Loop_Dad

I snagged my brother's cheek on the back swing but had no bird nest. Maybe I'm pretty good.

I would wait a few days and try the same bait. The hook won't rust out that quick with modern hooks, so it is your obligation to catch her and get the hook out of her mouth. Make sure to check the knot before you cast. Go get her!

That looks very good. I was thinking the samel thing, except I wanted to use a frog that floats (does rage tail frog floats?), so that I can pause. I ordered some Ribbit floating frog. Hope it has enough floatation.

My 2 cents: 1. Try doing with rod tip down almost to vertical rod up side position if that helps. 2. How does your frog sit on the water? Flat or head up? or something else? 3. Are you possible snapping too slow and/or too soft? I have different kind of frustration which is hook-up ratio. I've been tinkering with modification including double stinger set up, but not yet to find the magic pill yet. When I saw this thread's title, I thought that's what this was about

I have no experience with the reels you mentioned and I am no way reel expert. (declaimer) But with Shimano I have noticed more play on some of them after taken apart and put them back together. What I found was because the locking cover to keep the drive nut from becoming loose can only set to certain angle of the nut, I was setting the nut too loose. I had to find the happy medium between not too tight but not too loose where the locking piece can still go it. Hope this makes sense. I also found it helpful to tighten the drag a bit to close to where you'll be using before finally deciding how tight the drive shaft nut should be. I play with this a bit and all my reels now feel exactly the way I like. Not 100% sure this is the same kind of play you are talking about thou.

cdr, gut hooked dink is one of the worse case scenario as there's not much room in the mouth or gill to work. My figure might not be able to get in there to grab the hook, so I have to turn the hook with needle nose, then pull with needle nose. BTW, I find it is much faster to turn the hook if I cut the line first. (I think the illustrated instruction of how to remove the gut hook says to leave the line attached) Lastly I pinching burbs on worm hook makes it easy to remove hook.

I use rubber net and I fish myself mostly. I don't like the weight of rubber net. I looked into other materials but couldn't find one I like. The cotton nets I saw were all for trout fishing and too small. Also the mesh looked too fine that I might have some hard time getting treble hooks free from the net when it get tangled up. Which one (brand/model) do you use?

Other random idea is use bigger hollow belly swim bait. I use Berkley Power Bait Hollow Belly 6" and throw with MH rods, but this might be out of production. I need to look for something else once my stash is gone. Maybe Yum Money minnow? I see them on ebay cheap. There are some bargains like 2 packs of three 6.5" bait for $9, that's like $1.50 each. Something to think about..Anyway good luck of your hunt!

Thanks Matt for starting this thread. I am kinda guy who likes go fishing but don't get to go out as often as I would like to. So while I now live close to one of the great big bass lake, I don't commit myself throwing swimbaits all day. (Well I only fish half day now, it just too hot in Texas!) While local population here in Austin 'LOVE' senkos, I don't particularly throw them much. I like buzz, frogs, jigs, brush hog (not the baby one), big ribbon tail and soft swimbaits (puddle tails) I usually catch something with chance of big one. That's exactly what I want as a guy who only fish once a week. But now, you are telling this. Yes, please make a post about this. I would love to read it. Thanks!

Knowing Bass: The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish -> This book is selling at Amazon for whopping $370 New ! ($75 used). Do what I did. Borrow from your library. My library didn't have it, but they had a some sort of national search and loan system. I was able to login with my local library card and make a request to get the book from out of states for a small fee. I think it was like $4 or something. Call your librarian to see if your library use that system.

Maybe it is a mute point with the way this thread is going, but since you started by talking about big worm... I throw 11 inch ribbon tail and 3, or even 2 lbers will eat it. I don't think they think those worms are that big, but at least I don't get too many dinks.

I am actually familiar with PWM. It is actually on the control side, not the motor side. That's why I assumed the five speed change is also done in the control side, totally separated from the motor itself. Ok, so those resistors (coils of wires) are meant to be just resistors to adjust current, not meant to be some sort of additional coils to increase/decrease magnetic filed, correct? They just happened to be coiled up right?

Ok, that's interesting. So the motor itself is made for 5 speed. That sounds too complicated. I just assumed the motor itself is the same thing between 5 speed and variable speed, just plain dc motor.

Nice work T_D! It is almost funny you argue with Minn-Kota repair guy and ended up making video to prove your point. But you're right, if the circuit is very simply motor and variable resister connected serial, it is just that simple ohms raw. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Do you have the wiring diagram? (I have feeling you might have ) I am curious now. About 'constant' thing...if I had to guess, someone must have mixed up with constant current and constant voltage somewhere, maybe lost in the translation between engineer and sales person.

T_D, I've read many times that 5 speed Minn-Kota's use same amount of current no matter what the speed is because it control the speed by applying more resistance series to the motor. That's why I bought variable speed. This study totally contradict to those claim. (But I believe this study.)

Thanks, this is a good reminder for me. I don't remember when was the last time I played with pins for my shimanos.

I set (or try to set) it so that when I set hook hard on plastic, I hear just a bit of drag slipping. But I'm like you I hadn't thought too much about it, so I love to hear from others as well. Just this weekend, I failed to set the drag correctly and it was actually locked down (mistake #1). A fish bit my bait close to the boat and in few seconds it was gone. My hook was bent open. The hook was light wired one (mistake #2) It was a good size fish.

Frogs have hair? Sounds like falls faster, total guess.

Yeah, that's what I have exactly. You are still young, so be careful.

Thanks everyone. I failed to mention that I was looking for recommendation of products to buy. I think I'll pick some up from Cabelas.

I hadn't swam much this year, but went enough fishing. I wear T-shirt while I fish. This may me look like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#mediaviewer/File:Skin_tanning.JPG I use sun block, but sometimes when I realize the sun has already burning my arm. Even if I apply it just in time, they wear off in the process of fishing. I bought a one of those long sleeve exercise top, but it feel very warm in Texas summer. I am just wondering what you guys are doing to avoid getting tan on arms.

Power Pro hi-vis Yellow + sharpie.

Find a nice strong stick, wrap the line to it by the reel, point the rod straight to the snag, then walk backwards until the line breaks. This way you are not stressing the rod nor reel. It should break at the knot, or hook bends open, or you get the log from the bottom of the water.

After fishing different waters with your set up over different bottoms, you'll come to learn how they feel like. If you see rock pile on a bank, the chances are the rock pile continue to the water. Cast pass that. First you feel nothing probably when your lure is moving on the muddy bottom. Then you come to the rocky section. If your set up is correct (heavy enough lure + sensitive enough setup, especially line), then you will feel the definite differences. Repeat that over different stuff and you have something to compare when you fish new water. It is harder if the lure is lighter.

Yup, I agree 6'8 MH F sounds good for what you want. I too prefer shorter rods, however Diggy's right the norm these days are over 7'+. One of the benefit of longer rod is, if everything else is equal, you can cast further. I used to prefer longer rods when I was 50/50 bank/boat fishermen.