Professional Overrun

Ill be honest, i believe water temperature, bottom structure and forage base play the most important role in which speed or style of retrieve to employ. I.E. at my local lake, the bass absolutely gorge all fall, winter and spring on crawfish. You cant NOT catch a fish by dragging a jig slowly over and around rocks, it absolutely kills them. In the city pond with a mud bottom and shallower warmer water, you have to hop your bait to keep it up and out if the muck where the fish can locate it easily. Two completely different situations with different requirements and retrieves. The challenge is, to fish new water and easily identify which retrieve with which bait is most appropriate based on water temp, bottom composition, season, forage, clarity, moon phase, lucky socks, how many cups of coffee you had, bait color, sponsorship deal....... Do that consistently, and ill gladly buy you a beer, or watch you on "the bassmasters"

I like mine a lot. Its on my jig rod, naybe not as refined as my tournament pro, but waaaay better than all the other $60-70 reels ive handled. Its not a light bait rell but for heavier baits and most things ive thrown with it, its been great. Its still super smooth although not as tight feeling as the pricier lews models. I actually bought mine cause i wanted something closer to the weight of the tournament pro that i use for cranking. Its quite light. As for the graphite frame and strength go, i once blew up a ryobi v-mag lite with an all plastic frame, and it was the cheesy plastic v-spool that exploded on that thing from line pressure. You will not have that problem with the lews rells, this one especially exceeded my expectations and imho is light years ahead of offerings like the shimano canean, which im sure casts fine, but just felt too cheap and plasticky for me. If youre worried, gett a standard speed spool as others suggest, you wont be dissapointed. I think the laser is the best reel out there in its price range though. Just my. 02¢

First off, no trolling in a bass tournament-although thats what striper fisherman do with this rig in the ocean. It needs to be fished where the fish are-plain and simple. Heavy braid, broomstick rod, and cast it. Its great for an overcast day, or when the bass pull back in and shut off or suspend deeper, its a heavy rig that sinks quickly and can turn on inactive fish if presented properly. Fish it around dropoffs, ledges, steep points or structure where pre-spawn bass will be looking for food. If you dont mind really working, fish it up high in the water column on warmer days when the fish will hit a top water bait. By pumping your rod tip the wires flare out and retract making the rig seem incredibly life-like in the water. Im not a fan of it and wont fish it, but amador is a great place for it, especially right now when those california bass are looking to start eating anything that moves. Good luck, and pm me if you need more info.

This 2.5 just caught my pb of 5lbs last evening! I think these are owner trebles i put on this one, they are atleast a size larger than stock, but are short enough to not tangle. Sorry i dont remember the exact size, but they grip like crazy, the thing about these cranks is that you can step up in hook size like kvd does and not ruin the action of the bait because its such a wide wobble to begin with. I hope the picture works, sorry if it doesnt come through, tried posting it from my droid :/

I dig all the lamiglass rods, just got my first one, and love it. Great rods. Yeah ide worry bout catching one in a cast, do your rods have leashes or some sort of flotation attached to them? I know kayak anglers will wrap closed cell foam around the handle near the butt. Something to think about.....

No its cool man! My first baitcaster was an abu 4600.....quality! Just plain quality! When i bought my lews tournament pro i was a little worried, but its been great! Very high quality reel for $150. Im glad to hear the cheaper ones are good as well.

Okay buddy, get out your google maps! Lol If you dont mind a bit of a drive up I280 to the san jose area, then stevens creek reservior is your closest lake. Ive never been there, but it does have bass up to10 pounds. Shore access sucks i hear. If you dont mind a few more minutes drive then lexongton res. Is my home lake, but its down a lot right now cause we havent had nuch rain. I have to reccomend calero reservior in the almaden area, this place is known for its double digit bass. If you need any more info just hop on sanjosebass.com freshwater forum section and cruise through the archives or use the search function. There is currently a picture of me holding a fat lexington bass in the january lexington fishing post. Good luck, and let me know where you end up!

Awesome! Thank you very much! I really like the new laser mg, mostly because its all graphite, and has a metal drag star, and its only like $70-80! How do you like the standard speed spool reels?

So, ive got a few reels, one of which is a lews tourney pro. Love it. Want another lews, but not an exspensive one. Thing is, yesterday i turned off all my centrifigul brakes(usually only have two on) and had to turn the mag brakes up to like 9 to not birdsnest on the start of the cast. Also had to crank down on the spool tension a lot as well. I like my reels loose, i learned on a super tuned abu 4600 which i like an awful lot, and it also uses centrifigul brakes. So heres my question, if i buy a standard speed spool, or and mag brake only reel for that matter will i have to turn the mags up to ten when i really want to launch a bait?

I looooove the lamiglass xcel 705glass rod. $90 rod with incredible feel and action for cranks and baits up to about 3/4 ounce. I broke a guide on my dobyns jig rod and picked up my crank rod to finish the day, first cast at one spot lands me a four pounder with that lamiglass. On a half ounce jig! I was amazed and i love that rod for crankbaits, but it was well worth its weight in gold yesterday! Also a very light rod!

Best cheapest thing you can use is rustoleum appliance paint. It a single part epoxy esther resin paint, so no mixing two parts. I built a plywood fishtank and painted it inside with that paint and it held water for six months! It sat in my living room with some fish i couldnt house in it. Wonderful product, and its only like $15 a quart at home depot, also comes in rattle cans.

Wow! What a club! I cant say that im there yet guys, only a four pounder for me, but ive only been bass fishing for less than a year :0

Does it have flotation foam? I looked at these a few months ago and ended up with a used basstender due to the safety factor and fact that i cant sink it. If the soloboat gets swamped, does it just sink?

Thanks guys! I appreciate it a lot, im excited to play around with the stuff having been a diehard mono fan for many years. I get the feeling flouroclear from p-line may be my new favorite line

Just out of curiousity, does anybody like or use copolymer lines? I just tried p-lines flouroclear and its interesting to say the least, but i dont have enough seat time with it to formulate a strong opinion. Just thought ide ask some of the more experienced bass fisherman around here what they thought of the stuff.

Geese are downright mean sometimes! Is that a veritas rod hes fishin?

I respect everyones opinion on this topic, but im sorry, tying that thing on the end if my line just seems a little too awkward for me. Theirs no way i could fish that thing with a straight face. I agree with bass and i also thihk tatt they should create a tournament, one event a year, banning electronics.

Ive been cutting a zoom tube in half, inserting the small end of the craw into the once closed side of the tube and using the tubes tentacles to give me somewhat of a spider skirt. Works fantastic as soft plastic seems to really have awesome action underwater to give the bait that life-like spider skirt. If ragetail had a product like this, im sure it would work better and save me time and money! Im all for it!!!

Also, doesnt zebco own quantum? Sorry, but, that grease and oil aint goin on my reels.....

Anybody ever tried superlube oil and or grease? I wont use anything else in my reels and have found it superior to all factory grease. The blue grease that abu uses is a total joke imo and one of the most important things to do with a fresh abu reel is to remove the factory grease and replace it with a quality teflon, synthetic, or just high quality lightweight grease or high performance oil. Somewhere i found viscosity tables for most of the oils available to use for reels, and it was interesting what was reccomended based on viscosity. Tri-flow actually was one of the least viscous, most fluid lubricants available, whether or not to use it one your reels is up to you. I think its important to know where to use an oil and where to use a grease, like ,say, not to use grease on spool bearings, but definitely use it on sprag or one way bearings. Just my 2¢…

Now im not here to argue with anyone, but i find it interesting how we, as fishermen, try to find rules to apply for every given scenario. Bass are fish, and yeah books on them are great, but trying to formulate a set of rules based on weather conditions, water temp, how many cups of coffee youve had, seems a little futile. Things can and always do change on the water, i think that genuine fishing knowledge comes from knowing the waters that you fish, and experience. There is a very technical publication on the ecology of black bass that i believe is the end-all to anyone looking for information about these fishes. Please disagree with me, as im here to learn from you all as well.

Very good point there, senile. I was wondering, what role, or how much of a role does a food source play in the way bass stage in the winter months? I know that their metabolism slows way down, will they still occupy those main lake points( with deep water nearby) even if theres no baitfish activity to speak of in the colder winter months? Thats the way it seems to be here in CA, but it never actually gets cold here either. Atleast not compared to back east.....

...geographical differences that may or may not apply to your region.

I was supprised to be catching fish just the other day here in CA in about 10 feet of water. Everyone told me how hard it would be to catch bass right now, and how theyve "gone deep" How i shouldnt waste my time on the shore without electronics and look like a fool in the cold rain. The fish were right where they should be, 10-20 FOW off a rocky point actively looking for crawfish which i saw cruising the shallows..... there seems to be many myths, and misinformation among anglers as well as geographical

I have been fishing the lews tourney pro for about a month now, and i loooove it. Unfortunately i dont have any daiwa reels, but i like their products a lot. Ive got it on a dobyns 734 ss savy rod and its a nice, lightweight package with more than enough power and drag for any bass i might encounter. What i like most about it though is that it throws 1/8 to 1/4 ounce baits really well, which for me, makes it my number one setup. Its also super smooth on the retrieve, but im sure the daiwa is a really smooth reel as well, so.....its your call, but i love my lews reel.