ww2farmer

<------------------ I tied mine. 6 lb's 10 oz's. Caught in a weeknight 3 hour, aluminum boat only, 3 fish limit tournament. Thats fish earned us (WNYbassman was my partner that night) lunker, and was ,obviously, the kicker in our three fish limit of 13.64 lbs. It tied my previous PB, caught in october of 2011, also a 6-10.

A guy I work with has bought in to this crap, he has stockpiled food, water, gas, etc...So I asked him " How many rounds of ammo have you got?" His response ..." None, I don't have a gun." My response back...." guess who I am shooting first if it does happen, thanks for stocking up on that stuff for me." He went out and bought a s shotgun the next day. LOL

I have fished local tournaments against a couple current (at the time) and former B.A.S.S. elite series pros. Sometimes they beat me, sometimes they don't. I say bring it on. Rise to the level of the compition. Do I like it when a pro shows up and hands me beat down on a lake I spend 100 + days a year on..........NO, but it pushes me to get better and teaches me something. I wish I could fish against them more often.

Put a tip on it and sell it to a midget who likes to punch grass mats.

I can only speak about Gen 1/2 Revo S's vs. Citica D's and E's, but my experiance with both generation Revo's, vs both Citica's were the same, so my logic says that the gen 3 Revo S vs the Citica G would be similar. The Revos both casted further, and were "smoother" out of the box than the Citica's. I have always found Shimano reels need a "break in" period. The real test was after awhile of hard use, the Shimano's got smoother, casted better, and required less oil/maintainence to stay that way. The Revos....just the opposite, after 1 season they got noticably worse, after 2 years they were terrible. To put it in easier to understand terms, the Revo's after two seasons of normal use that needed constant lube to keep them casting just half way decent, and other annoying issues were popping up (break blocks worn out, sticking level winds, thumb bars not engaging, etc...) compaired that to the Citica's which ,now, after 6+ years of normal to heavy use, have never been opened up, cast as good as they did new (minus the break in period), require only periodic oiling/maint. to keep them that way, and have had no issues. I know some people hem and haw about the drag power the Revo's have, but it's semantics. The Shimanos have all the drag power you need plus some to spare for bass fishing. To me it's simple. Do I want a reel that's great out of the box? Or do I want a reel that's going to last a long time? I don't know about you, but $129 is to much money to spend on a "disposable" reel. I am not a Shimano homer because of blind brand loyalty, but because I have had enough reels from other brands ( Pflueger, Abu, BPS , Quantum, Daiwa, etc...) to know that Shimano's, while not the "sexiest" or smoothest out of the box, will outlast all the others..........period. The only other brand that comes close is Daiwa.

No........far from it. My father is a loser who never stays with one women for more than a few years. His rotine usually goes like this...meet women, knock her up, cheat on her, leaves when he gets busted, kocks up new women, cheats on her, leaves..........and on and on. I am one of five children he has with three women. And none of us (that are still alive) want anything to do with him. I had a half brother who died when I was young, a sister who died a few years ago, and two living half sisters. I am more like my grandfather (mothers side) he and my grandmother raised me, everything I do is carbon copy of how he lived his life, married young, worked the same job for 40 years, raised his kids the best he could, paid his bills, kept his word.

I use a lower geared reel (curado 201dpv) for the power to make pulling bigger cranks like a 6xd easier, not for retreive speed. I toss 3xd's on my 51E and they pull easy, when I want to fish them slower, I reel slower. IMHO, you have a reel that will work just fine. You might want to look at your rod insted, something longer (7'+) with a more moderate action that loads up a bit with lighter baits will help fling those smaller cranks alot further.

Just a word of caution based on my own expierance..........a guy I know pours his own baits, I went over one day gung-ho to get in on it, well after a brief lesson and pouring some myself that turned out fine I got pretty sick, his area was well ventilated, and he had no issues, so I just chalked it up as coincidence. I went over again some time later.......and got sick again. Mega headaches, sinus and chest congestion, sore throat, scratchy eye's, etc... I decided I couldn't be around that stuff. IDK if it's allergies, or I am super sensitive to it (I have no issues with plastic baits once they are made, never got sick using or handling them) I am glad I found out this before I jumped in and bought a bunch of stuff to pour my own. I don't know if my issues with it are 1 in a million, but based on my expierance with it, you might not want to jump right in whole hog untill you know if you will or won't have the same problems I had beeing around plastic fumes.

Thats what my lake looks like too. There will always be bass in or near grass. I find that this time of year they get outside it on warm sunny days and suspend off the deep edge on or near any irregular features, such as points/cuts in the weedline, bottom transitonal areas (soft to hard, rock to mud, etc...) If the water is clear, your best bet is to start at the depth which you can no longer see bottom, or the thickest shallow stuff that still provide good overhead cover. Also look for stuff that is greener, on my lake we have miles of mifoil this fall that was slimy and dying, and I couldn't catch squat out of it, I could pick up suspending fish off the outside edge, mostly smb, but once I found clean green mifoil...I found the LM.

I think just about everything I do matches my personality. I just kind of mosey along doing a little of this, a little of that. I can fish fast...if I have too, I can fish slow.....if I have to. I usually like to cover water,not running and gunning, but hitting several good spots during the day, baby sitting spots and soaking baits on them all day bugs me. Somedays I get things dialed in pretty good, somedays I don't. I don't get really excited about much. Big fish, cashing or winnng tournaments get me a little pumped, slow days, bad tournaments bum me out a little. But I just keep at it either way. People are what frustrate me the most. I have about zero tolerance for jerks on the water. I tend to make freinds on the water pretty easy though, and I like to see my friends do well, and help them as much as I can, but I have really learned the past few months how that has kind of burned me a little.

Nothing special,looks like some sort of Storm brand bait to me. It will catch fish eventually, just like every other bait on the market.

I see in another post you made, that you paid $3 for SK bitsy jigs. IMHO thats a rip. I think they are available just about every where for $2 or less. They are a decent jig. I use alot of them. The bitsy flip is a good "cheap" finesse flipping jig, the hook is a heavy wire black nickle, and I have never had any issues with them. They are $2 a pop, so if I lose a bunch (which I do) it's not a big deal. The regular bitsy jigs use a cheaper, lighter wire bronze hook, but I have never had any problems with them either. I consider both as "disposable" jigs. If I have not lost them, when the hook gets dull/bent/rusty etc.. I just toss them out. They come in all the colors you really need (black/blue and green/brown), and up to 1/2 oz. If your just getting started jig fishing, get some of the bitsy jigs in 1/8th and 1/4 oz, and some of the bitsy flips in 3/8's and 1/2 oz. Pick a trailer you have confidence in and start fishing them. You'll catch plenty of fish on those, learn the basics of jig fishing, and go from there.

Depends on what bait is on those jig heads, and what size and type of line your using. Water density also plays a role, colder water is less dense so lighter weight baits will sink faster in colder water than they will in warm water too. There are no answers to your questions that you can't figure out for yourself. Tie one on, cast it out, and count how long it takes to sink.

If you go with me, I'll let you sit in the frabil flip over with the heater, I'll sit out side on a bucket........I have alot of "natural" insulation.

I have an 06 Tracker, and the only thng I would trade for is NEWER, no sense in going backwards just to go faster. Just MHO. Now if you can just buy the Ranger, thats another story. You can never have too many boats LOL.

I have the Lowrance Elite 4 on the console of my aluminum boat, I like it alot. I used it all season this year with no issues. The color 2d sonar is fantastic for a $299 unit, the GPS mapping is fine for me. It's east to use and reliable. But I also fish on dish pan lakes, the contour lines on the preloaded map are a little "off" on my homelake, but I don't use or rely on them anyways. I know where the breaks, humps, points, weedline bends, etc....are pretty much like the back of my hand, I mainly use the GPS to mark isolated pieces of cover away from the main weedline out in deeper water, and retrace trails I have already fished, and it gets me back to them very reliably and accuratly every time. I would deffinalty buy another one of these units.

For open water I found it hard to beat a small 1" berkley gulp minnow on a drop shot. I use the #8 VMC spinshot hook, and what ever size sinker to get it down to, and keep it on the bottom. Usually 1/4 oz in 10' or less, and 1/2 oz any deeper. I don't have any special tackle for them, I use my ML power bass drop shot rod. I have had days where you can catch them one this set up on every drop, all day long. And as a bonus, at least in my home lake, if your around the bluegills, the bass/pike/walleye are not far away. Keep a bass sized drop shot rod handy and ready, cause when the gills stop biting, it's often because something with a big mouth or teeth has come over to see what all the excitment is about.

I am doing what I have always wanted to do. I played in the back yard and sandbox as a kid with toy trucks and tractors, now I do it with the real stuff. I work close to home, and close to the lake. I get to come and go as I please, as long as I am there when they need me, and get all the "good" jobs, thanks to sticking with the same company, for 20 years. I don't know of anyone else who can work 70 hours a week, spend time with my kids, and still get to fish. It's darn near ideal.

Every tournament I fish has at least one aluminum boat in it................mine (most of the time). I have cashed plenty of times with it, won a few too. There is a local team of young dudes who fish out of weatherd older aluminum v-hull spectrum that regularly cash and win, and often by embarassing margins from the rest of the field. I do get pushed around in the wind more than bigger glass boats, and am pretty slow compaired to them, but there are ways around both of those problems. I gain an extra ounce of satisfaction when I win or cash knowing that my rig is mine, and not the banks, and any $$ I made that day goes in my pocket, not the gas tank.

I know of a guy who did it, his boat looks like crap now, but then again, what little I know about the guy, I don't think it bothers him one bit. I would not do it.

Zoom trick and finesse, and of coarse GYCB Senkos

I had that rod in the older full grip version, I wish I didn't sell it. It was a very versatile rod, besides being an excellant pitching stick, it also made a great c-rig rod, and,beleive it or not, a great rod for ripping crankbaits out of grass. I even fished frogs on it too. Your making me seriously think about buying another one LOL.

I do what I can to maintain status quo.

100% Talking out your rear end.................like you usually do. I have seen boat loads of Mojo rods, as every sporting goods store around has racks of them, never seen any of the issues you describe, they must have magicly all been sent to your area. These disscussions all ways turn into this, and ususally there is the one post where someone gets off the chart stupid..........congrats, you made that post.

My specialty is junk fishing, maybe not on an hour to hour basis, but day to day, week to week, during the entire season, I basicly junk fish my way from ice out till now. The list of baits I have caught big fish on is like the TW website.