Quillback

I would go back to the spot and put up a flyer listing what you left and offering a reward for returning you rods. A buddy of mine knocked one of his rods overboard (he puts floaters on his rods), didn't see it happen so he kept on fishing, when he got home he noticed the rod was gone and figured out what happened. He went and posted some flyers at the nearest launch and several days later got a call from someone that had found his rod. If you get a custom rod built, have your name and phone number/email address engraved on it. A person can also make up a small sticker with name/address on it and attach to the rod. Most bass fishermen are honest people and if they find a rod at the lake will return it if they can contact the owner.

I haven't tried the Spro Dog. I have many Gunfish, no need to buy the Dog unless someday far in the future I lose all my Gunfish, then I might look at the Dog. Or if someday I'm fishing a Gunfish, my buddy is fishing a Dog, and the Dog beats up on the Gunfish.

Great "walk the dog" bait. Even a ham-handed doofus like myself can walk the Gunfish dog. And it will catch bass.

I have Yozuri Ultra Soft on one of my baitcasters, it is smoother and more castable than the floro I use on almost all my other baitcasters, but IMO it is not as sensitive as floro for bottom contact applications. Might be good stuff for cranking and SB's, haven't tried it yet for those applications.

Tiger pulled off an impressive win at the Arnold P invitational this weekend. Just in time for The Masters. There's a lot of Tiger haters out there, but I enjoy watching the guy play, I hope he's in the hunt on the last day of The Masters, makes it a lot more fun to watch. It would be great to see him and Phil paired together and in the lead on day 4.

Until Tebow met the Pats in the playoffs, Tebow stunk against a suspect Pats defence. Tebow is like the wildcat, that kind of stuff works well for about a year then teams figure it out. Tebow's passing ability is still subpar compared to real NFL QB's, if he can learn to pass in the NFL he may have a future, but if not he'll be nothing but a situational QB. We'd all like to see him succeed, but he's going to have to elevate his game to be a legit starting QB in the NFL. You think Denver would have given up on him if they thought we was for real? And not much in the way of offers for him once Denver put him on the market. Fans like him, football people don't.

In addition to the above, Keitech Swing Impact and Fat Impact have worked well for me and my fishing buddy. The smaller 2.8" will work sometimes when the bigger sizes aren't. Only problem with Keitech is being from Japan, it takes a while for retailers to refresh their stock, they've sold well here the local tackleshops can't keep them on the shelves and even the online retailers are mostly out of stock on the good colors. My intelligence sources tell me grubs have worked well also, haven't tried them myself. Same sources tell me the a-rig bite slowed down on Table Rock this weekend, could be the windless, blue sky, dry upper 70's weather is the cause. Tough fishing but a good time to be on the water in this area.

The Jets are like the Cowboys - a circus. Glad to see them add another act (Tebow) to the show. Tebow won't make them any better, but will provide plenty of media fodder and give the sports talkshow guys something to talk about.

I hear Hunger Games is a "chick flick". tell me it ain't so.

Went and saw the movie "Act of Valor" a couple of weeks ago, Navy Seals had choppers drop their boats close to the place they were going to assault. Rent a chopper, have them drop you and your boat in the lake - you'll be out a few bucks, but you'll have the lake to yourself!

It wasn't worthless for this guy: Richmond, VA - The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) State Record Fish Committee has certified a new state record, a spotted bass weighing in at 4 pounds, 7 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. The new record was caught Saturday, March 10, 2012, on Claytor Lake by Mr. Rod Kegley of Dublin, Virginia. Kegley's prize catch easily exceeded the past state record of 3 pounds, 10 ounces, which also came out of Claytor Lake and was caught by Mike Ritter in 1993. Kegley, an avid angler, wasn't aware of his record breaking accomplishment until he returned to Rock House Marina. After watching a local tournament weigh-in, Kegley was alerted by another angler that his catch, which looked very much like a largemouth bass, was actually a huge spotted bass. Marina owner Mike Burchett weighed the fish and then held it in the marina's bait tank. VDGIF Aquatic Biologist, John Copeland, and VDGIF Conservation Police Officer David Peake verified Kegley's catch that afternoon. Kegley, who was casting in deep water along a flat in the 'Peaks Creek' arm of the lake, caught his record spotted bass using an Alabama-style rig called the Yumbrella by Yum Baits. The castable multi-lure is a wire rig similar to a saltwater umbrella rig that is popular among anglers targeting big striped bass and other game fish along Virginia's coast. Kegley said he regularly likes to "bring a mess of fish home," to cook, but decided his prized catch was too special to hit the frying pan. The record spotted bass was released unharmed back into Claytor Lake for others to enjoy. Kegley stated that spotted bass fishing on Claytor Lake has improved in recent years. The fish are getting larger and Kegley expects it will not take another 19 years to see the record broken again.

Word around the campfire is the dude was out on parole and this caused a parole violation, so back in the pokey he goes. What really bugs me is he killed the fish for nothing.

As for the comments about the rig wearing people out after a few casts, make sure you have the right gear for it, I use a Shimano Crucial 7'11" deep cranking rod and a beat up Calcutta reel (I'm going to get a different rod for this application soon, Crucial is a little whimpy for this). I throw it all day no problem. But I also use 1/8 oz jigheads so the total package is barely over an ounce. I don't use a boatload of baits either, unless I'm catching lots of fish, they will tear up the swimbaits, but that's fine. Superglue your baits to the jighead and you won't go through a bunch of baits (especially if you're not catching fish). Not that I'm trying to sell anyone on using the rig, but it's a good tool to have in the toolbox, especially in the Ozark lakes I fish.

Read a reliable report from a guide on Table Rock in another forum. Winners of a tourney this weekend had a 28 lb. bag of five fish. That is a huge one day bag for TR. Their biggest fish was a little over 9 lbs. Rest of the fish were 5 lbs. including a couple of 5 lb. smallies, they were culling 4 lb. fish. They were using the A-rig, targeting pre-spawn holding areas. The a-rig isn't going to work all the time, but when it does you can spank 'em!

I read elsewhere that Dobyns and Lamiglass are coming out with rods using blanks made from the same resin technology that the NRX uses. Dobyns is actually field testing their rods first before releasing them for sale so I would not expect any bad glue issues, and I'd be surprised if any finish problems get shipped from Dobyns. I'd also like to see if any of the cutom builders can get these blanks. Maybe DVT will see this and weigh in.

Probably from the ShimLoomis propaganda department. From what I've seen it's is much higher. But even it it were 1-2%, that's inexcusable for a high end rod. Even minimal QC inspection of finished product should be able to catch the cosmetic issues. Trained monkeys could do a better job than ShimLoomis's QC department (assuming they even have one).

QC issues should be extremely rare on a $500 rod. I find it surprising that there are people on this thread that seem to accept it.

Green Pumpkin/Purple flake.

This is a great forum, but for info specific to Table Rock, check out Ozark Anglers.com/forums. There's a TR thread in it and you can ask the same question you asked here, or you can scroll back to last May and read some of the reports.

I've only fished the Beavers on it, I'm sure there's some guys out there that have tried other stuff on it.

The Biffle Bug - seriously. Megastrike Megabug, RI Sweet Beaver, to name a few.

Rig bite has slowed way down on TR according to my sources, it was great up to about 2 weeks ago, but the latest reports are it's just not working like it was. It's slowed down on the local lakes in the area also. Everybody and their brother was/is throwing it. Jerkbait bite is improving however.

It's so funny, we bass fishermen spend big money on rods, reels, boats, gas, lures, insurance, line, depth finders, GPS, and all the other stuff that goes into bass fishing. We ask for advice on boards on how to fish different techniques to catch more fish. Everyone wants to catch bass, as many as they can and the bigger the better. Along comes a technique (A-rig) that, for now at least, allows anglers to more easily catch bass. But because it's "too easy" some people don't like it. Very ironic.

The hooks on the 110 are the best made for that size? What do you base that on? I like Daiichi Death Traps myself, super sharp, light, but relatively strong.

Thanks for the warning, even at $50 I don't want to but a reel if it's a POS.