JamesD

Depending on your version of 'good' and mine...there may be some differences. My go-to blade is a serrated 1095 CroVan KaBar fullsize knife. I carry a very vintage "All American" gas station knife from the late 60's that's outlived every other big-name brand knife I've ever owned or used. It's A A 41 stainless.... Don't even know if that's still relevant to anything modern either. As far as AMERICAN made blades, of HIGH quality? ... I'd be looking at SOG, Ka Bar, and Cold Steel - You're going to spend some coin (not that I haven't seen some guys here drop $300+ on a st croix rod so that might not be a big deal) on that Cold Steel though. But the Cold Steel blades are worth every penny spent. As far as material? if you go with Stainless, Aus 8 is really good, there are a few variants that are just as good on the open market these days. Spyderco uses VG10 and some of the newer japanese super steels. As does Cold Steel. If you're really interested in blades, and the quality of steel, I could share a LOT of information with you, but I don't know if that would even be relevant to you as a typical consumer? Anyway, yeah, I'd start looking at those companies and see what you find.

X2 on the Power Pro... this stuff is like aircraft cable in 30lb, and is only 8lb mono diameter, and only goes for about $13 at walmart..... it has ZERO elasticity though... I'm currently running 150yds on my Abu 5000

Alright, luckily for you, I have flown with a handgun before. After driving from Jackson, MS to Phoenix, AZ I had to fly home. I flew via Southwest and called long ahead of time and spoke to a Rep about what I needed prior to the flight. As of Sept '10 I had to have the weapon, unloaded, inside a locked hardcase. I used the original case for my XD .45. The magazines must be empty, and NOT inserted into the gun. The ammunition must either be in a separate hardcase, or original packaging. Since I didn't at the time have an empty box for 50+ rounds of ammunition (Two 10's and three 13's) I bought a Plano ammo box from academy for a few dollars. The other stipulation is that the weapon, ammunition, and magazines must be inside locked luggage, preferably hard luggage, but I flew with a zippered back without issue. As long as it can be locked, it is not an issue. When I entered the airport, with my weapon already prepped for travel, locked and so on, I checked in with the ticket counter & informed the girl that I would be flying with a weapon today. She then got another individual, who asked me to show them and went through the security check to make sure it was up to the airline & tsa standards. They gave me two small tags to fill out, one that went on the weapon's case, and another that went in/on my luggage. Afterwards, my bag was put through an exterior metal detector to verify that I wasn't flying with anything other than what I'd already told them. From there, it was loaded onto the plane by one man (at least this guarantee your bag will NOT get lost). They informed me that I would have to retrieve my bag from the Jackson Intl. airport security desk, but it came through the conveyor like any other bag. I walked out, went to my car, loaded my weapon and drove off. Since I was in phoenix and their gunlaws are FANTASTIC I was not concerned about walking into the airport with it in the bag that way. I do not know your local laws, so I don't know how they will feel about that. anyway, Louisiana is one of 25 states that reciprocates the MS Concealed carry permit. You can check http://www.handgunlaw.us/ to check your state permit's reciprocity. LA functions under Napoleonic law. They DO let you carry a weapon in your vehicle, but I've never been stopped in LA and had to explain why I carry, why it's loaded, and so on. Good luck, have fun, and STAY SAFE!

Okay.... so if color isn't THAT important, why are there so many variations? I saw some Zoom Motor oil - chartreuse u tail worms & lizards that looked pretty neat.... They're less than $3 for a 9 count, might give them a shot. Is black really that powerful in the daylight? I thought the idea was to mimic a night-crawler worm? Don't they appear brown/red in the water? ...kinda like scuppnong? I've always heard that black's the best color to use at night. Alright, so don't over think it, and color isn't uber important. Interesting.

Some of you who have read my previous posts/threads may be aware, that I'm going through the world of fishing being self-taught and picking up things from guys i talk to locally. Anyway, my buddy swears by a particular color of zoom baits called Scuppernong. http://zoombait.com/...<!--NoParse1--> to which I've had pretty good success with, I have to admit. The color has caught fish when none of my other colors have. Another guy I've known for the better part of a decade has broken into the tournament end of bass fishing. I had a conversation with him last week, in which he told me to use colors that 'matched the sky'. Basically, what I'm curious about is an explanation to colors for worms, lizards, flukes, and just about any other plastic. I don't know much about it, or what kind of color spectrum to choose. Are the colors dependent on the sky, water, or just on the off chance they stand out in the water? School me, folks.

Power Pro was only $10 at walmart, beat fireline by a couple dollars, and they had the 30lb verson... so I rolled with it. Only had 8lb mono, so I threw 30-50' on there & tied up a nail knot in the center of the spool and rolled my braid on.

Sorry if I mislead you all, I'm well aware I need a mono backer on the spool so it doesn't slip. I may actually end up filling the spool with 125yds braid, and then back filling it with mono anyway. Anywho, I'll swing over to Bass Pro this weekend and check out the Sufix Braid and see how I like compared to the spider wire & fireline. here's some pics for you fella's

How heavily did you use the spiderwire for it to come apart? I haven't had any trouble out of mine yet. I haven't heard much about the Suffix braid. Care to share?

That's something I've considered, I mean, it is after all more cost efficient, I just didn't want to deal with a large knot in the spool hanging things up. I've started fishing off of a dam with heavy current & let the current take line for about a hundred yards the other day.... I was hoping to keep the strength of the braid throughout the entire spool. Got any braid suggestions?

After a hell of a day on the water, I ended up snapping my zebco baicasting rod a few inches above the reel, ended up trading a buddy my 7' ugly stick for a 6'6 Browning aeroglass & cork handle Med/Heavy baitcasting rod & an Abu Garcia 5000 series reel. I think I came out on top of the deal, but now I'm hunting line for it. I've been running what I believe is 65lb test Spider wire on my 5500C and I've been pretty satisfied with it, but now I'm looking for something that will be just as dependable. The trick is that I don't want a half-empty spool of line, I want to fill it, so I need to find a 300yd filler spool (NO KNOTS!!!). Line capacity is as follows: 12@205 14@180 17@130 m/mm 0.30@255 0.35@185 0.40@145 Anyway, I found Berkley Fireline in the 50lb variety in 300yd fillers for around $30, and spider wire in 50lb for about $25. I'm kind of intrigued by Spiderwire's Camo braid after I saw some suffix camo mono at academy today. I'm going to hit up Bass Pro this weekend after payday and see what I can find there, I'm pretty dead set on Braid because it doesn't give me as much trouble as mono when a backlash happens. Any of you have any recommendations that I may have missed in my hunt for line? Oh, and as always, pics:

I'm a springfield fan, but that's simply because I loath the AR/m16 platform. In terms of reliability and performance in day to day 100-600 yard shooting, the Springfield M1A series of rifles surpass the the AR based weapons every time. That's due to their action and how they function though. Now, if you're interested in 1,000+yd shooting, a DPMS, Armalite, or RockRiverArms AR .308 is the way to go. A nice 22 or 24" barrel, a long range optic, match-grade-ammunition, and either a bipod or shooting rest will get you that performance with ease. Now, the M21 can still perform very very well at that distance, but you have already claimed it's out of your price range. A buddy of mine on FSB runs a gun shop and they have an online store. He retails a LOT of stuff, and if you don't see it on the site, call and talk to him. http://www.joeboboutfitters.com/ If you're interested in an AR10 style rifle, and cost affordability, consider building one of your own. You can usually save a few hundred dollars doing this, at least that way you'll stick around the 900-1200 range even with shipping.

throwing a spinner bait with a large willow blade and retrieving through the school of shad Throwing a lipless crank bait that looks like a shad and retrieving the same way Throwing a top water popper with a white/silver underbelly.

Caroline might be an issue, but I don't hear great things about it from friends who live/lived there. Reunion is not an issue at all as I have two well-placed friends employed there. Is Reunion really that good for bass? hmm... I may have to call Scott then. I live in Ridgeland and have been fishing my little spot on the because it takes about 8min to drive there from my house.

That's some great info, thanks for sharing, Quake. I agree, the spools are not nearly as full as I would like them to be. I just haven't bought any line. I see the rationality in that statement though. It makes sense. The Stampede is badly in need of line and is not currently in-use, I will keep the mono on it as a backer/filler when I spool 125yds of the 10lb fireline. Wally World carries it for about $13 after tax. I will likely cut a bit off the shimano & load it with 20lb fireline if the tiny one plays well with it. So, the amount of line I have is what's limiting my casts (on top of having crappy tackle in the first place) ? Thanks, Bob & Michael Also, in reference to the Abu's casting... This is going to come down to either rod action or lure weight, as the reel has been completely gone through. I have previously restored it and reworked both bearings (all two of them lol), and recently went in deeper and ended up doing some polishing work to the internal mechanism. Also, I'ts completely free-spooling, if I loosen the knob any more, it will impact with the manual drag star adjustment knob.

Thanks. That's helpful. The fireline should be a good solution when I get around to it. I believe my 5500C to be an '82 or '84. Do you have any ideas on when it was produced?

Wow, this has gotten a lot more attention than I expected. Okay, firstly let me say, that I understand the importance of accuracy. I truly do. That isn't the issue here, though. This is in response to the same questioned posed on the bronco forum in which I spend most of my online life at... hah anyway, a buddy of mine who does a lot of pond/lake fishing gave me a similar answer in that accuracy is more important than distance. It appears that when I posed the question "what's a GOOD cast", that was interpreted by just about everyone, that I was inquiring towards what makes a good cast a good cast. "let me put it this way, if most of the fish I've caught resided near the shore... I would have caught a FAKWTON of fish this month, last month, and the month before. The reason I ask, is because everywhere I have gone lately, the fish have been well over 40' away from the shore WITH A LOT OF ACTION. Take today for example. I went to a small lake that I'd never fished before with a buddy and we hit it hard. I saw a 4lb bass jump out of the water. And then about 20 2-4lb bass do the same. They were going nuts! But the action was so far away from me that I couldn't reach out & cast over them to retrieve them with my rod & reel. Throwing 3/8 oz spinner with a 7' ugly stuck, on a shimano TX1200 (very old spinner) with like 15lb mono, and I'm falling about 10-12' short of where the action is, not even IN the action. This is why I'm asking. As some of you don't see this as relevant, or maybe even understand... I'm trying to cast over the fish & top water action to retrieve through it. I have had NO luck near shores with worms, top waters, cranks, or spinners. " Most of, or 90% of my fishing is done standing on a shore. The shore in particular is a very shallow area. I have about 120-150 feet from the shore line to the boating channel. The depth of the water from the channel to the shore is about 3-4' deep in varying areas. You can watch the bass feed on the threadfin shad about 60-70' from the shore line. It's a rare occurrence when I can cast out far enough to land a bite. Usually when this happens, it's because I've lucked out and found a school of shad with hungry bass in tow closer to the shore. So it's critical for what I am doing to get more distance in my casts. Now, I don't exactly know what 'load' means in terms of casting and my lure, but I'm presuming this is the curve of the rod as I rare-back and begin my cast. If that is the case, I have great load on my two spinning rods, and not so much on my casting rod. I don't understand why you say 14lb mono is too large for spinning reels? I have an old quantum that dwarfs my shimano, it currently has no line on it and doesn't get used much because the bail does not automatically flip back down when you begin to retrieve. I have to manually close it. The shimano has a fairly 'deep' spool for it's size of reel, and it's one of the larger ones from it's generation. I may have mentioned this in the forum before, but this is a hobby to me. I refuse to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on tackle. That's just silly. If I wanted to spend stupid money on a hobby, I would go back to offroading and repairing/replacing broken junk on my Bronco. I thank you all for your input in telling me to go to 'better' equipment or better line, but I don't see the sense in spending a great deal of money on it. With that said, the tackle/equipment is what I've got, and that isn't going to change. I am interested in buying fireline for my smallest combo (the stampede reel) and testing it that way. Probably with 20lb fireline. And if I like it, I will spool the rest of my reels with it. So, I have included a few pictures to show you what I'm using, maybe this will end the confusion of what rod/reel I have. Most of you are pretty well aware of current market stuff, but since mine is a decade or more older, you may not be as familiar with it. As you see, I use the shimano & ugly stik for spinners and cranks. It works well for that. I use the 5500C for cranks, spinners, and heavier baits as (in my head) it's the strongest combo I have. And the Stampede/IM6 is for great for worms, small spinners, and 1/8-1/4 lipless cranks. I don't own anything larger than 1/2 oz, unless that bigàss crank you see in the picture is 3/4 (I found that one floating on a rocky shore) So most of what I throw is 1/8, 1/4, & 3/8. I have two 1/2 lures that I rarely throw. I hope this sheds some light on what I'm inquiring about and what's going on. I didn't mean for it to turn into something complicated with left-right-upside down replies. Basically, I'm just asking "Hey, why isn't my gear casting as far as other people's gear" if the answer is as simple as "Your gear is old and sucks", well that's just that. And I can live with that.

This is the answer to my question. I see that my casts are falling short. I need to determine if my line, reels, or rods are prohibiting me from making a cast of that distance. I'm aware, I asked for guidance, although I found little guidance in that response. Accuracy is important, but when you're falling short of your mark, there is a reason for it. This sounds like a good idea. Although the only football field I know of is at the local High school. there are lot of public soccer fields in local parks, I could easily measure it with. Thanks for the tip. So you would classify 90' as a decent cast. That's good to know. That virtually answers my question. Being that I fish flats, most of the time, in 4' of water or less primarily using lip-less cranks (Rattle Traps), top water, or spinners (what works in the area I fish primarily), this is good to know. I don't have as big of a problem with accuracy as I do distance. I know where I want to put the lure, and sometimes it falls short. This could be attributed to by either my tackle, or the motion of which I cast. Being self-taught, and having little shown to me, I have been working on the techniques that work best.

the only time I gauge distance in yards is on the shooting range. I find this to be a matter of personal preference, and I prefer feet. if you do not like that I measure in linear feet, it sounds like a personal problem to me. Funn-E.... This is kind of what I'm thinking, but 50-60 yards far exceeds the distance of cast I am getting. Also, nice Fish, Francho... but the sarcasm implied isn't helpful.

I often ponder this question and ask other guys on the water the same thing. How far (in feet) is a good cast? I know this is dependent on rod action, lure weight, line size, and reel size. Some people say 20' - 30', other say about 35'. I average 30-35' (but have gotten upwards of 40' with a 1/2oz lure) with my main spinning combo (Shimano TX 1200 graphite from the 80's) running 14lb mono on a 7' ugly stick. I average over 40' (and have gotten much further with 3/8 spinner) with my Shakespeare Stampede running 6 or 8lb mono on a 6' medium/light IM6 Lightning Rod. And about 25' with my Zebco Red Rhino 6' 2 piece casting rod paired with a very old Abu Garcia 5500C running large braid. (This has improved by 5-15' since I tore it down a 2nd time and went through it, so I guess 30-35' now? Also, it used to cast a LOT further with my 6' Berkley Scout rod that broke) All three do very well with varying size of lures up to 1/2 oz. I don't think I own anything larger than 1/2 ounce. Anyway, all my tackle is old/cheap stuff that I've reconditioned, salvaged, and otherwise made good use of. For a long time I thought I was getting poor distance, until I went out with a friend who's got higher-quality gear and is casting shorter distances with much more force than I am. So, what do you guys consider a 'good' cast?

Two very nice shooters. I love my XD compact/

Thanks for the info, Bud. A friend of mine is meeting me out at Pelahatchie bay friday morning around 5 for some canoe fishing. We're going to have a day or two of much needed rain today & tomorrow (if the forecast is accurate) and hopefully some bites.

Thanks KyleK, but I've seen that vid, and know how to set one up. I'm thinking we need to step up to a larger line. it has a large spool and can hold a great deal of line. I don't think that 12 or 14lb trilene would be an issue. I also noticed, there is no 'click' with the drag as with many other reels. Is this a 'new' thing with current day reels?

Maybe it's our lack of experience with low-profile baitcasters.... Maybe it's the reel itself. Either way, we suffered from backlash hell. She had it lined with 10lb test from academy, it's clear, I'm betting it's either H20 Express or Stren. I have the drag to max, and the adjustment wheel turned d**n near to tight. we've minimized backlashes, although casting has been an issue.

You can't be the only one??

Figured y'all would get a laugh...