Scott F

Can you explain what would cause braid that has soaked up water to sink? A sponge filled with water still floats. Is the water held by the line heavier than the rest of the water? Does water cause the Spectra fibers in the line to lose it's buoyant properties?

When I'm talking about jerkbaits, I'm using suspending hard baits especially Lucky Craft Pointers or Rapala X-Raps. Where to look for them again depends on water temp. If you are fishing water colder than 50, I can't help because I wait until the surface temps hit 50. Then I'd try shallow flats near the deeper pools if you are river fishing.

Applying human logic to fish in my opinion is a mistake. You can reason that if you saw a line attached to your food you would think something was wrong and avoid it. Fish are not smart enough to come to that same conclusion. I've posted this thought before. if they are smart enough to connect fishing line as being bad why is it that they can't see that treble hook doesn't belong? Why can't they figure out that that hunk of wood, metal or plastic isn't real food?

There is no question that there will be more huge bass caught, probably in Japan where a bass that tied the US record was caught just a couple of years ago.

If your spinners are twisting your line, there is something wrong with your spinner. the blade is supposed to spin, not the entire lure.

Yeah, but does dropping a battery to test it really work?

All depends on the water temperature. Where I fish, I don't even bother until the water hits 50 degrees. For me, that's the magic number. Fish can be caught in colder water but it's a lot tougher. At that point they start moving toward their spawning areas. You can catch them on almost anything, but jerkbaits, for me, will out fish anything else by a wide margin. Contrary to what most guys do, I'll also fish lipless crank baits with a fast retrieve. When the water is over 50 they will chase a fast moving bait. You can cover a lot of water to locate fish. Early in the year when the water is still in the lower 50's, I find them schooled up. Catch 1 and don't leave, there are probably a lot more close by.

I've been using nothing but Quantum spinning reels for the last 12 years and could not be happier with the models I have. However, on the new models, they removed a couple of features that I really liked. The old models had a magnetic bail return instead of a spring which always worked perfectly for me. Now they use springs. The other feature they removed which may not be important to you but is to me, is the anti-reverse switch. I often switched the anti-reverse off to back up the bait to attach it to the hook keeper. I use thin braid which can be tough on the hands if you try to pull against the drag, so I just backed up instead of pulling on the line. Can't do that with the new models.

Those guys are playing it up for the cameras. Plus, when you are playing for big money, there is a lot of emotion involved.

I have a personal pontoon that I like a lot. Extremely stable, you can mount a trolling motor and once deflated, easily fits into any vehicle.

It's not any longer a winter than any other year, yet. It's still just the first week of February. It may be more severe than normal, but it could change and return to more normal conditions at any time. It's way too early to say the spawn is going to be affected.

Besides the fact that the authors made a mistake, doesn't the newspaper employ proofreaders or editors?

When I'm fishing, jet skis, loud music, circular saws, leaf blowers, hammering, incessant dog barking, screaming kids, yes, those noises bother me. Braided line going through the guides, no.

I regularly make trips over 300 miles but only when I'm pretty sure I have a good chance of doing well. If I was only going to wet a line and was probably going to get skunked, 30 miles is closer to my limit.

June 1969, I was 14 with my first 20 inch smallmouth.

The bigger screens come in handy when you have sonar plus GPS displayed at the same time or with just GPS you want to see more detail or more of the lake.

If the braid has any color to it, it's coated. As that coating wears off, the coloring can stain your reel.

I agree with this. I frequently fish spinner baits for both large and smallmouth and do quite well. The lakes and rivers I fish do not get much pressure from other bass fishermen. I nearly always use a 3/8 or 1/2 oz white bait with a single Colorado blade. I call them "thumpers". It seems the single Colorado blade styles are out of fashion. Of the hundreds of spinnerbaits at my local Bass Pro, almost none of them are that style. I use them for pike too so I get them from a guy who makes them for me with the closed loop to tie on to for when I use a steel leader.

7 foot medium light spinning rods for smallies for me. I don't believe bronzebacks are spooked by line, but I know they get spooked by seeing me or the boat I'm in. Most of the water where I fish smallmouth is pretty clear. I want to be able to make the longest casts I can so I can stay as far back as I can get. I'd use even longer rods but 7 feet is the longest that will fit in my truck.

Do you want to live in a place with mold? The repairs would be pretty disruptive if you were living there (if you even could live there) while it was being fixed. I can see you don't want to move where your rent will be higher. But your landlord will be putting out big bucks to fix it and his only choice is to get higher rent to cover his costs. I don't think a lawyer is going to help.

A 6 is pretty small. I think it would be tough to throw that on a baitcaster. I use them with a spinning rod. I go with the smaller X-Raps for smallmouth in the spring during prespawn. After caching a few bass that were spiting up tiny minnows, we switched to smaller jerkbaits like the #6 X-Raps and Lucky Craft Pointer 65's. For 3 or 4 days in a row, those little jerkbaits outfished the bigger ones 10 to 1. It pays to have a few in your box for those times they just want something small.

There are a LOT of threads here debating leader or no leader with braid. They are not required. If YOU think it helps, use one. I see no reason to use one for MY fishing so I don't. Since you haven't fished braid before, try it both ways and see what you prefer.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Unless you are a professional, you only need Photoshop Elements, a "lite" version of the program that will do most of what you want it for and costs less than $100

It's tough to ID correctly without a photo. Also, just because the state does not list the species does not mean it does not exist. I catch a lot of pike out of a lake that the state says are not present.