fishballer06

DBombs for flipping. I also like skipping Super Flukes and Senkos.

I know I have over 60 Rapala DT's just sitting brand new in a storage bin at my house. I buy whenever I find a good deal or whenever I can get my hands on a hard to find/discontinued color. If I had to guess, I've got over 200 lures easily still new in box just sitting at home, waiting for me to lose one of the current members of my tackle box lineup.

Another vote for the Shimano Symetre here.

No offense, but if you keep buying multiple cheap reels (sub $50), you'll end up spending as much as or more, than just spending $100-200 for one good reel. You're going to get what you pay for when it comes to baitcasting reels. With that, Shimano, Daiwa, Abu, and Lews all make a decent reel in the $100-200 range.

You'll notice that with everything BPS sells. Their prices on things are generally much higher than other places.

My theory exactly. A fish doesn't know how big it is. It probably only knows "can I, or can't I, get my mouth around that?".

12lb test will work, but I prefer at least 14lb to ensure a good hook set. I'll fish them around wood and rocks and I need more piece of mind for that as well.

Any of you who are wanting to get rid of your DT cranks can send them on over to me!

Ordered a few swim jigs, tungsten weights, and some Rage stuff. Can't wait to see those jigs!

At the price of $69, I'm willing to bet the hen house that the "carbon fiber" that you see is simply a vinyl image wrap, and not true carbon fiber. If I were to be spending $70 on a spinning reel, I'd be getting a Shimano Sahara.

I use 2 different setups: 7' M-F Avid Metanium HG 7:1 15lb. Co-poly 6'5" Gloomis TWR MH-F Scorpion 6:1 40lb. Suffix 832

^^ I agree. I bought one of each color when they came out. Fished them once or twice in the spring for a few casts, and switched to something else. I'm sure they would catch fish if I threw them more often, but I just have too much confidence in my Warts and DT's.

A few years ago, my Aunt and Uncle decided they wanted to build a pond with a pavilion on their farm. They had a freshwater spring that came up in the middle of one of their fields, so this seemed like the perfect source for the water. My father and I being avid fishermen decided to help them with the whole process so that it could become a decent little place to fish. It took a whole summer, but we dug everything out, put in a bunch of structure for the future fish to live in, and then filled it up with water. The following year we stocked it with bluegill, crappie, perch, catfish and bass. Everything we put in there was fairly small, so this would give everything in there a chance to grow and mature. It's been 6-7 years since then and the pond has come along quite nicely. There are lots of little 3-5" bass in there that have come along from successful spawning, and all of the young family members always have a good time bobber fishing and pulling out bluegill and crappie. With that, some of the first bass that we put in there have grown into a nice, hearty size. Back in March, whenever the ice first melted, I caught this fish. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything with me at the time to measure the fish. I did get to take a picture next to my rod for size reference, and I remembered that scar he had on his gill plate. Fast forward to this past weekend, I got back home and was able to fish the pond again. I live about 2.5 hours away, so I don't get back too often. Like most small farm ponds, the water was in full summer swing. Filled with weeds and algae, but loaded with nice fish underneath the surface if you know how to fish such conditions. Not being able to get anything going on a frog or punching a creature, I decided to rig up one of the new Zoom Z Craws on a 1/16oz screw-lock swimbait hook and fish it like a buzzbait. Turns out this was the golden ticket to getting bit. After about a dozen misses from smaller fish too small to get the bait in their mouth, I finally got a big blowup from what I knew was a decent size fish. Reeled it in and had to re-rig my Z Craw because of the bite. Next cast, the same fish blows it up again and missed the bait. Third cast turned out to be a charm. The fish blew up the surface again. I dropped my rod tip to give the fish some slack, waited a second, and then set the hook. Sure enough, I had him this time. I fought him in and picked him up. The very first thing I noticed was the scar in the gill plate. I knew this fish was the same fish I had caught back in the spring right after ice out. I had my tape and scale with me this time, so I wanted to make sure I took the measurements this time. He measured in at 19.5" and weighed in at 3.2 pounds. I'm guessing this fish is a male, judging by the weight of such a long fish. He certainly isn't skinny or looked stunted by any means. Regardless, I was happy to see such a big fish living in our little pond and that my catch & release was working. This fish was once again released back into the waters to be caught again. I look forward to catching this fish again some time and seeing how big he will get. And to compare side by side, here you go. He certainly looks like he got a little longer in the past 5 months.

I use the regular SD Jam knot on all my FC. I've found no reason to go to the double.

Print is a dying form these days. Even newspapers are fading to the way side. Everything is going digital these days.

Your best bet is to go to a local store and try out a right and left handed baitcasting reel. Turn the handle and see what feels most natural. Many folks use a different hand to reel when switching from spinning to casting. Me however, I use all left handed reels.

What kinda rod do you use? Is it an Ugly Stick?! I hear they're the best...

I run a webstore that sells paintball parts and markers. From the backend of the website, I can see the abandoned carts that people make. You would be surprised how many people make up these false carts like that, only to let me down whenever they don't purchase 10+ markers at $1500+ each.

I do this for my rods and reels, but mainly only so if something ever goes missing, I have it documented. And for good measure (and hiding), it's only saved on my work computer. But for tackle, I could never do this. I probably own 4-500 lures just in DT's and Rat-L-Traps. God knows what I have if I counted all my lures and plastics.

Happens all the time around here. Two weeks ago we had a club tournament on one of the local unlimited HP lakes. There was us and two other boats fishing back in this one small cove off the main lake, just fishing and minding our own business. Out of no where, this guy on a jet ski comes back into this cove, does 3 circles around each one of our boats at only about 25-30 yards away, and then sped off back onto the main lake. Some people just get off on ruining other people's good time.

I've got one of my Chronarch's rigged up with the 8 carrier 40#. It's worked great for me. I've also been very impressed with the color retention too.

The fountain is to add oxygen into the water, which is better for all living organism's in the water. Why it shuts the bite off, I do not know.

I only use a trailer hook on my buzzbaits whenever there isn't much surface vegetation (i.e. open water, weeds are submerged). With that, I normally use a 1/0 or 2/0 trailer. The surgical tubing is meant to keep the trailer hook on. To use it, slip it over the eye of the trailer hook. Then, punch the main hook of the buzzbait through that tubing and the eye of the trailer hook. That hook will never come off and the first time you land a nice fish and he only has the trailer hook in him, you'll be glad you're using it. This isn't a buzzbait, but it's the same principle I'm talking about.

I only like the Zman one's. I've had issues with other brands, which are forced to change how the blade is attached to the head due to patent designs. More specifically, I really only use the new Project Z and the TW Customz one's. I prefer these two styles the most because they have the new fastash clip (which I trust and like much more), and they have a good trailer keeper on them as well. When throwing them, I prefer to either use braid with a FC leader, or if I'm using straight FC, use at least 14lb test. If you go any lighter than that, you will have issues driving the hook home and keeping fish hooked.

My tournament partner has been throwing those Havoc Sick Fish for a while. He finally caught his first one on one Tuesday night. Oddly enough, it was about the same size as your fish.