Tuckman

Hey no problem, I had to swing by gander anyway to grab some steelhead fishing gear. The lures will be shipped out this afternoon.

My local Gander Mntn had them in the bargin bin for 2.99 as of last wknd. They are the titanium ones too. I'll check it out tonite after work. I think I still have your number from the when I tried to pick up that fishfinder for you.

I weighed in some heavy sacks of smallmouth last fall with the help of a Northstar Hairy Craw jig. I even had a few people trying to buy them off me. I'd love to see a long arm spinnerbait added to the lineup...

I fish a frog hard all summer Your not missing the bite, The bite is missing you. You will miss more bites waiting then you ever will with imeadiate hooksets. There is no logic behind waiting to set the hook with a frog(or any other bait for that matter). A bass does not nibble, or chew, he sucks in his prey in a vortex. Either he got it in his maw and you blast him or he missed it. The true art in frog fishing is not pulling the frog away when he misses it, and letting him get another shot at it. The nature of frog fishing over heavy cover requires that you be able to deal with a few missed blowups. I do agree with alot of the others on using a soft tip heavy rod, heavy braid, and hard hooksets.

I use Uni for everything...It never lets me down

I found this vid while researching the new Lowrance down imaging. It blew my mind. What a wad of bass!!!

IMO It doesn't take the fun out of the hunt, It is part of the hunt. Personally, I fish with my eyes glued to a graph all day. I would feel naked without it. It not always about seeing fish as much as it is about staying on structure. It optimizes your time on the water by keeping you in key areas.

I think everyone from PA uses Cabin Creek everything. lol. I went to school down there for a few years and thats all my buddies would throw. I use GYCB myself

what does it flat out suck for? No doubt I would use fluoro over braid in certain situations, but I have yet to find a set up that braid "sucks" at. Freezing air temps Concrete and or steel structure Zebra/quagga mussels Coontail on certain lakes - has zebes growing on it Deep smallie fishing. You simply get more bites on fluoro.Pretty much any treble hooked bait. I find this one interesting. I use braid with about a 10' Fluoro Leader for Drop Shot fishing for deep water (and shallow water) smallmouth. Since switching to braid, I feel that my set-up is more sensitive. Do you surmise that the braid 10' up the line could turn off Smallmouth? I'm sure hes talking about going straight braid down to the hook, which will def cost you bites. I dropshot with 20lb Power pro to an 8'-10' leader of 8lb P line flouro. The braid 10' up will not effect your bites at all. I love this set up. I had the same braid on all my spinning reels all year last tourny season, and I still have more than half a spool of my p-line left over as well I know this works at least as well as J Francho's straight 6lb invisix setup B/C I have went fish for fish with him on dropshot smallies.

Start of a tournament this summer on my old home lake. I look forward to going back there every summer to fish a buddy tournament or two with my little brother.

Not even close...The profile, type of wire used, blade combination, and color selection are all important factors to consider with spinnerbaits. Especially on pressured waters. I buy spinnerbaits from at least 4 different custom makers, each individually designed to match conditions that I may run into during the tournament season. The trickster was an awesome finesse spinnerbait. War eagles have a similar profile, and are the only mass produced spinnerbait that I buy. 8-)

5-6K max...but, I bought a mint '94 285xl for less then that 5 years ago.

I believe that G. Swindle's words are "toss the school bus out there and see who wants a ride home" I throw a combo just like that minus the pink. In the late fall up here, when its on, they just crush it. Me and J Francho fished a tourny last fall and I tossed the school bus pretty hard that day but nobody wanted to ride with me As long as its cloudy I'll throw white on white spinnerbaits or chartreuse on chartreuse.

Tuck, Were those Sonars complete with cables too? The Dicks in Vestal NY had a few but only the unit itself. They were clearly display models and were a bit beat up, but I still thought they were pretty good prices. I'm just not sure how easy it is to find all the components. Funny you ask, they were when I was there last week, but I went back tonight to see if I could pick up a garmin unit for another member on this forum, and all they had left were the floor models, without cables and 'ducers. They said they could give the cut up cables to sort through but it greatly cheapened the deal. I did pick up all the $2 rage tail chunks and $5 sonic braid that I left behind last week. I have never tried ragetail before because IMO they are overpriced but now that I have 19 packs of chunks and craws that I got for $2 a pop I hope that they live up to the hype they get on this forum

I fish with a bunch of different guys in my boat all season long. Both for fun and for Tournaments. For fun fishing its nice if they offer a few bucks, but Ill turn it down. I will let them buy food/coffee though, lol If its not a "buddy" tournament and my co-angler is fishing for their own 5 fish, in my boat, going to my fish, then the "on the water" cost of gas would be expected to be split. In an open buddy tournament situation(which is usually what I fish) I usually will not ask for a split in based on actual gas usage. (its not their fault that I like to burn gas, lol), the most I will do is have them pay the difference in an odd entry fee, and if they want to pay for the coffee and snacks at the gas station before the tourny, then I let them. I do expect them to fish hard though, If I fish with someone who does not fish hard, they will not be asked to fish with me again in a tournament situation. If we place in the money I may take an extra $20, but that's about it. Many times it my partners who have caught key fish needed to move us up into the money. My thoughts on splitting cost are that I am going fishing anyway, regardless of whether or not I have someone to fish with that weekend. I have my boat out every weekend from the end of May right through the end October, and while I do fish alone often, sometimes its nice to have someone to share the experience with. 8-)