Megastink

You learn something everyday! Thanks!

Wow! Thats a lot of blade for a little wire...

I tie my own jigs, spinnerabaits, buzz, etc... anything with a skirt, I make my own. I can customize colors, sizes, blades. I have a lot of confidence in my baits, AND I prefer mine over massed produced baits because I know mine have the best components (Gamakatsu hooks, for exaple). I swear by my own baits, and I do fairly well in competition.

I practice my flipping and pitching around my house. I set up coffee cups, plates, whatever around various distances and positions. Its a pleasent distraction from work. I also got into luremaking. I tie my own jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, chatterbaits. I'm looking into pouring my own plastics, too. While its not "gaining" confidence, I have great confidence in the baits that I make. I use my favorite components, create customer colors, and they work really well!

I always had right retrieve baitcasters, yet my spinning reels were always lefty retrieve. I bough half a dozen new Gen3 STX's this year, and I got all lefty retrieve reels, because I cast with my right hand, and now I dont have to switch hands pre and post cast. I think over the course of a day, I get my bait in the water a few more times

I fish a lot of grass on the northern Chesapeake Bay and Potomac. I also fish a local trophy bass lake with clear water. Clear to murky, I fish 65# Powerpro and tie direct. For short range work (flipping and pitching), I choose heavier jigs. The fast rate of fall causes a reaction bite, which case line visibility has little to nothing to do with it. I also fish 20# Flouro when I'm tossing football jigs in clear water rock piles. However, 99% of my jig fishing is on some form of shallow cover and is tied to 65# braid.

I have been experimenting with piano wire as a spinnerbait arm lately. I've tried .030", .032" and .035" diameter. I think that's I'm falling for the .032", but I'm not sure that its durable enough. I use .044" wire for my 3/8-3/4oz spinnerbaits, and it handles #4-#7 blades well, but I want something from 1/4-3/8oz for use with #3-#4.5 blades. I want it to be a small frame, high vibration yet durable spinnerbait. What size wire do you use for your "finesse" or small arm spinnerbaits?

That's my point: it used to e in August, or thereabouts. Make it a September or even October tournament. That would be awesome...

One can only hope... But is still like to see the Classic or even the FLW Cup held in the northeast US. We have quality lakes around here.

I look for deals on "comsumables". Bulk line!!! I bought 20 or 30 bags of plastics last year. I'm solid there. I have plenty of hooks and weights. I want two more Revo STX Gen3's, but I doubt they can get me know as cheap as eBay...

Anyone who lives around here will agree that that was the WRONG venue to showcase the fishing in this part of the country. If they were to host the Classic on, say, the Northern Chesapeake Bay, you would see 18-20lb average bags each day. Then theres the Potomac, 'nuff said! However, we locals tend to think that the Cesapeake is producing better quality fish than the Potomac in the last few years... Still, watching the Classic in some sounthern impoundment every year is BORING! I'd rather see the pros struggle, or simply fish a different part of the country.

I really wish that they would bring the Classic to the Northeast part of the country. Maybe Champlain, Potomac, Chesapeake Bay, Erie? I'd love to visit the Expo! If it were a little more local to Pa....

I bought a pack of their flipping hooks. They are thinner than the Gammy flipping hooks I use now, but they are NOT weak or easy to bend. I really like the look and feel of them, but I bought them in December and everything is frozen, so I haven't tried them out yet. I would happily buy them again; they have all the characteristics of a very quality hook. PM me your cell phone number and I'll sen you a picture of a 3/0 Gammy Flipping hook next to a Hyabusa Flipping hook.

What objects, creatures, items have you landed unintentionally? Here's a short list of mine to get started: -Coffee Maker -High Heel shoe -sock full of change (aka the "Irish Fist") -shopping cart -desk chair Your turn! Have fun!

I'm starting to use snell knots on my offsets too. Not sure that it makes a difference, but I use strait shanks a lot more and yes, I snell them. I also snell a 3/0 Gammy finesse wide gap hook for my senkos. I just might start Snelling my drop shot hooks...... Idk, this knot is crazy awesome!!!

Look up Bobby Uhrig on this forum; he is the founder/CEO of Megastrike/Cavitron. I'm sure he'll make this right.

I've caught a few at 18" in New Jersey when I was a kid. They stretched from the tips of my fingers to above my elbow. They were so big, I didn't have the heart to kill them. I let them go. I wet home and measured where the fish measured on my arm. Looking back, I shoulda kept one of them for a mount. One hit a #7 fat rap in fire tiger by a tree. The other hit a small jig in what seemed like the moddle I no where (I was drifting in a small aluminum). I used to drift over weedbeds with a split-shot rigged Creme worm. That was a killer on big crappies.

SCREW fishing slow!!! If you can see five feet or more, you need to fish fast. Slow roll a trap until it catches in some grass, then RIP it out and repeat. Shad start to dye off when the water he's into the low 40's. bass may be used to seeing fluttering baitfish. Also try a Jerkbait worked five to ten pumps at a time with a two second pause in between. If they can see well in the water, you can't give them time to think about it. Reaction bites are reaction bites no matter what the water temp is! Cover water! Good luck.

Bass Tackle Depot usually does a little more than the others.

I use #6 Gammys for dropshoting. I only lost one fish last year. I compensate with a 7'1" ML Powell Endurance rod. Great tip.

I'll take three STX's, thanks!

I couldn't take it anymore on Sunday. I bought my PA fishing license a few weeks ago, and get my trout stamp. With a few inches of snow on the ground, I grabbed my rods and drove to my local lake (in TOTAL denial). The lake was, of course, frozen solid, as we're the streams around the area. I was a little depressed. On my way home, I stopped to get gas. I saw a little stream behind the gas station. My eyes followed the stream down, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw open water downstream! I grabbed my ultralight rigged with 4lb test and my favorite ultralight lure: a #4 Rapala X-Rap. I froze my butt off, but I was rewarded with a gorgeous 18" Rainbow Trout! I was just happy to feel a tug on my line. I'm still happy! Anyone catch anything yet?

One of the guys in my bass club caught a few bass already this year. Anyone else fishing yet? I hear its pretty good.

When I fish a tournament, I survey the conditions and do my best to "fish the moment". However, we all come to a point where enough is enough, and if you're not getting bit, it's time to change. So, what's your time limit? If I'm fishing a certain technique that I think will work, but I don't get bit in about 30 minutes, I'm doing something else. As a co-angler, I've spent way too many days caring senkos to middle-of-nowhere "grass" with nothing to show for it. Now, I speak my mind and give honest opinions. Half an hour and no bites; time to move. On MLF, KVD was talking about how his cutoff time is 10 minutes. No fish in ten minutes, he's gone. Then again, some other pros might sit on a spot all day and wait for the fish to turn on. Sometimes they're rewarded. What are your thoughts?

I have read that swimbaits are more of a clear-water technique. I mainly fish the northern Chesapeake Bay, which is tidal and inherantly stained. I'm looking for some tips on tossing swimbaits like the Havoc Sick Fish in stained water. Is it a good idea? It's mainly shallow grass and docks. What's your favorite way to rig a paddle tail swimbait for grass? Docks?