shanksmare

The Duck Boats with players, coaches owners and 4 Lombardi trophies are now traversing the streets of Boston .... again!

Rod balance is a rather subjective thing. No matter how you get the rod to balance when you change the weight of lures it upsets that balance. With fly rods the more weight (within reason) that I could concentrate towards the butt of the rod, the better it felt (to me). With a bait casting rod I'm not sure what if any the benefit would be. You could try wrapping sheet lead around the butt of the rod until the proper feel is achieved. Then put a like amount of lead shot and epoxy up the butt of the rod to make a permanent fix. Of course you have to configure the rod butt during the building process to allow this.

What about the dissolved oxygen requirements for larger bass? I remember fishing in club tournaments in the 1970's when most of the time larger bass would die in the livewells. The smaller 2 or 3 lbers would be fine but the larger ones often died.

I guess the Patriots just took the air out of the Seattle Seahawks. You now know why the Patriots fired Pete Carroll (of course he would have been touted as a genius if the pass play had worked). Looking forward to next year. Go Pats!

I am a big fan of chatterbait type lures. I use them quite a bit and have had very good success with them. They are not a magic lure, if the bass are not in a chasing mood then they like most reaction type baits can be a tough sell. I have noticed that the trailer can make as much or more of a difference than the make of bladed jig you are using. A paddletail swimbait will give you a much different action than a fluke type bait. The combinations are endless and each will give you a slightly different action. Yesterday while fishing a Bagley version of the chatterbait I noticed something I had never thought of before. I had taken the skirt off the CB and was fishing it with a Hybrids Flurry trailer (a 3# paddle tail). I noticed that the CB was running slightly to one side. A careful inspection of the trailer indicated that I had been put it on slightly off center. However on a slow retrieve the bait would "hunt" at the slightest twitch. When I rerigged it straighter it was difficult to get it to "hunt" at all. Interesting!

Try using them with a Gamakatsu Superline EWG weighted hook - 1/8 oz size 3/0. You can hop and pop them and let them fall. When the Zoom Super Flukes fall with this hook they sort of dart to one side or the other and the tail wiggles like a swimming fish as its falling. If the fish refuse to chase a reaction bait like a spinnerbait, chatterbait or swim jig they will often eat the super fluke rigged this way. I know most people recommend using the fluke with an unweighted hook but fishing it is too painfully slow for me. I've caught hundreds using the weighted hook and one or two that I remember on the unweighted hook. Today I got no action on reaction lures but saved the morning with 3 little guys on the fluke. I think I left just as the fish were turning on a bit as the weather warmed. But there is always tomorrow!

Weld when the ice goes out and Spring comes to Long Island, I would concentrate my efforts in the Northern and Northeastern areas of the lake. The prevailing warm weather direction there is from the SW , so the NE section of the lake warms up first. I would forsake the deeper areas of the lake and concentrate my efforts in the shallows (a shallow fish is an active fish). I would concentrate my efforts around anything that changes - edges of weeds, sandy bottom to gravel, lily pads, docks, fallen trees, limbs in the water, shallow dropoffs, etc. I'd use reaction baits as search baits and a worm or jig for high probability areas. If you are shore bound it may be difficult because of houses and trespassing issues. Good luck - have fun and stay warm this winter.

They both weigh the same - 5 1/2 lbs. Based on ratio of hand size to head size. Of course a larger or smaller head might throw my calculations off a bit.

I have been retired for 13 years. Before that I worked 20 years as a Senior Software Engineer (Computer Programmer). Before that I did various types of construction work.

When I did ice fish, I always wore the Sorel Pac boots with the felt liner. I also wore these boots for outdoor construction work during the winter. If you have a spare set of felt inserts and keep them dry, they are very warm. I even used the felt inserts in oversized hip boots for duck hunting.

I used to use a Bill Plummer Frog with some success occasionally. I can remember seeing a show on TV with him in it (it might have been a Gadabout Gaddis show). I believe he used the Frog as well as a 6" (or there abouts) black pork eel for most of his fishing. I remember he used a baitcasting outfit with braided nylon line. I forget if he used a mono leader or not. I don't recall ever seeing a Jitterbug with a plastic lip, but I do remember using a wooden Jitterbug. At dusk their were many guys that would walk around the kettle ponds of SE MA throwing big black Jitterbugs. They caught some very large bass upon occasion after dark.

"Funny how the Patriots couldn't win a Super Bowl AFTER they were caught cheating, filming other teams practices. New England fans love to say that it wasn't that big of a deal, but once they weren't allowed to do it anymore, they became the Minnesota Vikings or Buffalo Bills of their generation" They were never caught filming other teams practices. Get your facts straight! So its obvious you don't know what Spygate was. Look it up. So in order to be good you have to win it all, huh? Interesting point of view. I guess getting there doesn't count. So from your point of view if you make it to the Super Bowl and lose, well thats akin to an 0-16 season! Interesting.

"Be sure to include those Super Bowl loses in the stats for Belicheat. He was able to accomplish another record, the only NFL team to go 18-1 and NOT win a Super Bowl." The Patriots and Coach Belicheck are the only NFL team to go 18-1. Thats a significant accomplishment in my opinion. "Those 3 Super Bowl wins a decade ago should have been vacated after Spygate..." Do you know what Spygate was? If you did you would probably understand that it wasn't that big a deal. Most NFL teams were also doing it and didn't even realize it was illegal. The Patriots accepted the penalty because Bob Kraft is a standup guy and wanted to minimize any unfavorable publicity that would fall upon the league.

Just a little side note to this discussion. I used to go bowhunting for deer in western PA from 1974 - 1981 or there abouts. I was always amazed at the football discussions in coffee shops ans restaurants by the locals. In most of the discussions the locals stated that Noll was a lousy coach and Bradshaw was not smart enough to be an NFL quarterback. They loved Franco Harris though (the area was 50 or 75 miles west of State College (PSU)). Funny how peoples perceptions change with time!

So if the Patriots cheated by having under inflated balls, is that an advantage or disadvantage? How did they keep track of the affected balls ... did they have a big red cross on the under inflated balls so the Patriots would have the "good balls" and the Colts would get the "lousy balls"? The weight of the ball could also be a factor. Since it was pouring out and the balls cover is leather, would some balls weigh more than others? It looked like the ball the Colts were using was a lot heavier than the Pats ball! Oh ya, a comparison of Belicheck, Noll and Walsh: Belicheck with Patriots: Regular Season: 175 - 65 Playoffs: 20 - 8 Noll with Steelers: Regular Season: 193 - 148 Playoffs: 18 - 8 Walsh with 49ers: Regular Season: 92 - 59 Playoffs: 14 - 10 All three have pretty impressive numbers!

Here on the west coast of FL the winter time is very productive for snook. You have to get into the shallow backwaters to get them. I often fish in very shallow areas with top waters (Zara Spooks and Spook Jrs) with very good results. The fishing is usually better several days after a cold front, once conditions have stabilized especially if the wind is from a southerly quadrant. I fish from shore so I am rather limited to where I can fish. The snook in freshwater are still pretty active but not quite as active as they were a month ago. I'm anxious to try a chatterbait type lure in saltwater since the freshwater snook just smoke them. Good luck! If you discover the right spot you might just get yourself an Inshore Grand Slam (seatrout, redfish, snook and tarpon).

Thanks and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all (may there be a new PB this year for you)!

MikeL hit the nail on the head. To get a lure to walk you must provide slack line for it to walk. You can walk a spook at a fast cadence, slow cadence or anything in between. In fact you can vary the cadence so in effect there is no cadence. But you must sort of bounce your rod back as you twitch it to provide the necessary slack for the spook to walk. When you walk a frog, I have found that it works better if the twitches are much smaller than those you would use to walk a Spook. If you are walking a frog through lily pads and your line is draped over a pad, you will find that it will not walk because the pad prevents you from getting the slack to the frog. Practice, its not that hard to do once you do ut right.

Not even close - a spinnerbait. Its the most versatile lure there is and it allows you to cover territory fast to pick off active fish. Lately some of the time I would have normally devoted to spinnerbaits goes to swim jigs and chatterbaits.

I recently purchased a pair of the fish grips mentioned in the original post. I fish from the bank. I haven't used it on a bass yet since I generally use single hooked lures and simply lip them. My main reason for getting them was to deal with snook found in freshwater. I got tired of losing chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and swim jigs to these saltwater interlopers. The typical scenario finds said snook hammering a chatterbait (especially the white ones) and putting up a heck of a fight. I would slide the 10 to 20# fish part way up the bank. I'd try lipping the snook, the snook would thrash violently and I would wind up with a bloody thumb and no chatterbait. The snook usually hit the lure from the front and just from the strike will fray 6" of line. Sometimes this fraying is so severe that it snaps the 20# mono on the hit. Using the fish grips I'm able to save my thumb and the lure if the snook makes it to the bank. I certainly won't hesitate to use it to land bass caught on treble hooked lures or single hooked lures for that matter. As Bluebasser stated, a lot more damage is done to the fish scooting it up the bank or letting it bounce around the deck of a boat. The grip quickly subdues the fish. By the way, these grips pretty much function the same as a Boga Grip (no weighing feature however) but are over $100 cheaper for those that things of this nature matter.

By far the hardest hit I ever got while fishing occurred in 1969. A friend and I had chartered a trip with Cape Cod tuna fishing guru Capt. Charlie Mayo. It was his last trip of the season in October. We had trolled daisy chains on the outriggers unsuccessfully all day and were headed across Cape Cod Bay towards his home port of Provincetown. When it happened it was like some one had thrown a locomotive into the water (my buddies exact words). After a hellish 40 minute fight we landed the 723 lb giant bluefin tuna. Man what a topwater strike that was!!

Any vise that is made for saltwater fly tying will be more than adequate for use with any FW bass fishing lures. I have used a Griffin Patriot Vise for years to tie large flies meant for striped bass and even school bluefin tuna. Another very popular vise among SW fly tiers is the Regal vise which is another topnotch vise. I have used my vise to wire tie skirts on jigs and wire tie skirts on spinnerbaits and chatterbaits sporting big 5/0 hooks. I've also used it to tie bucktail on 3 and 4 oz saltwater jigs sporting 7/0 and 8/0 hooks. I once broke the jaws on a Thompson "A" vise doing this. I just replaced the normal jaws with a heavy duty set and all was well. I could still handle the big 8/0 SW hooks as well as the size 20 hooks for trout flies.

Actually the original Pencil Popper was created by Stan Gibbs, who owned the Cast-a-Lure company, out of wood. His shop was located near the banks of the Cape Cod Canal in Sagamore, MA. I used to buy his blemished plugs for a dollar or two apiece many tides ago. Stan's wooden poppers were much more effective than the Cordell plastic knockoffs.

A friend of mine, who is a former striped bass world record holder, told me of a similar technique that at times can be deadly for stripers at night. He basically deadsticks a Bomber at night in areas with a little current. It can turn a bad night into a good one. Since stripers and LMB are both predators, it should work for both. As Sirsnook mentions, deadsticking can be deadly (especially on larger bass, if you have the patience) on larger bass using plastics. It certainly can be good for redfish at times. Years ago a friend of mine's then young cousin was catching a lot of nice bass (5 or 6# up north in MA) on a Hula Popper in the middle of the day during the summer. His technique was to cast the popper near some reeds and then do nothing. He would let it sit for 5 minutes or more. If he didn't get a hit he would retrieve quickly and make another cast to the reed cover. I never had the patience to give the technique a meaningful try. It worked for him.

I rarely fan cast while fishing. Why? Because it is generally a waste of time. I usually key in on pieces of cover (logs, bushes, weeds, rocks, etc.). I will often make multiple casts to these pieces of cover usually varying the angle of retrieve. Points can be prductive since there is often current around them. I will frequently fan cast around points if they look promising (wind driven current, cover, etc). Since I'm fishing from shore I may have to make long casts to reach this cover. I usually don't work my lure back to shore. I work it around the cover and burn it in for my next cast. I use the same approach for surf fishing. I rarely waste my time taking a step or 2 and fan casting an area. I look for white water which indicate bars under the surface, points which usually have current associated with them, inlets, rocks, baitfish,etc. So I might walk a mile down a seemingly featureless sand beach and only stop to fish at 3 or 4 rater small locations. These techniques work well for me, your mileage may vary!