hiker

I was getting a lot of pain on the back of my right wrist when retrieving senkos. There was no way I could fish something like a zara spook. It turned out to be tedonitis and it got so bad that it sounded like a badly creaking door every time I moved my hand. I iced and took motrin religiously for weeks and it finally went away. Now I have a right handed retrieve reel (as opposed to the lefty retrieve that I was always using before) to kind of balance the load. I retrieve with either hand now, and I think that's helping quite a bit. Also, I try to vary the methods that I work the bait (twitch left for awhile, then twitch right, etc) in order to alleviate the work on my wrists.

I'm in the market for a decent multipiece baitcasting rod. Anyone have any thoughts on a MH or H power 3-4 piece that might be suitable for smaller tarpon, cudas, snook, etc?

1. Practice in the back yard. You can learn casting better in the yard because if you try to focus on your casting while on the water you'll just start thinking about catching fish instead. I say work on your casting in the yard for 30 minutes a day. You'll get way better real quick, and then when you get on the water, you can start focusing on fishing rather than picking out backlashes. 2. Cast nice heavy lures. 1/4 oz baits require more precise thumb work than casting 3/4 oz baits IMO. Learn with the heavy stuff. 3. Cast downwind. It's way easier. 4. Avoid casting light baits upwind. See points 2 and 3 above. It's a recipe for disaster even after you get a little better. 5. Less line on the spool will slow things down and make it easier to cast. Also tighten up your cast controls and brakes. Loosen them only when you start getting better and only a little at a time.

I understand that the general idea is to fish a crankbait such that it bounces off the bottom to trigger strikes. I wonder then, if the bottom is 6 ft deep, then I would suppose that I'd need a bait that runs greater than 6ft, because otherwise, it's not going to get to the bottom let alone bounce off of it. Right? So if you're fishing in 6 feet of water, and wanted to catch fish on a crankbait, would you throw a crank designed to run in 6-7feet? 8-12 feet? 10- 20 feet? I assume you'd throw a bait designed to run at water depth + a certain amount, correct?

I found a lure the other day - paint chipped like crazy, hooks all rusted out and with a thick layer of scum all over it. I scrubbed it up, replaced the hooks, and threw it in my box thinking it was just another rapala type lure that I never really use anyway. Anyway, I was fishing the pike pond the other day and figured I'd toss it in there since I didn't really care if it got chewed up by pike or not. I just made a real short cast to see what it looked like in the water. Oh man - this thing looked good. No...it was way better than that - it had to be one of the best looking lures I've ever seen in the water. A twitch would send it diving and darting one way or the other. Way better than any other lure I've used. So this morning I brought it out bass fishing. I wasn't casting long before I got slammed and missed it. Oh well. At least I know the bass like it too. Then disaster! I hooked into a hog, he went down into the weeds, I got stupid and tried to haul him out, line broke, and lure lost. So I've been looking at all kinds of lures on the web and trying to identify it from memory - a task much easier said then done. But I think it might be a yo-zuri crystal minnow. Anyone ever use one?

It is interesting to see the different personalities on this one. I had no idea shawshank was so popular. I thought it was good, but not top 5 material. Then again, I don't think any of my top 5 made it on anyone else's list. Team America, World Police ***Blowing up the Louvre, Hans 'Brix' getting eaten by sharks... what more can you ask for? Not exactly kid safe. Office Space ***Everyone that works in a cubicle needs to see this movie. There's Something About Mary ***"We got a bleeder!!" bathroom scene has to be one of the funniest in any movie from any time. Fight Club *** "The stuff you own winds up owning you." I think about that frequently. Matrix ***just the original. not the series. I don't care. I still really like this movie.

Hahaha, yeah, we all remember the great ones and seem to forget the others. We all remember that perfect throw where we hit our buddy in the ear with a snowball or whatever. But we forget the million others that missed. That's why I think you can't just talk about those casts you make during a day of fishing, where you layed it right on the lilly pad you were casting for. It's not a real representation of your skill level.

People talk about how accurate they are with their baitcasters, but I've never heard anyone really try to tell what that means exactly. I'm just a little bit curious if anyone has ever tried to quantify their accuracy claims. Something along the lines of ... "In practice I can put a cast onto a paper plate 9 out of ten times at 50 feet" or "I tried casting 10 casts into a 5 gallon bucket 40 feet away and put 6 into it and hit the side on 2." For me, I cast to hula hoop laying on the ground at 60 feet, and I generally get about 5 or 6 out of ten into the hoop. My best is 8 for 10.

I'm thinking of taking a little vacation in late May with my boy to do some bass fishing. I'd probably have 6 days including driving time from Colorado Springs. I was thinking of trying out Lake Fork. I've never been there. And I understand that might be a little late to hit it up. Any thoughts? Also, I've only got a 9.8hp motor on my 14' jon boat. I know Lake Fork is substantial. Is that enough boat? I'm completely open to other ideas for a road trip for good bass fishing if you can think of somewhere else that might be better for me. Especially if it's closer...

Why not take a little break from it, then come back with the idea of just going out with the goal of having some fun? Just make the determination to have fun with it, and any fish you catch is just a bonus. That's what I would do. I don't think super high stress levels are conducive to catching fish.

Well... Since my biggest bass ever was probably not much bigger than 2 pounds anyway, and I haven't caught 100 bass in my life, let alone in one day...I'm going to have to go with the 100 fish day. Now if we were talking trout...no doubt, I'll take the 14lb fish.

Have you ever used this on less that 65lb PP? When will we see this hollow PP for sale? I use this type of connection for flyfishing and it works great - even for big fish in saltwater. Never done it with Powerpro though - only braided mono. You definitely do need a nail knot to secure the end of the overlap. The nail knot doesn't increase the strength of the knot at all. It just secures the overlap from working loose when it's not under tension. When it's under tension, the braid should lock up tight to the floro. Also I completely concur with how you do your loop-to-loop. Double looping is way better and smoother than a single loop.

I hit the carp pretty hard this year with the fly rod. I might suggest that perhaps the right question is not so much "what to use" but rather "when to fish" or "which fish should I target". I think there are a lot of times when those carp just sun themselves and basically refuse to eat. Instead of beating yourself up trying to catch them when they're doing that, try to find some carp (either in another location or at another time) that are feeding. I like to get after them when they get into really shallow water. I like this for a couple reasons: 1. I can target them with a fly (any dark colored wooly bugger) easier in the shallows. and 2. I can see when they eat a bit easier. To me that's why carp are so fun - they're smart, they spook easy, they generally won't chase a fly (so you have to make a good accurate cast), and when they eat it's usually impossible to feel - you've got to see it. In short, they're challenging!

LOL! Nice! Maybe I need to stay away from the bass then, because if I think about the women any more than I do, my productivity will just about go to nothing! BTW, I'm in Colorado.

heheheh, well, not too snobby to recognize that I think this bass fishing thing looks like fun. I hope to learn a lot and maybe make a friend or two here. (Actually I find lots of fly fisherman to be a little embarrassing due to their acting like a bunch of primadonnas. The bass crowd seems to be more my speed.)