gulfcaptain

Yep, all about the marketing and the freedom to make a choice as to what equipment we choose to fish with. snuffboX has it right, works for him, but to each their own.

Take it those came out a long time back?

Handle length has nothing to do with gear ratio. One turn of the handle is going to turn the spool the stated amount of times, whether it's long or short. Longer handles just gives more torque thus making it easier to reel at the higher speed. And if you have a really low amount of line on your reel, you can't really make long casts. Think the tread started about what each of us thought so there isn't any complaining going on, just opinions in a discussion. To each there own. That's the great part about the market, we each can choose what we like to use.

I like the just turn them off idea. I've never even touched mine. I just set the thing to 0, adjust the tension knob, and off I go.

Simpsons, have to see what happens since they change the couch seen each time. Oh, and Married with Children.

I have a 9yr old now, and once he was good at casting on his own I got him one of BPS IM7 rods(think it's their Tourney Series). It's not too expensive but not a piece of crap either. I put an ABU Cardinal reel on it for him and he loves it. Think the rod was $50 and the reel was $29. Okuma also makes some good spinning reels in the $40-$50 range, I have 2 of them and they are nice and smooth. Use them for dropshot and wacky worming.

got a buddy that runs a charter business out of Destin if you want to drive a bit farther down south. IF so email me and I'll get you the number.

Has anyone thought about after the fact. You hook a 9lb bass on a frog in the weeds and try and turn that handle with 65lb braid as that seems to be the most common(shot in the dark), if you have that drag buttoned I'm thinking there are gonna be some broken rods. Or they are gonna rip the hooks out of the fish because of it's speed. I'm waiting till they make a 2 speed bass reel, one that is 9:1 and then you can push the button and drop down to 3:1 and just turn the handle and winch them in. Until then 7:1 is just fine for me. They may need to put a warning on the side of the box stating you need to wear safety glasses so you don't get pieces of graphite in your eyes from your rod snapping.

yes, that would be the bait fish. Since you are new to boating, there is a learning curve and it can be tough. The hardest part is understanding you electronics. If you use the DSI it makes it a little easier, but if you watch most of the pro's when they are showing you the electronics they have it on the color graph. Understanding how to read this is the hard part. Don't get hung up looking for bait. Also, how deep is this lake? If it's deep and clear, you may need to go deeper. In S.Cal it's not uncommon to fish bass in 40ft of water on clear lakes. But being clear it is going to take some time to warm up as well. You may try looking for stained or slightly dirtier water which will warm faster then clear as will the North side of the lake due to sun exposure. Stained water also may make the fish less spooky. If I were you, take your boat out, take a few markers buoys with you, and pick an area. One of the areas WRB suggested and spend a few hrs just looking with the electronics so you can get a picture in you mind of what the bottom looks like. Look at the shore, is it rocky, steep, does it have a wash that runs into it somewhere, is it clay or shale, does it have a break where it goes from clay to rock?. These can give you an idea to help get a picture of what you're looking at. If you see something of interest throw a buoy or mark it with a waypoint and keep looking. Once you are done go back and fish the spots that you marked. Being clear I would look for steeper banks where the fish can move vertically without having to go to far. And then look in that area. Asking questions and being observant to EVERYTHING will help. Example, are there flocks of coots? Do they stay in one area of the lake and only in one part of the cove. Odds are they found some underwater grass/weeds and are feeding on it. Guess what I'm saying is be observant. When you fished the bank did you see any bluegill? Just keep looking and keep learning, welcome to the world of fishing from a boat. See when you fished from a shore you had to work with what you had, once people get a boat they think it's gonna be easy, nope just got a bit harder because you're mobile, more options, and tend to fish faster, and try to cover more water. Took me a couple years fishing as a charter captain to take my time, read the conditions and the water, and then find the spot I want to fish where the conditions at hand are going to be the most productive and not try and fish a huge area of water. The more time you put in the easier it will be. Just take notes each time you go out and when you catch fish write down all the info, water temp, depth, water color, etc.

I've seen it both ways, local lakes around me some are left to grow and others are blue stoned which turns the water a nice toilet bowl blue. The blue lakes have fish but the ones that have a more natural balance due to the weeds, the lakes are healthy and thriving thus the fishing is better. Bad part, people don't like the weeds because they don't know how to fish them. So it leaves more for me to catch. Sucks when the ones who claim to be the environmentalists do more damage trying to control and eradicate the weeds then just trying to manage them.

fishing in and working in the charter business for more then 20yrs, if you want to use wire, I'm thinking you're fishing with less then 15lb line. I would try a single strand 27lb wire. Use a haywire twist and buy some welded small rings to tie to. I haven't used wire in fresh water, but fishing offshore I started wiring all my surface irons with about an 18" piece of wire. It let the jig swim with a wider kick as well as kept it in the water a bit longer without it skipping out. This added action increased the amount of yellowtail that would come up and hit my jig when they wouldn't hit a jig tied straight to mono. So if you want to experiment give it a shot. If it doesn't work, well you might be out at the most $10.00

you don't need water proof boots, get yourself a pair of water shoes a size bigger or a cheap pair of high top tennis shoes and there you go. The waders I have I got from Cabelas I believe and they are a denier coated material I believe(it's been over 2 yrs sorry) and neoprene feet. I purchased a pair of $12 water shoes from Walmart that have a drawstring lacing you pull to tighten. Use them float tubing and have no issues.

I found a ledge like that where I crushed them on a 5XD. But they weren't there all the time, they used it to push the shad up on then moved back off.

ZhouNi, you say you caught them last year. Okay, look at the area where you caught them, were they shallow, are there any creek channels, deep water access close by? Were they school fish chasing bait or fish on cover? If they were on cover I would bet they just slid out to deeper water. And if the water is warming, the baitfish you're looking for may be up in the shallows and not in deeper water. But to keep it simple, go back and look hard at the areas where you caught them and focus on the deeper structure and cover in those areas.

After years of working on the ocean, you can go cheap and buy often or you can just put down the cash and spend $100-$150 on a good quality set of rain gear that will last. Amazing we will spend hundreds on fishing rods but then go cheap when it comes to apparel. When you buy sunglasses do you buy the $10 set from Walmart or do you spend the $150 or more on quality eye wear? I've had the same set of Grunden's rain gear for 5yrs and it's still going strong. I've found there is only one thing worse then being cold on the water.....being wet and cold.

As per the question, it would be a change in depth, I would consider anything more then 2ft to be a break line. So if you see a point drop from 4ft to 7ft that would be a def break. Weed edges are weed edges and current breaks are current breaks, but they aren't gonna show up on a map as they constantly change.

So from what I can see from both sides, bass will react to a snake and strike it, consume it, but then if they don't like it, regurgitate it. Looks as though both sides have a reasonable case. So it would be a far statement to say that a bass will strike anything it deems possible prey or easy meal, but will spit it out if it's not to it's liking. Hmmm, seems they like snakes as much as crankbaits since they seem to be able to suck them in and spit them out with ease as seen on tv (gotta love Bill Dance). So it would be a reasonable statement to say you could catch a bass on a snake.

I have a body of water where I fish where the bass do the same thing, and all the above ideas are great as well, but I do pretty well fishing a flash mob jr A-Rig and use some of Keitech's 3.5" swing impacts. It may help you get a bigger bit as well as more. Just make sure you have the right amount of hooks as per state regs, I fish 3 with 2 dummy baits since CA only allows 3 hooks.

yeah, I'd say the same thing. If they offered the rebate, they should have given you a copy of the form to send in. When I bought an EXO from BPS it had a mail in rebate for a sweatshirt. They made sure I had the form before they range it up. Go talk to the sales manager of the store, bring in whatever proof you had that there was a rebate and you purchased them during that period and they should give you one. Or call the 800 number and plead your case. They want happy customers so I'm sure they will do everything they can to resolve the situation and make it right.

was this a used reel? If it is and you are going to take it apart, make sure you keep track of each piece and where it went since you say you're new to bait casters. Now if it is a used reel, sounds like the drag is froze up. Open the reel, and the drag washers are located inside the main gear. You will have both metal and fiber washers. Clean and polish the metal washers, these should be stainless.Try and find/order new drag washers for that reel if you can. Be careful not to damage the fiber washers if you don't have replacements, If they are just stuck to the metal and you can pull the drag apart, use some really fine sandpaper or the smoother side of a knife sharpening stone and lightly rub while wet with water. The idea is to knock off any irregular features on the washer. Then, once dry, like Tywithay said, use some drag grease. This would be lightly coating and I mean lightly...like a film of drag grease on the fiber washers only. If you have the metal washers clean and polished, this will solve your problem. If you are worried you might not get it right, I would take it to a service center or shop that does this and pay the $8-15 to have them clean the reel and replace the drag....less any parts they have to add. Hope this helps.

It's just another tool to use. And it's a nice work out as well throwing them all day, waiting for that one bite, watching them follow the bait and then swim away. But it's a presentation that has a time and place. When all the pieces come together you're rewarded for you patience. And besides, it's fun to throw a big swimbait just to see the expressions on peoples face when that ask if that's what you're really fishing with. And once you do catch one on the "big baits" then it just shows you have the patience to stick with it till you do catch one and then you want another one. It's a vicious cycle.

Agree with all of the above. I'm still looking to read and learn more. Always looking to try and piece the puzzle together and take notes of the conditions each time I go. Never be afraid to ask questions. I fish a lot of local park lakes and have no problem asking or just conversing with other anglers. You can learn a lot especially if it's somewhere you haven't fished before. But remember to be respectful and not fish right on top of them.

I use a BPS 7'6"XH bionic blade and it handles the 2-3oz swimbaits really well.

If I break a guide I just take it to a tackle store that does custom rods. This way my guide repair looks just like it did before it broke although it might take a couple weeks to get it back.

I like when someone asks where you caught them or where you were fishing, when you say in the water cause I didn't see any in the trees or on the shore gets a pretty good response. Or open your mouth and point to spots in your mouth and show them where you caught them.....yes, being a smartass is fun at times....and the cat toy trick is pretty good.