SudburyBasser

That furry wretch bit again today -- though I think LgMouthGambler will appreciate this. Boss called today and said not to come in for work because of an extreme weather alert. Second time this week. So of course I jump in my Jeep and drive across town to the local outdoor store because I had bought a BPS reel for a dedicated crankbait setup and needed a rod. I ended up buying a Compre because my worm and jig rod from that lineup did a fantastic job last summer. Almost bought a Crucial but couldn't justify it at this point. Pass by the counter and see Shimano Caius baitcasters on sale. Yeah, they aren't Chronarchs or Curados but it was a 6.5:1 reel that would do decently as part of a top water setup. Ended up picking that up and a Shimano reel cover (If you're going to be a brand *****, might as well go all the way). Hell, they even slapped on Suffix 832 braid for free. So now I have a reel sitting on my desk which is screaming for a dedicated topwater rod. Guess I'll be going next week to get another Compre. Sigh. On the positive side, I passed by a table of half-price River2Sea and Live Target lures and not buying anything so I suppose I did win...kind of.

Never a trailer. A trailer hook when the spinnerbait comes with it attached. I'm too lazy to take them off...or put them on.

Congrats...and now the hard work begins

Sadly the bait monkey got me again. Coming back from Toronto (saw Soundgarden in concert again!) I finally visited my first Bass Pro Shop on Sunday (it's four hours away from where I live). I didn't need anything. Nothing. An hour and a half later I had a full basket and I hadn't even ventured outside of the fishing section. So much for saving money post-Christmas.

Exactly my thoughts. If you had asked me only a few weeks ago I would have said I wanted to get comfortable with drop shotting. Or Carolina rigs. Or split shots. Or. Or. I catch a lot of fish on crank baits and plastics. Yeah, it would be nice to learn all the other techniques but my time fishing is unfortunately limited because of a short season up here in northern Canada and my brother-in-law's availability (his is the boat) so experimenting/learning heavily just takes time from actual catching. Any learning I do this year will be with the new and first baitcaster I bought. At some point when I get my own boat and decide when I'm fishing perhaps I'll pick up some new techniques.

Ditto...I need a dedicated top water set up!

If you ever read "A Day on the Lake" in Bassmaster you know that when presented with a lake they don't know, even the pros can get skunked pretty easy. That said, on average they'll outfish most amateurs because they spent years learning how to read lakes and make educated guesses of where the fish likely are and what's likely to catch them. That's stuff you can't easily learn given the huge amount of variables that come into play when it comes to competitive fishing -- the need to catch a lot of keeper fish in a short period of time. It's like that show that aired on Spike TV a few years ago when they had amateur athletes competing against retired and current pros. Yeah, you might be able to get one past them but you're going against people who've been doing this professionally for years. The numbers eventually stack up hard against people who haven't put thousands of hours of really hard work into their craft.

As much as Aaron Martins annoyed me with the whining, I do have to give him credit for trying something different with the pilings. Unfortunately it didn't work out so good for him though on the face of it it was a reasonably sound strategy. Heck, I might have done the same.

I had a seagull try and catch a cast lure in mid air but I can't say I've ever seen one go after a top water. I'd hate to try and get that lure unhooked.

I tend to only throw stuff that matches the forage. Though I occasionally have luck with the goofier colours I generally only catch garbage like rock bass on the more "vibrant" colours.

I use the Berkley 50lb as well and never had a problem with it though after watching MLF I'm tempted to try the lip gripper they use.

Good article that one. I always figured you'd have to long-line a crank to truly get it down that deep but then again I rarely fish spots that deep so I never really tried or looked into those lures. Deepest one I have is a Norman DD22 and I've never used it.

Way too many lures to list though I'm most excited for the Vision 110s I picked up and the tonne (or ton for you Yanks) of plastic I somehow bought without even noticing. Also went crazy with the lipless cranks a few weeks ago. Did I also mention the crankbaits? Yeah, bought a bunch of those too. Oh yeah, and the spinnerbaits and jigs. Cripes, I had to buy a new bigger tackle bag just to hold all of it. Also bought my first baitcaster and will be picking up a rod for it next week so there's that as well.

Neither, I save my addiction for lures. If I had answer I'd say reels -- though my maximum for that would probably be $150 (though in practice more likely $100) and I would spend a max of $150 for rods. When (and if) the next promotion comes I'll probably up that but until then I'm satisfied with the quality of the gear I have.

I use 30# Suffix 832 on a Pflueger President and never had a problem though I must admit I have thought I might be overdoing it. Then again, I've also never had the line break either...

I think I remember briefly handling a Clarus the day I was checking out new rods. For some reason I forgot about that rod line. Thanks for the reminder!

I haven't much experience with the Veritas so I won't comment on that but I'm surprised to hear a Compre rod compared to a brick. Then again, with the stuff I was using before I suppose anything would have felt like an upgrade. I may opt for a Sellus for my crankbait set up. I'm still more inclined to go with a Compre but I haven't closed the door on a Sellus either. Depends on money that month.

I was ambivalent on Shimano until I bought a Compre rod last spring and became a convert. I need a new rod for the baitcaster I bought and I'm debating on whether it's going to be another Compre or whether I'll end up with Crucial. Heck, I'm not even opposed to the Sellus line based on what I saw in the store a few weeks ago.

Wind chill is the exact opposite of humidex/humidity index. Just how humidity makes it feel warmer than it actually is, windchill is just an estimation of what it feels like when it's cold and there is a wind. So it could be -30F as the actual temperature but the speed of the wind makes it feel like -40F. I can assure you, on days like this when it's -33F at night, which is already stupid cold, if there is a even a light breeze you will think you were in the deepest of Siberia. You can suffer frostbite on exposed skin in minutes on nights like those.

It's -22F up here in northern Canada at the moment (before windchill is factored in, overnight lows were -33F before windchill). Almost every day this week I have to go in early for meetings -- the joys of being lower level management -- and bass doesn't open until June 22. I can assure you, I know exactly how you feel.

Cool, thanks for the info. I guess I'm good with braid after all. My thanks!

As someone who pretty much only fishes northern Ontario waters I'll have to give that a shot.

You notice any real issues when using braid? I'm putting together a dedicated crankbait set up and I've been going back and forth on whether I want to go with braid for FC on the reel. The standard advice is go FC because it tends to sink a little better but I'm wondering if there really is an problem if I go braid. Truthfully, I've never trusted FC -- outside of plastics -- as much as I do braid.

This was my number one bad habit back in the days when I had a full head of hair and no paunch. I wanted to murder my brain for dipping that rod tip so many times. I have no idea why I did it, but I did. And for some reason I even did it once this past summer when I was bonefishing in the Carribean. Lost a prize bonefish that way, though I did redeem myself later with an even bigger one.

True what ww2farmer says, and it's also often in error to say that there is one spawn period. It's hardly unknown for there to be one spawn and then 30 days later to see another round of spawning, and then even after that another month goes by with yet another spawn -- usually loosely tied with a full moon. So you could theoretically see multiple pre-spawns, spawns and post-spawns, though in differing amounts. I claim to be no expert -- this far up north we generally have one spawn -- but it's a complicated question to answer. There are multiple factors to consider.