Steveo-1969

If you held a gun to my head I'd say the smallmouth is my favorite fish to catch, but any fish mixed with a "stripper" would automatically be moved to the top of the list!! MAKE IT RAIN!!!!!!!!

My suggestion would be to buy a pack and try them. They are definitely sharp! I don't use them day to day because I lose lots of hooks in the snaggy river I fish and they are just too expensive, but I used Trokars on a fishing vacation last summer and I'm going to use them again this year. The only thing I didn't like was I found it very difficult to resharpen them because of the different cutting angles on the point. Maybe I just need more practice though.

I've had a black Carbonlite reel (on a black Carbonlite rod - bought as a combo) for a couple years. I've been using a Curado I for the past couple months. FWIW, if I was going to buy a new reel tomorrow I would get another Curado I, but in my mind you can't go wrong with either one.

X2. It cost me about $1 for the chair leg cap and 20 cents in nickels.

As I don't use expensive lures, this is an easy answer for me. "Not long" ha-ha If I'm bank fishing, I'll give the bow and arrow a couple tries. It's amazing how well this works! If that doesn't work, I walk along the bank and try bow and arrow again. If that doesn't work, then it's pull straight back and break off 96.3% of the time or get it free 3.7% of the time. If I'm wading and the bow and arrow doesn't work, I'll walk to it, reel down and poke it out with the rod tip. (Carefully...) If it's too deep to get to, then pull straight back.

Hey Bear fan, let me help you out! Glenn just posted a great video about the Ned rig the other day. Hopefully this link works. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/ned-rig.html

West "By God" Virginia of course!!!!!!

That's what I was thinking too...

Welcome to BR CeeJay from a fellow West Virginian. I'm in Falling Waters and you mentioned you are near the Shenandoah so we must be fairly close to each other. I get over and fish the Doah near the Millville dam a couple times a year, though I'm primarily fishing the Potomac around Williamsport. I took a 13-year hiatus from fishing and just started again 5 years. I kick myself every day for missing so much fishing but I'm back now and physically addicted.

Heavily sugared? Or plain? Colors? C'mon man, give us more details!!! ha-ha

I'm another one that uses the Trilene knot for everything. Edit: should have mentioned I normally use 5 wraps.

Great idea DVT. I hadn't thought about using a slip bobber, but I'm going to throw a couple with bobber stops in my fishing bag.

It sounds like a 1/16 or 3/32 ounce head will be a good place to start. And I'm going to use a T.R.D. first. Thanks for the replies guys!

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my thread. Each year I pick at least one new bait/technique to try and this year it will be the Ned rig. I'll be honest, I'm concerned about it snagging up so much that I just stop throwing it. I don't throw open hooks very often just for this reason, my go-to's are T-rigged plastics and small skirted jigs. But I want to give it a fair shot.

Thanks for the tip about lighter weight jig head. If you can catch those Susky pigs on this bait then I can catch my little 12 inchers!! ha-ha

Thanks for the article link and the info T9. I was hoping you would chime in on my topic, you are one of our resident Ned rig experts! Great tip for holding the Elaztech on the jig head too, I never would have thought of that.

Thanks Evan T, that's a hawg!

Lots of Ned rig topics lately, but when I searched I couldn't find one that talked about using them in river currents. In the summertime I primarily wade fish shallow sections of a river. Say 1-6 feet deep, current moderate (not super fast or slow). Not much grass or vegetation, mostly chunk size rock on the bottom. I'm going to try the Ned rig this year and I'm wondering if any members have any experience fishing them in shallow rivers and if so, if you have any tips/tricks for me. Thanks.

I use the Berkley braid scissors, $2.99. I have to buy a new one every year because it gets dull but I'm ok with that.

I wear Strike King S11 sunglasses, amber lens. They hurt my head the first couple times I wore them, but now I don't even notice they are on my head. Less than $40.

Short answer - YES!!!!! You already know how fantastic they are and life is too short... ha-ha. I bought my first BC 4 years ago and didn't know what I was doing. Bought a Compre cranking rod for fishing a jig/worm. I know, I know... So then decided to buy a rod specifically to fish jigs/worms but didn't want to break the bank. So I got a Carbonlite 7' MH/F. And was happy with it until I fished with a buddy's higher end rod. SO this winter I bought an NRX 893C rep sample. Why didn't I buy this rod sooner?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Welcome to BR! Are you a Bears fan? Hard to tell, but that's a Bears hat I'm wearing in my avatar pic. BEAR DOWN!!!!!

I've used Power Pro and Sufix 832 and like them both. Currently I have a BC reel with 30# 832 in Ghost color (white) and another with 30# 832 in Neon Lime color. IMO Sufix 832 is a little softer out of the box and requires a shorter break-in period than Power Pro.

I don't have experience with Fireline specifically, but love braid on my spinning reels as well. I would bet only fishing 3 hours a week you won't have to change the line until the braid starts to run low due to breakoffs and retying. Could be years and years. I use a fluoro leader and lose very little braid when I break off and re-tie, only a couple inches. I'm on my second year with same braid on a reel and it has over 500 hours of fishing on it. Other than losing color it still works great.

Sorry if I'm muddying the water for you but I'm going against the grain and saying Abu Orra S over the President. I bought an Orra S (30 size) about 4 years ago, this is the older black/red model and I've beat the crap out of it, never really maintained it, it makes noise when I reel. But the drag is still smooth and it's been a workhorse. 2 years ago I bought a new rod and put a 30 size President on it. Thought it was great, lighter reel than the Orra S and smooth, nice drag. It made some noise when reeling right out of the package but didn't worry about it. Within 4 months (about 200 hours of fishing) the bail stopped working. I didn't contact Pflueger about it or look at getting it fixed because it was "only" a $60 reel. But based on my experience with both reels I will never buy a President again.