Felix77

Welcome!

I keep a few steel leaders around when this begins to happen.

I set 2-3 goals every year. Tournaments - Try to catch my limit everytime. At the end of the season I assess how I did against that goal. Reflect on what I could do differently in the future. Finesse Skill (high pressure technique) - The Drop Shot. This year it has been the drop shot. - Highly successful Power Skill (cover water fast technique) - Topwater. - Marginal at best. Didn't seem to be a great topwater season for me. Have caught them on a Sexy Dawg and Buzzbait.

I have a pocket filled with plastics when I am done with a tournament. I do my best to properly dispose of plastics in general but if I lose one because of a snag or otherwise I don't really sweat it. If you did it would drive you nuts and you wouldn't fish those areas as aggressively.

I have a friend who swore the veritas was crap because he broke them on hooksets. Went through two of them ... Then he changed up and broke the other model too. In contrast I have broken two rods so far in 3 years ... One was because I fell on it coming out of a canoe and the other was because I inadvertently closed a door with a rod tip on the other side. Treat your stuff right and it shouldn't break on you. Not saying there aren't defective ones from time to time but IMO they are more exceptions than the rule.

Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm Berkley PowerBait 4" (finesse) and 7" Powerworm (power shot) Strike King Fat Baby Finesse worm Missile Baits Fuse

Rouses Point is one of my all time favorite places to fish. Have a 2 day tournament each year up there and it never disappoints.

Lmao!

X2 on this.

Depends on the day. If they are very aggressive and striking often then I usually toss the lure at least one more time. Otherwise my senko is at the ready for any miss.

The BassPro in Orlando is huge and should cover you for whatever type of fishing you are doing.

1 - Mojo rig with a finesse worm 2 - Buzzbait 3 - swimbait.

I always wished they had a wishlist. BassPro does and I enjoy saving stuff on there for future reference.

I don't go less than 40lb Braid on Baitcaster. No higher than 15lbs for spinning.

Hell YES! Learned a ton fishing tournaments. You won't regret it.

I carry 2 ... a 1.5 and 3 lber. Depends on how windy it is and the depth I am fishing. The line for my 3lb is longer. If I had to choose 1 it would be the 1.5 lb.

I plan to be in Montreal on the 18th and 19th of October and would like to get out for a day of fishing. Any recommendations for charters from members who have fished there? Any members interested in pairing up to fish? Thanks in advance. Tight lines!

Agree 110% I just finished the St Lawrence river and I used a drop shot setup with 15lb Braid and 10lb leader. I also use a 6-8lb leader for regular drop shot. My bubba shot is a baitcaster with 15lb FC. This covers me for all situations.

He offered to lend me one ... Prior to that he was telling me about it and said that it is a discontinued model. I chose not to take him up on it because #1 - I have zero confidence in it considering I have never fished a spoon before and more importantly #2 - I would HATE to lose a lure I cannot replace. Stupid or not that is just me. I chose to work through my tacklebox as mentioned above and learn from the experience. I did order 3 weedless spoons and will be prepared next time. LOL

Thanks for all your feedback ... There were a few items that I did miss #1 - Horny Toad or Rage Frog. Did not have them but they didn't even come to mind. #2 - Swim Jig ... didn't think of that either. #3 - Swimbait fished weightless was something else I didn't think of. All the other suggestions are spot on and what I tried ... Here's a summary 1 - Spinnerbait (Megastrike) - Caught a nice pike on it. Nothing else. 2 - Rage Blade (Chatterbait) - nothing 3 - Flipping a craw/beaver. Had one strike which could have been a bass. Caught another pike. 4 - fluke ... over the slop and into the holes. He even pointed me to the pockets where the missed bass were and they weren't biting it for some reason. 5 - Power Shot rigged with a 7' Powerworm. My ONLY keeper. 6 - Wacky senko. nada. 7 - T-Rigged senko ... fished like the fluke. nada. 8 - Frog - One HUGE blowup. No bites for him or I. 9 - Buzzbait ... Impossible to follow up a buzzbait with another one but I tried. 10 - Mojo rig and finesse worm. I think that just about covers my day. Varied based on the time of day and conditions obviously. He caught 4 on a buzzbait, 2 on a wacky senko and another 6-8 on that spoon. I could/should have fished my swimbaits or tubes weedless but I think I was in awe of the spoon and just did not get there. LOL

The spoon he used looked like a Johnson Silver minnow with a skirt. Similar to the Northland Jaw breaker. I just ordered a few of those. Next time I will be ready!

Please don't take my post as complaining or feeling back boated. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for this particular boater. I just struggled to keep up and truly wanted to learn from the experience if I could. There was no competing with that weedless spoon he was using. I opened up this post to see if there was something I missed or overlooked while in the heat of it.

Just finished a tournament where I was paired with one of the best boaters in my club. His pattern was shallow and he used a buzz bait and weedless spoon to catch them. Frog bite was not on. I don't own a weedless spoon and as fast as he moved I could not keep up. I will share what I did but would like suggestions on how you would fish behind them first.

I had a similar experience with a Silver Max reel. I ended up buying one of the older models from WalMart. I had an issue with it. They asked me to ship it to them and in replace I get the Gen 2 Silver Max. Was not expecting that. I was very much appreciative of that and since then I have stayed loyal to them. You can't beat great customer service.