Raul

Lets see those Christmas goodies! Again ????

Fishing rod: 300 plus dollars Fishing reel ( Japan model obviously ) : 200+ dollars Bait ( Japanese obviously ): 15+ dollars Seeing the face of your fellow fisherman go like this ----> when you see your gear: PRICELESS

I just cannot help myself when it comes to these baits. Don 't feel bad, you are not alone, I suffer from the same disease, it 's not a jerkbait but look at these puppies: I know, I know they are "glorified" Jitterbugs.........but Jitterbugs have never looked so good ! NUFF SAID.

The answer is obvious........TACKLE !

I got 6 pairs of sox and a wallet ( don 't see what I need a wallet for....it 's always empty ! ) Since the BaitMonkey is by far more reliable than Santa ( or I took Santa 's place for my gifts ) the list is long but distinguished, I celebrated Christmas all month long and treated myself with: 2 Scorpion MG 2 Daiwa Alphas Type F 1 Daiwa Revros 2500 2 Kistler Magnesium TS rods 1 Lucky Craft Amago 1 Gan Craft Jointed Claw 1 Fishh Arrow Monster Jack Jr 2 Megabass Deep X 200 1 Megabass Deep X 100 3 Megabass Type X 4 Megabass Bait X 1 Megabass Griffon SRX 1 Megabass Gatta X Turbuleance 1 Megabass Gatta X Parahatch 2 Megabass Cyclone MRX 2 Imakatsu Javallon 110 2 Imakatsu Javallon 160 1 Imakatsu Magnum Buzzbill Somehow I feel like I 'm missing something in that list. :-/ My wife got 3 pairs of shoes she wanted and a set of pearl jewerly ( neckleace, earrings, ring and bracelet ). Kids got toyz, toyz and more toyz.

Jig n 'pig Capi, the old trusty jig n 'pig.

The old green mean fishing machine was discontinued last year after over a decade of duty, it has been replaced by the new Citica, a reel that offers more features than the old one for the same price.

THE BEST is a highly subjective appreciation so the best soft plastics depends greatly and varies from individual to individual, if yours is big bites good for you, but don 't try to sell me the idea.

Slow week Gman, man, not even the phone rings and that means it 's really sloooow. I should have taken a vacation. :

Look at it this way FOM, the nearest BPS from me is only a 2 hour flight away.......or which is worse, click away.

Pretend you are somewhere else, Mizu no Kokoro, mind as clear as water that can be translated to more earthly terms: free your mind ...... your arse will follow.

It is a physical impossibility for a lake not to have STRUCTURE, it may be devoid of cover but it can never be devoid of structure, poor in structural features yes, no structure ----> IMPOSSIBLE.

OK guys, don 't gather around me and give some breathing space cuz I 'm a celebrity I just caught the new world record bass and I didn 't foul hook it like them Cali guys do, fair and square fight, here she is :

Both may be pure fluorcarbon but like in everything, there are different materials used for different purposes that have different characteristics, leader material is stiffer, tougher, streches less and is more resistant to abrassion than main line material -----> different price. Same thing applies to nylon leader vs nylon main line.

I 'd say: get the largest one you can find, The BaitMonkey will take care of filling it in an eye blink. I should have known that one a long time ago. :

Fish Chris would say that for swimbaiting, I concur, with that line capacity and size you can use rope as line and not suffer even a little bit.

The gear ratio only tells you the ammount of revolutions the spool turns for every revolution of the handle, 6.3:1 means the spool rotates 6.3 times for every turn of the handle, nothing more. Most baitcasters with a 6.2-6.3: 1 gear ratio have a IPT ( inches of line the reel picks up efor every turn of the handle ) of 25"- 30" but there 's huge difference in speed between both, while with one you crankbait may run fine with the other it won 't, or while with one you have to reel in like mad to keep your buzzbait on the surface with the other it 's a piece of cake. So, when you purchase a reel don 't look at the gear ratio as a measure of speed, look at the IPT. "Burner" reels are burners only if they are actually picking up a lot of inches per turn, for example, most burner baitcasters have an IPT of 30", about half of all the spinning reels available in the market are faster than "burner" baitcasters. If you really want to burn baits look for the mid sized spinning reels, 2000-2500 sizes have an IPT of 30"- 33" ( Examples: Sahara 2500 = 30", Symetre 2500 = 31", Stradic 2500 = 33", Regal = 29.5" ).

Again, gear ratio has nothing to do with the speed of the reel, two reels with the same gear ratio can and will in most ocassions have different speed.

It 's not the type of rig Cali, it 's the kind of rod, you need a soft rod to shake the bait without lifting the sinker from the bottom with a fast or extra fast tip for a good lightning fast hookset. It doesn 't have to be a spinning rig, normally on a baitcaster you do not spool in very thin line, besides, most baitcatsers do not handle well thin line, that was until finesse baitcasting reels appeared in the market, reels like the Sol, the Alphas or the Pixy are designed to perform with thin line. I dropshot with a GLoomis CR722 and a Pixy ( one of the rigs I use for crankbaiting also ), a CR722 is a medium power fast action blank, very sensitive and very forgiving, compared to the CR723 it bends like a noodle. GLoomis dropshot rods are spinning rods.

On my last trip my dear friend Pedro broke the positioning tab of my Minnkota Endura TM >. Anybody know where I can get a new tab to replace the broken one ?

1.- Not all cranks react well to high speeds, they roll on one side and do not wobble ------> wasted cast and a missed opportunity. 2.- Long lipped cranks need more torque to dive at the right depth 3.- Try fishing with a high speed reel a long lipped crankbait for an extended period of time, after ten casts it feels like you are reeling in a bucket.

Don 't you think you 've been having enough trouble with the primate as it is now ?.......having him right next your computer is not a smart move my friend, it 's a open invitation to get into more trubble.

The Griffon series catch fish by the truckloads, tons of fish but little fish, my only beef with Griffons is the size, it 's too small to be a good bait for bigger fish. If they manufactured and a larger size ( like 2 or 2 1/2 inches it would be another story ). The Vision 110 and the Flap Slap are killer jerkbaits. The Bait X concept is one of the best Megabass baits IMHO, quickly gaining terrain in my list of favorite cranks. It catches fish when the Shad Rap doesn 't. The Pop Max is my favorite popper. The Type X is a wonderful shallow runner, but it doesn 't catch more fish than Rebel 's Wee Frog, like the Griffon, good numbers bait. But still, what counts is what is behind the handle of the rod.

I do use lure protectors, not to "protect" the lure, to avoid the lures from hooking into stuff they are not supposed to hook to....like my jacket or the straps of the tackle bag. :

Couldn 't have said it better. ;D