Chaz Hickcox

I bought one of those Berkleys and they're great IMO. I have the 7' MH rod, and can cast pretty much anything I want to with it. But then again I am not one much for being choosey with reels and rods (see the Quantum string). I figure if you learn your gear you can pretty much do anything you want. I use it to toss really light shallow cranks, and then switch to 3/4 oz jigs. Yeah I have to adjust the brakes on my reel when I do that, but then again, learn your gear and you'll be fine.

That's cool, but at least with Quantum I know an American made my stuff. If that doesn't entice you, then the Ports of Entry aren't just for entry. ** Moderator Note ** This post has been edited for off topic, political comments. -Kent a.k.a. roadwarrior Global Moderator

Hmm...: I know weird concept huh? Buy something for it's usability not its aesthetics? Who would do that?

Keep it up, seems like you have a lot of years yet to go. If your 5th now, where will you be in ten years? Maybe we'll see you with a couple BASS Angler of the Year awards and a TV show like Roland Martin. Keep it up bro!

Nice....you should have gotten a ticket from the CG. No distress signal, no help. Perhaps next time you'll rethink your safety strategy. : According to Texas Law vessels less than 20m are only required to carry some kind of noise making devices, i.e. HORN, or a whistle. I am going to give Gomer Pyle here the benefit of the doubt and say that he had the required equiptment in the form of a built in horn that most vessels have. As for everyone else, the USCG states that it is unlawful not to render assistance to those who are in trouble. So J Francho, I would venture to guess that those other boaters were in fact negligent in their duties on the water, and NOT Private Pyle there. I have had some issues on the water before, and I have a 17'9" Javelin with an 85lb trolling motor. When my main died I considered myself in distress, and was properly assisted by an unfortunate family who happened to be the first to get to me. I say unfortunate because they took 45 minutes out of their skiing time to assist me. I will say it again, the other boaters were negligent and it is unfortunate that none of them can be reprimanded.

Hey pictures can be decieving, nice fish by the way, but so can length. I caught a 20.1 inch bass, was sure it had to be at least 5-5 1/2. When I cought up with another boat that had a scale onboard she came up at 3 pounds 13 oz. I was severely disappointed. Even the other guy was surprised how light she was. Skinny bass suck.

Warranty is no issues, my engine is 'yesterday's' 1993 Johnson. I just want to ensure the most out of my engine.

true enough, but I use smaller swimbaits like the Castaic Hard Hard headed originals or something not more that 4". Out there swimbaits aren't the reaction baits people think about. I have seen shad school with the baits and have watched bass be chasers all the time. At that point you cast past them and slow retrieve by them until they decide to eat. Swimbaits out west are not like the YUM Money minnow design, they look like the real thing. They have to otherwise the fish aren't fooled. You have to imagine the ultrarealistic swimbaits were created in California because nothing else was fooling the fish. It started with the A/C Plug and evolved from there when the A/C plug just wasn't cutting it enough. They weren't designed to be reaction baits. They were designed to be 'living' baits. Forgot line test, Havasu, Mead, and Powell when fishing for LMB or SMB for that matter you line cannot exceed 6lb test ultraclear mono or flouro. Braids are a dead givaway and cannot be used, unless for topwater where it doesn't matter. I spent 8 years with my heaviest line being 8lb test.

What's the point of using light line on swimbaits? Gin Clear water with visibility of 40+ ft. Seriously in 20ft of water you can look down and see where the fish are suspending and where the shad are. It's insane. Especially in the middle of the day when the sun is high and the light goes all the way down. Here's an example of Lake Havasu underwater. It's more clear than a swimming pool.

Just out of curiosity, is it harmful to mix brands of 2-stroke motor oil? I have a bad oil guage which makes it unable to tell me when the oil is getting low. Instead of spending $300 bucks on a new system I just put oil in when I fill the gas tank, or as needed. I have been using the Evenrude oil, but I want to try the Pennzoil Marine Motoroil, but don't want to just mix them. I think if I use the same WD rating it should be fine, but I don't know.

See that's weird because in Az an Cali I used, light line a must, but mainly swimbaits. Stayed away from plastics.

So I have posted a few times in the past trying to learn the ways of soft plastics. I read a lot of what was said and had yet to have a day to apply it. I tend to stick with things that work for me and leave the rest alone. Well today at the marina the guy said the bite was on soft plastics all over. I had a friend of mine with me, and I figured I'd use him as a guinea pig for soft plastics to get my confidence going. So I t-rigged a zoom pumpkin and chart speedworm and made a cast to show ol' boy what to do. I cast out about a foot from the shore, explaining what I have read while I was doing it. I let the zoom sink to the bottom, waited, zipped the bait about 2ft along the bottom, waited, twitched, got thumped, waited 1-2-3, SET and wham 2lber in the boat. Of course my friend was sure that I was an expert in such things because of this, and the t-rig was the call for the day with all the fish in the boat off of it. So, apparently some of y'all know what you are talking about. As I am new to soft plastics I will be asking a lot more questions. I can answer anything you want about topwater and swimbaits, but soft plastics and me are just starting to get a long.

Used it today, weightless and with a split shot. I was in only about 2-3ft of water so the c-rig would have been a little excessive. I did the slow retrieve and liked it. However the only hit I had on it today got off about a foot from the boat. It was a dink though, so I am not sure if he got enough of it in his mouth for that 4/0 hook to work on him. This thing will be awesome for the C-rig though. Nice slow retrieve for the colder days. Today was all about the t-rigged worms and buzzbaits. Buzzbaits to find em, and the t-rig to get em in the boat. Hey as a side note, whenever I ask for tips on soft plastic why is it that the only advice I get is how to rig it? I got that much, now I am just trying to figure out the best application of the rig. Again, the eeliminator will definitely keep a place in my tackle box. It would be nice to have alternating colors though, like green pumpkin with chartreuse, orange pumpkin with chart, or a mixture thereof.

Just got a package in. Just wondering what I should think about when throwing it. Am I thinking swimbait, jerkbait, or topwater. Or could it be all three. I remember seeing a post that these are the greatest soft plastic ever, we will see (as the zen master said).

I've got two Quantums and they work just fine. No issues whatsoever. Yeah the finishes are fading a bit, but I didn't buy the reels to look at them.

We happen to live in a Commonwealth, which is basically the heart of all the issues here and pretty much all over the east coast. Also, they could petition for different things to the Fed. I am not a big fan of Fed money, but here's the deal. The waterways in and around Norfolk, Va Bch, and the Patomac are either major destinations or thouroughfares (like North Landing River AKA Intracoatsal Waterway) which impact interstate commerce. Under the intersate commerce act it would be prudent for the Fed to supply some, not all, money in order to properly mark hazards within Va waters which would be traversed on a regular basis by residents of other states. As far as the money DGIF has, that's not an issue. It's not a Game and Fish issue. Has nothing to do with them, but it does have something to do with the general infrastructure of the state, as well as the safety and well being of the citizens. All they would have to do is spend money on a couple 2x4x10ft poles and put the diamond hazard marker on it and put one on either end of the wreck. $20 then send a salary paid ranger who works at North Landing River Wildlife Sanctuary (Less than a mile away), and mark the things. Common sense, not defeatism.

If they don't mark this stuff, then what are we paying for with our taxes? To be honest I have found in a lot of my travels around the world is that things don't really change because 90% of the time people don't think they can do anything. To me, and I am a new resident here in VA, this is some pretty serious neglect by the resources commission. They spend a lot of money on these 'wildlife refuge' areas, but can't put a stinkin hazard bouy on something that was intentionally sunken? The tax money is in somebody's pocket, doesn't seem to be the Bouy Maker's. Basically, Dan and Micro are also residents of Va, and it's clearly not isolated. VOTE, call your district reps, DO SOMETHING. I have a lawyer friend out here, I will be talking to her too. I would be dammed if Az allowed this sort of thing to happen. Grant it there's not as much water out there, but they mark everything to include rocks. I don't expect that, I expect to see MANMADE stuff marked. It's only resonable and prudent for them to do so.

Normal Bureaucratic response, 'I will pass this along.'

So in the last six months or so I have found the sunken barges on North Landing River with the hull of my boat. Fortunately the only cost of this was some dings that are not serious damage. I just called the Virginia Marine Resource Commission and spoke with one of their engineers about it. I also sent him an email about it. My issue is not that they are there, but the fact that they are not marked. Has anyone had the same issue? Here are some photos of one of the places in question.

Thank you for validating the point I was trying to make. I respect the fact that you--as one with a vested interest--are not trying to make silly claims like "my lure catches more fish than your lure." I can readily accept verifiable differences in lures such as quality of components, hook sharpness, durability, tuning required, made in USA, or whatever. Whether it's a buzzbait, crankbait, hunk of plastic, jig or others, or the actual lure color, we're venturing into the unknown when we say one outfishes the other. Too often we tend to extrapolate and state as facts our preferences, biases and confidence factors. I have an incredible amount of confidence in Jitterbugs and that's the only topwater I want to use when conditions will allow use of treble hooks. But I never have and never will claim that it's better than some other topwater or that someone else will do better by switching to them. Marty - it seems that you are pretty adamant about what you are saying. By all means you're right. Heck I could fish a body of water with an old Luhr Jensen Kwickfish that has lost its paint and crappy old hooks on it and do much better than using the expensive new shallow running crankbaits. However, some people like certain things and will continue to use them. The fact is sometimes the fish will only be fooled by certain things and presentations, that's the fun here. People are here to talk about what is good for them, maybe you try it maybe you don't, but there's always the chess game of choosing how to use something properly in the right conditions. I say chess, but it's more of a crapshoot.

Absolutely, some days some presentations are more productive than others. I still like the Strike King for slower applications, but as far as I can tell a good sound will call em up. I also didn't mention that the one that was landed hit it and didn't kill it, so I had to immedetiately recast to the same spot which produced. I really meant this string as a touche for RW because his personal favorite out produced mine after I was giving him some crap.

Yeah, when I was out west those ultra realistic swimbaits were the best things to use in the clear water. When I got out here I was asking if anyone had ever heard of or used them and I was told they 'Don't move enough water.' Of course this is in reference to the heavily stained/murky water of Va. Oddly enough the first bass I ever caught here in Va was on a Castaic Original Hard Headed threadfin shad in muddy water. Later I bought a rock hard trout from Castaic, and again had the same people telling me that the little 4 in rainbow trout wouldn't work because there are no trout in our water. They were ticked when I came in with more fish on the boat than them.

In reality, it's funny when people pass me when I am throwing buzzbaits to the tree shadows at 1 in the afternoon. They snicker, I get an explosion on the surface, and they tell me they're gettin skunked. Funny stuff man. Honestly I think a bass will hit just about anything, you just gotta get it close enough to 'em to get them to smack it. I had one ol' boy out here trying to tell me I couldn't use topwater at certain times because the fish were too deep. The deepest water in some of the rivers and creeks around here is ten feet. What else would you use BUT topwater. Out west if the fish are that shallow it's TOPWATER TIME!

DUST! None of this making sense crap! The fish need to learn when to stop hitting lures and people like you mess up their training. Sticking to lures just because they work? I don't get it. The In-Fisherman website told us to change baits by ten. I thought the fish got the memo too.

I have been thinking of buy some clackin-raps... do you like them? You know, I have used it, I liked it, but the fact of the matter is I can't compare it. Up until now all I have ever use have been Rapala lipless cranks. I just bought a couple xcalibers, but have yet to use them. So, yeah I like em, but I can't give you a good comparison.