Tim Kelly

The best way of becoming a better angler is to fish with someone better than you. Amazing how much you learn. If you just want someone to put you on the spots, I suppose you're looking for something else though, and maybe the guide shouldn't fish. But if he doesn't fish and you're not catching he would need to have a go to make sure the fish aren't there or biting, or whether you're just rubbish at catching them!

Well done. Did you remember to pick up your spinning rod?

Assuming you can still use the rod you have look out for a used Curado B series on ebay or one of the forum's for sale boards. I bet you could find one for about $40 and they're strong little reels that just keep going and are repairable, which in house brands may not be.

Thanks for that. Will try their suggestions. Now, about those postage charges.....

Thanks Darren, makes some sense, but a lot of websites have the warning in a little pop up that once you've acknowledged it goes away permanently. The BPS one is a full page you have to click before you can go to the page, every time you click to a new page! With the cookie warning and their international postage it makes it hard to shop with them!

When you go on the BPS website does it ask you to acknowledge that the site uses cookies every time you click to a new page? Been doing it for ages for me and so I've stopped looking on there. Any cures, or is it just me?

z man baits don't like getting too hot, but normal plastazol baits are fine.

There isn't anything like that any more. If you got hold of a 5000D you could probably swap the gears out for higher ratio ones, nearly all ABU round reels are interchangeable. In reality though, most people if they wanted to put more drag on a fish than the reel was set for would just thumb the spool. When I've muskie fished I've always put the reel in freespool and planted my thumb on the spool when I go into the figure 8 just so I can easily give line if needed on such a short line.

Daiwa PE special reels do just that. The downside is that if you put a huge amount of pressure on the reel the levelwind is more likely to fail as the higher gearing is less powerful. Thicker braid cures digging in issues, so like anything else, there's a compromise to be made.

Great question! I used to fish for trout in big stocked reservoirs a lot. The fish were almost entirely stocked new each year, as most died off over winter, so there was no way the fish were becoming educated to a particular presentation. Every year there would be an approach that was head and shoulders better than any other, and most years it would be different. A few years the same thing worked, but then it would stop working. Never made any sense of it, I presume it was environmental somehow, but I guess that's part of the fun of working the fish out.

Glad I'm a slob and they just get ripped apart and stuffed in where I want them. LOL A better question might be "what do you do with all the spare left over dividers?" I always seem to have dozens left over and it seems a waste to just bin them. Is that my own version of OCD?

Telling too many people about a successful lure is a pretty good way of burning it!

I was going to say the same, but thought you'd be bored of hearing about them from me! LOL

Like the Terrova, they'll be great tools for deep water fishing, but less good for shallow water and weed fishing. They have a definite market but generally not for shallow water bass anglers. Be great to have both options and a quick change plate so you could swap systems if you were ledge fishing one day, then the next day beating the bank.

Guess it could be senility, or perhaps increasing blindness. If you allowed him to bite you if you took food away from him he might be being taken by surprise when the cats come close and biting because it hasn't been hard wired into him not to bite. Probably worth having the vet check him out to make sure it's not something more serious.

I'm really fond of St Croix blanks, but hate the way they build them. Wouldn't have a Megabass either for the same reason. For a factory rod the Dobyns DX702S is a pretty sweet stick, or build a rod on the St Croix blank, which would be my preferred option.

That bluegill colour looks tremendous!

Always happy to enjoy new experiences! I'm sure I have a couple of mirrolures buried somewhere deep in the man cave. Probably at least jurrasic layer, but I'll go mining and see what I can find.

I can probably live with that! LOL Always better to be culling than blanking. Is the mirrorlure one of their lipped minnows or the lipless type?

Fantastic. Thank you for your help and insight.

Makes sense, thank you. What species might I be able to catch from the beaches and bridges? Will they all take similar lures or do they need targeting specifically?

Thanks guys. Any suggestions on the tackle I should take to have a few hours from the shore here and there? I was thinking maybe a med or med heavy spinning rod, 2500 reel with 20lb braid? What about licenses? Do I need one to fish in the sea?

I've been using 6lb XL on my dropshot rod for a couple of months now. It's definitely softer and more manageable than the original 100%. Not noticeably more stretchy either. I'm happy enough with it. Best 6lb fluoro I've used was P-Line Halo, when I use up all the stuff I have now I'll probably get another spool of that. Harder and more difficult to manage than berkley XL for sure, but seemed to last for ages.

Looking at having a holiday in the Keys next April with my wife. No idea what the shore fishing opportunities would be down there, but I would love to catch a snook if possible. Is it worth packing a rod and a few lures if you're not going out with a guide? Med spinning? Any experience?