hoosierbass07

I think fishing in general is mostly big. I was watching a show/documentary last year on one of the outdoor channels I get on cable and it was about some area in the New England area (if I recall correctly) where people come and fish a certain time of year (I think for trout) and how it brought in millions of dollars in tourist money. When they said how much money fishing brought in to the area I was shocked. Big money. So I think the whole fishing hobby is very big.

I read about strumming the line in an In-Fisherman magazine article and tried that a few times while bank fishing and it did work a few times. It's definitely worth trying in my opinion. I set the rod down and grab the line with my left hand and pull it a little tight but not too tight, enough to make it straight. Then I strum the line like you would do a guitar. It's worked for me the few times I tried it.

I bought a Ride 115 over the winter and have been fishing from it since spring and summer. Over Labor Day weekend I bought another kayak - a sit inside Vapor 10. My Ride 115 is a little over eleven feet long. The Vapor 10 is only ten feet long. I do enjoy fishing from my Ride 115 but that thing is very heavy. I wanted to get the sit-inside Vapor 10 because it only weighs 48 pounds and is a lot easier to throw in the back of the truck. I've used my Vapor 10 the last three weekends and I've noticed a few things - I stay a lot drier in my Vapor 10 than my Ride 115. Launching from the shore seems a lot easier in my Vapor 10 compared to my Ride 115. When I'm paddling around a pond, I've noticed the Vapor 10 front will wobble left and right when I paddle. My Ride 115 does not waddle left and right much. But - Iv'e noticed it seems a lot easier to paddle my that Vapor 10 across a pond than my Ride 115. It must be the shape of the Vapor 10, but that thing glides on the water very nicely. I told my brother, once I can find some nice cushions or another seat for the Vapor 10, that Vapor 10 will be one awesome low cost fishing machine for small ponds. So for me and my fishing I want and need two kayaks - my sit on top and my sit inside. Sit onto for very nice comfort and my sit inside when I want to stay very dry. I will say though, I really enjoy how light my Vapor 10 is. It's so much easier to deal with it might become my favorite but only if I can find a nice seat or some very nice cushions. Sit on tops are ahead when it comes to sitting comfort.

Thanks for the info. I was looking at a repair kit from Harmony but they want around $70.00 for it.

I went kayak fishing Sunday and got three small bass. The largest of those bass were throat hooked. I was using a 3/0 hook with the barb crushed down. I've not hooked a bass in the throat since early summer so I was not expecting it and had my long nose pliers behind me in my tackle bag. So after a minute or two of getting out the pliers and scissors I was able to cut the line and go through the gill to turn the hook on the side and pull it out. Ever since I did it the first time in early spring I'm getting quicker at it. I guess I should always have my scissors and pliers handy even when I don't expect to catch any bass. I really don't know if the bass I've throat hooked and removed the hook from have survived or not. Thankfully all the bass I have throat hooked have been on the small side.

OK, I have a twenty year old Mad River Explorer sixteen foot canoe made out of Royalex. This evening I found rips/tears/cracks in the hull. There are two of them. One about eleven inches long and another about two or three inches long. They are straight line cracks that go all the way through from the outside to inside, like someone cutting paper with a pair of scissors. I'm thinking the cracks are from the extra cold winter we had here and also the gunwales are made out of wood and I have never oiled them. I want to know, how can I repair this? Is it an easy repair or difficult? Do I simply slap some fiberglass on it? Would it be better to find a canoe/kayak shop and see if they repair them? Thanks!

If you put a trolling motor on a kayak (or canoe) and get it registered, do you also have to put a light on it, carry a fire extinguisher and air horn?

I would like to pay a guide to take me fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon down near Orlando some in the next few years. There are two guides I'm looking at. Funny, I remember last year looking at one of their sites and they offered a no fish no pay option but I can't find that now. Now they both want around $520 for a full day of fishing but I don't see the no fish/no pay option. I would rather pay a little more and have a no fish/no pay option. If I'm going to pay $500 or more for a fishing guide/charter I better catch at least one decent sized fish, even if they have to put on scuba gear and dive down and put a fish on my hook!

When you make soft plastics, are the fumes dangerous?

I started using roboworms this spring and have become a fan of them.

Yeah. I've not fished for smallmouth bass yet.

I recently bought Big Bass Magic by Doug Hannon and read something in it last night I found interesting. He talks about mono line and says he likes to camouflage his line with felt markers. He winds all his line up on the reel and paints the line on half the side of the spool with green for clear line and purple or blue for green line. I know there are some companies that offer camo mono line too. And I know some people use a black marker to paint lure end of braid they are using. So what are your opinions on this? I don't hear too many Bass Master pros pushing camo line. I don't even see too many online videos of people using camo line. Could Hannon's general idea have some validity? Instead of one continuous line of clear or green mono you present a broken up patterns that will seem less alarming to the bass. Thoughts?

Are the Smallmouth rods strong enough for Large Mouth bass?

Wow. Cool!

All my spinning reels and one baitcaster have Sufix Elite mono except for one or two that have Stren mono, all in either clear, lo-vis green, hi-vis yellow, and one in hi-vis clear blue. I had fluorocarbon on my new stradic but after a few weeks I ripped it off the reel and put on Sufix Elite mono. I'm into kayak and bank fishing and I want all my reels and line to be multi purpose and I feel mono is the ultimate multi lure line out there. Anyway, I really love that Sufix Elite mono.

I was at the local Gander Mountain this evening and noticed they had in some Fenwick HMX rods. Last winter I bought a Fenwick medium HMG spinning rod and I've come to really enjoy using it. It's light and very nice looking and works good for what I mostly throw, soft plastics. I paid around $100 plus shipping for it online. Anyway, Gander Mountain has the HMX rods around $80.00 I'm in the market for a nice medium heavy spinning rod and also a a nice medium baitcasting rod. I looked at the HMX medium heavy spinning rod and it looked nice. I was wondering if anybody here have used the HMX rods and if they are as good as the HMG rods. So far I've been happy with my HMG rod. I don't fish in heavy weeds or anything, mostly open water bass fishing. I'm wanting to add a medium heavy spinning rod to my collection and I was thinking of going after the St. Croix Mojo bass rod. But if the HMX rod is of decent quality I might consider that one and it's cheaper too - Mojo bass is around $119 and HMX is around $80.00 Thanks!

Do you have an idea what sit on top you want? Yes, sit on tops are fun and usually very stable. My Ride 115 is very solid on the water. They are very fun on the water and great to fish from. The only problem is that sit on tops are usually heavier than sit in kayaks. My Ride 115 weighs 78 pounds and that is a heavy 78 pounds. Right now sit on tops are the most popular and fueling the kayak fishing fad. If you have a way to transport a sit on top then I would recommend that.

You are ranting against location and yet you are posting from southern California? Isn't California one of the best bass states in the U.S. along with Florida? That's like a beautiful wealthy person telling ugly poor that beauty and wealth is not everything in life. Yeah, sure. In my humble opinion - 90% of catching bass is location and time of year.

I read this in one of the Fishing With Confidence books. The author talked about one of the Japanese Bass Master pros and how he had a swimming pool at his home and spent hours painting crankbaits hundreds of different colors and fine tuning them in his pool. I guess after a couple of years of doing that he finally realized all that work and study did not pay off in increased catches and finally stopped all his crankbait experimentations and now only fishes with a two or three different color crankbaits.

I used to want to fish with Shaw Grigsby. Now it's Jimmy Houston.

When I started fishing last year I bought a soft tackle bag and started putting whole bags of soft plastics in it. After a while that thing got super heavy! Then I downsized and only took six packs of soft plastics in it. Then I got a kayak so I started loading up my tackle bag with more soft plastics so I could carry them around with me on the kayak. Now I've realized I hardly dig through my bag and put on different soft plastics. Now I'm switching to put my soft plastics in Flambeau Model 4007 cases. There are six slots in the case. So with two cases that means I will have twelve slots to put in different soft plastics individually. That should be enough. I also have a Plano box with hard baits. So two cases with soft plastics and one case with hard plastics and one small case with hooks and sinkers. Hopefully that will simplify things for me.

This is my second year of fishing in my adult life. I've been buying all the famous fishing books, been watching a lot of the TV shows, been watching a lot of Youtube videos, and been posting on boards and asking questions here on this board. I probably take what they say and then adopt it to my style or keep what they say in mind. For instance, a lot of the books on big bass say they use 20 and 30 pound line. My biggest is 12 pound and I consider that plenty enough. Actually, I consider 10 pound to be heavy line and my main line I use day in and out is 8 pound and six pound. To get right down to it - I have probably learned more from YouTube videos more than anything else. Particularly Nick the Informative Fisherman, and Thundermist Lure Company videos. Another person doing fishing videos I learn from is a guy who's channel is called adamitshelanu. The British Totally Awesome Fishing Show videos are pretty informative too even though they are mostly about British fishing. End the end, I fish my own way and live and learn.

I don't have a problem with people wanting to wear fishing shifts with logos of their favorite fishing equipment. I really like St. Croix rods and wouldn't mind having a St. Croix shirt to wear.

Like the show I watched a few days ago with Roland Martin in an inflatable kayak. He seemed out of place in it. I watched the whole show because he was in a kayak. But the reasons he gave for fishing one simply seemed like talking points a sales man would give.

Good video.