ww2farmer

What ever you do, don't peg a 1/4oz tungsten sinker to it's nose and flip it in the same places you would usually use a jig or creature bait when that bite is off.

Firmly in the... "Don't care" camp

It's all I use. Never had an issue with it.

And your point? He didn't ask about Lucky Craft.

I prefer Strike King. Occasionally you will get a dud with SK,no different than any other bait company, but they also bend over backwards to make it right........ At least they always have for me. Luck-E-Strike has been very inconsistent for me. Especially the Clunn jerkbaits. And they didn't really care to hear about it either.

Like Raul said, I am a big fan of the Exceler and Lexa platform, I like them enough that I have replaced all my Shimano's with them. I don't find them heavy, the balance really well with the rods I like, and they are great casters right out of the box.

Man................what a crappy last two outings. Rained out at work the last two days, hit Silver yesterday, Conesus today. Silver was just plain bad....not a bite to be had up shallow, I caught 8 smallmouth, but they were all less than two lbs, and I caught 4 largemouth with a 2.25 lber the "lunker" LOL. I did catch a 9lb 4oz fish, but it had teeth. On to Conesus today...........started good, with a 3.25lb for me, a 2lb smallie for my buddy, in the first 15 minutes of the day, then they started playing there stupid smallmouth games of getting all the way to the boat before getting off, we lost the next three bites. Then that bite died, went largemouth looking and fished A LONG TIME.............like 4 hours without a bite, then the switch flipped, we caught 8 or so in the next 45 mins, highlighted by a limits worth of 3+ lbers, with the best one pushing 4 that my partner caught, then that died. Back to smallmouth, nothing....................but oh no, the real fun was just about to begin. Drifting along, fishing our football jigs for smallies, we spot some fool running around the bank completely buck naked, my buddy Rick starts hollering to him, and I am doubled over laughing my butt off. Next thing I know..................SPLASH...........I was laughing so hard, I blacked out and fell head first into the water...........30 feet of water. I guess hitting the water woke me back up, and I come up totally in panic mode for a few seconds. Rick is just about to me with the boat before I calm down and start treading water, and actually semi-floating around. I grab the boat and tell him to just go to the bank, I'll get in over there rather than try to get back on still over 30 FOW and slip and fall back in or something, he takes me to where I can touch, and I have to plow my way through the milfoil to get to the bank, and than I just had him pick me up on a dock that was in the area. Nothing broke, nothing hurt, the rod that was in my hand somehow didn't even go over with me, and didn't get broken. My phone however was a casualty of the ordeal, but as luck would have it, I just used my upgrade two days ago, and my new phone should be here anytime now.

I have broken every brand of rod I have ever owned. St Croix, Loomis, Fenwick, Abu, Berkley, Shimano , Kistler, BPS, Cabelas, and Gander mtn store branded rods, Quantum, Daiwa, and probably a couple I don't even remember ..... Heck I even broke an ugly stick once about 20 years ago. I will probably break more. I am not worried about it.

My gear is in my boat 24/7 during the season, and at a moments notice I can be hooked up and ready to roll to any lake in a 50 mile radius.

IMHO, people who think color is more important than size, profile, action/vibration, rigging method, location, retrieve speed, and rate of fall don't "get it ". Most of the time, I'll change those before color.

Other than a pike up shallow about five minutes into fishing, I never got a bite till 4pm.... When the wind switched directions and the sun went behind the clouds, and 45 minutes later, when the sun popped back out it was over.

Depends on the lake. Places like Silver and Conesus the average size is probably in the upper 2lb to lower 3lb range...................and then the other places I occasionally go to like Honeyoe, Loon, Cuba, etc.....a 12" keeper is about average.

For leader material, IMHO you can't beat Seaguar Red Label for the money, but for mainline..................IDK, I don't use fluoro as a mainline because it all sucks LOL.

Same here.

Yesterday was not my day. Rained out at work, I got to Silver lake just as the clouds cleared out, the wind picked up, and the bite shut off lol. I ground away for 5 hours for a limit of smallmouth, with a 4-11 being the only one of note, the rest were 2lbers or less.

Thanks. Yeah it was brutal from mid june till mid july, the only thing that kept me sane, was everyone was sucking LOL.

Sometime in November. Depending on the weather. I have pushed into the first week of December before too.

Good old plain Power Pro works for me.

Tuff, slow bite on Conesus today, but still took 2nd place in our classic with 12.5 lbs. That's usually a "thanks for coming" bag there, but today it was good enough for some cash. And that is it for my 2014 tournament season. Assorted partners and I fished 16 tournaments between Silver and Conesus this year, and we finished in the money 9 times (1 win, 7 seconds, and lunker once). Pretty good year that started terrible, in the first 4 of them, we failed to even bring in a limit.

Silver was good both days, providing you made the right decisions, and got where they were when the switch flipped. I started friday afternoon in the grass, and hauled water. I moved shallow and found them. I caught 14 keepers in a little less than two hours, with the best five going 5-3, 4-9, 4-1, 3-12, and 3-10. This morning I started shallow, seems how that's where I left them last, and had three fish in three hours to show for it, and none of them were anything to get excited about, so I moved to some deeper grass and... Once again had about a two hour flurry where I caught them decent. Both size and numbers went down from yesterday, but still respectable. I hauled 8 keepers out of that area with the best five going 4-11, 3-14, 3-7, 3-2, and 2-12. On to conesus tomorrow and my final tournament of the year.

I am working till noon, then I'll probably hit Silver and leave Conesus alone till sunday. I may..... MAY, hit conesus tomorrow. Idk yet.

I can bet your just a pleasure to be around.

Thanks, I'll need it.

I agree. Even though I use mine for moving baits, from time to time I have used them for jigs/worms/etc... and have had no problems with bite detection, feeling cover, etc... The Abu Vengeance is also a good rod for $50. Lots of decent choices in this price range now.

What???? While he and I disagreed from time to time, I valued his opinion and always read his posts. What a loss. Thoughts go out to his family.