BradH

It's mostly something I do in the winter and I'm usually chasing walleyes and pike when I do it but drop shotting on a river can be very effective for bass. For me the challenge is staying in touch with the bottom when there is wind and current. In slack water you can get by with a 3/8 ounce weight but out in the main channel in deeper water you'll need double that or more. I just try to equalize the boat with the current speed and drift down with it, lifting and dropping my rod to ensure bottom contact. In slack water I might drop anchor if I know I'm on fish. 12" is a good starter for distance between weight and hook. One thing is for sure, when you hook a fish on your third lift in the middle of January on the Nebraska/South Dakota border, you will always have a spinning rod rigged with a drop shot in the boat!

I've switched a number of bushing equipped Swedish made ABU reels to ball bearings. Next time I'm in a Wal-Mart I'll have to go take a peek.

I have one, it is a good reel. Out of the box the handle nut was loose and the spool bearings were dry. That's an easy fix for a guy like me but with a MSRP of 200 bucks I'd expect more. These two flaws were not isolated to just me. I also didn't care for how they dropped two of the ball bearings from the handle and put bushings in there. I like four ball bearings in the handle on a crankbait reel. I quickly changed that but again, for $200, I'd expect more. While the Gen 3 Revos may have captured the interest of the guys who like pretty and shiny things, those of us who just fish hard saw no benefits over the generation one and two reels. If you don't mind going over the reel and checking everything out they are good.

I'm not much of a swimbait guy but I do throw large baits often. One of the main reasons I'll throw big stuff is to avoid unhooking dinks while I could be fishing.

I've hit the mark button on my GPS a few times when a rod went overboard and I snagged them each time. I dropped my 6' ML crankin' stick with Curado 50e on Devil's Lake Saturday and it FLOATED! Same goes for a 1st gen Revo Premier on a 6' medium Fenwick GT. It floats too.

I don't have any LC lavender shad jerkbaits but I've got plenty of McSticks and X-Raps in purple/white. I have luck in the spring or fall with clear to moderately cloudy water. I'd try something else in chocolate milk. A XRD-10 xrap in purple/white or perch has caught me more fall river smallmouth than any other bait.

I use a clinch knot on fluoro tied to a snap for crankbaiting quite a bit. I have not had that issue. I use probably four or five different knots. Wind direction, planetary alignment and the number of beers I had the night before dictate which knot I use on fluorocarbon;). If you're aware of knot burning you have already taken the #1 knot failure culprit off the list. How many wraps are you using? I use five on fluorocarbon and no more. I have noticed with any knot on fluorocarbon, there is a point where a more complex knot gets weaker fast. On uni knots and clinch knots I go five wraps and no more. It's worth a shot.

Husky Jerk or Rogue

What's a Revo SV? I've never seen one. If it does not have centrifugal brakes you can rule that out. In my limited experience all of the generation three Revos I've messed with have had QC issues, mostly dry spool bearings. That's where I would look first. Just put a drop of reel oil on the spool bearings.

Switch to 20 pound braid and cast small crankbaits with it.

Shimano. They have a rod to match anyone's budget, their rods all fish well at whatever price point they occupy, they have rods suited to a wide range of techniques and they have a great warranty on the better lines of rods.

I use GI issue green nomex flight gloves. I can operate a casting reel in the winter and my hands stay warm.

Because they CAN draw blood. I get annoyed by risk-averse, boring people with no sense of adventure I meet every day. I'd hate to see fishermen get that way too. Pike fishing just suits me. Because they can get quite a bit bigger than a bass. MUCH bigger. Because they don't know what quitting is. Do an internet search for pike handling techniques. There is a ton of stuff out there. It's the little two footers that hook you with a mouth full of trebles. Give them the same respect you'd give a big one.

It's not hard. Just carry a few extra tools and a decent net in the boat that make it easier to unhook the fish. For those of you that are afraid of pike and feel the need to kill them I'm sure there's room in your purse next to your tampons for some jaw spreaders and what not.

Mine made it to the claimed 8' diving depth..........................using a downrigger