ww2farmer

<--------- see this heading below my screen name? It's well earned. I have gone far enough up into the woods to poke holes in the boat and bend trolling motor shear pins and armature shafts. I now cut them off. Lures are cheap compared to boat and TM repairs.

The key with these baits....like any Rapala product, is to buy 6 of the same baits at one time. 1 will work, and last a while 2 will work, and break after a few fish 2 will break on the first cast And the last one will spin in circles all the way back to the boat repelling fish for miles. I'm not a gambler, so I buy Lucky Craft, Jackal and Spro.

Any Yamamoto products that are from last year are shot. I work in the trash disposal industry, send them to me for proper recycling.....especially if they are color numbers 021, 297, 301, 953, and 956. They are double bad.

Yeah.....the starter went on my 25HP 4 stroke in Oct. of this past fall. Even at 10+ years old with umpteen hours on it, it always started on a couple pulls cold, or one pull warm. I was just going to finish the season pull starting it.....BUT after 2 weeks of this nonsense, I had enough. Put a new starter on it. If you have never had electric start, and the motor is set up to pull start, it'll be fine. In my case, taking the cowling off, hand wrapping the "emergency" pull rope, starting it, and then putting the cowling back on was a GIANT P.I.T.A. I could live with pull start only....but only on a motor that was pull start only, if that makes sense.

This ^^^^^ Your going to be pretty hard pressed to find better for less $$, and even some stuff costing more is not as good. There are better braided lines, but they often come with much much higher price tags, and IMHO are not proportionally better compared to the price.

I like the EWG "super line" hooks. Gamakatsu is still my go-to brand, but the fusions fill a few gaps that I can't cover with the Gamakatsu's. The fusion 2/0 super line's are fantastic for small compact flipping baits like GYCB fat baby craws, or 3" Berkley Chigger craws. They are smaller than Gammy's and "fit" small baits better.

I pride myself on being versatile. My comfort zones are shallow largemouth with a flipping stick in hand, and deep largemouth with spinning gear. Two opposite ends of the spectrum, but that's what I like and am good at.

I used to use a lot of tubes, power worms, and spinnerbaits Got away from them for a long time. Now they are back to being in the rotation.

I used Gamakatsu Drop shot/split shot hooks for years...never had a problem with them. I switched to VMC spin shot's probably 4-5 years ago...all was good until this past season. I ran low/out of my stock of these hooks purchased the first 2-3 years these were on the market. I restocked my supply with several packs....and almost every single one of them gave me issues, specifically with the little wire "swivel" bending and/or breaking either after just a few fish catches, or on large fish. I never had that problem with the original batch. Bummed me out because I really like the concept of these hooks and beat the drum loudly for them here. With my trust lost in these hooks, I switched back to Gamakatsu, this time the Aaron Martens TGW drop shot hooks and have been happy with those.

I saw a you tube video, or read some where (I don't remember the exact place)..that basically said this: Guy was fishing an A-rig with 4 natural colored baits, and one wild bright colored one. It didn't matter on what arm of the rig he put the brightly colored one on, but that one got bit way more than the natural ones. I have experimented with this myself this past fall, simply by dipping the tail of one bait in chart. dye. That one gets bit almost exclusively.

Rods: Blanks, foam handles, reels seats, and guides: Warm soapy water (Dawn dish soap). Rinse and wipe off when done. Cork handles: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Reels: Exterior: I blow them off with a small can of compressed air, then blast them with CRC QD electronics part cleaner or non-chlorinated brake cleaner. I'll get into nooks and crannies with a q-tip. Re-lube anything that the cleaners de-greased. Interior: Pretty much the same. Except I'll soak bearings in a mineral spirits based de-greasing solution, let air dry and re-lube.

This ^^^^^^ The BPS and SK versions are not that good. Another good alternative to the Keitech's are the Reins Rockvibe's. Everything else is pretty...mehhhh.

I like to buy the best tool for the job...I don't care who made it. No one is paying me to use their products exclusively. For example I use the following: Stick baits: GYCB Senkos. Beaver Style baits: Reaction Innovations products Solid body paddle tails : Keitech products Drop shot plastics : Robo worm products Ned rig stuff: Zman products Soft Jerk Baits: GYCB D-shads And so on......... I rarely buy multiple brands of one style of bait with the exception of craws with over sized claws. I have 4 I like for different things and the are: Jackall Sasuteki Craws....they have a large claw with a really tight flutter and work really well in cold water or on pressured fish that have seen tons of high action baits. SK Rage craws....when I want something that swims reliably out of the package, for use as a swim jig trailer or similar applications. Berkley Chigger craws...best craw for me as a jig trailer Netbait Paca Craws...the wild flailing action and big claws really slow the fall of these, and I like them when I need to use a heavy sinker to get through cover, but a fast fall is NOT desirable...like flipping clumps of milfoil after a front, or post spawn fish holding in thick shallow stuff

Both are great rods for the $$$ I have several of the current HMX's (no HMG's at the moment) My new favorite rods are Dobyns Furys, but I won't be getting rid of the Fenwicks as they are pretty good. In the HMX line I have the following: 7'ML spinning: Great finesse rod, Drop shot and ned rig got used on this often last season. 7'M spinning: Do all spinning rod, I used Neko, flick shake, tubes, grubs, and shaky heads on it a lot last year. 7' MH casting: this is a good "general purpose" rod. This past fall it was used quite a bit for chatterbaits, spinner baits, and swinging head football jigs and was excellent for all 3 applications. I have also used this rod for pitching jigs and plastics up to 1/2 oz, and it's great for that too. My biggest bass of my tournament season last year...a 6lb 4oz. largemouth, came on this rod with a 3/8 oz t-rigged plastic skipped under a dock. This rod is a little softer in the tip than a lot of other MH powered rods, so it's not going to be a great big bait, heavy cover rod IMHO. The Fuji SKT reel seats took some getting used to, but now I don't pay any mind to it and grab these rods and fish them with out any weird feelings in hand.

Same as they are every year: Don't sink the boat Don't catch the boat on fire Don't blow up the motor Don't break anything that costs a lot to fix and/or repair Don't fall off the boat The fishing takes care of itself.

These are my go-to squarebills. I used to be a die hard SK KVD guy, but these are better quality for not much more money, and the hooks out of the box don't have to be replaced. BE Gill, Black Moss, Chameleon Brown Craw, and Pearl Threadfin are my favorite colors. They seem to run about 6" shallower than KVD 1.5's and 2.5's, which for my purposes has not made one lick of difference.

Good to hear buddy.

Best bang for the buck for a 10-22 is a Primary Arms Micro red dot sight, and UTG M1913 rail section made to bolt right to the top of the 10-22's receiver. The rails can be had for about $10 on Amazon or Ebay. Comes with the screws. Little blue loctite and it's GTG. The red dot is $89 with free shipping right from Primary Arms. They have "blemished" ones on sale now too for $60. They will bolt right to the above mentioned UTG rail. The Primary Arms optics are re-branded Holosuns and are fantastic for the money. I have several of varying grades on multiple platforms from .22LR, .223, and .308.... A good tube style $100 ish red dot will be much more durable than a cheap reflex sight. You'll have to spend $200 or more and step up to at least a Vortex Venom or Burris Fast Fire to get a decent RMR....even for a 10-22.

I tend to sit on a stool in front of a bench pulling a lever on a machine that turns brass, lead, copper and other assorted things into noise makers. Then once or twice a month, I use said noise makers to punch holes in paper or clang steel shapes at various distances with steel, wood, aluminum and/or polymer instruments.

"Affording it" is all relative too. I don't know how it is in your area, but here there are all sorts of levels to play on. Everything from BFL's, Costa's, and B.A.S.S. opens to $40-$70 weeknight, weekday, and weekend open local tournaments against guys with all kinds of boats and skill level. Get in where you fit in, have fun, and catch some fish. At the end of a "season" if you did well or not, chances are you will have learned A LOT, and become a better angler. Plus you'll make some life long friends. I prefer to fish in low key, laid back, low cost opens against my friends. It's highly competitive for bragging rights, and small amounts of money. At the end of the day, win, lose or draw, we all pat each other on the back, share what worked and what didn't, and the B.S. sessions before and after are always a good time. If there's nothing like this in your area....do what I did, and start one. Like minded anglers will find you. Tournament bass fishing doesn't have to be about spending money out the wazoo, putting on a show, and cutting the throats of your fellow anglers.

NO!!! Chatterbaits are just another tool in the box. I made the mistake of moving away from spinnerbaits in favor of swim jigs and chatterbaits the last 4-5 years, thinking those 2 baits would replace the spinnerbait for me....WRONG! After a few times of getting my rear end handed to me in tournaments that had strong spinnerbait bites, I realized the error of my ways, and spinnerbaits are back to being a big part of my arsenal once again.

Trust me, bass fisherman do not have the market cornered when it comes to stretching the "facts". Just today at a LGS when I was buying some reloading components I over heard a guy stating " I really like those Horn-a-day plastic tip jobs, I can pop a woodchuck at 700 yards using iron sights with them." It's best to smile and be on your way when tales of extreme feats of distance start getting tossed around.

Any updates or news on Clayton? @J Francho ? @wnybassman?

I am a braid to leader guy. My system: Casting reels: 8:1 reels = 50lb braid (these are my frogging, flipping, punching, pitching, etc reels..) 7:1 reels = 30lb braid (these are my "All Purpose" reels) 6:1 reels = 20lb braid (these are my cranking, jerkbait, topwater reels) Spinning reels ALL get 10lb braid. Not real scientific, but it's simple and easy to remember for me.

Amen!!! Even if I did...don't know if I would want to. Been in plenty of boats with all trimmings. I still feel more comfortable in an old tin boat just "fishing". I do OK.