papajoe222

Seeing as you mentioned frogs, I'd go braid. If you need to,add a mono or fluoro leader in whatever test is applicable.

BPS Lazer Blade, today.

I use it almost identicle to the way I do a swim jig, but when I'm looking for more flash and vibration. I don't, however, swim it through weed cover.

Bill Dance did a show about drop shotting yeas ago and his set-up consisted of a swivel above the hook for the very reason you mentioned. I do it because it's an easy transition from braid to the mono that I use.

If the rod will be doubling as a striper rod, I wouldn't consider a Med. power rod. I'd also base my decision more on what types of presentations I'll be using it for most often. If soft plastics are your answer, consider sensivity and the rod's ability to cast them unweighted. There are way too many rods in that price range, so it's going to be a personal decision. If there is a specific need for which you'll be getting this rod, address that need first, you'll eliminate a good percentage of that large variety.

I like a pointed rocker style head where the line tie and point are above the 'belly' of the jig. That style rides on top of softer bottoms a lot better than most and won't dig in as easily. It also will come through the weeds that you'll most likely encounter and dig up some bottom silt along the way. Just keep the weight to a minimum and stick with a floating plastic trailer. Some shakey heads are shaped like this, but do double duty when dragged along a softer bottom.

I opt for upsizing the belly hook and have a few baits that I've removed the rear hook and added a small willow blade with a swivel snap. Both will change the lure's action slightly, but the added hooking ability and/or flash are the reason behind the modifications.

It can be both.

If there is a variety of cover, I like to fish either the least abundant form, or where two types converge or coexist.

If they are retention ponds, it's very doubtful hat there are shad stocked in them, but there is always the possibility that some 'well meaning' angler has put some in. If fish were stocked by any agency and not the land owner, they likely stocked forage fish as well. Sunfish (bream) and minnows are the most common as they transport well and are very prolific. If you don't see the forage, check the belly of the next fish you catch. If you are a 100% catch and release guy, you'll be limited to the occasional spit up of recently swallowed forage by a stressed out bass. I also wouldn't exert a lot of time in your attempt to discover the local forage as many productive baits do not imitate anything natural in a fish's environment, but still catch them.

When it comes to purchases always discern need from want.

Glad to hear from the Quantum supporters, especially prior to opening my opinionated mouth. Guess why he asks for my opinion? He says I'm open minded. I do recall having a PT with the flipping switch that was a good piece of equipment, no issues for the two seasons I had it.

I recently purchase a few sets of bearings from HawgTech that I installed on the spools of a few of my less expensive reels. A Daiwa TD Pro, Exceller and a BPS Pro Lite ( the 10 bearing promo model). The only way I can describe the results other than to say awesome difference in performance is with an analogy. It's like fishing with braid for the first time after using mono your whole life when it comes to sensitivity. I've done bearing upgrades on a number of reels, but until this year never ordered from HawgTech. After installing them in a Sol I'd just purchased I couldn't believe the difference in free spool spin time and just overall smoothness. Yes, ceramics are a little noisy, but only on the cast and I don't wear my hearing aids when on the water, so I don't notice it. For $16 plus shipping, IMO, it was more than worth it and installing them was a breeze as I've had these reels apart many times.

For cold water cranking, I like two types of lipped cranks. A thin bodied balsa crank and a suspending fat body bait. The first is fished just fast enough that it maintains it's depth and makes occasional contact with something. The second is cranked to depth paused, cranked, paused. Occasionally, I'll work it like a jerk bait after it reaches depth.

If I know an area has good fish holding potential, I'll give the area half an hour to an hour to check out top to bottom. If I contact fish, I'll give it more. If you're talking a specific target, I'll hit it with multiple casts from different angles and possibly different baits before moving on. This is what I really like about not fishing tournaments any more. You'd be surprised at the targets you give a few casts to only to move on and have the guy with the winning bag get his kicker or biggest fish off of one of those he hit a little differently or with a totally different bait.

The great thing about doing something like this is that you can do it whatever way you like. It can be a total CP&R, catch photo and release, tournament. You could have a local radio personality or whoever do the judging with the judge's choice being the winner and call it a judge's choice contest, have multiple judges, or whatever. The prize pool being divided however you choose, but be sure the participants know what the breakdown is. You can limit the number of entries, or have a limit on the number of boats or bank fishermen, or both. One thing I think would be appreciated would be separate awards for those two catagories and seeing as you're thinking of a team entry amount, the awards and prizes should be for the team. I did something similar to this years ago, but it was a bowling tournament. All monies taken in were donated to the charity and all the prizes were donated by local businesses. You'd be surprised at what kind and the value some of those donations can be as it's 'free' advertising for their business. Just make sure there is some form of recognition in any advertisement. Note: please PM me with information about entering as I live in the Chicago area, but frequent the Quad Cities and western Illinois often.

I'm sure it's a deliberate design, not just sloppy engineering. As I said, the side plate 'fills the gap', also likely by design. It just seems to me that this is just a cheap way of doing that.

Without a doubt, pre spawn. Once the fish are locked on to the beds, catching is always a chore. Not that it can't be a chore catching pre spawned, there ar plenty of instances that will turn them off, but there will still be periods of feeding activity. When they are active and roaming you have a much better chance of hooking up.

I just finished the last of five rod projects I'd planned for the winter. Considering they were interrupted with my hand surgeries, I finished fairly close to schedule. This was done on a friend's favorite. Some cork fill, a couple of guides re wrapped, old finish stripped and these additions.

A breakline isn't a point or piece of structure (actually a point is structure). A breakline is an abrupt change in depth. Contour lines can give these away if you see a coiuple of them close together on a map. On natural lakes a breakline can be as shallow as 3-5 ft. on deep lakes and impoundments it can be a 20ft.drop or more. It, in fact, is the first half of the definition of structure. Pre-spawn bass will pull back to these breaklines during cold front conditions and post spawn fish will also stop somewhere along that break to rest. If the fish are keyed in on spawning, or actually spawning they will likely stay in the area and just shut down. Their focus is on spawning and cold front or not, they'll be tight lipped.

It never ceases to amaze me how bad habits are so hard to break. For years, as a youngster that grew up walleye fishing, my father pounded 'keep your rod tip up' into my head. I rarely lost a walleye after that became my natural rod position. I was introduced to bass fishing at the age of 19 and continued keeping the Rod tip up during the fight and loosing fish. About the time that fishing shows became popular I noticed that those guys would keep their rod tip much lower, especially when the fish was near the surface. I started imitating them and began landing more fish. My falling back into that old rod tip up mentality was easy as there was no one to constantly remind me and I still get so excited during the fight that I often forget. Words of advice from Papa: DON'T DO THAT. You're welcome

If you call a bra an 'over the shoulder boulder holder, do you call a jock strap an 'under the butt nut hut?

What, no Duke fans?

I just spent the morning cleaning my son-in-laws reels. He's a Quantum fan as KVD had a big influence on him when he first started getting serious about fishing. I couldn't believe the the amount of space between the spool and the side plates. I know there is material on the sideplates that cover up the space, but for being touted as 'quality' reels those three I worked on fell far short as far as I'm concerned. I just don't see them holding up well to heavy use. He has a Smoke that I'll be doing a bearing upgrade on and for his sake I hope I'm not disappointed with the insides when I open it up. For those of you that have any of the KVD models, how have they been holding up? He's looking at a 5.1 for cranking and I don't want to tell him it would be a waste of money, but from what I've seen, I sure wouldn't recommend Quantum to anyone that works their gear hard.