Felix77

My flippin' stick has 50lb. braid with a 15lb. FC from time to time.

I am friends with a person who designs and builds blanks. In a session he did at my club's team meeting he discussed this. Most of the items were mentioned already ... here's my 2 cents. 1 - Rods are designed for sensitivity and lure presentation. Not for flipping in bass. 2 - When storing it avoid leaving tension of any kind as much as possible. The line at the tip will weaken - it forms a kink. The bend in the rod will stress the rod unnecessarily. 3 - If you ARE going to flip in a bass momentum is your friend. Reel them in until they are on top and use the momentum to carry them up above the boat line. If you are lifting them up try keeping the rod as parallel as possible to allow most of the rod to take on the force. The higher the tip the more stress on the upper portion of the rod. Hope this helps.

Protein bars, protein shakes and water.

Awesome! I didn't see hooks on the lure but it doesn't make it any less cool.

I just switched back to 15lb Seaguar Abrazx. Like it better than braid.

I ignore any app that tries to tell me when to fish. Seriously ... I use only 3 Accuweather Weather Channel Navionics on my Android

FWIW .... this is what I use as well.

I use megastrike craw scent for my tubes. Dip the tips in a little chartreuse jj's from time to time.

For those of you who fish tournaments from the back of the boat what lures do you use to generally attract bigger fish. Those you have confidence will get you a kicker fish or 2 ... or 3.

Has anyone had a chance to compare chirp sonar vs. traditional 4x for their own purposes. I am not sure it's worth the upgrade fishing from a kayak. Kind of torn ... looking for feedback from the group.

My latest success has been a weightless swimbait. Something like a Swimming Caffeine Shad. I noticed that it needs to be a bit heavy to work. Keitech FAT's work too ... Doesn't work as well with a Zoom Swimming fluke for example.

Maybe he needs to stop tinkering with his swing ... sorry ... wrong sport. He just had a bad season ... nothing more, nothing less. I hope it fueled him for this season. So far ... so good.

I fish from the bank and my kayak way more than a bass boat. Most of what I have learned about bass fishing has come from this site, videos and time on the water. What I have learned I have been able to adapt in all situations.

That hook bend tip seems to be a more and more common thing being pointed out by the pros now. I do it with drop shot hooks and my straight shank hooks on a mojo rig. Never thought about doing it with the shakey head until now. Thanks for the video!

Lately nose hooking has worked better for me. I definitely try both every time I go out to see which they prefer. FWIW ... I always begin nose hooked.

Check your local WalMart ... I just scored a Skeet Reese crankbait rod for $40. Thought it was a mistake but they had them all priced that way. Remembered this post and thought I would share.

When I go pond hopping there is one rod/reel I bring with me and that is a 7' M Spinning. I can do everything with it. When I bring 2 I add a 6'6" MH. My 3rd and final for running around a pond is a 7' M Baitcaster. This is my go 2 Kayak trio FWIW.

nope

Dock fishing as a co angler is tough. To put things in perspective I fished here 2 years ago as well. In that tournament I came in 13th and cashed. All we did were docks. The difference was finding angles to docks that the boater didn't hit and using something different to attract the stragglers. The problem yesterday was the fact that the bite in general was off. I feel your pain buddy. It can get frustrating. I threw everything at them and got nothing. Heading to Massena?

I have learned to never blame the boater unless they are clearly back boating me. That wasn't the case for me. The conditions did put co anglers at a disadvantage because the predominant pattern was docks but in my case we covered a lot of open water and weeds as well. We just didn't get bit. In my case literally. My friend did well. He caught 1 bass. A smallmouth which weighed in at 5.86 lbs. It was enough for lunker and 7th. place. I made him buy me dinner or else he was going to have to walk home.

Feedback and communication is key. As a seller of several reels I try my best to make sure the buyer clearly knows what they are getting and when they will get it. Review the feedback and get comfortable there first ... second ask questions ... If they take the time to answer them your confidence in them will grow before you place your bid. With that said there are some people who are great salesmen so I lean more towards the feedback as my 1st line of defense. One last note I just recalled ... some eBay sites are backed by a business. If that is the case you can even call them to talk about the product. They usually share their information on their posts. Good luck ... Felix

We don't do gifts (my dad and grandfather) but have a call to chat for a bit. My kids got me chocolate ... 70% dark chocolate is where it's at.

I am in tears laughing ... a priceless "d**n spellcheck moment"

really ... really ... stinks ... I have been blessed over the past 4 years. I have had some rough days but never came in without a fish. Yesterday I fished a tournament on Chatauqua Lake and came in with zero bites. Not even of another species (Rock bass, perch or otherwise) For the record my boater ended up with 3 small keepers all on docks and lost another one. So between the 2 of us only 4 bites all day. It was a rough tourney and I wasn't alone with zero catches BUT I can't help but still feel like I could have done something different. Boy it stinks!