Raul

For me talking about temperature trends lacks of any value to almost everybody, down here water temp seldomly drops to the 60 's even in the middle of the "winter", it can rise up to 90 in the middle of the summer specially in the shallow lakes ( shallow means 45 ft at the deepest part ) most lakes I fish are deep and water temps remain in the 80 's well into the year, yeah, imagine yourself living in a place where the water temp is 80 in January ( jealous ? ). So for me it 's relatively easy: 1.- When can I expect the fish to be active ? all year round 2.- Even though the methabolic rate and the degree of agressiveness go hand in hand ( warmer water means more active fish ) water temp trend does not apply per se to my case, 3.- Weather patterns on the other hand do apply and have a greater impact on what I can expect when I go to fish. 4.- Full or almost full pool lakes, nice warm weather usually mean pretty lousy fishing, not because the fish aren 't active, because the level of human activity in the lake skyrockets; all them water skiers, jet skiers n ' pleasure boaters come out from their lair when the wether is nice and run up and down all over the lake at warp speed all day long ! >

Re: Are Shimano Reels Worth it? Worthless pieces of junk, so lousy that I 'm considering in getting me another one to add to the already 8 or 10 I already own.

Nope, not a scent user here, if the bait comes cooked or with it ----> fine, if it doesn 't ----> fine too.

I 've got 3 soft plastics/general purpose spinning rods: GLoomis SJR721 IMX GLoomis SJR722 GL2 CSS66MH Do I think it 's necessary having two ? The reason why I have three is because each rod is for a specific purpose to fish in a specific lake or series of lakes, for some lakes I fish with the SJR721 ( gets a 9 in the funometer scale ), for other lakes where there 's more cover I can fish with heavier line, bigger baits and a more stiff rod.

Of course with the "on your face" effect and a good positioning of the fish in relation to the angler 's body, the way the fish is held n 'such you can make a fish look bigger than it is, but ........... c 'mon guys, I think that trying to add a couple of "sight pounds" to a teen pounder doesn 't hide the fact that it 's a teen pounder. Something that many of you haven 't accomplished once, and less, several times like FC. ;D

This threah should have the title edited and remained for " The birth of a Japanese Tackle junky" The DARK SIDE is shhhhhtrooooong in you my young apprentice, I can feel it, with a couple years of training you can become a dark lord.

Oh boy, a mexican BR meeting ! that would be nice and maybe I could talk 2 of my buddies into it.

Bondage ? :-?

It usually takes those companies 7-10 years to no longer have parts for a discontinued model.

There 's a say: "you can take a horse to the water but can 't force it to drink it."

Death skinny ....... but silicone breast implants are forever !

X2

It takes you 30 seconds to tie a knot and check your line for nicks, cuts, abrassion and signs of wear. The snap may be ok, the knot may be ok but what about the line above the snap ? that may and will certainly not be ok after a while. And there you are at the lake, you make a cast and since you think your time is too precious ( 30 sec to 1 minute ) to waste it retie a knot you don 't do it, then your bait hangs up and prack ! the line breaks and you loose your bait or you hook the fish of a lifetime ( did I mention it took away the lure with it ? ) just to have it break the line simply because you were too lazy to check your line and retie as needed. Snaps are not bad if you are purchasing good quality snaps Snaps are not bad if you check your line above the snap frequently But if snaps are an excuse for you being lazy then don 't be surprised when you loose a bait or the bait and the fish.

It has never mattered, I don 't try to match anything I want to make it stand out from the what you are trying to match, in a school of hundreds of minnows which every one of them are of the same size which you think it 's going to stand out first, a crank the same size of fish in the school or a bigger one with different action ? it 's a combination of size, action and if you want to throw it in, color or finish. 2/3 rds of the lakes I fish are gin clear, fish are shy, spooky and really hard to catch, add to it that the fishing pressure they get is inmense being so close to the city, they get fished all year round, fish have seen every lure you can imagine, if I followed the "match the hatch" school of thought then I would come empty handed every time I fish them and that is rarely the case.

Steel leader. Don 't look prutty but it works on gar, I 'm sure it works on pickerel.

And what that has to do with owning good quality tackle ? :-? I don 't fish every day, most of the times I don 't fish every weekend but that doesn 't stop me from owning top of the line rods n 'reels.

Baitcast will fit all Daiwa low profile BCs Steve. I have those for my Alphas, Pixys & TDZs. They are kooler than Shimano ones, thicker, beter built, more quality built and they cover the handle too. Not exactly cheap but ...... 13 bones a pop is pocket change when what you are trying to protect is a $100 plus reel. I 'm pretty touchy when it comes to how my gear looks.

For your Daiwas: For your Shimanos: For those who don 't own either: U kidding me ?

Bass are caught on a regular basis with things that barely or have absolutely no resemblance to anything a fish can see or eat. Spinnerbaits ( o yeh the flash of the blade resemble the shiny scales of minners : .......... what u smokin ? :-?, cuz whatever it is I want some ) & in-line spinners n 'such are a good example. Making the lure look "alive" and pretend it 's an easy meal is what is important, doesn 't necessarily has to mimic a fish.

Thechnas are excellent mid level priced rods and well worth the extra ca$h over the HMG.

I said and let me quote myself: "got others but ...... you don 't think I 'm going to tell them all, do you ?" Actually I don 't fish the double fluke rig a lot, it hangs up too much where I normally fish and this is how I look after hanging up the rig several times ---> >

BassAssassin is a BRAND, not a bait.

There are many ways to fish a fluke and like with any other soft plastic ........ read the following, read it and read it again until it gets to you, get it ? THERE ARE NO "RULES", THERE 'S NO "BEST WAY" That being said and hopefully some of you guys got it ( if not reread the previous) 1.- The regular T- rig weightless rigging: get yourself an EWG hook 3 or 4/0 size, T- rig exposeing the pint of the hook ( T-exposed ). Cast, allow to sink to the desired depth and twitch the bait with the rod tip a few times ( you 'll have to experiment ), allow to sink again while you reel in the slack line and begin again. 2.- T-rigged weighted: ok, so I understand, sometimes you want the bait to run deeper or faster and it takes forever to siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink, so you add some weight, them weighted hooks are great, yup those that have a tiny chunk of lead underneath, they are a pain in the neck to rig cuz if you drive the hook as you would with an unweighted hook you tear the bait nose to pieces, each time you have to rig a bait you have to retie which is a minor inconvinece ( how long does it take you to make a knot ? ). The kool thing about them weighted hooks is that they are weighted in several weights so you can pich up the rate of fall. Cast, let it sink to de desired depth, twitch and reel in the slack as it sinks. 3.- Jighead rigging: now instead of using a hook you use a jighead, impale the bait on the hook and fish it like any other bait with a jighead ooooooooooor ( oh boy here comes a tip ), midstroll the bait. To midstroll means that that you cast the bait let it sink and then reel in three or four turns of the handle, let it sink and shakke the tip of your rod while you reel in the slack to reel in steadily again, killa technique for suspended fish. 4.- D-shotting: check the d-shot articles and threads. 5.- Wacky rigging I: yes sir you read it right WACKY RIGGING A FLUKE , shut up, you don 't know anything, me on the other hand been fishing for more years than you are old so I know more tricks than you. :. The technique is called "shadding", the idea is to make the bait imitate a dying minner, shad or shiner. Grab yer fluke, grab a EWG hook now here comes the tricky part, calculate that the hook has to be inserted on the side of the bait at about the first third of the length of the bait ( behind the head ) until you cross the bait to the other side, now the bait hangs from the hook. The how to is quite simple, cast the bait and swim the bait by reeling in slowly for a few feet, the bait will swim paralel to you ( great way to fish them steep banks, rip rap and bluffs ), stop reeling and twitch ( twitch ok ? do not jerk the bait ) the bait a few times and what you will see is a dying minnow as it quivers and slowly sinks with every twitch, strikes when doing this are vicious. Repeat as necessary. 6.- Wacky rigging II: c 'mon man, Raul knows a many ways to skin a cat n 'got a bagful of dirty tricks and evil charms ( no wonder why I am so good ! sometimes I even amaze meself ). Get yourself a Kahle hook, don 't mean other hooks don 't work but Kahle hooks work better due to their L shape ( the hook grabs more plastic ), insert the hook on the back of the bait along the middle line of the bait ( longitudinaly ) at about 1/3 of the length of the bait ( behind the head ) until you expose the hook point, now insert a nail weight ( weight depends on the sink rate you desire ) in the nose of the bait. The bait hangs from the hook. Cast the bait, allow to sink to the desired depth, shake the rod tip, reel in the slack, shake the rod tip, reel in the slack, killa techique. . 6.- Split shotting I: t-rig the bait with a 3-4/0 hook, then add a split shot to your main line, "leader" length and split shot weight varies depending upon conditions of cover density. Fish it like you fish any other split shoted bait. 7.- Split shot II: I told you, got many tricks, now instead of T-rigging the bait what you do is with a weedless hook you hook the bait on the nose ( if you don 't use a weedless hook you are going to hang up like crazy ). Leader length and split shot weight depend upon conditions, so what 's the deal with this one ? oh well, the other version is for places with cover, this one is for coverless places where you don 't need to cross their eyes to hook 'em. 8.- C-rigging: yup, I do c-rig a fluke ........ actually any bait can be C-rigged. Those are the most common ways I rig n 'fish a fluke, got others but ...... you don 't think I 'm going to tell them all, do you ? ;D

Wellllll guys you can always come down here and I 'll take you to a couple of places I took Robert when he was here visiting Leon, remember that Brazilian BBQ place Robert, not bad huh ?

Oh yeah. But it wasn 't some sort of divine revelation or inspiration, after so many years I think that you process the information you are receiving so fast without noticing it ( putting together the pieces of the puzzle ) that it does feel like you hear a little voice telling you they are there.