish [ch8226] Zebco GBC562ML 5'6" medium-light casting "Gatorback"=Panfish [ch8226] Zebco ZRC56M 5'6" medium casting "Rhino"=Panfish [ch8226] Renegade RTS 602UL 6'0" ultra-light spinning=Panfish/ultra light bass gear to make small bass more fun. [ch8226] Johnson JFS-1 6'0" medium-light spinning=same as above [ch8226] Shakespeare SP2660-2M 6'0" medium spinning=same as above+jerkbaits possibly [ch8226] Quantum QXLC 60M 6'0" medium casting-small cranks,top plugs like popers, jerkbaits, inline spiners [ch8226] Shakespeare SP 860-1MH 6'0" medium-heavy spinning=crappie,trout, bass using tubes, grubs, senkos, small spinners,small cranks. [ch8226] Berkeley 6'6" medium spinning "Lightning" = Crappie,Trout,Bass using senkos,small cranks,spinners, and if it's very sensitive compared to you other rods shacky head, tubes ect. [ch8226] Browning 6'6" medium casting "David Fritts Special" = CRANKING, CRANKING, CRANKING. David Fritts is a master crabkbait fisherman and this rod is probably pretty decent. It should handle anything with trebble hooks well but cranks that dive deaper then 12ft would be pushing it with this rod. [ch8226] St Croix GS66M2 6'6" medium spinning= same as the other spining rod with this action but this rod is probably your best spinning rod. [ch8226] Quantum EC66M 6'6" medium casting=Again a good rod for anything with trebble hooks. [ch8226] Quantum QCS66MH 6'6" medium-heavy casting= Buzz baits, spinnerbaits, Jig and Worm rod for under 1/2 oz. [ch8226] Daiwa "Legacy" casting rod (model #s, size and power rating not legible -- looks to be a 7-footer with a fairly fast tip)= Depends if it's a heavy rod with a fast tip it could be a good froging rod. Like the Spro frog or the Rage Toad. It might also be a good flipping stick. On the other hand if it's a light action 7ft rod it might be a good shacky head or tube rod. Well that's my 2 cents I hope it helps.

Would that be Egypt??

I'm not saying you wrong RW, but I've seen a east wind kill a awesome bight. I'm not saying it's anything close to full proof or anything. I've just had a great bight on for several days and a pressure system with a east wind come in and bam you can't buy a bight. Then when a south west pressure system comes it will heat up again. There is a million factors that goes into having a great day on the lake but a east wind is close to number one for things I don't want.

Well I'm totaly bumed and ticked off at the weather!! Here in southern IL are weather man keeps blabing on how this is late November weather and not mid October weather. We are usally in the the mid 70s for highs and lows in the 50s. Instear we've had over a week where we haven't gotten out of the 50s and lows in the high 30s and low 40s. The water how lost tons of it heat way to fast. I was hoping to fish some nice 60s water for several weeks instead it running straight for the 50s. I'm talking it was in the high 70's October first or so and as off a couple days ago it was 61!! To top it off we've been pounded with cold windy rain that made it to dangerous to fish the last few weeks for the most part. Now Erau618 my fishing partner is going to have to fish this saturday in a college tourney where it won't even hit 50!! I told them they out to change it to a Muscky tourney (It's a great Muscky lake). I feel for him because he's been to busy with school to pre fish any and he doesn't know the lake well and neither do I. The only thing I could suggest to him is to find the shad and the bass should be there. The problems is this weather has SHUT THEM DOWN!!! When I was out a couple days age we found the shad and didn't have a bite. I told him bring some jerkaits and let them sit and some shacky heads. Personally I got a tourney next weekend and I'm praying to the fishing gods to give me some warm weather!! I'm just dieing for some good fishing before the fishing season is over for a couple months.

Carmen J Bernardo I think what RW and others are also trying to say is in the long run this will say you money. Quality products usually last longer and almost every big name brand in fishing has good warranty service. Also buying something like a main like Citica 200e from shimano means they will be serviced by Shimano for YEARS to come. They will also provide years of great service when properly cared for. Not to mention the fantastic performance you will get. So try to hold off on spur of the moment purchases and instead ask yourself "What do I fish most?". After that read up on what rod actions works best for that style of fishing. Then read up on rod models,brands, and lengths and actions they have. After that buy the best rod you can in your price range. I would also suggest checking out the flea market here. It's a great place for us members to sell/buy and trade out gear. Personally I sold a real on here that wasn't for me to a fan of those reals and I paired it up with some extra cash and bought a real I'm in love with from the flea market. It saved me a ton of cash and made three people very happy. So check it out and plan/research your purchases over the fall and winter. P.S. It sure seems like we skipped fall this year and went right to winter!

Personally not a big fan of Red Label. I treated it with KVD and still didn't care for it. InvisX is my favroit but defiantly has more stretch. I plan on in the future trying carbon pro, the one listed here, and Cablea's no vis that is made by seagar. I have Cablea's no vis on my spining reel in the 6lb size and it works great! I'm hoping the 15-20 is as nice.

I can say the same for the spro! With that said I refuse to vote because buzz frogs like the Rage Toad should not be considered "frogs" to me.

Personally I haven't been able to get out for a week and conditions change fast, but we did have a killer crashing crank bite. We have a lake that is filled with shad and and we will take a square billed crank and just crash it into the rocks as shallow as we can and BAM!!! Now if you find hard rock bottoms deeper try a wiggle wart or brad's wigglers that runs deep enough to hit bottom. Here is a exmple of the fish and structure we were hitting them on about a week ago. Look to the left of the picture and you will see the rocks. In this situation this is a rock made point to protect the boats docked. It runs from very shallow by land and very deep for this lake at the end. It's a great place for bass to ambush and various depths for them to hang out. With this point I'm often able to get a good idea where the fish may be staging at other areas. I can often reason if I catch a fish early in the day at the edge of the point against the rocks that fish are just moving up to the edge of the point or holding there. Now if I come back to that point a hour later and nail one or two further up the point I know we have a situation where bass are moving up into shallow water and so is there food. Now on the other hand if I get some at the edge again I can reason the fish are holding in that depth and I should look for similar depths with similar cover. I also try to pin point the shad. I'm convinced there is resident bass on this rocky point and there is non resident bass that often fallow the shad onto the point. When you can time it right we've been able to have a nice 20lb sack. Well I'm rambling, long story short try to find some rack and crash some cranks. Don't be afraid to get right up and parallel these types of rocks either.

I assure you IL bass love them. I nice 5 pound Crab Orchard bass. The key for this bait is cover(grass) and off colored water . Most of the time it has to much commotion for clear water bass. I might also suggest the frog version. It usualy runs better with less snags and still puts out tons of noise.

Man if your flipping with a 7ft MH baitcasting rod then your set up for disaster using a 6 pound leader!!! Seriously there is a crap ton of force put on that line in such a short dicstance, plus your using braid that doesn't have any stretch. I'd suggest you get at least 14lb pound fluro as a leader on that set up. Otherwise if your fishing finesse baits move down to a meduim or meduim lite that can handle that line size and not snap it on a hook set.

Good luck, I know one of our local (SIU) teams finished 2nd at Lake of the Ozarks and advanced. It earned the college and the club a cool $5.000.

I like it but don't love it. I've done decent with it smacking it against rocks but I have bent the hooks on some good fish. I was able to land the fish but I guess for a 11$ crankbait I want the hooks to be stronger. I can't say they are any better then a 1s or 4s strike king cranks or some of the square billed DTFS Rapals and those are all cheaper. With all that said there another crank to put in your box to try and match the right lure for the situation.

Ditto on the love taps. I wish he would have just stood them up. Roy had to throw love taps because if had tried to hit him hard he would have broke his hand on the top of Kimbo's skull. I was actually impressed by Kimbo compared to the fighters in the first fight. I personally would have taped out of I had to smell mister man pigs under arms.

Well guys I've past on the kind words and he told me to post he sure appreciates it. You can't hold down a fisherman for long though we were back at it today! I caught this big girl and due to the fish runing to the front of the boat. My dad was in a better situation to LIP HER because of that! Well he was a little more reluctant today and instead belly landed her like you see on the Elite Series.

Well today was one for the books. The puzzle starts a couple days ago when out Trolling motor started to give us more problems. Today we found the issue and started to fix it but it was taken is longer then we wanted. So decide to use our back hand controlled trolling motor. We had planed to go to a local small lake and had all our lures tied on for it's clear conditions. Well as we set off we decide instead of driving 20 min to the small lake we would just fish our larger lake across the strees to save time. We some things we needed to do today the wind was calm so our john boat should do pretty well out there. So we launched and the shad were everywhere. Normally we change baits for this lake because it's so muddy but recently it's cleared up. With thte shad also busting the Zara Super Spook I had tied on and the Chuger my Dad had on seemed perfect. A fair amount of grass had died also so we could work the baits with out as much chance at neing hung as well. Well that was until about a hour into our trip. Our fun started at about 1pm when my Dad got hund and tried to snap it off but broke his line. I thought he had broke it on a fish. I told him "Well it's a good thing I have like 20 of those chuggers at home." thinking the fish had my chugger my pops was throwing. He then looks at me and tells me "It's right there I'm going to get it.". That's when I realized he didn't break it off on a fish. So we get up to the lure and gets it and throws the hand controlled trolling in reverse. Unlike the foot controlled that was out of commission for the day (no reverse on it). He made one big mistake he forgot about the excess line from the lure. When he hot reverse it sucked up the line and yanked the lure into his finger. Well as soon I hear the handle turn I hear a stream of obscenities come from my dad and a patented rattle of a Chugger. I said "Your hooked aren't you!", my dad answered with a simple but manly "Yep!". That was the last time he would would act like a man for a good several hours. ;D I was a tad inconsiderate and approached with pliers. I mean heck shad were busting and I knew the bass were going to be on. I didn't want a little thing like a hook stop us. I told him I think I remember how to take it out. Well he wasn't hearing none of that. He told me "I think we gotta get off the watter." . So as we headed back he gets as pale as a ghost and starts telling me he's not feeling good. We get back to the boat ramp and I tell he "Just stay hear I can handle loading everything.". Well he didn't want to stay in the boat so we walk over by some grass and he's having trouble walking. His feet's dragging and he looks like he's about to pass out. So he sits down by the grass and I tell him "Just sit down and stay here. I'll be right back with the truck!". I go about 15 paces and look back and he's trying to walk fast and catch up with me. The only problem is his feet isn't listening. There dragging and I yell "STOP sit down!" Well in a way he did but head first. He fell hard and I couldn't help think "OH ****, I bet the other hooks are in now!". So I run over to him grab his hand to see it's status and by some miracle still only the one hook is in. I couldn't fathom why he didn't sit and wait. He just kept saying I want to sit in the truck, want to sit in the truck. So I support him back to the truck and then loaded the boat us as fast as I could. I also got some candy out for him and he ate it and that helped him out allot. He rebounded physically and mentally soon after. We drove to our house that was just up the road and got on the Internet. We read up on how to remove them and I was confident I could do it. Well he was really worried about the pain. One thing finally led us to go to the ER. The hook was WAY past the barb We registered and had to tell the story a hundred times to all the on lookers. Finally we got in to see the doc and shot his finger up with the biggest needle I'd seen in a long time. I told him "Dad don't even look". I told him just hold my hand and squeeze. I had personally had the same type od shot and knew it wouldn't be fun. Soon after though he couldn't feel anything. He kept his eyes shut and the Doctor proceeded to cut the hook off from the rest of the lure and the other barbs. Then he bent the hook so it made a second puncture wound and clipped the bard off. After that he bent the hook back out the original puncture wound and it was all over. After a 2-3 hour wait for meds were back home and for the most part he's pain free for now.

Drag is one thing I've learned allot about this year. I think it's a great tool that's caused me to have allot more confidence in landing big fish on light line and treble hooks. There was a time I would never use 10lb test on a baitcaster because I was worried I'd never be able to land the big one. Now after landing many big LM and a 10lb cat on light line with good drag. I realize light line can also be a great tool and helps you mentally from hogging the fish. Glad you had such a good time and sorry you lost a big one. Now go get some new hooks and get back out there!

I don't know about upgrades but I'm sure somebody will chime in with the "high end" Zebco. I forgot it's name but apparently it the **** for Zebco's. I'll probably end up buying one sometime for my nephew.