SoFlaBassAddict

I wonder why people won't listen to us about the straight shank Owner hooks Catt. Could be a good thing, more wins for us. Kelley I've started using them more and more myself. The Owner WG straight shanks are a mean hook.

My background is saltwater as well. Never used fluoro in it at all though. Most of the knots I had to tie were with Bimini twists for trolling and uni knots with large mono for deep dropping on grouper. This small line stuff is killing me!

30lb power pro which is like 10 lb diameter. I figured the 8lb fluoro shouldn't be a large issue with line size between the two. I'll probably pick up some larger pound test fluoro, I should anyways. The peacocks down here are a lot harder on line than the largemouth. Hammer: I'll have to try doing the loops that way at some point tomorrow when I get home. I thought I was going fairly slow when cinching it. I may need to slow down a bit more. Do you do the whole super glue thing that a lot of guys talk about on the uni-uni connection? Skinnyh2ofishin: It's definitely not the braid thats breaking. I'm getting back the braided half of the knot. I get a couple of curls of the fluoro back as well. Thats where the knot is breaking. I may need to be a bit more cautious when tying the knots with the 8lb. TBendBassin: I'd try the blood knot, but I'm horrible at tying it. Even when I was really into fly fishing I could never tie a good blood knot. Same goes for a nail knot. Must be my fat fingers or something.

Lubricating it when I'm doing each side of the uni. Then re-lubricating each uni and the two lines that the knots slide over when the butt against each other. It has been a while since I've tied a uni to uni. But I doubt I'm cinching the fluoro too much when I tie the fluoro side of the uni.

So, I started using braid, love it. Started using a fluoro leader. Like that as well. Until I set a hook. Right know I'm breaking off at my knot left and right. To the point where I have zero confidence in it at all right now. I've used the uni to uni. I've tied it for years in other stuff. Tried an albright, a J knot, a normal surgeons knot. Every one is breaking off right at the knot. Could this be because I'm using 8lb fluoro? Or is it that I'm using the Vicious fluoro I was given. I "was" using that because it's what I had on hand. It seemed to be holding before with no issues. Now I'm just busting off. Have my drag set fairly light as well to allow for the braid. I mostly use soft plastics and jigs with this rod and reel. Should I: a) use larger pound test fluoro change to a different brand c) both a & b If B or C, what brand would you recommend? I've heard good stuff about Seaguar, P-line, etc etc. Keep in mind this is for leader material only. So a 200 yd spool should do me for a while.

Well then. I guess it's a different place. Lol. Funny part is they've always told me they drive to TN for some of the stuff they go to. Guess I'm thinking of a totally different area. Bummer.

Yeesh Dink, you sure are having some issues with getting all of your electronics to work. Hope you get everything sorted out. Look at the bright side though, at least the lakes you fish are really shallow, you can use a broomstick to check the depth if you need

The only thing I could say is...pray. The best thing I did was make a peg board wall in the garage to unload my stuff after a fishing trip. I'll re-load it for the next trip out. It keeps my gear fairly organized that way. Although I always try to take only what I need, I still seem to end up with like 15 bags of soft plastics floating around every available spot in my bag. My worst box is my terminal tackle box. My next step to try and organize that is to print out some labels with brand name and size and stick them down into the trays.

I'm assuming that Beech Lake is in the general area of Beech Mountain, right? My parents go up there every year to a house a family friend built on the mountain. They keep telling me about people they see on the lake trolling with big downriggers and what not. Do you guys know what the heck they're looking for? Catfish? I may have to actually have to go up there one year to do some fishing on that lake. I'm guessing you guys have smallies up there. I've always wanted to try and catch a few of those.

Caught a couple more smaller fish today just before the sun went down. Nailed a huge fish...then he proceeded to break me off using 30 lb braid.... Needless to say I didn't expect that to happen. Only picture I actually thought to take was of the small one of the day.

Who needs a razor for the face. Grow a beard! That being said, I use a Headblade for my dome. Ridiculously nice razor.

My largest flaws are having patience in the technique I'm using at a specific time. If I don't get hit, I start questioning myself. When that happens, I'll become a serious lure changer. Using three rods on the boat, four at most means I spend a lot of time re-rigging. Jigs and me also just do not go together.

He shot me a PM. He's going to try and get some pics for me to take a look at. It should be fairly straight forward to do. I've got the machines and the right size needles. It's really just a matter of time and personnel.

Yes, yes we are. Unfortunatley it wasn't a free upgrade on the house Nailed two more 4-5 pound males today that were sitting on beds with females. 20" + fish. They absolutely destroyed the rage lobster I was using. The bait wouldn't even hang on the hook afterwards. I had to remelt it back together.

Dare I comment?

If there is one drawback to the Shad, thats it. Any bulkier of a piece of plastic in that spot and it would kill the action of the tail though. Like he said, just don't whip it out there as hard.

You know, I've caught some large sharks before.... I wouldn't know what to do if I saw something like that smiling at me from the water. Something that big would eat the transom off of my boat... Edited to add: I just noticed the reflection in the second pic makes it look like the kids wearing a Viking hat...

Welcome back!

Nice job Rhino, looks really good. Hope it serves you well at the road trip. Gotta love having new toys.

Added that one to my favorites. Never thought about the paper clip. I've gotta get my hands on one of those torch lighters again. Maybe this time I won't lose it. Good post, Big-O.

The one I looked at behind the house was in color. I love the fact that when you change angles you get a totally new shot, not the same image viewed differently like in Google Earth.

Biggest thing I've ever hooked was an estimated 1100 pound Atlantic Blue Marlin about 20 miles out in the Gulfstream. It ate a dead trolled Bonita. It jumped a few times, looked at the boat, and said SEE YA! I watched this thing totally destroy my old Penn Senator stand up combo. Spooled it and never looked back. I had the drag hammered down all the way and there was no stopping the fish. We couldn't even keep up with it with the boat. I've still got that rod and reel retired in the garage. I'll never forget how big that fish was. The eyes were the size of dinner plates. Largest fish I've actually landed was an estimated 850 pound Blue off of Three Sisters Rocks in North Bimini.

I had none die in my lake. I saw one floating Bluegill and one Mayan after the cold. I know just a few miles north there were tons of them floating though. There was definitely a line drawn across the counties where the most fish were killed. Anything north of the southern edge of Alligator Alley had ridiculous amounts of dead fish from what I've heard. I was fishing in Sunset Lakes last week and didn't see a single Peacock in the lake though. Not sure how many were there to start with though.

Out of Miami, you might want to give Steve McDonald a call. http://www.bassmasterguideservice.com