Skeet22

Over the last two years I have put together a pretty reliable arsenal that I am comfortable with. As you can see my favorite all around rod is a 6'6" MH power fast action rod for most applications. Am I missing out on anything by not having more 7' or longer rods for jigs etc? Spinnerbait rod - 6'6"MH fast action BPS Rick Clunn rod paired with a Rick Clunn 7:1 reel spooled with 12# Suffix Seige camo Buzzbait rod- 6'6" MH fast action Allstar classic paired with Daiwa Procaster 6.3:1 spooled with 12#Suffix Seige camo Crankbait rod- 6'6" MH moderate action BPS crankin stik paired with a BPS 6.3:1 Bionic plus reel sppoled with 12# BPS mono Senko/weightless worm rod - 6'6" MH fast action American Rodsmith Apex paired with Daiwa Exceller 6.3:1 spooled with 12# Berkley Vanish Flouro. Frog rod- 6'6" MH Moderate action Berkley Lightning Shock rod paired with a Plueger Trion 6.3:1 spooled with 30# Spiderwire braid weighted TX rig worm rod- 6'6" Castaway MH fast action paired with Shimano Curado CU201 (old green model) spooled with 12#suffix Seige camo Carolina rig- 6'6" Allstar Classic MH fast action paired with Shimano Curado CU201(old green model)spooled with P-Line 12#cxx moss green Top water plug rod- 7' M moderate action Okuma Guide select paired with Okuma Nemesis 6.3:1spooled with 10# P-Line CX clear Jig/redfish rod- 6'6" MH fast action American Rodsmith Apex paired with Abu Garcia Ambassaduer CU4600 spooled with 30# Spiderwire braid. Out of all my reels I would rate them in this order 1.Plueger Trion- super smooth and plenty power 2.Daiwa Exceller-Last aquired reel and have been qite impressed with the feel and quality of this reel 3.BPS Rick Clunn- Cast a mile with hardly ever a backlash. Brought in many big redfish by accident so cranking power is no issue 4. Old green Curados- You sling these things as hard and fast as you want with any lure and they will not backlash. They would be number one on my list if it were not for my concern in the drag/fighting power. This is due to there age and its time for me to rebuild them. 5.BPS bionic plus- quality little reel but it is what it is. What you would expect for a $60 reel 6. ABU Ambassaduer- Quality built and plenty wenching power in a small package, just not a big fan of round baitcasters. 7.Okuma Nemesis- Nice little reel but not great, tendency to backlash if not dialed in just right or casting into any amount of wind. 8. Daiwa procaster- This thing just feels cheap, the thumbar has way to much travel for my liking. It has done the job on reeling in some nice fish but I just dont see it lasting very long and actually cant wait until it dies so I can upgrade. My rods I would rate all about the same although for $40 the lightning shock would be hard to beat for the quality you get at such a low cost. The Allstar classics are also a great bang for the buck at $50 a pop and the American Rodsmiths can be had for $50 bucks as well.

He is not my kid, he is my neighbor. His Dad was #88 Nate Singleton third receiver for the 49'ers in the early nintey's. Caught a couple TD passes from Steve young and got a superbowl ring I beleive in 94.

Magician, I am 15 miles from New Orleans.

Ended up with 6 total..Muddy water and 15mph winds but the fish were still active. All on Rat L Traps and shallow cranks.Thats my little fishing buddy in the third pic, this kid has a passion for fishing, he is studying the sport and knows way more than I did at 11 years old. I rather fish with him than any of my older buddies b\c he is the only person I know who loves to fish as much as I do! He will more than likley play ball in the NFL one day like his Dad so he better fish while he can.

Thanks, Catt. Bass fishing has been nothing short of amazing the last couple of years here due to the freshwater diversion project from the Ms river. Plenty of grass and oxygen has really turned the fishing around here. Mark my word before long this will be a well known lake for many. They were just approved to build a 12 acre 5 ramp launch with bait shop and a stage and plan on trying to attract national fishing tourneys to this area. The number of 5-10 pounders pulled out of here this summer were amazing..Most of the big girls were caught punching 1 1/2 ounce T rigged creature baits through the grass. I caught several 4 and a few 5 pounders in the thinner areas but never really took the time I should have to punch the thick stuff. Thanks for any tips you could give for the fall to pre spawn fishing.

Here in South Louisiana we do not have much of a winter. Its mainly fall conditions with a few cold fronts here and there. Our water temp is 68-70* early mornings right now and will rarley dip below 55* most of the winter. This lake is pretty much 2'-4' deep everywhere. There are a few holes I know of that are 15' deep but nothing deeper than that. As of last weekend I am catching fish in and around the same grass beds Ive been fishing all summer only changing from frogs in the morning to Buzz baits and fishing cranks and spinners after early morning where as in the middle summer months we were punching the grass and flipping brush hogs. It appears the fish are holding in the same areas as of now but must be chasing shad as worm fishing has not been as productive as the shad imitation lures. I am fairly new to Bass fishing(seriously anyway) and trying to understand the transition periods and where the fish may be on this lake at different times of the year. There are not many places for the fish to go on this lake as it is pretty much an open lake with a few canals and the west side of the lake is full of flats and shallow areas which last spawn most of our fish were caught on the west side of the lake. This summer Ive landed a couple 5 pounders but this lake is full of 8-10 pounders and I want to take advantage of the pre spawn time as from what ive learned so far the fish are most agressive at this time, just can be tricky to find at times.The grass will stay pretty thick until around Jan then will thin out around the spawn in March/April. Should I just keep pounding the grassbeds in 2-4' water with cranks and spinners until the fish move to the flats for the spawn? On a side note I have been quite impressed with the Academy brand H2o cranks. Killing them on the shallow diving sexy shad color..

Thanks guys...I need to pick up another scale. She was caught on a Watermelon seed KVD Game Hawg with a 1/8th ounce TT weight

The fish in my right hand was just pulled from my livewell then released behind my house in a pond after the pic. The icechest behind was used to empty out my livewell of the few that I kept to clean. I was thinking 4 pounds.

Picked one up on Ebay for $40 brand new. Are thry any good? Im not a big Daiwa man but thought it was a good price so picked it up b/c of the 7:1 ratio to fish frogs and buzzbaits over the grass with braid. Not to sure about the twitch bar though. Seems kind of goofy to me.

Crappie, redfish, Cafish, Perch

Does anyone fish this color succesfully? I have some brush hogs and some finesse worms in this color but do not have enough confidence in this color to fish it often. The water clarity is usually very clear in our lake which should be good for brighter colors right?

Can you texpose a straight shank flipping hook? Basically all of your jigs are exposed right with the exception of maybe a weed gaurd.

Guess it will be trial and error. The grass is so thick in certain spots of my lake I have never attempted to punch through it. I usually fish the thinner areas and pockets which produce fish just not the lunkers that I am after. Last weekend I pulled up at the dock and was shooting the breeze with a fellow angler, I thought I had did something catching one 5lb and a few 2's. He had 18 Bass with 8 of them being over 6lbs and the rest were solid 3 and 4 lbs. He released them by the launch right there in front of me. He was nice enough to let me in on where and what he was fishing which was right in the thickest part of the lake with a pegged 1 1/4 TT t rigged on a ultravibe speed craw (saphirre). He explained that he had to toss the lure 30 ft in the air and let if fall into the cover to reach bottom and after that just shake and hold on!! I have never seen a stringer like this guy put together, it would have impressed any Pro out there, easily a 30# stringer. This lake is full of lunkers, I just have to figure out exactly how to get to them...

Yeah i guess it is just hard for me to understand how you work a bait through heavy cover with an exposed hook :-/

I am gathering up some components to make me a few punching rigs.Plan on using 1 1/4 tungsten Danny Brauer weight pegged. I will be using mainly zoom ultravibe speed craws. I am uncertain on the hook to use though. Should I use an un exposed EWG worm hook or one of the Gammy flipping hooks exposed? It seems that an exposed hook would get hung up in the grass easily but from all my research it seems to be the preferred hook to use. ???

lol, I will hold on to my Brush Hogs for now but really like the perfect plastic line.

I have 10 rods now in my arsenal and they are all 6'6". I just prefer the feel of this length for all of my applications. Is there really that much of an advantage to using 7' and over for flipping, punching,etc. I flip and punch with my 6'6" rods with no problems what so ever. Just wondering if I need to expand my range of equipt or not.

I now have two of these, in my opinion for 39.99 at Academy you cannot beat this. I was buying the All Star classic $50 rods but the Rodsmith seems to be an even sweeter deal. Great looking rod and feels great also!

Used a game hawg for the first time this past weekend in place of the baby brush hawg and was amazed in the improvement in action using the game hawg. Love the coffee scent also hooked up on a 5lb er and a couple smaller fish. Time to give the brush hogs away ive found a new girlfriend!

KVD Perfect Plastic Game Hawg(Watermelon red flake) Zoom U-tale Watermelon seed Super Fluke Watermelon seed Cavitron Buzzer early in the morning

Been browsing this forum for some time now and have learned alot of tips and tricks from reading only. Looking forward to actually engaging in some conversations and learning more. I love Bass fishing and currently own an 18 ft Skeeter with a 150 Mariner on back. We have a great lake to fish on here in South La that has been producing some really nice fish in large numbers if your willing to punch the grass all morning pulling an 8 pounder or a few this size is not out the norm. We have had several double digit Bass this year come from the lake with the biggest yet at 13 pounds.Good fishing to all.