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Butterflies get fairly big in South America. The other day on an episode of Hunt for Big Fish, he caught a Butterfly that was around 14lbs. Maybe a few more years of warmer weather will help them grow larger in s. florida. After all Snook are starting to venture upwards to Jax. and Bonefish are showing up in Naples.

BPS sells a rod balancer butt cap with 3 weights so you can fine tune the balance. Its not the screw in model for their in house rods. Its a simple fit over butt cap. I found it in the section with the pliers, gloves, reel oil and extra rod guides. It worked for me.

Inshore saltwater where you'll be staying. Your best bet is to trek to Ding Darling in Ft. Myers Beach area. That would be a bit of a drive though. The canal system in the cape does hold fish but in spring, with the hot winter we've had, the Snook will probably be heading out to the passes in prep to spawn on the beaches. You might catch some baby Tarpon or Jack Crevalle in the canals at anytime along with small Snook. Some of the Capes canals are freshwater and if you can drive to spillways where waters flowing, you'll have a chance for bass on one side and Tarpon and Snook on the otherside.

On the SW coast of Fl. construction is at a stand still. My wife made me go back to work last year and Ive ended up managing a paint store. There are at least 10 painters a day walking in looking for work. Residential work is absolutely stopped. Commercial is strictly govermental, rebuilding from the 04 hurricane season. Im a 22 year veteran cop and my wife works for a P.D. as a CSI. All the local county/city agencies are on a hiring freeze for at least the last year. We just voted no on a few tax increases, so I would say a governemt job is as about as unlikely to get as one in construction. You also have to think about crazy inflated prices on homes, even rentals. Buy a house and you will be forced to accept Citizens as your carrier. And our wonderful state senate is o.k.ing that Citizens force us to replace a houseful of new windows w/ultra expensive hurricane proof ones. Not to mention a year old roof that now has to meet entirely new codes. Fl. aint no place to live.

I read somewhere, tackletour, I think, that any discount will disqualify you, we'll see. I sent it in around Jan 17th.

I havent heard yet but I'm suspecting I might. I bought a Curado 100 and got 10% off from Bass Pro when they told me my rewards card was upped to a preferred rewards card. Then I sent in the rebate thinking I was getting a heck of a deal.

Well Im looking at a can of peas. Its 15 oz. I would guess 2.4oz. of peas out of that can would be what, 25 peas? Im fat, sickly and most of all lazy and I cant see how the 2.4oz. is anything. Especially when the positives are HEG gearing and a more solid reel.

Isnt it amazing how todays modern male feels 2.4 ounces is such a major deal! John Wayne and ours Dads would be shocked.

Little baby gators. Constantly chasing my topwaters. Gators to about 3 feet have no fear of man and wont leave lures alone.

Unless your going for trophy size blues and flatheads I think your basic bass casting reel and rods would do in a pinch. I regularly go after channel cats with my Curado, MH 6.5 ft rod and 14lb line and dont feel out gunned. What and where are you going after?

Man thats a hard choice. I'm a crazed fan of Larry Dahlbergs show, so anyplace he's been would be fine. It would be a toss up between Tigerfish on Lake Victoria or Suriname for Wolfish and Suribe. No how about Gabon for Capitan.. oh geeze

Ive got arthritis and bersitis and havent had problems holding my Curados. Granted my Sol is a pleasure to hold and use, but I wouldnt put it up against Snook and other tougher than bass species. Im not even sure I feel it could handle a plus 10lb bass. If the Curado is so heavy I wonder what the poor guys still using round Abu C reels do. They must be real handicapped!

The Curado 300 is no bigger than the 200. The only difference is the spool capacity. It should match fine with that rod, I have one on a 6 ft. St. Croix for dock fishing Snook and it balances fine. But then most everyone else here thinks the 200 size Curado is a massive lead battery!

Jigs both finesse and standard w/trailers. Ive relied way too much on the Senko for a couple years. Hard jerkbaits too.

Been bass fishing out of a Ocean Kayak Drifter and a small Heritage 9ft sit inside kayak for about 4 years. A kayak is very stable. A sit on top is easy for entry and exit, an important factor if you have bad knees/back. They're also easy to rig and provide more rigging options than a canoe or sit in inside kayak.

Theres a real good catfishing site I used to hit everyday, but I cant remember the address. It was run by a group calling themselves the brotherhood of catfishermen. It was a huge site with tons of message boards and everyone was very nice too. Google the brotherhood and Im sure you can find it.

I have small hands and cant believe anybody would think the Curado B is big in any way. The world sure seems to love bashing the new Curado's, even though most of them havent even had it on a rod let alone used it to fish any length of time. I hope you guys are right on your estimations of a new design like the Revo. I pray you dont have another Eon on your hands. How can anybody compare a reel manufactured in Korea with one manufactured in Japan?

I would think that a gouge deep enough to cause a deflection in your course would probably have to be repaired. Are you getting deep cuts? You may have to weld a repair stick into the cut if so. If not, I wouldnt worry to much about it, I have a friend who never uses a cart and drags his cobra fish n dive across things I'd never dream of. It has lasted with no ill effects. I always use a cart and under my breath curse that I ever replaced my 9' Heritage that I could easily carry over my shoulder.

Ive caught little tarpon and big Snook on my Quantum Inshore Catalyst 10pti. It never missed a beat and is still tight. Going on 3 years of use too. A great article in In-Fisherman back in the days the Lindners were there, suggested not using true ultralight reels for better casting performance. If your tearing them up maybe you should consider a 1500/2000 size reel. Quantums Boca 20pti is bombproof at a whopping 12oz.!

I got a few of the Jann's knockoff crankbaits and jerkbaits. I dont use them for bass but for Snook and baby Tarpon. I couldnt bear the thought of seeing my Luckycraft Pointers and RC's getting chewed up after just one fish. They work good, better than I thought actually. The through body metal wire, where exposed to hold the splitrings, actually rusts less in saltwater than Lucky Crafts. And yes I always rinsed them off.

If size and money are a factor check out some of the small rec type kayaks like the Heritage Featherlight or the Emotion rec yak. I caught loads of bass out of mine before getting a bigger s.o.t. If your up north, the rec. kayak style is popular because it'll keep you warm in times a s.o.t. wont. At 38lbs. I carried my featherlight over one shoulder intowaters nobody dreamed about getting into and slayed them.

This has come up on kayaking forums before. Something about hydrostatic tension and other ridiculous notions. I find it impossible to believe that at speeds a human is capable of paddling a yak made for fishing(i.e. s.o.t. or rec boat), any coating could provide an increase in speed a human is capable of detecting or measuring. Besides any coating chemically able to bond to poly-styrene would most likely adversely effect it.

I have hated superlines and tried all of them. But I have learned to like Sufix braid. Their first generation braid called Herculine is even better. It was made for Asian/European markets. All braids geared for other than the U.S. have a tighter weave and involve more strands. As far as fading goes, check Office Depot or Staples. They carry a 'Sharpie' brand marker pen that is Olive in color. Not the green thats in the value packs but a much more natural color that works better. You have to search for it either individually packaged or in a set with non primary color hued pens.

Interesting point RoLo, but what about neutral bass. Most bass are in a neutral mode most of the time. Dont you think it pays to up the odds in your favor as much as possible, including going with as near as invisible a line as possible. That being said maybe Gerald Swindle got it right and we all over think the whole fishing thing, its still only a fish with a pea sized brain.

Super Spook Jr.'s have been very good to me over the years but lately the quality has crashed..... The Sammy 100 size is my go to topwater now. Also experimenting with the new Sebile topwaters that are filled with mineral water and moving glitter inside.