Wayne P.

IMPY03, good catch, that group of 3#-7# bass I had located must have dispersed or just were not biting. My total catch for yesterday was 24 less than the two weeks ago. It looks like the tropical storm is going to stay South.

I use about 1/2 spool of mono for backing on spinning gear, baitcasting gear, and spincasting gear. For bass fishing, the rest of the spool of super line is enough and you get several line changes with each spool purchase. Any super line is better than any mono as far as manageability.

IMPY03, yes I'm going tomorrow. There might be some dampness by week's end with the tropical storm headed this way. I'll probably go to Hunting Run Wednesday or Thursday.

You may have more of an equipment problem than a hook problem. What is your line size/type and rod rating?

I do that to most of my Pop-R's to get a non-POP when worked. It ends up looking somewhat like the Japanese poppers. I file the lower part until it is about the same as the sides. It is more of a spit instead of a pop which closely resembles the actual sound of baitfish on the surface trying to escape from feeding bass.

My father used to use them before I started going to school. He used a metal casting rod, a direct drive casting reel, and black braided line. The colors he had were white with a red head and green frog. I am 65 years old now.

5 pounds, 8 ounces, Smith Mountain Lake, Va.

Floating Frog: Snagproof, Spro, etc. Color unimportant

I know of the knot, have seen it tied about 45 years ago, but in bass fishing its about a useful as a hangman's noose.

jbrwr, I have suggested this before for other projects. There is an easy test to help you judge whether or not to install a raised deck. Put your boat on the water, wear something you don't mind getting wet. Stand on the top of the middle tank seat and move from side to side, do the same on the back tank seat, and the front bow seat. If you are comfortable with the stabilbiy it MAY be OK. Do some similated violent hook sets in the direction you will be facing when fishing. If you plan on having another angler fishing with you, invite them to participate in the test with both of you standing on the tanks seats. Wear your life jacket.

Those moguls are a piece of cake compared to the ones that are at Killington Bear Mountain Outerlimits

I use the uni for all applications, sometimes I'll use a palomar for Tx rigging to have a minimum size knot for the sinker to hit against to lessen the possible damage. When I use tunsten weights Tx rigging, I'll snell the hook with a uni knot.

I had one that I bought in 1972 and sold it last year. The only decking I installed was a small one on the bow at gunnel level to mount a foot controlled trolling motor and sonar units. I did put a sheet aluminum floor attached to the ribs between the middle seat and front seat to have a flat place to use the foot control. The rest of the floor, I just glued boat carpet on to lessen the noise factor. I mounted the seats to the middle and rear tank seats. I was standing up fishing one time at a timber filled lake, flipping some stumps, and bumped into a stump, fell out, lost my glasses, had to drive home half blind. Now I carry an extra pair of glasses in all my vehicles, LOL Low is the way to go.

If you need to fish fast or real deep they (Wild Eye Swim Shad ) are better than most any other swimbait. They are one of the top producers for deep fish at Lake Fork. They are also a top producer for saltwater fishing just for those reasons. Each model of swimbaits marketed has their best performance for a certain application, just purchase the one that suits the presentation you seek to employ.

I'll make the decision easy for you. Go to a tackle shop and take all of the colors they have in stock and line them up. Back away about the length of the longest cast you can make. Whichever color you can see the best is the one you want. The fish can't see what color they are so to them it doesn't make any difference.

No foregrip is more beneficial than a split grip for bite detection. The forefinger can be placed againt the blank while retrieving and offer more leverage when setting the hook.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/forgotten_38SW.htm

Each has it's lemons. Some guys switch from MinnKota to MotorGuide because of durability issues and some switch from MotorGuide to MinnKota for the same reason. Neither one is better than the other. It just depends on which one you have when it fails.

The other kid's fish

Sam, I'd be happy to show you where it is. Send me an e-mail and I'll send you a satellite photo with the spot marked. I've done it for several persons. I like to see fisherpersons have the same success as I do. I took two kids out on Smith Mountain Lake today, one caught a largemouth bass that weighed 4-14 and his brother caught a 5-0. My largest catch was a 2# smallmouth. Do yourself a favor, take a kid fishing. purdum43@aol.com NitroMan, some may keep fishing secrets, but I don't. Just read my reports on fishingva.com. I fish the lake like I would any other lake with or without timber.

I got some advice for you. Don't get a fishtank of that size and defininatly don't put it on carpet or upstairs. My last one was 30 gals. When I came home one day the fish were laying on the carpet, the carpet was stained with the colored pebbles, and the front panel was in a 1000 pieces. It took several visits by Service Master to get most of the color out of the carpet, but some they never could-replaced it with a laminated floor. Fish tanks, no thanks.

I only have 2 medium heavy spinning rods, the rest of my spinning gear is medium or medium light. On those two rigs, I use 30# braid with a 20# fluorocarbon leader.

Thats a good observation. The lack of buttons means you will have to scroll thru more menu items for each task. The more buttons, the more short cuts you have.

The Humminbird has a 240 verticle pixel display and the Lowrance has a 320 verticle pixel display so the Lowrance has a better resolution screen. The Humminbird is 1600 watts and the Lowrance is 1500 watts. Not much difference. In performace though the Lowance is better, I haven't seen a valid reason for the performance difference but when verticle fishing and your lure needs to be seen, the Lowrance outperforms the Humminbird regardless of the price range.

For me it depends on the potential largest bass likely to be caught when rigging it Tx style. I use anywhere from 3/0 to 5/0 in the Gammy offset round bend. For weedless wacky rigging, I use a 3/0 Octopus hook