Jelvas

We all know that the good folks at Savage Gear are one night of hard drinkin/weed smokin away of coming out with the 3D Suicide Manatee but man do their baits look cool! Yep! After two ducks, two rats and one bat... i´m gonna get me a couple snakes!

The problem with Portugal at the moment it´s our midfielders! Our coach, Fernando Santos, is very much set on a 4.4.2 tactic, and he has good reasons for that, it was the tactic that gave us the 2016 Euro Cup win, however, for you to have sucess on a 4.2.2 you need the mid fielders to carry the game when transitioning from defense to attack to compensate for the lack of a third men in the front, and our mid fielders shape at the moment is lower than a turtle´s belly! I think that, at the moment, a 4.3.3 may be a better solution! Ronaldo can carry us only so far... Croatia is the oposite, you look at that mid field and see that triangle Rakitic/Brozovic/Modric.... good God all mighty! It was allready a real pain in the ### to eliminate them at the Euro 2016, i honestly believe they can go far. I honestly don´t buy on that "poor coaching" idea for explaning Messi´s disappearing! Sampaoli allready proved itsealf as a good coach, just see what he did with Chile, the problem is that Messi needs a bunch of great players around him to shine at is full potencial, is best seasons on Barcelona were the ones where he had Xavi, Iniesta and David Villa around him. That´s the big diference between him and Ronaldo! Ronaldo started at Sporting... and becamed their best player, then he went to Manchester United... and becamed their best player, then he went to Real Madrid and guess what.... e becamed their best player! and during that time he has been Portugal´s best player, i mean, the men allready has 84 goals for the national team, he just tied Puskas has the second best scorer of all time for national teams and i have very little doubt that he is going to catch Ali Daei at the first position! My point is, the man is a machine! And no mather where and who is he playing with he allways delivers, now Messi on the other hand... As for Neymar... well, the only thing i´m going to say is, the day that he starts caring about playing and not faking faults all the time as much as he cares about is hair... he can then became a real star, the talent is there, the atittude not so much...

I´m European so.... yeah, I like football (sorry, i absolutely refuse to call it soccer )! Portugal is well positioned to pass (1 win and 1 draw), but i´m not very confident for the rest of the Cup, the team is playing not so good, highly depending on Ronaldo who is absolutely on fire, he scored all of our goals so far. So far the teams that impressed me the most are Mexico (great game against Germany), Croatia (Modric is in a monstrous shape) and Russia that has the benefit of being the home team. The biggest disapointments, for me, so far are definitly Argentina ( a shadow of the team from 4 years ago), Germany (yeah, it´s well positioned to pass but i was expeting much more from them) and Brasil (same as Germany, well positioned but not showing anything special). Best players so far? Ronaldo and Modric by a country mile! Biggest disapointment? Messi! He just can´t play at the same level he plays in Barcelona when is playing for Argentina, never have, never will....

My cousin/tournament partner still has is Calais DC. All scratched and beated up but the DC unit still works like in the day he bought it... pretty reliable system.

This one was the first that came in to my mind when i read the title! It´s one awesome rod, super light and very sensitive. I often pair mine with my Aldebaran, the entire combo weights +- 8oz... super fun to fish with!

Wait no more... (Picture from the net, not mine)

-Feeling a "bite", procede to execute a hookset so artisticly perfect that a picture of it should be in exibition on the Louvre... just to find out it was a tree branch! -Wind!!!! -Taking that ridiculous expensive new bait from the package, tie it to your line, cut the "tag", trow the ridiculous expensive new bait to the water next to the boat, pick up the rod and go for the cast... just to find out that you just cutted the main line instead of the tag by mistake and your ridiculous expensive new bait is now resting forever in peace on the bottom of the lake (yep... already did this one twice...). -Wind tunnel type of wind!!!! -Jet skiers that even in a 20 000 acre lake insist to pass right were you´re fishing. -Driving a convertible during a storm type of wind!!!! -That heart braking first scrach on your shiny new reel! -Sky diving during a tornado type of wind! -Hooking in to what you think is the biggest bass of the lake, maybe even biggest bass of the universe, and find out it´s just a d**n catfish... -End of the world type of wind!!! -Snagging your lure on a tree behind you when you´re casting and just watch your reel explode in to the mother of all backlashes!!!!! -Any type of wind apart from a gentle breeze!!!! -etc etc etc...

The Mojo Bass line from St. Croix has rods that fit pretty much all bass techniques you can possibly need. I´ve tried a few of them and really like them for the price. People talk very well of the the Dobyns Fury line however i haver never tried one so can´t say nothing about them. You mensioned the possibilitie of buying from ebay... you can find Curado K´s bellow the 150€ price range all day. That would be my personal choice (with a few 70´s in the middle), however, and if you want to go to something even more affordable, there´s the Tatula CT´s that you can find in the 100 dolar range.

Kidney stones for me also! Only time in my life i found myself laying in the groung without being able to even stand...

Today was... expensive!

Every year i upgrade something. One year it might be a couple of reels, other some rods, then something in the boat etc etc... i like trying new stuff, even when the thing i´m replacing still does is job.

I´m mainly a Shimano guy, they just flat out work for me, but... between those two i would go with the Fuego all day! Metal frame vs Graphite frame, external adjustable brakes vs internal only... It´s just more reel for your money.

Better? Hummm... no! Happier? Definetly. I catch just as many fish with any of my Curados as i catch with my Metanium, but i enjoy fishing my Metanium way more.

Try the Rapala Rippin rap! They are very tall and thin wich gives them a nice wobble on the fall, it´s the only Rapala lipless crank that i really like. Here´s a comparison to the Aruku Shad:

For the 13" Gamblers i use the 11/0 Owner hooks: You actually don´t need such large hooks as i also have the 7/0 that i use for the Zoom Ol Monsters and on the times that i tried them on the Gamblers the hook up ratio was the same. However i like having that big long hook for the 13"... it´s a confidence thing.

Great.... i can already imagine the good folks at Savage gear taking a scan of a dead deer to release the brand new for 2019 Savage Gear 3D Suicide Deer!

Unless you´re a pro angler and your livelihood depends on fishing... don´t take things to serious! Enjoy your time on the water and have fun. I always come home with a big smile on my face after a day of fishing... even when i get skunked. That´s the beauty of fishing and the best tip i can give.

Oh... carp will eat lures alright: What i´ve noticed along the years is that there are some body´s of water were they are more likely to hit a lure then others. I´ve caught dozens of carps on lures in my life, 99% of them have been in the same 2 lakes! Why? I don´t now...

30% from ebay, 50% from my cousin store and the rest from other local tackle stores.

I´ve tried a few of them from friends of mine, they are decent rods for the price but the majority of them are 2 pieces wich is a big no-no for me..

I´ve got nothing but good things to say about my 3 Abu reels (1 revo winch gen 1, 1 revo winch gen 2 and 1 revo toro winch 61), both the gen 1 winch and toro winch are on my arsenal since they came out and i have had absolutely zero problems with them. The gen2 revo winch i have it for 3 years now and so far so good. I do like Shimano and Daiwa better but Abu is still a pretty valid option for me when i´m thinking off buying a new reel, in fact, lately i´ve been thinking about buying 2 new reels for big baits, 1 of them i´ve allready decided it´s going to be the Shimano Tranx 301, but the second one will probably be coming from Abu... i´ve been eyeballing the Revo Toro Beasts since they came out.

Yes i do. Mostly paddle tail swimbaits but also grubs and, sometimes, rage tail craws.

I used to use only Swing Impact fats but that was a little bit to expensive for my taste as the Keitechs are not the most durable thing in the world, so a couple of years ago i started using Daiwa 4" D´fin shads on the outsider arms and 3.8 or 4.8 keitechs on the main arm. works for me!

I have the 853, i use it for a little bit of everything, plastics, small jigs, spinerbaits, chatterbaits, grubs, paddle tail swimbaits (keitechs and such) etc etc... it´s a nice all around rod.

If you´re looking for a tight wobble and a more discreet sound look no more: The Spro little John is your bait.