OCdockskipper

Depends on what shape you are in going in. My brother was 67 when he had his replaced and was shoveling snow 3 days later. He is in excellent shape, still at his high school weight, so he may be the far end of the scale. The longer recoveries from hip replacements happen to those who have let themselves go or are really inactive prior to the surgery. If you fish & hunt now, my bet is that you will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly the rehab goes.

It sounds like the guilt from his personal life affected his professional life. He would then rationalize that he really was a good person, those personal life issues were just an aberration.

P-Line 100% Fluorocarbon in either 8 or 10 lb. test. I tie it with a Crazy Alberto knot. If I am prepping the night before, I'll roll the knot in some super glue. If I am out in the boat, I let it ride bare back

Put a cat under the boat cover.

I caught one bass on a ZMan TRD, color California Craw and noticed something in his gullet. Grabbed the pliers, pulled it out and it was another TRD, color California Craw, in relatively good shape. I'm guessing it had only been inside him for a day or two. Only difference was the jighead, mine was 1/15 oz., while the ingested one was 1/10 oz. (a size I rarely use). Other than that, this dude got tricked by the same bait twice.

Well, then to quote Emily Litella, "Never mind"

Another side benefit of a medium duty spinning rod for those without much experience setting the hook with plastic worms is the hookset. For me, there was a learning curve in being able to effectively set the hook with my off hand (left) when using casting gear, it took me a while to get proficient at it. I used to get bruises in my stomach & rib cage area from jamming the rod butt into myself while trying to do a Chris Lane hookset. Being able to reel down & pop the fish quickly with your dominant hand will increase the number of fish you stick, provided you are using the appropriate light wire hook.

I would think that question would be answered by what parts grew the largest FLMB's - Southern California, Texas & Florida. Southern California has the best environment as far as water quality & temperatures. Never too hot, never too cold, just a 48 week growing season that slows at the end of December & start of January. Lack of predators is a plus with the only negative being less forage available. When forage is added (rainbow trout, kokanee salmon), Bass of all types will grow larger in Southern California than anywhere else. Texas & Florida have the natural forage in their lakes to grow big NLMB's, but do experience some extremes in weather that can slow down the growth or stress the fish to shorten its life. other than that, they are tops. In my opinion, the easiest place to go to catch a bass over 10lbs (either NLMB or FLMB) in the USA is Florida. However, the best place to go to catch a bass over 7 lbs is Texas. You'll notice that most years on the Elite series, the largest bass of the year gets caught in Florida, but the biggest 4 day totals come from Texas. The toughest place of the 3 to catch a 10lb bass is California, but there is a good chance that if you do, it will be the largest.

Once I learned the difference between what structure & cover feels like compared to a bite, I moved away from heavier weights with my Texas rig setups. Unless I need the power to pull a fish out of cover or am using a larger, heavy bait, typically I will use a 1/8th oz weight on a medium spinning outfit spooled with 10lb Nanofil & an 8lb fluorocarbon leader. Works real well with 4" worms or thinner plastics like Roboworms.

Ironically, I caught a bass this morning that had a wound in the same place, although it was slightly different. Instead of a long slash mark, it was a shorter, wider cut and some of the flesh was exposed, hanging out. Other than that wound, the fish was very healthy & strong. I felt bad not being able to do anything to help her. Am I correct in assuming that if I played amateur surgeon and tried to stitch the wound up with some braid that most likely, I would have hurt her more in the long run than just letting nature run its course?

I give up, how much?

All they need to do is have someone on the bow foul hook a 15lb channel catfish. Those things pull so hard it would free the boat instantly.

Expect huge weights, the winner will probably be over 30 lbs per day. Some guys expected to do well are Rick Clunn, Brett Preuett and Rick Morris. Rumor is they will let some of the anglers who defected over to MLF fish this tourney because it will be so good, so KVD, Wheeler & Jordan Lee would also be good picks.

We could test it a new wake bait against one of these two I bought these back in the late 70's and have only changed the hooks & skirts. They are the wooden models and while they don't appear as slick as the newer wake baits, they can devastating in the water. It definitely shows these fish something they have never seen before.

That fish had spent his life drinking too many soda's, got a bunch of kidney stones to the point he actually had to have his kidney removed. The operation was 2 weeks ago, performed by a sturgeon. You caught him during his rehab.

That only applies to states on the East Coast or Gulf of Mexico. Washington, Oregon & California really don't have weather disasters caused by the Pacific Ocean. Our disasters are caused by knuckleheads who live here.

I've written this before, but I have to ease up on my casts in order to not throw them too far. If I go 100% for distance, my lure typically circles the globe and ends up hitting me in the back of the head.

Sounds like fun After working various retail jobs through high school & college (McDonalds, Kmart, Dominos Pizza), I got my first supervisory position upon graduation, handling inventory for a floor covering company and responsible for a handful of warehouse guys. They weren't bad employees, just very young and used to their old boss being a friend more than a supervisor. Less than a month into the job, 2 of the guys are screwing around on the forklift while I am inside the office, one driving while the other holds onto the carpet pole over his head, dragging him around as if he was skiing. The pole twists off the forklift, comes down on the kids head and literally cracks his skull. I get to learn how to deal with OSHA, how to give depositions in a lawsuit against the forklift manufacturer and how to tell a mom that her son will never be able to join the Air Force like he had wanted to. Made me realize early on that I prefer not to have any employees that I become responsible for & to.

I would suggest that no one is calling you a liar, rather they think you are mistaken. If you sincerely believe you are casting that far and it turns out to be incorrect, that is an error, not a lie.

We all know that the Dancing Eel and Banjo Minnow will outfish the helicopter lure...at least in waters outside of Florida.

I agree with your points, I should have used the word "dominant" instead of "strong" because the idea I was getting at was about co-ordination. My left arm/hand is not weak, but is not near as coordinated as my right. I know that is not the case with everyone, there are many people who are amazingly coordinated with both arms/hands, I'm just not one of them. Think of that Zona episode where he throws the marker buoy with his left hand ?. That's me as well.

The only rationalization I could come up with using your strong arm to hold spinning rods and off hand to hold casting rods (after the cast) was the differences in how the combos are used in freshwater. Most fish fighting and lure manipulation with a spinning combo is done with the rod, the reel is just collecting & holding the line. Therefore, it makes sense that your strong arm is doing the work. With a casting combo, you are often using the reel to manipulate the bait (think moving baits, stop, start, speed up) or trying to winch a fish out of cover, so using your strong arm (hand) to reel seems appropriate. Where this doesn't apply is when using casting gear for jerkbaits or when setting the hook with jigs or plastics. One would think the stronger arm would be better suited for these tasks.

For the past 50 plus years, I have always cast with my right hand when using either casting or spinning gear (I'm right handed). However, with the spinning gear, I keep the rod in my right hand and reel with my left hand while with casting gear, I switch the rod to my left hand and reel with my right. Never thought much about it. Well, about a week ago, I was out fishing with a guy who was pretty proficient. At one point, I was throwing a Ned rig & he said to me "Oh, your a lefty?". I didn't understand the question, so he showed me that he (also right handed) casts his spinning rod with his right hand, then switches it over to his left hand in order to reel with his right hand. While I never really paid attention to others, I don't recall ever seeing someone do that with spinning gear before, cast & then switch it over like a baitcasting combo. I have seen people like Ott DeFoe & other pros teach themselves with casting gear to cast right handed and then reel left handed in order to not be changing hands, but always looked a that as a non-typical skill. I recall having been taught to cast with the handle facing up, so it was therefore necessary to change the rod to the left hand to reel. So which way is the "traditional way" for spinning gear?

When I was younger, fishing from shore, casting distance was a big deal. It always seemed like the target was just out of reach. Once I got in a boat (any boat), it became less of a concern - I could just move the boat closer to the target. There are exceptions (boiling fish, deep crankbaits), but having spent the last decade fishing a 12 ft deep lake with no shad for the bass to boil under, I don't think about it. To answer the OP actual question, if you put 75 - 100 yards on, you will be good.

A couple of years back I had purchased a pair of Pro Qualifier 2's and initially thought they were a good deal. Then after use and comparing them head to head with a Revo S, my initial enthusiasm waned. Especially with lighter baits, the Revo S is heads & tails better. I can't speak for the Revo X, for I haven't used it. I own a few BPS branded reels, including Carbonlite 2 spinning reels and a 5 year old JM baitcaster. After years of comparison, I believe that BPS falls short on their reels compared to Shimano, Diawa, Abu Garcia, etc. However, that doesn't necessarily carry over to their rods. Two of my favorite rods are the BPS Crankin' stick and the Carbonlite 2.0 spinning rods. Maybe it is due to the inherent differences in the technologies used to build a reel versus those used to build a rod. Whatever the case, I have now chosen to match the BPS rods I own the other brand reels.