Raul

The one thing I love about the full moon is that I can actually see to where I 'm casting ........ instead of trying to figure it out, I ain 't Yoda ya know.

Oh boy ! the BaitMonkey is gonnna be all over you when it reads this. ;D BTW, welcome to the forum ! Down here it 's warmy 90°F ..... almost purrrfect.

Yo dude ! don 't cha know that Xmas season is over ? BTW, where are the reindeer ?

There are many jerkbaits from where to choose, still, the Original Rapala floating minnow is the one I 've caught the most fish with out of all the jerkbaits I own, not because it 's the best or greatest, it doesn 't even cast well, it 's just a matter of time, no "newer" bait can contest with a bait you 've been fishing with for more than three decades that still catches fish. BTW, I caught my first 10+ pounder with one.

Anywhere from UL to H in rod power, anywhere from 6 to 17 lb test, reels: spinning or baitcasting. Prutty specific ain 't it ?

Friggin ' awsom !

Very cool !

In other words: USE THE FORCE LUKE !

My old Abus XLT Plus and Black Max have a flipping switch, in the 2 + decades I 've had them I think I 've used the switch maybe 20 times.

Like in everything ......... it depends greatly on where and what you pretend to fish, I agree that with topwaters, buzzbaits and jerkbaits rod sensitivity isn 't that important, after all they either run on top or very shallow, but crankbaits ( specially lipped ones ) and spinnerbaits I don 't share that opinon. True you don 't need that great sensitivity when you don 't fish a lot of cover but swimming a crank or spinnerbait maintaining contact with the cover in a place like my home lake and many other lakes I fish and not hanging up without having good rod sensitivity can be a very difficult task to accomplish.

Yeah, right ....... "new" :

Don 't have a favorite, I like all my Shimanos ....... just as I like all my Daiwas.

Rapala Original Minnow size 11.

Hook size selection isn 't that hard, use the biggest hook you can get away with depending upon the length and shape of the worm, 3/0 hooks fit most baits from 4 - 8 inches. Worm weight selection varies depending upon several factors: 1.- Depth you pretend to fish. 2.- Wind speed. 3.- Rate of fall you wish to present. I fish anywhere between a 1/16 oz up to 1 ounce. The most common weights I fish with most of the time are 1/8 th - 1/4 oz.

I catch more 1-2 pound fish with hard swimbaits than bigger fish. There 's something about hard swimbaits having smaller dangling treble hooks ( which most soft swimbaits usually don 't have ) from the bait that makes smaller fish impaling themselves on those hooks a lot easier, all they need to do is to strike the bait, not really mouthing it to get hooked. Or it may be a matter of population, with so many smaller fish hanging around bigger fish don 't stand a chance in getting to the bait before the little guys do. For me hard swimbaits are not such great big fish producers as soft plastic swimbaits.

Red & black -----> pure The DARK SIDE is shhhhhhtrooooonnnggg in you.

Don 't have many fishing pics I can post, actually, my camera has a lifelong ban from my boat ...... I 'm positive it 's jinxed . When it comes along I don 't catch anything worth taking a picture of >, when it doesn 't come along I do much better, and then don 't have a camera to take pics to show how I did that day. That 's my story and I 'm sticking to it.

Reel junkie .......... that gotta be me ! Back in the old days not many reels had bearings all over the reel like now, most reels only had a couple of bearings and that was it, lots of bushings or in other cases like you pointed out, the only thing between two pieces of metal was grease, in some cases you can slip in a bushing or a shim between the pieces, in other cases the tolerance is infimal and you can 't slip in anything except for lubricant. You got a pretty nice reel there after all that work you put into it.

Just be shure before you dump anything in your lake that it 's not illegal. Some lakes or waterways do have restrictions.

My favorite is the Megabass Pop Max. Why ? you kidding me ?!? if you 've ever seen one in the flesh you will see why it 's my favorite. But I have to admit, pricewise is not for everyone, performance wise it 's not "better" than other ones available, just another tool in the box, I still pop with those over 2 decades old Hula Poppers ( which only proves that bass don 't change much over the years ). Skitter pops are also good, ( the kool thing is that there are bigger saltwater versions vailable ). Chug bugs are good, more discrete and stealthy when bass are loud popper shy. In other words, all of them are different, all are good. It 's not the wand but the magician.

That 's the whole point, why spend your money in something that can break when for the same ammount of money you can get something you know it 's not going to break ? 75 dollars are 75 dollars, with that money you can get an aluminum frame reel you know it 's not going to break. In Mexico we have a say: "El que con atole se quema hasta al jocoque le sopla" The transaltion is: if you get burned with atole you will even blow at jocoque. To make it clear.- "atole" is a bevarage prepared with corn flour and milk, served hot, the catch is, atole because of the composition gets extremely hot and doesn 't give away any steam, you take a sip of an atole cup and you get a mouth burn that you will never forget. Jocoque is the name given in Mexico to yoghurt, yoghurt is obviously served cold and obviously doesn 't give away steam either, both are served in cups, but yoghurt and jocoque look exactly the same, white and creamy so you can 't distinguish between both. If you have ever had you mouth scalded with atole and they serve you yoghurt the first thing you are going to do as a precautionary measure is to blow to the jocoque to cool it down.

I see I had a diapers in my past, now as I grow older I see diapers in my future ........ pathetic.

Let me translate guys: I won 't have to buy more until my next trip to Mexico when I 'm supposed to go fishing with Raul to Zimapan, after all, I still have to take a flight from LA to León and we still have to depart from Raul 's place for that fishing trip. And since Robert won 't be needing to bring any tackle I 'm pretty shure he will have enough place in his luggage for a few pairs more.

Nope, actually I purchased an Abu Ambassadeur 521 XLT Plus, one of the best purchases I 've ever made, it 's old, quite heavy, nowhere near as sophisticated as modern reels but I bet I can squeeze another 10 years of use and abuse out of it and from his twin brother a Abu Ambassadeur XLT Plus. Back then when dinosaurs roamed the Earth it wasn 't easy for me to purchase Japanese stuff, it was even hard for me to purchase any kind of stuff. Gotta love the Internet.

13.86 lbs, don 't ask for pics, one day SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED trashed a big bunch of pics I had which included my pics of that fish..... she also trashed my replica mount. >