Scott F

I disagree with you. If you use braid, you don't use the same hook set you do with mono. If you rip the hooks out or need to use a "whippy" rod you are setting too hard. Ease up. One of the benefits of braid is that you get good hook sets without the huge sweeping motion. That elasticity you like also makes it harder to feel when a fish hits.

Not for me it's not.

Gore-Tex. No, it's not cheap. But think about how much you've spent on all the cheap rain suits you've bought that did not keep you dry and comfortable. Get a good rain suit. You won't be sorry…unless it never rains.

Just seeing what happened to his custom rod was unbelievable.

I think it's amusing what is considered ultra light. I regularly use 8lb Fireline for about 80% of my smallmouth and largemouth fishing mostly on medium and medium light spinning reels. My 1,500 yard spool is getting low so I just bought a 600yd spool of #10 Suffix 832. If they made it in 8lb, I'd have bought that.

http://www.wimp.com/tornadotumbleweeds/

This guy was fishing on his bass boat and his fishing rod took a direct hit. He survived, but check out the damage: http://imgur.com/gallery/F1S8M

A 200 E7 is a 7:1. An E5 would be a 5:1

What bothers you more? That you suck at fishing or that even your wife can tell?

Braid will dig in if you over tighten your drag. If you don't pull the line hard with the reel when you snag, it should not be a problem.

I could have used that reel over the weekend when I was burning a Red Eye shad. My hand was getting tired even with a 7:1 reel. The weeds were shallow and if you slowed down, you were bring back weeds.

There is a lot you can learn about river fishing but the number one thing to look for in smallmouth streams are current breaks. If you only fished current breaks and nothing else, you'd probably have a good day. Smallies will sit on the slow side of the breakline with their nose facing the fast water waiting for the current to bring them their meals. Most of the fish you find will not be huge so you won't need heavy tackle. A medium light spinning rod with 6-8 pound line will work with anything you're likely to catch. Senkos, light jigs with tubes, or grubs, in-line spinners and topwaters will work 90% of the time. Crankbaits for me in small rivers aren't a good choice. They don't work coming straight down stream, get easily snagged in the rocks, and often run deeper than the shallow rivers. They aren't needed.

If you are actually wading and walking over slippery rocks, wading boots will help keep you upright. It's very easy to twist an ankle walking on rocks that aren't easy to see. So ankle support is important. Plus felt soles grip algae covered rocks much better than gym shoes or water shoes. They'll fit better over the neoprene socks on the waders too.

First of all let me say that there are only 2 kinds of waders. Those that leak, and those that are going to leak. Knowing that, getting a pair that have a good warranty is important. For those of us that wear waders a lot, there is only one kind that we consider which is the light weight, stocking foot, breathables. If you will spend a lot of time in cold water, neoprenes are good but, they are murder in warm weather. Rubber boot foot waders are hot and heavy. I own Simms waders which are very good but expensive. If and when I replace them, I will probably buy waders from Cabela's. Cabela's warrantees their house brand clothing for life. Keep the receipt, and if they ever leak (and they will) take them back and get your money back or credit toward a new pair. Stocking foot waders with separate boots are much more comfortable and provide much better ankle support.

According to the St. Croix web site, an Avid spinning and Premier spinning rod with the same specs weigh the same thing. In casting rods, the Premiers and Avids have different handles, even with the bigger handles, the Premiers are only 2 tenths of an ounce heavier. Not much of a difference.

Those are good rods, they'll work just fine.

My wife was looking for work and got a job offer online to work from home. Right away we suspected a scam as almost all work from home jobs online are scams. This one seemed different. They wanted to see what kind of work she could do and for 2 weeks while on probation, they kept giving her projects to work on so they could judge the quality of her work. After 2 weeks, they were going to set up her home office and were going to send her a check to pay for equipment and supplies. Most of the scam work at home jobs want the employee to come up with some money, but they never did. We were skeptical all along but at the same time hoping it was real. The check showed up and her contact wanted her to cash it immediately. The check was from a different state and had the name of a different company than what it should have been plus, the account number and the check routing number were not in the correct places on the check so we knew it was no good. We were careful not to give the new "company" any personal information to protect ourselves so we wouldn't be in any danger of getting ripped off, and we did not try to deposit or cash the check. We did take it to the police but because we did not cash the check, no crime happened so they were not interested in doing anything about the guy who was trying to scam us.

My advise is to fish with other good fishermen. You will learn more faster than any other way. On your own, even if you memorize everything you read, it will take you a while to learn where to fish. Going with someone else who knows where to go will get you catching right away which will give you confidence. Join a fishing club and be active. If you can afford it, hire a guide. Even experienced fishermen will benefit greatly from sharing a boat with another veteran angler.

On a river, a break line is the line where fast moving water touches slower moving water. A rock sitting in current will block the flow of water. There will be a pocket of still water, called an eddy behind the rock. Where the current goes past the rock and the still water behind the rock meet is the break line. In river fishing, this is THE area you look for. Bass will hold on the edge of the still water or eddy, and face into the current waiting for food to flow by. Because break lines are formed by currents, break lines are never on maps. You might figure out where a break line might be by seeing where the current runs past a point.

They aren't that old. At least not by my age. There are Heddon Sonics, lazy Ikes, Abu Reflex spinners, Mepps spinners, sputterbugs and a couple of fly rod poppers probably from the 60's and 70's

I have that too. Sometimes, it's so loud I can't hear the voices in my head.

I make my own stainless steel single strand leaders. They do kink up but when they do, I cut the terminal hardware off and twist up a new piece of wire. It's cheap and easy to do. MUCH cheaper than buying pre-made leaders. I've got some leaders and wire that are 20 yeas old and have never seen one rust. I used titanium for a very short while but although it doesn't kink, it does break. You have to use crimped sleeves which are not very reliable and they hang on weeds pretty easily. Whether steel leaders effect the action of a lure or not doesn't matter to me. I can't afford to lose expensive lures to bite offs not to mention finding it unacceptable to leave lures hanging from a fishes jaw.

You must realize how well sound travels over water. It is very easy to hear conversations across the water. If you and your fishing partner can hear the music, so can a lot of other folks who may not share your taste in music. I listen to a lot of music in my truck to and from the lake and all over but there is a time and place for everything. For me, the lake is is where it gets turned off.

Ever go shopping for fly rods? A good bamboo fly rod can cost 3 times that much.

You can set the GPS for off road navigation. You store a waypoint for your launch location and when you want to return, just set it go to the launch point. It will just point you in a straight line back to the launch. You'll have to have it connected to a power source because the batteries in car units won't power it for long. Car units are also not waterproof so you'll have to protect it from rain and getting wet. It will work fine for what you want to do.