SoFlaBassAddict

Tossed it out again tonight on a 4/0 Gammy EWG Superline with a 3/8 tungsten bullet and stuck a few 2-3 pounders. Guess the extra thump from the size of the lure helps a bit. The only thing that irked me was the entry when I was pitching it. Just the size of the thing makes it a little more difficult to get that perfectly quiet entry. I'm sure that'll come with more time using the bait though. RW: I bet that jig is one huge presentation. Those mop jigs alone are pretty bulky. I've gotta try it out on the shake2 jigs. I've still got a fresh pack of those sitting on the wall waiting to get used. EastTexas: I was thinking about trying it out on a keel weighted hook. I know that the regular craws work pretty good with them.

The P's are definitely waking up again here in my neck of the woods. Seeing lots of them cruising the banks in schools again. As I was on the dock a few minutes ago tossing a craw around I saw one that would probably have pushed close to the state record cruise by. It was by far the largest I've ever seen. It probably could have swallowed the 5 pounder I caught last year. Looks like I may need to wake up early and start working some prop baits again...

Big Tex

Gee, thanks Beaver. Now I've got something else to play around with. Those Bing maps are far more detailed than Google Earth.

I've got two rods spooled with braid. One has a fluoro leader, the other has a mono leader. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/fishing-line-system.html

I "MAY" be able to do it for him if you can get me some pictures. I'd also have to check some schedules to see when my seamstresses are available so they can sew the panels together. Try to get me some info on them and I can see what I can do. No promises though.

So I finally picked up a pack of these. It looks like it could eat the Rage baby craw. I didn't expect it to be that large. lol. After it poured all day I go out on the lake for a few minutes and rig one up. I look at my hook (Owner 3/0 straight shank WG) and say, "Wow, this aint gonna work." Naturally I only brought just the rod I had handy. I pitched it into some isolated weeds/rocks. Skip forward to me not hooking 6 fish in about 30 minutes before I head home. Apparently either I should have bought these earlier, or I just got lucky with the amount of hits. Definitely need to use a larger hook tomorrow when I've got some time to really use it.

Now that I've gotten back into fishing really heavily, I've been addicted to Google Earth. I'll see a spot while driving then look it up later. I've found some sweet little ponds and lakes using that program.

Haters? Eesh. Actually, I saw several people defending them. 10 pounders down here aren't all that rare LCPointer, the lake I was on a few days ago had some beastly sized Carp in it. The lake was extremely healthy. The lake I live on has none. At least I've never seen one in the close to 10 years I've lived on it. There is a bunch of dead/dying grass all over the bottom of the lake. I wonder what would happen if a few carp got released into the lake...

I do it on a daily basis. Thats actually how I try to find some interesting spots to fish.

That alone is one of the best things to do. Like Wayne said, if it is on the right side of the screen it just showed up somewhere in the cone angle. Don't use the machine to find fish. Use it to find fish holding structure.

I've really gotta get my hands on some of that small diameter heat shrink to add my own weedguards like that. The difference in price between the Gammy's with and without is kind of surprising for just a small piece of material added onto them. I need to get some anyway to add some barbs to my straight shanks. I personally use the Owner wacky hooks and the Gammy widegap finesse hooks.

Good show, Shane. Although, I was kind of hoping the other guys would win just to see you and Charlie end up with shaved heads. ;D Gotta love those Gheenoe's though.

The produce for me down here in southern FLA.

It's such a versatile lure that there isn't a best. It all depends on the cover in the area being fished. They really all work.

Thanks much. I'm sitting here kicking myself in the butt that I forgot to check my email. I lost a couple of spectacular deals on bulk worm weights on ebay. Whoops. Since I've started using braid, I got a little overzealous with my cast control and brakes and have hurled a couple of tungsten weights into the lake.... At a buck and change a pop, that quickly became an aggravating learning experience.

Was just curious what some of the better prices on Tungsten you guys have found. I use mostly 1/8oz to 1/2oz. Prefer the painted weights as well. Lemme know where you're buying from.

Like Snook said, you definitely want something beefy for Dolphin. Doesn't matter how you fish for them. We'll troll for a while and get a school up then toss out cut ballyhoo to them. You need something with large capacity and a decent drag to handle them. Theres a reason that they're at the top of the pelagic food chain. Just because the biggest you caught one day was a 9 pounder doesn't mean that there wasn't a 50+ in the area. There could very easily be billfish, cobia, tuna, or any other number of fish swimming around with Dolphin. The old rule for offshore saltwater fishing still applies. Bigger is better. I've been spooled several times using reels smaller than I should have for Dolphin.

Gotta love having more South Florida folks around. Welcome to the forums. Lots of great stuff to learn here.

Great worm. Can be used for tons of stuff. I've had lots of success flick shaking them recently. Not a bad drop shot lure as well if you want something a little larger.

I gave it five wraps on each side. Thats more than I normally would do it for trolling gear. Barely noticeable when it hits that last guide on a cast. Pitching isn't an issue, I've only got about a 4' leader on right now.

All I can say is wow. I said screw it and went ahead and tried it out. Forget me ever questioning people on using braid for bass fishing. I was only thinking from a strength perspective before. I never realized it was so sensitive for freshwater critters. I've used braid tons of times on my offshore trolling gear just because of the strength per diameter of it. But wow. I recently also started using tungsten weights and I'm just in shock at how much more I can feel on the other end of the line now. I could feel every single bump. I could feel the weight sliding down the line and hitting my plastic when I hopped it. Unreal. 30 lb power pro, 10 lb fluoro. Uni to uni knot. The reason I used that knot is because it's something I'm very familiar with and know I can tie it right. No real issues going through the guides like when I used a Seaguar knot before. Now I just need to break this stuff in a little more to lessen some of the noise when it comes through the guides. And I need to get some of the darn green dye worn out so my reel doesn't have those little green water droplets on it. For anybody on the fence about using it...best 13 bucks I've spent on a line in a long time. Edited to add: Just the difference in cast distance alone was worth it. I was able to lower my control knob a lot and basically turn off both sets of brakes ( 1-2 on the magnetic and pins out on the spool). I'm sure that will get even better with time. I couldn't believe I was able to hurl a 1/4 oz lure out quite that far. I feel like I've got a newer brand new rod and reel.

Lure pass happened before... Monkey pass, anyone? Shoot pictures of the little stinker around the country as he manages to lighten your pockets.

So, I've always liked using mono. Recently my father grabbed me a small spool of fluoro, and I put about 60 yards of it on a reel, tied to mono to fill the spool. Good times using it. Now I'm finally thinking about using some braid on a reel as well. I've been reading a lot on people that use braid with a mono or fluoro leader depending on what they're doing. The rod I'm going to possibly put this on is a MH Xfast rod that I primarily use for soft plastics and jigs. Since I don't use a bunch of rods my concern with it is, the knot between the braid and leader material. How much of a pain is the knot going through the guides going to be while pitching a bait. A lot of times I'll use the same rod to pitch and or cast the same bait depending on what cover I see. I'll probably use a uni to uni knot to tie the two together. I'm just worried about that knot effecting the pitching distance and accuracy when it catches on the guides. Input is definitely needed as I've already gone out and grabbed a spool of Power Pro to play with.

So thats what those silly math classes were for in school. Calculating reel capacity. Man, if I had only thought about it that way before.....