OCdockskipper

Are you saying there is no difference between Elasticel (sp?) and the plastic used by other manufacturers? I believe there is, enough to make the Ned rig different. Kind of like the Big O balsa crank baits being different than other plugs that were around when it came out.

Relax Ajay, just because a Sox fan made a claim he can't back up doesn't make the discussion serious or judgmental. If you don't want to participate, that is fine, but don't wave the political/religious flag in order to get a moderator to shut down the discussion. Deak, you could have just said your claim was an opinion. As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, just not your own facts. The fact that Sosa & Bonds failed drug tests does not relieve the other players (Ortiz & Sosa included) of their guilt. However, for you to include Pujols in that list with no evidence that he ever took PED's shows the danger of making wild claims based on opinion. You are painting with a broad brush in an apparent effort to support a team you root for. The fact is the 2004 Red Sox won that title with two players who tested positive for steroids in 2003 and were not punished the following year for cheating. The fact that 100 other players also cheated with no punishment does not legitimize that title. There were hundreds more who played by the rules and had to compete against those who cheated.

I had the same progression, not using spinning rods for bass fishing until after becoming proficient with a baitcaster. My problem originally was that I had become accustomed to feathering every cast with the baitcaster, so accuracy distance-wise was never dictated by changing how hard of a cast I made. I eventually solved it by choosing spinning reels with shorter necks, which allowed me to feather every cast with my index finger. Once I educated that finger the same way I had educated my thumb, the two became interchangeable.

That is quite a claim. Do you have any legitimate evidence to back it up? Specifically, who were the "roiders" on the each World Series champion for the past 25 years? For the 2004 champion, we know that Ortiz & Ramirez were guilty. MLB released a list of players who failed drug tests in 2003 and Ortiz & Ramirez were on it. They were allowed to play the entire 2004 season despite that. For any reasonable person, that would make the 2004 title illegitimate. Note that I don't blame those two for cheating, there were indeed a 100 other players who were caught cheating as well in 2003. It is understandable for some players to think they had to cheat as well in order to stay competitive. The fault lies with MLB for not enforcing the rules when they found out who had been cheating. However, that does not release those players from the consequences of their actions. They cheated and any accomplishments made during that time are therefore tainted.

My first "new" rod & reel was a "Fishing Machine" http://www.somefishblog.com/2012/09/the-st-croix-cosmo-fishing-machine.html. I was about 10 years old, saw the commercial for it and since the reel was on top of the rod & not the bottom, I thought it was like all of setups the pro's used. I did catch fish with it, but you darn near wore your arm out trying to reel in Hellbenders & River Runts all morning. I eventually figured out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and begged my mom for a Diawa Millionaire combo the following Christmas. Had that setup for decades until I traded it in at the BPS Spring Fishing event just a few years ago.

Why are you on a diet Scaleface, you look very svelte in your avatar...

If the tide is moving your boat, then the bigger problem is you aren't at DVL, but actually somewhere in the Pacific.

Speaking of having a little fun, I thought MLB voided that 2004 title due to all the steroids being used by Ortiz & Ramirez...

In addition to being less of them, I think BIG fish are tougher to catch because they are big. There are some distinct advantages for a fish when it is able to break line or fight in a manner that its smaller brethren can't. I caught a big catfish on a crankbait this year that had a square bill hanging out of one side of his mouth and a jig on the other. He wasn't so smart, he was just able to continually get away with his errors through brute strength.

Check the box score again. The Cubs are up 2-1, they won the first two games at home. For you Sox fans, winning in the playoffs is when you score more runs than your opponent. Sorry you didn't get to experience that this year...or last year...or the year before that. Oh My. The Giants are more than pesky, they are a team well built for success in the postseason. Plus they have that "win a title every other year" thing going for them this decade. It wouldn't surprise me if they won 3 straight to advance.

That is a cool photo. If you copy & paste it 8 more times, you could change the club insignia to the Yankees...

Well it looks like there is a new ship in Boston harbor. If Ortiz & Pedroia want to go to the World Series this year, maybe they could buy tickets and bring a couple of goats as dates. Wait, would Ortiz get nervous sitting next to someone whose last name begins with PED? Go Cubs!!

As a teenage boy, I thought noting that fish #127 took a dump on my equipment as I was unhooking him was worthwhile to remember... I laugh when I look back at some of the notations I made.

My wife has a shirt that says "I'm not short, I'm fun sized". Not sure where she got it, probably one of those T-shirt sites online.

I think those may be two different crowds. Folks who are comfortable using red line think either the bass don't see red or that it doesn't make a difference. I am a member of the opposite group. I have a hunch that bass do see red, that it can be a trigger, so I like to use red hooks, especially on moving lures. I don't know if it resembles blood, but in the same manner of dipping the tail of a worm in chartreuse dye, it does create a flash of contrasting color that the fish seem to like. I may be wrong about it making a difference, but after all these years it has become a confidence thing, not unlike your preference for a small bit of red in your jigs.

Yeah, he is barely taller than that fish. If he falls overboard during a tournament, he would be disqualified for chumming...

I think if I fished your waters, I would have a different opinion about nets. No toothy critters here, only big catfish that hijack the offerings. Those I land with a pair of grippers. By the time they get to the boat, they are pretty spent - just grip & lift. Largemouth over 4 lbs typically have a big enough mouth to accomidate a lure with treble hooks, your hand and a Big Mac all at the same time. Smallmouth & bass under 4 lbs caught with treble hooks can be landed 2 ways without lipping them or using a net. If your reach around their head and press on both sides (just above the gill plates), it will imobilize them. If the fish's head is too big or if you have Donald Trump hands, the belly lift is the other alternative. This is how you see may of the Elite anglers land big smallmouth. Just make sure to use a finger pressed into the belly to imobilize them. All that said, I didn't take my advice and lipped a small bass with a Pop-R in its mouth earlier this year. Of course, it shook it's head & buried one of the hooks in my thumb between the nail & skin. Dumb move on my part.

TDIL: I believe it is either a marketing slogan - "Teeners Devour Ima Lures" or an old bass fishing axion - "The Dinks Ignore Lizards"

If the Cubs do play the Red Sox, they should hire Bill Buckner to sing the National anthem and have Bucky Dent throw out the first pitch.

I will most likely be in the minority on this, but for bass fishing, I prefer to not use a net (especially if I am by myself). I am not saying that lipping is better than a net, just that I prefer it. I find that large fish are easier to grab at the boat compared to smaller fish. The huge mouth of a hawg is such a large target and typically a large fish is never green by the time she is by the boat. With a smaller fish, you often have to avoid the hook(s), but once they get over 5 lbs, the extra room in that gaping mouth makes it a non issue. I have landed numerous fish over 7 lbs, all by hand on the first pass and have never lost a large one at the boat in over 40 years of fishing. I've lost them away from the boat, but never when they are close enough to grab (or net). I fish from a smaller boat, sitting low to the water, so it is very comfortable & easy to just reach over & lip fish. If I am standing to fish a particular bait, I often sit down after I hook up, so I am in good position to land the fish. It isn't as awkward to grab the fish in this setup compared to what you sometimes see from people standing on the deck of a larger boat, trying to kneel or lie down to get at the fish. In a smaller boat, a net just takes up valuable room & since I don't fish tournaments and release everything I catch, it isn't a big deal if a fish becomes unbuttoned at the boat. Of course, that is easy for me to say since I have never lost one that way...

Laserlures, they were referenced by Big Bait Fishing in a post above along with a link to an article about them. It is interesting how Ike was promoting them, he said they were good lures even without the laser. It sounded like he was hedging his bet, not wanting to go all-in on something that ended up being a bit gimmicky.

So True. Not only does the bass chase it, but the koi in the pond are drawn to it as if it was a glowing pellet (they aren't nearly as aggressive). One of my friends dogs, a 100+lb Anatolian Shepard, literally does laps in his yard trying to chase the light down while his Golden/Irish setter mix doesn't see it at all. He also has a pair of indoor cats and one of them jumps a good 4 feet in the air trying to get at the light when it is shot on the wall. With all that entertainment, I'm surprised my buddy ever leaves the house...

One thing that is different with this fish than those aquarium kept bass is his environment. Being in an outdoor pond, he gets what little weather changes Southern California has as well as our weak excuse for seasonal changes. The pond has 24/7 current and is located in an area that gets more shade than normal, so the water temperature in it is a little lower than local lakes. This seems to make this fish go into fall & winter behavior earlier and spring & summer behavior later. The seasonal behavioral differences are really evident. I have watched my friend toss goldfish into the pond in mid December and the response is so different than just weeks before. The bass will eat 2 or 3 of the goldfish in a less aggressive manner & then ignore any other ones (which sometimes end up in the filter area, where they eat lost koi pellets and get pretty big themselves). Mid-summer, the koi actually will outrun him to chase some of the goldfish, something that is inconceivable if you were to watch the way he banzai's after food right now. He probably has lost some of his "wildness", I would hate to see him back in our lake, swimming up to a dock and waiting for someone to toss him some goldfish or nightcrawlers. However, by not being in an aquarium, he still gives off clues to behavior & abilities that I never had the opportunity to see while out fishing.

A buddy of mine has a koi pond in which he added a keeper bass to a few years ago. The fish has grown well, is near 4 lbs and and because of the ponds orientation to the sun, is currently in full autumn mode of eating everything he (she) can get his (her) mouth on. Last week, I watched as 10 large goldfish were devoured as soon as they entered the water - the feedbag is on!! So I was over at his place this afternoon and saw something I had never seen before. From inside the house, my friend shot a laser pointer through the slider window onto a rock in the pond in about 6 inches of water. Immediately the bass shot across the pond striking at the red light. The fish didn't just mosey over to inspect the light, it was in full on attack mode splashing water out of the pond. When he moved the light to another position, the bass attacked it there. He only did it for a minute or so, he didn't want the fish to possibly injure itself trying to eat something that wasn't there. I don't think this experience is useful as to lure selection, unless I decided to throw a super miniaturized Ned Rig in red. Also, while this could be useful to help locate fish that are either cruising or spread out on an area like a shallow flat, I think a fish aggressive to show itself like this would also strike most of the presentations we throw. What I did learn is how aggressive a feeding bass can be and that they will often try to eat something before they figure out what it is.

Uh oh, Jax Hubble has gotten A-Jay riled up. That can't be good. I for one imagine A-Jay as bass fishing's version of Bruce Banner, a mild mannered gentleman looking out for the best interests of others...until you get him mad. Jax, you won't like him when he is mad. That aside, I'll answer your questions: 1) I only use lures manufactured by MonkHawg, an LLC based out of Tibet who specializes in hand carved balsa baits. 2) Once water temperatures drop, I prefer purple/pink laminate, for it best represents the Southern Roving Damselfly found on my home lake. 3) Yes, i still throw topwaters, but in the fall, I add a 1 ounce punching bait to the rear treble hook. This give the appearance that the lure is drowning, something bass who watch old Baywatch reruns find irresistible. 4) My name is Stewart Pidasso, but I go by Stu.