Chaz Hickcox

Been fishing braid for a long time and out of options on the water I had to switch to flouro. I have been impressed and will still keep some braid for spinners or other expensive baits I put in some real hairy spots, and at least one rod with mono for spooks and such, but everything else is going to flouro.

From the looks of it I think I will be the first here on the site to use em. Unfortunately I won't be able to give you an answer on that until mid June. No fishing till then :'(. Work calls.

So I used my winnings from yesterday's tournament to get a good flip/pitch rod and reel. It was a little local tournament so I only had about 115 to play with. I picked up a 7'6" Field and Stream Telescopic Tec Spec rod and married it with an Abu Garcia Black Max. The reel I know is not the best Abu out there, but budget... I know nothing of this rod. I know it fit the budget and the telescopic feature is nice because it shortens the rod by about 6-8 in and my rod storage on my boat is only 7ft long. Does anyone have any thoughts or comments on this rod? In the end its a stick that will work for getting some reach. If you want to see it, it's sold at Dick's http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3986143. I actually am kind of worried since it's a Dick's exclusive. Does that mean no one else will market it?

Amazingly so. I've seen shrapnel deflect off the side of them. It scratched up the lenses real bad, but not a scratch on my buddy's face. He was wearing some ballistic M-Frames.

x2..good info..also one more HUGE IMPORTANT factor when you fish (if your a new angler and just starting out) PAY ATTENTION TO THE WEATHER...thats one of the most important factors to fishing that new guys dont think of. warm/cold fronts,storms,hot-cold,day after heavy rains,wind,moon phases.it all has to do and effects the lakes and the fish (how they feed,theyre moods) and try fishing at duck right b4 night thats some of the best fishing ever,ON ANY LAKE!!! i prefer early dawn sunrise and just b4 nightfall.nightfall topwater strikes,theres nuttin like it.but most importantly dont give up.also if you dont use them try using fish attractant sprays i.e gulp,megastrike,jj's magic and so on.and if anything next time SLOW down,most new guys tend to fish to fast,i know i did when i started out.so with that said...good luck and have at it again X3 I've gotten most of my best advice from a Catfisherman who fishes for food out of a little jon boat. He see's stuff and goes places I would never think of because I am racing by it in my Javelin. He's been fishing my water for food for about 20 yrs. When he says 'go here' or 'try this' I usually do extremely well (when I am smart enough to listen, still bull headed sometimes).

Been using them a lot lately. Most of my fish today came from t-rigged, pegged with a bobber stop, and pitched tight to cover. For me, they usually take it before, or right when it hits the bottom. If not I bounce it towards me a few times, then restart. I had a lot of fish today take it while it was basically swimming as I brought it back for another cast. I think it all depends on the fish's mood.

Growing up in Az I learned that top water is always a good way to go. With those gin clear waters they will sit deep in the thermocline and will come up 15-20ft to hit a top water if it gets their attention. However, there are much better ways to get to the fish than to hope to call em up. It works, but isn't necessarily the best. In skinny water, all you fish is topwater. Here in Va the deepest part of the fish holding parts of the river are rarely deeper than 8 ft. With that being said, top water is right on top of them compared to the aforementioned conditions in deep Az reservoirs. Most of the fish here will be in 1-4 ft of water. If you make enough noise under some shade there should be some good fish coming out to say hello.

3/8oz, 15lb trilene flouro

Well my thumb learned that today. Finally figured out that part. Also, pitching, flipping, same concept just one goes further. You're right though, I should have named this properly. For the water temp and the fact it's being churned up by a lot of strong wind today we didn't have any light hits. Everything that got hit got engulfed. Unfortunately there were a bunch that got around some knees and threw the hooks though. No pecking hits today. Seemed to still do better with a red Gammy EWG 4/0 (full size brush hawg though). Thanks for the input everyone.

In my experience, deadsticking is too boring and non productive, split shotting, less boring somewhat productive, wacky darn near won a tournament for me and my partner. But that's only IMO.

Bang them off of rocks, bounce them off of wood, stop-go, steady retrieve. All will work at different times. Use the lipped cranks along docks with a steady retrieve. If fishing grass, use a crank that only dives to just below the grass top. Crank it until you feel the grass, then stop so it floats a foot or so above then begin to retrieve again, repeat until you get the lure back to the boat. Or use one that barely reaches the grass and use a steady retrieve through the tips of the grass. Use a suspending crank in rocky structure. Take the crank to the structure, just after you strike the structure, stop. Wait, then begin again. Shallow crank with square bill, slow steady retrieve through shallow structure. The square bill will make it bounce off the structure and the erratic motion from the deflection will generally trigger a strike.

DUDE YOU SAID IT!!! Spent 10 minutes looking for my scale today, actually had to throw the fish in the livewell before weighing him as to not keep him dry too long. It was SUPPOSED to be in my kit bag main pouch, but after searching the glove box, the hard box, the port and starboard bow storage, it was in my map pouch. Who shoves a scale into a map pouch?!

So I am finally getting the hang of this flippin thing. I was prefishing for a tournament today and had a heck of a lot of bites. In the past I had caught a fish or two on jigs and pitching t-rigs, but nothing I could call a pattern or that would give me confidence. Well today, after about 5hrs of work it until I die mindset with a brush hawg I brought four fish on the boat in a 10 min period that I think I have it down (when prefishing I don't fill up the boat, I find a pattern I can replicate more than once then go home as to not have the fish grow weary of my presentation). Now my question is to those veterans of flipping and pitching - When you get those really jerky strikes that feel very weak, but there's definitely something taking your bait, is that a bass? Those that I caught today took the hawg and darn near swallowed them immediately. It seems to me those other hits could have been bream or white perch, but I'm not sure. Also, the brush hawg, what hook is better? I initally texposed the point on a straight shank worm hook, but I kept having a lot of strikes that would chew up the worm, but never set the hook. Then I took a 4/0 Red Gammy EWG and skin hooked the point. With that rig I landed four (And the Hawg lasted for four fish). Was that a hook issue, or a size of fish biting issue? Then, what's a good way to keep backlash out of the reel while still having enough give to allow you to flip more than five feet? Thanks.

And I can't even find a LM that size down here. Great fish!

I have been experimenting with their minnows. I initially bought them for dropshotting, but that is useless in my dirty waters. Then I tried putting them on the trailer hook of a white or ghost colored spinnerbait or buzzbait. Seemed to work ok, but honestly any regular attractant seems to work around here with spinners or buzzbaits. As far as their larger baits, I don't see why not, it's pretty cool that you can put the old ones into the can and 'recharge' them. I just don't fish soft plastics much.

Fish moving up to bed. In my waters, Firetiger Double Willowleaf Spinner 1/2 Oz through the Cypress Knees.

Depends...

Also true....

The Rod and Reel are all personal pref. I can twitch the Castaic Rock Hards back better with spinning, but that's only because I am uncoordinated with my left hand. As far as everything else goes kidbee is absolutely right. Even the Platinum series seems to work better burned, sometimes. With the original hard headed series I use a solid steady retrieve which seems to be money for me, and I am in heavily stained, normally muddy, water.

Hmm.... senkos marinated in Megastrike.... BRILLIANT!

I use Megastrike, my partner uses Gulp! Garlic Craw. The weird thing is that one may work better than others in different conditions. Sometimes Megastrike can't be beat. Other times we've found that Megastrike is almost a repellant while the Gulp! works. If you're fishing alone I would say bring both and like colors and presentations figure out what mood the fish are in.

don't listen to this remedial advice. Yet another post where someone seems to "know" too much to allow alternative suggestions to be seriously considered. LC, eat all of us if that's how you're gonna be. If you think it's a bad idea how about considering explaining your thought rather than trying to make Hooligan look like an idiot.

I dont have any more answers. Will a swimbait used in the Delta also work, say... on the East Coast? Even trout swimbaits are killin' them in Currituck and Abermarle Sounds (I think that's a secret only I know though, as I am the only crazya$$ throwin them).

Dito.... Being right handed it's actually easier for me to use a MH Spinning rod with hard swimbaits so I can twitch them back to the boat.

To me paddletails are worthless, IMO. All they are is a soft plastic with a wobbly tail. Great in clear water, but to move water you'd need somthing lifelike. I like the hard swimbaits with a lot of hinges because it will knock against itself and it's almost like a clacker. With a Castaic Rock Hard rainbow trout I could solicit strikes from super finicky fish by using a fast retrieve with a hard and fast twitching motion. I've tried this with both mono and braid, and I'd say to do this best use braid. The mono stretches too much while twitching the bait. You don't necessarily need to stick with Castaic, their quality has been a bit of an issue as of late, Tru Tungsten Tru-Life should work too. Really any multi-jointed hard swimbait should be able to be worked in the aforementioned manner. Also with the braid the strange phenominon is that you can hear the clacking resonating through the line and your rod.