Raul

Who taught me to fish ? in the absolute defintion of the word nobody taught me to fish, none in my family is a fisherman so I didn 't have the benefit of having a dad, grandpaw or an uncle teaching me how to fish. But I can say that reading what JH, RM, BD, RC, DH wrote sure helped me a lot.

That 's what heppens when you move from Chicago to Nashville, in my case ........ you really don 't wanna move from Chicago to where I live. ;D

Last year I gave ( I mean I paid for her ) a body hair laser removal treatment. She 's happy, I 'm happier. Forget about the silky smooth legs ........ not having to shave in the morning with a dull blade is priceless ! How come the first thing they do when they shave their legs and arm pits is grab YOUR good shaving blades ?

Lake Fernando Hiriart Balderrama, better known as Zimapán, was built by daming a canyon in 1995 located in the border of the states of Quer étaro and Hidalgo ( half of the lake belongs to Queretaro, the other half to Hidalgo. Gets it 's common name from the town of Zimapán, Hidalgo near by. The lake is 23 square kilometers in surface and in some places exceeds 600 ft in depth. It 's stocked with carp, tilapia, Florida bass and has a population of native cichilds and catfish that existed previously to the canyon and the Moctezuma river being damed. Built for power generation it gets part of it 's water from rainfall but mainly from water treatment plants from Mexico City. The lake record so far is 11 1/2 pounds, you know that means that nobody has been able to break it but that doesn 't mean there aren 't bigger fish. It has a huge population of bass between 1-2 pounds ( that 's what you catch 95% of the time ) but ocassinally you do catch bigger fish, actually it 's more a matter of luck than anything else, there 's so many small fish that the biguns normally don 't have a chance against them when it comes to chasing and striking a bait. Cover in most of the lake is non existant or very scarce even though at the area of the springs there 's still some standing timber. What works in Zimapan ? anything works, any bait you can think about catches fish. Soft plastics: any soft plastic will land you fish. Prefered rigging methods.- slightly weighted wacky rigs ( split shot above size 5 ), shakey head rigs ( 1/16-1/8 oz ), slightly weighted T-rigs ( 1/8-1/4 oz ), C-rigs, D-shot, Split Shot are the most productive. I don 't advice using heavy weights to sink your baits, the composition is mostly chunk sharp rock and heavier weights hang up too much. Crankbaits: the paradise of the deep diver crankbaiter, for a lake with such steep sloping banks topwaters work very well. Spinnerbaits: Willow leaf spnnerbaits slowly rolled also catch you fish. Jigs: better get some football head jigs otherwise you 'll hang up like mad. Swimbaits: despite of their size swimbaits work, only catch is what you hook the most is fish about the same size of the swimbait. : This is how the lake looks like: A pic of the dam: The half of the lake that belongs to Queretaro ( Tzinbantzá ) is much better developed than the side the belongs to Hidalgo. In the Queretaro side there 's a lodge and a camp where you can stay, there 's a rock paved ramp and places to camp. Do not go or plan a trip during the week, the lake is commercially exploited for tilapia and the fisherman choke it with gill nets, Saturdays and Sundays the lake is gill net free.

Oh man, you really are good ! you should go to vet school and I 'm positive you 'll get as good or even better grades than I did; those powers of observation must make you one hell of a bass fisherman whom I 'd be glad to share my boat with.

Go and sit on the dork side, it 's a dolphin.

It 's a bottlenose dolphin.

Good you pointed that out. X-raps have the reflective surfaces molded on the inside of the lure.

It 's is obvious that the man is a redneck about to speak the famous redneck words: "Hey ya 'll watchis ! ...."

I wouldn 't worry much, for what I know dolphins don 't eat people and they are known for surfing to.

Guys don 't waste your time explaining: It 's like trying to discuss with KVD about spinnerbaits, the man does it all the time so who are we simple earthly mortals to contravene ? Yeah right, like if a 4 pounder were the biggest bass in the planet. :

Yeah, the only small detail everybody seems to forget is that your rod may break if you or the fish apply too much pressure.

Drag pressure listed is not that new, most of the reel manufacturers list the drag pressure of their reels in their website. Most Daiwa BCs list a drag pressure of 8.8 pounds, most Shimano reels list a drag pressure of 10 pounds. That means that the max pressure the drag will achieve with the drag all tightened down is what the manufacturer lists, if the pull of the fish exceeds the drag pressure the reel can apply the line will slip, the catch is, the drag is there to: 1.- Protect the line from breaking 2.- Protect the gearing of the reel 8.8 or 10 lbs doesn 't sound like much, it 's a whole lotta drag in the real world.

What if ...... you are fishing with let 's say 20 lbs test ? that would equal 15 pounds of drag pessure, so unless you are fishing with a reel with at least 15 pounds of drag 90% of the reels of the world won 't cut it.

I go to that lake on a relatively regular basis ( every 1-2 months ), funny you are asking about it, just went this weekend. You mention you live in Central Mexico, Central Mexico where ? South of Queretaro or North of Queretaro ?

The difference between wood Rapalas and other baits is the material they use to "paint" the bait, actually I don 't think it 's even painted in many cases ( in the strict sense of what we call paint ) but covered with some sort of material and then clear coated. You don 't see any kind of spray marks on any Rapala bait hardware. It 's durable like mad, some of my older Rapalas are all scratched up but with a little nail polish they look as good as the day I purchased them.

With the same effort you will make longer casts, but it 's not all in the drilling but also in the depth of the spool. Long time ago Shimano offered the Curado 100/101B in general the spool was the same that the one you find in the CU100DSV, Japan had no Curado but the Scorpion 1000/1001, one of the differences between both was the spool, the Scorpion had a shallower further drilled and lightened spool ( like the one you find in the Chronarch Mg ), the casting difference was quite noticeable. Even between the Curado 100D and the Chronarch Mg the difference ( aside from the Mag frame and the ARBs ) is the spool, you get a little more distance and easiness with the Chronarch than with the Curado and when you are trying to cast a featherweight bait the spool weight makes all the difference in the world.

85% of all my crankbaits are Rapala, when you speak of over 600 cranks, 85% is a lot of cranks and I have them in almost any available color the models is or has been manufactured throughout the years; you know why I have almost every color ? because I LIKE to have them in every color, plain and simple. The color issue is greatly overrated in most instances, location, presentation, depth and built in characteristics ( wobble or wiggle, sound or the lack of it, vibration ) are by far more important than the color of the bait. Choose the color you like or you feel most confident with and fish it. The "wrong" bait in the right hands is going to catch more fish than the "right" bait in the wrong hands.

When I learned to fish with BCs you could choose between righty and righty, well I had to choose righty and learned that way so.... if it ain 't broke why fix it ? : So aside from what 's being mentioned, the Citica 100 also weights a lot less than the 200 size.

Smaller reels have smaller spools, I hate line coiling like if were a darn spring, bigger spools = less coiling, fill 1/2 of the line capacity with EL Cheapo line and the remaining 50% with thinner line ( the line you actually fish with ). Also, smaller reels = smaller drag washers. That 's the reason why I prefer JDM versions with shallow spools.

Quirckier than Lambo 's ?

The Citica 100 is only manufactured in righty, fine for us righty bc guys, but if you prefer leftys ....... you are scrwd.

It 's been several years I 've asked him for a Megabass F366X Cyclone or F566X Bearing Down rod, so far ....... NUTHIN !!!!!!!!! :-[ so -----> Santa can come and kiss my bony arse ! > This year I 'm gonna ask The BaitMokey for the same, I can bet he 's by far more reliable than Santee Klos.

Those calm windless clear blue skies during the spring when temps hit the 110°. And you don 't want the wind blowing a lil bit, better stand the heat than being on the other side of a blow dryer popped on HOT !.