Hooligan

We pitch smoke DT Hula grubs quite a bit. They're a standby.

It's far and away my top producing Carolina rig plastic here in NE. Elsewhere, it remains a good bait for me, too.

It's another "great debate" indeed. There are those with no biological knowledge of nest spacing, and habits that will say that the fish that are nested in the shallows are the fish that produce all the offspring for the lake. There are those that will say that drastically effecting the recruitment of a lakes year class could be achieved by simply targeting a few of those beds. In truth, some of the biggest fish will spawn (where available) as deep as 20 feet. Their nests are spread 35-40 feet at a minimum. There are so many fry produced from one spawning pair that you'd have to hit a huge number of beds in an area, and have every single one predated to reduce the recruitment numbers dramatically. Considering that a single female can lay as many as 90,000 eggs, that's a big chunk of fish that you're going to have to deal with. They've been documented as high as 62% survivorship. Of course year class depends on many other factors, predation, natural mortality, fishing pressure, seasonal environment...there are many that contribute. But then again, there are biologist friends that will tell people that fishing them while on beds is killing the fishery and is the reason for seasons in areas that have them....so who knows...

Mepps #4, 1/4 oz Jighead with black 3" Grub. (Agree, too, with the Culprit Worm. 6.5" Crawdad color is killer anywhere I've ever fished.)

That's one of the most common misconceptions about "seasons". It boils down to tourism dollars, not biological reasons. Daryl Bauer in NE, Dave Neuswanger in WI, Gary Elliot in MN, Darryl Ellison in MN...I can list many others that have been quoted as saying as much. Biologists nearly unanimously agree it has nothing to do with "raping the population" during the spawn, it's more about generating tourism and local hype for "opening day."

I'm really thinking about this rod as an addition. I like the contact rods that I have in the series, and want to add another 7' crankstick to the mix. Is it as solid a rod as they say for med-deep cranks?

You've got pretty good advice thus far. I can't add much to it. If you're intent on learning a proper cast, one item that I'd point you to that is very beneficial is the Wulff Wristlock. It works wonders with those limp wrist casts. One thing you/re describing to me is that in your back cast you're dropping your tip. That will almost always be a cause of reduced distance in short rods, and it's a tendency with short rods because of the weight distribution. If you're in an open enough area that you can cast and watch your cast, do so. Watch what your line does at every transition. Watch what your rod tip is doing in conjunction with your line, as well. In regards to rods, a better rod will, indeed, make you a better caster. It will not, however teach you how to make a proper cast. Once you have the basics down it will magnify the bad habits in your cast and make you aware of them in a much more noticeable manner. It will then allow you correct them much easier. Typically today's higher end graphite rods are more forgiving than lower end rods. Meaning you can still get some distance and accuracy out of the cast with all your habits in the stroke. I fish primarily Sage and Winston rods, and have come to love the Z Axis trout rods; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to you at all. The rod is your greatest tool in fishing, learning to utilize it for all it has is something that will make your life a lot easier in terms of the cast.

Booyah, War Eagle, Picasso are the top three I use.

By far the most freaky thing I've caught is a wolf eel. It's also the one I feel the worst about because after learning more about them, they're incredibly misunderstood critters.

I agree with that. Rap DT series in Bluegill is a great bait for us.

I think it's part of the natural progression. It was put to me this way from a close friend: When we start fishing, we're into the numbers game. We eventually tire of that, and start seeking quality over quantity. Eventually we figure out that there's true trophy fish out there, and we start learning everything we can about targeting those fish, and we try very hard to become successful at catching BIG fish. Once we've accomplished that, we're quite content with continuing to do so, and content with constantly learning. So much so, that the knowledge and skill becomes the chase, moreso than the fish itself. In that latter stage, we also become able to appreciate and enjoy a day on the water as just that, a day on the water; it doesn't really matter anymore if we catch anything or not. sure we'd like to, but it isn't the end all, be all. I'm very much in that stage of learning to target big fish, when it comes to bass. I spent so many years of my life guiding trout bums, and fishing muskies that bass has found a renewed passion. I've fished tournaments and had a great time, I intend to fish a few this year again. But I'd almost rather spend that time chasing the one fish on the lake that is a true monster, a giant among bass. If I don't catch her, well, that's ok, too. It gives me something to do tomorrow.

Actually I don't take pictures often. They're just not important to me.

I believe the blanks are made at Loomis' New facility, North Fork Composites. I'll try to get the information on that pulled up. I think it was on TackleTour a short while back.

Haven't fished the reel, but have handled it. My initial reaction was that the fit and finish was much nicer than the Luna. That said, I've only got one 200 Size Luna. I have five 300's on my muskie rods.

I stand corrected. Thought that it was odd that it would be just the glass, so it is the lower end IE: Triumph and Mojo that are made outside the US?

Most of their lower end rods are made overseas or in Mexico now. I believe that it starts @ the Avid they're made in the US. (As well, some of the lower end Glass rods are still US made to my understanding.) Just walked over and checked my Premier Glass and it's made in the USA.

I build all my own jerkbait leaders out of #11 wire for muskies, I use the same wire for bucktails, and crankbaits for pike. The difference is that instead of a 12"-18" leader for muskies, I'm using about a 6" leader for pike. I've never had a problem with it. Two years ago we starting using titanium as bite tippet, I was skeptical of it as leader material for pike and muskies on conventional tackle. Two trips last fall, and one this spring have changed my mind about that. We ended up with 2 50" class fish in those trips and it changed my mind about the ability of the material to handle the stresses.

I don't disagree with you that I'd rather fish wire. I've just lost far too many fish on fluoro leaders. I have zero confidence in them in small diameter. I've used everything from Seguar to Maxima. My chosen method of "toothy critter" bite tippet now, though is titanium wire in small diameters. It works much better than with a snap, you can work lighter baits with it without robbing the action, you have greater flexibility in length of leader, it casts very well, and it's far more "lively" due to the fact that you can use smaller diameters. When it comes to materials to use, I have more faith in Mason Hard Nylon than in fluoro.

The lightest I'd go for pike in floruo is 100. I've had fish bite through 75.

Sounds like, though, the rod will do what I'm asking of it. Rattle baits, and smaller spinnerbaits should be fine on it for the ascribed purpose. Thanks for the input guys. Much appreciated.

When you say overpower it do you mean that they'll load it down to where there's nothing left in the blank for a hookset? Or do you mean that on the cast the rod feels like it's over-loading?

The info from Muskies Inc deals with anatomy in general, it's a page referenced pretty heavily regardless of species. You're correct about some of the others, it sort of got off on a tangent about handling in general, including delayed mortality due to inadequate dissolved O2, again, dealing with overall handling of the fish. (The three that you referenced are part of that tangent.) The Florida Fish and Wildlife page is an annotated bibliography sporting tremendous amounts of information on handling. (as well as other subjects.) The ShareLunker page is another that has various links including video of TFW's recommendations for handling fish. It happens that you choose three that were on the subject but a different topic. For the record, though the anatomy between muskies and bass are different, the end results are the same.

You know, the way I look at it is this, if one person changes the way they handle fish, or if one person even thinks of it, then it's worth the effort. I'm not trying to sway the masses, I'm not trying to make anyone angry, I'm not trying to call anyone an idiot or otherwise. Heck, I'm not trying to do anything but to get people to think about it. That's all. I'm just as guilty as the next guy about not being perfect. If I recall correctly, and I'm pretty sure I do, there's only been one of those guys in history, and it isn't KVD.

Last year is the only experience I've had with them We fished Chequamegon Bay and rigged them on drop shots and on the Northland Slurp head.

Any chance he fishes Gulp Alive? I've seen similar results when another piece of plastic gets laid together with it.