Raul

X2 on that one, soft plastics have a magic of their own, I 've caught the same fish 4 times in 5 days in the same week in one of my cousin 's ponds, all the times with the plastic worm and it 's a fish not hard to identify, don 't have many 10+ pound fish swimming in the pond with 3 fresh holes in the mouth.

Trickworms don 't float.

Unless you 've got a Pixy ( it 's a lot better when you have 2 in use and an extra spare .... ya kow, just in case ). Ok, here 's the deal, your bait won 't go very far if you don 't have: 1.- The proper reel: some reels shure don 't shine when trying to cast light lures with them, it can be done, I can cast that original Rapala minnow size 9 with the old reliable Curado 200 and Curado 200B38, I can also cast it with my older than dirt Abus XLT with decent distance and not exactly a lot of effort. 2.- The proper line: well, you can 't expect your lure to fly away screaming like a bat out of hell when you 're casting it with 20 pound mono as thick as a rope. The lighter the lure the lighter the line. 3.- The proper rod: you can 't expect to see your lure flying away like a rocket when your rod has the subtle flexibility of a friggin pool cue, nah, it ain 't gonna happen my man. Lighter lures need a lighter more flexible rod, M/ML power rods can achieve what a MH can 't beacuse they load with the weight of the lure storing the energy and behave like a whip when they release the energy.

X2

Yup, there 's nothing like fishing with obscenely priced tackle , am I right TT ?

If you constantly bomb a small population of fish ( like small ponds ), let 's say, like every day, after a while fish will learn that a particular bait worked in a particular way means danger and they will stop biting it as long as you present the bait in the same way all the time. Change the presentation and oooops ! they bite it again. The bait is only a part of the equation. Been catching fish with a Shad Rap for a good couple of decades and don 't even mention the old reliables jig n 'trailer or plastic worms.

Most of my hooks are 3/0, you can practically rig any bait with a 3/0 hook. Got some 2/0 ( about 10 hooks ) and some 4/0 ( about 10 ) for special needs ( like the bait being too small for a 3/0 hook or being too big for a 3/0 hook.)

Gee, I don 't know ...... what do you think ?

x2

Respond about what ? :-? Aren 't we discussing about Quantum reels ? : Weeellll, you read my impressions on that Quantum I owned some years ago, better once blush than a thousand pale afterwards. You feel Shimanos are overpriced and over rated ? ----> don 't buy Shimano and that principle applies to everything.

Not any more, but there used to be a time when I owned mudpuppies, dart frogs, fire toads, various species of turtles, a couple of boas, king sankes, several pythons ( ball pythons were my favorites ), lizards and monitors.

Right-on, Kent. Think of a little old lady who normally has no opinion on the subject of hunting/guns, outdoor ethics, animal rights, etc. If she happens to be driving down the highway, stops at a stop sign and see's your bloody dead deer head with its tongue hanging out off your tailgate or the dead coyote carcasses on the fence post, then she can be turned against hunting. If she sees enough, then she goes home and starts a letter-writing campaign to the local senator. Before long, the senator sees a need to ban/tighten laws on hunting. It could happen! We as hunters/outdoors enthusiasts must make every effort to set a postive and ethical image to the general public. Always remember that hunting and fishing are PRIVILEGES, not rights. X2 on both opinions !!!!. Unfortunately for most of the city people the only place they can see a wild animal is in a zoo or in the TV ( Animal Planet or Discovery n 'such ), all they see is the cute little coyote or fox or when they see a deer they see "Bambi". Antropomorhization occurs a lot more on people who are not used to live in contact with animals. So why screw it up with attitudes like: Finally getting a chance at one of those PETA sissys makes me want to go kill a coyote and string it up from my mailbox. Just how I feel about it. It has little to do with PETA ( which by the way can kiss my skinny rear end ad inifinitum ) it has to do with all the rest of the people who are not animal rights activists but that could turn into animal rights activists with that in your face attitude. You are the evil hunter that killed Bambi 's mom ya know

I 'm not going to say never but I 've got to say that I rarely fish with senkos or senko look alikes, not that I hate them but there are tons of baits I learned to fish with before the senko was invented that I seldomly have to try a senko.

The oversized 3,4 or 5/0 hook on a small jighead, that 's about it, of course you can add that one has a spring or bait holder attachment which in itself makes little difference aside from not having to attach the bait on the regular jighead bait holder.

Citicas do not come with the oil vial, don 't know if Curados come wit oil vial, Chronarchs and Calaises do come with the oil vial.

Even though I 'm a city boy I love the outdoors and the type of recreational activities you can practice like fishing and hunting ( even though I don 't hunt anymore ), I don 't mind seeing a dead animal, death in my line of business is an everyday event, I don 't mind seeing pictures of you showing a trophy buck. It may be "common and accepted practice" to hang dead animals like coyotes on fences to "control" ( scare away ) animal populations but for crying out loud, you don 't need to hang the entire carcass to do that where everybody can see it. Hanging dead animals from a barbed wire fence to be seen by everybody = PETA fuel.

Like Roger, I haven 't purchased a Quantum reel in about 20 years, the first models had some like an alien ship which looked appealing to the BaitMonkey so I ended up with one of those early models. The gearing had a very rough feel, pretty much like if you were sanding, the drag was anything but smooth and locked down frequently, but what marked the end of the reel was that when the pawl broke I couldn 't find the part anywhere. Being in Mexico that meant the reel could not be serviceable and was pretty much as good as waste. No more Quantums for me.

It 's not that easy for a 10 + pounder to jump out of the water, only seen it a few of of times, most of the times they just pull like mad with ocassional runs when you catch them in relatively open water, when you happen to hook one where there 's cover the first thing they do is to run for it which normally is no more than three feet away.

Bass made the beds, bass were spawning, bluegills were there to feast on bass eggs. No more bedding bass, no more bass eggs ----> no more bluegills.

Ok, it 's not going to appear in their website but these guys have a reputation of finding you what you "need" ( BaitMonkey 's word ): www.bass.jp, e-mail them and ask if they can get some of those for you.

Haven 't been doing it as long as Ronnie, but a good couple of decades and a little more is what I 've got ( Ronnie is older than me ya know , he was ketchin them big momma basses when I was in diapers ), besides, back then during the age of the dinosaurs when we had to dodge velociratpors in order to get to the lake and catch some armored feesh baitcasters were only manufactured in RH versions and you could choose between RH and RH. Besides that, if you do so, not palming the rod and reel and maintain the handle in your hand just like Ronnie mentioned, then you will have absolutely no control of the rod rotation while under pressure. So wether you like it or not you still gotta move the hand forward after the cast to palm the rod and reel, for us old farts that had to learn to shift hands cuz we had no LH BCS back then it takes us the same ammount of time to shift hands that it takes you to move forward the hand to palm rod and reel. I agree completely on Roger 's opinion Right on !, this is like learning shift gears on a manual transmission vehicle, once you have developed the coordination which is only achieved by practice there 's no difference between either, as a matter of fact, it becomes automatic and you aren 't even aware you are switching hands.

A 5.2 pointer doesn 't even make it to the news in Kali. That 's what my wife says ( she 's a Cali girl ).

Shimano Curado 200B38.

1.- Nothing really special, I just wipe them dry and leave them in a well ventilated shaded place to allow them to dry thoroughly. 2.- For general everyday maintenace yup, it pretty much covers it all, for a more in depth maintenace which should be performed once or twice a year ( maybe even more if you use your reel a lot ) better have it done by a specialist like ReelMech. 3.- The Shimano lube is good, you want a little more performance there are other types of lubricants, but for the normal wear and tear it 's fine.

It depends greatly on how many and how far we are going, when Pedro, Pocho and I plan a trip let 's say to Zimapán we split between the three of us all the expenses: 1.- Gas for both 2.- Tolls 3.- Ice 4.- Lodging 5.- Food 6.- Boat launch fee One exception, liquor and/or beer ( you have to bring your own ), we do not include those because I don 't drink ( designated driver of both, vehicle and boat ), Poncho may have one or two beers a day but Pedro .... :. If we are going close, then we use my vehicle ( gas included ) to tow Pedro 's boat and Poncho pays the snaks and beverages, or we use Pocho 's vehicle and I pay for the snacks and beverages. If I invite you then I don 't expect anything in return, which is very seldomly the case that a guest doesn 't cooperate with something.