papajoe222

Sorry guys. I meant to post this in the Everything Else forum.

Never happens to me.

I'm becoming more and more aware of the fact that I am becoming way too dependent on tubes as my soft plastic choice for most applications. My mainstay for decades was the plastic worm, but during inventory of my worms recently I found that the majority of my worms were untouched last season. I observed the same thing when I examined my Flukes and beaver style baits. I can't remember the last time I tied on a lizzard to a C-rig. Might I even have an addiction to these things I asked myself??So I took a little test in an attemtpt to find out. 1. Which soft plastic to fish weightless? a) Fluke Senko c) Tube 2. Which soft plastic to T-rig? a) Worm Creature c) Tube 3. Which soft plastic to C-rig? a) lizzard worm c) Tube 4. Which soft plastic to flip a) craw worm c) Tube 5. Which soft plastic to use in a search presentation a) football jig/craw C-rig/worm c) Tube 6. Which soft plastic to wacky rig a) Senko Trick worm c) Tube My results (five out of six answers were 'C') are the reason I'm doing a search for a Tube-a-holic support group. I need help!! Opening day is six weeks away and I've already ordered two gross of them in green pumpkin and another gross in watermellon. At this rate, I'll have acquired an additional eighteen gross by then. Please direct me to a chapter of TA (or T and A) in my area. Either that or tell me that I'm not loosing it completely, because after all I haven't stooped to wacky rigging them.............yet. Note. On the off chance that you do know of a chapter of 'T and A' in my area, please forward that information either way. The distraction would be welcome.

RoadWarrior did a great review on this reel and it was after reading it and along with recommendations from other members,I decided to purchase it.I'm a die hard Daiwa guy, I own nine of them and chose this over the Tatula as my next purchase. It's packed with features, light (5.6oz.) and the difference in price allowed me to add some tackle I'd been wanting. I honestly don't expect this reel to be the work horse my TDA's are or have the ability to cast light baits as easily as my Sols, but as a multipurpose reel I do have high expectations. I'll give it a couple of months of frequent use and attempt a shot at an unbiased review.

Mine is a Mitchell 300, the first reel I ever bought back in the 60's. As for a baitcaster, I still have and use the first low a profile Daiwa I've owned.

The very least I would go with using a 5/0 hook would be 12lb. If it's a flipping hook,17lb. A light wire,maybe 8-10lb. This is for use with a M/H Rod with a fast tip. If your, rod has a moderate tip, I'd go 17lb. as a starting point. You can get away with using a Rod with a moderate tip for worm fishing, but keep in mind that between the stretch of mono and the flex in the rod, you're going to need to adjust hour hook-set or you won't be able to drive that hook in past the barb. Light wire hooks, skin hooking the worm and short casts will all up your odds. That being said, you may want to consider using braid.

As for knots, again it all depends what type of topwaters. For walking baits and floating minnows, I like a loop, or Rapala knot. For spoons and frogs, I prefer a palomar. For most others it will be one or the other depending on the action I'm trying to achieve.

I look forward to somehow getting together with RW, he didn't stick around last year. From what I've heard and seen, he's a real character. A joint outing could be beneficial to us both; He could learn a little about men's fashion sence from me and I might remember something I forgot about angling from him.

I'm in the process of building a casing Rod for the same application. My choice was a Baston Rainshadow blank. I believe they discontinued this line of blanks, but I've built six rods with different Baston blanks and am very happy with their rating and performance.

please explain what 'line stacking' is as i am considering a spiral wrap on my current build.

Just picked up a PRD10LTE and am really impressed with the lightness and overall quality of this reel. The one thing I am wondering about is whether or not I should clean out any excess grease and maybe flush the spool bearings. This is my first Pinnacle, so I don't know if they pack a lot of grease in their reels. I've purchased a few brands other than Daiwa that do this. Anyone familiar with this reel that can give me a heads up? Also, is there an easy release for the palm plate?

Norman's and Bomber Fat Free Shad. The FFS won't get down to 20ft. but will hit 16ft. on a decent cast using 10lb.

The heavy current is going to both help and hinder you. It helps in positioning the fish (more in a second), but it hinders you because that warm day isn't going to have much of an affect on the water temp. If you'll be doing your fishing in the main river, I'd be targeting deep pools and the eddy areas behind the downed trees. Really, any current break that results in slack current, those are just the most common. I can't help with the 'lakes' or pools as the rivers I fish don't have them. As for lures, I'd choose ones that the current will take into those slack water areas. A spinnerbait or crank may get some aggressive fish right at the current edge, but if they're tucked back, or down in the slack water areas, a jig just heavy enough that you can work it into those areas with the current would be my pick. Once you get into slack water, vary your retrieve the same as you would in a lake, until you get results and stick with it until it no longer produces. Don't be afraid to dead stick, it takes a lot of patience, but sometimes it's a killer technique.

This time of year I would concentrate in the dam area where the drop is 45 or steeper.

As long as you're pouring....d**n that monkey!

I'll use a shakey head in cold front conditions, or when I'm confident about a spot. I like it in timber vs. brush or around boulders vs. gravel under those conditions. The T-rig gets the nod when I want to use a faster presentation or as a search bait.

Lately I've been hanging out with the bait monkey and checking my PayPal account for funds . It's weird because by balance is zero, but I've e been buying a bunch of stuff. Hope PayPal doesn't figure it out for a while.

No, just because fish are shallow does not mean they are actively feeding. "There are three areas where we can target bass, their home, their feeding/spawning area, or the breaks/break lines connecting the two." Spoken like a true student and practitioner of structure fishing. Our reasoning is the same, you and I just go about putting it to use In the opposite direction. You could say that I'm literally 'bassackwards'.

I don't know of any guides that target bass in that area on the big lake. There are a f ew small lakes in the area where you may find a guide or a place to rent a boat. I do fish the big lake farther north for smallies in late April, but it's a two hour drive from Holland. If you'd like I can put you in touch with my guy up there and he may know of someone. PM me.

I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to make it this year. Medical reasons, or I'd make the drive in a heartbeat. Just the anticipation of the trip got me through the winter last year. To help get through this winter, I'm planning a get together for some of the guys up this way in May. Hopefully it will all come together. Have a great time.

I ended up doing a single thread trim band on all the guides. A little extra work and time, but they really draw your eye to the thread work. Kind of like adding extra chrome you your car. What can I say, but I'm all about eye candy and not just when it comes to the ladies.

If they have forage available, of course they aren't and yes they do. What I'm refering to and the way I use the system, is in search of fish that travel from deep to shallow in their search to feed. If you don't locate fish actively feeding in deep water, do you stay there or move? If you do move, don't you have a system that you follow or do you just randomly move around in your search? I've seen pics of some of your fish and I seriously doubt that.

I'm not talking about deploying your PowerPole to hold you in position as you fan cast an area. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's their intended use. I'm talking about, dropping an anchor (two in my case) and sitting on a spot. I revisited doing this after reading Bill Murphy's 'In Pursuit of Giant Bass' which was a complete turn around from the ' stay on the trolling motor until the batteries give out' approach I'd been using for the past two decades. The biggest benefit (for me) was that it got me to not only slow down, but to pick apart an area of the lake top to bottom. Do I still run and gun? Yes, when my time on the water is limited to a couple of hours. Do I pick up anchor(s) and move to a different spot? Yes, but rarely more than three or four times during the course of a day. Memories of fishing a saddle between two islands on a big lake in Wisconsin (big for Wisconsin at least), anchored so my dad and I could reach the shallows of the island nearest our end of the boat and also the deeper water to either side of the saddle, were dusted off and revisited during my reading. We rarely didn't have a good outing and if the wind was blowing we often limited out. There was no running from spot to spot with my eyes glued to the old Hummingbird only to abandon a spot after a few casts. We'd sit and methodically work the area until we "stumbled" upon the depth the fish were holding and the presentation that got results. Now, my son-in-law and I will anchor on a breakline of his favorite lake where the depth changes from 8-15ft., or the end of a small point for three or four hours, fishing, telling stories, downing a few beverages and catching fish. Guess I've come full circle. Now I'm wondering if any of you have either revisited anchoring as a way of boat positioning like I have, have been doing it all along, or are considering it as another option?

Yes, if you work from shallow to deep, but not if you work deep to shallow. If, like me, you begin your search shallow and work your way deep you may or may not run over the top of fish that are holding deep. Two things I keep in mind. First is that I don't approach the destination of the fish using the same route from deep to shallow that they would (or I think they would). Second I'm looking for active fish first. If I'm lucky enough to find them shallow and active, there is no need for me to continue my search. It's over. If not, I continue my way deeper along the structure until I contact fish. At that point I would stop as my search has ended. The only reason for me to move once I've located fish willing to take my offering, is if the fish move. When they do, I know that their next stop will either be a spot just shallow of where I am, or deeper along the structure (which is normally what happens). Starting deep and working shallow also works, but in doing so you may be missing out on actively feeding fish even though you are catching less active fish. Either way you are using the structure as the basis of your search.

Reelnm The feeding area depends on the major forage the bass are targeting. In the example you described it would be different for shad than for, say minnows or bluegill. If you consider the forage, the route or structure the bass use can be different as well as where the 'dining room' is located on the point. Structure fishing, although it may sound difficult, is no harder to understand than considering which docks will be most productive along a shoreline of hundreds. You are basically using a simple, fundamental fact that is the basis of structure fishing. The main difference is structure fishing is more relevant to bass that use deep water as their 'home' or area of rest and travel to an area to feed and less to those that stay in the shallows even when they aren't feeding.